Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Teacher Strike

Running a dayhome and trying to home school kids with their school text books is LOTS of work!

The teachers union here served strike notice and the kids have not been in school since February 15th. So now we have "school" at home.

Some point in every day the kids have to do math, science, social studies, reading, "life skills" (a.k.a. housework), and whatever else I can think of. Phys. Ed class is delivering papers, going for a walk, or some other such activity.

Megan also has music class, where she practices her piano for her lesson on Wednesday. Today she started Home Ec. cooking class with her new teacher, Rick! I teach everything else, I figured he can cover that class.

Yesterday, we started a little bit more of a routine for school. It includes my oldest dayhome boy working on a preschool workbook that he has. He has to do at least four pages before he can go play. It seems to help keep Denver on task a bit too.

I sure hope this thing ends soon! It is trying my patience and messing up the daily routine! It seems like the kids are hardly ever in school since the Christmas holidays ended! They already had 2 snow days and a bunch of PD days. Why wasn't there ever a strike when we were in school?

Monday, February 26, 2007

New post, third one down!

I didn't realize that if you just edit a post it puts it on the original day you started. So my new one is actually after the last two.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Then and Now!

Then


This is my all time favorite photo of me as a baby! Unfortunately I used it for my High School Grad yearbook and they didn't give me the original back!


This next photo is of me at 11 1/2 months of age in the river at Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, Alberta in July 1976. The hat is the same one as the previous photo.


Now
This is Savannah in my hat! I think it is the only baby clothes of mine that are left! It is still cute. Maybe not today's colors, but I like it anyways.





So much good stuff!

Time is flying by these days! January 26th a new little angel joined our family. February 2nd we found out we get to adopt her. We named her Savannah. She is almost always a happy baby, even when she is sick! Today was her first "cranky" day since she got used to living here. Hopefully adoption will be complete in the next couple months.



The day before, February 1st, we got guardianship of our other two children, so our family is growing by leaps and bounds this year! It's about time! We have been waiting FOREVER to have children of our own.



The older two are hoping to add a kitten to the family soon as well. There just don't seem to be any to give away in our area at the moment. Before Christmas there were lots, but now there are none. We check the paper as soon as we get up every Friday morning. The day there are finally kittens to go look at will be a long wait until the work day is over!



Here is Savannah. Isn't she adorable?






Sleep Deprived Happenings!

Ever feel like a zombie? I sure did the first few weeks Savannah was here!

The second night of constant wakings with her, I had shut our bedroom door because she decided about 4:30 a.m. that it was playtime! Then the next time she fussed I jumped straight out of bed and right into our door!!!!! Rick lay in bed and when he figured out what had happened spent the next 5 minutes laughing his head off!

I think it was the next night I was carrying Savannah and went to grab a bottle out of the fridge. After getting the top off and opening the microwave, I realized it was the wrong one (half full instead of the full one). So, I went to set it down on the stove to put the top back on and proceeded to spill it all over the stove and into two of the burners! What a mess!

A couple weeks later I thought things were starting to go pretty smoothly. Usually I got up with her without any problems. Rick got up the times I didn't wake up, or when I asked him to do it. Then one Sunday morning he told me that he woke up to Savannah crying and me in my sleep going "Shhhhh, shhhh!" He decided that wasn't going to work and got up to get her a bottle! To me that is the funniest thing I've done, the others were just annoying! I think I must have been dreaming when I was saying "Shhh!"

Last night I was about ready to rip my hair out, she kept waking up screaming, every half hour or so for awhile. Then I finally thought, "I wonder if her diaper needs changed?" She was soaked, bed sheets and all! No wonder she was mad! After I got everything changed she was happy as a lark and we all got several good hours of sleep. At least until my dayhome kids arrived!