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Eureka's Castle  *this was meant to be posted yesterday but I see I forgot to* Stephen and I actually did yard work today. We raked and raked and did I mention we raked leaves? Also used the lawnmower in bag mode to help make it go a bit faster. We have a TON of trees in our yard, plus the backyard is just gimongous anyways. We had raked the front yard a couple times prior to this, but it was yet again covered. So we did half of the back yard and then moved to the front yard. The back half of the back yard is sorta eh if we get it done or not. If we get another nice day, we are thinking we'll just mulch up the leaves in the back half and not use the bagger. Hopefully that doesn't effect the grass too much, but that would be a long ass way to haul leaves to the curb. It's really an area of the yard that doesn't get much use. We also carried our 2 deck chairs to the shed out back. Their wood is treated, and I believe they have two coats of waterseal but if I have a shed to put them in why not. *shrug* I folded up the lil deck table and put that in the basement. We also moved our lawn mower to the garage before the weather gets too cold. In the summer when we use it all the time, it's easier to keep it in the shed otherwise we have to maneuver the cars to get it out sometimes. We really got a lot of work done in about 2 hours, and our curb is nearly full of leaves from one end of our yard to the other. xD My next job I think on my half day off on Wednesday is to put away all the Fall decorations in the house. I won't get out the Christmas things til maybe Saturday or Sunday if I feel like it. I'm excited about decorating this house for Christmas...don't ask me why. A home just feels more homey at that time of year. I'll have to go out and buy a few new Christmas decorations for our dining room table and our fireplace mantle. :) Okay, so while 4 family members fight over who's going to officially host my baby shower (j/k, they aren't really fighting), Erika is going a bit crazy. I mean, the days are starting to count down to baby time here people! I can't wait to meet our lil girl, but ummm right now I'm a bit stressed over the fact that we have NOTHING for her but a nicely painted room, a crib, and some clothes. We have no car seats, stroller, bassinet for downstairs, and all the other gazillion little things that you need for a baby. If you are aware of how I planned my wedding at all, you probably know that I had things planned and bought months in advance. Ugh, I wanted to have the baby shower right after we found out what it was so I had time to go out and purchase the things no one bought me that were sort of necessary. I knew the holidays would get in the way of having it at any sort of reasonable time. Now, they are planning it for sometime in January literally WEEKS before baby arrives. Our parents keep telling us NOT to buy a stroller or that car seat or that bassinet because we can put that on our registry. I can't control what people buy! What if no one buys us something we REALLY need? Then, I'm nearly bursting at the seams and going shopping in the middle of winter for big things -I- wanted to have in hand months ago. Stephen's Mom asked what we wanted for Christmas, and we told her that there was a lot of baby things we needed. She sort of waved her hand and was like, "No no, there has to be something you want for yourselves." Yes, I want some peace of mind! *mumblemumble* *sigh* I'm sure it will all turn out fine...I should probably go to work now. :P Have a pretty busy week this week. Today, Link went back to the Vet for the day so they could redo his allergy testing blood draw. When they did it a couple weeks ago, his blood samples somehow leaked in transit to the lab. SO, he had to go back. I feel so bad for the lil guy, but in reality he's quite the trooper. He gave up his usual resistance going into the carrier this morning. He was really happy to see me when I picked him up a bit ago, and was rolling around in the carrier all the way home as I talked to him. :) I can't wait to figure what in the world he is allergic to so I can start making his life better. This Thursday, I have a Doctor's appt. It's just a regular checkup in the office. Although, I'm thinking I'll also be getting my wonderous container of flat orange pop to drink for my blood sugar test. You chug that stuff and then go in like an hour or two later and they take blood, etc. I'm not too worried about it. It's just one more hoop to jump through. *shrug* Stephen and I need to get signed up for the prenatal and breast feeding classes at the hospital at some point. I haven't been thinking much about it, but my aide told me that they are really hard to get into. I guess I hadn't considered they would be hard to get into...lol. On Friday, I get my hair cut and highlighted, etc. On Saturday, there's a big football playoff game over at my school. I'd like to go if the weather isn't too bad. It's during the day at least, so it won't be as cold as it would at night. The other team we're playing is another nearby school. We're ranked #1 in the State and they are ranked pretty high, as well. Rumor has it that this will be the real State title game and that whoever wins it will waltz away with the State title easy. Luckily, we beat them earlier in the regular season, so I think we have the upperhand. :) Otherwise, this past weekend was our big Open House for family and friends. We had mostly my family come over besides Stephen's parents on Saturday around Noon. They all got their nickel tours of the house, and then we had