Parting is such sweet sorrow...unless it means I get a shorter drive to work...

So this is it: My final blog entry from Oakdale, MN. For sad. I know that the blog will seem so different when I move those 15 minutes south.

So I think I got almost everything done. I have to pack my bathroom stuff after I use it tomorrow. The only thing that still needs to be packed is the laundry closet stuff. I wonder if Sonny is going to do that or if that is my distinct priviledge?

Tomorrow is School Spirit Day at school. This means that you have to wear the school colors, or if you don't have school colors, in 6th grade you wear black, 7th wears green, and 8th wears white. I'm gonna wear all three in layers. However, it is also picture day. Thank goodness that I packed something decent to wear. Otherwise, I would look like a big dork. And NO that isn't a common look for me.

The sad thing is that tomorrow is a hair washing day and I have to get the rest of the stuff out to my car. This means I will have the joy of getting up at 4 am to accomplish all these things. I am pretty stoked about that. I wonder how the black in my jacket will go with the black circles under my eyes in the pictures? Good thing one of the school colors is black.

But I'm cool Amanda.

Thank you Amanda for reminding me what kind of AWESOME packer I am. Poor Sonny read the comments from you and was like, "Sure, she can say it and get away with it and you laugh but if I said it..." Love you Sonny.

If you haven't checked your email, please do so. We move on Friday and I have sent all the new info on how to get a hold of us.

Today on the drive home there was a UPS truck on fire on the side of the road. It was hard not to look, but at the same time I felt bad for the driver guy. That must suck.

Tomorrow will be my last blog until we move and get set up with internet again. That is supposed to happen on Monday so we will try to get to it then.

I had something really cool that I wanted to share but I don't remember anymore. Oh well.

I have packed all my wardrobe. That makes it feel like I have accomplished something.

Better get back to packing. I had 9 things on a things to do list tonight besides the regular list of 6 and I am on about number 3. Way to be me.

T-minus 3 days and counting...

So if you know me at all, you can probably figure that I am stressed out because this is the big moving week. It's stressing me out that I am not moving during the summer when I can be in total control of everything. It's stressing me out that Sonny has taken the week off to spearhead this on his own. That scares me.

Now, don't get me wrong, Sonny is a wonderful husband. He always says that my coworkers would be so envious if they knew that my husband cooks and cleans, and they might. But (and I trust that he won't read this because like I said before he 'lives' it) I just wish that he would understand my complete need for structure (read complete anal retention) when it comes to situations where things need to be done in a timely fashion.

For example, today I left the note for him to partially pack the kitchen and the front closet. He packs almost all the closet, which is good, and almost all the kitchen, including all the food, which is bad. Three days without any food except what is in the fridge? I am not so sure about that.

This whole move thing is getting to me though. I absolutely had no focus today at work. I didn't have any pullout kids because they were testing, I had a meeting and I had so much work to catch up on. I wonder how in trouble I would get if I made that a regular thing. I need to have that time to get stuff done and right now, with pumping twice a day at work, there is no time left. I was so frazzled today that I didn't even know what to do. I don't even remember what kind of state I left my classroom in. That can't be good.

Well, I better get going. My husband wanted me in bed by like 8 pm and now it's 9:30 and he thinks I need rest because he thinks it will help me feel less stressed out. It might, but then again it might just make me worry about all the things I am not currently getting done.

"But I didn't do anything!!"

So you can tell that I work in a setting 5 school. I'll explain how. Today, I went to get a group of 8th grade boys for speech. Two of them haven't had speech before with me so they didn't know me or why I was at the door. I open the door and ask if I can "borrow" students X and Y. Then one of them blurts out "But I didn't do anything!" I had to laugh to myself. Then Rob says, "Just because someone is at the door for you, doesn't mean you are in trouble." It was funny.

So I bought $50 worth of groceries today for school. I was telling Sonny about some of the stuff that I bought that was on sale and he was like, "Oh yeah, what fruits and vegetables were on sale?" He was just being a smart ass because he knew that I didn't buy any of that stuff because it wouldn't keep in my cabinet at school until I felt like eating it. Of course, as I was buying the groceries, I felt like that is the only place I eat anymore.

I don't think I have been funny in here lately. I'm going to lose my two biggest fans (Sue and Cami). At least, I call them fans because whenever I talk to them, they tell me how much they like my blog and how funny they think it is.

