J is for Joy

Yawn, I'm tired. Joy and Brad are getting married in two (yikes!) weeks so some of the girls spent a weekend in Waikiki. It was a pretty good definition of a bachelorette party. We spent the night in a hotel, had a yummy lunch, went shopping, someone got a tattoo, ate a yummy dinner, went dancing, went to a bar, had breakfast, and then spent the morning at a spa. It was fun but I'm still trying to recover. Anyway, here's a picture of Joy eating her first escargot. :)

Germy little people

I'm home sick...again. Actually, I haven't been sick for awhile. Anyway, germy little kids should stay home from school. They have a difficult time focusing and learning when they're sick and THEY INFECT OTHER PEOPLE. I think I should have the right to refuse services to anyone with stuff coming out of their nose. I've been feeling under the weather for a week now and finally decided to give in and stay home today and rest. See, I've been feeling sick but other than drinking orange juice, I haven't done much to make myself better. I should've been resting all week but life's just been too busy lately. Some of the adults at work have been driving me crazy and what with planning the convention and general social obligations, I just haven't had too much time to rest. Anyway, I drank some orange juice, took a nap, and forced myself to eat some saimin for lunch. I think it's time for another nap. I hope M*Bark doesn't mind shoving over so that I can have a bit of the couch.

I Win

After three years of offering to teach Joy to knit, she finally gave in! Okay, maybe I didn't really offer to teach her. The first year I offered (I didn't know her very well...), the second year I nagged (I knew her much better by then...), and the third year I left her alone (but not really...). The third year I stopped bugging her about knitting because I suspected that her unwillingness to knit had become more of stubborn mule thing rather than a lack of interest. She just didn't want to give in to me. So instead of openly bugging her, I left my knitted items laying about. Y'know, an ipod case in my car, a beanie on my head, my knitting sticking out of my bag, that sort of thing. And then I knit in front of her and taught someone else. And then someone else wanted to learn. And ahh, finally Joy gave in and agreed to knit. She pretended to be reluctant and tried to convince me that she was only giving in to shut me up, but I know she was really excited on the inside. And y'know, she did pretty well for her first time.

Lance is disappointed in her.

Feeling clever

How funny that Matt commented about felting when I had these pictures to post. Anyway, I recently completed my first felting project. And I must say, I'm feeling pretty clever. It's cool that by knitting this:

You can make this:
With felting, you do indeed knit an item extra big and then throw it in the washer using hot water. The agitation and the hot water felt the wool. The item shrinks and the yarn fuses together, creating a pretty strong fabric. And what's extra cool is that you can shape the item while it's still wet and it'll keep its shape when it's dry. These are a pair of clogs for Lance. I need to add something to the bottom, though, b/c I think they're a little slippery for our wood floors.

I like knitting

I like knitting, I really do. But this bloody sock has been kicking my arse. I started it a year ago and have had to frog it twice. The first time I got confused and didn't decrease enough at the gusset. I had a feeling it was way too big for Lance's feet, but I was scared to find out so I put it aside for several months. I finally got the nerve to make him put it on and it was way too wide. The only way it would have fit was if he was a clown. Dismayed, I frogged it and put the yarn aside for awhile. The second time I started it I had gauge problems and had to frog it again. I just cast it on for a third time a few weeks ago because my other projects are huge blankets and I desperately needed some immediate reinforcement and socks are relatively quick projects. Plus I needed a travel project because the blankets were just too huge to be lugging around. Anyway, so I cast on this cursed sock for a third time, but this time I changed to smaller needles because I hoped the new needles would break the curse. So far I've had to rip out parts of it but at least I haven't had to resort to ripping the whole thing out. I don't know what's with this sock. It's not the first sock that I've knitted and it's not a fancy sock. In the year that I initially cast on these socks, I've knitted a bunch of other projects, including another pair of socks.

Anyhow, I found out that knitting actually helps me pay attention during long presentations. At big conferences, I can sit in the back and knit under the table. I always choose a project that's fairly mindless so I can listen to the speaker and having my hands move constantly really helps me stay alert and awake. Anyway, while I was working on this sock the other night, I came to a horrible realization. I've been hoping that my realization was wrong so I've been asking other people. Sadly, they all agree with me. Is it bad form to knit at a conference that you're in charge of?

