Indy Trip 08

My trip was freaking amazing!!!!!!! It was exactly what I needed! Big time! I hooked up with my best buds and we rekindled our friendships in a really deep meaningful way, and we had big fun too! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! Some of theses ladies might look familiar to you.


First I hung with Angie and Despi at the IMA.


Then I had dinner with Joanna and Angie.


Then I went to a fashion show with Angie and Despi at the IMA.


Then we hit the very swank VIP party after the show.




And then it was onto some wholesome family fun with Mike and Cara.

More Job Offers and Happy Birthday Jen!

It is my best friend Jen's birthday today! Holla!! She is 26 today and I am so happy for her!

And on the job front I have more news. The christian school that I have been shadowing Aidan at is awesome. Even though they are super christian the principal and the kindergarten teacher (Aidan's teacher) are super nice and good people. Because I like the school so much we decided to send Evie there next year for pre-k for 2 yr olds. Here's the job news. The 5th grade teacher just quit and they are looking for someone to teach 5th grade in the Fall. So I talked to principle today and she seemed very excited. I am excited. The pay is low, there aren't health or retirement benefits. BUT(!)the hours are great (815A to 215P)and I would be at Evie's school with her all day everyday. Plus I would get teaching experience but in a more laid back environment with a max of 10 students instead of 30. I am feeling really drawn to this opportunity. I love the idea of dropping off and picking up Evelyn everyday and being in the school with her in case something happens or whatever. I am thinking this would be a really good job for me while I am still in school. So maybe only stay for 2 yrs until Evie goes to Pre-k and I graduate. Then I could get a job at the public school that Evie would be going to and again I could be at her school with her through 5th grade. I am all about being close to her as long as I can.

The other factor in this decision is the possibility that Ben could get deployed in the next year. If he gets deployed I know I will be very stressed and sad. Being at a school with a very supportive principal and coworkers would be so helpful for me. Plus I think it would be good for Evie if I were right at the school with her, to help her deal with Ben being gone.

And to tell the truth, I love the idea of having an easy job that allows me to take my daughter to work with me everyday. I mean that is like a dream job to me. And as long as Ben is in the Army I don't need health/retirement benefits so badly.

So what do you all think? As it stands I don't have a job offer from anyone. I interview with the public school system April 15th and Sandy (the private school principal) told me she won't have a decision til May. I am not going to turn down anyone til I have heard from everyone. I am not that crazy! ;)

Job Prospects

I wrote earlier about having an interview with the local school board last week. They called me and rescheduled the interview for April 15th in the afternoon. So the suspense will have to keep building on that. This past weekend I took the last teacher certification exam I need to take. I won't know how I did til April 28th. I hope I did well enough to pass but I really don't know. I am not very confident because I am not a great test taker usually. So we'll see how that turns out.

Today is exciting because I just got a job lead from Aidan's mom. I thought Aidan's mom hated me, but I guess she likes me enough to send me a good job lead. There is a community programs coordinator position open at the local arts council. So I emailed them and attached my resume. Hopefully I will hear back from them. I would rather be in a classroom but if that doesn't happen then this job would be really great for me too. And I think I would really enjoy it because I love doing art outreach. So we'll see about that.

I am pretty excited to have both these job prospects right now. I hope one of them works out!

And if you are in Indy then you might be counting down already. For those that aren't in Indy, I am leaving in 3 short days to go to Indianapolis and visit TwinBro and my bestest friends Shrimp Run, Off Gas, Cara and Co, Kara and Co, and Joanna and Co. I am sooo excited!!!!!

Evie spins and falls on a ball

Sliding Time

Dancing!

Bye Gramper

This weekend we went to Blairsville, GA to send Gramper off to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in the next 6 months. We went swimming at the hotel and we went out to eat yesterday. This morning we drove to the trail and said our goodbyes. I am so excited for my Dad but I am also sad that he'll be gone for so long. He will take a break when he is halfway done and come home for a week, that will be so great! So here are pics from this weekend.










Evelyn really loved running around the hotel room with a blanket wrapped around her like a toga. It was really cute!

Good Morning!

New Blogs

Hey everyone, how are you? Are you looking for some new kick ass blogs to read? Wanting more info about Gramper, BigBro, DocRom?

