New Beds!

When we bought Thomas's crib, we bought a convertible one that went from crib to toddler bed to full sized bed, but we did not buy the conversion set to make it a full sized bed thinking we would buy it later. Well, I went back to buy it and it was discontinued!! So, when we changed him to a full sized bed we had to buy bed rails and Paul had to drill into the head/footboards to make it work. Well, it didn't really work and the mattress kept falling between the rails almost daily and it was a huge pain. So, since we are having another girl, we decided to get Thomas bunk beds (can be put into 2 twins on floor if we want, and hopefull will be useful in the future). We then gave Thomas's old full sized mattress to Sophia (her crib is convertable as well), and we will use her old crib mattress for the new baby and Thomas's old bed/crib for the baby's crib. So, here are Thomas and Sophia's new beds! So far they like them and Sophia slept great in her big girl bed!!

Then, we will have a few years to figure out bedroom arrangements for the girls! We will put the new baby's crib downstairs in the office for awhile until we figure out what we'll do for a more permanent situation, and also that will assure that I won't have to run up and down the stairs all the time for feedings, etc. with the new baby. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago. We ended up not staying long because there were soooooo many people and the kids were a bit cranky and tired. But, we rode the tractor hay wagon out to the pumpkins and got a couple to bring home. Kids had fun and here are a few pictures.

The New Baby's Name Will Be . . .

Zoe Elizabeth!

Long before I was pregnant, Paul said he liked the name Zoe. It is Greek for 'Life', and he came across that while researching Sophia's name, which means 'Wisdom' in Greek. He thought they were good names together and suggested it as a name if we ever had another girl. So, once we found out it was a girl I searched for lots of names, but nothing really stuck out and Paul kept going back to Zoe. I asked Thomas and Sophia what they thought and they immediately started calling the baby Zoe, so the name just kind of stuck. Other bonuses of the name Zoe are that I've never had a student named Zoe and none of my friends/relatives are named Zoe or have kids named Zoe. It's kind of different, and not something I ever thought I would choose as a name for my child, but it just happened. I also was somewhat partial to a short name and so it worked out.

Elizabeth is Paul's grandmother's name, and Thomas and Sophia both have names from my side. Paul wanted a family name and of all the names he suggested, Elizabeth sounds the prettiest with Zoe, and it sounds like his grandma was a pretty neat lady (she passed away years before I met Paul).

So, for a little background - here are the other kids' name explanations: Thomas is my Dad and Brother's middle name, and Paul really likes the story of St. Thomas (doubting Thomas). His middle name is Vincent and he is named after my cousin who I grew up with and he passed away in an accident in 1999. Vince was 10 years older than me and tortured me like an older brother when I was younger, but I was growing up to be alot like him. I miss having him around and wanted to honor his memory.
As for Sophia's name, we picked it mostly because I really liked it. Then, Paul did a bunch of reading about Sophia and how it means Wisdom and its significance in the church. Her middle name is Vallerino, which flows nicely with Sophia, and is my Mom's maiden name. There are no more Vallerino desendents - my Mom only had one sister and my Grandfather had all sisters who married, so no one carried on the name.

So, that's the story of the new baby's name! I'm 20 weeks along, so I'm about half way there. Baby Zoe is moving around alot, and my nausea has pretty much gone away. My students comment nearly daily that my belly is getting bigger, and I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable doing some things. But, so far so good! I'll keep you posted!

IT'S A GIRL!

We found out on Monday that we are having another girl! I was a bit surprised by this because I was really thinking it was going to be a boy. This pregnancy has been different in Sophia's in many ways - much more nausea, different cravings and just overall different feeling. Maybe I was just hoping it was going to be a boy, but either way it doesn't matter. We are set to have another girl. We are still thinking about names, and will share with everyone as soon as we decide on one.

I've added 2 of the ultrasound pictures - one of the profile and one of the left and right foot. They were the best ones we got. Also, she is healthy and normal as far as they can see. She should be approximately 12 oz. right now, so about the size of a pop can. I"ve gotten noticeably larger in the past couple of weeks and everyone at school is really taking notice. One of my students keeps saying that my belly gets bigger every day. I tell her this is what is supposed to happen! But, I can happily and comfortably wear my maternity clothes now, and I can really feel her moving around in there. Some days she's more active than others, but that is about the only part of pregnancy I enjoy. I've had some nausea popping up again recently, which I'm not happy about. I thought that was gone!! Oh well. At least it's temporary.