Fair is not Equal

This week I was reminded that equal and fair are not the same things. It was a good reminder. Do all kids get the opportunity to learn in a small group environment? No. Do all kids have an adult following them around, helping them throughout their day? No. Do all kids have the same amount of money spent on them? No. But for some all of this extra help is necessary to learn the material that other kids are able to pick up with just a teacher's guidance. Fair is not equal and equal is not fair. That's the whole premise behind special education. Our kids are not lazy but need something extra in order to succeed in the classroom. But although we special education providers embody and demonstrate this everyday, we sometimes forget that this applies outside of the classroom as well. Our kids will turn into adults, adults who will be able to one day contribute to society but may continue to need that something extra to be successful at doing so. We may one day be working with them as adults and we shouldn't begrudge them the extra help that they're given in order to do the same job as us. Having a learning disability is a life long struggle. They're not lazy, they need extra help. Fair is not equal.

Spider Dog

Spider Dog, Spider Dog,
Does whatever a Spider Dog does
Can she swing from a web
No, she can't, she's a dog
Look out
Here comes Spider Dog

2 down, way too many more to go...

I've now officially been back at work for 2 days.

They were a...let's just say they were "rough." Alright, so this was this crappiest beginning of the year that I've had since I started working.

Sometimes I don't want to play nicely and I'm waiting for my infamous temper to flare up enough so that I explode.

It can only get better from here, right? Good grief, how many more days until fall break?

Year 4

I got a very unpleasant call from work today. I wasn't supposed to officially go back to work until Thursday, but now I have a meeting early tomorrow morning. Boo. I was also told that I have an other early meeting the following day, but at least that day is an official work day. Sure, my meeting tomorrow won't last more than an hour, but I'm still bummed.

Lance and I went back to school shopping today. He bought a snazzy new pair of shoes and I got myself a new backpack. I've always had a thing for bags and backpacks and I used to get new backpacks quite frequently. When I first started working, I carried my backpack from grad school but I eventually felt self-conscious about it. Everyone around me had over-the-shoulder bags that looked professional looking (or they had those plastic rolling crates but that's not a look that I want to be sporting anytime soon). The only people who had backpacks were under five feet tall. I eventually swapped my beloved backpack for an over-the-shoulder bag in order to fit in a little better with my colleagues. I was already the youngest member of the faculty and I didn't want my choice of bag to make me look even younger than I was.

When I was younger, there was a period of my life where I had over-the-shoulder bag as my school bag. I had two denim bags and one black bag and none of them lasted very long. They also weren't as easy to carry as they took a little more effort to hold on my shoulder than a backpack. The straps would occasionally fall and it was a lot harder to carry additional stuff. So I switched to Jansport backpacks. They were a lot easier to carry and to hold on to and the Jansport bags were incredibly sturdy.

Quite frequently last year, I arrived on campus with arms laden down with stuff, my over-the-shoulder bag, my lunch bag, my coffee, and my computer bag. My over-the-shoulder bag made getting to my room quite difficult, as the straps would constantly fall off my shoulder. The struggle to get to my room each morning made me cranky. In addition to this, M*Bark had discovered how much fun it was to poke her head in my bag and find something to pull out and lay in the middle of the floor. That didn't make me cranky, I actually thought it was funny but I did worry that she was pulling stuff out that I would need for the day.

And so, as I approached Year 4, I decided that I needed a new bag. I hadn't really thought about what kind of bag I wanted, but I started looking at the backpacks today while we were at Sports Authority and suddenly decided that I wanted a backpack again. So, just like the good ole days, I dragged Lance around to lovingly fondle the various backpacks. I finally decided upon this Nike backpack. It was on sale and had some good pockets and had a fun mesh pocket in the front. I thought I could maybe put my umbrella and hat in there for easy access when it rained (which, is like every other day up there), but Lance pointed out that it would make a good knitting pocket. Well, the idea of a handy pocket for taking my knitting to work pretty much sold the bag for me and now it's sitting next to me, waiting for me to fill it up.

