The End of the Year.

Here we are, the last week of school. I have completed and turned in all assessment data and I am excited to say that my kids grew tremendously this year. I am proud of them and I cannot wait to celebrate their growth this coming week.

I am quite sad that these kids will be leaving me at the end of the week but I think the way our kids change grades really helps the teachers as well as the students. After this next week our kids will have two weeks off, and the teachers will have one week off. The teachers will come back and start preparing for summer school where we will have some of next years kids for two weeks. My classroom will not be a full day class during the summer. Ipre-K4 will be a half day class with 20 students in the morning and 20 students in the afternoon. Head Start will not be with us, as they will be on summer break starting this Thursday until two weeks after the next school year starts. I'm not sure why.

Once summer school ends I plan on painting my classroom tan and leaving just one wall pink. My hope is that the calmer colors will calm the kids down. We definitely have an over stimulating color combination this year of bright green and hot pink. Throw in all the colorful accents and the room is like a paint store exploded in there.

So the great clean up begins. The end of year two as a lead teacher and the start of year three.

Low Weight Issues

Reality hit this week when my husband and I found out that my low weight was costing us financially.  We went into serious mode very quickly and hit up Costco to restock and restart my Ensure "diet".   I'm naturally very slim, but it doesn't cause my health to have any issues because naturally I was just built this way.  Everyone on my fathers side was built this way, so it was a shock to find that that we were having to pay double in an area of our life just because I'm about 10 pounds shy of where I should be.

Why Ensure?  I've tried those "Weight Gain" powders and I never found one that tasted good enough for me to stick with it.  Then the year before my wedding I was very sick and had a ton of kidney issues as well due to constant infections.  My doctor wanted me to gain ten pounds to try and boost my immune system and suggested Ensure.  I tried it and liked it which means I stuck to the plan.  I ended up getting my weight up to 123 pounds by the time my wedding came around.

So my goal is to gain 10 pounds this year. Honestly I don't think it'll be that hard.  I've been working out three times a week and adding in Ensure will help me gain muscle weight instead of fat weight.  Hopefully I'll be halfway there by the time we are actively trying for a baby.

Speaking of having babies that person pictured below is my husband.  Being the superhero junkie that he is he clearly FLIPPED out when he saw these backpacks.  He quickly passed his phone to me and said "Take a picture!!!!" and I did.  Then I pondered whether or not I really want kids because clearly I already have one.  ;)

Another One Bites The Dust

Two more marriages have suffered a breakdown and the couples are separated. It's really sad, and scary at the same time. I have only met two couples in our age group that has stayed married. Everyone else is breaking up. What is going on?

It makes me thank God that Chris and I have survived some pretty tough moments. We have had some tough arguments but we always come out ahead. We made a vow last night to always put each other first. Even when we have kids we will try to put each other first so that we have a healthy and strong relationship that will enable us to care for our kids properly and lovingly.

Divorce is scary, and I hope we never cross that path. Prayers are going out that those that are separated can work it out if they truly want to. N

Where we are

Currently things are on the up and up.

Home Life: We have started the process of our foundation repair. At one point our driveway disappeared and was officially a mountain of clay. Luckily the crew took that two days later and now we just have cement holes covered with planks of wood.. Once the bell piers cure then the team will come back and install special jack type things to adjust the house. It is an expensive fix due to the recent droughts but I feel that this will also be a selling point due to a house lifetime warrantee that is transferable.

Work: We have one more week left until the last unit begins. It is bittersweet because I am so excited over the growth of my students as well as having the joy of having four students for two grade levels now. The bitter part is that despite how crazy the kids can be, I don't want to let go of them :) This has been my toughest year yet due to the changes that occurred in our grade, but we came out on top. Next year looks extremely promising as the bugs have been worked out of our collaboration with another early childhood program. The new leadership structure also looks strong and positive for teacher and student growth. I still don't know if I'll be grade level chair next year or not but all of the applications are due Friday. We will also be receiving a raise this year, meaning the pay freeze is over!! Last but not least I will also be going to a huge PD conference this summer. Our company throws massive annual conferences and unfortunately last year nobody in Houston could afford to go. Our leaders even stayed back to show that if we couldn't afford to go then they were not going to go. This year only teachers that have not had the opportunity to go will be allowed to go. Excitedly that means almost our whole Pre-K team!

