rachellc

06:40 am: This is a rare moment.

It is 6:40AM. I am dressed, Carson is sleeping. There are 10 minutes before my parents will be here to pick him up, and I can't think of anything to do. Our dryer is not working, so I can't progress in laundry. I am getting a baked potato at school so I don't need to make my lunch. I can't pick out Carson's clothes because I can't turn on his light. I suppose I could read an article from my newest magazine, but if I start, I inevitably won't finish.

I think I am going to find a potato soup recipe. It's a shift day for Andy, and he doesn't like it, so it would be a good day to have some.

Okay, problem solved:)

08:02 pm: Carson is going to be an octopus for HAlloween. I saw how to make the costume in Parents magazine last night and I am pretty sure that will be THE costume. Now I just need to find four pairs of color tights/tube socks.......

09:22 pm: My new job started this week, and though I am not doing a lot yet, I love going. The people are so great:) More on that later.

I also have a sick child and that is not so great. I stayed home with him tonight while Andy is at his brother's birthday party. My mom is coming over tomorrow to help me out because I really need to clean my house and run some errands and Andy will be working. I am so ridiculously blessed to live near my parents right now. They actually came by twice today: once while I was at work to give Carson a stuffed Scooby-Doo they got him while they were in the Quad cities today, and then once tonight because my momsaw apple juice flavored pedialyte and thought that since I have always had a thing for apple juice (okay, at 27 I am still drinking 1-2 juice boxes every morning) that he might like that kind. He'd been refusing the kind Andy got him, as well as diluted gatorade, diluted formula, smahsed popcicles, water and jello. He didn't do a whole lot of the apple juice, but he did drink about 2 oz., which is the best he's done really in a day and a half. Thanks, Linda.

07:09 pm: so long summer
FIVE DAYS OF SUMMER LEFT!!!!!

What happend?

I cannot believe it is almost time to start school. I also can hardly believed we survived this summer. It is very weeird not to be getting a classroom ready----- rather a very, very small office area. I went into my school today to go over some more things with my principal and now that my work table has arrived, my space looks even smaller, and it has......... NO STORAGE. In a way, that is sort of blessing (at least I am telling myself) because it will FORCE me to be minimalist and there will be no way my space can be messy. However, the nature of the space (with a wall made of book shelves that still has books on them....) is not lending itself towards being inviting to kids. But, I'll figure it out. There will not be a lot for me to actually do right away, so it will give me a chance to figure it out I guess.

My giant son is 11 months old today. I can't believe it! He is walking (slowly) along furniture and the perimeter (sp?) of his crib and pack n play. He is super busy all of the time and sicne I am super alone with him a lot of the time, it gets tiring:) He is also starting to mimic a ton of words and sounds and now has a "vocabulary" of several words. His best words are ball and puppy (pup-pup), but he also makes attempts at bird and apple (because they are in his BELOVED "Farm Book"). Though I will be sad to leave him again for work, I am secretly relieved to get a break. On days like today, where Andy has 24 hours overtime tomorrow, so we will have been solo for about 52 hours straight, I cannot get anything done.

I finished my summer class and now have only six remaining. I have 2 weeks until my fall class starts. Because I have been at NIU for what seems like eternity, nearly all of my classmate friends are now finished/students teaching. There were a few nice people in my summer class I hope to see again though. I now feel like some of the older woman in the class who have been in the program for so long. Really, it has only been 3.5 years, one of which I took off, but when I think back to my first grad class in the spring of 2006 I can hardly believe I am the same person. Completing important school work with a little one and a husband with crazy hours is hard. Since Erie cuts off about 30-40 minutes of my drive time, I am looking forward to doing some homework at Northern in the library for an hour before class each week.

We are ordering new living room furniture on Saturday. My red couch is going to the basement to make way for a chocolate brown couch and rocker/recliner. Hopefully we will also be getting new tables and a corner entertainment center. This color scheme change also makes us need new curatins. Ideally, this will all bbe up and in place in tiem for Carson's party, but it all depends on if the furniture comes as fast as the man says it will......

I visited my friends Kim and Becca on Tuesday after staying the night at my brother's after class. Kims daughter Molly is almost 6 months old and is starting to minutely interact with Carson.

And now I had better put away some laundry before the tiem runs out on this unexpected nap Carson is taking........

08:22 pm: lots of tidbits
I am so tired!!!!!!!!!!!

