Birthday!

My students sang to me today. The ESL kids and their cha-cha-cha version of the birthday song was classic!

Then my IB students decided to get me P@nda Ex for lunch - each group of students ended up getting me some, so I had two lunches. It was okay because that meant I could share with the rest of the class. So, everyone had at least a taste! And then I brought C0stc0 cookies for all of my students today. (Good thing I had my smaller classes.)

Too busy!

Wow! 300 posts? Really?

My intention to record each day the new adventures of the house went away in the face of not having a computer with internet at home and having WAY too much going on. The busy time of the year hit a little early. I have homework for graduate credit to complete this week, IB IAs to grade and submit to IBO, laundry that must be washed at other people's houses, NHS stuff (they scheduled an activity for my birthday - guess who doesn't get to celebrate, but instead must be at work for 14+ hours?) Last week it was term 3 grades. I have so much on my plate that it seems every week there is something I forget or don't have time to do. Many things only hurt myself - like not having time to buy my face wash or get my eyes checked because I can't see and I am wearing glasses to work because my contacts are too old and hurt too much. But sometimes it is forgetting a meeting at work or forgetting that it was the RS broadcast, even though I couldn't go if I wanted to and I don't have a TV, so I wouldn't have been able to watch it anyway.

Did I mention that I got a new nephew? Once I get the internet going at home, I will post a pic.

It's 4:00pm and I got turned into a cow...can I go home?

#18-#16

#18 Monday - BooBear had a really rough night. I cut his hair using the clippers, which he thought was traumatic. Everything is more traumatic when you aren't feeling well, after all. Into the bath to wash off the hair now that he has itched a red collar around his neck and shoulders. Yay, a bath, he's so happy...skip ahead 3 minutes when he slipped in the tub and he doesn't want mommy because she is the mean person that cut his hair and put him in the bath in the first place. Meanwhile, Werty is cutting holes in the cabinets in his attempts to install the dishwasher. The load noise of the saw sends BooBear into more hysterics. So, the ugly irregular holes in the cabinets have been replaced with larger, neat, square holes. Twice as many of them.

#17 Tuesday - Werty works all evening and gets the dishwasher finally installed! He had to cut another hole bigger than all the other ones, but its done. We weighed the pros and the cons of where to set up his work space and the washer and dryer.

#16 Wednesday - 7am sped meeting, 9:30 sped meeting where I talk to parents for 45 minutes about behavior problems, only to be told by the other teacher that if I yelled at him more or took him to the office more, he would behave better. 3:30-5:00pm was district ESOL meeting. 7-8:30pm choir concert, BooBear attended his first musical concert. Picked up dinner on the way home. Wrote a test the rest of the evening. Ran first load of dishes!

Stories with Holes

Did you ever do stories with holes? I start off my 8th grade class by allowing one student each time to share one. Today the result was: "If you want to commit suicide, I will bring you a duck."

#21-#19

Okay, so maybe the most accurate description for this month's blog is 'our first month as home owners.'

#21 Friday
Werty turned off the water to work on the kitchen sink/dishwasher. Haha, dishwasher how optimistic we were... Now we have hot AND cold water coming out of the kitchen sink. He turns the water back on, and the leak in the water main has increased from 1-2 drips a minute to 2 drips every second. We believe that the washer in the gate valve (ooh, aren't you impressed with my plumbing jargon?) was old and deteriorating, so when they turned off the water for the Winter, it dried out and cracked. Turning back on the water for the inspection and sale of the house cause the cracks to leak. The pressure from turning on and off the water to conduct repairs (because everything else leaks too) caused the cracks to get bigger, and the more you work on it, the worse the leak gets. So, Werty had to scrap his idea of installing the dishwasher and fix the water main instead. I think he had to make 3 trips to the hardware store that night, even though he bought extra parts the first time. But, fixing the gate valve on a water main isn't something we had ever had to do before.

Meanwhile, BooBear had woken up in the middle of the night throwing up with a 102 fever that morning. We gave him a cool bath that night, but with the water turned off all afternoon and evening, I had to wait until the water main was fixed to give him another one. With Tyl@n0l, his fever was 101. (Scary couple of nights.) We had his 18 month check-up on Friday, and when we arrived at the Dr.'s he had a lovely new rash that we could see spreading before our eyes. The Doctor said to just keep giving him Tyl@n0l unless he gets worse. Friday he was still really hot, so Werty's dad came to give BooBear a blessing. Then he helped Werty finish repairing the water main. Three tries to get all the connections tight and water proofed. Finally, around 10:30pm, we had water again, and BooBear got his bath.

