Getting the hang of this

We're almost done with Week 3 in WI and I think we've got this.

• I'm feeling a TON more comfortable at work and very effective with several of my self-contained preschoolers as I work towards communicatively engineering their classrooms (CEC) so they are able to communicate using pictures, signs, and words in all areas of their environment. It's a long process but the dive I've taken into it already is paying off. Huge HOORAY - I introduced a few of my ALS (aided language stimulation) boards to a few of my kiddies during structured play activities and the next day I came in, the teacher said that as soon as they went to centers time, one of the kids went directly to a center with a board and started using it while playing trucks. That's a win if I ever heard one!
• I'm also feeling more comfortable in almost all other aspects of my job...except paperwork. I haven't had a real high demand to use what I've learned about it yet but that's coming next week. For the time being, I'm going to enjoy the therapy ride I'm on and keep on truckin' through.
• Home life gets better daily...meaning that the girls are understanding our new routine and even if it involves almost 2 hours of traveling (car time, pick up/drop off, etc) daily, we're working with it and making it happen. The girls are having less tantrums and we're working on getting more sleep in their night time schedule b/c they are certainly getting less than they did in our normal, routine Iowa life.
• The dogs make me nuts b/c we don't have a fenced in yard of any kind anymore (electric or physically standing) so someone needs to be with them at all times or they need to be tied up (totally out of their norm). I feel bad b/c they hardly have any time outside while Adam travels (the past two weeks) because cooking dinner requires me to be inside and it's hard to watch dogs AND kids AND have fun at the same time. The ILs have been nothing more than a HUGEGIANTOMG help - this would be a million times harder without them. But with Adam traveling, the "hard" factor goes up some notches as usual.
• I need to learn to go to bed earlier but am functioning pretty well on 6.5-7 hours of sleep a night. Maybe that's part of the reason for this head cold I have...or it's the germs I've picked up from all my friends at school, per the normal back to school routine.
• Adam. He's doing well home officing but he's only had a week of it, honestly. He was home the first week and on the road this and last week. We miss him terribly and are so thankful he's coming home tomorrow (for one week and then travels again another week). The girls are beyond excited that, if all goes according to schedule, his plane landing time should allow him to be home in time to play with the girls a bit and put them to bed.
• The Iowa house...ho hum, the trail has gone cold and I swear everyone has decided to hunker down for the winter and not buy houses. :-( We were pretty sad earlier this week when a second showing fell through and they were comparing our house to ones $50k more - which is so stupid b/c they're NOT COMPARABLE. Almost no house at that price difference is (unless we're talking millions. which we're not. but just in case you were looking for loopholes, there's one for ya). The guy Adam called to mow the lawn this week said that our address sounded familiar b/c he and his wife had looked at it online and were interested. Unfortunately, they're not in a huge rush (although they should be. just sayin').

More from us soon. I need to start working out again but I'm so tired by the time the girls go to bed that I breathe a huge sigh of relief we made it to their bedtime with/without tantrums and ruckus, then pack up for the next day, I shower at night now to save morning time, and then it's almost 9 by the time I even consider sitting down. That means little/no workout time unless we take the girls for a walk after supper. It will all work out...as long as I start eating less ice cream. ;-)

PS Poor Morgan came home with a fever and Hadley came home with a dried face of snot. I can breathe through my nose but I'm coughing in an annoying manner. Isn't Adam a lucky guy to come home to us beauties? HA HA HA...

Week One Done.

And we survived. We drove late into the night last Friday night and arrived in our home state and we made it. We had clothes, toys, and TONS of things for work (mostly me. like 85-90% me.). We were weary, tired, and excited. That hasn't gone away yet at all, and I don't anticipate it going away for quite some time.

We weren't sure about the KinderCare we ended up going with even though it is the most economical across the board (of the 7 in the GB area). Looooong story short, we're feeling much better about it after Adam talked to the director Friday and everybody's feeling like this is going to work out for now. The girls both cried when I left them Thursday and Friday which made me want to vomit and cry all the way to the car/work, but each day I picked them up I had reports of "she had a MUCH better day today."

We're having some SERIOUS TERRIBLE TWOS issues with Hadley and she's significantly regressed with potty training (which makes me furious even though I shouldn't be). I also realized yesterday that she's FINALLY popping through 3/4 molars she's missing which may be contributing to the fuss. That said, the kid will cry for 20 minutes straight, forced even, after she has run out of A) real tears and B) forgot what she was crying about in the first place. We're praying it's a phase thing and related to the huge transition we just threw them into. If it's not, I'm going to be an alcoholic by the time she's 8. (ok I won't be, but I might try to sell her a few times. Ok, not that either. I'll just lose my sanity. That might be more "fun.")