Things have been really busy the past few weeks. I have been staying up late trying to get my grad school homework done, and Andy has been working overtime as much as possible for extra cash. So Carson and I have been spending a lot of full days and nights together trying to accomplish things.

I start my new job as the RTI SPecialist at Erie Elementary School on August 11. I met with my new principal a few weeks ago and I am really excited. Tomorrow (while I am having a yard sale and hopefully making mad cash) I am hoping to finish my intial supply and furniture order for my workspace/office. Although I am enjoying being home with Carson, I am actually pretty excited for this new challenge. Andy, Carson and I are headed for Indy next week so I can attend an "RTI intensive training workshop." I think it's going to be really great for me.

My grad class is going well. It's about working with families, and I have taken a very similar class for my special ed endorsement several summers ago. Three of my "class friends" are in the class, so that has been fun. Due to the fact that I took a year off, many of my friends are done, or have just one class left.

I am happy to report that I've been doing a good job keeping up with my TV obligations. I watch a lot of DVR'd shows between 6-9 AM (although, Carson has been getting up for the day around 7 quite a bit more!!!). I really have gotten into So You Think You Can Dance. Usually I am hit and miss with it until the last few weeks, but I've been keeping good pace.

About a month ago I had a wonderful sleepover with my 3 friends and 3 babies ( well 4 if you count the one growing inside my friend Rebecca:). Although they were only here about 24 hours, and everyone said we were crazy for having 4 babies 10 months and under in one place, it was just a peaceful smooth time. Carson enjoyed playing with 3 of his girlfriends and I really enjoyed having some "Mommy Talk." My mom was so funny because she made my dad bring her by to "drop something off." She then proceeded to hold both of my friend Nikki's twins, as well as Kim's daughter. Then she handed me a twenty and said, "Get some pizza for this sleepover."

And we did:)

I was just thinking about the fact that I missed Allie's birthday celebration last year because I was having all of those tests for the crazy migraines I was having. What a long year it has been!

07:02 am: Yesterday I got a paycheck dated May 31. It was a relief, but it's funny to think I should have had like $2,400 in my checking account this morning, but oh well. After a lot of talking to Andy last night, we decided I will give two weeks notice today. I don't really want to, but it seems mroe professional, and I also have to clean out my office space and tie up some loose ends, so if I quit immediately I'd have to come in and do that stuff without being paid. Since we've replanned our finances for the whole summer, one more check, regarldess of the fact we may not see it until a month after I am supposed to get it, will be good.

What a stressful summer. The one thing I said going into this summer was that I wanted to enjoy it. Last summer, I spent the whole time stressing about work, and it made being pregnant even worse, and then I had all of those crazy optical migraines......

But in better news, Carson got the green light at the doctor for tons of new foods! Yesterday he enjoyed some yo-baby peach flavored yogurt for the first time. He LOVED it! I have a ton of baby recipes that use cheese and yogurt, so I'm excited to start trying those with him. He had two shots yesterday as well. I am really proud to say that I forgot to freak out about getting shots until we at least got to the doctor's office. Then in my mind I realized I hadn't been praying about them so I said the same prayer like 100 times in a row:) He is now 21.01 lbs and 27 inches long! His weight gain has slowed down a lot these past few months--- he only gained about a pound in the past 3 months. He did grow 3 inches in that time also.

**** I just finished watching last night's Bachelorette..........
Ummmm, did they totaly just blab that one of the final two fellows was having "performance problems" on the fantasy suite date and that ruined it? And Jillian is crying about how she now has no idea if the guy is right for her. OH PLEASE. If you need to have sex with the guy to decide if you want to be with him forever, you may as well just flip a coin. Now that more guy is going to be outted on TV so everyone can ridicule him and I'm sure its going to be the go-to interview question for everyone afterwards regardless of whether or not he wins....... Sheesh!

08:00 am: Well, today marks one month I have not been paid. There is not much to say besides the school seems to be going under, and it's been really, really hard. I feel stressed about it pretty much all day every day. So, I'm going to be resigning omoorw, effective immediately. They will still owe me 2 pay checks, and I'll be out about $3600 they'd be paying me the rest of the summer, but I can't afford to keep driving there and fronting the money for snacks and supplies.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that I do have a new job starting mid-August. But it's going to be a long tunnel.........

08:16 am: Transitions
I like change, but I hate transitions. I hate the time in the middle where everything is fuzzy and undefined.