Look no further than my links section to satisfy your search.

Please check out their blogs, they are super cool!! All three of them are doing extraordinary things. Gramper is hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. BigBro and DocRom are documenting their amazing adventures living in Okinawa, Japan. You can't get cooler people than them!!

=)

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Okay, not so much the train part but definitely the planes and automobiles. I recently purchased plane tickets for myself to see my friends in Indianapolis and to visit my bestest friend Jen in Hawaii!! That's right folks, I am leaving on a jet plane all by myself to have some much needed friend fun!

I go to Indy the first week of April and I will be in Hawaii the last week of July. To say I am excited is an understatement! I am absolutely thrilled to see my friends! And especially excited to go to Hawaii and get some beach time. I haven't been to the beach in 4 years!! That is a crime! I really love the beach, but Ben is not a fan so we never go. But that is going to change come July 25th!! YAY!!

Also coming up is our little family's much anticipated and needed trip to New Jersey to see Mimi and Grandpop and Oma and cousins and uncles. We are really excited! We haven't bought tickets for that trip because we are waiting for the dates when Ben will be done with school. We will probably be there in late May.

Oh and I am driving up to North Caroline for Mother's Day to visit with Evie's Nana. That will be a very fun trip for all of us. Evie hasn't seen her Nana since she was 1 day old. This is a much anticipated trip as well.

So all in all we are a family on the move. =)

p.s. Evie saw her pediatrician today and he said he isn't worried about her speech at this point. He offered to give us a referral to a speech therapist anyway. I told him I wanted to think about it and talk with Ben. I am leaning toward getting the referral even though I don't think she really "needs" it. I think it will help her and not hurt her and we can learn a lot about her and speech in general. We'll see...

I know, I know...

I say it all the time and I talk about it all the time on this blog but...

Damn! This kid is freaking GORGEOUS!!!

Interview and more!

I landed myself an interview with the Board of Education that hosted the job fair I attended. Yay!! This is the first step in a 2 step process. Once I interview with the board and they (hopefully) approve me then the principals at the schools can interview me and (hopefully) offer me jobs. The interview is Mar. 26th at 1030AM. I am so happy!! =) Thank you all for your very sweet and encouraging comments, they mean so much to me right now!!

In other news Evie has an appointment next Tuesday with her pediatrician to start the evaluation process for a possible speech delay. She only has 3 words that she says consistently right now. They are: No, Momma, and Bye Bye. She is getting more sounds everyday but not really talking as much as I think she should. Her signing is going really really well! She signs 15 words or more all the time. And she is developing normally or above average in every other way. So I just want to get her checked out to make sure there isn't something we are missing or something we can be doing to help her along. My fear is that she won't be able to talk when she starts 2 yr old preschool in the Fall. I don't want her to be signing and not getting any help when she needs it because no one knows what she's saying. I think I am just being an overly protective Mom but I don't care. It won't hurt her at all to be evaluated.

Also, I came through my midterms with flying colors. I got a 98 and a 99 on the tests I took. Yay! And I just got loan money to cover what I paid for school this semester and to cover me for my summer classes. So that is nice.

Couples therapy is seriously hard work and painful on top of that. But it is really good for us. We are both learning a lot and making great progress on many aspects of our relationship.

Ohh and I joined the local gym for free because I am a military wife. It is soo nice! I love getting back into shape and Evie loves going to the gym daycare while I work out. It's a win win for both of us =) And I am starting belly dancing classes on Thursday. I am really excited about that!

Evie Loves to Cook!

Job Fair

I went to a job fair for the a local Board of Education this weekend. I talked to 24 different schools about my qualifications and my hopes for teaching in the Fall. I got 3 principals that offered me interviews and probably 3 more that want me to call them about an interview. So I am super excited and anxious about what my actual job prospects will be for the Fall. I was very nervous the day before the fair and I felt very insecure about my ability to impress anybody. But the night before I got my self physched up and I felt great the morning of the fair and I think I did a great job at selling myself. I did pull out some tricks to dazzle the schools. I put a picture of myself on my resume. I know, most of you are thinking that is resume suicide but many schools commented on how smart that was and how impressed they were with that idea. I figured that these people were going to see upwards of 100 applicants and it would be very hard to remember which was which. By putting my picture on my resume (hopefully) they will remember me right away. So we'll see! Interviews won't be scheduled for another 3-6 weeks. In the meantime I am sending thank you notes to the schools that I particularly liked and that seemed to like me. Oh yeah, I got some tricks up my sleeve ;)


Here's the pic I put on my resume, though it was cropped down more than this.


p.s. I have some adorable photos of Evie helping Ben cook jambalaya this weekend. I promise I will post them in the next few days.

