Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho..it's Back to Work I Go???

So I've been toying with the idea of going back to work for awhile now...I am a teacher, with a BS degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and just one portfolio away from a Masters degree in Reading and Literacy. I was looking to perhaps go back to teaching preschool part-time, somewhere I could also have Amryn in daycare as well. But there just haven't been any jobs in our area. Previously, I did some work as a substitute teacher in our local school district, but that schedule was just too unpredictable to allow for me to find daycare for Amryn.


Then I noticed on craigslist that my husband's work is hiring for part-time. (Yea, okay maybe he had mentioned it before...) From the ad we realized that we could work opposite shifts and then we wouldn't need daycare (except for a 4 week period when I'll be training full time). So I went ahead and put in my application online.


Then hubby talked to his supervisor about me applying, and learned about a job fair they are having this coming Saturday. He also said that she seemed really excited when she learned that I have a BS degree, and almost a Masters degree, even if they are totally unrelated to the job (home equity collections). I guess they hired like 15 people on the spot at the last job fair, so I'm hoping to know on Saturday if I'm going to be starting work on June 15th (when the next training class starts).


This leaves us in the position of perhaps needing daycare in less than 3 weeks! So I've been doing some research, and OMG daycare is expensive!! I mean if we had to have her in daycare full time for longer than a month it really wouldn't be worth me going back to work! The YMCA is almost $900 a month for only 4 full days, plus a $50 registration fee! In home daycares seem to range from $600-$800 for 4 or 5 full days.

While I would of course like to keep as much of my paycheck as possible, I am also super concerned about finding a good quality daycare. I'm trying not to think too much about it, or I start getting a major case of Mommy guilt. While I know she will probably LOVE daycare and getting to play with other kids. The guilty Mommy part of me worries that she won't get all the love and attention that she is used to, what if she is crying and no one can comfort her?!? Do I put her in a daycare center, a in home daycare, or do I find a nice stay at home Mom looking to make some extra money?! And what about the germs?! Amryn has never really been sick other than some sniffles while teething, is she going to go to daycare and immediately come down with some monster illness?!?! See...I just can't think about it all or I go crazy!!

Junk

My daughter loves junk mail, newspapers, ads, catalogs, post cards, anything addressed to "Current Resident" the child loves it all! This child has hundreds of dollars in toys, but her greatest joy is to sit on the living room floor surrounded by piles of junk mail. As I type she is currently investigating what is on sale at Albertsons. Sure eventually things get mangled or ripped up, but there is always a steady stream of new "toys" coming in the mailbox. No, she isn't embarassed, she just doesn't like the flash on the camera.

The teacher in me says it is positive because it allows her exposure to various forms of print. The Mom in me is just happy that something entertains her for 15 minutes!

WTF?! Miss California

I saw this on a friend's blog, thought it was pretty funny, and wanted to share it.

The bedtime guy.

My hubby works long hours, sometimes as many as 10+hours a day up to 6 days a week, and doesn't usually get off work until 9pm. So he misses out on alot of time with Amryn. Awhile back he offered to put Amryn to bed, and it has since become a nightly Daddy/daughter ritual. I'm not entirely clear how her does it, but she goes down at night alot easier for him than she ever did for me, apparently there are steps involved, including kisses and the ceremonal turning on of the fish tank thing in her crib. I'm glad they have their special time together, however brief. She has definately turned into a "daddy's girl" and it is just so cute!

On a side note, we have taught Amryn to blow kisses! As my hubby would carry her back the hall toward her room I would blow her kisses and tell her good night. Then hubby would show her how to give them back. Well the other night I blow her kisses and she did it back all on her own! It is the cutest thing ever!

Upcoming blog posts???

Lately I've been looking at my life for ideas on what to write about in this blog. Usually I will think of a topic, and then when it comes to sitting down and writing something I can't remember that "great idea" I had while lying awake at 2am the night before. But here are a few of the ideas I can actually remember, that may actually become blog posts here in the near future.

1) Blanket Wars
2) The Top Two Most Annoying Toys Owned by my Daughter
3) What Happened to all my Friends?
4) Hubby vs. Cat
5) More Baby Fever
6) Is it Time to go Back to Work?
7) My Hubby the Gamer.
8) If You can't Beat'em Join'em

I'm developing a few of these in my head...so I'm sure a few of them will be showing up as full blogs soon.

