My 18 Month Girl

We had MVJ's 18 month check up yesterday... a few days late, but with the move and everything it took us this long to a) find a good pediatrician (I'm sure they're all good... but you know...) and b) get an appointment scheduled.

MVJ thoroughly gave every person her best stank eye ever from the receptionist to the nurse and she reserved her stankiest face for the poor doctor.  I guess she is an equal opportunity scowler at this point.  She didn't even need shots this appointment - THANK GOODNESS.  MVJ mostly ran around while first the nurse and then the doctor asked me questions.  The doctor was like, "I was just going to ask if she can climb onto a chair, but... clearly..." as MVJ pretty much danced on the chair next to me...

I am so happy with our choice of pediatrician.  She was very thorough - and gave me a lot of information, which I love.  I always have questions, just one of those people.  She answered each one, commiserated with me, and gave some helpful advice and even a few pats on the back.  I got a take home pamphlet and a nice graph of my baby's growth.

And let me tell you about MVJ's growth.  I canNOT even tell you how surprised we were:

head circumference (well... this was no surprise... the kid has a J head... ; )): 74th percentile
weight: 51st percentile (from hovering around the 20th this was excellent news!)
height: 69th percentile!  (for those of you who know me, I'm NOT a tall person, so this was a shocker!  There is basically a split of talls and shorts in JJ's family.  He is one of the talls, so I guess Miss MVJ has Daddy's genes in the height department)... well... at 18 months anyways!  : )

 

New School...

Ugh.  I've started a post just about every day this week but they all turn out to be dumb and just not funny.  So there, I let the cat out of the bag - sometimes I think I'm funny.  : )  Anyways... I'm just going to give you some interesting differences I've noticed so far at my new school.

1.  They call binders notebooks.  So weird!
2.  They call notebooks spirals!  I'm pretty sure they say "notebook" right on them...
3.  The school does not have any supplies of any kind besides printer paper (and everyone has their own printing code with strict rules).  The PTO does give money each year for supplies (double for newbies!  Yay!), which definitely helps.  But think - NO dry erase markers.  NO paperclips.  No staples.  No tape dispensers.  No pencils.  ETC.  It took me a while to even compile a list of what I needed... how do you go from access to pretty much whatever I needed to absolutely nothing?!
4.  This is just a "dialect" thing, but they all say "onvelopes" instead of "envelopes".  I giggle a little at the accent sometimes.  Then they tease me for mine.  One person said I sounded like I was from Canada.  I took it as an insult.  But then I said, "PTO" once and TOTALLY had a Minnesotan "o" like straight out of the movie "Fargo". 
5.  New internet IEP system = very confusing, but people say that after a few done it gets easy.  I'm sure that will happen - just gotta love that learning curve...
6.  I'm a resource teacher, not a specialist -- the specialists are the "specials" teachers -- computer, art, Spanish, music, PE, etc.
7.  10 days of leave total - including sick, personal, bereavement, etc. (they can roll over each year)
8.  Paid time for collaboration - but we have to stay until 5pm a few nights a month.
9.  They use mylearningplan, but have more strict rules for getting credit... (continuing ed. credits for renewing teaching licenses for those of you going mylearningwhat?).
10.  Job shares.  Two people split the time/pay/benefits of one job.  I think I'd be down with that in a few years.  Some people do like M-T every other W/ then the other does the other W and every Thurs/Fri.  Some people do mornings/afternoons.  I'm TOTALLY digging this idea - I guess it would depend on kiddo schedules, but I think I'd prefer the first choice.

I'm know there are more... and that I'll discover more... but that's all I got for right now.  : )   

Two more funny stories!

So I could write all about how MVJ has been on a hitting spree lately, but why talk about the negative?  Plus, she had a really good day today.  I'm so thankful to everyone who gave me advice on fb.  I love that network to quickly get advice and not feel like you're the only one dealing with not fun stuff.  Of all of them, I have to give it to Uncle A who made me feel much better.  Just be consistent, be immediate but (I think above all) be patient.  I'm definitely NOT a perfect parent, but it made me feel better to think that if I just slow down and calm down and realize she's just wanting to learn more about the world through me, it makes me feel so much better.

OK!  What did I say about not writing about the negative??  : )

MVJ did two hilarious things on Sunday morning that I just have to share.

