And the door reopens...

I found out last week that I am un-fired...My principal told me that I was no longer terminated. Supposedly, HR is saying that it was a mistake. They never said, "Sorry for making your life hell for the last two weeks." It was a simple, "We want to let you know that you have a contract for next year." And then, the next part, "But, we don't have a position to place you in yet." So, I still have no idea what I will be doing next year. People keep saying that I should be happy to have a job, but if it's a job that makes me miserable, I would rather have no job at all. I am trying not to say that to many people because it makes me sound like a whiner, but I think I would have rather been fired and taken unemployment than have to do a job that I don't like. I guess the fact of the matter is I love working with kids. The job that I have now was not my thing, but I did it for a year and I survived. Maybe even if it's a job that I don't think that I would like, I would end up enjoying it. The fact is that I am a teacher, no matter what I am teaching, it is what I do, and I will do it to the best of my ability with a smile on my face. :)

Sisters!

In my dreams for my family, I never imagined my life with two daughters. I don't know if it's because I am not a "girly girl", but I never pictured myself with only girls. Even though I never dreamed it to be this way, it is nothing short of a dream come true.
I love seeing them play together, dance together, sing together, laugh together...
Although there is some fighting going on these days, the good times completely outweigh the bad. A moment of simulataneous giggling will give me joy to last through the five minutes of two little ones crying at the same time after arguing over a purse or necklace.
I look so forward to seeing them grow up together as sisters and as friends!


Dancing in the pool!

Movie night!

Body slamming Adilyn - her favorite thing to do!

Easter 2011

We had another great Easter celebration at Grandmother Henderson's house. Both girls loved her huge eggs! They were just decoration, but that didn't stop them from opening every one they found just to make sure. It was our second Easter egg hunt of the weekend, and the girls had tons of fun. On Saturday, we went to my friend, Ashly's house for an egg hunt in their neighborhood. It was fun, but there were a lot of kids, and Adilyn was nervous, so she didn't get after it as much. She was the biggest and fastest one at our family egg hunt, so she had a great time. She was going from here to there, running and looking for eggs everywhere! Kacy just wanted to grab all the eggs and try to carry them around. She didn't quite get the point of the Easter basket. Every time I looked at her, she had jelly beans in her mouth, so it was obvious that we have another little candy monster! It was great, as always to spend time with the family, and to see the cousins play together. Adilyn loved holding little Connor. Every time he would start to cry, she would pat his head, and say, "Don't cry, little Connor."

Swim Lessons - Year 2

Adilyn did great at swim lessons this year! She was very excited from the minute we started talking about it. Her only problem was that she was upset that Tylie wasn't going to be doing them with her. I was worried that she was more excited about the idea of swim lessons than actually doing them. About a week before swim lessons were to begin, she started saying, "I can swim by myself. I know how to do it all by myself." That's some confidence! She hadn't been in a pool since last summer. When we got there, she was her normal little self. Obedient, timid, and so sweet! She did a good job, and the teacher told us at the end that she did good, she just needs to talk more. :) She said she had fun, and that's all that was important!

Everything was fine, and she improved as the week went on. She put her head in the water, got pretty good at moving her arms and kicking at the same time, and climbing out of the pool. What she did not master was the slide...oh the slide. The very first day, her teacher went down with her. The second day, she was nervous. Her teacher was treading water waiting for her to come down. I told her, "I'll go up and get her to come down." I truly thought that if I went up there and talked to her that she would go. Not the case...I even tried to push her, gently of course, but she wouldn't go! So, here we came, the three of us, back down the stairs. I was so mad, not at her, but at myself for trying to make her do something that I knew she was scared to do. She tried to go down the slide a few more times, but never quite made it. One thing that her teacher kept trying to get her to do was put her head in the water for longer, and the last day she kept her face in the water for 10 seconds! She did great, much better than last year, and that was a relief. She'll be a swimmer soon :)

And a door closes...