Oh, so I had maybe one period all last school year (because I was preggers) but I am more than making up for it now. I think we are in our 3rd week of school and I am on my second period of the school year. Yay. I jokingly said to Sonny that I wanted to be pregnant again so I wouldn't have to have my period and he reminded me of how quickly I had forgotten how much I didn't like being pregnant. Details.

I am so looking forward to next week when I won't have to get up before 5 and drive 45 minutes in traffic to get where I am going. It's gonna be great.

Sonny said that I don't have to pack anything in my car for tomorrow. He said that he would make two trips down there with a pickup (or truck for the Minnesotans reading this) so I didn't need to do anything. Sweet.

Well, I can't really think of anything else that I need to do before tomorrow so I think I will head off to bed. I'm so tired. Again.

The Minnesota Vikings and a letter grade.

Okay, so some of you are aware of the fact that my husband and his parents have season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings. I bring this up because I have to comment on something I saw today and what it reminded me of.

Today we were at the game and there I was sitting in my blue jeans, Vikes jersey and pigtails and this woman comes and sits two rows ahead of us with some man (probably her husband or boyfriend or something) and she has her hair all done (long and straight), and she is wearing this white pant suit type outfit with a green tank underneath. Now, I couldn't see, but I have no doubt that she was probably wearing heels too. I looked at Sonny and asked him if I dressed like that for a game if he would tell me that I looked alright. He said no. Now, if you know me, you know that I like to look nice when I go out but when I go to a game, you gotta dress for the occasion. Seriously, that lady.

So this made me remember last year when we went to another game. The people who were sitting to our left were also Vikings fans. Well, I should say that the man was, and possibly the daughter, but the mom, not so much. How could we tell? She was sitting, at a Vikings game, grading papers and when she finished that, she took out a novel to read. Seriously. There are people who would have probably loved to have been at that game, but there sat some ungrateful wife who blatantly didn't want to be there.

In other news...

We cleaned the townhouse last night. That was tiring, but at least now it is done. Now every day this week, I am going to fill my car with stuff to take over there after work. It's my way of accomplishing something since I won't be able to help with the move on Friday. Sonny says he is glad that I won't be there to dictate. I told him to be careful or I would get out of work just for him.

Lukin is a pill. Sure he is cute and all but he is getting to that naughty age where you can't take him out because he doesn't like to sit in his car seat. He wants to sit at the table or be walked around. Grrr... The 'joy' of parenthood.

A busy week for a busy girl...

Okay, so I can't remember when I last wrote in here. I think it was last Saturday or Sunday so I will go from there.

On Monday night at the Dakota Ridge open house, I finally got my schedule done for that building. Although I had to sit down with Stephanee to finish it. I am supposed to be going over to the elementary for .1 of my week, but it seems like I am there way more than that. I hope that Stephanee got some answers from the team so that we can make it more of the .1 it is supposed to be.

I pulled kids on Wednesday. The younger ones were worse than the older ones. That was weird. I was all worried about how the older kids would act (both for me and with each other) and they were remarkably the good ones who were laughing and talking. Of course, bring up treats and you have their attention. It's like 'instant rapport': just add water.

I was thinking this week about how much my life has changed in the last year. A year ago, as bad as it is to say it, I didn't want to be a mom. And I didn't really want to be a wife either. Weird what a year will teach you. Let me enlighten as to what I have learned.

1. No matter how much you wish it would, taking the third pregnancy test will probably yield the same results as the first two.

2. Every woman wants to find the man of her dreams. I have learned that even though you may find him, you have to un-learn how to be single.

3. Without children, the way you live your life revolves primarily around you, and that's how you like it. Then you one day, you are pregnant and you don't know how you are going to be a parent. You think that God has made some horrible mistake because you don't know how to be a parent and you think you won't know what to do. But then without even recognizing that things change, they do. Suddenly, you find yourself sitting at home on a Friday night while you baby is with Grandma and Grandpa and you don't even know what to do with yourself without him present. Life is funny that way. I didn't want to lose my get-up-and-go-life, but now I wouldn't want to lose Lukin for anything, not even my old life.

4. Happiness does not rest inside of an envelope that you receive twice a month. The world may make it seem like it does, but it doesn't. Happiness is created with those you love and care about and those random moments that put a smile on your face.

5. Although you may be separated from your best friend(s) geographically, mentally and emotionally, no distance exists and you can still go home and pick up where you left off like you see them and talk to them every day.

6. Family is the most important thing. When I was single, I thought that climbing the socioeconomic ladder was the most important thing. Having Lukin has made me more appreciative of what my parents went through as being parents, more appreciative of that relationship between them as I look at how much parenting is all about teamwork, from the parents, extended family and all the friends of the family that want to help be a part of that family.

