big Friday

Day spent with Nana delightful. New clothes.

Trip to park.
Visit from Mommy's friends, Tom & Liz.
Tom's a great tickler; kept making him tickle me more.
Crashed at 8!

my lucid dreams

I am pretty creeped out from my dream this morning. I dreamt that the phone rang one of those worrisome, early morning rings. Jon answers. He hands the phone to me. I answer and the voice on the phone (which was a mix of at least 4 people I know) said "I'm sorry you're awake Haley." In a moment of lucidity, I think wait aren't you supposed to say "I'm sorry I woke you"? But you can't because now I am awake. And this is a dream. And I must check the alarm clock because I turned it off instead of snoozing it. Sure enough...it was 5:35 and I got right up and into the shower. It wasn't until I had shampoo in my hair that I got the creeps about my lucid awareness in my dream.

baby news/suspicion

Here we are, about to go to the doctor this week and I swear I've got some major baby on the brain. Mostly because I'm thinking everyone is getting pregnant right now. Well, by everyone, I mean 2 people. Friend #1 recently posted a cryptic FBook post about her "insides" and a comment she got from a nurse practitioner and tests. We saw her at a BBQ this weekend and I don't recall a single alcoholic drink in her hand all evening. Hrmmmm. Friend #2 is the wife of one of my college roommates (she was a roommate at one point too). At the aforementioned BBQ, my old roommate called to ask what a good Mother's Day gift would be for his wife. Squeeeeee! So he says she's definitely preggo and I was the first person he told (only fair since he was the first person we told with our DS). They haven't even seen the doc yet, but she'd be 6 weeks or so now. Awww man. How awesome. They're looking at an Xmas baby.

So, yeah. I'm really getting the itch now.

theme song

Liam sings now. He dances too.
The Kid's got rhythm.
He sings the theme song to "Dinosaur Train" on PBS.
Of course he can't sing words, but neither did dinosaurs.

plans for prepping

What are you trying to do to prep your body for pregnancy?

I'm trying to drop a few pounds. I gained about 41 during my last pregnancy and lost about 35 of it, but over the course of the last 20 months I've gotten lazy and complacent. I'm back to about 30 lbs over my pre-preggo weight. I got PG almosti mmediately after getting my BMI under 25% last time. Hoping for that again. I'm getting more exercise. I used to be a dancer. I used to be so flexible and lean. Now I'm stiff and my back hurts all the time (from sitting on my rump). I'm trying to walk at least 25 minutes everyday and I've added in a 5 minute stretching routine before bed or waking in the morning. I think it's time to get back to Wii Fit.

I'm going to talk to my doc about anti-depressants before conception. I'm in a bad way; it's a miasma of functional depression. I've lived with depression almost half of my life and pregnancy was the only time I've ever felt "happy" but I take no joy in most things and am so hard on myself that I need to change things soon.

I'm eating better. Cutting out "white" carbs like refined and processed foods, white flour, sugar, etc. Added in a ton of whole grains, protein, and more veggies/salad/fruit. Let me say that so far (two weeks) it's working and I've lost 7 lbs and am not cravings carbs as much as I was 2 weeks ago. Also not eating after 8:30pm so sometimes I end up missing dessert after I put DS to bed. Oh well.

I'm switching to half-caff coffee and am going to limit my coffee to 2 travel mugs max and gradually wean off (hoping to be down to 1 cup by end of school year in 6 weeks). I realized last week I drink sometimes 6-8 cups and usually 3 travel mugs during work week.

I'm cutting my alcohol intake. I also realized I was drinking 2 drinks a night on a regular basis. Limit to 1 and this should also help my carb cutting too.

Getting DH to the doctor was helpful too. He's our SAHD and I don't think DS has gotten the best of care in the recent few months, but he's avoided the doc like a typical man for the last 5 years. DH also has depression and realized he has high cholesterol now. He's gotten on medication for the depression and I've made the diet change affect him too. Good news, he's lost 5 lbs too.

kitchen helper

Little helper is too much in kitchen.
Baby-proofed but not spit-polished so we never let him in.
Cat's water...led to fall. Dishwasher...plates rescued.
Pantry door...locked Poppy in.

bring on summer

BBQ with the Tavares family. Logan is the best buddy.
Played with his cars all day and shared sippy cups.
Good role-model; Logan's 50-weeks older.
The cutest widdle buddies ever.

look out!!!

