A Wild Week!

We survived the first week of school! Yeah! Matthew is having a great time in second grade. Even though he wasn't thrilled about going back, he is falling right into the new routine and is doing well. He's made a new friend, and has renewed friendships with kids who were not in his class last year, but who were his friends from kindergarten. In fact, he was so excited yesterday to show me their new "trick", if you will--making a fist and tensing his body to make all the blood run to his head. His comment, "When Alex does it, he turns PURPLE!" Lord, help me....can I handle raising boys?

I, on the other hand, haven't had quite as smooth a week! There's the normal stuff...feet hurting, throat tired from talking so much, general tiredness, etc. But this week has been more hectic than normal. For some reason, we are having sooooo many schedule changes. I can't tell you how many times I've printed out revised versions of class rosters! It been changing class period by class period, day by day, literally! So, I didn't get as much accomplished this week as I would've liked, especially in my keyboarding classes. I really hate to go to all the trouble of setting up their logins and student record files on the computer, then them drop out of the class. Or to teach the home row keys and then have a new student come in at the end of class on Friday and already be behind. One class still has too many students....more than I have computers for! Hopefully that will be straightened out on Monday.

Please don't think I'm complaining (well, maybe I am...), but I truly do love my job. I am blessed beyond measure to teach where I do. It's a small school, and it's PK-12, so I don't have to shuttle Matthew back and forth to a different school. I get to see him everyday at lunch now, because his lunch is right before mine. As I'm going to lunch, they're leaving, and he runs over and gives me a hug. (I dread the day when he doesn't want to do that. Sniff, sniff.) If he gets sick, I'm right there for him, and if there's a special event, my sweet neighbor is willing to combine our classes so that I can go be a mama.

However, by yesterday afternoon, I had HAD it! I was ill....felt like I was in a whirlwind, and everybody was getting on my nerves! Luke didn't get a very long nap for some reason, and Matthew was just "on it"! So, we got my in-laws to keep the boys, and Tracy and I went out by ourselves for a little while. I bet we didn't say half a dozen words to each other on the way; I told him I just wanted to be quiet for a while! We had a nice dinner at Old Mill and then went to Barnes and Noble. I could spend hours in there, and could load up my vehicle if I had enough money! I came home feeling much, much better!

Today it's laundry for me! I didn't do anything around the house this week! Tracy and Matthew are helping his daddy move some cows, and Luke and I are hanging out and doing chores. Hopefully we'll all be finished by lunchtime, and can do something fun this afternoon. The pool looks awfully good to me......

Guess I'd better log off the computer and get to work if that's going to happen! Have a great weekend!

First Day of School

Being back at work sure has hampered my blogging and Facebook time!

Yesterday was the first day of school, and Matthew and I both had a good day! I was totally wiped out by the end of the day, and I think Matthew was kind of tired too! And my feet....oh my goodness! I have gotten way too accustomed to going barefoot this summer! Even my sandals hurt my feet after I wear them awhile! The first week is always exhausting for me. My pastor used to teach and he mentioned the other day, "I used to have a headache the whole first week!" He's right! I had a terrible one today, in fact! It's sooo stressful because I want everything to go just right. These first couple of weeks are critical in getting my students "trained" in my procedures and ways of doing things. Makes for hard days, but at least I reap the benefits the rest of the year!

Matthew and his teacher, Mrs. O


Matthew & one of his best buddies
(Forgive the poor Photoshop job on editing her nametag!)




My first day pic


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I leave you with a couple of shots of Luke. He loves to brush his teeth, and watch himself in the mirror while doing so!

Look at how he likes to sit! If he can get his feet wet, it's even better!

#14

This past Wednesday, Tracy and I celebrated our fourteenth wedding anniversary. That makes us sound so old! We were young when we married (almost 21 & 24), as was common then, whereas now I think people are waiting longer to get married. (And yes, if you do the math, that makes us 34 and 38!) So I thought you might enjoy seeing our wedding pictures from 1995. There were no digital cameras then, or maybe only a few people had them, so I had to scan these. Sorry for the poor quality.

Tracy's mother is a florist, so she did all the flowers and decorations.

We used lots of rubrum lilies and cream roses in the arrangements.

I loved the cutwork in the train of my dress.

The color here isn't quite right, but my bridesmaids' dresses were a fuschia pink.

Actually, it's about the same color as my blog header!

They carried arm bouquets with rubrum lilies.

The entire wedding party

One of my favorite photos, because Tracy is actually smiling!

