Ryan finally got put onto Gary's work site and will start on Monday!! What does this mean for him??? Well, the site he has been at for the past five weeks was 90 minutes away and the new site is only about 20 minutes away. The old site he was working alone with nobody he knew and doing all the driving by himself. The new site is with a few friends and he can carpool with Gary on a daily basis. The old site was five days a week for 10 hours and the new site is six days a week for 10-12 hours, with many more opportunities for overtime. The old site was outside, so if it rained they were sent home. He has not worked a full 50 hour week since arriving there five weeks ago. The new site is inside so weather is not a factor.
An added bonus...the new site has "family weekends" since they have so many travelers. On a Family Weekend, they shut the plant down for the entire weekend so guys don't miss out on more work to be with their families. They don't have them every month, I think it is around every two months. The next Family weekend is Easter(only four weeks away!), which is when Ryan was going to come home anyway. The only downfall of the new site is that Ryan will be working nights now and not days. We will have to figure out a schedule to Skype (most likely on the weekends until I am out of work). He might have to call during the day and leave a "goodnight" message to the boys to hear before going to bed. That is one minor thing we can work out.
My Spring Break starts on Friday. I don't have many plans except spending a lot of time with the boys, a few doctor's appointments and a trip to the outlet mall with my mom to get the boy's their new spring and summer clothes. My students really need the break from school and illness. I luckily have managed to dodge all the germs and illness that has hit our school. Not sure how seeing as my whole class has had it...maybe I'm immune?!
There is a lot of other things going on at work now that have been stressful. Our Superintendent and our Board of Education had a horrible relationship and they forced her out with a hefty buyout one year before her contract was up. Now they want to spend even more money with an interim Superintendent and then hire a new one. They want us to become a "Super tier" district, yet none of the board members can even define what that is. What Superintendent in their right mind would want to come work for this board? The two most controversial board members are up for re-election (the president and vice-president) and hopefully the community will not re-elect them! I wish I could vote for this, but I can't. With all the cuts our crappy, new governor is making to public education, the choice of spending more money (which they don't have) was an outrage to the community. It has created an uproar in Portage and many unhappy staff members. On top of that, with all the new cuts, we somehow have to cut another $3-8 million from out budget (the number varies depending on an upcoming county mileage renewal). We (the teachers) helped to cut millions last year by choosing to pay more for insurance (20%), take a pay cut to prevent the layoff of 45 teachers midyear, add minutes to the school day so the district could dismiss one-two weeks before the rest of the area to save even more money on the part time workers. Now the district is proposing cutting all the early intervention reading specialists (Reading Recovery and reading parapros), outsource our Secretaries and the rest of custodial, and the big whopper...class sizes of 30 in elementary and last I heard over 35 for middle and high school! I think we all need a break from that.
In happier news, Matthew's speech teacher has started his one year evaluation. They only got through one area and Matthew is now slightly above his age level for comprehension! Hopefully next week Ken will be able to get to Matthew's expressive language screen. He has grown so much this past year and we couldn't be happier. Matthew goes back to the ENT on April 18th for an exam and new hearing test to make sure everything is alright. Drew is practically running now and is into EVERYTHING! He loves to follow Matthew around and they just laugh all the time now! Matthew loves being able to play with him and teach him new things.
Matthew has done a lot of growing up these past five weeks. He has been such a great help. He continues to help empty the dishwasher and knows where everything goes. He loves, loves, loves to do the laundry and will gather it all for me and help switch it all over. He also loves going to the grocery store (odd, I know). As long as he can see the fish and the lobsters he will help in any way I need. His favorite, by far though, is running the vacuum so we do that often too. He loves to talk and see Ryan on Skype and once he gets his bedtime chat with Ryan he will go to bed on his own. He gets his jammieswatch a movie. This is by far his favorite activity and mine too! Showing tonight at the Chenery cinema is A Bug's Life, can't wait :)
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Two weeks down
It has been two weeks since Ryan moved away and things here are finally settling into a routine. The first week that Ryan was gone we had a major winter ice storm. Luckily we only lost power at our house for about 5 hours, but other parts of Portage were out for 4 days, including our daycare! School was canceled for the first two days and then when the power was finally restored a power surge fried the motherboard and almost all the individual heating units for each classroom (about 30 of them). So, my school was canceled for another day. The district was planning on opening for Thursday, but without all the parts needed we still didn't have heat. It was a good thing, because Thursday morning there was a bad car accident outside of school and the two cars involved split the power pole in half, again knocking power out to school and this time frying the remaining heating units that didn't go in the first surge! They are still trying to fix all the problems a week later from this mess. So, our school had the entire week off. It was a very long week for us, but Matthew and I were able to go to Jungle Joes on Saturday with some friends to blow off some stream.