The one thing that made me second guess this backpack was the fact that it was a backpack. If it was unprofessional of me to have it three years ago, then why did I think it was okay for me to have it now? Well, the answer to that is: I just don't care. As I enter Year 4, I realize that I don't give a damn what my colleagues may or may not think about me. I think that I have more than proven myself to be professional and to actually know what I'm doing, despite my age. And for those of my colleagues who still question me because of my age...well, I really just don't care.

At long last...

I had been looking forward to Friday's events all summer. Friday morning I woke up early and hightailed it to Borders. I was a little dismayed when I got there that I wasn't early enough to be one of the first ten in line, but I was pleased that I was within the first 50. I ran into Starbucks, grabbed some coffee and some breakfast, and joined the line of excited people. To pass the time, I knit on Lance's clog. Borders was nice enough to let us check in before the store's official opening time and I was back at home with my bracelet by 10:00.
That night, my bracelet and I went to back to Borders and joined the crowd. There were witches, wizards, and even a walking Whomping Willow. At midnight, the crowd started counting down and let out a huge cheer as the boxes were opened and the first person got his copy of this:
I finished the book yesterday and I am speechless. It was more awesome than I think anyone could have imagined it would be and I think J. K. Rowling is a genius. I'm sad because this was the last Potter book, but wow, what a way to end the series.

I have to go back to the book now. I re-read some of my favorite bits of the book this morning and now I'm just re-reading the whole thing.

Renovation Update #2

We finally finished laying down our laminate. It looks fantastic and M*Bark's enjoying having space to run around again. She's still getting used to how slippery it is and she'll occasionally slip, which is a wee bit entertaining for me. We just gotta put the trim in and we'll be done.
Unfortunately, the beautifulness of our new laminate makes the tile remaining in our entryway, kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms makes the ugliness of it really stand out. In fact, it makes me want to change it though I thought we'd take a break from flooring for the rest of the break. Y'know, like actually relax a bit before school starts up again. The only thing is...we can't put in the trim for the laminate without changing the adjacent tile. I mean, I guess we could, but then we'd just have to redo it when we eventually changed our tile. My uncle pointed this out on Sunday and I actually felt a little teary at the prospect of ripping out more tile. Oh well, it has to be done and we'll have a nice house once we get it done.

Look Who Graduated!

M*Bark graduated today! We had a wedding last week so she had to miss class and we were a little concerned how she'd do with a week off, but she went through the obstacle course brilliantly! Her instructor was really pleased with her and offered some suggestions for furthering her education. We can either continue on to the intermediate course or repeat the beginner course and try to get her good citizen certified. I don't really understand it, but the certification's supposed to be a really big deal and our instructor thinks M*Bark would be able to do it since she's smart and well behaved. We don't know want we're going to do yet, since we went into this course with the intention of stopping after the beginner course. All we really wanted was for our dog to sit and stay, which she can now do. But I don't know, I'm kinda enticed by the idea of certification. It's hard to explain, but I realized that my desire to have my dog certified is rather typical of how I've led my life so far and probably how I'm going to raise my future children. Anyway, here's M*Bark with Lance and her diploma. I also made her a little graduation cap which, in case you were wondering, I only made her wear at home for my amusement.
Apparently M*Bark was not too thrilled with her cap. Look what she did when left alone with it for a few minutes:
Ha, well behaved, right? Just like a kid, M*Bark often behaves better at school than at home.

Renovation Update

Look what we did on the fourth of July:
Yes, goodbye, ugly tile. Demo was fun in the beginning, as there's something therapeutic about taking a sledgehammer to tile but I realized that my body is not cut out for hard labor and that perhaps there is a reason why I chose not to have a career in construction. I also discovered that I really hate scraping tile glue (yes, I know that's not it's real name) off a concrete floor. Not fun.
But my uncle helped us lay out the hallway and taught us how to install it ourselves. Looks pretty snazzy, huh?
We also got new room darkening blinds for the game room so that Lance can finally play his games during the day. It was too light to project and play them during the day. He's a happy camper. We also got a security system installed in our house, but for obvious reasons there's no picture of that.

