Mardi Gras, etc.

Sorry the posts have been few and far between.  Life is life, you know?  I have blog posts in my head, but not enough time to get them all out into cyberspace.  So, I figure if I have time for one, it should be one with pictures, right?

So, the second weekend of February, we made a speedy trip to Mobile to see family and friends.  We had dinner with Jill and Scott on Saturday night while the grandparents took the kids to a Mardi Gras parade.  Then early Sunday, we woke up and drove to Pass Christian, Mississippi, to go celebrate Mardi Gras with Eli's aunt and uncle and their family, the many cousins.  There are more pictures on FB, but here's representations of the whole family.

And, if you didn't know that my oldest child is a character, we were sitting at the table tonight and I just wanted to take a picture of her with her one pony tail, and this is what I got:

And of course, Oscar and his dirty face wanted to get in on the action.

Can't believe February is almost over--one more week.  My, how time flies.  Tomorrow is the first weekend since Veteran's Day weekend in November that Eli hasn't been out of town.  It will be nice to see each other for once.  Haha.

Cheers.

Saturday with the Kids 1/26

Well, it's the last weekend of hunting season and the kids and I are going it solo for the weekend...again.  But on the upside, it's the last time due to hunting until November.  All the rest of the times this spring will be due to Coast Guard, National Guard, NFL player recruiting, etc.  It's almost gotten to be a joke with the kids, "Where's Daddy?"  Then I respond with something different from the last time.

And before you feel like I'm getting too down on the situation, I want to tell you that I have a husband that works hard for a living.  Sure, he wears a suit and tie most of the time, but he does his jobs well.  That takes time and energy.  The refrain from both of us this school year has been, "There are not enough hours in a week."

So, without further ado, here are some photos from today.  We started the day at West Ridge park.  This is the park at the ball fields.  I was reluctant to take them, because it's so wide open and it's just me, but the weather was chilly enough that I figured the park would be mostly empty.  And it was.  Before we could go to the playground, I we went on an "adventure" and walked the walking track around the ball fields until we hit the new construction, and then we cut through and went to the park.  Elsie loves the swings.  It exhausts me.  The first two pics are action shots, trying to catch swinging children in motion.  The third pic is the purple dinosaur, marginally scarier than Barney, but in a different way.

After grabbing lunch at Jim Bob's (where kids eat free on Saturdays--woot!) and coloring pictures (they have free coloring sheets and crayons to play with while we wait--another woot!), we headed down to the railroad tracks and adjacent to the historic train depot, there is a restored caboose.  I've driven by it on nap time rides, but we have never stopped and gotten out of the car.  So, today we did.

The kids were supposed to come home and be exhausted and fall right to sleep.  No luck.  So, we went on a nap time drive and made laps back and forth down Waverly Parkway, a concrete slab road that has a magically sleep-inducing bah-dump bah-dump bah-dump sound to it.  Magical, I say.

And that's just the first half of the day.  We'll see what the rest brings. (Pun intended.)

Cheers.

Intern

Tomorrow I embark on a new adventure:  I'm going to have an intern in my classroom. In Texas, we called these people "student teachers."  Alabama just has a different lingo.

If I'm being honest with myself, I can admit that I'm terrified and excited.  Right now, the terror is reigning supreme.  Feelings of inferiority are surfacing.  Fear of criticism is bubbling up from I have no idea where.  I have never had a student teacher before, nor have I ever been one myself.  I have no idea what I'm doing.

I just heaved a big sigh after reading that last paragraph over.

But, if you know me, you know I try not to dwell on the negative.  I'm not saying that I don't dwell on the negative--I'm just saying that I *try* not to.  So, let's accentuate the positive for a minute, shall we?

Reasons Why I Agreed to Have an Intern
by E. Beaver

1.  Only tenured teachers are offered interns.  I am now tenured (wahoo!).
2.  There was a dire need for available placements, since Auburn is graduating 20 secondary English teachers in the next year.  (Um, are they crazy??  From one program??  There aren't that many English teacher jobs in the whole state!  I think it was irresponsible of them to not dissuade some of these people from this particular subject area.  TWENTY!!  Not including the English teacher grads from the other universities in the state--there are going to be a lot of jobless people next year.)
3.  Having an intern will give me time to work on curriculum development for next year.
4.  Having an intern will give me someone to work with to work on curriculum development.
5.  I will have time and motivation to improve my teaching.
6.  I will learn new information from fresh-from-the-university-setting intern.
7.  If nothing else, the poor victim will learn what not to do.

