Subbing for Lucy's class and other things

This week was kind of a nice break from last week. I got sub requests for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but had to turn them all down because I was helping out a friend whose baby had to get surgery this week. That friend is also the one who typically helps me get Lucy to Jr Kinder when I sub at Kurtz (because her son goes to Jr Kinder too)so without her help it really was impossible to sub those day. I was just surprised that we are still in the first month of school and I was getting so many requests. I also feel unreasonably guilty for turning down sub requests, I think it's just because I know we could use the money and I also worry people will stop asking me if I say no a lot.

So anyways, my week in a nutshell: 

Monday I got the house cleaned up. 

Tuesday was our last warm day before it cooled down again so I took Penny to the beach with some friends. We also went out to Arby's with one of my friends and then got to check out her new home. It was fun to talk to her about all her projects she has in mind for her home and get excited about the projects I will have for my own!

Wednesday I picked up my friend and her baby from the hospital (which is in Ann Arbor and is not a fun place to drive) and then I did some packing when I got home. 

Thursday I had no sub requests, which is ironic because I actually could've subbed, so we hung out with another friend and then I did more packing. At this point I feel like there's not too much left to pack. We're planning on doing a slow move that consists of lots of car and truck loads (we are also borrowing a trailer so we'll do at least one trailer load a day)so mostly what is left is being used and/or can just be thrown into the car.

Friday was my one sub job this week. It was for Lucy's Jr Kinder class and her teacher had asked me to do it a couple weeks ago. I was excited to see how her class operates but totally nervous about being alone with 20 4 & 5 year olds. The morning went well which probably has to do with the fact they had music and an assembly in the morning. The assembly was fun magic/science show. The afternoon was a hot mess. The kids were supposed to have resting time which was such a waste. Not a single kid actually wanted to rest. After "rest" time I pretty much had the whole class asking to go potty so we went over to the bathrooms which ended up being chaos. After that it was small groups and recess and getting ready to go home and all these things were made more challenging by one student who refused to listen. He was super naughty and disruptive and *sigh* I have no idea how Lucy's teacher deals with him everyday. And I have no idea how she deals with such a tattle telling class, ha ha! That's pretty typical of littles though. Anyways I was exhausted by the end of the day (of course the most challenging one was the last to go home) but I survived. I am still not sure how I feel about Lucy being in this class all day- there's not a whole lot of learning but I am also not sure what you can really expect with one teacher and 20 littles...

After that exhausting day, we were told someone was coming to see the rental at 7 so we had to quickly clean up the house and get out. I was starving, tired and not a fun person to be around but I got it clean and we got out. And then we got fed so as to stop me from being so hangry. The upsetting thing about all that was apparently the people who came were only at the rental for 10 mins so pretty sure all the cleaning was in vain. I am not surprised though, they have raised the rent they want to $1800 ($450 more than we have been paying) and I am doubting that anyone would really want to pay that much for this house. At the same time I am really hoping someone will!

And that is our week!

Subbing My Week Away

This week has been busy, busy, busy with work! I am amazed that we are only on the third week of school and I had three sub jobs this week. I did one half day for the third grade class I subbed in last week, one half day in Ben's class and a full day for the teacher Ben had last year. I am so grateful for nice people who watch Penny while I work and other nice people who get Lucy to school. It gives me a good opportunity to keep my foot in the teaching door and to make some extra cash because with buying a house, heaven knows we need it!

I was really feeling proud of myself with my first 2 sub jobs. I had better control over the third grade class this time than I had the last time (due to some bribery but hey- it worked!). I also felt like I did really well subbing in Ben's class. They are a good group of kids- minus the one kid who has similar Ben issues and melts down when things are hard and the other kid who is very dramatic and doesn't understand why her friends expect her "to be perfect." 

Yesterday with my third sub job, my confidence burst a little. The morning went really well with this first grade class (last years crazy Kindergartners). I was surprised to find that Ben's old teacher no longer team teaches because her team teacher is out on long term sick leave but despite not having that extra support it was still going well. Then the afternoon hit (a Friday afternoon at that) and the kids lost their ability to sit still and got much more harder to keep focused. It didn't help that I was lacking in material to fill time with and trying to stretch things out. It also didn't help that she had planned a first day of Fall walk on a day that we hit 90 degrees (probably hotter than any actual day we've had this summer). It was a rough afternoon but I did survive and at least there were no major incidents so that's good. Maybe my pride just needed a little humbling?

Subbing was pretty much my week. I did have one nice babysitter who is also a hair stylist and cut Penny's hair while she was there so no more shaggy Penny. Also, Friday night we had a Ward Emergency Preparedness Potluck (this was Tyler's ingenious idea). It had a good turn out, good food and I think people learned stuff ;) And today the 3 oldest kids got to go see "Lego Ninjago" with their dad and that is our week in a nutshell!