Summertime

Summertime's here and it feels great! Alright, I've officially been on summer break for three weeks but I've had to work so I didn't count these weeks as break. But now I'm done providing ESY therapy services so now it's time for fun! My agenda for summertime fun:1) Knitting. I've been looking at sock yarn for the past several months online but I haven't bought anything because I knew we were supposed to be saving money. I finally purchased this lovely sock yarn and size 1 bamboo needles online two weeks ago as my "good job for getting through the school year without killing anyone" present. This was the first time that I've purchased anything from this store and I definitely would purchase from them again. They have great yarn, decent prices, and fantabulous customer service. My order arrived within a week and came with a few extras that didn't cost a lot but made me happy. The best thing about the order was that it also came with a handwritten note. Little things make a big difference.2) Ripsticking. I tried a waveboard during Christmas break at a craft fair. The guy selling it tried to teach me but I wasn't able to learn how to use it within five minutes in the parking lot so I didn't buy it. But I recently found out that a friend of mine has a ripstick (which is pretty much the same thing as a waveboard). My friend took me to the inline hockey rink and taught me on her's on the nice smooth surface of the rink. It's fun but I still pretty much suck at it. After 1/2 an hour of playing on it, Lance came to meet us and in true Lance form, learned how to ride it within a few minutes. And in true Kat form, I got obsessed about owning one and promptly tried to buy one after work that day. The first place I went to had them on sale but were sold out. Devastated, I tried a different store. They had the waveboard, but it was $30 more than the ripstick. So then I went to Wal-Mart, confident that they would have them in stock since I had passed by the display for several days. No luck at Wal-Mart, as they were sold out. Being obsessed, I spoke to one of the sales associates who told me that they were due to get a new shipment and they were maybe unloading them at that moment. She advised me to call at 11:00 that night to check. Lance thought I was nuts (but seriously, this is very typical of me so he shouldn't have been surprised), but I drank coffee to stay awake and then called them at 11:00. They had it, I ran out to get at and was home by 11:30 with my new ripstick. I had my first fall off it yesterday. My bum's still a little sore. 3) Book buying. Yup, it's that time of year again. The huge library book sale. We went yesterday and got some books, magazines, and CDs and we're planning to go again before the end of the sale. We managed to get two of the Pidgin to Da Max books and Lance thinks I should study this summer. Maybe then Joy will stop laughing at me when pidgin slips out of my mouth. It's not my fault it sounds unnatural. Look where I grew up.

4) Home renovating (whoops, picture's sideways, forgot to flip it). We've painted the living room, dining room, game room, and yarn room and the house is finally starting to really feel like home. We have a few more rooms to paint (all lots of other stuff to work on), but our main project right now is our floors. We got a pretty good price on some koa laminate and we're installing it in our living room, dining room, entry way, kitchen, and hallway. We just busted up our hallway floor today. We're still prepping it and good grief is it hard work. I did discover that busting up a floor is a good stress reliever though and I kinda wish we had started it before the school year ended. There's something therapeutic about busting the crap outta a floor. We still have a lot of work to as we still have to finish prepping the hallway, start prepping the rest of the rooms, and figure out how to actually install the laminate, but it's kinda fun because we're doing it together. Everything's more fun with Lance.

Celebrations

A very dear friend of mine got married last weekend to a fantabulous fella who's perfect for her. He's smart, funny, and I know he'll take care of her. Oh, and he's extremely tall. My friend and I have been friends for nearly fourteen years now and of course she's brought other guys around. But there was something about this guy that made me think, "He's the one." The first time we met him, my husband actually turned to me and said, "Tell her he's a keeper." I was blessed enough to be a part of her bridal party and this picture was taken during her rehearsal dinner. Tell me the truth, isn't she the most gorgeous bride ever (she's the one making the face)? I had other pictures of the wedding but I felt that this picture really captured who she is. :)

