My Saturday

Today I took my big test - the School Leadership Licensure Assessment. I have to pass this in order to be a principal. It was 100 multiple choice questions - many of which were very tricky because two answers would have worked - and 7 short response questions - only twenty minutes to write out a response per question. It was really difficult to focus because my nose was stuffy, I was tired and the room was freezing. I pulled the hood on my sweatshirt up because I was so cold. I don't know if I did well or not. It's the sort of test that you could feel good about it and bomb it or feel terrible about it and ace it. I'll find out in a month.

The good news is, when I got home, the boys had been good for the sitters...yes, sitters plural. I felt like it was unfair for there to only be one sitter, so I hired two to watch them while I was testing. They had already eaten lunch so all I had to do was make sure they went down for a nap and then I took a nap! This evening there were a couple of frustrating and hairy moments, but overall Noah and Colby played well together. They created chaos in their room, but they helped clean up, so that was okay. If only I could get them to stop hitting when their angry and Noah to stop screaming over everything, that would be great. But then I wouldn't have anything to blog about :-)

Restaurant Snub

So this weekend Brandon, Noah, Ariyana, and I drove to northern Virginia to sign the papers for our van to make it officially ours. On the way home we stopped at a Texas Roadhouse that was largely empty. Noah and Ariyana had been acting pretty decent - just your minor turn around, stop kicking the seat, talk softly sort of reminders. Well, the hostess tried to seat two ladies across the isle from us. When the hostess asked if that was alright, one lady said no, it wasn't. I was like, huh? So then the hostess tried to seat them behind us. The lady said again no, that wasn't okay. Then she approached the hostess being really careful to keep her back turned to us and told the hostess she didn't want to sit near the kids. The hostess then dutifully took them to another part of the restaurant (right on the main thoroughfare, I might add, so that she would have to see every man, woman and child that entered the restaurant, ha!) I was very surprised. I have heard of such behavior happening at other places, but it had never happened to me. My kids behave at restaurants. They're not allowed to run around screaming everywhere. But I was flabbergasted - it's a Texas Roadhouse not a five star restaurant. This same lady ended up going to the restroom at the same time I took Noah. Our waitress also happened to be in there. She told our waitress that the floors were sticky in the bathroom and all over the restaurant. Our waitress was like 'oh, okay.' When the lady left I asked the waitress if that woman thought she was going to clean the entire restaurant right away. The waitress laughed. You don't eat off the floor, lady. And it's a Texas Roadhouse for crying out loud! You can put peanut shells on the floor! On the way out, without any prompting, Noah told the lady goodbye. I laughed all the way to the car. Fun times...

It's a Struggle

I think up until today I've made fostering seem like a piece of cake when it's really been a struggle. Today I've felt that struggle more keenly than ever. Here's a sample of my day with all four children. In the morning, I'm trying to get ready (shower, clothes, makeup, breakfast, pack lunch) and Colby wants his formula while Noah and Ariyana want juice. Somehow I end up getting them their various drinks, I eat breakfast while I'm giving Sahara a bottle, I get them dressed and out the door sometime befor 7:40 (even though every day I'm shooting for 7:30). I drop of Noah, Ariyana, and Sahara while Colby waits in the car, then I drop off Colby at his daycare and then I go of to my internship at a nearby elementary school. Fastfoward through school (which is going okay, except for 4th block when I want to strangle someone...not a good way to end my day). I got pick up Colby, then I take Colby inside the other daycare while I collect the other three, then I herd them into the car and drive home. If I'm lucky the boys keep their hands to themselves and nobody ends up crying and I get to sing a few songs at the top of my lungs to relieve some stress. Then when we get home everyone is thirsty and hungry and they want to watch a movie or cartoons and I just want to lock myself in a sound-proof room for ten minutes. The boys fuss with each other and constantly jump on their beds even though I've told them a million times not too and they've spend tons of minutes in timeout for jumping on the bed, which makes it take that much longer to fix dinner. Dinner is usually not too bad thanks to the food in my freezer and a little ingenuity on my part. They are at least quieter when they're stuffing their faces with food, which they rearly say thank you or please for. Then I play referee for the rest of the night and listen to small voices whine, complain, cry, tattle, and ask questions until I can't stand it anymore. They are good for maybe 20 percent of the night. Ariyana is good, but frustrating because she doesn't use words. It's a guessing game as to what she wants. Sahara is good too, but when she's hungry that makes it difficult to keep an eye on those boys like I need to. At bedtime it's a battle with those boys. I want them to be asleep by 8:30, but they use every excuse in the book to stay awake. Bottom line: I really love all my kids, but damn do they drive me crazy. And I now I know I'm not anywhere close to patient enough to have twins. There's a more realistic view of having three foster kids or four kids in general. I hope you're not too horrified :-)

IRS Finally Comes Through

So, a long time ago...around the time we sent in our 2009 taxes...we applied for this little thing called the first time homebuyers tax credit. It was $8000 dollars. Well, the IRS, being the dumb thing that it is, denied the tax credit claiming that we didn't file the correct paperwork. So we refiled the paperwork and they denied it again saying that we didn't file the correct form with the paperwork. So we refiled the paperwork and the correct form and waited. Then we got a bill for $10,000 and were like WTF!!! We called and they said they'd made an error (and we were like "you're damn right!") We got two letters saying they were still processing our paperwork, but finally, FINALLY we got a check in the mail for the $8000 plus interest. Honestly it couldn't have come at a better time. Now we can pay the last five hundred dollars on the RAV4. Now we can get the transmission in the RAV4 fixed so that we have a four wheel drive vehicle. Now we can put some money away for our emergency fund. If you couldn't tell, I'm pumped about getting the money! Thank you GOD!!