Closing Day

It was a busy week but I made it through with only a few meltdowns (from me). On Monday, after a Primary meeting, I cleaned the house like crazy and took pictures of our rental while it was looking all nice and clean. I was hoping that would save the Property Manager a trip to our house, he really creeps me out, but of course he still had to come to walk through later that week. Oh well, they have the pictures and they have done a walk through so I am now anxiously awaiting them to list this rental. We found out we will be able to move into our new home October 16th so I am hoping they can find someone to replace us at our rental for November and December.

Tuesday I had my first sub job of the school year. I subbed a half day for a third grade class. It was pretty good in the beginning, they were a little noisy but nothing unmanageable. However, when math time hit they became pretty challenging. I don't know what it is about math time but I can never seem to keep kids' attention when teaching it. I also made the mistake of being nice to the teacher and agreeing to stay an extra half hour. That meant after they got all rowdy during math I still had another half hour with them before being done. At least, it wasn't the worst job I have had. I am subbing for them again Tuesday afternoon- at least this time I will hopefully miss math time. Fingers crossed!

Thursday we had our final walk through of the home. Sometimes I have a hard time not focusing on the draw backs of the house and I struggled with that when we were walking through. Afterwards we drove through the neighborhood -it really is a nice neighborhood- and we got to see our neighborhood beach and it is super fun. We also met one of our neighbors who was kind of a spunky, older lady. All these things got me more excited. I know this house doesn't have everything we want and it definitely could use some beautification but it is OUR home and it is going to be fun making it our own. Thinking about our nice little neighborhood and getting in there and really settling in and decorating it does make me excited. I am eagerly anticipating October! 

 

On Friday we officially closed which means we are now official home owners! I finally feel like a proper grown up!Penny did such a good job while we signed all the papers that we decided she definitely deserved a Frosty.

Friday night we went to a party at a friend's house to celebrate National Rice Krispy Treat Day. It was super fun and all my kids got super overloaded with sugar, Ben came home with a tummy ache. Maybe he'll learn his lesson about eating too much sugar?

Friday night Tyler officially finished our new table. After having a giant table, this normal sized table seems SO small! But he did a really nice job and I am excited to put it in our new house. Next up- matching chairs!

Labor Day & School Begins

The weather cooperated and gave us a warm Labor Day so we spent our Labor Day at Spring Mill Pond with our neighbor Stefanie and her 2 kids. Tyler stayed home to work on the table which was fine since Stefanie's hubby stayed home to do some work as well. That meant that we got to talk to girl talk while the kids built an amazing sandcastle village and played in the water. We were there for about 4 hours with no major incidents so it was a perfect beach day.

The next day was back to school for Steven and Ben and the start of Junior Kindergarten for Lucy. All the kids were up early and excited for the day. I heard Lucy shout upon waking up, "Penny, it's school day!" They all got ready and even let me do their hair and take lots of pictures (I always think that it's funny that Ben likes his hair spiky and Steven likes his flat). There was only one tiny problem with the pictures- I totally made Steven's sign wrong. He is NOT repeating Third Grade- he is in fourth this year. I didn't even realize it was wrong until I was scrolling through the pictures I took. Super embarrassing. So I made a new sign after school and did some picture retakes but they didn't turn out nearly as well, he was much more grumbly about the redo.

For Lucy's first day, she only had a half day and they asked parents to come with them. Tyler worked from home so that he could watch Penny and take the boys to school. I immediately discovered that her new school, Country Oaks, is definitely not the same as Kurtz. Kurtz has a very organized drop off routine where the kids have designated spots to stand it, an older student that watches them and then teachers come to get them. Country Oaks was chaos. Everyone just gathers in front of the doors and rushes in when they open. It makes me very nervous for leaving Lucy. It might be awhile before I just drop her off into the crazy.

The rest of her day was pretty unexciting. They sent the parents off to a meeting where we were encouraged to donate our time and money to their school. While we were at the meeting she basically got free time to play with the toys in the classroom. Then when we, the parents, came back Lucy and I went around the school finding different important places (like the library, the cafeteria, etc). After that it was time to go home. 

Wednesday Lucy had a full day of school, Thursday she had no school and Friday was another full day. She has come home from school fairly indifferent, not upset but not excited. So far she has told me that they have learned to stand in line with their "bubble and tails." This means they close their mouth like there is a bubble in it and they put their hands on their "tail." She also told me that they had a nap time and it was really boring. Despite boring nap times, I think she likes school but I kind of wish she had more enthusiasm so I could feel better about sending her off to school at the young age of 4.