The husband and I are at that age where attending weddings are a large part of our lives. We had three in June and one more in July. We'll have at least two more in the fall. Anyway, since we've been going to so many weddings in the past two years, I've noticed something interesting. The way the wedding turns out is really reflective of the couple's personalities. A lot of times it's just really reflective of the bride, but sometimes it's both. Anyway, so my friend who just got married last week is a fun loving kind of girl who likes to laugh and her laugh is quite distinctive and well known. Anyway, her wedding ceremony turned out to be filled with laughter and was just well, the wedding ceremony was just her. Another wedding we went to was nice but it was disorganized and well, apparently this was also reflective of the bride. Another friend of mine had a wedding that was simple and elegant, and that's probably how I would describe her as well.

Geez, after weddings come first baby parties. Getting old.

I Can Quit!

The day that I've been waiting for for three years has finally come. I can quit. My employer paid for my Master's Degree with the stipulation that I work for them for three years. I have fulfilled my obligation. This year was the roughest for me so far. Crazy parents, crazy colleagues, crazy caseload, and I seriously contemplated finding employment elsewhere at the end of the school year. However, I also realized this year that I also have wonderful parents, wonderful colleagues, and, hmm, well, still crazy caseload. Like the rest of life, with the lows also came the highs and the good far outweighed the bad. Alright, the pay raises that we've been getting also helped with the decision. Anyway, I'm not leaving anytime soon, but it's nice knowing that I now have options.

Megan's wedding was this weekend and so I got to spend some time with some of my friends from grad school. Grad school was the toughest two years of my life and I often refer to that time as my dark period. And it was, it most definitely was. However, a lot of good came out of it (okay, well, other than the whole Master's Degree, career thing). I met and became friends with a bunch of fantastic people that I probably would never have met otherwise. During those years, these people were my family. We all had our own families and friends outside of school, but we all spent a good deal of time with each other. At the time, we were the only ones who understood each other. Everyone else around us tried, but we were really the only ones who understood that 3 year olds could be terrifying and that comps was not just another test. Now that grad school is over, we have all returned to our outside friends and family and we don't get to see each other very often. We're all so different but still, after all this time has past, I still have so much fun when I see them. Whether it's sharing hilarious stories from work or playing pass the baby, I'm always entertained when I see them. Huh, never thought I'd find something positive about my dark period.

Happy Birthday, M*Bark!

M*Bark turned 1 on Saturday! Well, we think she's 1. There was a wee bit of discrepancy regarding her actual birthdate. When we got her, we were told that her birthday was in May. But when we looked at her paperwork from the vet, it said it was in June. We figured that they must of gotten that date from the paperwork from the previous vet, so it looks like her birthday's in June.Here's M*Bark checking out her presents. The carrot is from the MIL and it makes a fun noise when shaken. We got her the football cookie, but broke in half b/c it was a little big for her. She chomped it right down and we'll give her the other half tonight.

Graduating

It's the end of the year and my kids are leaving. Some of them are just leaving for the summer, while other ones are leaving for the next chapter of their lives.

Yesterday was preschool graduation. All of the kids who graduated made such huge gains since they entered our program. I laugh when I read their old initial evaluation reports and think back to where they were when they entered our program. Some of them were horribly unintelligible. Others of them had extremely poor receptive language. And others of them weren't talking at all. And looking at them now, you wouldn't even think they were the same kids. Many of our kids graduating have caught up to their chronological age peers and can start elementary school just like any other child. They don't need us anymore. They are intelligible, they can understand what you're saying, and boy, can some of them talk. I love it when a parent grumbles to me that their child talks too much because that means that I've done my job.

My fifth graders also graduated today. Their graduation was harder for me than yesterday's graduation. At least I'll be able to see my preschoolers walking around on campus next year and I'll be working with some of them. But my fifth graders are leaving elementary school and although I'm sad that they're leaving me, I understand that they're heading to bigger and better things. These are the kids that I started with, the kids that I have spent my days with for the past three years. There were days when I wanted to strangle them and there were days when I wanted to hug them. These were my kids and it was hard to say goodbye.

