Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! It was fun to have Talon this year even though he was more excited about the wrapping paper than anything. Here he is with his knew rifle chewing on one of his animals. He got his first tooth on Christmas Eve. That might explain the chewing.The toy Talon is leaning on is a dinosaur that shoots balls out of the middle. He loves to lean on it like that and try to stand up. I think it's so funny. He usually only gets up to kneeling and then falls over.

Even since my last post about Talon, he has learned so much! He can now roll over from his stomach to his back. Pretty soon he'll be rolling all over the place. He is also scooting around a bunch. Whenever he is playing on the floor, he's in new spot every time I look at him. With his new Christmas toys he has more motivation to sit up so he can now sit up for quite a while on his own!

Mouse

We have always had a problem with mice in our house. We live right next to a big field which I'm sure has something to do with it. For the past few months, we have heard the mice running around in our basement ceiling. We have set snap traps and sticky traps which have worked in the past but I think the mice are getting smarter and learning to avoid them!

Yesterday, I was about to wash a load of laundry when I saw this in our washing machine.

Yikes! I felt dirty even looking at it. Obviously the laundry had to wait until someone braver than me could get rid of it. [Thanks Josh!]

Later that day, I was hanging out in our family room when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. You guessed it! A mouse ran out from underneath our couch, and yes I screamed which caused it to run back under the couch.

That night, Josh was laying in bed and saw a mouse run across the floor and go underneath our bed. He called for me and we cornered it behind the nightstand. Josh grabbed his blowdart gun and aimed at the mouse. It jumped away just as he shot. It ran out from under the bed and hid behind the dresser this time. Josh reloaded and aimed again. This time his hunting skills came in handy because he shot it right through the heart/lungs area.

I was hoping that was the same mouse I saw run under the couch, but it's hard to be sure since I heard another one running through our ceiling last night! I would like them gone, but we need a better trapping method. The washing machine doesn't really work for me as a trap. :) We don't want to use poison because then they would die in the walls and stink up the house. A cat might help, but we have cats around our house all the time. I don't really want one inside especially since we already have a dog that hates cats (he barks at them from the front window all the time). Is there another method out there other than those 2 that we could try?

Videos of Talon... stay tuned

I feel bad that I have let myself get so far behing in blogging! I feel like the only way to catch up on posts of Talon is to post videos and pictures we have of him from the first 6 months of his life. Once I find the cord that hooks the video camera up to the computer I will do just that!

6 months old!

Talon,

You are 6 months old today! I can hardly believe how fast time has gone since you were born and how quickly you've grown! We weighed you yesterday and with our rough estimate you are about 24 pounds! Here are some of the things you are doing:

• You love to jump. Right now you are jumping in your exersaucer and screaming with joy while you watch TV (another thing you love to do). You also love jumping in the Johnny Jump up that hangs from the doorway.
• You love people. You will go to anyone that reaches their hands out to you. They love to make you smile and laugh.
• You are very ticklish.... everywhere! Your chubby thighs and back are especially ticklish.
• You still don't have a lot of hair, but the hair that got rubbed off is coming in blonde (not surprised)
• You are starting to recognize people you know... especially mommy and daddy :)
• You love to chew on EVERYTHING you can get your hands on: toys, hands, hair, binkies.
• You can roll over from your back to your stomach and from there scoot backwards. You've gotten up on your hands and knees a few times so I think you will be crawling before we know it.
• You love bathtime!
• You hate eating baby food...so far. We've tried carrots and green beans. The green beans made you push your lower lip out and cry. Cute, but sad at the same time.

Happy 6 month birthday!

It's been a while...

...since I updated our lives on our blog! So much has happened that most of the people that read the blog already know about, but they are big, important things that I feel I should document. So if you care, I will be back-posting about things like GRADUATION!, having our sweet baby boy Talon and the fun things he is learning, my incredible experience with getting a part-time teaching job and my first year as a math and science teacher. This is more for me to get these things written down, but feel free to comment on whatever you'd like no matter how many months ago it was!

I got a job!

It's amazing how things fall into place in unexpected ways. In February and March, I spent 6 weeks in an 8th grade math class as a sub. By no exaggeration, it was torture. I wondered every day if I had chosen the right career path. I like to think that we had more good days than bad, but the word good in this case is relative. I almost quit after a few days after a particularly horrible day, but I decided to stick with it. I wanted to have fun there, but it seemed like the more I had fun, the less classroom control I had. So, I had to be mean, and I hated being mean, so I was not enjoying myself. I knew there was a better medium between being mean and having fun, but I couldn't figure it out as a sub. Close to the end of the 6 weeks, I had a student ask me if I was mad that day...
Student: "Are you mad today?"
Me: "No I'm not."
Student: "That's a first."
Might as well stick a knife through my heart! I cared so much for these students. There is no way I would have stuck around the whole time to be tortured if I didn't!