Has discovered throwing objects behind him.
This is a delight now that he has real blocks.
Caught one in the cheek and one in the arm.
Those things really fly!

RIF rescinded

On Saturday I got my official letter from my school district saying that my RIF was rescinded and I was welcome to come back to full employment in the fall. It was a pretty dull, lifeless, and soulless letter, totally legalese. But on the bottom, was a handwritten note from my superintendent. She apologized for the formality of the "form letter" and said she felt like I deserved a personal letter. Then she congratulated me on passing my English test (which I only mentioned to her in passing as I was leaving the Board meeting on Thursday). I wish any of that made me feel better about my working there.

birthday bash

Fun weekend was had. It was Jon's 35th birthday on Sunday so I took it easy on my diet change. Saturday I let him sleep in as late as he wanted, but alas he got up early to go visit his dad in Fair Oaks. There he found his passport (phew! our trip is in 2 months and we're going into Canada). Then we spent the day enjoying bad television and eating fried food. One of my favorite things in the whole world is a deep fried pickle!!! Have you ever had one? They're the bestest. Then I had ice cream and several glasses of wine (only 2, but I was using our large tumblers which are about 10oz).

Sunday I also wanted to let him sleep in late but, silly man, he got up at 10am. We had ice cream cake (per request) for breakfast. When Liam got up from his lunch, we drove into Davis and dined outside on sushi and teriyaki. Then we strolled around a little arboretum and Liam had a blast grabbing and crushing plants. More ice cream cake in the evening.

So my diet detour caught up with me this morning. Oops. I gained about 1 1/2 lbs. Back to whole grains and protein and water this week (well maybe one more slice of ice cream cake). One of the best things from this weekend . . . Jon gave me the go ahead to call my doctor and set up an appointment to remove my Mirena. We're are officially going in "pre-heat the oven" mode. :)

hop on pop

Daddy's 35th birthday.
A cuddly-wuddly guy who gave Dada lots of love.
Didn't care for maki rolls. Scraped knees.
Spent 20 minutes bouncing on Dada's belly. It ended in tickle fight.

Word Milestone

Got home tonight and Liam followed me to the baby-gate.
Thought he said letter M; says "mmm-ma."
It became "Ah-mmee" and "um-mmee."
I picked him up and cried and laughed.

adding English

Back in March, on the advice of my District Superintendent, I took the CSET for English (this is a subject area competency exam that I did not have to take for my original credential because of the nature of my coursework in college). She wanted to know why, with all the courses I took in English instruction in college, I didn't have a supplemental to teach English. Well, I was this close to getting one, but I was part of a small group that was told the state wasn't authorizing supplements to credentials anymore (the are doing so again now). So I took about a semester's worth of courses extra for nothing really.

Well, on the DO's advice, I signed up for the test. But it was incredibly expensive ($245) and I was super scared. It's a grueling test. There are 4 subtests, all of which need to be passed. Well I chose to take them all at one shot to try and get them out of the way (the test is only offered every other month). Then I downloaded practice tests straight from the CSET website and freaked out. This was hard stuff. I only felt like I was prepared to do well on the second subtest about grammar and linguistic acquisition. I crammed until 8pm in my classroom the entire week before. I had a colleague who was thoughtful enough to bring me dinner a couple of nights. The 4 tests were designed to take about 5 hours to complete and the whole test session is only 5 hours long! It took me 4:26 and I was the last person left in the room. Basically, everyone thought I was insane for taking all 4 parts at once, especially as it was the day after I got my pink-slip (about half of the people in the test session had gotten laid off the day before).

Well yesterday was score reporting day. And guess what chicken butt...I PASSED ALL FOUR SUBTESTS!!! WTF?! So what is my next step? Do I have to take the RICA exam? Do I have to do a practicum in an English class? I go to the CTC website and as far as I could tell, I only have to send in a $55 check and my application for an additional single-subject authorization on to my single subject credential. WHAT?! AWESOME! So that's what I did. I walked down to the post office (to get in some exercise as well as to expend some of my nervous energy) and dropped off the application. It'll go out today and start going through the process this week or next. Holy cow. I just made myself doubly hireable and improved my chances in "tie-breakers" on seniority. So now, even though I was last fired, I won't be the obvious first fired choice. :) It's going to be a better day at work today. Not because I got my job back for next year, but because I just had me a Quixote moment. I dared to dream an impossible dream and was successful.