I tell people that it is my job to work myself out of a job. All of my kids either graduate from our school and move on or they improve so much that they no longer need me. And while my job is rewarding and I love it when my kids don't need me any longer, it's still hard to say goodbye.

M*Bark, The Yarn, and Doggy School

Last weekend as I was working on the yarn room, I heard a clacking sound coming from the living room. Realizing that this sound probably meant that M*Bark was up to something, I went to investigate and found this:
She had discovered my knitting on the coffee table and had decided that it was interesting. The clacking sound that I heard was the sound of my knitting needles being moved around. Thankfully she left my project on the table. So I walked into the living room and found my project lying on the table, my ball of yarn clear across the room, and yarn connecting the two throughout the room. It was an inexpensive ball of cotton so I was more amused than annoyed. I think she has a thing for yarn/hand knits b/c I've also found my ipod (in its knitted case) on the stairs and she keeps plucking my knitted hat from my school bag.

Respecting the yarn isn't one of the lessons that they directly teach, but M*Bark's been going to Doggy School on the weekends. She's doing well and likes going. She's already made some friends. It's weird, though, b/c I think my 10th grade student council advisor is in the class. One of these days I'm going to go talk to her and find out for sure. Here's Lance working on the "stay" command:
Here's M*Bark at "recess" checking out the contents of my bag. That's probably how she looks when shes plucking hand knits out of my school bag.
Doggy School is tiring and M*Bark's pretty wiped out at the end of class. Mmm...comfy pillow...

Changes

Changes, changes, changes. Lots has happened since my last post. In March, Lance and I celebrated both our eight year anniversary and our two year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that so much time has past and every day I feel blessed that we found each other. Anyway, we combined our anniversaries into one and spent the day at the zoo and ate a delicious lunch at the Oceanarium. It was bloody hot at the zoo, but it was nice spending time at the site of our first date.

After my last post, the Big Pack really took off. We packed and packed and packed. I can't believe we accumulated so much stuff over the past two years. This move was a lot harder than my first move. The first time individual people moved in, this time a married couple moved out, along with all the stuff that a home has. Bed, couch, desks, kitchen stuff, kitchen stuff, kitchen stuff. Thank goodness we had so many people helping us -- we have amazing family and friends. It also helped a lot that my parents were able to store some of our stuff for a bit so we were able to move a lot out during the week. [Note: If you move and have people who can help you move, renting a U-Haul is a fantastic deal. Their website even has tips to make your move easier. No, I don't work for them.]

When we moved, we were also able to bring our dog home from my mother-in-law's house. In retrospect, perhaps it wasn't the wisest idea to bring her home on the same day of our big move. She was able to transition rather well from owner to owner, but we discovered that she had some separation anxiety in the beginning of her move. We found this out during our first weekend when one of our neighbors kindly left a note on our door about our dog's barking. Ironic, isn't it? I, who have been notoriously intolerant of my neighbors, suddenly found myself as the annoying neighbor next door. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end. Her barking led us to take her around the neighborhood to apologize and we got to meet our neighbors. Most of them were understanding and the neighbor who left the note was actually the friendliest. We desensitized her and taught her that us leaving the house was not a big deal and now all is good. We decided to wait to get a cat and although I'm a little disappointed, I realize that getting a cat right now is not a good idea. And besides, with a dog as cute as her, how can I really be sad? :) Anyway, meet M*Bark. Don't worry, that's not her real name.

It's been crazy busy with our new house and our new dog and we're pretty much walking around in a constant state of exhaustion. There's a lot of work to put into our new home, some of which we didn't anticipate. It's funny how some of the stuff that didn't bother me at all when we bought the house bug me now. I loved our townhouse and the newness of it and it's hard going from brand new to not brand new, but I love the fact that the home we're creating is the home that we're going to be in, well, pretty much forever. The townhouse is where we started our life together and this house is where we'll start a family and grow old together. [Note: No, we're not starting that family right now.] With the circumstances surrounding our purchase of our house, we've been saying that this house was meant for us. As an additional sign, check out the light that's in the yard. Dragonflies!