lunch for everyone consisting of chili, chicken noodle soup, cheese & crackers, and lots of yummy desserts. The family stayed for around 3 hours chatting/watching our wedding dvds. Then, I opened the gifts that people brought and everyone headed home. It was a really nice time, actually. We got a lot of nice compliments on the house and the rooms. Everyone thought the bedrooms were gigantic. I felt all grown up hosting a family event like that. Stephen and I have discussed possibly having a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner here sometime. We will have to do some more thinking on all that. :) Later that night, we had some friends come over. We played Rock Band and passed out candy to the trick or treaters. We also watched Shaun of the Dead and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I fell asleep on the couch for the latter part of Nightmare, hehe. It was a nice way to end a long day, and it was great to see everyone. ^_^ Thanks to all who came! This post has gotten way too long... Current mood:  busy.Current music: The Dixie Chicks - Long Way Around. If you hadn't heard, I had my ultrasound on Thursday and we are having a little girl according to that. :) I'm happy and Stephen is happy! Yay! Neither of us really cared what it was, but Stephen secretly wanted a girl. He needs someone to spoil. ;) I'm a bit tired of the other staff at work being upset over us wanting to know the sex of the baby. "It should be a surprise! You're ruining it!" Seriously, the ladies have said as much to me at work. Last I checked, I thought it was our decision so back off. I told the one secretary that we are painting the room green anyways and that seemed to satisfy her. I know how to be precautionary. Anyways, it was cute when Stephen called his grandma to tell her the news. She said she had been praying for a girl. LOL! She had two boys herself and then Stephen is her only grandchild. So, she's always been surrounded by boys. She now has someone she can will her jewelry to (I don't know why she couldn't have given it to Stephen but whatever). Now, we have started looking at names for the lil girly. :) We have a couple front runners, but we obviously haven't made a decision just yet. We have a lot of time to think it over. I always like to hear people's ideas for names...the serious ones. It's hard for us to pick out names because of former students of mine or former clients of Stephen's that have gotten on our nerves. Oh yeah and the silly joke names have gotten old now, but thanks for playing. Most of them aren't even funny guys. :P Yay, it's Friday! I'm still at school finishing up ummm the remains of apple week. >_> *takes another shot of apple juice* This jug is almost empty. I ate up all the leftover cut up apples too. *burp* Yesterday we made apple sundaes with carmel topping and whipped cream, nomnom. Today, we had toast with apple butter and apple juice to drink. Oh and we made homemade applesauce earlier this week and the kids ate nearly the entire crockpot themselves. Tonight is the homecoming football game here. I really would love to go, but it's been raining all day and it's supposed to rain all night too. *sigh* I don't really want to sit in the rain for it. :/ But hey, rock on for our high school team for being undefeated so far for another year. You really can't believe how good of a high school team they have here every year. They've had undefeated regular seasons for nearly all the years I've been teaching here. They are nigh unstoppable. So, I want to have an Open House and invite friends, family, and coworkers over to see our house. Everyone is always busy etc etc. So, I'm looking for a Saturday in the somewhat near future that would be good for (almost) everyone. As far as I go, we're going to have to be careful with a couple weekends in October because my cousin, Tara, is having her bridal shower (Oct 17) and getting married (Oct 24). I'm pretty sure those are the dates for those. I'll have to check my fridge at home to be sure. Kind of amusing how everyone has their bets on whether I'm going to have a boy or a girl. I honestly don't care what it is, but it's fun to hear what everyone else guesses. :P Stephen's Mom thinks it's going to be a girl. It would be nice for her to have a granddaughter after only having a boy herself. Stephen's grandmother, of course, wants a great-granddaughter because she has jewelry she wants to pass down. My parents haven't really guessed either way, but they are sort of with me in thinking that the odds favor boy. My gut keeps saying boy too. So, it will be interesting to see if my gut is right. :P 4 more weeks til we can find out the gender as I am at 16 weeks now. Jeez, my principal yesterday gave my name to the superintendent of another nearby district because they have a half-time position open for the afternoon for a Title I Reading teacher. I'm not certified to teach that if you know anything about me, lol. However, I could just get a one year provisional license to last me the year. Anyways, she gave my name without consulting me first, but I understand that she's just trying to help me as best she can. I don't think I'm interested. I'd be nervous as hell to teach Title I. That's a pretty important position. However, the most important reason is that I really don't want to be driving over there everyday especially in the winter when I'm pregnant. It is nothing but two lane country roads there and they are terrible in the winter time (barely plowed etc). I used to drive them last year to visit the preschool room there, and it was a fairly white-knuckle trip then. I don't