Tweet Tweet

Okay, I've given in...I'm a Tweeter or Twitterer or Twitt...whatever...
So add me or else my thoughts are going to just be lost aimlessly in cyberspace forever...
https://twitter.com/jessjess1977

The Fever

I've got a fever. No, I'm not sick, this is a totally different type of fever. I've got baby fever. I've tried to fight it for some time, but there is no denying it anymore. If normal is 98.6 I'd say I'm around 101.9 right now, not a serious life threatening fever, but it is definately there.

When the fever first started I thought it was because my daughter was getting big so fast, and I kept saying that it wasn't that I wanted another baby, it was just that I missed my daughter being a baby. But this feeling is just not going away, in fact it is getting even stronger. I'm watching all the baby shows again, staring at babies when we are out in public, and remembering fondly what it felt like to be pregnant and have that little person in there moving around.

I must say I'm a little taken aback by this fever. Before having Amryn, when I thought about having kids I always said I wanted them atleast 3 years apart. I didn't want to deal with 2 in diapers, and I wanted to allow my first to have time to be "the baby". So when I first started feeling the inklings of this fever, I decided okay, we'll start trying after Amryn turns 2. Now that the fever is increasing by the day, I don't know if I can wait almost another year to try for number 2.

This little voice in my head says "Well, what if it takes awhile to get pregnant?" Okay, this was definately not a problem for us last time, I went off birthcontrol the end of June and I was pregnant by mid-July! So with our luck if I decided today I wanted to get pregnant, we'd probably be pregnant in the next month or so. But what if??

I think my husband would totally be onboard, he really wants his boy. He also makes comments to Amryn like "With the rate Mommy's going you'll be 20 before you get a brother." Of course he's not the one that actually has to carry and HAVE the baby, and he's the one that goes to work each day and wouldn't have to be home with 2 little ones.

Logistically, I think it would be better for me to have another baby before trying to go back to work again, or I'd just have to start a job and then end up taking time off. I would really like to be able to stay at home with the second child for atleast the 1st year. At this point if I waited to go back to work until after a second child I could probably wait to go back to work until Amryn starts preschool.

So much to think about...I will keep you posted.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet...

So I've been hearing all this hype about Twitter lately, but haven't really gotten around to joining...I'm not really sure why. I have a Myspace page which I don't really do much with anymore except post pics and check out bulletins. I also have a Facebook but mostly just because my hubby was playing some game on it and decided to create a page for me to get me involved in the game so he could get things from my game for his. And I have this blog thing, which I'm almost certain less than 3 people actually read. (If you do read this, hey give a girl some comments, let me know you're out there!) Between Babycenter and the ever-growing list of blogs that I read, do I really need one more thing to do on the computer?

So my probably non-existent readers...leave me a comment and tell me why I should Tweet. Should I Tweet? What do you like about Tweeting? And if you are a Tweeter (Twitterer?) then maybe you could leave your info so if I do decide I want to give it a shot that I may actually have people to Tweet with or to or whatever.

Love at first sight...

I've been on the look out for a doll for Amryn, just a regular old baby doll, I didn't want one that cried, peed, cooed, ate,pooped, took the SATs, wore makeup,danced, walked, drove,or any number of other "baby" things. I looked at Target before her birthday party, but just couldn't find what I was looking for.

Well, Amryn got a gift card for Fred Meyer (for those of you not familiar it is similar to Target but has groceries, owned by Kroger) so we went there today to continue baby search 2009. And there she was, a simple $7.49 baby complete with clothes and hat. I handed her to Amryn and her face just lit up, and right at that moment the song "Love of a Lifetime" started playing in the store and the moment was complete, my baby had found her own baby. I also got her one of those little toy baby bottles with the fake "milk" for $1.29.

Amryn has been playing with and "feeding" her baby all afternoon. Sometimes she tests out the bottle herself, but I keep telling her it is for the baby not for her, and then she'll put the bottle up to the dolls mouth, it is so sweet! She is so smart!