Get Younger - Day 1

So today is the day I began. I'm trying to get "younger" based on the things I posted previously in my list of advice from Real Age. Would be happy to have 6 years added and to be my own age, but if I can add a couple more years in the process, why not.

Here's the skinny...
206 lbs.
28.7 BMI
42" waist
size 16 pants

So I was watching Dr. Oz the other day (this is why I hate Spring Break, I watch crappy ass daytime TV) and he had a show about diet based on your genetics. I thought this was kinda cool. The one thing I learned is . . . I should be on a low-carb diet. No I didn't have any genetic screening done, I just base this assumption on the "typical dinner" that he showed for each diet and the one my body went zOMG-shproing!!! for was the low-carbohydrate dinner. So I looked into it and thought about it and read up on it online and decided that I need to do a "lower" carbohydrate diet. So I'm cutting back on white foods, processed carbs, and too much sugar in general. I'll be adding more brown grains, lean meat, and fruit/veg into my daily intake. I wasn't about to do a diet like Atkins or South Beach because I don't think I could put my body/mind through that kind of strain of depleting it of its major energy source. I'm just gonna reduce the energy as I change of. Think of it as my body's conversion to bio-diesel.

Other things that are definite immediate on my list...

• drive the speed limit (Even on the boring ol' interstate on my way to/from work)
• floss
• reduced alcohol to 1 drink/day
• talk with friends & family more often...actually talk (hey guess what, my dad stopped by today totally unannounced)
• take multi-vitamin
• stretch daily
• walk daily

Here's a cool fact: distilled liquor has had all the sugars evaporated out of it so therefor a rum & diet coke is a no-carb drink!!! And I thought my mom was just fooling herself when she tried to do Atkins while living in the Virgin Islands.

I'll let you know how it works out.

twitt

For those of you who actually are interested, besides posting my whereabout-updateables on Facebook, I also post on Twitter. My twitter name is Haleypiglet. I've been rather annoyed with it. This is a multi-fold problem.

First off, I frankly can't be checking my phone to look at all the texts during the middle of a class with my impressionable 12 year olds watching me. I have to have some kinds of decorum right?

Next, I have a bunch of people I would like to follow who have Twitter accounts but never update (I'm not always good about updated either).

And then, there's the people I'd like to hear from occasionally who update all the friggin' time. These are usually celebrities/public officials. For example, our governor (who's both celeb and public official). His Twitter-maniac interns will post at least 6x/daily. And I get even more annoyed because the tweets always include links or pics that I can't go to because I do not have an awesome kind of phone that can handle those kinds of functions. I have a normal texting phone. oh well :(

But then I have this one friend who must think he's a celebrity or a public official. He will update his Twitter up there with the likes of Gov. Schwarzenegger or Gossip girl. And his posts are often filled up with all kinds of linkys that I can't go see. And, well let's bring this up again, he's my friend who I've decided is rather pretentious. So a lot of it is like "at such-&-such a place having a most pretentious time. don't you think i'm awesome. validate me!" Okay, not in those words exactly. I'm paraphrasing my memory there.

So this week I've had a plan to update my Twitter ever time he updates his. Sometimes I can't think of anything fast enough before he throws another one out there. In 4 full days I've sent at least 21 Tweets; sometimes I was on the verge of making stuff up just to get things published. It's frankly kinda annoying. My friends must not even check their accounts on their phones anymore or they'd be thinking I've gone mental or that a 15 y/o must have hijacked my account. This is rather ridiculous. and yet, for some people this is the only way to stay in contact with them as they don't have Facebook accounts and rarely update friends with emails. Ugh. Slave to technology.

OMG I'm Old

So I've been thinking about trying for another baby and know there will need to be some changes in my lifestyle to get prepared. With Husbter going to the doctor for checkups this week and getting come blood tests done et al, it's more on my brain. So I logged back on to my Real Age account. My age versus my real age actually increased by a whole year and I'm now 36.6 y/o (according to my body and my lifestyle) rather than my 30.58 years. I joined an online group dedicated to lowering your age in 8 weeks (coincidentally the time between now and our cruise for my belated 30th birthday trip).