BooBear's Stats:
Weight: 27 lbs. 60%
Height: 33 in. 75%
Head: 50 cm. 95% (finally, back on the chart :P)

#20 Saturday
We returned to our old condo to do the laundry again. /em crosses her fingers that we will have a washer and dryer by next weekend. Werty changed the door on the fridge from the left to the right (as we requested when we ordered it, but the store ignored it.) With the door handles in the right position, I could put in the door shelves, and organize the fridge. No more styrofoam and blue tape in the fridge! I also removed old shelf paper and put away a few boxes of kitchen stuff. We decided not to do and plumbing that day!

#19 Sunday
We went to our new ward. BooBear's fever finally broke and he's feeling better. Everyone was nice and friendly. They were all excited to hear that we had bought our house, so we were going to be around for a long time. Installing the dishwasher is on the agenda for tomorrow. /crosses fingers.

#23-#22

#23 We were the last people to leave the hardware store Tuesday night. We needed to wait until one hour before they closed because we needed to borrow a van, and that was when the van was available. We left the store at 9:30, a half hour after the closed. The paint mixer lady said, eh don't worry, we have to be here an hour after close anyway. Some of her coworkers might not have felt so cheery about it...Thankfully, Grandma, Grandpa and his youngest aunt agreed to watch BooBear while we went. Several hundred dollars later...we have lots of random stuff for repairs and improvements. We also have our first can of paint.

#22 Last night I said, 'So, now you have everything you need to hook up the appliances, right?' 'Actually, I still need the right couplings...' Argh. So, Werty headed off to the hardware store. (Did they groan when they saw you come back to the store?) He got some plumbing putty to finish fixing the drain in the tub. 'So, now you have everything you need to hook up the appliances, right?' 'No, but now I know what I need to get.' Argh. I will say that Werty is making repairs everyday. There was all this stuff we wanted to do before we moved in, but then we were all too sick to do any of it. And the plumbing problems were a surprise. I am really hoping that we have a washer and dryer by the weekend.

While Werty slaves away on fixing things (like new doorknobs on the bedrooms so the doors will actually close), I have been scrubbing and cleaning. Yesterday it was the kitchen cabinets. The stove has no hood, so the cabinets above the stove were pretty nasty. We may be adding installing a hood on our list of improvements to be made. Last night I actually put stuff away in cabinets and emptied 2.5 boxes. That might not sound like a lot, but if I tell you that I have been cleaning and scrubbing every day to get to the point of finally emptying boxes, that gives you an idea of how dirty everything was. The house had been empty for while, and the last tenants didn't do any serious cleaning on their way out. I also picked out paint for the living room.

#27-#24

Purchasing and moving into our first house is the biggest, life changing thing I did this year. So, it makes sense that my thoughts all center on the house right now. So, I want to share stuff about my house, many of which have no deep meaning about life.

#27 I miss having a washer and dryer. Due to the plumbing problems, which were more pressing, we don't have our appliances installed yet. We still had keys to our old place, so last weekend Werty went back and did the laundry over there.

#26 A little maintenance goes a long way. "Ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure" in other words. Werty cleaned out a bunch of rust and deposits in the kitchen faucet, and viola, no more brown water. Still working on getting cold water in the kitchen, but we have hot water now so I could wash dishes. CLR worked to restore some of the frozen fixtures in the bath instead of replacing them, so that saves us a little money.

#25 Werty got the internet going yesterday, yay!
I chose a paint color for the kitchen. It's dark. It's bold. I am hoping it will tie the back splash and the floor tiles together (cause they kinda clash right now...). Oh, yeah. It's plum. I know, I know. Plum?!? Haven't I outgrown my obsession with purple by now? Is this because I never got to paint my bedroom purple as a teenager like I wanted to? Am I going to regret this later? No, nope, and I hope not. I wasn't considering anything in the purple family until I took the paint chip home and it looked SO good. If all goes according to plan, it will only be half the wall that's plum anyway. I think the house is going to clean up nicely.