Due to the week off of school we had to reschedule conferences for this past week. Monday and Wednesday were conferences and I was booked both nights until 9:00. On top of conferences and getting Matthew to speech in the middle of it, Drew got sick again. His last ear infection never went away with the first round of antibiotics and now turned into a double ear infection. On top of that his wheezing flared up and he was officially diagnosed with asthma (something we have suspected since October). Drew is taking after his mommy! He now gets nebulizer treatments four times a day until this flair up subsides, then it is twice a day until spring for preventative measures. He is handling the face mask okay, some days and treatments are better than others. It works really good when he is asleep and doesn't fight me :)
We were able to purchase a new laptop and get it down there to Ryan so he can now Skype with us! Matthew is so excited to see daddy on the computer and talk to him on the phone. Drew is mesmerized by the fact that Daddy is on the computer too. Ryan got to see Drew walking all over the house in person too and not just on a video. Walking is his main mode of transportation now and he is a pretty confident walker! Drew is now climbing onto everything, including the couch...super! He talks and babbles a lot and imitates sounds all the time. He calls me 'mom' and Ryan 'dada'.
Matthew has his good days and his not so good days when it comes to missing Ryan, but every night when the phone rings, Matthew is the first to answer it. Once he talks to Ryan he gets in his bed on his own and goes to sleep. It is now part of his nightly routine. He loves his friends at daycare and loves having school time there too. Now that Drew is more mobile, Matthew has really turned around with him. He loves playing with him and his jealousy issues have subsided. He will hold Drew's hand and walk him to other toys or books. They wrestle together and play on the bed laughing all the time. Peek-a-boo is still a favorite and Matthew loves playing it with Drew under the covers. The joy of hearing those laughs is amazing.
We have had enormous support and help from family in town and many, many friends. I couldn't have gotten through the last two weeks without all the support. Thank you for the emails, phone calls, texts, watching my boys and the hugs. I can't wait for the next 6 weeks to fly by so we all can see Ryan in person. We have already started planning a few trips this summer, including a weekend in Chicago (about 4 hours away for Ryan). Ryan will come home in the fall for a few football games, but not the whole season. We are also looking forward to a family weekend at Great Wolf Lodge (also in the fall) with both boys this year. I plan on flying down there this summer too for a weekend visit. I'm not sure if I will take the kids for the 8 hour car trip, but who knows, knowing me I probably will (I don't have much else to do this summer). From what I have heard, St. Louis is an amazing city with lots to do. I would like to explore it with just Ryan and again with the kids, visiting museums, zoos and the arch! One museum I would like to see is called City Museum (Matthew's speech teacher told me all about it). It is amazing with all levels of exploration, caves, tunnels, etc.
Plus, Ryan is living with Gary, Blair and their son Henry (who is three months younger than Matthew), so a trip down there would be fun for all the kids involved!
Due to the week off of school we had to reschedule conferences for this past week. Monday and Wednesday were conferences and I was booked both nights until 9:00. On top of conferences and getting Matthew to speech in the middle of it, Drew got sick again. His last ear infection never went away with the first round of antibiotics and now turned into a double ear infection. On top of that his wheezing flared up and he was officially diagnosed with asthma (something we have suspected since October). Drew is taking after his mommy! He now gets nebulizer treatments four times a day until this flair up subsides, then it is twice a day until spring for preventative measures. He is handling the face mask okay, some days and treatments are better than others. It works really good when he is asleep and doesn't fight me :)
We were able to purchase a new laptop and get it down there to Ryan so he can now Skype with us! Matthew is so excited to see daddy on the computer and talk to him on the phone. Drew is mesmerized by the fact that Daddy is on the computer too. Ryan got to see Drew walking all over the house in person too and not just on a video. Walking is his main mode of transportation now and he is a pretty confident walker! Drew is now climbing onto everything, including the couch...super! He talks and babbles a lot and imitates sounds all the time. He calls me 'mom' and Ryan 'dada'.
Matthew has his good days and his not so good days when it comes to missing Ryan, but every night when the phone rings, Matthew is the first to answer it. Once he talks to Ryan he gets in his bed on his own and goes to sleep. It is now part of his nightly routine. He loves his friends at daycare and loves having school time there too. Now that Drew is more mobile, Matthew has really turned around with him. He loves playing with him and his jealousy issues have subsided. He will hold Drew's hand and walk him to other toys or books. They wrestle together and play on the bed laughing all the time. Peek-a-boo is still a favorite and Matthew loves playing it with Drew under the covers. The joy of hearing those laughs is amazing.
We have had enormous support and help from family in town and many, many friends. I couldn't have gotten through the last two weeks without all the support. Thank you for the emails, phone calls, texts, watching my boys and the hugs. I can't wait for the next 6 weeks to fly by so we all can see Ryan in person. We have already started planning a few trips this summer, including a weekend in Chicago (about 4 hours away for Ryan). Ryan will come home in the fall for a few football games, but not the whole season. We are also looking forward to a family weekend at Great Wolf Lodge (also in the fall) with both boys this year. I plan on flying down there this summer too for a weekend visit. I'm not sure if I will take the kids for the 8 hour car trip, but who knows, knowing me I probably will (I don't have much else to do this summer). From what I have heard, St. Louis is an amazing city with lots to do. I would like to explore it with just Ryan and again with the kids, visiting museums, zoos and the arch! One museum I would like to see is called City Museum (Matthew's speech teacher told me all about it). It is amazing with all levels of exploration, caves, tunnels, etc.
Plus, Ryan is living with Gary, Blair and their son Henry (who is three months younger than Matthew), so a trip down there would be fun for all the kids involved!
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