I hoped more than anything that an experience as the actual classroom teacher would be better. It had to be! I waited a couple months to let the icky feelings from the sub job to settle and then started looking for a teaching job. I only wanted to work part-time so I decided to try for a part-time job and if it didn't work out, then I was not meant to have a teaching job.
During the process, I got an email from the assistant principal from where I was a sub. He said they were going to have a math teaching position and that I would be at the top of their list if I decided to apply. I let him know that I wanted a part-time position so that they wouldn't get surprised if they decided to hire me. I took a resume to the school and waited. During the next few weeks, I applied other places and waited. After about a month, I decided to email them and I got a call back the next day asking to schedule an interview!

The principal talked to me before the interview, "You don't have to worry about anything. You've already proven yourself here, we just have to go through the interview process, but you're at the top of our list." Great!
During the interview:
"We have 2 math positions open and their both full-time. Would you consider teaching full-time."
"I want part-time, if I have some time to decide then I could consider a full-time position. How much time do I have to make a decision?"
"We understand. We need a decision by tomorrow."
I felt great about the interview. I had a job if I wanted one, but I had to decide if I wanted to work full-time or not. I went to my job at the university. While I was there I got a call from the school. "We really don't want to lose you, so we're going to offer you a part-time position teaching math and science. Think it over. You have the job so let us know if you want part-time or full-time." YES!!!! I was happy to take the part-time position! Such a relief!

I can't believe we are already halfway throught the school year. I love teaching!
Student: "Did you know that you are a really good math teacher?"
No I didn't but thanks for letting me know. My experience as a teacher has been 100 times better than subbing! I'm glad for both experiences because the first taught me a lot about myself as a teacher and the second has allowed me to use those things I learn and have a good time as the teacher in the classroom.

The birth story... read at your own risk (it's not that bad)

June 17th: Our 3-year anniversary. I think my water broke, but I'm not sure. Josh comes home from work early in case he needs to take me to the hospital.

June 18th: 3 AM. I really think my water could have broken. It's so frustrating not to be able to know for sure! It was a small leak if anything. We drive down to the hospital and they admit me to labor and delivery. They test for amniotic fluid but the results are negative.

June 22nd: Josh is at work and it's late morning. I still think my water has broken so I call the doctor. They say to come in. My doctor is out of town so I go to another doctor in the same office. She does a different test and it is positive for amniotic fluid meaning my water is broken! It's not 100% but she tells me to go up to labor and delivery because they will most likely deliver the baby that day! I knew I should have brought our bag for the hospital!

Early that afternoon: Josh comes to the hospital. They do a test called amnisure which is very accurate. The results came back quickly saying that my water had broken!

About 4 PM: They start the Pitocin to induce me. It's not what I wanted. I would have preferred to go into labor on my own, but with the risk of infection with my water broken, it was best to have the baby sooner than later. Josh leaves to get the dog situated, get cleaned up and grab our bag.

About 5 PM: Josh comes back. The contractions are really strong! I can hardly move without another contraction starting! It was impossible to get comfortable or have a moment to relax.

About 9:30 PM: Contractions have been getting stronger and stronger, but I'm still only dilated to 3 cm! I know I need to relax and I'm in a ton of pain, but I was worried an epidural would prolong things since I wasn't that far along. I had pictured being able to get up and move around during labor but because of the nonstop contractions and having the fetal monitor on because of the pitocin, I was constrained to one spot. I had had enough though and decided to get an epidural.

About 10:30 PM: Dilated to 5.5 cm. The epidural took about 30 minutes to kick in, but once it did, I felt great! I could finally move and relax. I could still feel the contractions but they weren't painful.

About 11:30 PM: 10 CM dilated! Yes! I really felt the urge to push at this point. The nurses had me wait an hour before pushing. They thought that I would be pushing for a while, so they waited until the end of that hour to call the doctor. I thought they were crazy! For some reason, I didn't think I would be pushing that long.

June 23rd about 12:30 PM: Luckily, the doctor was already there for another delivery. They finally let me start pushing. After 4 pushes he was crowning! They went and got the doctor and 1 1/2 pushes later Talon was born! It was so unreal when I first saw Talon. I couldn't believe he was mine! He arrived at 1:03 AM. They put him on the scale and it said 9 lbs and 5 oz!

I couldn't believe he was so big and he fit inside me. We were all thinking he'd be around 7 lbs. Even thought things didn't go how I expected them to go it ended up being perfect and I feel really lucky that everything went so well and quick! I'm so lucky to have such a cute sweet boy and I'm glad he decided to be a part of our family.

