Wordless Wednesday

Thoughtful Tuesday

Brandon's new island

We are so lucky to have grandparents who love Brandon, and Natalie.  Tyler's parents are great, and close to the house, and will help out when they can.  My parents are awesome, and buy crazy toys like this for Brandon that he can play with at their house!  I really don't know what we would do without a support system like them!  The kids and I came up to grandma and grandpa's house on Sunday afternoon, and will be here until this weekend.  My parents are amazing with how much they jump in to help with the kids.  We are going to have a great vacation in June, but we will miss my parents, the kids will miss their grandparents, and I think my parents will secretly miss the kids too!  (Even though she will enjoy sleeping at night again!)

Daily Five

1.  We have termites . . . again!!  YUCK!!  This is the third time that the have appeared in our bedroom wall, so instead of calling our same warranty company I decided to finally go with Terminix.  I was so happy with their service, and how prompt they were.  Now granted it is going to cost me a lot more than the warranty I was paying for before, at least I know that they will repair something if there is more damage!!  When I told them what our other company did they couldn't believe we waited so long.  If only I knew more about what people should do to treat termites!

2.  Our athletic banquet was last night.  It was fun to go and see everyone, and even more fun that a couple of us went out for a drink afterwards.  I forget by not going to work how much I miss my friends at work.  I love staying home with my kids, and if I could I know that I would stay home in a heartbeat, but I do miss them!

3.  I reread Lord of the Flies this past week.  I read the book while I was in high school, but as part of our bucket list this year we are reading 24 books.  I have almost reached our goal, but part of it was that we had to read some classics.  We agreed that a classic was anything that an English teacher might make you read.  I forgot how disturbing Lord of the Flies is.  It's crazy what would happen to a group of kids if you left them alone without adults, and what they could do.  I would recommend it, it is a great book.

buy here on Amazon

4.  I have started planning for next year!  I know it seems crazy, but we will be gone for a big chunk of June, and I have a lot to look into for next year.  Plus I will have 26 kids, so I am trying to figure out how I can best accommodate all of them, and still teach everything.  I have started working on my teacher planner first, and have found some that I really like on TPT.  I am too cheap though, and don't want to pay $8 for a document that I'm going to have to edit any ways, so I'm working on creating my own!  Who knows, maybe I'll even set up a TPT store this year!

This looks like a great planner, and where I got a lot of my ideas!

5.  Looking into next year, I have also checked out our new science standards for the state.  They are very different then the ones that we've had for the past five years I've been teaching, so it's time to look for all new material for science too!  It should be a fun year!

Family of Four . . . 3 weeks

New things about Brandon:  He is loving playing with his cars, and has tried sleeping in his big boy bed this week!   We started the process Sunday night, and while it hasn't been the easiest transition, it hasn't been horrible.  There has only been one night this week that he has made it through the whole night.  That night he decided he wanted to wake us all up at 5:30 too.  There are pros and cons to having him in a big boy bed, without a gate on his door, that is for sure.  We need to go and find a gate soon, so that way he can stay in his room.  He won't take a nap in there yet though, so we need to work on that too.  Brandon was able to spend the weekend at grandma and grandpa's time share, spending a lot of time at the pool!  He loved this!  I wish I could go swimming with him, because then we could be out in the backyard every day!  It would be great exercise for me, plus it would wear him out!

Playing in the pool with grandma 

Shopping with mommy and grandma at Old Navy

New things about Natalie:  She is doing great!  We are back to waking up every three hours at night to eat.  I try and make sure that I get her up every three hours during the day as well, so then hopefully she will last longer at night.  We are almost out of newborn diapers, so we are going to try to transition into 1s.  I can't believe we are moving out of newborns already, but I really don't want to go buy a bunch more.  Here's hoping that the size ones aren't too big, and if they are, then off to the store we go!

Sleeping on our tummy in our pack and play

Thanks for the shirt Aunt Megan!

New things about Tyler:  He has had a rough couple of nights with Natalie getting up every three hours.  He has had some late days at work too, as he is trying to get everything done since our school year ends in two weeks!  He is looking forward to being able to sleep next week when the kids and I are up in Prescott.

New things about Cassandra:  We have been trying to get out and do one thing a day this week.  We have been successful two days this week.  We were able to get out and do some returns at Kohls, and check out Old Navy one day.  Then another day we ran to the mall to return stuff to Macy's, check out the dollar tree for work, and went out to lunch.  We wanted to take Brandon to the park too, but the one I drove to didn't have a play structure, just grass!  I am on the hunt for new shorts, and I think that I found some I like at New York and Company.  I didn't try them on though, so I may be on the watch for a good coupon and go in and see how they look.  They also had some pants I really liked, but once again, we live in Arizona, so I don't know how many pairs of work pants I need.

Weight:  136

Weight lost:  I gained a pound and a half this week.  I knew this was going to happen as the baby weight disappeared, and I continued to eat what I wanted without working out.  I need to start watching what I eat a lot more, and making sure that I am not snacking on just carbs or sugars.  I need to start working the veggies into my diet more, and cutting back on the carbs.  I am going to slowly start working out too, hopefully getting out to walk next week while we are up in Prescott will get me going.  I am not really supposed to do much for another three weeks though, so we'll see how active I can get without hurting myself.

Wordless Wednesday

The last of my maternity clothes, ready for Nicole!!

Thoughtful Tuesday

I am so glad that Brandon loves Natalie. I just wish he would talk to us and tell us what he needs or wants.

Friday Five

1.  My precious baby girl always wants to be held. I love this, but it makes for getting things done quite hard. Brandon was okay sitting in the swing, laying on the boppy, or on the floor. Mrs. Natalie loves laying on mommy. I'm going to have to try and figure out this baby wearing thing.

2.  I finally managed to get my wedding rings back on today!! They aren't as lose as they once were, but they're on!!

3.  My mind has been tossing and turning with ideas for school. I know I missed the TPT sale earlier this week, but I'm going to look through tons this next month, and hopefully they'll run a big summer or back to school sale.

4.  We tried two new Pinterest recipes this week. Both were shrimp recipes, and we probably won't try either one again. The scampi just didn't turn out good enough for how long it took, and the other shrimp was okay.  (I'll look up recipes when I am on the computer and not on my phone.)

5.  I'm excited for my dad to come visit this weekend and for him to be able to spend more time with the kids. Brandon loves his grandpa!!