6 years...

I've been at DSE.... I started there in 4th grade with my BFFs... Kim and Leslie... plus Tiffany, who moved away to Oregon for  few years, but has joined us back here just this summer! Then we met Sarah and Marc who joined our team... and what a perfect team it was.  That first year...

Then, the next year we had all of us again, but I went on maternity leave with Zoe in October.  The day before I was coming back in January I was asked to take over the gifted class for the rest of the year.  And Leslie went on maternity leave in March.  Plus, Tiffany left midyear for another job.  Also, Sarah had taken another position in the school.  Kim and Marc were left...

That summer, I thought I would stay home for a few years and be with Zoe.  But, I still needed extra money so my idea was to have a day care.  BAD idea.  I can be a teacher... but not a day care provider.  So, I went back to teaching in first grade for the next two years because all that was open was first grade.

Then, I moved to second grade for two years... the second of those two years being last year.

This year I start a new adventure at a new school.  Why, you may ask.  Well... I have no freakin' idea!  I voluntarily chose to move towards the end of the school year for some various reasons.... the new principal is a former teacher friend and will be great!, it sounded like an interesting adventure, it's new, some of my friends were going... blah, blah.  However, the reasons to stay were great also.... many of my friends are at DSE, my team was awesome!, moving is a pain, etc.

So, I prayed and prayed and it really felt like God was telling me to go.  So, I put in to go.... and I got it!  But then, I started panicking and freaking out.  I didn't want to leave my friends, my team, my school, the staff... many of whom Hayden had from kinder through 5th grade and leaving meant Zoe wouldn't have any of them.  Going meant a new team, packing and unpacking boxes, learning new ways of doing things, and just not having all of my friends.  Although, there are a few good ones going!

Then, I changed my mind... and actually asked if I could keep my position at DSE.  As well as did another teacher who requested to go but changed her mind.  Guess what... we were DENIED.  Our positions were no longer since we requested to go to the new school and were accepted. 

Ok... I know some of you might be thinking... but you prayed and felt God leading you there, right?  Yes... I did!  But I'm also human and still freaked out!!

Needless to say... I am still going to the new school.  I have totally accepted that it's where I'm supposed to be, for some reason.  I came to terms with this one evening after a few glasses of wine.. .always helpful.  I have unpacked many boxes already and am going there tomorrow to hopefully finish and get as much done as possible so I can enjoy the rest of my summer... at home... not working!

Hayden turns 11

Can I just pass out now?  I mean, really?  This kid is 11??  And he's starting 6th grade this year.  Just wow.

Here are some highlights from his birthday celebrations....

THE chosen cupcake to hold his 11 candles.

The starting of a small household fire...

Trick candles... hahaha

Aunt Carrol trying to steal Zoe's cupcake... or ask her about her makeup techniques.

Hayden's audience.

Jonathan's gift.  A machete.  Such a pratical and safe gift for an 11 year old.

Great Grandma, Aunt Carrol, and Grandma

The science experiment... because what kind of Schmadeke party would this be without one.  The kids made instant snow.  (The next day we found it all over our patio.  When we asked Zoe about it, she said she was making snowballs... ha!)

Hayden's party at Dave and Buster's with his mom and family.

What?? Where'd Hayden go?  This was his present from us... a ghillie suit, and no we didn't give Zoe black eyes.... She's wearing the camo make-up.  (Now didn't we give Hayden such pratical gifts??)

Our shopping trip, turned adventure, to Ikea

Now, I know this is TOTALLY lame of me.... but since Kim has already done a phenomal job of relaying our adventures yesterday, I'm just going to link to her blog....  ghetto, right?  But why reinvent the wheel??

Read this first: http://heyjudesmommy.blogspot.com/2010/07/ikea-or-bust.html

THEN... read this:

• After the said tire explosion, I couldn't think of what to do... seriously.  I called Jonathan, who was no help at all because he was in some basement at ASU and couldn't get a signal.  Luckly, Kim was thinking superfast and whipped out her iphone and dialed USAA... which covers changing flat tires.  Yahoo!
• While waiting and after, poor Emme was soooo hungry and pretty much cried the whole time before we got to Ikea.  She was crammed in between Leighton and Zoe... Leighton was having a hard time dealing with the crying.  So, every once in while he would hit her car seat and tell her to be quiet, or yell that she would stop crying, or... on one occasion... hit her car seat and then told her to shut up.  Ha!  We didn't know whether to laugh or be appalled.  Bre... his mom... was probably more the latter, especially since she is having a baby in less than a month!
• Leighton had to pee... so he peed on the side of the freeway while we got our tire changed.
• And... last, but not least, was the play area experience.  What a great idea... adults can shop sans kids, and kids can have a great time.  That is, if they are not hit by my child.  We got a pager... which went off 15 min. early.  I thought, how ingenious of them... it gives us time to get down there and not be late.  No.  Zoe hit someone and had to be removed.  What!!??  I'm a little worried for preschool.