She got a couple hundred dollars worth of toys for her birthday, but the $8.78 baby and bottle seem to make her just as happy!

I'll try to get a picture and post it soon!

Watch out, it's MOMZILLA!!!!

Amryn's birthday was Thursday, so we had her party yesterday. Over a week ago we ordered the cake from Safeway mostly because we had received a coupon in the mail for a free small cake for Amryn to smash up. We were supposed to pick the cakes up at 11am yesterday before heading over to her party which started at noon.
At 9am I get a message from the bakery saying that they don't have the decorating kit to make the cake that we ordered. Okay fine whatever, I called back and told her to just use the toy from the other Pooh cake they had.
At 10 am, one hour before we are supposed to pick it up, she calls back and leaves a message saying that they can't use the whipped cream icing that we had ordered because of the way they decorate the cake. I was totally livid! I called the store and asked to speak to the manager, who then passed me on to the bakery manager.
And then I went Momzilla!! I told him that we had ordered this cake over a week before, and they are just telling me NOW that they can't make the cake? I told him that they were ruining my daughters 1st birthday, and that there was no way I was going to eat a cake with sickening sweet frosting, and I certainly was NOT going to pay for a cake I wasn't going to eat! Well that got them into action, they called another store and got the original cake kit I had ordered, and hmmm all of a sudden it was no problem to make it with the whipped cream frosting, AND he tells me that the cake is going to be free!
Then we got to pick up the cakes...AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN MAKE THE LITTLE CAKE!!! It was RIGHT THERE on the order form! The manager got this scared look in his eyes, and then basically offered us anything we wanted. So Amryn got to dig into an 8inch round cake! We ended up with $42 worth of cake for FREE!

A year in review

Well, some of the pictures seem to be too big, I will have to try to go back and change it when I have more time.

Happy Happy Birthday Baby!

I guess it was inevitable, I've seen it coming for some time now, and despite my best efforts to prevent it, my baby has grown up! Today Amryn Claire is a big 1 year old girl, a toddler, no longer my little baby. Where did the year go? I swear a year has never gone by so fast, it is unbelievable! Yet here she is, walking around, eating big people food, emptying my bookself of all of its contents on a daily basis, and forever getting into SOMETHING on or in the entertainment center!



I am so amazed, in awe, and in love with this tiny little person, more so than I could have ever imagined! I love her sweet-sometimes open mouthed-kisses, I love the way her face lights up when I go and get her out of her crib, and I love her cute little giggle when we tickle her. She is a constant surprise and she makes everyday a new experience!



Everything I'd ever heard about motherhood is true, it really is like having your heart walking around outside of your body, they really do grow up too fast, and you really do forget about the pain. (Well, almost. lol) While I am sad that she is never going to be my little baby again, I am so excited to see who she is going to grow into. I know this next year is going to be filled with even more growth and changes, I am especially excited for her to really start talking (she still doesn't say Mama!!) though I'm sure I'll regret saying that in about 12 more years. lol



Happy Birthday my sweet little girl, it is a joy and an honor to be your mother.

Yay for coupons!

So I want to brag a bit about 2 awesome coupon deals I got today!

I had to go to the Dr today and got 2 prescriptions. Well our co-pay for Dr visits is $20, and our co-pay for prescriptions is $10 each. We have figured out that since both Target and Fred Meyer have the $4 generic deals that we can get meds CHEAPER by NOT using our insurance (crazy huh?). Well awhile back I picked up a Target coupon for a free $25 gift card with a new or transfered prescription!! So I took my prescriptions in, got one for $4 and then a 3 month supply of another for $10, for a grand total of $14 and then I got a $25 gift card!! So my $34 medical expenses were brought down to $9! I'm saving the $25 card for when we go get Amryn's birthday presents on Friday!

Super deal #2 will be FREE DINNER! I'm a member of BzzAgent and was chosen to try out this new Taco Bell Fiesta Family Meal! Dinner for 4 includes 10 taco shells (hard or soft), heated seasoned ground beef, real cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole, sides of beans, rice, and chips! They are just testing it out right now in the Portland, OR area as well as Omaha, Nebraska, it sells for $14.99, but in exchange for my opinion and for sharing my experiences and coupons with others, we will be eating for free tonight! Whooohooo!!!

