Subbing

Well, the semester started off slow (as I figured it would). The first week that school started back up I didn't have any substitute jobs. This is to be expected as things get rolling. Then the second week came and I only had one. I was thinking that maybe I wasn't going to work enough and that I might just go crazy being at home, by myself, all day every day... That has quickly changed!

I was at the high school in a Chemistry classroom one day. Then I was called to be a "sub for the sub" in 3rd grade. The teacher is on maternity leave and her substitute was on a cruise for a week. The kids then referred to me as "the sub for the sub."

So anyway, I was the sub for the sub at the grade school for the whole week. I loved 3rd grade. I really like that age, they are kind of at the point where they start to learn more advanced things. I really enjoyed the class and they were fantastic all week long.

Then, their sub, who was supposed to get back Sunday, was delayed in Florida (oh darn) because of storms in Atlanta. So they called me to sub again on Monday and while the kids were thrown off because they knew she should be back, they were excited to see me again. (That was cool, having them excited to have me back, I must be doing something right!) So I enjoyed that day as well.

Today I was in a 1st grade class at another grade school. I like this age as well, but this class was super challenging. They are a "young" 1st grade class, most of them still being only 6. This makes them more immature than most 1st grades and it makes for a very chatty and disruptive group of kids. I certainly had my work cut out for me and with some help from other teachers in the building, they soon realized that I wasn't joking and they had to be respectful. So all in all, it turned out to be a really good day, with a rocky start!

And now begins the fun part of busy subbing days. Tomorrow I'm in 3rd grade, Friday I'm in the junior high and Monday I'm back in Pre-K! I am so looking forward to all of the different ages. This is exactly what I wanted out of subbing, to see which ages I like best and which schools I feel most comfortable in! I really actually enjoyed the challenge the 1st graders brought today. My patience is continuing to grow, I am realizing!

Blog Makeover

Everyone's blogs always look so cute and I never really looked into making ours cute too! So, since I've started this new job (well, actually I haven't started yet, just waiting for a phone call), I have had lots of time to get things done at home. So today it was blog makeover day.

I have always loved blues and browns together, and all who have seen our house know this for sure :-)! So anyway, here it is and hopefully I'l have time to update more often now that I have some free time.

I haven't had any sub calls yet. It's only the third day of school this semester, so I don't really expect any this week anyway. It has been REALLY nice to have a week off. I haven't had a week off in a VERY long time. The only time I've had time "off" is to actually go on vacation (like to Italy!) but no time off to be at home and get things done.

So I've gotten to work big time. I started by completing our wedding album. I had printed the pictures and had the actual album, I just needed to crop and scrapbook. It turned out really nice and it was really fun to look through all of those pictures again. It actually made me tear up! So I'm glad to have that done. Now there are other scrapbooking things I need to get done... maybe tomorrow!

I also cleaned our house top to bottom on Monday. Our house is not messy by any stretch, I mean, it's just the two of us here... But I needed to take down and organize all of our Christmas decorations. I wanted to wait until this weekend, but since I do not know how much time home I will have coming up, depending on sub jobs, I decided to do it when I was home. So I organized all of my stuff, labeled it, and put it away. Then I proceeded to dust, vacuume, pick up, organize, mop, etc... the rest of the house. Jeremy was very surprised at the end of the day. I also began my new exercise routine and found a work-out DVD that I really like. It is called "Walking away the pounds" with Leslie Sansone. It's a little cheesy (what workout video isn't) and it makes me laugh that all of the ladies doing it smile the whole time! But it's basically a walking DVD with a 5 day workout that incorporates weights. It really is an intense workout (especially the 2 mile), but it was an easy way for me to start doing that at home. Jeremy really likes doing it too, although he loses weight very quickly when he exercises and has already lost like 5 pounds (yeah, it's only been a few days)! Isn't that ridiculus! I think it is! So he thinks maybe it's a fluke and he'll gain it back, but this happened the last time we exercised daily too and he didn't gain it back (until he stopped exercising).

So anyway, I've had lots of cleaning time, scrapbooking time, and relaxing time. It's also nice to be able to get things done during the day. We had to go get our fingerprinting done for our adoption. We also have to get things notarized, I need to have a physica done, and we need TB tests, so my flexible schedule is proving to be increasingly helpful! The only downside is that I am used to being around tons of people all day and being at home by myself makes me go a little stir crazy! Looks like we just need to whip out the gift cards I got for Christmas and have a date night this weekend!