First of all, she woke up (a bit late -- YAY!! -- I even got some reading in bed in!) and after we changed her dipe and cuddled a bit, I brought her into our bed to say good morning to Daddy.  She (of course) was hauling around her baby and blankie.  Daddy teased her and took "bank-bank" from her and covered his face with it.  I playfully said, "Where's Daddy?!"  She immediately replied, "At work."  Uh oh... she must be hearing that a lot.  Get used to it girlfriend.  Daddy's in med. school, which we (correctly) call "work".

I have to preface this story by saying that MVJ has been my shadow lately.  Wherever I go, whatever I do, she is right there next to me.  I used to knock her down like three times a day because I just didn't remember that she was RIGHT NEXT TO ME at all times.  So anyways, lately when I have to go to the bathroom, I just announce it to her because I know she'll be trotting after me anyways.  And now, since she has her own potty chair, when I go potty, she sits down too.  Well Sunday as I reached for the toilet paper (sorry if this is TMI!), she asked for some too.  I tore off two squares for her and she proceeded to wipe herself (over her diaper and clothes).  It was just way too cute!

Cute babies!

I just have two quick kiddo stories...

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MVJ has three (sometimes four) little buddies that hang out with her at daycare.  One of them is just the cutest little boy.  I was telling JJ this story earlier, and he was like, "Oh, you mean that funny looking one?" ... so I guess cuteness is relative... But anyways!  Friday when I was walking out of daycare, he, his sister and his Dad were walking in.  He was taking his sweet old time walking through the woodchips NEXT TO the sidewalk up the front walk.  The director commented on it to his Dad: "I love how J walks through the woodchips EVERY morning."  And Dad's response was priceless: "I wish that was the weirdest thing he did..."

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MVJ has become quite a bit more verbal and conversational lately.  She is hilarious!  We love that she is actually communicating with us.  We can ask her stuff and she'll say, "Yeah." or "No!"  But the funniest is when she wants something, she'll usually say please and then if she gets what she wants, she'll say (TO ME), "Good girl!"  heehee... I wonder if we've been overemploying the strategy of positive affirmation!  : )
 

We did it!

We made it through the first days with kiddos!  Woohoo!  Although my services didn't really begin -- I wanted to let my kids get to know their classmates and teacher, etc. before jumping into pull out time.  I *think* I have my schedule set, as well as have para support figured out where I need it.  Seriously, elementary scheduling is so different from middle school!  Also, from state to state there are definitely different ways of doing things, obviously.

I did get a call from MVJ's daycare Friday afternoon.  I was paged as I was working in a coworker's room and when I called the office back, the principal was on the phone saying my daycare needed to talk to me.  My heart just sunk to the floor.  Was my baby sick?  Did something happen?  I mentally prepared to leave for the rest of the day.  But, bless her heart, the director of the daycare said, "M has a fever.  I want to let you know that I did stick my finger in her mouth and she has two molars coming in.  It's up to you, but I think M would be way less miserable if you could just drop off some baby tylenol."  PHEW!! 

I was so glad she wasn't saying, "She has a fever and needs to leave."  I was so glad it wasn't something more serious.  (Although, man those teeth are terrible!  I thought I'd have a little more time from when her i-teeth recently came in until these next ones!)  I was also so thankful that she's a Mom and seems to just really care about M.  I took a quick trip (it's about two blocks away!) over my lunch and even got to have a little lunch with M.  They were having chicken noodle soup.  Every day M comes home with a note of when she's been changed, what she ate, and what craft activity they did.  I always wondered how the soup went.  Well, I walked in the room and they all had their shirts off with bibs on.... yeah.... that makes a lot more sense now!  It was so tough to leave and M was like, HEY!  When you leave you leave WITH me Mommy!  Poor girl... it was so confusing for her.  But, when I went to pick her up, her teacher reported that she had taken OVER a three hour nap!  Good girl!  She needed that! 

So we have more teeth coming in.  It just seems to rock the boat at our house.  M woke up in the middle of the night, woke up early, has been taking shady naps (where did those three hour ones go?!), and is eating funky.  I wonder now if that's what she was sick from earlier in the week.  Those teeth just mess with the whole body, I tell you. 

Ready, set, go!

