Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Teacher Gifts

Every year I battle on what Teacher Gifts I should buy this year. For my girls, there are 2 teachers in each grade. Well, one is an assistant but for all practical purposes she's just as important. Well, now that I write that, I have to admit that I have given the larger gift to the "teacher" and smaller gift to the "assistant" so I must not really think they're the same.  Shame on me.

Past gifts: 
Starbucks gift card (so overdone don't you think?)
Jamba Juice gift card
Homemade cards with kids pictures in them. (How quickly do you think they went into the circular file? aka garbage can)

Last year I got them towel cakes.  A gal at work was selling them at a crafts fair.  They were a kitchen or bathroom towel rolled into a cake secured with a ribbon.  It was placed on a mini cake tin. I was impressed. And for $10.00 each I bought 4 of them.  A unique gift and who doesn't need kitchen/bath or even rag towels.

This year at our crafts fair there wasn't anything cutsie for a teacher.  *sigh*

So my search continues. 

What is the perfect teacher gift?

Friday, May 14, 2010

Where have I been?!

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I wrote here. I guess I just haven’t felt in the mood. It’s not for a lack of nothing to write ABOUT. I can’t even explain in a short blog entry how busy my life is these days. I’ll get to that later though.



Work:

Last time I wrote (not counting the list of things I’ve done and have left to do) I was excited about a new job opportunity at the same company I’d worked at for 10 years. I really like my new job. It’s much different than what I was doing so I get to learn again. In addition, since I’ve been at this company for 10 years I was awarded an extra week of vacation and mullah to spend on that said vacation. (See below under Vacations for details)


Home:

We’re getting a new floor downstairs FINALLY. When we bought our house it came with crappy scraped up wood floors downstairs with two different kinds of carpeting. The shoes and dogs have done a number on both. Todd has ripped up the hardwood and one section of the carpeting. We’re walking on plastic basically. We have a concrete foundation. It’s gonna take a couple months for the entire downstairs to be completed.


Kids:

Paula loves playing basketball. She will say herself “Mama, I haven’t complained one time about basketball.” Basketball ends this weekend but in fall she’ll start volleyball for the first time. Time will tell if she enjoys that or not. In school she’s going fabulous. Mostly A’s and a few B’s. She’s in 3rd grade and is almost proficient in her multiplication facts. Timed tests are hard for her, but if she has time to think she knows the answer.


Shawna finishes soccer next week. She’s liked it okay but doesn’t love it. Regardless, I signed her up for fall to keep her active. She wants to do cheerleading and if it all works out she can do both. School for Shawna has been hard this year. She’s been tested by a resource teacher at school and most likely has dyslexia. She’s getting extra tutoring at school and we all see an improvement. Tutoring needs to continue over summer as well. She gets tested for dyslexia on Monday. If she has it she gets some benefits like longer testing times and access to recorded books. Her father, uncle & cousins all have dyslexia so….you know - It was bound to happen to one of my kids.


Vacations:

So far in 2010 we have camped a couple times in our travel trailer. Over Presidents Day weekend we were in Santa Cruz at a KOA we enjoy. In April over the kids spring break we at the Santa Cruz KOA for a few days, then headed on towards Pismo. Pismo won. The weather was warm so not only did the kids don swimsuits but so did Todd and I. The beach was spitting distance from our campsite. We were 1 of 400 RV’s in this one RV park but we loved it anyway. And what’s funny is my ex-boyfriend’s 2 kids, who were staying with their grandparents that week, ended up camping right next to us in their grandparents motorhome. What are the chances?

In April I had to go to my family reunion with just Shawna. Paula got the stomach flu the morning we were all supposed to leave. I felt so bad for her since she missed the previous year’s reunion for the same reason. Speaking of illness, Todd has managed to escape the stomach flu this year, but the rest of us…not so much.



We are heading to Oahu and Maui in June for my 10-year vacation. We’ll be spending only 1 full day on Oahu where we’ll tour Pearl Harbor, Dole Plantation and several other hot spots on the island. Then we head to Maui to our timeshare.



Other camping trips planned is the Russian River (not actually located IN Russia as I had to explain to my children) Calaveras Big Trees and Rollins Lake for our annual boating trip with some fun families.



Exercise:

This topic needs its own section because this is huge! I bought myself a hybrid bicycle for Mothers Day. I already owned a mountain bike but it’s not a commuter bike and I wanted to commute to work. My commute is ~14 miles one way. My commute comes with hills, 3 overpasses, inclines, declines and tons of vehicular traffic. In order not to die on my first try, I started mid-way. I drop the girls off at school then drive to my mid-way point and hop on my bike there. In 3 days I’ve put 29.99 miles on my bike. =) That counts a trip into the old town by my house as a test run. Yesterday the Bay Area had its annual Bike to Work Day. I did my part. I’m very proud of myself.



Parental:

As a parent I’m overwhelmed. I am Box Top Coordinator at our school, Secretary of the School Board for our school and somehow got hornswoggled into being team mom for Paula’s basketball team. On Saturday morning driving to Shawna’s soccer game I was on the verge of tears because I felt like such a failure in all areas of my parental duties. I managed to work thru all that, conquered some to-do list items and feel much now. I’m happy summer is almost here so I’ll have a break from after-school activities and responsibilities.


Foster Dogs:

We foster dogs. I jokingly call them Rental Dogs. Currently we have 2 Chihuahua puppies (age 9 mos) who just got “fixed” on Tuesday. The rescue organization pays for all the medical care and food. They’re cute dogs who should hopefully find a forever home soon.


Okay, I think that sums up the past few months. I’m off to get changed into my bicycle gear for the long trek home.