Honestly, this makes me look forward to being a stay at home mom (when I have someone to stay home with). For right now, I'll have to make do with stay at home wife until the sub phone calls start piling in :-)!

Past, Present, Future

Past year:

This past year has been a whirlwind! So many major things have happened in our lives. It really seemed to fly. Here are the highlights!

1) We went house hunting. I really enjoyed this, I love looking at other people's houses and I love to decorate, so the decorator in me loved the first few months of this year!
2) We went to Italy, what could get better than this? We will never forget our trip to Italy, with all of its crazy, mixed up events and the wonderful people we went with! We really enjoyed seeing the universality of the Church and it really molded our faith in a very good way!
3) Bought a house! We closed on our house the week we got back from Italy, talk about a crazy week! We absolutely love our house and do not ever want to move. I frantically worked to make it look finished and achieved that in about a month. (Now I kinda wish I would have slowed down, cause there's nothing for me to organize or decorate now :-))
4) Went to California! Neither one of us had ever been there and it was a very cool experience. We went for David and Stephanie's wedding and Jeremy was the best man. We had a blast going with friends and although we were in "podunkville U.S.A" (really, there was NOTHING there), we really enjoyed our trip and what a beautiful reason to vacation!
5) Bought a new car! We did this the week before California. We seem to always do major purchases right before or after a major vacation! Our old car bit the dust big time and we bought ourselves a nice car that we got a great deal on!
6) Spent a lot of time with family and friends over the summer. While I won't pinpoint one occassion, we really have spent a LOT of time this year with family and friends. We are very busy traveling and hosting people and we love every minute of it. Our friends and family are so important to us and the tough points of this year are so much easier when there is a group of support around you at all times. Thanks friends and family, we LOVE you all!
7) We took my family and my parents to Starved Rock, Grand Bear Lodge, for their 25th wedding anniversary. We had a blast playing games and cooking dinner and having a special blessing Mass. What a blessing to have two parents who are such great marriage role models and take their committment to each other as priority each and every day!
8) We found out that we will not be able to have kids of our own. While this may not seem like a highlight, it was a huge relief to at least have an answer for our infertility. This brought us hope as we can now move forward in our future for our growing family. God has great things planned I am sure!
9) Took a trip to Minnesota to see our most wonderful friends! We love our visits with them and it is a major struggle to leave everytime. Their kids make us smile and we can't believe how much they grow in just a year! We got to go to Mall of America with them and celebrate our own little Christmas, a few weeks early. We did our annual Christmas cookie decorating (and licking) fest and helped them decorate their tree as the kids insisted they wait till we get there! I think we enjoyed our visit so much, we might have to go up there twice this year!
10) Began (unofficially I guess) the adoption process with a visit to Catholic Charities. We had all of our quesitons answered by a case worker and were given a one inch stack of paper to begin filling out (we were told this is the first of many trees we will kill). We will hopefully have our first classes at the end of January and by June be put on a list to wait!

Present:

Well, yesterday ended my job at the day care, as I work to pursue my dreams as a teacher. It was a hard day, lots of tears shed, but lots of smiles as well. It was great to enjoy my babies as they had a wonderful day and I got lots of hugs! I will really miss coming in each morning and having two of three of them (who are really really attached to me) wave and smile at me as I walk in the door. Then they usually fuss while I take my coat off as I can't get to them fast enough to give them hugs!

I will begin my new job on Monday, well, maybe... I am going to be substitute teaching, so I may have a few days off as not many teachers take off the first of the year. A few days off will be nice, I could use a little time to do some scrapbooking and card making!

As for today, we will go to Mass in an hour, then we are hanging out with my good friend Annie and her boyfriend, Mike. And I believe I was challenged to a snowman making contest by my hubby! I told him we may have to wait until the temperature gets above 20! We shall see!

Future:

Here are some of my goals for this next year. With a new job, a new year, and a new routine, there are some things that I would like to work towards.