So work. Work. Wow. I can't BELIEVE the difference between two states. It finally dawned on me this week that the question I bombed with Appleton? The one where they asked, "What IEP system do you use?" and I fumbled like an idiot b/c I was all, um, don't YOU use the one your STATE makes you use and since I live in Iowa clearly I don't use whatever system you are using? Nope. Not even close, folks. All you educators, especially those in special ed, are going to audibly gasp when you read this - Every district gets to choose their own IEP system (someone out there makes tons of cash creating IEP systems!). So, if Jonny Smith lives in my district but then moves down the street down to Ashwaubanon, his poor special ed people have to enter his IEP into a whole new system! Now, this happens when a kid crosses state lines and that's fine. But no matter where you go, you have frequent fliers who change districts multiple times a year (unfortunately for the poor kid) and I can't imagine the paperwork! Oh good Lord.

I could go ON and ON with the differences. Some are shocking. Some make me almost fall off my chair. Like this one - my caseload has taken a huge hit and dropped significantly....however, the kids have TONS of minutes compared to Iowa so my schedule is almost as packed. I like the idea that I am part of the school because I was hired by the district, too. My dept is still 50+ strong and I like that, too, although the dept as a whole is much older than my the AEA I was in. After talking with another SLP Friday, she said that the district was at a point where they were requiring SLPs to have at least 2 years' experience before being hired! I was so sad - our rookies are some of our strongest people in our AEA and I value their fresh eyes in the field. Plus, they grow with you and the relationships formed are hard to break.

Don't get me wrong - I know I'll like it here, but it will take some getting used to. It's not just GB as a district - it's statewide things that I'm going to have to get used to. I am so VERY EXCITED to have plans in place to create communicatively engineered contained preschools at this school, but since I've got all of the new going on that's threatening my sanity, I'm going to give myself 2 years to really have it awesome and all figured out. And then I'll revamp it and make it more awesome. I can't wait.

Ok, so just to let you know, we're hanging in there. Adam's first week home officing went well - he said he's super productive since Maddie and Jessie don't come to talk to him about their weekends between business happenings ;-) although I'm sure he's missed his colleagues. I was so very sad Friday when I went to a SLP dept meeting and knew no one. I always knew everyone (almost) and had too many people to sit by (by the way, I struggle with sitting places alone - I'd rather eat in my car than eat at a restaurant alone). Thankfully, I ended up next to a really nice girl, around my age, who it turns out was my Aunt Laurie's intern a long time ago in Two Rivers. (small world)

And for the record, the house has had 5 (I think? Maybe 6?) showings. The last one might come back with her hubs/parents. Either way, I'm still terrified we're never going to sell and we'll be stuck not in "our house" forever (shouldn't happen...). Thinking positively. Trying hard. And still so glad to be home.

Day Care/PreK - CHECK.

Real quick...

Our weekend in WI was a success. At least on the front of day care/preschool. LONG story short - the in home day care we visited just didn't even come close to Mary's. We found an amazing preschool at a church but we were so sad it was only 2 days/week. We wanted Morgan to go more often than that. We finally came down to a Montessori or Kindercare. We went with Kindercare; they both can go to the same place all day (and could at Montessori, too) but we just got a better feel for Kindercare. They start Monday and we think they'll do really well. I told Mary this morning and she knew of the programs. Her "approving look" when I told her solidified our decision even more.

We found our forever home. For real. It was amazing. Done exactly the way I would have wanted. Then...the lot was too small. The garage won't fit our needs (we need over-sized 2 car or 3 car garage). So God knew what he was doing when I was all sad and mad and furious that we couldn't put an offer in on it immediately...The realtor showing is today at our IA house so hopefully that will increase traffic and "the one" will find us and buy it so we can move forward in WI. We went back and forth all weekend on whether or not to go for two mortgages if we found our forever house (the market is SO FAST up there) but after terrifying number crunching and the like...we're sticking with one mortgage at a time for now. We'll see if that's the case if we're still in this position in 6 months. (please dear GOD I hope we're not).

Now, to get some sleep sometime this week...I'm still waking up super early just to lie there and worry. Pleasant, no?