I'm home with a sick kiddo today.  JJ volunteered to stay home in the morning (which really sucks for him - watch this to see how tough it is to catch up : )) so I could go to school (EARLY), and prepare and let my principal know what was going on at home.  We had a staff meeting in the morning and she said, please attend the staff meeting and then go home.  Family comes first here.  BLESS her!!  Although I'm anxious about tomorrow, we all know that sp.ed. stuff doesn't get going right away anyways.  And everyone knows I don't know anything right now anyways.  : )  While I did get a few things done from home (a kiddo's point sheet, some basic and vital info. out to teachers, an email here and there), I plan on going in early again tomorrow just to get my bearings.  I know the team will be just fine without me deciding on para support for tomorrow at least.

MVJ was sick last night, but we really feel like it was food poisoning.  She doesn't have a fever and has been eating well today.  She ate a "waff" (waffle) with Daddy this morning and some veggies for snack before I even got home.  She also took about an hour and a half nap in the morning with Daddy and went down for a second one just now.  She wanted more to eat with me, so we took all of that as good signs.  She has been a little out of sorts - tired for sure, so I guess it was reasonable for her not to go to daycare this one day.  I hope my baby girl is on the up and up!  : ) 

Looong night...

I have not been sleeping well.  I'm sure it's the whole "woah I have a new job and we live in a new place that has new noises" deal, but man, what I wouldn't give for a full night's sleep!  Last night, for example, I woke up about 12:30 and had this song in my head.  This song from MVJ's first music DVD.  The song goes something like this, "Victor Vito and Freddie Vasco, they like to eat slow, they never eat fast..." --- well that was the line that went over and over and over and over and over again in my head.  Blegh!  That happened for, I'd say at least a half of an hour before I finally redirected my brain to greener pastures.  THEN I wrote a new blog post (not this one... but maybe a future one!) AND our Christmas letter.  This was not just any Christmas letter, either.  It had a theme and was more of an essay.  Actually it had a title and everything.  Look for "A Season of Change" coming to your mailboxes with some sort of cute pictures in, oh, four or so months.  Or not.  We'll see if it makes the cut when I get there.  HOPEFULLY not for another oh, three and half or so months!!  Finally I just prayed and begged the living snarf out of God to help me find some rest.  I believe I fell back asleep around 3:00ish and woke up to my alarm in the middle of a very, very random dream.  JJ doesn't believe I remember my dreams in so many details and thinks I make stuff up as I tell him, but seriously, you can't make this stuff up...

I'm typing this as my baby girl has drifted off into a pleasant sleep.  This is a huge sign of good things because after I got home (after a rather late night at school -- Ice Cream Social and CLASS POSTINGS!), MVJ cried for about an hour and then threw up all over herself, me, and her angel (who she wanted back immediately) -- after getting her all cleaned up, it repeated another time and a half (this time over the sink in the bathroom.  My sweet baby girl.  : (   

New Furniture!

We got new furniture delivered yesterday.  We were hoping to have it here by the time we had overnight guests, but we found this particular stuff a few days too late.  We got a queen sleeper sofa and a chair for our bedroom.  I am so excited about everything... and MVJ and I aren't allowed to shop on our own anymore for some reason!  : )  The sleeper sofa was a good deal... and then... then there's the chair.  This is not just any chair.  We ended up finding a chair that massages and heats up, reclines and rocks.  It's plush and fancy.  Do you see now why M's and I aren't allowed to wield the credit card??  Good news in the whole deal is the sleeper sofa went on sale a few days after we bought it and they did a price adjustment for us.  Yippee!  We are such great shoppers!

Before the delivery guys got there, JJ cleared a wide path for them and even took the doors off of the rooms the furniture was destined for.  MVJ lent a hand or two in the process.  When the movers got here they trucked in the "decorative pillows" and other random items checking out just how much work was involved in this process.  Upon seeing the doors taken off, one guy remarked, "That was a gentleman thing to do."  That's my hubby!  Lucky for the movers, we had just gone through the process of moving everything into our apartment and knew the areas between point a and point b that would be hangups. 

Now you definitely need to come for a visit and sleep on our comfy guest bed!