1) Be a great substutite teacher. I really am hoping to enjoy my time in various classrooms and with lots of different students. It will help me know what classes I like best and what grade levels I am geared towards!
2) Work on my scrapbooking and card making. I loving doing it, but since we have married, we have spent a lot of time moving and rearranging. It is the one that that I do not have organized the way I would like it. So with the potential for more days off and more time in my evenings since I get off earlier, this is one thing that I would like to really work on and do more of. It is such a relaxing thing for me and such a nice quiet activity to do while Jeremy is studying hard.
3) Jeremy says one of his goals this year is to pass another Actuary Exam! With that would come a bonus and a raise that we really could use!
4) Save more money! Isn't this always a goal? Well, with the house and furniture and car and bills and medical testing and you name it, we weren't so good at this as the year progressed last year. However, this year we have a goal in mind. Adoption is not cheap, so we HAVE to continue to save more and more in order to have a baby. So we are working on tracking every dollar we spend in a month and only using Jeremy's paycheck (which we currently try at, we just use a little bit of mine every month at the end when we realize his wasn't enough). We can do it as we write out our budget with everything, we just need to be more careful and have less impulse buys with big things. So this is an achievable goal, we just need to stay on top of management for it!
5) Lose weight! Honestly, I have really let this be one thing I slacked at this past year. I stopped exercising because I was just too busy and while we still eat fairly healthy, there is more that I would like to do there too. So now that my job has changed, I am going to form a new routine and fit this in daily. I also learned this past year from my doctor about how exercise affects my PCOS. What I didn't know about it is that it is actually a result of how my body uses and over uses insulin. My body produces way too much insulin which in turn causes me to break down sugars too fast and since they are not broken down correctly, they are stored as far. So with exercise, it is actually worse to do aerobic exercise because that increases your body temperture and insulin production and will actually cause me to store my food as fat faster! Yikes, no wonder I had no success when I did exercise! So I am supposed to do a lot of walking and strength/core training. So for Christmas I received weights and a walking DVD along with a pilates ball. So first on my new years agenda is a work-out plan!
6) Eat better! Again with the PCOS, the more carbs I eat, the more I crave apprently. So we will be significantly reducing those and increasing fruits/veggies! I look forward to the challenge!
7) Hopefully get a baby in the year 2010! While this is not up to us, we hope that it will be this year and it is one of our goals to prepare as best as we can for our adoption and parenthood!

That was longer than I expected, but it helps me to write it all our, I can see how many blessings we have been given and it is so nice to see our hopes and goals for the future!

Happy Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God!

Jeremiah 29:11

It has been a long few months for Jeremy and I. We have been busy with work, raking lots of leaves, prepping our home for winter, Christmas decorating and preparations, trips to visit our favorite people, and lots more. Aside from all this, we have had a lot of medical testing done.

As many know, we have been trying to get pregnant since we were married. Basically it's been like a year and a half now. So when I had my yearly check-up, I asked my doctor if there was anything we could be doing to help us out. She had me in for some blood testing, to see if there was anything glaring. Now, this seems simple for most people, but for me, its not so simple. I have issues getting my blood drawn. My veins are super skinny and they roll really bad. I usually have to get stuck 4-5 times before anything will come out. And then my blood clots REALLY fast, so virtually nothing can be drawn. So after passing out in the dr. office and a series of pokes and prods and very ugly bruises, they found that one of my hormones is VERY high. After testing one more time to be sure, they had to do an MRI. Usually the reason for this hormone being high is brain tumors (YIKES). Well, that came back clear so they sent me to a specialist to see about getting that hormone level lower.

In a nutshell, after LOTS of testing, they found that I have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). While this is treatable and mine is not severe at all, they also tested Jeremy just to make sure everything was good there. Well, it wasn't. He produces about 1/100 of the amount of sperm that most men do. Of these small amounts, virtually none of them move.

So what we learned was with my inability to regularly produce healthy eggs and his inability to produce healthy sperm, we most likely will not be able to have kids on our own. While there is still a VERY slim possibility, it is not likely and it certainly will not yeild the big family that we want.

This was a very hard reality for us to hear, and while we want to have hope, we also want to be realistic. We have prayed very very hard about this the last few months. It has not been easy and I don't think it will get easy any time soon. However, we know that God's plan for us is for us to adopt. This has been made very clear to us and we are ready and willing to accept that this is God's plan and it is how He intends for our family to grow. With that being said, we have begun to look into the adoption process. We have a meeting with a counselor at Catholic Charities next week to get all of our questions answered and are looking forward to that.

