i got a haircut & a real job

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And what is one of the first things I did in preparation for my new job? I went to Petsmart and bought a fish.

Mr. Bubbles the Blue Boy Betta

Mr. Bubbles

“Why would Steph buy a fish?” you ask. Because I’m now teaching preschool. It gets better. I’m teaching right at Ingrid and Ilsa’s school! It’s a half-day position teaching two separate classes: 2-day, and 3-day.

Pinterest, teacherspayteachers.com, and Google are now my most-visited websites. I find myself humming Raffi’s The More We Get Together. My family knows to save every single plastic water bottle so I can make sensory bottles. Ilsa has been scouring Pinterest for preschool ideas, and sending pins my way. Chad says I have a spring in my step and a lightness of heart he hasn’t seen in years. Ingrid is thankful that I am on site, so she can talk to me if she needs me.

I’m thrilled to have this opportunity. I get to see my girls off at school, walk down the hallway to my room, sometimes eat lunch with them, and then be there to pick them up. I don’t know that I could have a job that is much better than this!

And oh yeah… it’s good to be blogging again. I’ll update again soon.

Has it really been THAT long since I updated??? EEP!

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I suppose it is time for a real update… it has definitely been too long since I’ve posted anything here on BBB. My, how the children grow…

We have successfully PCSd to Oklahoma. We pulled out of Virginia the morning after that huge derecho storm. We drove hundreds of miles without seeing power. When we finally arrived at the Columbus, Ohio hotel for our first night, power had just been restored an hour before. It was the only major hotel in the area with power. Chad went out in search of gas for the car, not sure what was going to happen the next day. It was sweltering hot, too. Hotel staff had brought their families to the hotel simply to have a safe place to stay.

Chad really enjoys the people he is working with here at Tinker AFB, and the job is going well. He was scheduled to deploy this winter but that has been cancelled due to a shoulder injury. He was hurt playing crud. Yeah. (Air Force people will understand.) He has a broken scapula and a torn rotator cuff. He is certain that he will have to go next summer now.

We have settled into a church, though it took some doing to find. Heritage Presbyterian (PCA) has welcomed us with open arms.

I’m home alone for the first time ever, although I do volunteer at the school from time to time, mainly in Ilsa’s classroom which requires a bit more assistance than Ingrid’s third grade class. I will be helping out with the first graders in Ilsa’s class who are struggling to read. Speaking of Ilsa, she has been placed in the advanced reading program, and will be tested for giftedness presently. If it turns out she isn’t classified as such, great. If she is, great. We are not hanging our hat on this. The school approached us with the testing.

I’ve started baking bread once again, after perhaps baking only five loaves in Virginia the two years we were there. The kitchen was minuscule — on par with our kitchen in Minot, although it was beautiful. I’m still rather obsessed with Doctor Who. This was Chad’s idea, and it thoroughly embarrasses Ingrid, although everyone who sees it thinks it is, to quote Nine, “Fantastic!”

We are living in brand new base housing. We aren’t allowed to paint the walls, and management suggests vinyl clings, which we have placed throughout our home to make it ours.

Living room

Ten in his Void Stuff 3D glasses
An apple on our kitchen pantry

Here’s World War I Flying Ace keeping watch in our kitchen

 Ingrid’s room

 Powder room — we had the letters produced backwards, 
so that the view in the mirror is correct. Tricky, huh?
I built a new wild yeast starter. It is very healthy. 
First 100% sourdough with new starter.
We have started juicing in earnest.

In August, the girls started school. (We are not homeschooling this year for reasons I’ll outline below.)

Ingrid is in third grade, and is catching up after being off for the entire spring. Her health has stabilized somewhat, and given the stress of the past year, it was a very wise decision for our family to send her back to a traditional public school. I needed a break. Caring for a child with an illness is exhausting — two medical appointments a week, one that was nearly an hour and a half away by Metro, arranging for care for Ilsa while we were at the doctor, not to mention the day to day stamina to stay patient, kind and strong while she is railing at you does things to a person. (E-mail me if you want the details about her health, but at this time I don’t want to give specifics on my blog, for her sake.)

She is doing much better in a social framework with a lot of children than she did alone at home with me. The loneliness was debilitating and exacerbated her symptoms. I’m more convinced now than ever that homeschooling should be considered on a case by case basis. Ilsa would probably thrive in it. Ingrid just didn’t. Her teacher is very understanding, and she has an advocate in the vice principal. We’ve had a bit of a challenge getting her classified as medically challenged because her disability doesn’t affect her school work (in other words, she has to be FAILING in order to qualify — not true, but that was the original opinion of the school counselor). She puts on a perfect mask at school, but many days, it shatters the moment she is home. It takes a lot of energy to hide her real self…

Chase has settled into our home (too) well, and is a scamp… he can be very naughty sometimes! He has a penchant for trying to steal from the garbage can, likes to hide our shoes, and loves stuffed animals — but only Ilsa’s for some reason. He has recovered from his tail injury. He is only six and a half, but seems to be showing his age a bit…. just like us!