Project Runway: current thoughts

We are doing the whole free tv thing right now - no cable - just the free channels in the area... which amounts to 23 channels - not too shabby!  Unfortunately Bravo and Lifetime did not make the cut, which are basically my cable addictions.  Lifetime purely for the purpose of watching PROJECT RUNWAY!  My bff TAF totally got me hooked on this one.  Ahhh... back in the day when we were nextdoor neighbors one of us would bop over to the other's place, plop down on the couch, and watch Project Runway with bated breath.  Seriously.  No talking during the show or anything.  Then, commercials would come on and the room would light up with opinions and "No she DI-N'Ts."  JJ even joined in a few times.  Project Runway is a total equal opportunity enjoyment show.  I guess to be fair and show both sides, the only complaint might be the blatant homosexuality - I know of at least one couple who chose not to watch it with their children based on that.  Ok, and I do have to add that sometimes I do NOT know what the judges are thinking - but that's part of the fun!

Ok, so thoughts on this season as I gear up to watch season eight week three - thank goodness for mylifetime.com!  : )
*I like Valerie!  I think she's cute and totally entertaining if nothing else!  They have to keep her around!
*Sad, but I think April won't last too much longer.  She's just too new and inexperienced.
*What the heck is up with Casanova?  He'll be gone soon too.  Please.  Pretty please.
*AJ is way too stressed.  Sorry, but I predict he won't be in the finals for sure.
*I liked McKell.  Single tear.  But now she can be with her baby.  That would've been so rough!
*Gretchen is good but not sure how long she'll keep her top dog position.  She seems genuinely nice.
*Sarah is odd looking.
*Christopher is good too.  I think he'll go far (just from the first two weeks of course!)
*Michael's commentaries are funny!
*Ivy is good too!
*I think Andy has put out some good, interesting pieces.  Excited to see more.

I think that's about all I have so far... now shhhh... it's about to begin!

18 Months...

... oh where did the time go?!

My baby girl turned 18 months this week.  I simply canNOT believe it and yet it's true.  Time keeps on a'moving.  Of course we want her to grow and develop and learn new things.  It's just always this juxtaposition of reminiscing about the past, longing for the future (when she will listen and understand the word, "No"... or wait... does that ever happen??), and being content in the present.

Let's see.  MVJ is full of spunk as always.  She runs from here to there and is enjoying the extended space of our new apartment.  I put her CD player on the floor in her room... oops... I may have to find another spot for that.  But her new mission in life is to find more CDs.  I have found SUCH random stuff under the lid of that CD player -- all of them discs -- but not many of them CDs.  Let's see - just yesterday I found the movies, "Caddy Shack" and "In Love and War" (interesting choices girlfriend...) and the disk used in connection with our wireless internet.

She is still our champion eater (most of the time) but we know exactly when she is done because she starts throwing things overboard.  How do you deal with that one??  Besides trying to be done before that happens.  It's tough to judge - I want to give her ample time to eat as much as she wants until she's full, but I do NOT like cleaning food off of the carpet.  We tried getting a mat to go underneath, but it is worthless- we basically have to readjust it every single time.  Now I'm in the market for a mat used for computer chairs.  They usually have grippy things to hold them down, no?

With daycare, MVJ is doing so wonderfully.  I am so proud of her.  It just reaffirms for me that this is OK.  I'm not torturing my child and dooming her to a life of ill-fate.  Yesterday when I dropped her off there were tears as I pulled into the parking lot, but I talked her through it.  When I dropped her off with her teacher, she barely sniffled.  When I picked her up, her teacher informed me that there were tears in the morning for a brief time, but she just put on some music and MVJ started dancing her cares away.  She's been taking progressively longer naps each day at daycare and that has helped tremendously with our play time in the evening!  She's been doing art every day and that is so much fun to see!  Oh what to save?!!  I want to keep IT ALL!

Speaking of dancing, MVJ has developed her own style.  She TOTALLY looks like a snowboarder when music comes on.  I think it's time for one of her uncles to invest in some baby equipment because this girl is ready to ride.  We got it on video (a few times!) - I'll try to put it on fb.  I am giggling just thinking about it!

Uhoh!  I hear her!  Already this morning?!  Could be a long day!  I'll post more later!  : )  

My hubby has a White Coat!

... and not just any old white coat ...  : )

Thursday was so stinkin' amazing!  Let's see if I can set the stage.  His parents came to town first, we enjoyed some Salsarita... ok engorged ourselves, but whatevs... and then his Mom and I buzzed around town a bit.  In the meantime, JJ's brother, AJ and SIL LJ came to have a hand in JJ's BIG DAY.