Things you would have overheard at our house this last weekend...

"Well then I guess we'll just have to tape Amryn collecting Pagan fertility symbols with Christians next year!"

"Umm...the mixed vegetables caught on fire."

Lots of Updates

We got our RENT tickets in the mail!! I am sooooooo excited, but I still have to wait over 2 months! :(

Hubby's paycheck snafu was all taken care of and we actually got both deposits in our account on Friday as scheduled!

Ammy is getting teeth like crazy!! Teeth 9 and 10 have just popped the gums! She the 4 front ones on top, 2 bottom front ones. 2 molars, the bottom and top on right side, and the newest editions the bottom left molar and the next bottom tooth on the left side! She has really been a fairly good teether, maybe a tiny bit more crabby, but nothing like the nightmares I've heard about. *knock on wood*

This day last year was my due date with Amryn. She didn't make her appearance until 9 day later, but through my entire pregnancy I always had April 7th stuck in my mind. I can't believe she is almost 1! I am so excited for her birthday party on the 18th!

Money crisis averted.

So my hubby sends me an email last night from work, saying that he checked on how much his paycheck is going to be on Friday, and for some reason he was only getting paid for 1 week. (Meaning he wasn't getting paid for 40 hours and nearly 10 hours of OT) "Sure, sure" I said "April Fools!" and he kept writing back saying "No, really. No joke." When I finally saw the print out myself I realized "Holy Crap! He's right!" Yeeeeahh big problem, the amount that he will be paid is less than 1/2 the rent that we need to pay on Friday (I have 1/2 the rent already in savings, we take 1/2 out of each check). Luckily we actually have money in our savings account that we were saving for Amryn's birthday party later this month. So rent is covered but that won't leave much to live on or to pay the other bills with.

Hubby got to work today and called HR and they were like, well we will just add that to your next direct deposit. Okay really, who can do without half the pay check for 2 more weeks? Hello, people have bills to pay! It isn't like it would be hard to deposit it, THEY ARE THE BANK! (Hubby works in home equity collections for one of the major banks.) Well, hubby explained to them that we NEED that money, and they said that he would have it by Monday. We aren't sure if this is going to be in the form of a check or a direct deposit, but atleast we won't have to wait 2 more weeks!!!

RENT RENT RENT RENT RENT!!

My favorite broadway musical is coming to town in June, and when we heard this the hubby and I decided to save some of our tax return money to get tickets as part of our anniversary presents to each other. Well we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for them to go on sale with ticketmaster, and today a co-worker of my husband's told us about this fundraiser for the local AIDS charity, you can buy tickets to the opening night of the show plus you get a ticket for an after show cast party, and a portion is donated to the charity. I'm super excited to see the show again (this will be the 3rd time hehe) but I am even more excited for the cast party because the original Mark and Roger, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp are going to be in the cast!! I just bought our tickets a little bit ago! Now I have to wait nearly 3 months!!

Fun Bites

Ammy and I had a playdate today with a few Moms and kids from the playgroup. There were two other April babies there, and a 9 month old. Amryn was having so much fun! She kept trying to kiss and hug the other little girl who was just 1 day older than her. She loved playing in this tent that they had.

It was nice for her to get some play time with kids her own age. So many of the playdates have had older kids.

And then it happened. The little boy came over to see what Amryn was doing, and Amryn being the trusting and curious little thing she is, stuck her finger in his mouth. The photo at the right was taken just seconds before the little bugger chomped down on my baby's finger like a dog with a bone! Amryn didn't know what was happening, and all the other Mom kept saying was "Oh, I forgot to tell you he bites." She pulls her kid off of Amryn and says to him "Oh it's okay, you didn't mean to." HUH?!? Seeing as he very nearly broke the skin I think he did damn well mean it! If it would have been Amryn biting I would have told her sternly "No biting!!" and this lady is comforting her little piranha?

Yes I know kids bite, and I'm sure this isn't going to be the last time in her life that she gets biten. But seriously, how is a kid supposed to learn NOT to bite unless they are taught that biting is not okay?

