My First Bike Wreck and Other Shenanigans

So I got into a scooter wreck last night. Good times, I appear to be intact and have just a few bumps and bruises, my back is acting up as well, but that's to be expected after biffing it and sliding UPHILL underneath a scooter in 4" of snow, right? lol. Seriously though, I'm fine. The scooter seems to be in ok shape too, I'm glad we went used! Thanks to all the banks who refused to finance us.

In other news, it's CD52 and AF is nowhere in sight, I've been having a few symptoms, mostly cramps and having to pee a lot. I can barely make it through the night without my bladder feeling like it's going to burst. I'm going to test at the end of the week for funsies because I picked up a few $1 store cheapies. Here's my chart if you want to see the madness. No idea what's going on here, looks pretty anovulatory to me, but who knows. The day before that gigantic spike, I'd had a fever, so I think this chart is completely shot, also due to the fact that for the last 2 weeks of it, I woke up way earlier than normal, but oh well.

We went to the adoption agency today and apparently there was a miscommunication, so we now have to wait until Feb 6th for an orientation followed by our initial consultation. I'm a little bit crushed that now we have to wait over a month to start waiting some more, but I'll get over it.  Hubbs was very awesome and supportive as always. He also came to my rescue last night after I crashed and was stranded in the middle of a snowstorm at 9:30pm. My knight in shining armor!

I don't teach at all this week and my school vacation starts Friday, I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of this free time! lol. I'll probably just wind up playing a whole lot of video games, which, let's face it, is totally a great way to spend a vacation.

We might have our nieces and nephew over for a movie night on Friday, but that's kind of up in the air at the moment. It's always fun when they come over, we make them popcorn and go all out. I hope the plans work out. I think we're the "favorite" aunt and uncle, and they are definitely our favorite bunch of nieces and nephews. It's easy when the only other nephew around is a three-year-old who is somehow now in the twice-as-terrible-twos-because-the-kid-is-now-three. lol.

Just 5 Long Cycles

As 2012 is rapidly coming to a close, I've noticed that so far, I've only had 5 cycles this year. FIVE. That is it. While I guess most women would be envious that I hardly ever have to stock up on tampons... but seriously, wtf, just five. Only five chances to even remotely try to get a fertilized egg out of it, granted, my body has just been hoarding them all year anyway, so the fact that I've managed to have five cycles at all is quite miraculous in my opinion. lol.

We're still waiting to hear back and start the screening process for this infertility/weight loss study that's supposed to start in the next month or so. I hope we get in, but if I get this new job, then we won't actually be able to be around for the full 6 months of the study. At this point I don't even know what to do. We're moving on and trying to adopt, but it would be nice to lose some weight. I've been struggling with my weight  for as long as I can remember and would really like to get rid of my giant belly that I constantly fear someone will mistake for a real baby instead of a food baby.

For now I'm just going to look forward to my little Christmas vacation and hope that everything works out for the best and that at least one of our awesome plans comes to fruition.

I subbed at an elementary school again today and the kids were very sweet and well behaved. I will totally try everything in my power to keep subbing for that age group, because seriously, they're awesome.

Tomorrow we're going to the adoption agency and I'm bummed because my Dr's office can't process my request for like, 2 weeks or something lame like that. I think I might just swing by before class and try to get them to just photocopy my chart for me or something. That's all that we're missing, I just have to find our tax returns from the last 2 years, I think they're somewhere easy to find... maybe. Well I for sure know where last year's are! lol. I should just start being smart and keep them in the same folder, but I don't. grrr.

It's Happening!!

We've gotten all of our stuff together and Hubbs and I have arranged our appointment for Tuesday! Our very first appointment with the adoption agency and just squeezing it in two weeks shy of the deadline we set for ourselves earlier in the year. Go us!

We are nervous and excited and really just hope that we get approved and that someone picks us to be their child's parents! I'm pretty sure I'm going to be even more of a giant ball of nerves waiting to hear back from the agency than I am waiting to hear back about the dream job. I'll just try to take it one day at a time and hope that everything works out for the best.

Tomorrow I'm subbing at a different elementary school and am looking forward to it. I'm a teeny bit nervous because this time, I'll be subbing with the actual special ed department. It's nice in one way because one of the aides takes over the role of teacher and you just kind of help out as needed, so it's nice to not have the pressure of being solely responsible for the students.