#24 We had a great FHE last night at Ged and Klari's, even though the driving was a little treacherous with all the snow. We had to postpone our big trip to the hardware store until today to get whatever else we still need for repairs. Since I don't know how to do plumbing, I am excited about all the aesthetic elements, like paint and curtains.

#28

The less sleep I get, the fatter I get. The fatter I get, the more tired I am. The more tired I am, the longer it takes to get things done. The longer it takes, the less sleep I get.

It's a vicious cycle. It's been a year of losing and gaining. After my surgery, I lost weight. It was summer and I could get some sleep. School starts up again, and so does the weight.

As an IB student, I got used to less sleep than the average person. By my senior year, I made a goal to try to get at least 6 hours of sleep a night. I didn't realize that 6 hours would become the norm for what I need to function. Today, 6 hours is a goal I can't seem to obtain. When I had BooBear, the goal became 4 hours. I need 4 hours to be able to drive to work and stand up. No guarantee that I can talk clearly, but hey, who listens to their teacher anyway. :P

This week has been particularly bad with the moving. Poor Werty has been getting up with BooBear in the middle of the night every night so I can get my 4 hours. BooBear is freaked out that we haven't gone back 'home' to our old place. When we went back to clean on Tuesday, he laid down and hugged the floor. It was so cute, but so sad. We are tired, cluttered with boxes, and deprived of tv and computers. (Is there a medical term for entertainment deprivation?)

#29

Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.

Sometimes you are in too much pain, like being in labor or having surgery, to laugh. Then it's okay to cry. But for most moments, laughing can relieve a lot of tension and frustration. Like when you think you are finally going to make it to church on time, and then your child has a blow out. Or when you have to let someone else do your calling while you are cleaning up your child's throw up in the church kitchen. Or when you buy that new expensive appliance and a 10% off coupon arrives three hours later. Sometimes it's easy to find a reason to laugh. Like when I found out that I am going to have a new boss next year. Then I found out his nickname when used to teach here was Schoonie. No, Ddonn, I am not kidding. I think of you and a VW schoolbus whenever I see him.

#30

Change helps me to appreciate what I have. Here are some examples from my life:

Each year I get a new schedule of classes and group of kids. My Gov't class changes every semester, so that's a new batch of kids twice a year. (I remember 2008-09, when most of my classes were only a semester, and I had to learn ~450 different student names.) Sometimes, a class really tries my patience, and I look forward to the end of the semester. But you never know, I could get a worse class to replace the frustrating one.

We have been cleaning our old place the last two days. Tonight we should be done. When we arrived to the mostly empty condo yesterday, BooBear laid down on the floor and hugged it. He is starting to get over his fear of his new room and do a little exploring at the new house. But, he misses our old place. Werty was also getting nostalgic yesterday. I haven't been, but I think that is because I haven't spent much time in the new place. I have been at work or been cleaning the condo until late. I agree with Werty though that looking back at the last 2.5 years, the condo was a happy time for us. We loved our neighbors and our ward. We became parents while we lived there. Fun times.

One of my friends and colleagues is moving at the end of the school year back to her native country. She started working in the ESL dept a year before I did. She is the only other person left from when I first came to work here. She is the best. I don't know what I am going to do without her. Knowing that she will be leaving is causing me to notice and appreciate all the things she does around here.

31 Observations

It's that time again. The countdown to the biggest event in March. I thought this year I would blog about 31 observations from my 31st year.

Things will always take more time and patience than you plan or wish. Being a parent makes we understand this more and more. It's amazing how such a small person can rearrange your schedule and habits. We slept in our new house for the first time last night. I didn't sleep much, since the moving went late into the night, but I did sleep on my actual bed. :D A big thanks to all those who have been helping us, especially my father-in-law and Ged, who have been helping with the move since last Thursday. We had lofty goals of having everything packed up early. But instead we all got really sick with RSV and our systematic plan turned in to a mad dash. But that's life. We accept it, laugh about it, and appreciate the lessons we learn.

2011 seems to be the year of moving. In two weeks it will by DKJr and Dawn's turn to move across town. And hopefully, Ged and Klari will sell their house and move closer to his work in SLC.