Well, on that note, I think I will add one last thing before heading off to bed. My sister called me tonight to tell me that one of her classmates had been murdered in Pennsylvania. His name was Jason Shephard, and my thoughts and prayers are with them tonight. Having lost my own sister 3 years ago, I understand the loss that they are feeling right now, and offer them my sympathies.

Officially grossing out my sister...

So, today I was talking to my sister and I told her that tomorrow is Lukin's 1st birthday. And she was like, "But Jenny, he was born in May." I don't say anything. Then she says, "Gross!" I think she figured it out. The reason we knew was because today was the University of North Dakota vs. Winona State Football Game. So happy Birthday, little man!

I know that I have been away and that I probably have lots to say about the week but I am getting old and tired so I will try my best to think of as much stuff as I can.

Monday: Even though Stephanee wanted me to get into the classrooms this week to meet the kids and to provide in class services, Monday was not the day this was going to happen. I still had such a mess for a room. However, by the end of the day, I thought that I would see the light at the end of the tunnel eventually. I stayed until just after 5 working on stuff.

Tuesday: Worked with the Social Skills group. Still no pullout at school. I am still waiting for the tech person to get me a computer so I can do stuff, like check my email from the beginning of the school year.

Wednesday: I spend the hour before the kids come working on a tentative schedule for the day and am going to go into classrooms today to see all my kids (basically put faces with names). I make a schedule and am ready to rock, when I realize I forgot to add pumping time. I shifted things around but then the tech lady found me when it was almost pump time and so that didn't happen on Wednesday. This was okay because my husband and son came to see me after work and I just took Lukin into my office and breastfed him.

Thursday: To the other school. Deanna was there in the morning for a while and she helped to calm me so that by the end of my time there, I wasn't feeling like I had a million things to do there. She suggested of the 43 kids I serve there, I should only worry about becoming really familiar with the 8 kids that I am responsible for either case-managing, or providing solo service to. So that was my focus. Although I pulled my 4 kids that I have for artic group and thought that they would be compliant and quiet since they were new to the building. Not so much, they all already knew each other and so on day one they were little hellions. Then I sat after work because I had a meeting and cleaning until the meeting. I didn't get home until nearly 6:30, or shortly thereafter. It was a pretty long day.

Friday: Good day at school. Got my desk all cleaned off. That made it really awesome. Got to leave work about 3:10. This was good because then we had to go over to the townhome and fill out the paperwork. Sonny picks up the keys on Thursday, which I am happy about even though he is quick to point out the fact that I didn't want the keys a whole week before we were moving. After filling out the paperwork, we went back to the in-laws house and Sonny mowed while I fed Lukin and packed to come home for the weekend. We then went out to eat at Genghis Grill or GG. It was really good. I always just have seafood as my protein and this time I didn't and I picked chicken, sausage, ham and shrimp and it was soooo good. Yum. Then we headed north to go home and stopped at Cub on the way so I could pick up some groceries for Saturday.

Saturday: We had a little get together at Cami's house in Coon Rapids. It was fun. Kandi and Ethan were there. Kristine, and her two boys, Jacob and Adam were there. Sue was there (yes, that's the Sue that babysat last weekend.) Of course, Cami and Will were there. And as a surprise, Naomi was there. I have missed her and so it was a great surprise that she came. We had a great afternoon. At least I did anyway. I miss being around people who know me and so I don't have to say, "My husband or my son" instead I can say "Sonny or Lukin". I miss those people. I don't miss the cattiness of the administrator who non-renewed several people using the same line: "You are qualified but since I wasn't in on the hiring (of you) process, I am opening up the position again. I encourage you to reapply since you would have had experience in the district. Blah, blah, blah." Whatever. I don't even like to remember that. And even though I thought she was a nice enough person for the majority of the year, after that day, I have had such and uneasy feeling about her as a person. I just don't like her very much. I know that's mean, but who non-renews a pregnant newlywed?!? Come on.

I feel bad for going off about Paula like that. Pfff. Whatever. At least I wasn't writing this entire sensored entry. And it's not like she sees my blog, so whatever.

Little Man fell asleep in his swing about 2 hours ago and I took him out and laid him on the floor on a blanky and covered him with a snuggly one. He hasn't even moved. He must be a tired boy. Apparently getting bopped in the head with a singing bass makes a boy tired. We joked that by the end, Lukin wouldn't want to play with 'the boy in the blue shirt' aka: Will, again. I'm sure he was just a little scared, but I am sure he would play with Will, if he was a little older.

