Life At The Moment

Catching Up

Life has been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks for us and now it has slowed down.

We started the summer off with the notion that we were selling our house and buying my in-laws. We spent hours replacing the kitchen floor, carpet in the living room, Chloee's bedroom and ours. We also finished the hallway with hardwood. We made numerous trips to Home Depot and Ace Hardware to match paint to touch up in the living room, kitchen, family room and entry. We even painted Chloee's whole room white. 

Tony and I checked in with each other countless times to make sure that this was what we wanted to do. Did we want to give up an almost new home for an older home that was going to need some updating? Yes we did.

We imagined all the changes we were going to make- inside and out. I started picking out paint chips for several of the rooms. We were excited that the original hardwood was still there - under the carpet. Tony designed the yard- rose free- more grass- less work. I had my scrap room- he and the kids had their large tv/game room downstairs and the basement was a perfect storage area.

We talked to the new school the kids were going to  go to- to see what we needed to do to get Declin transferred there and Chloee enrolled in the district. We drove them by the school to see where they would be starting the 5^th grade and the 1^st grade. They loved it with its big playground and lots of colorful fish on the gate around the playground.

All the details were worked out- we met with the attorney last Friday. We discussed all the details, price, closing, title insurance, move in date, etc. Tony and I left the office feeling good about everything and thinking about what we still needed to do - before we could put our house on the market. Our goal was to get it on the market within the next two weeks. We had a recommended realtor that we were going to call on Tuesday after the 4th of July to see what we needed to do to get the process started. 

I spent the weekend packing up all of my stuff in the garage ( craft stuff, books, school misc) 7 totes and 2 boxes later I was done and excited that I could cross that job off of my to do list. I was thinking about where all of the stuff was going to go in the new room. I would actually have room to display my art that I would be making with all of that stuff- I had forgotten I had because it was in the garage- out of sight- out of mind.

Sunday came along and the phone rang. It was my mother in law. She decided that she did not want to go through with selling us the house. Talk about the wind being sucked from our sails. Here we had been working furiously to get our house ready to go so we could move into theirs. We had endured her endless phone calls and over thinking of everything. She called us almost everyday with something changed or different and we were ok with it. Then she does this. 

We are not as disappointed about not getting the house as we are frustrated at the way she handled everything. It is frustrating to us- that we hurried to get all of this done- and yes it needed to be done, but we could have spread it out financially and time wise over the summer. 

It is a blessing in disguise and we may never know what that is, but now we can move on and enjoy our summer without having moving and selling the house hovering over us before school starts.

Life goes on and it has been. Our time is freed up to go to the library, the bookstore, visits with grandma:

 

 

playing outside with our new sticker books:

or making things:

 

 

Back On The Wagon

I fell off the work out wagon for the past 6 months. I thought about doing it- even woke up early several mornings  got dressed started the workout and then stopped 5 minutes into it. I had no motivation! 

I climbed to the top of Multnomah Falls in May- there was no struggle. I knew that If I could do that and still  have breath at the top I was still in shape. I felt a little less guilty for not working out. 

These past couple of weeks of school were hectic and crazy and I was on a motivation high to get things done and tie up loose ends at school. I also begin to think about working out again. School was ending and  yes the summer is going to be crazy busy with getting our house ready to sell and things packed up to move, but why not just add working out to the "to do" list. 

School has been out for a week and each day I think about working out and I talk myself out  of it by saying  I ran out of time, everyone is home and I will be interrupted and the list  goes on. This morning I got  up early- put on my ipod- cranked up the tunes and worked out for twenty minutes. 

It felt good to be back moving again.

I'm committing myself to stay on the wagon.

I'm Back!

9 months later.  

My goals for the summer :

Blog More

Exercise

Move

Make more art

 

More to come

Classroom Stuff

Here are some pictures of what we are creating in my classroom this year. These are all projects of my "3"s class (Tuesday-Thursday)

This is our number caterpillar. The class paints the circle whatever the color of the month is and then the number of the month is added. They are so excited that the number caterpillar is finally growing.

This is our ABC train. We are learning three letters a month. Each child has a chance to work with their family to create the letter they have been assigned. So far- Anna has done "A". Brody has done "B". Cody has created "C" and Georgia has created "D". I have made the wheels bigger on the "C" and "D" trailers since this picture has been taken. They were much smaller and well those that now me well....know that I have to have everything the same or it totally throws the look off. Anyway- I hope we have enough wall space to put the whole alphabet up there. The kids are loving it and everyone is so excited when they are chosen to make the letter. 

These are glitter spiderwebs that hang diagonally across the room on a wire. The kids loved putting the glitter on them. The spiders- which are kind of hard to see are in the shape of octagons. Octagons are the shape of the month. 

 

Here is a fall project that we did in my Transition Class (M-W-F)

 

MIA

I've been thinking about my blog and  how much I have missed writing on it. I did not realize that it has been over a month since I last checked in with a post. I feel like I have been MIA for awhile. 