Thank you Kim and Bre for one of the best days this summer!

What Not to Wear

This was Zoe's actual outfit this morning when we left for the gym.  She said she couldn't find a match to either sock so she just wore them together. Haha!  If you look closely at the black sock, you'll notice it has spiders since it's from Halloween. :)

Gastroenteritis

That's what I was told I had after visiting the ER last night... or should I say early this morning.

I started having a stomach ache in the afternoon... nothing huge, but enough for me to boycott cooking. Right around 9ish, it started hurting so bad.... like Hurts Like HELL bad. I was moaning in bed... literally moaning. In some weird way my chanting made it seem not as bad. Now, I consider myself as someone who has a fairly high tolerance for pain. I NEVER go to the doctor... so for me to go the ER means that my stomach was killing me!

Jonathan finally convinced me to go... after he started diagnosing me with symptoms from a snake bite to appendicitis. Hmmm.... so around 11:30, we woke up my neighbor Tara to come over and stay with Zoe while we went. We also called my mom to come over and relieve Tara (it had to be my mom, even though Jonathan's mom is slightly closer - because, dude, I want my mommy!). Right before we were leaving the house, I puked in the sink. Hmmm... perhaps not appendicitis and maybe the flu, and if the latter then I'm going to feel like a big baby for going to the ER for the flu.

When we get there, at first we of course reminisced about our last experience there... Short version: We were there the night before the first day of school in 2005 and I was pregnant with Zoe. Jonathan banged his head really bad. Some guy came in after us dripping blood from either his arm or leg... blood dripped all the way from the entrance to the sign in desk. The blood stayed there for at least 25 minutes. We complained, we shooed kids away from it, etc. Finally, a lady comes to mop it up by fails to put a wet floor sign at one end... there was one at the main entrance, but not by the sign in desk which is also where patients go in/out of the ER. A lady came out with her husband, slipped, broke her ankle and started screaming at the top of her lungs. When I say broken, I mean bending the wrong way. Ick. They come and rush the couple back in after putting the woman on a stretcher... We had already been sitting for about 2 hours, so this was somewhat entertaining. Jonathan, being the Good Samaritan that he is, gives the husband his card and says he saw the whole thing and is willing to be a witness if needed. We left shortly after that without being seen. Two years later, Jonathan was still in the process of being interviewed and questioned about the hospital episode. Turns out he was their only "real" witness, and the hospital was trying to cover the butts with fake pictures and false statements. Finally, the couple won like $10,000 from the hospital or something... and Jonathan was never thanked! Rude!

Anyway... we get in, get signed in and all that. As I'm waiting, my stomach starts hurting really bad again and I double over and start my chants again... poor Jonathan. I'm sure I looked and sounded like some crazy lunatic. After getting in to an exam room, I puke again... they give me anti-nausea medicine and then I feel almost good. Pain went from a 10 to a 1. Wowsers! The doctor told me I had some kind of infection in my blood, a virus called Gastroenteritis, and prescribed an antibiotic and anti-nausea medicine. We leave, and as we are walking to the car I read the info sheet about Gastroenteritis. It's also known as the stomach flu (however, to give me some credit, read about it and it's not the normal stomach flu).

It's time for Hockey!

We found out from my neighbors about a free four week hockey clinic that Polar Ice was having... so of course we totally signed Zoe up.  Then told friends about it... so we had our neighbor Tate, cousin Josh, and our friends Matti and Brody all signed up with Zoe.  Perfect! 

The clinic is only once a week ... so nothing life changing, except they are hoping to get kids signed up for hockey.  Great marketing idea, actually.  Also, all the equipment is loaned out so we had to pay nothing to be able to use all the stuff, including the skate rental.