Ben seems to be off to a good start. He is way more confident about going to school this year and he seems to love his teacher and his class. It is so nice to see him improving emotionally at school because he certainly still has emotional melt downs at home. He also had no problems with pick up at the end of the day which has been a little unpredictable since Lucy's school ends at the same time. I can make it to the boys school, I just am pretty much the last parent in the car rider line. Tyler picked them up Friday and that was nice, I am hoping maybe he can continue to go to work early and do that but we shall see.

Steven also seems to be off to a good start in FOURTH grade (not third :)). He says his teacher is not strict (as others have told him) but when asked if she gets mad at other kids, I was informed she yells at at least one kid a day. So I guess he doesn't view her as strict since that kid is not him. I am just relieved that he seems to meshing ok with her.

I love this silly group of kids and weirdly enough, I do miss them and all the crazy they bring when they are home. It is really quiet with just me and Penny but at least I have been fairly productive with that quiet time. I have managed to pack some things like books and knick knacks, I have sold a few things on FB Marketplace, I have done some rooting through of cabinets and drawers...I feel like I have made some real progress on the moving front which is good since we aren't exactly sure when we will be moving. Apparently the contract just said that the sellers have to be out of the house by Nov 1 so we are not sure when they will actually be out. We close on Friday and they are supposed to have reached a decision by then. Moving stresses me out and not knowing when we will be moving stresses me out but I feel that this is the house for us so everything will be ok. Trying to think positive and remain calm :) 

Next week will be busy because I have a sub job Tues, the Property Manager of our rental wants to come take pictures of the rental sometimes so I have to pretty things up, then I have visiting teachers, plus we have to do another walk through of our new house and go in for closing Friday. SO I really need to focus on positive thoughts and remaining calm right now! Wish me luck!

Zoo Fun, Etc

This week started out rainy and no fun but on Wednesday the weather took a turn for the warm so we were able to have a fun day at the beach with friends. We were at the beach for almost 3 hours and I feel like we could've stayed even longer but unfortunately we had to get home so we could get ready for Meet the Teacher Night (which actually started early afternoon). The kids were having so much fun though- making sand castles, pulling each other around on boogie boards, finding cool shells and rocks and even finding a dead fish that they kept on re-finding, until someone finally threw it away.  

After showering off all the sand, we went to meet Lucy's teacher first at Country Oaks. Going to a new school for a school event is always an adventure because schools never seem to be equipped for a large amount of people to visit. When we got there (and we were about 10 minutes early) there was absolutely no where to park. We ended up parking in a field by the road in front of the school. Thankfully other people followed suit so that means it must have been allowed, right? After parking we had to stand in a line and wait for the doors to open and when they did, they only allowed a single file line inside so it took a bit to get inside. Once inside we had no idea where to go and there was no one to direct us so that was super fun. When we finally found her classroom Miss Lucy was super shy with her teacher but so excited to see all the fun things in the room and her new teacher seems super nice. I recognized her teacher from subbing and I really feel like she'll be good for Lucy. She was even excited to find out that I sub and wrote down my name for reference.

After meeting Lucy's teacher, we headed to the boy's school. We had absolutely no trouble parking there which was a relief and there were plenty of people to direct us to their classrooms- even though we didn't need it. Ben has the teacher Steven had last year. She was really excited to have him (maybe because she doesn't realize how much more challenging Ben is) and she even sent me a text to tell me how happy she was. I, on the other hand, am a little nervous about Ben having her. Her class last year was chaotic and I am not sure how Ben will do in a classroom like that. This year she has less kids though so maybe it will be better. I am trying to think positive. 

Next we met Steven's teacher. She is one teacher that I have never really met and I have heard very mixed reviews about her. The gist I get is that if you are not on her good side, it will be a very bad year. Steven is wiggly and chatty so I am not sure he'll be on her good side, so I'm a bit nervous for him.

Wednesday night, we went to the Hess home and watched "Aladdin" in their backyard. The kids had a blast and surprisingly the girls stayed up for the whole movie. It was such a long day between the beach, meeting the teachers and the movie but it was so full of all those things that make for a perfect summers day that I can't complain.

Thursday was spent recovering from Wednesday and then on Friday we went to the Zoo with Laci and her kids. We got their early for once so we beat the crowds which was nice. I feel like for once we didn't overdo it at the zoo. A lot of times we go and we do too much so the walk back to the car is a nightmare but today we did just the right amount and there wasn't too much complaining. It'll probably be our last zoo day for awhile with school starting soon so I'm glad we ended on a high note.

We also found out this week that we got the final approval on our home loan so we are officially going to be home owners. I am slightly terrified but excited too. I just wish we could teleport all our stuff into the new house because holy poop, 6 people's worth of stuff is a lot of stuff. When I think of all that's coming my way- moving and then going to AZ for 2 weeks and then Christmas it completely stresses me out so I am trying to take deep breaths and listen to calming music so I don't have a panic attack, ha ha! Wish me luck!