From the Archives - Nov. 16, 2006

IQ Test Score

I am taking a class about special education. I didn't know this before but in order to be classified into special ed you have to have a low IQ score in most cases. So I thought I would take an IQ test and find out where I fall. Now the interesting thing about IQ tests is that many people believe they are biased toward white middle class Americans. So, if the test is biased in that way then how do you think low income black kids do? How about children of immigrants? You see where this is going? There is a disproportionate number of non-white kids getting classified into special ed. One might say, "Well that's okay, they'll get better help and be smarter in the long run because they have extra help." But the statistics don't agree with that. Forty percent of special ed students drop out of school. So we are fueling the poverty cycle by misclassifying non white students into special education. Why is special ed placement such a large predictor of career/life success? Because being in special ed is stigmatized and because the curriculum and expectations are much lower than that of the general student population. The whole system is broken. It is fixable, it is very fixable and people that are much smarter than me are advocating for change in the system. Hopefully it will come sooner rather than later.

So I am a white middle class suburban raised person. My IQ score is 116. I am considered above average intelligence, by 3 percentage points, so just barely. What is your IQ? What do you think about this debate?

Evie Speaks!

Missed but not forgotten

I had a miscarriage last weekend. It is very sad. We are sad. But it is what it is. This time wasn't right for the baby to come. We'll try again some day and hopefully that will be the right time for all of us.

Because I won't be taking care of a newborn in the Fall I have started applying for full time teaching positions in the surrounding counties. I am hoping to get a job teaching kindergarten or pre-k. I am nervous and excited about having my own classroom so soon. Having the experience will be great for me and a welcome distraction from what should have been in the Fall. Also having the extra income will help us a lot. We will be (hopefully) buying land adjacent to my parent's farm in the next few months. With the added income we will be able to start building our house sooner and we will be able to go to Japan to visit BigBro and DocRom. And I will be able to visit my best friend Jen in Hawaii.

So with this sad news comes some hope and new opportunities. Life is so unpredictable sometimes. But I still think everything happens for a reason.

Can't resist the cute...

Happy 4 Year Wedding Anniversary!

It's been a wonderful, crazy, hard 4 years. I am so glad to be married to Ben. Here's to a lifetime of memories and fun! This is a picture of us the night before our ring ceremony. We got married at the justice of the peace and then had a ring ceremony at my parent's 100+ yr old victorian house. We had almost all of our family and close friends at the ceremony. It was a wild, crazy, fun time. =)

Evie's First Movie

Thanks to Mimi and Grandpop, Evie, Ben and I went to the movies this weekend. It was quite an adventure to Evelyn. She loved all the lights and colorful games and posters at the movie theatre. We went to see the Veggie Tales movie (not good!). But we didn't make it very far into the movie before Evelyn got restless. Her favorite part of the whole thing was the previews, she LOVED the previews! I still enjoyed myself because I got a cinnabun-pretzel with icing, it was GOOD!! Thank you Mimi and Grandpop! Overall we felt like we had a good experience. But we won't be trying to take Evie to a movie again until she is older.

Game Night

We had our Game Night this weekend and it was a big hit! We will be hosting another one in 2 weeks if all goes according to plan =)

Evie and our friend's daughter had big fun playing together. This was thier first time really playing together. They got along great!

New Sights

Here's some pics of us in our new house. =)






The pic above is my record of what I looked like 6 weeks pregnant with Baby #2.

p.s. I just updated "My 100" you can read it here.

Memetastic

I am so excited!!! I got tagged to do a meme!!! I never get tagged for stuff! Thank you Dawn!!
So, these are the rules: (1)Link to the person that tagged you. (2)Post the rules on your blog. (3)Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (I apologize in advance!!!)(4)Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (5)Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Here goes:

1. I like to eat each food on my dinner plate individually. If I have peas, rice, and chicken on my plate then I eat each item one at a time. It is weird and I am not super rigid about it but in general I will eat all the peas, then all the rice, then all the chicken. It doesn't have to be in that order. And Thanksgiving is one time that I always mix my foods.

