Making a change

Well, after a couple of years of thinking and talking about it, I'm finally doing it. I'm going to get my teaching certificate. I was just accepted into a program called ACT-Houston. It's an Alternative Certification for Teachers program (get the ACT part!). I hadn't heard of it before since there are lots of alternative teaching programs. My friend had gone through them and when I asked how she heard about them, she said the superintendent of PISD recommended them. So, I checked it out.

I'll be starting classes 3 nights a week in January. It's pretty intensive, but only lasts about 2 months. I also have to do 30 hours of classroom observation and I have to take and pass the TExES (Texas Examinations of Educator Standards) test. Then, and this is really the hard part- I have to find a job! A teaching job to be a real, live teacher!

Apparently, the teaching market is tough right now with the crappy economy. There are lots of teachers who had planned on retiring, but didn't. So, I'll have to hope and pray to actually find a job that's hopefully close and what I want to do. I had hoped to start substitute teaching in order to get my feet wet and get to know some teachers and administrators. That too is proving hard to do. I guess when a lot of people got laid off, they decided to start subbing, so they're not really looking for subs right now. My plan is to start volunteering up at the kid's school and to talk with the principal about my 30 hours of observation and hopefully get to know some people that way. PISD is opening a new elementary right down the road from me this fall. That means some new jobs! I'm not getting my hopes up, but that would be awesome!

Anyway, I'm excited. I'm scared. It's one thing to think big and talk big. It's another to actually do it. This is what I'm meant to do though. I know it. Knowing that brings me comfort. I know I can do it too. Not that it won't take work, but I know I can do it. Remind me of this if/when I start freaking out!

Our first fire

Today turned out to be colder than they said. But it's OK with me. After a summer of record heat I for one am ready for a little cool! It's nice to get out some different clothes for a change too! The kids were feeling a bit better so we decided to go to the dollar movies and see Aliens in the Attic. It was really cute and worth the $6 we spent to see it.

When we got home the kids begged to "roast a fire". I'm not sure why they say that. Maybe since we roast marshmallows? But I decided it would be nice. So here's to our first fire of the season! May there be many more for us to huddle next to this winter!

Apparrently Logan decided to "roast his feet"! Note to self, don't let him do that again since about 30 seconds after I took the picture he knocked the screen over on himself!

ACL

I'm finally getting around to posting some ACL pics! This last week has been hard with all the illness in my house. Tuesday I wasn't feeling too well. Just tired, run down and coughing. Yesterday Stu was running about a 100 deg. temp and not feeling good. I just wish we could get rid of this stuff! Anyway back to ACL.

It was definitely a cool experience (very Austin). I wish it hadn't rained (obviously). But it could have been waaaay worse. Thank goodness for Sammy's rain boot suggestion and Erica going by Academy for me and picking them up! I wouldn't have been able to stand the dirty, grassy, muddy feet like so many people there had! It didn't really rain at all while Dave was singing and that was awesome. I think it would be fun to go all 3 days and go around listening to music and people watching. I really like to look at all the freaks! (Think what you will about that!)

Aren't my boots cool?
We had a good time. When we drove down it was raining pretty hard. We lucked out and got to park at Sammy's friend's house near Zilker park. Then 2 moms in a mini-van offered us a ride down to the park and were accepting tips! It was great. We needed to eat and went into Chuy's for a bite. Yumm!
After Chuy's we walked in to the festival and walked around, saw our friends (amazingly) and stood in the port-a-potty line for about 20 minutes. Then we decided to stake out our Dave-watching position. We started out pretty close. I could actually see the band on the stage without looking at the monitor. Not bad for a 5'5" gal. We wound up moving about 5 times during the show to get away from too many people, get a different perspective and just to see what was going on around us.
This guy was one of the "mud people". They were covered in mud dancing around like lunatics! One even ran up to Erica and I and wanted to dance I guess. We were both wearing white shirts (like idiots) and of course didn't want to have anything to do with them. I was convinced one of them must be Matthew McConaughey! It seemed like something he would do, you know?

Anyway, I definitely would like to go back again! Who wants to join me?

Too much time on their hands!

Here's just one of the things that can happen when kids are too sick for school but not sick enough to stay in bed!

He's supposed to be a lion (couldn't you tell?). I'm not sure if it's a lion rodeo or what? Logan had the red bandana like maybe he was bull fighting. This is the kind of thing where you say, "how creative!" and leave it at that!

Never say never!

OK, I could have predicted this. I start bragging about how Ellie's never really been sick, yadda, yadda, yadda and what do you know? She wakes up Friday night at 2:30 with a 101.5 fever. Figures. Anyway, she seems to have the exact same thing as Logan had. Which means she should be getting better by tomorrow and hopefully will go to school Tuesday.

Luckily Stuart's able to work from home tomorrow so I don't have to call in sick again. I need to get away from this "sick house". You know there is such a thing as being with your kids (or anyone else for that matter) too much! At first I was enjoying being home with Logan just puttering around and taking care of him. He's much easier to take care of sick than well! But fast forward 4 days and I'm tired of it!

Poor Ellie. We've been trying not to give too much medicine. You know, let the fever do it's work and all that. But it gets to a point and you're just like, Awww. She needs help. You know your kid doesn't feel good when they get some blankets out and lay down on the tile floor under the table!

Hopefully she'll be better soon and everything will get back to normal around here. Whatever "normal" means anyway!

Eye candy

I don't get "crushes" on celebrities too often. In fact the other day some ladies at work were talking about which celebrities they liked and I couldn't think of anyone really. I feel I need to publically apologize to Jon Hamm, aka. Don Draper from AMC's Mad Men. If you don't watch the show you should seriously consider it. I'd get the first 2 season's from Netflix and get caught up first though.

I had to try not to lick my computer screen when I looked these up!! Just wanted to share and put a smile on your face. If you don't smile while looking at these, there's something seriously wrong with you!!

Here he is as Don Draper in the show. I love him this way with the combed back hair!

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did!

Poor sick boy!

My Logan is home sick. He came home from school Wednesday not feeling well. He told me he was coughing all day. It wasn't until I went over and felt his head that I really thought anything was wrong. Fever, sore throat, coughing... uh, oh. I thought for sure we had the flu. I called the doctor and made an appt. for Thursday morning.


We went and had a flu test and a strep test. Poor Logan had to have his throat and his nose swabbed deeply for these. They were both negative. Which means he has a virus. Viruses are a pain. There's nothing you can do but keep the fluids up and the fever down.

We went home and by the afternoon his fever was up to 103.6. That's high, but not too high. Logan has a history of very high fevers. He's had 105 more times than I can count. His doctor says that some people seem to have a tendency to get higher temperatures. It's still scary though. Their skin feels so hot, like it could actually burn you. We haven't been there with this illness though (thank goodness).

I've been battling myself on the giving medicine thing. When I give him Motrin, it makes him feel too good. He starts running around the house again and not resting. I keep telling him, I know you feel OK, but you're still sick. When I don't give him medicine, he's miserable and the fever goes crazy. So my compromise has been Tylenol. It's not nearly as effective as Motrin so it helps the fever stay down, but doesn't give the false sense of being "better", so he's not acting like his usual active self. I never thought I'd say it, but Yay Tylenol!
Jack's keeping him company!

We'll see how today goes. He's still having fever, but it's staying at a reasonable level. So far Ellie's fine. She's the healthiest kid. She's never had antibiotics before. Ever. She's hardly had a fever for more than 1 day. I don't know why. Poor Logan seems to have gotten the short end of the stick on this one!