He does NOT like to have his picture taken! I, on the other hand, love it!

And here we are on November 29, 2007 with our two precious blessings.

Fourteen years....we've had wonderful times, and not so wonderful times, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it. I am blessed beyond measure to have a such a wonderful husband and children!

A New Look--Part 2 and an Update

More changes have been made to the blog! I was searching for an answer to the question I posed in the last post, about how to get the color code so that I could match colors in Blogger. I ran across a handy little tutorial that not only told me that, but also answered my other question, how to make the sidebar titles one font and the info a different. But instead of being limited to Blogger's fonts, I also learned how to use any font I want!

How hard was it? Not really hard, just a little aggravating. It requires editing some HTML code, and apparently I made a little mistake in spacing or something, because I had to re-do it a couple of times. I know nothing about HTML, but the tutorial gives you specifially what to change. So, I wouldn't say it's hard, but you do have to pay close attention to detail. Here's the link if you're interested in trying it out.

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In other news around here, I'm trying to squeeze everything I can into my last two days before school starts. I go back to work on Wednesday. In Florida (where I teach), our state legislature in their infinite wisdom passed a law a couple of years ago that school can begin no earlier than 2 weeks prior to Labor Day. Take a look at the calendar....Labor Day is "late" this year, September 7, so we can't start school until August 24. It sounds great, until you realize that it means we'll be going to school until June 9 next year. Teachers won't get out until June 14. Doesn't sound so great now, does it? I must say that there's a part of me that is looking forward to it, though. We have been way off schedule this summer, and it's getting to the point that we are really needing a little more structure around here! Of course, since I'm a nerd teacher, I love to shop for school supplies and a first-day outfit. Teachers need a new outfit for the first day of school too!

In other news, I'm STILL working on that bathroom. It wound up being much more involved than I thought, and we are going to have to put a light texture on the walls. I wasn't thrilled at first, but after we tried it, I discovered it's not that noticable and it sure will cover up a lot of damage from taking down the wallpaper. We are supposed to spray the texture on tonight, and tomorrow is painting day! I've also been working on a new look for the blog and on uploading all my pictures from the photography trip so that I can have them printed.

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Some of you have asked about Tracy's job situation. I'm pleased to report that things seem to be coming together nicely. He has decided to start his own business, Tracy's Mobile Repair. He is a mechanic, and in his previous job, he repaired forklifts and heavy equipment. Prior to that job, as well as all of his life growing up on a farm, he repaired tractors and agricultural equipment. So, that's the kind of thing he's going to do now, just for himself instead of working for someone else. He has bought an enclosed trailer for his tools, air compressor, oil tank, etc., and kind of has a "rolling shop"! He has visited some of his former customers, and so far, they are on board to start using him for their forklift repairs. They will be getting the exact same quality work at a a cheaper labor rate, while he will be making more than he made at his former employer, so it's a win/win situation. Please don't misunderstand me...we're not out to do his former employer in. He has said nothing negative to his customers about said employer. However, they laid him off with no warning after 13 years (some others longer than that), while they kept other less-experienced employees. He was not asked to sign a non-compete contract, so we see it as simply doing what we can to take care of our family. His "regular" customers really liked him and were pleased with the way he took care of them and their equipment. Many would call him directly on his cell phone when they needed something and he would get to them in a timely manner. So, now they are willing to help him out, while saving their business money at the same time.

All that said, he hasn't actually started working yet! He's spent the last month getting things ready...the trailer, the lettering, business cards, work order forms, liability insurance, you name it. The last week has been spent getting set up to take credit card payments (one of his big accounts only pays with credit card), and working on meeting the liability insurance requirements for another. Let me tell you, that insurance is expensive and can be confusing! But it's something that has to be done if he wants to do work for this particular business, and they will be a good customer, so it should pay off. I just hope that once he actually starts making money there's a nice bonus for his secretary! Ha ha ha! I told him we had to get all this finalized beofre Wednesday, because I can't do all this and my paying job too!

Thanks for reading this novella! There's a special occasion coming up later this week. Stay tuned!

A New Look

It's almost time for school to start, and maybe it's a teacher thing, but I just love to spruce things up this time of year. So, hop on out of Google Reader and check out my new blog header!

I need a bit of technical assistance, however. Does anyone know how to get the color code from the header so that I could change some text in Blogger to match? I also would like to figure out how to make the side headings one font, and the info beneath them a different font? Is there any way to do that? Could I create a small graphic and add it as a picture on the sidebar and then have the info beneath?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!