2. I hate brushing my teeth and flossing. It takes too long and it just is an annoying thing I have to do twice a day. But after it is done I feel really good and I love knowing my mouth is super clean. I know it's weird.

3. I don't like taking baths. I am a chick and I don't like baths or bath stuff.

4. I love school/office supplies. I am like a kid in a candy store at Staples. I think being a teacher will be so great because I will have justification for my addiction.

5. I haven't taken my laptop to school with me yet. I got it so I could take it to school with me but I haven't needed to yet. I think it will be more useful once midterms and exams hit. At my school there are tons of computer labs so I don't really need my laptop. But I love my laptop, even if I don't take it anywhere.

6. I can't wait to be a big bellied pregnant lady. I love the attention for the most part. I am really excited about this baby and pregnancy. I am also really worried about having twins. Not that I don't want twins, but OMG! Our life would be so different. And it would be so hard at first, doubly hard.

I am going to tag Heather, Jen, Amanda, Cara, ChristianFanger. Have fun!!

Long time...

It's been a long time since I posted, sorry about that. Life has been wonderful and crazy and up and down. Mostly up. I am just going to make a list because there are too many random things happening.

1. Paul and Karen are moving to Japan on Monday. To say I am sad is true but doesn't feel strong enough. I have loved having them so close and spending time with them. They supported me so much while Ben was in Africa. And this past weekend I went to see them for the last time before they move. I know it's not forever and I know they'll be back for Christmas (yay!!!) but I will still miss them so much!!

2. School is still totally fulfilling and wonderful! I haven't made any real friends but I am slowly getting to know people. My favorite class is my Special Ed. class. The prof. is very knowledgeable and encourages us to discuss the major problems affecting education and special ed. It is fascinating!

3. I am 6 weeks pregnant as of yesterday. I had my first appt with an OB nurse yesterday. I got blood drawn for tests and I pee'd in a cup. At my next appt. I am getting a pap smear, blech! Oh well, that's just what you have to do when you are a chick. The baby is doing great as far as I can tell. The queasiness has set in for me. It seems to be linked to certain foods at this point. I know I can't eat PB&J sandwiches anymore, I get really nauseous for a few hours after. And I think bacon might be out of the game too. I ate 4 pieces of bacon this morning and I felt queasy all morning as a result. I also am tired all the time and I have to pee every hour it seems like. Even with all that stuff I am doing great, I know I could have it a lot worse.

4. Ben and I had couples therapy this past week. It was wonderful!! We both felt comfortable with our therapist and she was able to clear some things up for us even in our first session. We are going to focus on couples therapy and wait on the individual therapy.

5. Evelyn learned how to climb onto the couch last week. It has made life really interesting and occasionally heart stopping. She loves to fling herself all over the couch but sometime she misses the couch. No permanent injuries so far. But boy, they should call toddlerhood, evil-knievel-hood. This kid is fearless!

6. Grammy and Gramper are doing great at the farm. They got a new dog to keep Bonnie company on the back porch. The new dog is a little boy named Hooch. He is sweet and Bonnie loves him!

7. Ben and I are hosting our first social event in our new place. Tomorrow afternoon 2 couples and their child are coming over for a game night. The adults will be playing board games while Evelyn and the other little girl her age play with toys and such. It should be big fun and low stress.

I think that is everything for now. Have a great weekend everybody! =)

Wow

I have been writing this blog for about a year and a half. Pretty much since Evie was born. For the first 6 months I wrote publicly and the last year or so I have taken my blog to the private sector. The whole time I have been writing I have wanted to be truthful and entertaining. And I also have wanted to document my life with Evie, because I know the time is fleeting and it is easy to forget the small stuff. I am saying all this because I got a very big compliment from a fellow blogger, Dawn from Belle of the Blog. Dawn is a fellow Georgian. Her and I met through a fellow blogger and our first interaction was kind of a misunderstanding about Southern hospitality and charm. It's funny to remember that now. Anyway, Dawn wrote these incredibly kind words about me and my blog. And reading her words has touched me in a very profound way. I have been feeling really bad about myself and my situation lately. Seeing my life through her eyes has made me realize that I am in fact very lucky and I have a lot to be happy about. Thank you Dawn! I truly can't express how wonderful your words have made me feel. I hope we meet in real life someday soon. Here are her words.