need that kinda stress. Blech, no thanks. Well, the pregnant lady's life continues on. This week I've been meeting with parents for the first time, and I've been putting the finishing touches on my classroom. Everyone at school and in the small surrounding community knows I'm pregnant now. I keep getting hugs and congratulations from everyone. It's been nice to have people to chit chat with about being pregnant and sharing our funny pregger stories. We had lots of laughs in the teacher's lounge today, hahaha. Anyways, today I've been mostly making a lot of calls trying to get teh baby and I on a different health insurance. I was offered insurance by my school district today, however, pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition...NO SOUP FOR YOU, in other words. So, Stephen got all the paperwork from his work today so that I can go on his. It sounds like everything should be fine with me to go on his insurance right away, so I hope that works out. Otherwise, I'll be forced to go on Cobra til I have the baby...bleh. We certainly don't want to be shelling out that kind of cash. Oh well, it'll work itself out. I'm going to try to be optimistic about it. Otherwise, not a whole lot has been going on. Last weekend, we were over at Stephen's parents' house in Elburn. Stephen has a cousin who lives in downtown Chicago who is about our age. He took the train out and spent the weekend with us. He seems to be a really nice guy. Luckily, everyone was able to handle Stephen and myself geeking out over the Bears game Saturday night. xD The next day we went to Walter Payton's Roundhouse over in Aurora for lunch. They had nummy food and a cool Walter Payton museum. This weekend Stephen's parents are coming here. One of their friends is having a retirement party or some such so they wanted to stay over. I need to invite some friends over some time to see the house and stuff. Not sure when, though. Hrmmm... I'm sure many of you have heard that I lost half of my job on Monday. The parent educator portion of my job was cut because of 10% cuts to early childhood funding in the state of Illinois. I get to keep my insurance til the end of the year, which is great for the baby. However, I could always switch to Stephen's plan, which is most likely what I will do after we have the baby. That way we will all be on his insurance. Yesterday I was feeling rather down about the whole half-time position thing. So, I went to speak with my principal. She's usually very understanding, and at least I could let her know to watch for afternoon sub positions for me. We talked for a little bit, and she felt really bad for me. She seemed a bit upset that I had just found out on Monday about this. I left school shortly thereafter and met up with Stephen for a late lunch for him and a snack for me since I ate an early lunch. Then, I went home and was doing some laundry when the phone rang. My principal was on the other end, and she said that after discussing things with the Superintendent they realized they were going to have to hire some new one-on-one aides for this year. They thought of me immediately as doing that in my afternoon time. My principal isn't actually sure which aide position she wants to have me in just yet as there are a couple she needs to fill. She seemed to think the kindergarten one would work best for me, but she didn't want to say for sure just yet. I told her that I appreciated them thinking of me for this. Dakota takes care of their own! Screw you, Illinois! Anyways, if things don't change dramatically in early childhood funding after this year (pretty sure it'll just get worse), I'm going to be looking for a new position. I, of course, will be monitoring any openings at my own school as staff gets email updates immediately when any position becomes vacant in the district. I can't really think of any upcoming elementary staff that would be retiring soon. We have a fairly young teaching staff. If I had known about this at the end of last year, I could've applied for the Kindergarten position!! ARGH! Funny thing, a coworker called me yesterday and told me that the local Catholic high school was hiring a high school science teacher full time. "Umm, I don't have a high school teaching license." "You just need any kind of 4 year degree to teach there." "Oh...well, I'm not sure I'm interested in that but thanks for calling." Seriously...going from preschool to high school? That's a BIT of a step there. I looked up what this science teacher's class load would be: biology, chemistry, and physics. Okay, let's step back and think about the last time Erika had a class in any of those subjects. That's right, I haven't studied any of those since my first two years of college at Highland. I always did fine in science classes when I was in the class. Don't ask me to remember any of that now...let alone TEACH it!! I'd be reading and studying the textbook every night just so I felt competent enough to teach the poor kids. Anyways, if I don't have much luck finding a teaching position in this area...I've been thinking that I could possibly do a home daycare type thing. Not many home daycare providers can say they have a Bachelor's degree in teaching ages birth-11. :P My aunt babysat kids for years. Also, some other relatives are doing it now too. One just started up last year. I could easily give her a ring, and ask her what she did to get started up. We'd have to get our basement room fixed-up before I got into it, but I think it's something I could manage. Then, I could stay home with my own baby too. :) |
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