Special Date

David has entered a hitting mommy phase. Yes, only mommy. He is also in a throwing stage. Everything gets thrown, and if it's at someone, its me. Yesterday, I was hit 5 times and had 4 cars thrown at me. Not our best evening. He doesn't hit hard and he doesn't hit any of the kids at school. Only mommy. He does throw toys at school, but not at anyone, just throws them in the basket at clean-up time (my fault, I am always throwing his toys in the bins in an effort to clean more quickly). If I tell him to be gentle, he signs sorry and nicely runs his hand down my face. That is cute.

I think Nate gets a pass because he comes home later. David and I come home by about 3:30. While he plays, I pick up, cook dinner, and incessantly say "No" (No you can't hit the dog. Mommy does not like being hit with a car. No you can't play in the dog food. No we can't play outside, it's raining.) We also play together or read some books when he will allow it. It's hard to cook dinner with a toddler pulling on your leg to be picked up. By the time Nate gets home at 6:00, I have already fought with David to eat dinner, to not throw his food on the floor, and tried to get him cleaned up. When Daddy gets home, all of the hard stuff is done and he doesn't hear "No". David loves Nate. He asks where daddy is all of the time. He is so excited to see Nate when he gets home.

Today I decided that we were going to have a special date to try and make mommy fun again. I picked him up from school and took him to Starbucks. He thought he was the coolest thing since sliced bread when we walked in. He picked out his chocolate milk, mommy got her Chi Tea, and we both got Petite Treats. David got a Carrot Cake Cup Cake and mommy got the Peanut Butter Cup Cake. I let David pick a place to eat and he jumped right up in the chair. He smiled and waved at everyone who walked by and loved his treat. I didn't have to say "No" once. In fact, I got hugs and kisses and tons of smiles. I called it a success.

It was a short lived success. As soon as we got into the car, I got hit, again. Sigh...I am so over this phase. I know he loves me, and I am glad he only hits me. Hopefully I can be the fun parent again next week while he is home with me on spring break.

Yay! Yay! Bye!

We spent the majority of the weekend at my parents house installing a water softener and a shower in their basement. When I say "we", I am referring to the royal "we" in that Nate did most of the work. I did put the shower together with my mom. Directions were poorly written and said 1 person could put it together - HA! It took 2 of us twice as long to get it together than what the directions predicted.
Anyway, since we were over there, my parents fed us dinner. We very rarely order pizza. Typically, we will go to Papa Murphy's and bring home some pizza to bake. When we do order in, it's a treat. Mom ordered some stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut just for me. When it arrived, this is how David reacted:
     David: WOW (when the doorbell rang - ours doesn't work, so he never hears it.) He then runs to the front door
     Pizza Guy: Hi little guy!
     David: YAY, YAY, YAY!!! (this continued as I took the pizza and we walked to the kitchen.) YAY, YAY, YAY!!!!
     Me: Are you ready to eat?
     David: Eat, momma, eat! Uh-oh, Uh-oh!
     Me: Uh-oh?
     David: (running back to the front door) Bye, Bye, Bye, Bye (While signing Thank you)

Maybe we should have people deliver us food more often. It was hilarious to watch him get so excited!

Adventures in Ft. Ben

Ft. Ben is a state park here in Indy. It's a lush green park amidst the hustle and bustle of the city and burbs. We are lucky enough to be a few minutes away, and therefore frequent often. We get an annual pass every year and spend many evenings cooking out and having fun. David loves to go to the park. There are open fields for him to run in, and several playgrounds to explore. Last week we were lucky enough to have a couple of warm days, so we made a couple of family trips to the park to play.

Here we are walking up to the slide that David loves.

A nervous mommy letting him go down all by himself.

WEEEEEEE!!!

Watching daddy come down. (He had to sit at the bottom and watch the next person come down everytime.)

Walking up with daddy

Trying out the big boy swing

Day Two - On the playground

On the big slide all by himself

Having fun with daddy

David is ready to go back again. Just need to wait for the nice, warm weather to return.

Outside, Inside

It has been cold and wet here for a while. Yesterday was the first day we saw a glowing orb in the sky for a while. David was getting tired of playing inside, so we brought the outside, inside.

We pulled in the Kangaroo Climber that we borrowed from some friends last summer. David loves this, even though he is getting too big for it. This must be done, of course, wearing rain boots. (His shirt is all wet because we had let him try drinking out of a big boy cup earlier.)

He went up and down, around, and up and down again. He even took his friend, Bear, for a ride.



It was a fun evening of giggling by all. The next night, he tried out his new shades at dinner. Mr. Joe Cool.





Things that bug me Thursday

I'm crabby. The weather has been cold and rainy for days now. I can't remember the last time I saw the sun. The kids at school are ready for spring break. Little do they know that the staff was ready a month ago.
This crabbiness brings me to the things that bug me.  Usually I can just ignore them and go on with my day, but when I'm crabby, I complain.

1. You are supposed to walk facing traffic, not with traffic. This is so you can see cars coming. You should also not wear dark clothes if you are walking and it is dark out. People cannot see you.

2. You are supposed to ride your bike with traffic. You are also to follow traffic laws, meaning that stop sign is meant for you to, buddy.

