The Giving of the Thanks

My title is a reference to how a character on my kids' favorite cartoon show speaks.  Her name is Starfire, and she's from another planet.

Micah is besotted by her and tries to talk like her as often as possible.  It drives me bonkers.

Soooooo, how's it goooooing?.....Um, yeah, I'm a slacker.  Or, more accurately, I'm crazy, crazy, crazy-busy.  Sorry for the lack of posts.

Some updates:  I've decided to apply for my Oregon teaching certificate and get a job teaching school again.  The bottom line is that one income isn't cutting it for us, at least here in Oregon.  I can only think of....one woman that I know here - ONE! - who is able to be a stay-at-home mom.  The rest have to work.  That's just how it is here in Bend (and actually, that's how it is in a lot of places nowadays).  As I've fasted and prayed to know the Lord's will for me, I've felt impressed to go down this road.  I can't completely let go of teaching dance, but I will have to cut down a bit so that I can be home more.  And that's fine.  Making sacrifices is part of growing up, no?

Luckily, teaching is a great profession if you have kids in school.  You're gone while they're gone, and you get home when they get home.  More or less.  Teaching is also a great profession if you want benefits whose monthly premium won't bankrupt you, amiright??  And if you want to have any kind of retirement plan.  These are pretty important things that we're lacking right now.  So I'm-a pull up my bootstraps and DO this thing.

Unbelievably, c'est simple to get my certificate updated and transferred to Oregon.  I can't believe how simple.  I've double- and triple-checked.  I'm just waiting on an official transcript, along with a licensure verification letter from Utah, and I'm good to go.  I got fingerprinted and everything.  Did you know that women's fingerprint lines are thinner and finer than men's?  Something I learned at the ole' police department.  That fingerprinting dude was a chatterbox.

I think I'll probably substitute teach while on the job hunt.  It's a good way to make some money and get your foot in the door.  Here in Oregon, you can't be a substitute teacher unless you have an Oregon teaching license!  Isn't that interesting?  That was definitely not the case in Idaho.  And subs get paid much better here than in Idaho, which is a good thing.  They actually get paid better than actual teachers!!  But I'm still going for the full-fledged teacher thing, because of the whole benefits-and-retirement thing.  And because I do NOT like flying by the seat of my pants.  I want to know my students, I want to make the lesson plans, and I want to teach those plans.  I'm a planner.  Big time.

I feel very peaceful and...dare I say...excited??  I really think that these intervening years, while I have stayed at home to raise my ninos, have brought me more maturity (don't laugh), along with the experience of being a mother of a certain child who shall remain nameless who doesn't give a rat's about his grades.  And the experience of being a mother to a child with ADHD, a child with anxiety and ODD, and a child with autism.  When I was 23, I had NO idea what these parents go through.  And now that I'm a mommy, I really do want to be kept in the loop.  I want to know what assignments Dylan is getting and how he's behaving in class.  I want that connection that I was kind of lackadaisical about keeping when I was a childless young woman.  I think I've learned to hold my tongue better, and I think I've gained more self-control.  I think I'm going to ROCK this thing this time around.  And I'm excited.

And yes, I will be like a zombie.  Teaching sucks the life out of you.  I remember well.  But this is what I went to school for, and this is what will help take my family to where we need to be.  We've been living paycheck-to-paycheck for as long as I can remember, and I'm just....DONE.

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year; Ben's mom and stepdad came down from Washington for a few days.  This is the first time in a LONG time that I haven't shared cooking duties with my sister and my mom, and daaaaang!!  I cooked for two days straight!!  Vivienne Leigh and Olivia de Haviland kept me company the day before Thanksgiving; I watched Gone with the Wind twice - with commercials!!  I never get sick of that movie.

Oh Scarlett, you fool...

Actually, I did have help with the dinner - my sweet mother-in-law helped me with preparations the day of, and my good friend, Costco, provided the pies.

And, slacker that I am, I forgot to take pictures of us eating our bounteous feast.  Sigh.  But I do have one of us swimming at my in-laws' hotel:

Note my flat butt in Full Effect.

And standing outside their hotel room, with the Deschutes River behind us:

Methinks I'll probably use this picture for our Christmas cards this year, since my darling friend Megs doesn't live in town to do our family pictures anymore (sob).

My in-laws got to see me teach dance one day:

Doing standing panches. Ah, I love those darling little girls.  I love my job.

They got to see Dylan play goalie on his indoor soccer team:

We also went to see The Good Dinosaur.  I cried.  Like, a lot.  I had run out of anti-depressants the day before - it's amazing how swiftly the lack of meds affects me.  I also had an enormous giggle fit in the car on the way home from the movie - also a withdrawal symptom.  As well as heart palpitations and nausea.  Good times.  I'll have to tell you sometime about that one time when I forgot my anti-depressants ON MY HONEYMOON.  Ben and I need a re-do of our honeymoon, for sure. The poor man was probably like, "What have I done???  Biggest mistake of my life!!!"

Luckily, I was able to get a re-fill, and I bounced back within a day or so.

Oh, and we also went to this fun center place - bumper cars, bowling, and arcade games:

The kids had a blast.  Thank you so much for spending your holiday with us and for all the fun things we got to do, Greg and Gloria!!We love ya tons.  And how on EARTH do I not have any pictures of you guys??  Man, I'm a jerk.

Welp, I have to sign off - we got a foot and a half of snow last week, and Gage's bus can't make it up the hill to our place yet - it's like the freakin' luge up here.  So I have to walk down the hill to get him. Au revoir until next time!