Everything else is going very well. Thomas and Sophia are starting to understand that they have a sister on the way, and are helping to pick out names. Sophia's suggestion was "ABCD" and Thomas's was "Tiger". We'll definitely keep those on the list . . .

Garden Pictures

Here are some pictures of the garden. I've planted tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, gourds, basil and squash. You can see some of the plants that I've planted and then I planted a bunch of seeds in the empty spaces. I planted them last Saturday and there are aleady a few squash and gourd sprouts! I've got a couple more things to plant and I'll post pictures later when everything is (hopefully) growing!

Landscaping!

We had to have our front yard re-landscaped recently for several reasons. First, the soil in the flower beds was too high and covering the weepholes which can cause termites and other unfriendly problems. Secondly, the yard sloped up away from the house, which caused some drainage problems. Thirdly, the 2 trees in the front yard died over the summer. And, lastly, the existing landscaping was crowded and not very well done.
So, they fixed the soil problem, added some rocks for drainage, rearranged some plants and added some new ones (there are a few left to be planted), added some trees and made me a garden in the backyard (pics yet to come). They also added some planters in the front to make it a bit more invited and friendly to look at. So, here are a few before and after pictures. We still have some annuals to be planted. We ended up getting 4 new trees for the front yard - 3 varieties of Oak, and one Crape Myrtle was replanted from next to the house to the front yard. Also, Paul transplanted a Magnolia tree that was too close to our house to the neighborhood common area in front of our house. I'll post a few more pictures as soon as I can take them - I ran out of light today.

Landscaping before

Landscaping after - pots in front

Landscaping after


Replanted Magnolia

Honda Odyssey Update!

Well, it turns out we ended up winning the black Odyssey! I think what happened was the lottery winners before us turned it down and so we ended up getting it! Paul's Dad John went to inspect it yesterday b/c it is in the LA area, and everything looks good. We just have to pay for it and then John and maybe Marian (Paul's Mom) will drive it here!!

I'm really excited - it's a 2008, but only has 6000 miles on it and it's about 10-11K less than buying a new one of the same model. It's black with tan leather interior and a DVD system (super awesome for the kids on long road trips!!!). I'll post pictures when we get it!

School Days, School Days

This school year is going so incredible, not just for me, but for the whole school. For me personally, my students are doing so well - they are working well, not complaining, learning stuff, and attending for the most part is pretty good (this is usually a big problem at our school). If you're not familiar with my school, we are a charter school in a large district and so students have to apply to come to our school. We are very small (240 or so kids), and that is the draw of our school. We also have no homework which attracts kids, but is a problem in my opinion (that's a whole separate blog!). The students who come to us are failing at the big (3000 or more kids) high schools for a variety of reasons - ADHD, falling behind, drug/alchohol problems, pregnancy/teen mothers, family problems, etc. Our students are officially at-risk, so it can be a number of things.

In the past as the school has been building it's reputation the administration has been forced to accept certain kids from other schools, and generally those kids don't want to be at our school and cause problems. Since we are so small (max class size 12), one disruptive student very seriously affects the whole class and the students in general (many kids have many classes together). But, this year we haven't been forced to take students and only took students who applied and interviewed well (each kid must interview with principal). As a result the year is going very well.

Last year, the whole school had a bad vibe, and I believe much of that had to do with Hurricane Ike. It really messed up our whole year and students seemed extra lazy, full of complaints and overall we had a hard time getting students to work and participate well.

I have at least 1 pregnant girl (she's due in April and is pregnant a 2nd time after having a miscarriage in the spring - I actually asked her if she knew how pregnancy happened) and possibly a 2nd (not 100% sure, although counselor said she was). It is wierd answering questions about pregnancy in my class, but this particular girl is living with her boyfriend and his family and I really don't know what kind of information she is getting. Other than that I have a great set of students. And, I've been working in the morning when kids are generally better behaved (they universally get crazy in the afternoons), and I have been loving it.

I did lose at least one student yesterday to drugs. We have drug dogs come to our school regularly and search classrooms and cars. I had one student sent to AEP (alternative education program - a school for the kids in trouble - they 'serve' time there and if goes well can return after some amount of time like 60 days) and another student who I don't have this year, but had for the past 2 years. That particular student had a decent amount of marijuana in his car, and the former had paraphernelia (I think, not 100% sure). Two others were sent to AEP as well, although I don't know who they are (it happened in the afternoon) and if they are mine or not. It's very disappointing when this happens because the dogs have already visited the school twice this year, and my former student has been here for 3 years and seen many students kicked out or even arrested (actually led out of school in handcuffs) for having drugs.