We are in full swing around here with school. Chloee is in Kindergarten and enjoying every minute of it. She had a play date last week with one of her classmates. She is learning how to read. It is so fun to listen to her sound out the letters and start connecting the words. Chloee takes Ballet on Mondays and is loving that. 

Declin is busy in the 4th grade. He has all male teachers this year and it is a welcome change. We are having a much better year. His homework is getting harder  and not coming as easy for him as in the past. He has totally immersed himself in football. I am loving and hating it at the same time. I plan to post more on his football experience soon.

Tony lost his job at the beginning of September. It has been a blessing in disguise.  He has become "Mr Mom". He now gets Declin to the bus stop in the morning and picks him  up after school. He takes Chloee to school and picks her up. This is a huge help to me, as I can go to school much earlier in the morning and get things done in my classroom which makes for a much better day.  He was doing the laundry and I totally appreciated it- until my clothes started getting tighter and I was not gaining any weight. I tried to be polite and tell him that he did not have to do my laundry, but I appreciated him doing the kids and his. Well I guess I was not polite enough- he stopped doing it all together. I like to do laundry- so it was nice to be able to take that back. He has gotten a chance to spend quality time with the kids that he missed when he was working long hours and traveling. It has given him a chance to take part in the homework process and to see that staying home is not always as easy as it looks when you have to get kids two different places, monitor the homework, laundry, clean house and still try to find time for a life outside of the home. He said to me this week "Wow! I think staying home and running the house is harder than working out in the field.". Hmmm.... wonder where he heard that  before.

I went full time this year. I am now teaching every day. I have the same class on M-W-F- that I have been teaching for the last 5 years, but I have now added two 3 year old classes on T- Thursday. It is a lot of work- but so worth it. I sometimes wake up in the morning- wondering what day it is- so I can process which class I have- which kids I will have that day and which parents I will be talking to. The first couple of weeks- really made me wonder if I had made a mistake in saying yes to the 3's class. That is a whole different dynamic than the Transition Class on M- W-F. Things are a little crazy busy, but I think I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as far as learning to manage my time now that I don't have the two days off during the week like before. 

I have really good classes this year. Lots of boys and a few girls scattered through out. One of my afternoon classes only has 6 kids in it. 5 boys and 1 girl. She can hold her own against anyone of them. All of them have me wrapped around their little fingers.  - Ok there are two that drive me up the wall and make me question why I am teaching this young of age, but we will work through their issues- and it will get better for them and for me. I have four little ones that speak very little English. This is a huge roadblock for them and for me. They chatter to me in their language and I respond in mine and it frustrates both them and I. One little guy will try very hard to insert some English in with his language and we have come to some understanding of each other.  He has the cutest little smile and that alone lets him get away with much more than the next one that drives me up  the wall and can speak English. I have a little guy in one of my afternoon classes that spoke no English at all. I talked to his mom and she said they don't speak any English in their home so as to keep their home language as the first language.  We are into the sixth week of school now and I have noticed that he is speaking a lot more English than his language. His mom made a point of letting me know this week that he has been begging her to teach him English so he can talk to me since the first day of school. This is my answer to questioning myself as to why I took this on.

There are days that my classroom looks like a cyclone came through and did a major wind dance through the entire room. Paint all over, paper, play dough, toys, chairs, glue, etc all over. These are the days that we hope our director does not bring a tour of potential parents through and of course these are the days that most likely are going to be full of tours. I have accepted that sometimes these things cannot be helped and if they want to see how a typical preschool day goes- this is what the classroom is going to look like. Yet there are times like a couple of weeks ago- things are going fine in the room, the volume is tolerable- the classroom is a bit messy, but not out of control, when you look up and there is a little boy running around butt naked and you hear the director coming down the hall with potential parents wanting to look at your classroom because their child could be a member of your class in the next couple of days. What do you do..... well you grab him and his clothes- while trying not to step on or trip over 6 other kids on the floor, get your assistants attention- she will run to the door and block it- while you are getting him dressed- and just as you button the last button on his pants and set him down in the chair your assistant will back away from the door- just in time for your director to open it and show these parents a classroom ,content, dressed and learning.

I love seeing kids from my class last year around school. They come to my classroom just to say hi, to tell me that they miss me or wish that they could be in my class this year or get a hug from Teacher Lori. I love hearing from parents that their child can't wait to come to school because they like what we are doing in class. I have one parent that told me their child plays school every day and she calls herself Teacher Lori. It really does not get much better than that.

There are days that bring much more than cyclones, wind dances and behavior issues to the classroom.  These are the times that I think about at the end of the day and just laugh and take a breath and know that  all of these things are answers to my question of why I spend excess hours thinking, working on and talking about just for preschoolers. 

So that is life in the Boynton's household at the moment. 

 

 

First Day of School- Chloee and I

First Day Of School- Declin's

Bulletin Boards for the beginning of school

Then and Now

The first picture was taken of me in April of 2008. I had just started Weight Watchers in February of that year. It does not look like I had lost much two months later. Wow! How did I let myself get there. The second one was taken this last weekend two years later in the exact same spot. 90 lbs lighter.

Seattle Memories

 

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