AJ and JJ headed to the auditorium... a bit late... but everything seemed to work out just fine there.  CJ, RJ, LJ, MVJ and I hung out for a bit, having a snack and getting prettied up for the evening's festivities.  I got a new black dress last week and MVJ even had a cute little black and white number with her sweet little black dress shoes.  In fact, I think all of us had new outfits besides CJ, JJ's dad.  Maybe AJ too...

Ok, so I drove us to the school, which is in downtown KC.  I hate HATE driving in big cities, but Gar-gar did not disappoint and we made it safely, with one wrong move that I don't think anyone even caught because I got off a ramp and then right back on a little bit later.  : )  Oops, now at least LJ may know... ; )

We drove around looking for parking - there seemed to be a lot of people milling around so I knew seating was going to be troublesome.  JJ's class is very large and people were only allowed to have four guests at the event.  Well, it seemed everyone used up their four tickets, thankyouverymuch.  We made a quick u-turn and ended up in a parking lot with an empty spot or two.  Phew!  We walked around the campus towards the building everyone dressed up was walking to.

There was NO room on the ground floor so we headed up to the balcony.  There was plenty of room to move about and this was probably the best place for us.  MVJ could wiggle and squirm to her heart's content, while her mother tried desperately to keep her from jumping off said balcony.

The White Coating Ceremony of the Class of 2014 began with a welcome from the Executive Vice President for Academic and Medical Affairs, who also happens to be the Dean of JJ's school.  Then we heard a little speech from the student senate president, a second year giving out all kinds of valuable advice (like make sure you take time for your family and hobbies... yeah!)  : ).  Then the keynote speaker was the acting pres. and chairman of the board of trustees - and coincidentally, the auditorium we were in was named for his father.  He, too, gave an inspiring speech.  I was so proud as he addressed my husband and his classmates.

THEN they had the traditional white coating.  The special thing about this particular white coating is that JJ was able to be coated by one of his brothers.  It was so special and so neat.  It was made a teensie less emotional and dramatic by the fact that I was chasing after MVJ, but she honestly did very well, as long as I let her run around.  When JJ was on stage, she did do her classic, "Goooo Daddy!" a few times.  It was so sweet!  We got *just a few* pics of the ceremony - you can check them out on fb.  As each line of students put on their special white coat for this significant first time, they smiled for a long pause as the camera panned on each of them, then they walked off stage.

After all 250some students donned their new special medical accessories, the curtains raised for a dramatic moment as, behold the WHOLE class was gathered together on risers.  The audience burst into a loud standing ovation.  JJ said that he felt like he was at a rock concert, but as a musician.  He told the gal next to him (an Amy Adams lookalike), "It feels like we're at an AC/DC concert!"  When he didn't get a reaction, he tried again, "Justin Bieber?"  Everyone laughed and AA's twin replied, "That's a good one."

Then they said their oath, which went well until the part about striving to develop those qualities that will earn the respect of my "patients, my colleagues, my family and myself."  The students basically want the respect of their patients and themselves... but to be fair, the guy was pausing at weird times during that line...

We headed outside with little hope of finding JJ amongst the crowd.  The little hope we did have came from the fact that he is taller than the general public.  As I was looking around frantically, we realized that he had snuck up behind us.  Yay!  We took a few pictures and headed out to a fancy pants ballroom for JJ's fancy pants reception.

There were not enough chairs but by this time, MVJ at least seemed to have mellowed out and was not a frantic baby, so that definitely helped the situation for this guy.  JJ directed me to just go find a chair while the others got food and we tried to congregate somewhat together.  The table I happened upon had a family from MN of all places and the mother was a special educator.  Small world!  She was amazed that I had secured a job, so I felt pretty proud of myself.  : )  The food was deliciously fancy, but friendly enough for MVJ to find favor with it.  I think I may have gotten the last of the white fluffy stuff that was for desert with the yummy cake (pound cake?), which came complete with chocolate dipping sauce and a variety of fruit.  I was complaining about there not being much for desert (you know, have to pick apart everything...) when JJ reminded me that this was a function for doctors and so they had to have a resemblance of healthfulness.

I wish we would've gotten pics at the reception because we could've taken more time and could've gotten someone to take a pic of all of us.  Oh well.  It was a fabulously special night for my hubby and I am so incredibly proud of him.  The whole ceremony had a live online feed and is supposed to be put online soon.  I hope to somehow save it so we can have a copy to save forever.