So, in the interest of full disclosure. Here's is my list of things I need to do to reduce my age:

1. get HDL cholesterol levels checked
2. talk w/ doc about depression meds/therapy classes
3. reduced speed when driving
4. don't talk on phone while driving - even hands free
5. reduced alcoholic drinks to 1/day
6. floss every day
7. talk with friends and family more often
8. take multi-vitamin/supplements: folate 700iu, vitamin E 400iu, vitamin C 1200mg
9. reduce red meant to 1-2 servings/week
10. more omega-3 fatty acids (2+ fish servings/week)
11. more potassium-rich foods 3000mg/day
12. more whole grains 6-11 servings/day
13. diversity in diet
14. eat a rainbow
15. 90 minutes of weight training/week (13 min/day)
16. 210 minutes of cardio/week (30 min/day)
17. shed extra weight (5% is a good start)
18. 30 min/week of stretching (5 min/day)
19. then add 10 more minutes/week of exercise

noze nuzzle

Especially cuddly this evening and babbling up a storm. Recited the letters on his sippy sup. While coaxing him to bed, I tried Eskimo kisses. He returned the favor too.

dinner, books

Tonight I made wonderful chicken satay; the peanut sauce was scratch and without recipe. It was ultimately awesome. Peanut butter, half a lime, some honey, some ponzu sauce (citrus soy sauce), and a little water. Try it on grilled chicken skewers or steak skewers.

Yesterday we went to the library and I picked up George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones again. I read it back in college but never finished the series. So I'm gonna try again. Recently I was reading some stuff of his about his real life and he mentioned getting into the fantasy genre and I thought I really ought to go back and read that series and finish it this time. I know I'll get mad again when he starts killing off all the main characters again (part of the reason why I stopped reading it last time). Jon got a copy of Son of a Witch since we both liked Wicked so much. And then I put a copy of Below the Root by Zilpha Keatly Snyder into his hands. I read it when I was 10 because I loved the video game so much. I wish I could play that game again. And I wish I had some cheat codes because I never did finish it :(

I'm finally getting over the histamine reaction I had on the day before Easter, but now Liam has a super runny nose. How the hell do you help a 20 month old clear his nose? I can't use the snot sucker because I can't find it. He LOVES it and he plays with it all the time. What kid likes having the snot sucker in his nose? Apparently mine.

first sprinkler

Today: 1st sprinkler run this season. Not hot enough but lawn needed watering and Liam wouldn't get out of the sprinkle. Neighbors stared; Liam got warm bath. He was charming.

jobby jobby job job

Got my job back!!! I survived yet another round of annual layoffs. Funny thing is, I thought I'd never have to face this problem being a teacher in such a small community. I thought I'd be vital to the education of the children in the county. Guess not...most of it has to do with the fact that about 15-20 years ago, everybody and his brother got a Social Studies credential. So here I come, all new and full of life and the latest techniques in education, and all I have is one measly little Social Studies credential and that's what's been costing me my job.

Last year my job was saved by the 8th grade US History teacher, Graham, retiring. That made me sad because I really liked working with him (he reminded me a lot of a not so antisocial version of my dad) and wanted to try and get a couple more years in with him as a colleague. He was of the mind that he was so close to retirement age and it was time to let those young teachers with young families and new careers have the reins. I am eternally grateful for that.

This year, the Districts conspired to have me removed yet again by claiming there wasn't enough money to fund the art program at the high school. WTF?! They were actually gonna cut ART, a required course by the CSU & UC system for our students to be prepared for college. The art teacher was also on our list for "golden-handshake" retirements this year. She's been too nervous to retire as I understand in these tough economic times. Well, guess what. She's also got a credential for social studies. So my district was willing to put a woman who's in her 60s, hasn't taught world History in 20 years, and has NEVER taught junior high kids into my position. Nevermind that in doing so, they would have to cut the entire Art program at the high school and the entire Home Economics program...AND legally they would not be able to replace these classes back into the school schedule for 39 months (that's 3 whole school years). Yup, legally they wouldn't be able to hire another art teacher for 3 school years.