Please pray from me and my intern over the next 16, that it is a good fit, and that we both learn and grow.

Cheers!

January 2013 Debt Update

I'm backdating this one.  I hit the ground running January 2 with school and haven't had the time to update.  My apologies to EBH, one of my cheerleaders.  This is an exciting post, for sure--we finished another debt thermometer before the end of 2012!


 Second 10K Chunk, started 5/1/12, FINISHED 12/30/12!
 
Fundraising Thermometer
 



And with the leftovers, we got a good start on 2013:


 Third 10K Chunk, started 1/1/13
 
Fundraising Thermometer
 



Man alive, we are almost halfway (from when we started the debt thermometers in October 2011)  to being debt-free except for the house!  We are almost three-quarters of the way there if you go back to 2008 when we were $105,000 in consumer/student loan debt.  There have been ups and downs since then as far as our faithfulness to the plan, but the downhill slope looks sweeter and sweeter!  Here's to a productive 2013!

Cheers.

Growing Older

I know, I know.  I'm still in the first third of my life, give or take.  But I'm going to say that this growing older thing is the source of my turmoil right now.  I'm not talking about anything physical, parts falling apart, etc.  This is totally the emotional turmoil that's got me all wound up.

I didn't cry this much before I had kids.  I swear.  (Dang hormones.)

But, I see a child that is running around talking, having intelligent conversations, and I know that when we first moved here, that child was in a baby carrier.  Cue watery eyes of nostalgia.  Where had the time gone?

I look at college athletes and think, "Wait.  I'm not their age anymore.  I'm a decade older."  Where has the time gone? Eyes water.

I mention something to my students that happened in 2000, recent history for me.  They weren't even born yet.  What?  How is that possible?

I have friends from high school who already have five or six kids.  Again, how is that possible?  Didn't we just graduate?

I have friends from college who have been married, divorced, and remarried.  Already. Are we even old enough to be married the first time?

I'm on the brink of celebrating a decade of marriage and I still feel like a beginner, you know?  Sometimes I feel like a visitor at the in-laws', even though I know I'm not.

And, I think the thing that makes me most emotional is change.  When people that I know and love move away.  Or when I know that they're going to move.  G&J at church will only be here for another eight months.  My beloved neighbors will also be PCS-ing around the same time.  J&S got married and moved.  My team at work was the same for two years, and has changed each year for the past two (teacher friends have moved).  Every year my heart becomes even more stubborn about accepting different circumstances.  And every year, the Lord is faithful throughout those changes, but it is still a source of growing pains for me .

I got a Christmas card from my best friend from college in the mail.  I read the Christmas letter.  I was sitting on the stairs, I remember, and the kids were eating at the table, and Eli was standing in the kitchen. I just burst into tears.  The kids were confused, and I was confused, and Eli was definitely confused.  I was just so sad.  There was nothing sad in that letter, per se.  But the fact that all those things happened and that I was not a part of it--THAT was sad.  (And I will admit, it brought on a little wave of jealousy of the people who ARE a part of her life.) We live so far away, and we are in such different spots in our lives, and I wonder how it is that we consider each other friends, let alone best friends, after not being a part of each others' lives for so long.

I think about the amazing women at church and then am sad about how we aren't really friends in the way that I once could be friends with other women.  You know, before the husband and the kids came along.  I, of course, would never go back, would never have it any other way, but my heart still mourns for that possibility a little, and that makes me sad.  Getting together with them monthly is a small fix, and I'll take it, but I just wish I could do/have it all.

Many times, I feel like a terrible friend since my life is so me-and-my-family-centered, and I probably am.  But, I have been reassured by other loving older women that this is just a passing phase in my life as the mother of small children.

Man, I hope so.  And maybe someday the hormones will work themselves back out and I won't cry at ridiculous stuff anymore.  Maybe?

Cheers.