So far I really enjoy subbing and hope that I can stick with it for a while, it's definitely not something I want to do forever, but will certainly do for now. I do wish there was a little bit more stability with it... it would be so completely awesome to get a long-term gig. I'll just keep my eyes open I suppose.

I hope all of you had a fantastic weekend filled with love and laughter and thanks for stopping by!

My Week Subbing

You know, I was trying to think of what to blog about today, and I'm just kind of coming up blank. Over the last week I've been subbing at an elementary school and the kids there are so precious and full of potential and possibilities that it makes it difficult for me to process the tragic events of yesterday. So I'm not going to talk about it because it is a very heated topic; I have my opinions, but I'm going to go ahead and keep them to myself.

Teaching elementary kids is so much better than high school it's completely awesome. I subbed at the same school for the entire week, I bounced around to different classes and it was a great experience. I hope that I can stick with them forever. Yesterday, as I was leaving, Different kids I'd taught during the week came up to me and said "Hi!", or cheerfully explained to their teacher that I was a great sub, I even got a few hugs. It was really sweet.

I have to say the kids that stuck with me the most though, were the ones in the Special Ed Behavioral Unit that I subbed for on Thursday. Those little kids totally broke my heart. The two youngest ones (1st Graders) were very sweet. At one point during the class one said "I wish I was smarter so I could go back to my regular class." the aide and I explained to her that she was smart, the aide went on to further explain that the reason she is in this class is because of her behavior. The other little girl became a favorite with me. She needed a lot of one-on-one time because she didn't get to go to the holiday assembly with the rest of the kids. Only 3 were held back from the assembly, and there were 3 of us there, so each got one-on-one time. She was really trying her best to be good and do her assignment, but because she had one or two "slip-ups" she wasn't allowed to "move up a level". Apparently the children have to maintain 20 days of perfect behavior, then there's a meeting with the parents, their teachers, and the student, to see if they can go back to the regular classes. From what I could tell, several of the students had perfect behavior for over 30 days. All these kids want is to be "normal" and to go back to their regular class. Several of them voiced this during the course of the day I was there. The one little girl in particular wanted to move up so badly and wanted reassurance that one day she'd be able to go back there. She shattered my heart into a million pieces. 

The teachers were very strict, and I know they have to be, but they just seemed downright mean for the most part. Some of these issues these kids have, I'm not sure are things that can be helped. They were all trying very hard to do their best and it seemed like the majority of the time, their good behavior was ignored, and the bad behavior was all that was getting any attention. It was by far the most emotionally difficult day subbing and I left feeling so sad for them. No one wants to see a child to be denied their hopes and dreams, and what these kids want, is just to be a regular student in regular school.

Subbing also made me realize though, just how much capacity I have in my heart for love. I took away from this week, more than ever, how much I really do wants kids. I want a child to encourage, to see grow and become an amazing human being. Hubbs and I aren't sure that we're ready, and maybe we'll never FEEL ready...but we know that we have enough love in our hearts to be awesome parents. We just hope the agency and the birth parents feel the same way. We're getting everything together this weekend so we can FINALLY have our first meeting with the adoption agency. It is terrifying and exciting all at the same time, but it is really happening and that is so incredibly spectacular. Wish us luck!

Jobtime Funtime

Sorry for the complete and utter failure at posting, for some reason it totally slipped my mind that I was doing NaBloPoMo again. Way to fail me!

As most of you know, I've started substitute teaching. I taught one day last week at high school and this week I'm going a stint at one of the elementary schools. High school was kind of meh, but I think I might like this elementary school thing. Here it's weird, because elementary school goes all the way up to 6th grade, which seems a little crazy to me, but ok. I've taken jobs in almost every grade so that I can see which one I like the best. I had 5th today and it was pretty decent. There were a few kids who didn't behave, but the rest were pretty awesome. They're young enough that they don't think to challenge my authority and old enough to care about school. The most awesome thing by far though is that soda cans in the teacher's lounge are only 50¢ which seriously is an awesome deal. Hurray for that.

Funny thing happened last night, our electronic lock on our apartment door killed itself, so maintenance installed a temporary deadbolt. A deadbolt that was too long for the lock, so we managed to lock ourselves INTO our apartment. Hubbs was totally freaking out, it was kind of hilarious. Basically, we had to pass the key through our window to the maintenance guy, who then had to try for about 10 minutes to unlock it with the key from the outside. So they key worked from the outside, but if you tried unlocking it from inside, you failed epically. I always call maintenance with the oddest things... "Yes, we are locked INSIDE our apartment, please send someone quick or if there's a fire, we will burn to death." also "Um... yea... there's a bat in our apartment, should I call animal control or can you handle that?" I so win. Really they should get excited every time I call now because it always seems to be for something ridiculous.