It's an interesting place and there's always alot of action, but I love it. One of my students actually told me this week "I don't hate you Ms. Niles. I think you're an amazing teacher, I just don't like your personality", which I find very funny. Essentially he's mad at me for not bending the rules for him and allowing him to answer his phone in class, leave class to call his veterinarian or play the guitar. It's hard for students to adjust to the rules at our school when they've come from schools where rules aren't enforced or are much more difficult to enforce because the school is so big. I truly say every day that I have the best job ever, and I am so lucky to have found it.

I've added some photoshop fun some of my students had in another class. They're pretty cute, except for the major man-hands I have in the 'Bill Nye' one!

Sophia's Interesting Day!

Sophia had quite the day on Tuesday. First, I picked her up from school and she was sitting at the table with a paper in front of her with freshly distributed paint just waiting for her little hands to dive into. She normally sees me and drops everything and runs to me, but this time she did not want to leave and was not happy to see me - she refused to get up from the table and then started crying and fighting me when I picked her up and took her paint shirt off. 'Painting, painting' she kept saying and she cried all the way to the car. She was very unhappy.

We went home, ate dinner and then played outside. She then fell face first on the driveway scratching the tip of her nose, the space between her nose and lip and had a pretty bloody lip. She cried, but recovered pretty well. I really thought her lip had to hurt because it was scratched on the outside and I think her teeth cut the underside as well. But, she is a really tough girl and after a few minutes of recovery and sucking on a frozen 'Nemo' icepack she was back to business. Then a little bit later, Thomas threw a rock that ended up hitting her in the head near the temple. She had a huge bump and that drew some blood as well, leaving a little cut! Thomas got in trouble for throwing rocks and we ended our outside playing at that point!

I didn't take a picture and I really wish I had. I took her to daycare the next day with a scabby nose, fat lip and cut on her head and she looked a little pathetic. But, she was in the most amazing mood - even her teacher commented on how happy she was! She is such a trooper! She consistently has bruised/scabby shins, and I was exactly the same was as a kid. She's very busy all the time and never seems to let a little injury get in the way. Like I say, she's my little pistol!

The Inevitable - a Honda Odyssey!

We have reached the time where the inevitable is necessary - a Honda Odyssey. Yes, a mini-van. We will be trading in our very cool Chevy Tahoe for a very stigma-attached supposedly uncool Mini-Van. Although, in the world of mini-vans, the Honda Odyssey has got to be the best. I like to refer to it as my new Mom Limo.

The problem with the Tahoe and all other large SUVs is that the 3rd row is nearly inaccessible unless you pull the middle row seat down (impossible with carseats) or climb over the 3rd row to sit inthe 3rd row. Also, there is no back storage room once the 3rd row is up and in use. The Tahoe certainly looks cool, and we love it, but it just isn't going to work with 5 of us!

So, we looked at the Odysseys, and there is so much room! This is underfloor storage (yes, like a secret compartment under the floor!!), removable middle seat for the 2nd row so the 2 other seats can be pushed together leaving a space to walk to the rear row, a spacious 3rd row with headphone hookups, still more storage space behind the 3rd rown and something like 15 cupholders! The model we will get will also have a DVD player and headphone jacks so the kids can listen to a movie and we can listen to the radio/cd/ipod. We discovered the importance of this after driving more than 5000 miles with our computer rigged up to show movies in the car - not the most awesome situation.

Other features include automatically opening side doors that I'll be able to push with a button so that the kids can just run into the car and not have to wait in a parking lot while I fumble to open doors (also good if my hands are full). There are also many other safety features that really do not become important until you have kids, but they will useful. The car will also be able to allow others to ride with us without having to maneuver and climb over seats.

Paul's brother works for Honda and is helping us get just the right car. There is a used one (available to Honda employees) available that we will be in a lottery for (if more than one person are interested they do a lottery) next week. If we do not win that one, we have placed an order for one that will be available probably in December.

I am very excited for this car (even Paul liked it when we looked at them) - it has all the little features that I wish the Tahoe had on a daily basis when I'm carting the kids around and doing Mom stuff. I very seriously never thought I would be the mini-van Mom, but it seriously makes things so much easier. I am also soliciting ideas on how to 'pimp my ride' - no stick figure families on the back windshield, please!