We know that Adoption is a long process and it is a lot of work. However, we are looking foward to the road ahead and we finally can move forward in our desire to have children. It helps tremendously that we know a lot of families who have adopted, some very recently, and we can see that a family is a family no matter what their make-up or blood. We also have prayed and discussed at great length the openness towards children of other races, backgrounds, cultures, etc... We really feel that our home is open to any child that needs a home. While we are going to do an infant adoption the first time, we are not opposed to adopting waiting children either in the future. Each and every child deserves a safe and loving home. If the child that needs us most is green with purple hair, we will embrace that child as our own and raise it in a loving, Catholic home. That being said, we are not going to limit our options, as this significantly increases your waiting time, but also could significantly alter God's plan for our family.

So what I would basically like to ask all of you is your prayers. We would ask that you pray for us and for our future children. We just keep reminding each other that there are children out there who need a home and we are a loving and willing home for whatever children God brings to our door. Again, we are very eager to begin the process, but we ask that you bear with us as this is an emotional time and a very busy time for us as well.

Jeremy's aunt sent us a wall hanging that has this Bible verse on it and we have always had it hanging in our kitchen. It wasn't until recently that we really read it and realized what an impact it had on our home and on our lives. Having this on our wall has become a reminder to us daily of God's grace and His goodness and His infinite mercy.

"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your good and not for harm, to give you a future of hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Job Change

Things have been crazy around here as always. We've been on lots of trips in the last few months, culminating with my "Birthday Bash" in St. Louis. We went to a Cubs/Cards game and had party box tickets and had a blast. We then went to the Old Spaghetti Factory (one of my favorite places ever). I think that's our last trip for a while. Of course that is not counting the mini-trip to Starved Rock on Oct. 17-18 for my parents 25th Anniversary party. And then finally topping off the year with our much needed trip to Minnesota to see our favorite family ever! We miss them sooooooo much!

Aside from all of the traveling, I have been really really missing teaching. I took a year off after student teaching since we were doing so many major things, like getting married, buying a house, buying a car, going to Italy, etc... However, after this semester started, I realized how much I really want to be back in a classroom. Therefore, I decided to go for it. Beginning in January, I will be quitting my job at the day care (which will NOT be an easy thing for me to do) and I will begin subbing in the Catholic schools in town. I am hoping to get a position in the fall then after that, my own classroom.

While it is super hard to leave somewhere that I have spent almost 5 years, I am really excited about this change. I will be working much easier hours than I am now, with a lot more time for getting things done around the house and spending time with my husband. However, I will miss seeing my babies every day, I will miss the awesome parents that we have, I will miss seeing my mom every day, I will miss all of the people. I will also miss getting lots and lots of baby-sitting jobs, since a day care is a prime place for that.

The other kind of negative about subbing was my summer plans... At this point, I'm don't need a summer off and we could still use the extra money. However, God answered that prayer as well and a family that I baby-sit for frequently was looking for a sitter for their 9 year old all summer next summer! How convenient as I am the one person they will leave their kids with overnight and feel comfortable about it. So basically I answered their prayers and they answered mine and life is good.

I am very ready for this change in my life and I am looking forward to a new adventure. So... If you know any teachers in those schools or are one yourself, if you need a sub, sign me up!!!

Updates

Busy is an understatement for our lives lately. We have had a lot of fun things happen this summer!

So besides finishing the house and finally having everything put away, we started to have serious issues with our car. The power steering went out a few months ago, but had gotten progressively worse since then. So it was like real physical work to drive our car. In addition, it was having issues starting off and on (not really what you want when you only have one car). So we decided to do a little car shopping. We researched and fell in love with the Toyota Rav4. We had a toyota and loved it and the amount of space it had, so we didn't want to lose that. We found a 2008 test-drive model, brand new, never been driven except for test-drives, on the Toyota lot. It was their basic model and was priced right where we wanted it. So we decided to go ahead and buy it before our car went completely dead. We traded in the Avalon and drove the Rav4 off the lot that day! We absolutely love the car and are so happy to have something reliable as our only vehicle.

