Good Luck

Several weeks ago BJ and I watched a short blurb about parenthood. Specifically, how bed time has changed from before and after children. Before children you say "good night" after you have kids you say "good luck."  This is so true in our house now days.  We could sleep or we could be walk a mile.  It has gotten to a point where I wake up in the morning and can't remember if I was up or not.  I have to check the fitbit. The other night I walked almost 300 steps. In a room that takes about 25 steps to get to and 8 steps to walk from one side to the other, that's a lot of steps.  The fit bit also lets me know how long was awake during the night.  So each night BJ and I crawl into bed look into each other's eyes pick a night from recent past where we almost slept through the night, wish we get that, and say "good luck." We then roll over and go to sleep...for an hour or two. 

It's awesome. I love parenthood.

Reason #264 Why I don't get work done at night

Number 1 reason is I am exhausted at the end of the day.

2 is I just don't want to.

Then there are a whole bunch more with number 264 being Allison not wanting to sleep. As long as she sleeps before 11 I won't be too mad. 

She is cute though.

My Kids

I use that term a lot.  I mean a lot, a lot.  I use the term to talk about my biological children, you know the ones that sleep under the same roof.  I also use that term to talk about every single one of the children on my caseload.  Some of the kids on my caseload I have had for 3 years, some even longer.  But after many days together, good and bad, I look at those kids as my kids.  Something bad happens to them, I hurt and want to fix it.  When something good happens, I celebrate with them.  Something funny happens, I laugh.  Going forward I will talk about my kids.  Sometimes it might be the Okel kids, others it will be my school kids.  It might be obvious which is which, but don't always bank on that.  I mean the other day one of the kids ate a piece of dog food, and another ate  the tip of a pencil.  Guess which one happend in my house... I'm not telling!

But here is a cute picture from newly crawling baby that is getting into EVERYTHING.  This one really is my very own baby.

Garage Door

Several years ago the garage door decided that it didn't like cold weather.  It just stopped opening and we would have to disconnect it and open it ourselves.  Leaving wasn't so bad, it was the getting home part that was horrible.  Last year about this time we went out and bought a strong, powerful garage door.  I really think BJ was getting sick of me calling him and complaining about the thing.  The rest of last winter was beautiful, I was able to pull up to the house and pull right into the garage.  I was only recently reminded of this event due to Timehop reminding me about my Facebook excitement.

Tonight coming home from work, I have both kids in the car, it is a scorching 2 degrees outside, and the garage doesn't open.  I figure I must have hit the wrong button, so I hit it again.  Still nothing.  I hit it again, I see the light on in the garage and I quickly remember how we almost started a fire in our old opener when it froze shut.  I park, and run in the front door to check the garage from the inside.  Well low and behold, I found the problem, the doohickey that connected the motor to the door was not attached.  Don't worry, I got this, I can dead lift a door, easy peasy.  I mean I did it a bunch of times while pregnant, I got this now.  I fling the door open, and it flew up hitting the arm and hearing pieces falling off.  I look around the garage and hope to find the screws that just fell off.  I found A screw and put it aside, then bring in the car and the kids.  When BJ got home he found the problem and the real screw.  After several moments in the cold garage and a run to Home Depot, the garage is fixed again.

P.S. We are not billionaires, we did not win the Powerball.  Guess I will head to work tomorrow, and all my lofty dreams of what good I could do with the money will go to the back of my mind.  

What can I do?

The words I can't hate more, "What can I do?" I usually hear this after I tell the boy child to turn off the tv and when I tell him technology is not an option.  Gee, I don't know maybe you can play with one of the thousand of toys you have in the play area.  He needs a specific toy to play with and 80% of the time he doesn't like my suggestion. Now in all fairness he has a bunch of games that would require me to play with him and since I have to deal with Allison that doesn't always work out. But he also has a bunch of other things he can do.

Yesterday I heard it again, "what can I do?" Jokingly I replied, " read, feed Alli, change Alli, make breakfast." He chose to feed Allison. I was going to say no, but there was no real justification as to why I should say no.  What's the worst to happen, she look like a hot mess when she is done? That happens anyway. Go for it kid.

I put her in the chair and went off to make her food, when I turned my back he put a big on her and was talking to her to tell her he was going to feed her. This is what happens next. 

These two love each other so much. Allison thinks Elijah is the best thing ever and will scream in joy when she sees him. Elijah thinks Allison is just the best and loves her more than words can express. I am blessed with the relationship they have and hope it stays around a while. 

I did realize that the open mouth to get the kid to open their mouth is instinct, and she was a hot mess when we were all done.