All in all we had a good time, Amryn cried for like a minute and then wanted to be put down so she could go play again, so I'm sure there's been no permanent damage. I guess she learned that sometimes, fun bites.

Birthday party planning....

Invitations for Amryn's first birthday party went out this week. She'll definately have an interesting mix of people at her first party, we invited family (2 sets of grandparents, uncles, girlfriends and cousins) and "family" (a couple dozen gay uncles) and a few friends with their kids. This could either be a lot of fun or one giant strange mess. Sure, a part of me is kind of giddy with the idea of making my church going Mother in law sit next to one of my openly gay and slightly flaming best friends, but I also don't want the entire 2 hours to be totally awkward.

But if there is one thing I have learned about "my bois" it is that they tend to surprise even the most closed minded individual. Many of my friends are professionals with good stable jobs, and they are all very well mannered and articulate. Amryn is loved by a lot of people, and I don't ever want her to feel like she has to choose who to invite based on who they choose to love.

Unfortunately my husband's work has decided to make everyone work on the day of Amryn's party. They have to work 2 Saturdays a month, and it had been the second and fourth Saturdays, but because they are closing on Easter they decided to give everyone the second Saturday off and work the third Saturday instead. So now he has to take a vacation day for a day he SHOULD have had off any way! And the handful of friends we invited that work with him aren't going to be able to come to the party!! So we will be taking the leftover cake to work after the party so everyone can still see her.

We are doing a Winnie the Pooh 1st birthday theme, I have plates for the cake, cups, and napkins all with the Pooh theme (got those before we had to move to a restaurant) and a Pooh 1 candle, and a Happy Birthday banner. We still need to order the cake, and maybe a little "smash" cake for Ammy. We are having it at a pizza place so all we have to do is order food, I think I might call ahead and order the pizza so it will be ready when we get there. Once I know how many kids are coming, I will go to Dollar Tree and buy some Pooh puzzles/books/stickers for party favors.

Now I just hope people will actually RSVP!!

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice OH HELL NO!

Amryn is officially a walker now so I figured she needed some good sturdy shoes to get around in, so today we went to the mall to go to Stride Rite. Wow that was a crazy experience. It is Springbreak here in Oregon, so the store was packed and they only had 2 people working. But I was already there and Ammy really needed shoes so I waited patiently. Finally one of the sales people looks at me and says "Did you sign up on the list up front?" Umm...list?! How the heck was I supposed to know there was a list?! But it worked out okay and Ammy got her foot measured (Bad Mommy moment #1 I've been shoving her size 4 foot into a size 3 shoes oops) and I picked out 2 shoes to try on which they only had 1 of in a 4 1/2. Well I had a 15% off coupon to use, but the sales lady tried to convince to take advantage of their buy 1 get one 50% off sale. Yea, these things are already going to cost me a fourtune, I don't think I want to spend another $30 thanks. So she got her "big girl shoes" and then we walked around the mall for a bit.

While walking around I notice that they have the Easter Bunny there, and much like with Santa Clause kids can meet and get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Amryn did okay with Santa, I sort of just backed her in and sat her down and she sat there a good minute before she realized what was going on, then it sort of happened in slow motion, her face started to crinkle up and then she started to cry, but not before we got a pretty good looking picture (minus the tongue sticking out like a puppy dog).

So when I saw the Easter Bunny, and the no Easter Bunny line, I thought PERFECT! I take Ammy over and figure out what picture package to get. Normally this would be where I'd post the lovely picture of my daughter and the Easter Bunny, sadly things didn't work out so well. As I'm walking over to where the Easter Bunny is sitting on a bench, Amryn starts FREAKING OUT! She refused to sit on or near the Easter Bunny. I even tried sitting down on the bench and holding her, but she wouldn't even sit on my knee next to the Easter Bunny. So after reviewing the horrible pictures, I decided not to purchase any and to not traumatize my poor baby any further by trying to take "a good picture". Guess I wasn't going to fool her again!

My only guess is that Santa was okay because he looked like a person. This was her first encounter with a "character". I guess if I were her I would have lost my shit too, this giant 7 foot fuzzy things with glasses and HUGE eyes is trying to take me away from my MOMMY?!?! YEA NO!! Oh well, there's always next year.