Current Fav. Salad

This post has been apparently a long time in the making because I took pics of this salad at our old apartment.  notice the paneling.  Yuck!  So, this is my favorite salad for a lot of reasons.  It is forgiving and flexible and you can feel like a master chef throwing a little of this and a little of that in!  Now!  On to the recipe!

Start with some veggies! I happened to have a left over veggie tray - it worked for me!

Cut up the veggies, really to any size you want, I also added black olives and cucumbers.

Oh!  You should also get some noodles al dente.  My favorite to use with this recipe is bow tie pasta.

See, and I was getting kind of crazy - I added bacon!  Mmmm!

So, add that all together...

 ... and then the Pièce de résistance... add Coleslaw dressing (enough to wet it all) on top of all of it.  Delish!  And so easy!

I just made this salad yesterday with my Farmer's Market finds -- I ended up skipping the bacon but adding fresh mozzarella cheese (cubed) and some basil.  Give a try and tell me what combination of veggies/additions you used!

Our Big Day!

Yesterday was a big day for the J fam.  Not only was it JJ's first day of med. school.  Epic.  But I also had a job interview (or three) and MVJ checked out daycare for the first time... evah...

JJ reported that his day was full of information.  He did get done two hours early, which was a huge blessing for him.  They got their white coats and a "free" shirt, which he and some classmates joked actually cost about $2000.  He also found out that they will be the only med school in the country with portable sonogram machines.  They met teachers, security staff, got their mailboxes, networked, learned about their lab groups (there are four groups - and people in your lab group are the ones you really get to know well in class) and it took about 45 minutes just to go through classmate introductions!  JJ put his back out Saturday so I was nervous for him and his long day, but he said that it felt ok throughout the day (thanks to an icyhot sticky pack).  I'm so proud of my hubby.  He has worked so hard to get here (and will work SO hard to get to the next step).  But here he is.  Livin' the dream!

I went to my interview at 9:00.  It was just the principal and I and she had a very casual approach.  Basically she puffed me up saying I had a great resume, had done excellent on the online personality test, and she would love to hire me.  It kind of threw me off my interview game-face!  : )  She told me, however, that she couldn't hire me - the district office would have to do that.  While I was there she called the special education department and told the lady on the phone about my past experience.  At one point she exclaimed, "I KNOW!  Don't let any other employers see this one!"  Yeah... feeling pretty good about myself at this point.  She said that someone from the special education department would call me later that day and she basically advised me to prepare for questions about parent communication, specific reading strategies, etc.  I drove home, logged on to the internet and by that time got a phone call.  (This was about 9:30). 

The lady introduced herself as the elementary schools special ed. coordinator and did ask me about things I was familiar with: AIMSweb, data collection, parent communication, etc.  She asked if I had any questions and I asked her a few that she happily answered.  She told me that things looked great, but that she couldn't hire me - the district office would have to do that.

Soooo then about a half hour later I got a phone call from the district office asking me if I could come in tomorrow.  I told them my daughter was trying out a daycare today so IF possible today would be a better day.  She said, "Yes!  That makes sense!  How about 11:30?"  She also said that I should bring my transcript and teaching license.  I began to feel like this would be more of a formality - double check that I was qualified, etc.

I arrived at the district office at 11:00.  Oops!  I thought it might have taken me longer to get there.  I made myself stay in the car, looking over my resume to prepare myself, until 11:15.  I got to the office and waiting until at least 11:30, at which point the director of human resources came to great me.  At the same time a young lady came through the front door and introduced herself as the coordinator I had spoken to on the phone.  She said she just wanted to put a face to a name.  I also saw this as a good sign.  : )

The director of HR had a ginormous stack of papers in his lap and explained that he had some questions to ask to see if this would be a good fit for both of us.  I got a little nervous thinking about answering all. those. questions.  But, he got started - and honestly I can only describe my responses as having divine providence.  I was impressed with myself!  I would've totally hired myself.  At the end of about eight questions, he looked up and said, "Well, NL (principal from earlier in the day) thinks you'd be a great fit and so do I.  Welcome to BVSD."

