Sunday, June 24, 2012

Happy Home Anniversary

I was really bummed on the 21st when I realized that June 19th had come and gone without my usual fanfare.... June 19th marks the anniversary of closing on our house. We got the keys on that lovely evening and our newest adventure started. That was in 2009. So it's been three years. I have never done a recap before, so I guess I have three years to recap for you here today.

Year 1
    Thankfully, we moved into a home that was well maintained and ready to just live in. We would have liked to have the carpets cleaned professionally, but we got the keys so late, and already had moving plans for the next day. Other than that, we were happy with what we were getting into.
   In that first year, we had a container garden because we moved in June it was too late to create an inground garden. I had amazing tomatoes and jalepenos that year! We busily cut down several randomly placed trees that year.
   Our house is roughly 1650 sq feet on a 7500 sq ft lot. We have four bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Solid wood doors, nice solid woodwork trim also. A front room and a family room with a gas fireplace. Good open kitchen, but minimal counter and drawer space. We asked for the beautiful side by side fridge in the deal. We also have the best oven EVER. It has a tiny oven on top perfect for just about everything but a turkey and it pre-heats in less than 5 minutes. We bought a butcher block island from IKEA for the kitchen space, and other than that, not really any other furniture. Oh wait, we did get some patio furniture as well.
    We got married that first year, and hosted the rehearsal dinner in our backyard. We welcomed Boo into our home in October of that year. During the holidays we had an epic debate of whether to put the Christmas tree near the fireplace and stockings or in the front window. It was decided that we needed two trees, one for each place, and we bought an extra tree after Christmas for the following year (we do fake trees)
   I don't think we really did much else....

Year 2
    We did an inground garden in the back of the yard. We cleared it out ourselves and planted right up. We did a bit of other maintenance on the yard, but not too much. We had our two Christmas trees trees in the right places. We bought new living room furniture at some point and also a big TV.
    Again, because we have a nice house, we didn't have much work to do in order to maintain it... Not too exciting...

Year 3
    We had room mates for a good portion of this third year. They rented out 2 of our rooms and used the family room. We did a garden again, it was kind of a jungle, but we got some good veggies out of it. Plenty to share. We acquired a pool table (for free!!) from Craigslist for the garage. We can no longer park in the garage. We planted a Japanese Maple in the front (replacing a bush that we had to take out because Chris and his dad killed it on accident when they were cutting down a different tree). We had Peyton which obviously necessitated the rearranging of some stuff.. At one point we had and office/guest room/storage/Peyton room... Once the room mates moved out, we spread back out.
    Peyton is now in the room over the garage. It's purple and cute, but we again.. haven't done anything to it... does that make us lazy?
   The guest room is the green one, good size. That's good for this summer as it's also my iTech storage unit...
     The office (which we NEVER use) is the red room, and then we obviously have our master bedroom.
   We talked some big plans about remodeling a bathroom or painting a room or something... we just haven't.

 Now we do plan on re-building a fence this summer. One side of our fence is really old and it leans heavily. During one good storm two sections actually fell and the neighbor who we share with has dogs. We rigged it back into place for the spring, but we're going to redo it this summer. We also have plans to redo our deck. It's tiny! We haven't decided whether or not we want to do a new deck at the same level, a lower deck, or a paver patio... so many decisions, and so much money!

Well I suppose that's three years in our great umble abode. I still love it and I am happy to have people to share it with, Peyton is having a great time as she begins to explore the house :)

Friday, June 22, 2012

iTech Update!

While my friends were trying to get those tan lines on Thursday in the beautiful weather... I was in my first daylong training with my fellow iTech staff members. This time, we worked at Columbia River. (Weird being back at my old school...)
We immeresed ourselves into the idea of Project Based Learning and what that means for our staff. We dove into standards, big ideas, and driving themes. We read some research, participated in some activities, and started nailing down nitty gritty details... I will share some relevant thoughts and ideas here...

My schedule... We operate on an A/B schedule and every other Friday is 'special' TBD.
My A day... 4 periods total plus advocacy and lunch. My first two periods are prep (yep two preps in a row on that day) but advocacy is in the middle there. My first actual teaching time on A days isn't until 1:22 in the afternoon! I then teach a period of English, followed by social studies.

My B day... totally different. I teach all 4 periods Pe/Health, Global Forum (elective), Math, Science.

So basically, I better be sure I bring my A game to prep periods and get set up for the next 6 periods, because that's the next time I will have a break...

We started mapping out the year around the ideas of Identity (fitting for a school trying to find it's place in the first year)
Who am I? Where do I come from? Where do I belong?

Within those big ideas and statements we can fit our curricular needs.

There's still a TON of work to be done! I'm very thankful to be taking part in almost every single professional development opportunity that we have. I like to be in the know, and this will help that :)As a result, I am taking part in High Tech High (leaving Sunday) then AVID in Sacramento (that's our whole team) July 8-11. Here locally, I will be working with 3 other teachers and Christina for a week in July to plan out August... then Finally, we begin working full time August 8th really putting ideas into reality.

