Back to Reality

Not that a 4 day vacation is long or anything, but these last 4 days have been non-working bliss. I have been busy busy busy as usual with Kenny and Carson and the dog and family and driving and visiting plus normal things like cleaning, laundry (neverending) and Christmas decorating. But it's been a fairly peaceful 4 days, unlike the next 4. Nothing at work is peaceful. Ever. No moments to compose my thinking or to process anything, no time to "take 5" or even eat lunch without getting up from my desk. That's what I have such a hard time with when I'm at work. I need a break, just 10 minutes here and there, and when I don't get that little mental break, I become system overload, which is how I am living Monday through Fridays now. It's been like this for a while, it's just that this year, it's worse. Amidst all my students who are vibrant and smart, I just need to come up for air sometimes. 4 days off helped me refocus what's important (go to work, earn a paycheck, spend every spare moment making my boys smile) and think about things in better light, however, I would still like a mental break every day. Do you think Santa will bring me that all wrapped up in a nice little package under the tree this year?? I would also be satisfied with a winning lottery ticket.

On to cuter subjects....the baby. Oh yes, I can't write an entire blog post without mentioning him!! He is just the light of our lives. Carson's first Christmas pictures ever:

Black Friday

Carson's first Thanksgiving was fun. We arrived at my inlaws 20 minutes before eating and I didn't have to bring a thing. Don't think I didn't ask, because I did several times, and I was told to just bring the baby. So we did. Today we are going to my mom's for dinner and then to my dad's to visit. Enough eating already!! Put that food away!!

While we had dinner yesterday Carson hung out in the exersaucer right at the table with us. It was adorable! Kenny and I had a nice relaxing night last night putting up the tree and watching TV and just being us. What a great day. And so MUCH to be thankful for.

I'm listening to the sounds of Kenny faintly snoring, Carson talking and cooing to himself, BabyEinstein on the TV and the dryer. I smell coffee and the dog is sleeping at my feet. Ah to be at home in the mornings. My favorite part of the day!! When I leave for work every morning my heart is heavy and I have to fight the urge to call in sick and stay home with my boys, EVERY SINGLE DAY. I would give anything to be here with them. And then I have to remember that I'm providing my family with things even though I am not home, and I also have to remember to be thankful that I have a job with good health benefits and a retirement plan and Aflac and all that stuff. That's what keeps me from turning around every morning, and believe me, I'm SO thankful for all that. But nothing beats the sounds and smells of my house in the morning. That is heaven!

Oh yeah, and you won't find me anywhere near a shopping plaza today!!!!! NOOOOO WAY!!!

Short Week:)

Can you tell he's the happiest baby ever?? I just eat those smiles and giggles and laugh attacks up!! He is so precious!!

He WAS 4 months, now it's more like 4 3/4 I think. I'm slacking on this blog, I know it, but I have full intentions of getting back to a more regular posting schedule. And I have SO MUCH blog reading to catch up on too. Over this short vacation I will be doing just that!

The last couple of weeks have been difficult at work. I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not that 15 teachers were let go due to budget problems. It stinks for those teachers and it stinks for the teachers who are left to clean up the mess, as in expand class sizes to large numbers. Not fun. And those poor kids who come to school one day and find out their teacher is gone. It was hard to explain to my new students where their old teachers were and of course there were many tears and I just wanted to join in. All in all it was a crappy time, probably the worst I've even been through in my almost-8 years of teaching. If you are thinking about going into teaching, THINK AGAIN. Not a good time for it. I'll leave it at that!

Kenny has talked me into putting up the tree today, when I get home from work. How I'm going to do that with Mr. Carson?? Not sure yet, we'll figure it out. Usually I make Kenny wait until after Thanksgiving to put up and decorate the tree. He claims that since he is going hunting Friday, he wants to do it now. Whatever. Gets it out of the way for me!! Our biggest challenge is figuring out what to do with all the baby contraptions in the livingroom with the tree in here too. It's going to be tight.

Kenny has been hunting a lot in the last few weeks. He's actually already got 2 deer and we are going to have summer sausage and beef jerky very soon!! He wants to go for one more (sorry to all the non-hunters) so our freezer will be stocked all winter. He always says as he's leaving for huntin' camp, "I'm off to get our winter food!" What a crack up he is!

I'm off to work now. It's my last day with students this week and then a PD day tomorrow. I'm so happy and THANKFUL this is a short week!

Oh I'm so behind in blogging. I have so much to write too. Good stuff. Fun stuff. Maybe tomorrow. Until then.................

H1N1 Vaccine Update

If you read my post yesterday, you know I went in to get the nasal mist....ended up getting the actual shot and the only side effect was extreme fatigue. I usually react badly to flu shots, I get a slight fever and body aches, head aches, that kind of thing. This shot hurt worse to get it than the regular flu shot, however, my arm never once was sore and still isn't 24 hours later. There was nothing to it. I hope this helps someone in their decision making as to get the shot or not if you have it available. I feel relief. I am a carrier of sicknesses to my house because I'm a teacher. I'm constantly washing hands and when I get home I actually strip my clothes and shoes (kids' bathrooms....nasty!!!) and wash my hands before I even enter the room where Kenny or Carson is. I just can't take those risks with either of my boys, Carson being 4 months old and Kenny a severe asthmatic. I'm sure it's new mommy syndrome being so worried, but I'd rather be safe than sorry!!

Busy

Oh the business around here. I haven't been able to sit down and do my normal weekly post with pics until now because Kenny didn't go hunting this weekend. I know it sounds crazy, but I actually can get MORE on weekends when it's just Carson and I. When Kenny's here, he pulls me in every direction possible and we end up being gone all day or something...I think he's more high maintenance than the baby!! But I love it, I admit!

Since next weekend is opening gun season, Kenny will be gone, so we took advantage of him being here yesterday and went shopping together. We left Carson with Grandma and spent 3 hours together, just us. I'm still so torn about doing that because I'm at work every day and when I come home, it's all Carson time. The weekends are the same way. I SOO look forward to and enjoy every single uninterrupted moment with him on the weekends, so getting me to leave without him was hard. But we needed it for ourselves, so we went. We had a blast and Kenny bought all his new essential hunting gear!! Of course we bought Carson some baby camo stuff. As if he doesn't have enough already, but it's just so cute we couldn't resist!

I'm going to get the H1N1 vaccination today, the mist. I'm not elligible ANYWHERE at the locations in my county to get the shot, so this is what I've decided to do. Believe me, I've researched and read and talked to dozens of people about this. Because the baby is so young, it would be so dangerous if he got the flu, and since I work with kids and will most likely come into contact with it there, I'm the most likely person to pass it to the baby or Kenny. So after researching all my options, I decided to get it today. I'm curious what other people are doing, so could you leave a comment and let me know?

I have completed about half my Christmas shopping....I'm so PROUD of myself for that!! I have done lots of online shopping, and I think a couple more shopping sprees and I'll be finished. That makes me feel like I'm ahead of the game, but I'm sure many of you are already FINISHED at this point! We decided not to buy Carson much because we know everyone else will be buying him things and it's not like he knows what Christmas is this year. But of course, I've snuck in some toys here and there....how can I not?? It's so much fun to shop for him!!

I just realized that Carson is NOT smiling in any of these pictures....I promise he smiles all the time!! He was just being a serious baby!!