Well, I suppose I should go turn on the news. I can see lightning and I hear thunder and I don't want to lose this blog and have to retype it and think of funny things to write. Not that I was all that funny now, but again, whatever.

A Temorary Hiatus

Well, as those of you who read this will be sad to hear, but I will not be able to write many blogs this week. My husband and I (and Lukin) will be staying at my in-laws house while they are on vacation in England. We are staying at their place because it is way closer to where we work. That and we only have limited number of days left that we have to commute and this cuts those days down a bit.

So as some of you are aware, I need to get my butt going and start packing. We will be moving at the end of the month. My husband thinks it would be some kind of great idea to move a few days early. I don't agree because the last day of the month is on a Saturday and I don't work Saturdays so that works for me. But I will probably never understand his way of thinking so why bother trying?

This weekend I had the opportunity to get together with a couple of girls from my last school. Marisa and I went out for lunch and then she came over to see the baby. It was really fun.

Then one of the ladies that I worked with "owed" me a babysitting, so she came over to do that so my husband and I could go on a date last night. She didn't really owe me but she offered because I had helped her out last spring by writing a report for her while she was gone.

Okay, so there wasn't really anything funny to say today but at least I said something...silence is just so sad. Better go fold my laundry and get packed to head back down to Eagan.

Sorry it's been a while...

Okay, okay, okay. I know that some of you can hardly survive without my daily dose of humor (kidding), but I have been staying down in Eagan at the in-laws while they are in England (because it is way, WAY closer to work), and there is no internet there.

So what do I have to comment about? Well, we have successfully gotten through the first week of school. This is usually pretty uneventful for a speech pathologist because, at best, we get to meet our students, if that, and then spend the rest of the time letting them be in their regular classes to learn the ropes and setting up curriculum. Not this year, well not the second two days.

As some of you may not know, this year I am spreading myself pretty thin by working in a position that places me in three schools. M, T, and W, I am based out of a K-12 Self-Contained Setting (Setting IV). Then on TH, and F, I am at a Middle School. The Elementary School that I go to is during my time in the K-12 building.

The whole reason I am explaining this is because I wanted to say that in the middle school, instead of doing pull out this year, I am co-teaching. That started right away. It's interesting. It gives me a chance to meet some kids that are not on my caseload (even though I don't even know all of them yet) that are not in special education.

In fact, yesterday was such a whirlwind that I decided that I was totally stressed out by the end and that I didn't think I wanted to go back for Friday. One of the reasons being that I was given two students to case manage and they weren't anywhere to be found in my schedule. I panicked. Yuck.

What else do I know? I have met a couple really warm nice people so far. I am still feeling out some others and there are TONS of staff that I don't even know the names of yet.

My son has been pretty good this week. He had his four month shots this week. You feel really bad when they ask about his diet and you have to say that he gets some supplement throughout the day because when I am at work, he may buzz right through the breastmilk, if I remember it, and then still be hungry. Of course, one of the nurses from the hospital said that she had four kids: two breastfed, two bottle-fed and they were all fine. So I really shouldn't feel so bad if he gets a bottle or two each day, because overall he is getting mostly breastmilk.

My husband says that he never reads my blog. He jokingly says it's because "I live it." But then he adds if he is bored at work, he will read it. So basically, that gives me free license to complain about him. Not that I have any complaints right now. But just knowing that I have that opportunity is great. (Just kidding honey!)

So this past week I had a couple of dreams featuring my ex-boyfriend. It's weird because he was so happy and so happy to see me in the dreams. I don't know what that was all about but it gave me the creeps almost to see him that happy to see me. When I think back about our relationship, we came to a point in August or September of 2001 when I would lay awake and pray to God: God, if this is not meant to be, please give me a sign. And since you know me, you will know that I can't have some little subtle sign. I need the mother of all obvious signs. I eventually got this sign and have been out of the relationship for nearly 5 years now.

Today I was thinking about the relationship with him. His name was Greg, and when I think about it now, it reminds me of those couples that lived in the 50's. It was his place that he was paying for, and that I should be quiet when he comes home and take care of him while he provides for me. You know, that could be one of the thousand reasons why we are better to not be together.

Okay, I think I am gonna wrap this up. The first week of school and my feet are tired and my throat is sore from trying to talk over excited kids on a Friday afternoon. And even though it's a Friday, I may not even make it until 10:00 to go to bed. You know school has started again when...