I have been a teacher for ten years. Not to be cocky, but I think I am a pretty good teacher. Okay, let me rephrase that...I may not be a great teacher (because I am kinda lazy sometimes), but kids enjoy my class. Maybe they like the fact that I am laidback and relaxed. Maybe it's because I try to make learning a little fun and a little different. Maybe they like it because I try to treat each student like an indvidual, and I am real with them. Who knows? But none of that mattered last week when Katy decided to terminate my contract. Long story short...when I took the job as an elementary PE teacher, I had to resign my dual coaching contract and be rehired as a new employee. Because of that I was on a probationary contract like a brand new teacher would be. Katy had to lay off over 300 teachers on probationary contracts, and I was one of them. I am not sure exactly how those 300 were chosen, but regardless, I was laid off. I kind of expected it to happen because they are going down to 1 PE teacher for our campus, but it was still a shock to get the news. I held on to a small glimmer of hope that I would just be reassigned somewhere else. When they called me down to the principal's office, it was such a surreal moment. I walked in, sat down in the same spot that I was interviewed in just one year ago. As they told me all the information, I kept remembering how I felt in the interview. I was hoping with every fiber of my being that I would get this job. Now, looking back...what a mistake that was! Had I stayed at Beck, I would have been fine. I would have not even been on the radar to be laid off. You never know how the choices that you make will play out in the big picture, but I sure never thought I would be unemployed just because I took a new job! I feel sad, disappointed, nervous, and uncertain; but I know that something good will come of all this. Unfortunately, I can keep saying that all I want, but it doesn't change the way I feel right now.

Pockets

Kacy is super silly, but the silliest thing that she does is put her hands in her pockets - ALL THE TIME! I don't know how or why she started doing it, but any time her pants have pockets, those hands are in there.
Hands in her pockets at the park, at a gymnastics party, walking around the house, playing outside....everywhere! It's hilarious, but strange at the same time.
The other day, her dream came true. I put her in a skirt, which usually means no pockets, so sad. When all of a sudden, she discovered what I already knew to be true. This skirt had pockets! They were not only pockets, but they were the best pockets, ever! She could even fit her sippy cup in one of them and her hand in the other.
Goofy girl!

"My Kacy!"

So, now that little Kacy has officially started talking, I get to share all her silly things that she says! Yay! The first thing that she loves to say is "My Kacy!" about anything that is hers or that she wants to be hers. Anytime we see any type of water when we are our driving around, she yells, "Wawawawa!" I like to think of her as our little water detector. :) She loves to scream "Airplane!" and point to the sky anytime there is an airplane flying around. She calls cats, "meow-meows". Adilyn is still "Adla" in Kacy speak. She can say "Willow" and "Zoe", which usually come out Wiwooo and Ooey. Anytime there is anyone around that is her age or younger, she calls them a "baby". She never says "yes", it's always, "ya" and it comes out sounding like a little Dutch baby or something. I love hearing her learn new words, and it seems like she learns new ones everyday. Adilyn keeps saying, "Mama, Kacy can say _____ now. She is really growing up!"

Camping 2011

Buddies!

I think this is our 3rd or 4th Family Fun Camping Trip in Navasota at Dana's parent's land. They are always a lot of fun, they get a little bigger each year, and Kacy never sleeps! Well, I take that back - one year I was pregnant, so I guess she slept then! :) The ones where she was actually born, we slept up in the house because I was too nervous to even try sleeping in our little tent together! I remember both of those years, she was up all night for some reason. Cory and Adilyn were old pros camping! They had stayed in the tent together every year. Anyway, last year I convinced myself that no matter what I would try to get her to sleep in the tent with all of us. Adilyn and Cory went up on Friday night, and Kacy and I were planning on going Saturday afternoon. It was really nice to have an evening alone with Kacy. I realized how little that she actually gets my undivided attention. :( We slept in that morning, and we headed out. After a little trouble with directions (go figure), we got there around 1pm, just in time to eat lunch. Adilyn saw us pull up, and of course, ran to me. She immediately had to have all my attention again, which was okay because Kacy wanted to see Cory. Adilyn was completely filthy The hayrides are always fun, adventurous, and full contact! The tractor pulls a huge trailer around the property. The property has millions of trees, so there is no way to keep all the paths clear. As you ride on the hayride, you also have to duck and dodge branches, and the challenging part is keeping them from hitting the kids! It's still always a lot of fun!