School the Week After Break

School life has odd roller coaster effects.  Sure there are several "normal" roller coaster moments but definitely more odd ones, especially if you have never worked in the schools.  Some of the normal ones are beginning of the school year high, followed by the end of October low, followed by the Thanksgiving break high, then the sky rocket high of December.  It continues but one of the crazy time of year is coming back from break longer than a three day weekend.

I find it funny how long it takes kids (across the whole school) to get into the routine of school, and how quickly it takes them to fall out of routine.  I mean I even fell victim to it this year as I was sitting in a meeting with my stomach growling.  The typical return to school is as follows:

Day 1: Kids are so happy and excited to be back at school
Day 2: Kids are average getting into school but by lunch some of them are starting to fall asleep and be crabby over little things.
Day 3: Some of the kids are sleeping, some of the kids are crying, some of the kids just cannot function, while other kids are bouncing off the walls.
Day 4 and 5: Things start to get back to normal and we go on about our ways until the next break.

These are some things I have heard in the three days back from break from kids:
Don't worry, my ears are not missing, they are just under my head phones. (Thank goodness this kid told me this, I was just about to wonder where his ears went).
(Teacher: What did you do over break?) Wake up.
I went in an elevator, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.
(While crying) I miss my mom. (Teacher) Do you want snack? (Stops crying immediately) Okay!

Things you do as a parent that would be socially unacceptable to do to anyone else.

In recent years my life has been spent teaching children who are socially acceptable and unacceptable ways to act.  Most of my kids are black and white thinkers. For example, you can't lie because lying is wrong, so when Susie asks if you like her brand new hat you say, "no, it looks,funny." They don't see the harm or understand that they hurt their feelings. 

Because of this hyper awareness to the gray area of life I find myself with my baby thinking, "wow, if this wasn't an infant or even my own child, this would not be socially acceptable. Here are a few:

Picking their nose

Smelling their butt

Make them stop whatever they are doing to go to the bathroom

Stick your fingers in their mouth

Examine their teeth

Taking off their pants in public

I'm sure the list could go on, but it is late and the baby is teething and has some serious gas keeping her awake, therefore it's off to bed for me. 

Dog hair, the story of my life.

I feel as though Rescue's dog hair is every where, in our food, on our clothes, everywhere. Some times we even feel like the hair is following us. I make cookies I'm pulling hair from the batter, I putting away clothes straight from the drier, hair.  Today was the ultimate hair find though. 

Why yes that old be inside the block. How did it get in there? I'm stumped.

8 Month Baby

This is my 8 month sock fairy. Give her a sock and she will slime it.

This is drool baby! Eww! You can almost see her three teeth with her missing front tooth. Don't worry though she popped her front tooth yesterday.

Say Hello to my Little Friend

I'm still trying to figure out a name for my new baby, but if I name her we will be best friends and I won't leave her behind.  I hope.  So here I am presenting...

The brand new Fitbit One.  Here is my rational behind a One instead of the kind that you wear on your wrist is because I don't want one on my wrist ALL THE TIME.  That was about it.  That and I had a pedometer a few years ago and loved it but I was missing the fact that I couldn't tell me the number of stairs I did a day.  Then I was pregnant and I really didn't want to see how few steps I was taking because I already knew it was way below where I should be.  But new year, new tech.  Now I'm off to go find some new clothes for it on Amazon!  

P.S. Elijah and I went on a date early this morning to see Star Wars...AMAZING can't wait until the next one.  

Moving Forward

I am real sure that no matter how hard people have tried, no one has ever been able to change things that have happened in the past.  Now if I am wrong I would love to know the secret, because there are several things that I wish I could have done differently or not said or have not done.  With the understanding that you can only change what happens in the future, and even that you only have so much control over, I am going to go into the new year with some goals/resolutions, it always helps to have them semi public so I can look back a them.

1. Increase the healthy aspects in my life and decrease the not so great one.  Eat better, and become more active are up there on the list, but also say no to the yummy sweets and junk that magically shows up in the staff room at work.

2. Make my lunch (the night before) more frequently.  I really shouldn't be eating out as much as I do.

3. Spend 15-30 minutes after the kids go to sleep 4 nights a week to pick up the house so it doesn't become so over whelming.

Yeah we will see how that goes.  I will let you know.

2015 in a few pictures

Snow Storm of 2015

 Easter (growing a baby)

 April in the Daffodil fields

 May brings with it a new baby.  Big brother loved her at first sight

 June birthday trip to the zoo

 My birthday boy

 July boat trip

 August- 9 year anniversary

 Baptism

 Halloween

 Christmas

 Allison wearing the dress her mommy wore when she was 6 months old

 My loves