School has been out for almost 2 weeks. My room still is not entirely packed up. The summer program is in limbo. We have not gotten paid and pay day was 6 days ago. They are hoping to be able to pay us on Monday. I cannot even begin to tell you what problems this is causing......

I've been kind of bummed because it seems like summer has not really begin because I have all of this stuff hanging over my head, yet, the days are ticking away anyway.

Sidebar: I just got up and checked on Carson, who put himself to sleep! Yay!!!! That's another rocky transition in itself...... I am unwilling to let him "cry it out," yet I fully know that the time has come to stop rocking him. So I've been working through a book called The No-Cry Sleep Solution. I like it, and I think it is going to get us where we need to be, but it just takes a lot of time. Right now I'm still in this phase where I'm logging all this data about his sleep---how long, what we did for an hour before and so forth. I knew that I would be tackling the transition away from rocking/bouncing when school got out, but I did not have a plan in place (because who has time to do that when school is in?) and everything just started happening.

I'm also trying to transition Carson into some finger foods and self-feeding. That one is a little more fun.

Back to being angry about Immanuel:

The daycare is SO LOW on kids right now. I wanted a hands-off, phase-out summer, and it's just not happening. I will consider it a victory if I do not get a call form them today. Sound familiar, I believe I was saying the same thign last summer. UG. My mom is going to swoop down and help me on Sunday to FINIHS my room. At least, when that is done, that will be a big relief (I hope). They are going to struggle all summer to make payrolol though, and that is going to be a big stresser in the PRatt household. I was thinking about trying to get another job, and just saying I AM DONE NOW, but then, I would have no summer with my kid. If only I could Andy to calm down about it, then I'd calm down.

I am also looking forward to transitioning back into a grad student:) I needed this year off. I really could not have balanced Immanuel's demands, my demands at home and classes. Pending we can pay for it with my absent paychecks, I'll be back in class June 22. I'm really excited that a few of the girls who I was in a lot of classes with are going to be in the class. Many people who were in with me are probably finished/finishing now, so I'm glad to have 3 of my favorites in this class.

On the docket today is heading into my mom's to start cricuting some things. I am actually hoping to start Carson's birthday party invites. Though the party is 3 months (and one day but who's counting:) away, I know thigns are going to get busy once my class starts and the daycare has mroe events going on. Much to Andy's chagrin, I am hoping to do a very hungary caterpillar theme:) I'm inviting mostly people with little ones. When Marshal and I were little, our parties were always "kid" parties. We tried accomodating Andy's huge family for the baptism party, and it was just too crazy. Plus, I have felt at a couple of the parties we've gone to for his cousin's kids were just big crowd, food, and presents. Call me crazy, but I've allready got some games up my sleeve:) Plus, this party planning is my fun project for the summer.

Okay, now to the shower!

06:26 pm: Carson had his six month pictures today (I know, 1 month and one day late:) and I think they are going to be amazing. We are in the Baby Club with the photographer who did our wedding, and he just does such a great job. I kind of fibbed at work and said I had an appointment so that I could sneak off and go before lunch. My kids were wild in the morning, and just as wild when I came back.

I have the possibility of making a little (and it would probably just be a little) extra money this summer. I will still be doing my directorship at Immanuel through July 31, but I have the chance to pick up some hours at SAFE where my mom works. They are not desperate for workers, but desperate for people who can actually handle children. I'm sort of torn. I'm leaning towards not doing it, so I can have most of the summer with Carson, but if I am not working full time next fall, we can certainly se any extra banked money. I am guessing it probably would not be enough to make much of a difference.

Only two more school days until a four-day weekend. Woo-hoo! We will be in St. Louis part of that for a baseball game and (weather permitting) the zoo with my family. It should be a fun time, and hopefully the new vehicle is a little more roomy.

I was really productive on the baby food making front this weekend. I did more applesauce, pears, peaches, and plums. I also made bananas earlier in the week, but since they do not have to be steamed, take literaly 2-3 minutes to prepare (if that) and look disgusting when frozen/kept in the fridge, I decided not to make any mass quantities. If I have time on Monday when I'm off school I am going to do some second food type combos like apples and pears together.

08:45 pm: I resigned on Monday, but my administrator asked me to think about coming back only part-time. She was off today so I didn't get a chance to talk to her about it---about the fact that the answer is no.

I also got a call back for a job and have an interview to be an RTI Interventionalist in Erie on April 15th.