WOOHOO!!!  The rest of the stack of papers were things like my I-9, W4, payscale, benefits, etc.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, Y-E-A-H!  Oh!  AND because I teach in a hard-to-fill area (special ed.) I got a signing bonus!  How crazy is that?!  Have you EVER heard of bonuses of ANY kind in education?!  Me neither...  : )

The rest of the day I spent trying to get my paperwork filled out for the district as well as get a KS teaching license.  I got a TB test, scheduled fingerprinting, ordered two sets of official transcripts, contacted my past employer to verify employment, contacted my past university to verify my degree and qualifications... uffda!!  The crazy thing is I start THIS FRIDAY.  Woah!

But honestly.  Honestly the very best part of my day was right after my third interview I called MVJ's daycare to check on her.  The director said, "When kiddos check out a new daycare for the first time, they are usually reserved, don't want to eat, don't want to join in, etc.  NOT your child.  She has been playing, and dancing, and doing art, and she ate her whole lunch."  I just about cried right there on the phone.  I was so proud of my little peanut.  When I came to pick her up later that afternoon (hey, she was fine, I might as well get my stuff done so I could enjoy her the rest of the week!) she was so happy to see me but not like, "GET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE".  She had a picture taken doing an art project.  The theme this month is "water" so they used sponges to put blue paint on paper and then "drew" (with a teacher's help) fishies out of foam (that the teacher cut out).  On our way out as I held her paper, she said, "Fish." and the whole way home I swear she told me all about her day and the friends that she met. 

I can't believe my baby is getting so big.  She makes me so proud and I love her more than I thought was possible.  She had a great evening at home and fell right asleep at  bedtime (and is still sleeping!!). 

We are DEFINITELY feeling blessed as a family.  God definitely went before us and prepared the way for us.  As I left my third interview, with a job, I chucked to myself as I told God he was probably laughing at me as I sweat it out yesterday so worried about preparing myself for my big day.  He totally had it in the bag.

Getting used to...

My favorite things that I've been getting used to down in KC:

1. Doing the laundry - in our apartment, at our own schedule!  Woohoo!

2. Doing the dishes - in our dishwasher!  Yay!  We've been slowly learning what does NOT go in the dishwasher... because I want to put it ALL in there.  C'mon... do work son.

3. Having two pools next door to check out at our convenience.  MVJ has been becoming more of a little swimmer by the day.  She began by becoming a limp noodle when we got in the water and stayed for about 2.3 seconds, then walked along the edge just close enough to scare the bejeezers out of me.  She just loves people watching.  But she found out she can make Mommy and Daddy happy by staying in the pool, in her floatie (thanks Uncle WK!  Her bday gift has become more perfect than you know!) and still people watch.

4. Having any store we could ever want - food, clothing, gear, etc. within easy driving distance.  Even if it sometimes takes a mapquest before we leave to know the general vicinity of the store -- because we can not trust Gar Gar.


It is still sad that we can't just call up or bffs to go check out a movie or head to the Green Mill (single tear). : (  But we've been keeping in touch and know that we will get a chance to live closer to home in the future.

Adventures in KC

I feel like ALL of my blog posts could be titled this lately!

JJ and I, besides just tasting all of flipping KC, have also been exploring other parts of the city, including some shops, some parks, a golf course or two (ahem, by JJ), his school, our local pool!, etc.

Some favorite finds shop-wise:

I found this super cool, "Recycled Kid" store.  I'm sure not everyone is all about second-hand, but this guy sure is.  In fact, yahoo agrees with me!  They did an article on things you should not buy new and kids clothes was one of them.  Waste of money I tell you.  Sure it's fun to get a few cute things brand spankin' new, but all those other fillers?  Used.  Definitely the way to go.  For example, I picked up a swimming suit (she'll wear a swim diaper anyways!) and dress for 25cents apiece!  Woot!  JJ thinks a pair of Saucony kiddo shoes for $3.00 was my best buy though.  You know... she might turn out to be a major distance runner next year or something...

Farmer's Market Saturday!!  There is a farmer's market that runs forever long (yeah... their seasons for growing things aren't limited by freezing temps in like September and April....) every Saturday morning.  We checked it out this morning.  It was not huge by any means, but it was fabulous nonetheless.  We got some good deals - MVJ adores the cherry tomatoes and JJ is chomping his second slice of "jade" watermelon as we speak.. or I type... you know, whatever.

The rest of the stores we've frequented have been your run of the mill stores - Hy-Vee for groceries, JCPenneys, La-Z-Boy, Michaels, Target (a few times!), and a dozen other home stores that we knew weren't what we were looking for the minute we stepped foot inside and had to restrain MVJ.