3. The turn signal is in your car for a reason. Use it.

4. If you are going to wait for my parking spot, that is fine, but please note that the word wait. If I walk out with a stroller, shopping bags, and a toddler, it may take me a few minutes to get everything in my car. The more you honk at me to hurry up, the longer I will take.

5. I will not go faster just because you get closer to me. In fact, I may slow down. This is especially true in a school zone. Back off dude.

Okay, I feel better.

Three years ago...

Three years ago today, I married my husband, Nate. It was one of the best days of my life. In such a short amount of time, so much has changed for me, for us. Let's go back...

Four years ago, I was living with my parents. I worked for two years in Batesville, IN at the intermediate school there. It was a good job. I also coached cheer at the high school. I wasn't happy though. I may have only moved 90 minutes from home, but it was a small town and I didn't know may people. The summer of 2006, I found an opening for my current job, applied, and here I am. I lived with my parents for about 6 months until I found a place of my own.

While living with my parents, I was also looking for love. It's not as easy to meet people in the real world as it was in college, so I turned to the internet. I met a few people, but nothing promising. Then I came across Nate's profile. Let the world know, I winked at him first! We talked for 2 months before I gave him my number. I knew there was something different about him, and I wanted to be in my own place before we met. No one wants to take a date back to there parents house.

We met on April 14, 2007. We went to Outback, but it was crazy busy, so, despite my gut telling me I shouldn't, I got in his car and he took me to a hole in the wall Italian place that everything thought (and still thinks) is a cover joint for the mafia. The food was really good, but they didn't accept credit cards. The owner is a grandpa figure. He would give us an IOU. I had my check book, so we took the safer route. Starbucks was up next. We talked for a long time, then he took me back to my car, only, I never got in. We ended up back at his place and stayed up all night talking. Great first date. I haven't been able to get rid of him since. He moved in with me shortly after, although we will tell David that he was "just spending the night with mommy."

Nate proposed Septeber 15th, 2007 and we were married on March 8th, 2008. It was an amazing day, depsite the snow, lost keys, and missing guests. My dad remembers how confident I was in what I was about to do - no questions. I wanted to get the show on the road and marry him already. He laughs because my sisters both asked him if they were doing the right thing, and they are usually the ones who are more confident in their decisions.

I look back and think how lucky I am to have found love in this crazy world, and I thank God everyday for bringing Nate into my life. Happy Anniversary honey! Here's to many, many more sappy blog posts and sappy cards.

ISTEP week in Indiana

ISTEP, or the Indiana State Test of Educational Progress, was this week. I am our school coordinator. ISTEP is not my favorite time of the year. Kids hate it, teachers hate it, and I am always the bearer of bad news to both. Schedules are crazy, the teachers get tired of saying "Please make your mark heavy and dark. If you want to change your answer, erase the mark you made and make a new mark." and the kids get tired of hearing it.

ISTEP has evolved over the years. The examples finally changed. Many still remember that a baloo is a bear, to wuzzle is to mix,and a yonker is a young man. These were the sample English questions used for every grade for many years (or decades). ISTEP is now given over 2 testing sessions - the writing section (Feb/March) and the multiple choice section (April/May). I still maintain that it is a way for CTBS to charge double on the boxes, lables, stack cover cards, school group lists, rulers, and formula sheets, since you must unpack and repack everything twice. Why test in 1 week what you can do over the course of multiple weeks. This year for the April session, I have 500 8th graders to test on 120 computers - someone might want to make sure I am still standing come May 5th.

In honor of ISTEP, I thought I would post some of the funny emails and cartoons I have received over the years. Enjoy!

Severe Weather Testing Protocols

1. Should a severe weather situation occur during testing, please remain calm. To display any kind of anxiety would be a testing irregularity and must be reported.

2. Please do not look out the window to watch for approaching tornadoes. You must monitor the students at all times. To do otherwise would be a testing irregularity and must be reported.

3. Should students notice an approaching tornado and begin to cry, please make every effort to protect their testing materials from the flow of tears and sinus drainage.

4. Should a flying object come through your window during testing, please make every effort to ensure that it does not land on a testing booklet or an answer sheet. Please make sure to soften the landing of the flying object so that it will not disturb the students while testing.

5. Should shards of glass from a broken window come flying into the room, have the students use their bodies to shield their testing materials so that they will not be damaged. Have plenty of gauze on hand to ensure that no one accidentally bleeds on  the answer documents. Damaged answer sheets will not scan properly.

6. Should gale force winds ensue, please have everyone stuff their test booklets and answer sheets into their shirts...being very careful not to bend them because bent answer documents will not scan properly.

7. If any student gets sucked into the vortex of the funnel cloud, please make sure they mark at least one answer before departing...and of course make sure they leave their answer sheets and test booklets behind. You will have to account for those.

8. Should a funnel cloud pick you, the test administrator, up and take you flying over the rainbow, you will still be required to account for all of your testing materials when you land so please take extra precautions. Remember, once you have checked them out, they should never leave your hands.

9. When rescue workers arrive to dig you out of the rubble, please make sure that they do not, at any time, look at or handle the testing materials. Once you have been treated for your injuries, you will still be responsible for checking your materials back in. Search dogs will not be allowed to sift through the rubble for lost tests...unless of course they have been through standardized test training.

Example 1)

 

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Example 3)

 

 

 

Example 4)

 

 

Example 5)

 

 

Example 6)

 

 

Example 7)