Anyway, back to the job. The lawyer called me yesterday to say that district's lawyer had called him to rescind my RIF (reduction in force) and offer me my job back in full for next school year. Nothing like being a permanent employee whose job seems to be never permanent. The teachers union save my job. We voted last week to reduce the number of days in the calendars for 2010-11 & 2011-12 by 5 days. 3 of the days will be our buy-back days and affect everyone with the 11 or 12 month employment status (teachers/admins/secretaries/DO). The other 2 days will be actual school days and this affects the children and the 10 month employees (all the support staff). We had to wait for the support-staff employee union to vote to approve this change, but apparently they did. We also had to wait for the school board to approve the change, but that meeting wasn't scheduled until Apr 15th. I guess the district doesn't want to wait that long (probably because they need to start getting the class schedules down for next year's enrollment). The money saved by cutting the 5 days was enough to save the jobs of the 4 teachers who got pink-slipped. And now I have my job back for next year. :)

This is helpful because it brings some weight off of our shoulders. We're currently drowning in the monthly rent we pay and were hoping to move into a lease-option home owned by one of my colleagues (the only one who's taking the golden handshake this year and also has a friggin' social studies credential!!!). He's going to charge us $200 less in rent a month + I'll be closer to work. But we weren't even gonna think about moving until I heard that I got my job back simply because we didn't know if we'd be moving, or moving in with parents, or what-not. This also means that Jon and I can hopefully start thinking about trying to have another baby. I really wanted to start this summer during my belated birthday vacation. And of course, Jon wants to go back to school too (and so do I).

Easter Elmo

Today...Liam's first egg hunt courtesy of ELMO!!!
Lovely day entertaining Nana and Granny. Found 5/12 eggs without help. Marshmallows, jelly beans. Refused nap. Sugar crash tantrum. Tickles, laughing, delightful day.

food revolution

Okay, so Jon and I just finished watching our first episode of Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution." Hubster's a real Jamie Oliver fan. He watches his cooking show on Friday mornings almost religiously. This is good timing for me as I've recently become a big fan of this blog about school lunches in America. It took us nearly an hour to get through the 1 hour program because we kept stopping the show to alternately get angry with/whine about/get excited about/ and plain ol' bitch about school lunches and the program.

I almost posted a lengthy comment on the FedUpWithSchoolLunch blog today but left it with the fact that a guilty pleasure of mine to eat salisbury steak. But here's my thoughts on what I wanted to say . . .
I work in a small school district in a very rural part of California where a significant proportion of our students' parents work in some facet of the food production world. A lot of my kids grow up on ranches and farms (and even some of the teachers and their spouses farm as well) (did you ever wonder why almonds are considered a "ranch"? I sure do). Many of our students' parents are farm workers or migrant farm workers. Some of my kids' parents work in restaurants or own their own restaurants. (Hell, when Granzella's -10 miles north- burned down 2 years ago, it was on the Sacramento news because it was the largest employer in the county!!!) My superintendent started out teaching in our district way back-in-the-day at the small school on the outskirts where, as a teacher, she was one of the cafeteria ladies for the elementary students. So why oh why are my students eating mindless, boring, nutritionally pathetic and possibly psychologically damaging prepared pre-packaged and trucked in manufactured lunches (AND BREAKFASTS!!!)? California is a land of plenty, a Tir Na Nog or milk & honey if you will. We produce almost 100% of some of the food favorites of the country - like avocados and pomegranates and others. Why oh why do we resort to trucking in our lunches? I know we are trying to feed as mony as possible for as little a possible. Most of my students qualify for free/reduced lunch so obviously we are a higher poverty school. But there's no love in those meals. There's nothing in those styrofoam dishes holding some measly pieces of lukewarm and cello-wrapped entrees with half-ripe fruit that says "I care about you, want you to be successful, and am providing you with nurishment for the belly and soul."
Hell, it's no wonder my students can be little brats and barely get any learning in their brains some days. It's hard to feed the mind when we barely nourish their bodies. I really could go on about this for hours, but it's after midnight now and I probably should put my head on a pillow.

20 months

Swear to God Liam hates all dinners I make. Still eats like a wolf-child.
Half ends up floorbound; can't use utensils.

What kind of nutrition is this? Protein no vegetables.

napping

Just fell asleep on couch. First time since he was a newborn.
Huge moment; Liam finally comfortable enough to sleep somewhere besides his crib.
Hate to wake him for dinner.