Another camping activity was fishing. Adilyn really wanted to do it on her own, so here we were dodging again. This time we were dodging fishing hooks! We didn't catch anything, but as fishing always is, it was a great experience just trying. I was kind of glad that we didn't catch anything because supposedly the fish in there were pretty big. I don't think our Mickey Mouse fishing pole, meant to catch Gooey Fish, would have held up in a fishing battle with a catfish!

Strangely enough, the favorite activity every year is the massive dirt pile. I think that the dirt pile started out as just a place to put some extra dirt, but then we all realized that it was the kids' favorite spot to hang out. It gets pretty dirty out there, but all the kids have so much fun climbing up it, running down it, and just getting dirty from head to toe! This year Wyatt and Adilyn were playing on it. They were taking turns jumping off the one side. Wyatt would grab Adilyn's hand and help her up, it was really sweet. Then, Wyatt started riding this little plastic motorcycle down the hill. Adilyn was watching him, but obviously not really wanting to try it. But, Wyatt, being the sweet boy that he is, asked her if she wanted to try. At first she said no, but then he kept asking her and asking her. I was just watching the whole situation go down to see what she would do. Finally, she attempted it. She fell about halfway down, which I figured she would, and then she cried, which again, I figured she would. She was fine, but it was just an interesting thing to watch her give in to "peer pressure" already. It was very clear to me that she didn't want to do it, but she did it anyway. Pretty funny, but I hope she learns her lesson about peer pressure as a kid when it's about motorcycles and dirt before it turns into beer and cigarettes! Adilyn rode on Redbird again. She was a lot braver up there this year. She held on all by herself, and didn't want Cory or I to walk with her. Kacy, who is usually my little daredevil, would not even sit on him. You never know what they are going to want to do!

We had a fish fry for dinner, and Cory was the cook. Then, it was time for S'Mores. What a fun day!

Finally, it was time for bed. Throughout all the fun we had all day, this was the moment that I was dreading...We didn't have a big family tent, so we were going to have to sleep in two little tents. To avoid arguing, we decided that all the quiet girls would sleep in one tent and the snoring daddy would sleep in the other. I knew that it wouldn't be a big deal if Kacy cried a little bit, but I wasn't about to let her scream and scream with all the other tents (with kids trying to sleep also) so near us! I decided it would be best for all of us to go in the tent at the same time. Of course, it took us forever to get in our jammies and diapers. Both girls were being really silly, Adilyn kept trying to hide her pull-up and Kacy was flipping and rolling all around. I was not getting any more confident by the way they were acting. I got all the blankets set up, and I was trying to calm everyone down by using my soothing night-night voice. Adilyn kept coming over by Kacy, then she would grab Adilyn's hair or hit her and Adilyn would start crying. It was getting worse by the minute. Finally, I got Adilyn to stay in her little corner and lay down. I noticed after a few minutes, she was quiet. Kacy, unfortunately was not quiet! That girl was body slamming me, jumping on my head, doing front rolls and talking, oh the talking! After about 30 minutes of chatter and craziness, I took her out by the fire. She was still wired out there! I then decided to walk around with her in the dark, which was quite treacherous! Carrying an almost 2 year old, walking in pitch dark, with sticks and holes...I was just waiting to bust my butt. Much to my surprise, she got quiet and she was out! I thought for sure, she would wake up when I put her down, but she didn't! She slept the whole night. I didn't because I kept hearing things, and it was not that comfortable in the tent. Oh well, at least we made it through the whole night in the tent for the first time :)

Looking for stars!

Pretending to sleep...

These annual camping trips are so much fun, and I am very grateful that we are friends with the Hrobars, and that Dana's parents are so generous with their time and their land! We make memories on these trips that will last forever.