The first day, yesterday, they just wanted the kids in their jerseys with gloves and a helmet to practice just skating.  The horse before the cart, right?  Of course we had to suit her up just to see what she looked like... and to get in some pictures in case she ended up hating it and didn't want to come back.

Seriously cute!

Next week they are trying on all of this stuff, plus trying to use the stick and play hockey.  Should be comical since most of the kids could barely skate... like Zoe.  However, she totally loved it.  There were probably two kids to every one volunteer... great ratio.  Zoe got paired up with someone, but in total Zoe style, she up and wandered away.  She held on to the wall and started "skating" around the rink.... up and left her group.  Sadly, her volunteer didn't even notice she left so we watched her get over half way around the rink without anyone trying to figure out what she's doing.  I had to flag someone down, who went over to her and placed her with someone.  She came out once for a break... and we thought she was done, but went right back in... and fell right away... so she was out again, crying really loudly.  Grandma made the comment that she thought Zoe was done... and Zoe cried back, "I don't want to be done!"  Ha!  Even after falling on her tail bone and wailing about it, she went right back in.  Then, about 5 minutes before time was up, she fell again and came out for another comfort session.  We figured she was done again, but wailed that she wanted to go back in.  What a trooper!  She's ready for next week.

And family night this week?  You guessed it... ice skating.  (Except, dude, it's expensive!  About 10 bucks a person with skate rental.  So $40 bucks to skate??  Wowsers!)

Cousin Josh

Zoe with our neighbor Tate

I think this picture is hilarious... like some punk group of kids... yeah, we play hockey.  What of it?

Matt and Brody

Zoe and Tate "practicing" ... with Aunt Carrol in the background.

Josh and Zoe... ready!

Love Bites - #40

#40 - Attend midnight showing of Eclipse with my girlfriends...

... And not only did I see Eclipse, we saw the trilogy... with all the other fanatics out there.

Top 10 memories for the evening...

10. The screams when Jacob showed up without his shirt... which seems to be alot

9.   Sarah in line bragging about her 1/2 priced bottle of wine, of which she drank half.

8.  Waiting in line for 2 hours in the blistering heat, sitting on the blistering sidewalk, and still only getting to  sit in the 3rd row from the front.

7.  The boy/girl who did "her" own contest --- who also belonged, as indicated by her shirt, to the wolf pack

6.  "Oh my gosh!  Would you just be quiet please!"  Hells yes I yelled at those girls... this is serious... it's Edward!

5.  Blinged out shirts... and my lamazoid one that I have worn since the first movie (and only have thanks to Kim) --- Mine: Jacob Bites and Edward Sucks (I mean, seriously, is this the funniest phrase ever??); Kim: Team Edward (because love bites); Lindsay: Team Edward (except when Jacob has his shirt off); and Bre: Team Jacob (which is doubly cute because her husband's name is Jacob)

4.  Giddiness throughout the whole first 2 movies... snort snort

3.  Marky Mark and the Wolfy Bunch

2.  The Junior Mint... contraband candy that melted because of said heat in #8

1.  Being with my girls... Kim, Lindsay, Bre....

#91 and #95

#91 - Try the yogilates DVD

I got his DVD from Angie, Jonathan's sister who seems to only do yoga or pilates... and looks fabulous!  She also hikes alot, as seen in these amazing pictures taken by her husband.  It was fun!  Although it was a little too beginner for me.  I think I might like the 2nd or 3rd levels even more.

#95 Work out at least 3x per week for 4 weeks.  Accomplished!

I rejoined Lifetime... I know, crazy.  This has been an ongoing blog topic... as read here...and  here.  But, I love it and have been going regularly since school got out --> 3-4 times per week.  Side note... I was actually going to the YMCA since last October, to which we had a free membership thanks to a failed auction and my father in law.  But, none of my friends went there... I know, lame reason but company is always a motivation.

In an attempt to be healthier by exercising regularly, I did something to my left knee... the doctor and pt says my knee cap has trouble tracking.  Which means it goes off to the side when bent... and causes a great amount of pain for me!  This actually happens about once or twice a year, then if I lay off of it it goes away.  I just decided to go to the doctor this time.  I didn't want to stop exercising totally, so I've been trying to do more yoga and pilates at the gym... thus my reason for finally trying the yogilates DVD.

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