First Couple Days of School

This week has been a little crazy because there have been multiple appointments in various locations with various people. Monday Early Intervention came to work with Ariyana on her motor skills. I think if this teaching thing doesn't work out I'll become an Early Intervetion person - I think it's a pretty sweet gig because all she does is go to visit these kids and play with them so that they'll learn new skills. Also on Monday was the weekly visit with the kids' mom. We dropped them off and then Brandon and I got to go to Barnes and Noble all by ourselves. I was a nerd and bought a book of commonly confused words :-)

Yesterday was major craziness because Brandon had to take all three of the kids to the doctor - by himself. I'm sure it was craziness, but at least afterwards he was able to take them to daycare and spend a little time tooling around Walmart by himself. They seemed to have a really good time at daycare and none of their teachers expressed any concern. Yesterday was also my first official day back at school. It was sort of weird because there wasn't anything on the schedule except breakfast...then we had the entire rest of the day to put our rooms together. I'm DEFINATELY NOT complaining, it was just weird because that almost never happens on the first day of school.

Today was my first day taking the three siblings to daycare by myself. It was a little crazy because the daycare asked us not bring infant carseat carriers back to the classroom, which means I have to carry the baby AND get Ariyana out of the car and then herd Ariyana and Noah through the door with only one free hand. This is hard - at least in the carseat carrier I can set Sahara down if I need to chase someone. Maybe I can take the carseat carrier in with me, drop her off and then bring it out with me...there's a thought! At school things were a bit crazier with meetings and such. We had convocation, a faculty meeting and a department meeting. My room is looking pretty good, though. I just need to arrange the student desks, get rid of a bookshelf and put together a new one and I think things will look pretty decent. Now I just need to iron out the details on this new class...hmm...

School

Today I dropped $375 on a test that will determine whether I can be a principal or not. This test will take four hours and will be part multiple choice and part essay. My had will be cramped and my brain will not be working when I'm done with this test. Yay. I'm confident I can pass it, though, so it will not be $375 wasted :-)

So yesterday's meeting was good. It was weird because it was me and a bunch of principals and RTI coordinators...you know...people that matter. RTI is going to be taking the education world by storm soon and Pulaski is one of the test counties that will ultimately be mentors to other local counties when it's up and running. Basically RTI is assessing what students know and then working on the things that they don't know in a more systematic/scientific way. It's supposed to be highly individualized. One of our elementary schools has already implemented this and it seems to be working well, but now we need to implement it on a larger level including a test group at the high school that is being taught by yours truly. I am teaching a new class - a year long English class where the Reading Specialist will work with them on reading and I will work with them on writing. They want us to use RTI to target skills that they need to know and then I have a feeling they are expecting us to be able to tell the rest of the school how awesome it is when they implement it full-scale at the high school. I did not know what I was getting myself into when I went to this meeting, but I feel sort of honored that they would ask me to be part of a group of such illustrious school officials. I think the timing is good because the state just released the Adequate Yearly Progress Report and both middle schools and the high school did not make AYP. This is the second year in a row that we haven't made AYP, which could mean not good things for us. Maybe RTI will be good for our students and good for AYP.

Week Two...

So we're well into our second week of fostering three kids. We dearly love them all, though they all present some different challenges. Sahara, the baby, is great. She mostly sleeps through the night and rarely cries unless she's hungry or tired. She's a real pleasure to have in the house. Ariyana is really sweet when she's not pouting. She does have a killer pouty face, but I like her better when she smiles :-) She's mostly non-verbal, but I think very soon she'll start picking up words. We just keep talking to her and hoping she'll start talking back. Noah is definately out of the honeymoon phase these days. Sometimes he and Colby play nicely, but the rest of the time they're fussing with each other or being pouty with each other. They fight constantly over everything from being in each other's space to he took my truck. I can't wait for daycare to start next week so they can get a break from each other and maybe peace can reign in my house. I firmly believe that Noah is not a bad kid. He's just not used to sharing with someone his age all the time. There's been lots of temper tantrums today too, which I'm not fond of. I know I'm slightly overwhelmed when I can't wait for a meeting tomorrow for school. I can't wait to listen to adults - not fussing, not screaming, not yelling. I don't even care what they talk about tomorrow just as long as I don't have to break up a fight between three year olds or put anyone in timeout!