Christmas break is coming up and I'm not really sure what we're doing this year. We're poor and can't really go anywhere... although the last few years we've gone to Hubbs' Great Uncle's party. We're thinking of actually performing during the "talent show" portion of the evening. We're thinking either that christmas song from the grinch or run DMC's christmas rap. I'll include videos so you can help us decide. Note that Hubbs and I are awesome rappers, seriously.
 

Option One

 

Option Two

I'm not sure why there's a talent show portion of the Christmas Eve party... When I was a kid, I would put on little skits or whatever else in my grandparent's living room for everyone, I'm assuming it's the same kind of idea. It's always a lot of fun, but the past 2 years that we've gone we have yet to perform anything, I usually just tape everyone from the back row, or watch the kids whilst their parents perform. We'll see. So please vote and let us know which one you think we should perform! Maybe I'll post audio from our excellent performance. lol. 

I hope everything is well with all of you and that your holiday season is filled with love and joy and all of that jazz. I'll try to be better about posting the rest of this month, since I'll be on vacation for at least 2 weeks of it.

OMG Brains!

It seriously feels like my brain is trying to kill me, that or explode out of my skull, which would kill me, so SEE!!!! It's trying to kill me.

I still have the worst headache ever that refuses to go away and I'm not looking forward to 3 hours of power tools at school tonight. I can't miss any days though, so maybe I'll just hang out in the classroom and study instead of be out in the welding lab. Hopefully I just feel better by class time because I am on a roll right now.

Went to the library today and picked up a few books since I now actually have time to read and don't have to listen to audiobooks anymore. I got Leviathan Wakes, Bare Bones, and Succubus Blues (The book club pick for the month). I also picked up some movies "I'll Believe You", "Life as We Know It", and "Love Potion #9". I remember the last one from when I was a kid and am totally psyched to watch it again. I'm not sure if you're supposed to put movie titles in quotes, but I'm doing it anyway! Proper grammar be damned!

I had to return a Christmas present that my in-laws gave me... for the second year in a row. The watch was cute, they just failed to take into account my giant man-sized hands and wrists. Sadly, the watch did not fit, but I did trade it in for two pairs of earrings that claim to be hypo-allergenic. All types of earrings seem to turn my ears green, even the ones for "sensitive ears" so I'm hoping these ones really do the trick.

Also, the most magical and amazing thing happened today at the DMV. Oh, I know what you're thinking, "there's no way anything magical ever happens at the DMV" but let me assure you, it does. It does indeed. I had to re-register our car (3 days late, but shhh), I got in and out in less than 3 minutes!!! That has to be some kind of world record! That place is amazing! Best DMV experience ever.

My back is really acting up today, which does not really help with the whole killer headache thing. I pretty much feel like death, it is so incredibly awesome. I'm sure tomorrow will be better though. =)

Headache of Doom

Pretty much I've spent the whole day wishing I could just fall asleep and forget everything, but my head is throbbing and refuses to allow me to do so. Tylenol has done nothing and I feel completely crummy. Best day ever.

Typing isn't really helping matters either. grrrr. Maybe I'll just read or watch something with the volume turned down really low. We'll see.

Hubbs is going to make dinner tonight, which I'm excited about. Pretty much anything he makes always turns out awesome because he actually bothers to follow the recipe. lol. My stuff sometimes comes out crappy because I try to get all fancy and experimental with it.

Although I think I could just go for some mac and cheese, maybe he'll be nice and make it for me.

I hope all of you had a great weekend and I hope I have more light-hearted things to talk about tomorrow.

A New Low and Creeptasticness

I don't know if adults are meant to sit in the backseat of minivans, but as I learned today, I am too fat. The seat belt would not buckle. It was close, but it was just so not happening. The belts in the grownup seats in the front fit just fine, but not the very back row. This made me a sad panda, but I got over it pretty quickly.

In other news, we went to an open house preview of my grandparents in-law's new art gallery... and I just have one question for you... which of these two paintings is the most likely to come alive at night and murder you?

 

I don't know, I feel like it's a pretty close call. For a while I was sitting there staring at them, trying to take a picture and I swear to you, my camera was not having it. I joked that maybe they were just those evil things that refuse to be photographed. Even so, I managed to take a shot, but the photos just don't do them justice. Super creeptastic.