 This was the day of our garage sale in early September. GREAT weather, huh? About ten minutes after this picture was take, the wind blew in and about fifteen people helped us scoop up everything that was in the driveway and shove it into the garage.
 Yes, Ingrid is riding in pajamas and barefoot.
 Ilsa has been reading the Bible every night. She fell asleep like this last week.
Halloween 2012
Ingrid is some cartoon character from a cartoon called Monster High(?). She’s never seen the show — just liked the costume and the wig. (The wig was pretty cool.) Ilsa is an Ice Princess. Haven’t had such a fun Halloween since Minot. Chad lost count of the number of children who came to our door while I was out with the girls. It was well over 250. Everyone was so polite, parents were chatty, and homes were decorated tastefully — not insanely scary.

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Yes, I have been MIA. We have had quite a difficult spring. We thought we were staying in Where George Walked for another two years, but were informed that we are moving to OKC. The move is now two and a half weeks away.

One of our daughters has had some serious health challenges since February, so much so that her physician told us we had to halt homeschooling. We got a medical a waiver from the county so that she would not be truant. She is on the mend, and will be able to go into third grade when we move. She is a bit behind in math, but we plan on doing some work over the summer to catch her up. If we have to hire a tutor, so be it.
Last fall I found out I had a number of kidney stones. About three weeks ago, one of them reared its ugly little head. I’ve spent the past three weeks running to medical appointments and downing pain meds. I still have four more to pass in my right kidney, but the urologist does not believe they will be passing within the next month. If they hold off until we are settled, I will be happy. I do NOT relish the thought of driving halfway across the country while passing stones.
Our beloved doggie was injured and ended up having more than half of his tail amputated. The injury occurred two months ago, and he still has to wear a cone, a muzzle and a muzzle cup to prevent him from licking.
On the bright side, our little one graduated from Kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. She is quite an avid and proficient reader, and is reading far above her age level, just like big sis.
So, those are the reasons I have been MIA. I don’t know the next time I will post. Sorry.

Pain, Chase Biscuit and Homeschool

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So I’ve been MIA for a reason. Unfortunately, the last two weeks have been rather eventful. Chad traveled a bit, and while he was gone, got hit with some nastiness: a kidney infection and a kidney stone. I don’t recommend either. I believe that I caught something in the ER, as well, and have only today recovered my voice and my strength. Apparently, I still have stones in my right kidney. I am awaiting an appointment with urology at Ft. Belvoir Hospital. I’m really hoping that they will approve the ultrasonic treatment (too bad the good Doctor (aka Doctor Who) couldn’t just pull out his sonic screwdriver and zap ’em).

I haven’t been able to teach Ingrid for an entire week… on Monday and Tuesday I was simply in too much pain. Wednesday through Friday I had no voice — not even a whisper. It was rather pathetic.

A couple pieces of great news: our doggie adoption day has been set! We will be picking up our greyhound on November 5. Here is a picture of our dog. His race name is Chase Biscuit. We are contemplating whether or not we will re-name him. Chase is sort of growing on us.

Another good piece of news: Ingrid has started swimming with the home school swim team affiliated with the masters swim team which Chad swims, Fort Belvoir Swim Team. She is such a natural swimmer. She is the youngest and smallest on the team, and definitely NOT the slowest, and her endurance is astounding.

Chad was also able to take the girls on their very first camping trip two weeks ago over Columbus Day weekend. Our church had a father/child camp out south of here. For the first time since Ingrid was born, I was alone in my own home for a night. It was weird. And very quiet. VERY quiet.

Finally, Chad applied a couple of decals to our Subaru. A sweet greyhound profile, and a funny zombie one. Ha ha ha. I am hoping for a “Police Public Call Box” decal across the top soon 😀

Wags & Whiskers

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We visited the Wags & Whiskers dog show today and met some very nice greyhounds at an adoption booth. None of these dogs were available for adoption. This was just a time for the girls to actually stop and spend some time with the dogs. Our landlord has approved our request to have a greyhound. However, it remains to be seen whether or not we will be approved by the agency itself.


Posted from Steph’s iPad

Explaining My Absence and Some Updates

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Okay, I know I have been oddly uncommunicative lately.

Some of the reasons:

  • Chad and I spent much of this summer apart – I in Washington state with my parents for the first half of the summer, and he in Arizona and Alabama for work. We are both back home again. He will be on the road again this fall.
  • I am returning to homeschooling, and have been planning. And planning. And planning. Part of the problem was I could NOT find a homeschool planner for Mac. I found a web-based solution two weeks ago, and I love it: Scholaric. It is simple, robust and intuitive. Give it a try!
  • I’ve started CrossFit. See previous post. I’m in pain.
  • I’ve been a little obsessed with Doctor Who and have been on another board a bit too often… I’m a geek. What can I say?
I am hoping to keep this blog a little more up to date than I have been.
Updates:
  • If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m homeschooling Ingrid for second grade, and from here on out, unless something radical changes. We’ll start Monday.
  • Ilsa starts kindergarten on Monday at a local church-run school. There are only nine children in her class, and it is half-day. We just do not see the need for full day kindergarten for her.
  • We’re trying to eat more “Paleo.” Chad has tried to convince me it is the way to go, and I’m not 100% convinced. I know people really get great results with it, but I am BikeBookBREAD after all! And it isn’t like I am making my bread with shortening and chemicals… I grind wheat, etc. We bought a juicer to help support the Paleo way of eating. That has been a lot of fun… and DELICIOUS!
  • We survived Irene. Of course, I’m blogging this, aren’t I?
  • The rain here in Virginia has been UNREAL — much worse than anything Irene spat at us.
Well I guess that’s all for now.