Graduation!

You might be surprised to hear this, but I have a hard time talking about myself/accomplishments. I don't like being the center of attention, it's awkward. Don't get me wrong, I like being recognized (as I think most everyone else does), but it just seems awkward to me... Someone: "Wow congratulations!" Me: "Thanks" awkward silence.... see what I mean!Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I feel like I'm treated differently (not necessarily in a good way) when people hear of certain accomplishments which is why I tend to not bring them up to people other than those close to me. I'm not different than anyone else! It's probably also why I postponed writing this post for so long. It's dated May 7th (the day of graduation), but it's really December 29th, 2011. So sorry for the awkwardness ahead of time, but here we go.

Despite all the awkwardness (my own doing of course), it was a fun day. We to a walk clear across campus (a major accomplishment at 7 1/2 months pregnant!) I was at the very front, so I got to walk next to Jim, my faculty escort and coolest professor ever.

Here we are at the college of science ceremony. Jim is on the right side of the picture. Another really awesome thing about graduation is my uncle Dave not only got to be there because he is with the board of regents, but I got to sit by him (he's the one in black on the left of the picture) and I was lucky enough to have him hand me my diploma! We had a good time during the speeches by the Dean of the college and Jim. They were hilarious! I felt bad I had to bore everyone after their speeches with my motivational speech. I'm just not that funny. :)

Here is Jim during his speech/introduction of me talking to Talon. He said I only have one talent and it is that I can read minds. This is him telling Talon to never try and fool his parents because I can read his mind. I wish I had a recording of his talk. It's one of those things you never want to forget!

Oh, did I mention that I was valedictorian. I have to admit, graduation wouldn't have been as fun if I didn't have the experiences I did because I was valedictorian. I did give a speech and will post a video of it really soon! Thanks to help from Jim and my sister-in-law Miya, I think it turned out pretty good. Thanks everyone for making graduation such a fun experience!

ERINN'S SPEECH COMING SOON!

To be or not to be... a teacher

I just have 2 and a half more weeks of subbing. Some days I can't believe it has gone so fast. Other days... I have wondered if this is really what I want to do with my life! We've definitely had our share of good days and bad days (mostly good), but February 14th was the all-time low. It seemed like everything went wrong in every class that day!

1st hour: Prealgebra. "Why don't we every do anything fun in this class? I hate math!" This was after I had spent the weekend agonizing over the lessons I would teach that day and planning something that I thought was fun and not just another boring day. Oh, and to top it off, the Smartboard in the classroom was glitching so I couldn't write on it. I had to wing a geometry lesson for the first 2 classes on the chalkboard.

2nd hour: Prealgebra. They would not SHUT UP! :) Sorry, but that's exactly what I felt like saying. This was the worst class of the day by far. It was the same lesson as first hour, but they just did not seem into it and were doing everything to resist the different teaching style I was bringing to the table. I finished the lesson by just writing without talking so those that were paying attention might get something out of it. I gave them the assignment, but most had already given up at that point, they didn't care to try.

3rd hour: Prep time. Finally a break...feeling completely defeated and hopeless. They hate me, have no respect for me, I don't know how to teach them... these were just a few of the thoughts going through my mind as I began to cry. Something I never did when I was student teaching. I pulled myself together enough to go talk to the Assistant Principal. He had great ideas for me to try out for that class the next day... "It won't be an easy fix, but it won't be impossible either." ...thanks. At that point, I was desparate for any ideas because they sure weren't coming to me in my desparate state.

4th hour: Algebra. Praying for at least one class to go well today, just one! Different lesson this time. I did some examples on the board and the class was completely confused. Another disaster. Another something to fix tomorrow.

5th hour: Algebra. Scrambling to figure out a different way to teach it. I think it worked, but they were still confused. I was so out of my element at the point I wondered if anything I was saying anymore made sense.

6th hour: Prealgebra. Almost done! Oh yeah, this class has the toughest students of the day. I'm so exhausted at this point, looking back, I don't remember much about it. I think it went ok, but could've been better. At least it was better than the first 2 classes.

After school, I felt like CRAP. There's no other word to describe it. There aren't very many days where I have felt so awful and hopeless. I didn't stay long after school. I didn't have much brainpower to accomplish much anyways. I was beginning to wonder if I really wanted to be a teacher... if I could be a teacher. I even thought about quitting as a long-term sub and letting someone else deal with it. There was no way I could survive the next 5 1/2 weeks with every day going the way this day had.

Well, those feelings continued through the evening and all night long. I didn't get much sleep thinking about the challenge that lay ahead of me the next day to turn things around. I did a lot of praying and even got a blessing. The main thing I remember from that blessing that I was blessed with progress. Things would get better...