Goodbye Sarah J, 5 Year Re-cap!

June 20th was the last day of school. It was also my last day at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary. This post is in dedication to that time. Here's a recap of some of my highlights, lowlights, or thoughts....

My first year, was amazing! I'm not sure how many first year teachers can say that they had a great year, but I did! I had fun, enjoyed my class thoroughly, and hopefully taught them a thing or two.

It was in my first year, that I made some friends that I will treasure for always. I enjoyed our year together and have remained in contact with several people from that team.

I taught 5th grade that first year. Then on my birthday that year, I was told I was moving down to third grade. (insert lowlight- I cried! I was so in love with my team and 5th grade)

Turns out, it wasn't so bad :) I worked for three years at third grade and continued to work with amazing people. I even finessed team teaching in two of those years and had a wonderful time working so closely with personal friends.

Then here in my fifth year, I moved back to fifth. (I almost had to move back to 3rd right at the start of the year). I got to work with some of the same kids I had two years prior. I was out on maternity leave for part of the year. I didn't feel like I had that close bond that I had for the previous two years, but it was a different experience.

While at SJA I participated in.... culture parade, BizTown, programs at every grade level, career projects, safety team, safe and supportive teams, helped at carnivals, went in a dunk tank, got my butt kicked by kids in various recess tournaments, prepared and implemented great projects, made wonderful lifelong friends, worked for two principals, and 4 associate principals, started and finished my Master's in Education, earned my Professional Certificate, started my Admin credentials.... and hopefully touched a life or two...

Not too bad... for my first five years.... Let's see what I can do with the next 5!
To my friends staying at Sarah J, good luck in this new adventure, and I can't wait to see what comes next!

9 Months to Peyton!

Weight- about 16.5 lbs
Hair- still too short... but as more comes in it hides that awful cradle cap scaliness.. mommy picks at it too...
Clothes- Still fitting in the 6-9 month clothes set, but we're transitioning into the 9-12 month clothes. Grandma Caldwell bought new 9 month jammies over Memorial Day, because of the length needed. I think she's going to pop over to the 12 month jammies quickly though because the 9 month one's aren't that roomy in length (I think they may have shrunk... or she could have grown...)
Teeth- none yet
New Skills- Still scooting across the floor in the army crawl, but you do hands and knees crawling sometimes as well. You seem to go faster on your belly, but if you take the time, you'll do hands and knees. Good thing we lowered that crib... you will now pull yourself up into standing if you can get a good grip on things. Your balance while standing is still quite preliminary, but you're getting there. Sometimes it's like the splits. You concentrate on where your hands are, what you can touch and forget about your legs and they are often left in a funky, not easily held position.
Foods- You still certainly prefer fruits to green veggies, but we continue to make an effort. This month we also started feeding you yogurt. We started off with the 'baby yogurts' by Gerber, but after some internet research, it seems you can have regular yogurt as long as it's not the fat free, fake sugar kind. You really like yogurt (except banana flavor) and you love yogurt bites too. Those are the freeze dried disc ones. In fact when I spill out yogurt bites and puffs onto your tray, you will pick out the yogurt bites first. You sometimes blow your food all over us as you play with noise, that's not so fun, but other than that, we like meal time. Your getting better at the sippy cup also, which is good. You still have only had milk from the bottle and water in the sippy cup.
Oh, this month, we also have started transitioning you to formula. You currently get a mix of breastmilk and/or formula bottles. You don't seem to care either way. We decided to do this because of mommy's busy summer with work. We're super glad that you're not too picky about because formula is expensive enough when you're just doing the regular stuff... let alone if you needed something special!
Favorite moments- Still loving story time at bed time with daddy (currently reading Charlotte's Web). I also love that you are more interested in baths now. You've started splashing around. You seem to really like the water. In fact, we went swimming with Grandma Holm on Father's Day weekend when they were visiting. We went to Firstenburg and stayed in the pool for about an hour. You really enjoyed it! You are getting more talkative too. 'Ba, Ba, Bwah" seem to be your favorite sounds. I respond to you with 'ma ma, ma ma' but you just laugh.
Least Favorite moment- As mentioned above in the food section.. you spitting your food isn't super fun... You're usually just blowing bubbles or something but depending on the size of the bite we gave you, it is sometimes like a small shower of baby food... ewww... I'm sure greater messes are in store as you learn to feed yourself, but this one... I'm not particularly fond of.
Anything else? Father's Day was celebrated just before you turned nine months. You got daddy a card, (I helped you write some sentiments) and we bought daddy new tongs for the barbecue. We had a very delicious dinner (2 nights barbecuing in a row!) and enjoyed some family time with Chris's parents.
I can't believe you're 3/4 of a year old already! I'm glad that I can document here these phases that you go through because in the blink of an eye you'll move to the next exciting stage!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Family Update

Peyton is really starting to show her personality these days. She can crawl (still on her belly using her arms) where she wants to go, and sit up to play with what she wants. She has started crawling through the dining table set and chairs, up and over the legs and such. She wanders around quite quickly and I have seen her working on standing up quite a bit. She will pull herself up on stuff some, but usually only gets to her knees. She will also put her arms down on the ground and stand up behind herself (think downward dog Yoga). I am afraid she's going to be an early walker... we'll see....