Nothing else is really going on at the moment. We're holding off still on the baby front so that I can get my wisdom teeth out. I need to schedule that on Monday if I can remember.

Doctor Update

Apparently going to the doctor on your birthday can make some pretty magical things happen. My doctor knew what happened with the office mix up and the cancelled pre-conception appointment and actually went ahead and combined the two appointments so that I wouldn't have to take off again! After looking at my medical history, talking about prenatals, and checking out my shot records, we were given the green light for TTC as soon as we feel ready! :) Yay! I did mention how we want to try for a specific time frame due to my job and she brought up charting. Given how early we started charting she said we should have a pretty good idea on when to time everything. To be honest I haven't done a great job at charting... which I need to work on. It is just really hard to remember to take my temperature before getting out of bed. Once I wake up I know that if I lay there for another minute then I'll be out like a light again. So this I need to work on.

Then I headed to the dentist (which I hate) to have my x-rays taken and a cleaning. Once again they pressured me about getting veneers and that my wisdom teeth must come out this summer. Of course I'll have the wisdom teeth removed pre-pregnancy because one has a cavity and I don't want it to start causing issues once we're pregnant since your teeth become weaker during pregnancy. As for the veneers... I don't think so. Simply because while my smile may not be perfect, if someone is looking at me and all they can think about is how my incisors are not longer than my other teeth then that person clearly has OCD issues.

So I now have a pregnancy to-do list:

1. Get my wisdom teeth out.

2. Get better at charting.

Disappointment

And less than 24 hours prior to my preconception visit... My visit is cancelled. I am still going in for my yearly but the preconception visit has to be rescheduled. I was looking forward to starting this TTC journey on my birthday (yes, tomorrow). I wasn't planning on just getting a pap and then a teeth cleaning on my birthday. Those were just extra needed appointments that I squeezed in given that I was going in for the TTC appointment.

I waited three months for this appointment... Hopefully I don't have to wait another three months. :(

Clearly I Lied...

A few post ago when I said I wouldn't chart. I'm five days in and honestly it is kind of fun building this graph. Then again I've always had fun making charts and such. I am using a hand iPhone/iPad app that allows me to put in my information and it graphs everything for me so the error margin is hopefully less.

My reasoning for starting this is our time frame. My career is blossoming and if I want to be in a leadership role next year then I'd rather not have to take off for maternity leave. We're going to attempt to aim for a specific window of time but granted of that doesn't happen then so be it. I'd prefer that if we get pregnant that the baby would be due during the tail end of the school year but more so summer. However with our school calendar that leaves just July. If we can have her early July then six weeks later school starts up. Perfect! But our second best timing would be mid to late June. I have a co-teacher so relatively things would be okay once she is there. However I'd rather not have to be out during the school year at all. So our months would be...

-Conception in September and born in June
-Conception in October and born in July

Therefore that gives me 6 months to chart and get the timing just right.

If we miss that set then our next plan would be March and birth in November. After that... I'm throwing the plans out the window and I'll say when it happens it happens. My lesson so far in life has been patience so hopefully God sees these next 6 months of preparation as planning with extreme patience. ;)

I know some people will say I am a fool for planning a time frame and that its putting too much pressure on myself but honestly if it didn't fall in one of those months then I'd feel extreme personal guilt from leaving my kiddos mid-year for 6 weeks. Plus it's not the end of the world if we don't meet the two time frames because after that it's whatever.

I just know that a huge change like that is tough on 4 year olds and I don't want to put them through that if I can help it. They are not my kids but at the same time they are very much my kids.

So anyways, once my first month chart is done I'll post a screen cap on here in case anyone spots something I don't.

I'm off to bed before our busy Friday starts. Goodnight :)