We then went to David and Stephanie's wedding in California. We had a blast, it was so fun to go out there and so fun to see them get married. It is wonderful to go to good solid, Catholic weddings. You could just see the holiness and love of the two of them the whole weekend. I posted more pictures on Facebook, but here are a few highlights. The first one is the people we traveled and stayed with, Amy O and Justine and Jon. Then its us with the bride and groom!

We also went to Chicago for the Fourth of July. We went to see friends from high school and spend time with them. Again, we had so much fun and it was a wonderful weekend.

My grandma celebrated her 80th birthday! That's hard to believe because she acts and looks way younger than she is! But it was so fun to see all of my family and to see all of the people who love my grandma and wanted to wish her a happy birthday.

In addition, Jeremy got braces on his top teeth. This is to hopefully align his teeth so that his jaw can sit comfortable and be a more permanent solution than the yucky retainers he has now. So he of course was excited to get orange and blue rubber bands on his brackets. He gets them tightened for the first time in a week or so, so we will see how that goes...

He also found out he did not pass his exam, so he is continuing to study for 3F in the Fall and he's off to a racing start, studying 3+ hours a day, in addition to work! This means, I am filling my time with lots of baby-sitting, reading some good books, and keeping the house spic and span...

Well, thats it for the major things, but here's a look at our lives coming up:

This weekend: My cousin's bridal shower, going away party at SRBCNC

Next weekend: Our one year anniversary!!!! Weekend at Starved Rock

25th/26th: Mom's birthday girls day out, House Blessing Party

July's pretty full, in between, I am baby-sitting 2-3 times a week and Jeremy's studying! Hopefully August brings some down time!

Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend was completely wonderful.

It began with Jeremy taking his Actuary Exam. We will not find out the results for 8 weeks, which kind of stinks, but on a good note, that means he does not have to study for 8 whole weeks!!! So all of those things that I have put on his "Honey Do" list will get done now, because he has time! He thinks he did well on the exam, so we'll see.

Then, we had our "Date Day". We set aside a whole day to devote to each other. We got a ton of stuff done, didn't answer our phones and didn't worry about work, email, whatever else gets in the way. So we went shopping. Jeremy was in desperate need of some new clothes. He's worn his work clothes out to the point where they're not even Business Casual anymore and they should go to the rag pile. So after a lot of money spent at Kohls, he came out looking professional like he should. It was fun to pick out clothes together (not as much fun at the checkout line, but whatever) and now he has polos that don't look like they're from 1979.

Then we went and got some flowers for our house. We put this off so that we could do it together and we planted flowers around our mailbox (after I dug out all of the weeds). We got some porch flowers and it looks really nice now. We also picked up a concrete Mary statue for our front area. Jeremy has been dying to get one and we found one we like and it's the right size and looks perfect, so we put some flowers in front of her as well.

Finally, we went and got Jeremy's birthday gift. His parents and my grandparents and basically anyone who gave him anything gave him money towards a Wii. However, he said that he wouldn't buy it until after his exam so that he could actually enjoy it. So, a month and a half after his birthday, he got his gift. We got the Wii and Wii Fit and a few other small games and have enjoyed that now that there are not more pressing matters. The other part of the deal was that every box had to be unpacked before we could get it. I upheld my end of the bargain as we only have like 3 boxes left that are not put away. However, these require sorting and getting rid of things and that is occurring next weekend. Then our house is 100% complete, all our furniture is here, all our painting is done, carpet looks wonderful, all our stuff from our parents' houses is here, sorted, and put away, and our storage room is completely organized. My stress level shot down this weekend as all of those things were completed.

Then on Sunday we went to Mass and then came home to get ready for a cookout we had with our families. My family and his family as well as Amy and her family came over to enjoy the wonderful weather and our beautiful deck and patio/furniture. It was a lot of fun and we love to entertain. It's great to see them all and to enjoy time with our families and friends.

We then took a walk together around our new neighborhood and it was so nice to just talk with him without more pressing things happening all around us. I love spending quality time with him and just relaxing. It was so nice.

Finally my good friend Annie came over and we caught up and played some Wii and really enjoyed that as well.

All in all the weekend was completely wonderful and although it seemed like it was getting a little expensive at first, we were able to do some much needed errands, spend some much needed time together and enjoy the beautiful weather and our wonderful home!!!