The Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday, my sister-in-law
and I took Matthew and Logann
to the pumpkin patch. We had a
wonderful time!

Before...During...

Remember BEFORE???

Well...here's
DURING (Recovery)
(This was taken about
a week and a half ago. I
will post an AFTER soon.)

Peek-A-Boo

This morning, on the way to church,
Matthew dumped apple juice all over
his lap. We live about 20 minutes from
church, so we had to turn around and
go home, missing church. I was NOT
happy! I thought this was going to be
the beginning of a horrible day....

I WAS WRONG!!!

After we went home and cleaned up,
Matthew rested and I had my own
"church" at home. Then, I decided
that since Chris was at the Titans game,
I should take the kids out for some fun.
We went to Peek-A-Boo Playtown. The
kids had a blast, and I had a great time
watching them have so much fun!

A Big Girl Bed

Last weekend, we decided to go
ahead and make the switch from
the crib to a twin bed. When
Matthew was about Logann's age,
we walked in his room to find him
with one leg over the crib rail.
We switched him immediately.
Logann had not tried to escape
yet, but she is such a daredevil...
I knew it was coming.

Here is a picture of Logann and
Matthew trying out the bed after
it was all set up.

This was Logann when she woke up

from her first night of sleep in her
big bed!

(This was my bed when I was little!)

She really is doing a great job in
her big bed. The first night, I had
to put her back in the bed five times.
Then, she went to sleep. Every
night since then, I just read
her a book, lay with her for
about 3 minutes, give her a kiss,
and leave. She goes to sleep
quietly, and stays in the bed until
I come to get her the next morning.
She's so big! :)

Logann's Before :) and After :(

YesterDAY was one of the best days
I've had in a while! It was stress-free
fun at the zoo with Chris, Matthew, and
Logann. The weather was beautiful
and we had such an amazing time. I was
looking forward to having a fun evening
as well. We were going to my sister's for
the evening. Plans of grilling out, eating
birthday cake and ice cream, and sitting
out by a nice fire were in our future...

BEFORE:
Last night, we went to my sister's house
to celebrate my mom's birthday. They
have a nice screened in porch. While
Uncle Mark was grilling we were all just
relaxing and enjoying each others'
company. See:

Then it happened... Logann fell over her

own two feet and landed face-first into
the hinge of the porch door! Lots of
screaming, blood, crying, some Tylenol, and
a Tinkerbell sticker later, Logann received
her first stitches (and hopefully her last!)
5 little stitches along her eyebrow...AFTER:

ZOO pictures to come later...

Before...

This was my lovely leg BEFORE the doctor lasered
my vein and yanked it out! I'd had this bad boy for
about 15 years, but it got worse and started hurting
after I had Logann (thanks LoLo!) The procedure
itself was not too painful. They used local anesthesia.
I did not feel the laser part at all, but it was a really
strange feeling when they tugged on my veins to get
them out! I'm weird because I like gross stuff like
that...I even got them to show me the veins they removed!
Recovery has not been too bad so far. My thigh is
sore from the laser, but overall, I'm good. I'm
not supposed to lift anything over 20lbs for a while.
My leg is still all wrapped up and a little swollen. I can't
wait to see the final results! I'll post the AFTER when
the swelling and bruising go down.

Trying to Breathe

Do you ever feel like you are
drowning? Do you ever feel like
you have so much on your plate
that you just might lose it???
Welcome to my world!

In the past
six months, I have gone from
having a principal that could NOT
have cared less about our school and
our students, to having a principal
who loves and adores our students
and wants only the best for them.

Then, we meet Race to the Top, a
lovely piece of legislation that has
earned our state lots of money to
help improve our education system.
Problem is, NONE of that money is
going to ever be seen by me, the one
who must meet the high expectations
of individuals who have NEVER stepped
foot inside a classroom, and who do
not have a clue what these children go
through in their personal lives.

The combination of loving principal and lovely
legislation is that I now spend approximately
5 hours per week simple DOCUMENTING
how I teach. Very little about my style of
teaching has been affected, I've tweaked just
a few activities, but I now have 5 less hours
of my life to enjoy each week. You know, I
always thought I had too much free time on
my hands!

On top of all of this, due to my
lovely schedule at school, I have very little
time to grade papers, which means I take it
all home. Again, more personal time is being
pulled away from me. Open House was Tuesday
night. I did enjoy it, but Chris had class, the kids
were 45 minutes away at my mother-in-laws, and
I did not get home last night until 9:30.

All of this said, I'm choking. I think I really am
drowning. I am looking for the nearest ladder
to climb out of this pool...