She has also become quite the babbler. She's trying out lots of sounds with her mouth. Chris and I swear she made the sounds for what seemed like 'hi' yesterday. It was unintentional of course, but adorable all the same. I just can't believe that she's getting so big so fast!

If anyone has any tips on getting baby to eat her veggies that'd be great... she loves her fruit, but she is taking a stand against most veggies. We try to just get a few bites in where we can, but she's not excited...

We're going to transition her to formula for the last three months before her year birthday (already!?). With all my work plans and traveling this summer, it's just not feasible to keep up the pumping routine and it STRESSES me out to no end not producing enough milk for her. I feel that twinge of guilt that I'm not going to make it through her first year, but I just don't think that it would work for me to continue through the summer with the things I have lined up. I feel good that I made it through nearly nine months (probably will be nine months by the time we've actually stopped breastfeeding). It also hurts a little to have to spend money on something that I can produce for free... but hey, win some lose some right... I can be thankful that really we've only invested in food, diapers, wipes, and now formula for Peyton. We haven't really spent money on clothes, toys, or anything else.

Well that's Peyton.. how about Chris and I?
Chris joined a summer Pool league with some of his friends from his normal pool crew. He's playing in an 8 and 9 ball league on Thursday nights. He went for the first time last week and he lost, but just barely. I'm glad he's got something that gets him out to socialize with other adults on a weekly basis. He really enjoys those folks too! Other than that... he fixed our glider chair today, (thank goodness) I can rock again! We're trying to nail down a time for him to build a fence this summer... and it looks like it will be in July since I need to be around to watch Peyton. That should be fun :)

We joined Firstenburg Center on Friday afternoon. I'm really excited about our three months. We didn't pay out of pocket at all! I had some birthday money from Chris's parents and then some tutoring money from some tutoring I will be doing this summer (I know more summer stuff right...) so we covered the cost for membership (only$129 for the whole family for three months!) I went and worked out both Saturday and Sunday. I willed myself to stay off a treadmill since I own one... So I did some elliptical, stationary bike and one of the massive stair climbers. I have always been intimidated by the stair climber because the machine is enormous and I feel like I could just fall off (which you could). I actually think I might like it though... I wasn't like out of breath from using it like a treadmill, but sweat was dripping off of me... sign of a good work out. They also have some amazing nautilus strength training machines. I used several of them today. Heere's hoping I'm headed somewhere good... (now we did go get MooLattes at DQ this evening too.. so that's not particularly helpful, but at least I worked out... so there's less guilt there... ) And we ate all meals at home this weekend, which we're not always good about on weekends... small steps...

13 more days with my kids at SJA, and LOTS of fun stuff with them in those 13 days. Should be a great end to the year! Then right on to iTech stuff (see other post) Should be a great and wonderful June!

iTech Update

For those of you that follow my new job stats, here is the latest and greatest.. .for those searching for Peyton info... not this time :)

So we had our second staff meeting on Saturday. Great news #1- we now have our full staff hired, and we were all in attendance at this meeting. Great news #2 we got our new laptop computers. In fact... that's what I'm using now.... Now, I was originally told we were getting the PC versions of MacBook Air's... um no.. I have a 'lenovo ThinkPad' It's definitely not stylish... but what we lack in style, we apparently have in power with our usb hook-ups and such. I currently have a 14" screen version, but in August, I will be trading that out for a 15" version. All VPS teachers are getting the same one. Our students are the ones getting the 'stylish' computers that are thin. Not that this is particularly heavy, it just wasn't what I was expecting...

We also explored our new Learning Management Software program. It's from a company called Instructure, and the program is called Canvas. We went through an entire tutorial as students using the program. It's pretty cool! We can post assignments, documents, videos, discussions, quizzes and grades. We can interface through email, videos, and audio recordings. Students can be taken through a series of documents, links and videos for just about anything. It seems relatively user friendly, at least from the student side. I look forward to having access to the teacher side, sometime this summer.

After our actual meeting, we had a small social at our Science teacher's house. It's so strange to have such a small staff gathering. I am pretty sure my regular happy hour group is bigger than this whole staff! It will be nice to start this way though, hopefully all bonding and working well together :)

I also found out that I was one of the lucky 'chosen' ones to attend High Tech High's Summer Institute. I will be whisked off to San Diego June 25-27th for this training. I am attending with our principal, art/CTE teacher, and social studies teacher. Of all the trainings that are lined up for staff, this is the one I am most excited about. I hope to get some ideas about what this is all supposed to look like!

So my calendar is quickly filling up. My first actual day off (besides wknds, is not until June 28th). July looks pretty good and free... except AVID training in Sacramento July 7-11. Here's hoping I get a bit of time off :) I can't complain though. I love getting to go explore new places and ideas, the social side of me enjoys getting to know people better, and I get paid for all these trainings too! Can't complain.. though I am totally going to miss my Peyton and Chris too!