...and they did. The next day, I used the suggestions I had been given and they worked! It wasn't perfect by any means, but the day went 100 times better. I had fixed what I could and was glad I felt some sort of success that day to keep me going.

Even though I have had some bad days, most days have gone well and make me sad that I'm almost done. I'm thankful for those bad days, though because they have taught me things about myself and teaching that I never learned as a student teacher.

Things I've learned:

1. Not to take things so personally. It's not my job to have every student like me or like math for that matter. It's my job to teach them in the best way I know how.
2. There will always be bad days, but things would never get better if we didn't have bad days to learn and grow from.
3. Live in the moment. I can't fix every problem by agonizing over it. When I have time to relax, I'm going to take it and not think about what could go wrong. One or two hours of the day should not ruin the rest of my day or weekend.
4. The best classroom management tool is to let the students know you care. While I care about each one of my students, I'm not perfect at communicating that to them all the time. On the days I do succeed with that (even if it's just one student), I am a happier person, and the day seems to go much better.

I know now that I do want to be a teacher. The successful days are so rewarding and there is always something to learn and opportunities to grow, especially when things don't go as planned.

Boy or Girl?

We got to see our cute little baby today and it turns out we were right... it's a BOY! They said everything looked perfect at the ultrasound so we feel really blessed about that. I love this picture of his cute little nose and mouth. Seeing him close up just makes everything so much more real! See you in about 20 weeks little guy!

By the way, I start the substitute teaching tomorrow so no more being in limbo. Ready or not, here I come!

Limbo

I feel like my life is in limbo right now. My next big adventure is subbing for a teacher that is going on maternity leave. She is due February 5th so I could start subbing any day now!!! The closer it gets, the more anxious I get knowing that I could get a call today asking me to be there tomorrow ready to teach 5 classes of 8th graders! I feel like it's one of those things where I won't feel ready until I get there. I've visited the classroom a few times and I'm somewhat familiar with her procedures. She even has a detailed outline of each day and the worksheets I will need to use. There's nothing to stress about there. I guess the main thing I'm worried about is making an impression the very first day that even though I'm a sub, class still needs to function just as well as it did with their own teacher. I've been visiting the classroom so the transition can go as smoothly as possible... I guess I just feel like that first impression is so important and I need to be ready for that with very short notice... but I don't feel like I'm there yet. I don't know what more I can do to feel ready. I guess I will just have to wait for that phone call and make the best of it! Hopefully the first day will go smoothly and I won't have to worry about it! Sorry for the rambling. My thoughts are all over the place right now. I'm guessing after the first day I will feel a lot better about it, but until then....

On a lighter note, we find out whether we're having a girl or a boy in 6 days!!! I'm so excited! It's like Christmas all over again but better. I'm excited to be able to do some shopping for the baby and paint the nursery. I've been feeling the baby kick more and more which is amazing! I am 19 weeks today so 1 more week and I'll be halfway there! I can't even believe it.

Our Best Bites

A friend told me about this blog that has really good recipes that are perfect for people that aren't the best at cooking (like me) or just looking for new, really nummy recipes (me again). We tried out their Baked Chicken-Bacon Alfredo and it was delicious. Just browsing through the blog, it looks like there are a lot of keepers there. I love how each step has a picture so you know exactly what it should look like.

I made it with a jar of alfredo sauce because I'm lazy like that but I think next time I will try it with their Guiltless Alfredo Sauce. Looks easy enough to me! I also left out the artichokes... I'm a wimp I guess. I've never tried them before so I decided to make it with things I knew I liked. If anyone reading this tries this recipe with the artichokes let me know how it goes! All I know is that it was delicious without them! So good!

Oh, by the way...

Josh and I are excited to announce that our little family will be growing this year! I had my 3rd doctors appointment today and it was incredible to hear our baby's heartbeat, a strong 155 beats per minute. I wish I could somehow take that sound with me so I can listen to it whenever I want. Amazing!!! We are both way excited to become parents sometime around June 28th.

Right now I'm 15 weeks along. It's still hard for me to believe that I'm already in my second trimester. I have had some morning sickness, but it seems to be getting better. I've starting showing some. I feel like I get bigger every day! I can only imagine what that will be like for the next 6 months.

This picture was taken at our ultrasound at 9 weeks. Just a little peanut, but I can already tell he/she will be a cutie.
Josh and I both think it will be a boy, but we will find out for sure (assuming the baby cooperates) on February 7th. Both my sisters that have kids had boys first, but both of Josh's sisters that have kids have girls first so I guess that doesn't tell us anything. I'm perfectly happy whether we have a girl or a boy. I just want a happy, healthy baby (but I still think it's a boy).