"Letters About Eve chronicles the life of Jen, her husband Ben, and their beautiful daughter Evelyn. It's a private blog, so you probably can't access it, but I still want to acknowledge how much I love reading about Jen, Evie, and their adventures. Jen's husband Ben is in the Army and just came home after being deployed. They live on a farm with Jen's parents and reading about her wonderful family – Grammy and Grampers, Big Bro and Doc Rom, Uncle Stan – as well as the goats and other farm animals, Jen's work with an autistic kid, and soon her experiences in graduate school give me a peek into a life I will never experience. Her writing is so crystal clear and succinct. It reflects her joy of life without being cloying or sentimental. In essence, I think her clear, descriptive writing and the things Jen chooses to write about are illustrative of the true essence of the world family. Letters About Eve has become a blog I look forward to the way I look forward to a sunny day after a week of rain."

We're In

We are in the new house. I love having space again and having all my stuff. Evelyn really likes it here and she is adapting really well. School is great! I have homework I should be doing right now but I am here posting instead. Tonight is the first night we've had internet since last week so I am totally catching up on my blog and other people's blogs. Ahh, procrastination is so sweet! I had my first visit with a therapist today. It went as well as one could expect. I like my therapist, she is nice and very involved in her profession.

So that's all I have for now.

Umm yeah and I started school too...

Yeah, amidst all this insanity I started Grad school this week too. I am taking three classes. And I LOVE school!!!!!!!!

I feel so good being back in an academic environment! My sense of self worth is significantly heightened by being in school. I love that I am being judged on my intelligence.

I love being a wife and mother but being judged solely on those roles is very limiting. Being back in school and being seen as a grad student (not just as a mother and wife) is a great boost to me ego right now.

And the main thing I love about school is that it makes sense to me. I know what my goal is and I know exactly how to reach my goal. The system doesn't change. It is always clear. And I always get rewarded for my hard work. That doesn't happen in any other part of my life.

New House and Uncle Stan

My twin brother is visiting us from Indy this week. Evelyn is totally into him. She keeps trying to feed him stuff, it's really funny. And Uncle Stan is trying to teach her how to play with her puzzles. It's awesome! Here's some pics of Uncle Stan and Evie and some pics of the new house. We sign the lease tomorrow and start moving in tomorrow and Saturday.

Cute Pics

So much news

So we are doing okay. We are trucking along. We decided that living in our own place would make the whole rebuilding of our relationship easier and preferable. So we are moving into a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a garage and fenced backyard. We move in Saturday. Yeah it is really fast but it just makes sense. So we are excited and stressed and financially stretched but it is all worth it.

Because of this...


We wanted to work this out before we knew we were pregnant. But certainly this is more incentive to do the hard work ahead of us so that we can have a strong love relationship for our children.

I am not very far along, only 3 weeks, which is barely anything at all. My due date is Sept. 18th. We thought it would take longer to get pregnant. We haven't been trying since I visited North Carolina. So this was a suprise to me. Ben wasn't suprised, he says he had a feeling we were pregnant.

Therapy

I will be starting therapy on January 15th. About 7 days ago my marriage took a major hit. The problem involves a break in trust. Ben is not living with us right now because I need space and time to think. We both want to work things out. We both want our marriage to survive. So we will both be in individual therapy for a while and then we'll do couples therapy at some point.

This is the most confusing, difficult situation I can imagine. I never thought this would be happening to us.

But, we both want to weather this as a couple and have a stronger relationship as a result.

But it is really hard. It is hard to trust myself right now, let alone to trust Ben. I want to very much. But I can't.

Evelyn is coping well. I think she senses all the emotions and drama but of course she doesn't understand what's going on.

Any advice on how to trust again or any stories about overcoming the odds would be greatly appreciated as well as prayers, good thoughts, etc.

Last Hurrah

Here are two pics from my last hurrah with my best friend Jen. She left to go back to Hawaii yesterday. I am going to miss her more than I can put into words.





Didn't you know hats are a requirement for a last hurrah?