Catching up with some pics

Some pictures that remind me of a special Christmas card... I think Coleman was about this age too...

We had made some tub paints... some liquid dish soap and a little bit of cornstarch. Needless to say there was LOTS of bubbles in our tub and two squeaky clean boys!


The Home Sweet Home visit. I had 12 nursery students visit our house as a part of their home unit. We painted with fruit, played in the kitchen, and baked cookies (it was a brave move but worth it! One kid pushed his cookie cutter in the dough, then filled the cookie cutter with the sprinkles, lifted it up and the sprinkles went everywhere). Carter was just one of the crowd.


Here's some pictures from Ocean Park in Manila, an aquarium that was just wonderful! The boys had a lot of fun.

Basketball Movie

For those of you who have kids, did you ever have a moment where you looked at them and thought, I can't believe that kid is mine. I'm not talking about when the say something embarrassing or when you've had to carry them from a store in a football hold because they are throwing a fit. I'm talking about when all of a sudden they become a real little person! I mean a little human with their own personality, their own mannerisms, thoughts, feelings and perspective about the world. When did that happen? None of the baby books prepare you for that moment- the indefinite moment when your control begins to slip away and you begin to prepare them and yourself for the journey ahead.

It happened so innocently... Coleman and I were playing basketball in the backyard. We were using a tiny basketball and a homemade hoop out of a basket hanging off a tree branch and were having a blast. Every time someone made a shot, we were doing the YMCA-thing with that person's name or word. Coleman's favorite was doing TEAMWORK. Hilarious!

I was passing him the ball when it happened. I looked at this tall, lanky kid and said- oh my gosh- I am the mother of that child. What happened to my baby? This is a KID. A real kid who is having fun with his mom. It was such a weird feeling, such a humbling realization. Then it dawned on me- I have TWO KIDS. I know, I carried these kids in my belly for 9 months, you think this thought would have occurred earlier, say when Coleman started school. I had also asked Carter how was his day and he replied with a whole paragraph of information- I was able to pick out words here and was able to make sense of what he was saying. He's not only talking... he's conversing!

So that's it- my babies are KIDS and it happened overnight. People warned you that it will happen and it's true.

A big boy...

Just right now Carter has decided that he doesn't want to wear diapers. We have put two on him and he takes them right off. I put some underwear on him but he's wet them a little bit, not enough for a puddle though. We've tried get him him on the toilet but I think it's time to get him his own potty.

Next month, almost to the day, he will be 2 years old! He's let us know he also has a mind of his own. At this point I'm hoping the diaper will stay on during the night.

Mini-vacation

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Mental Breakdown

So this week has been hard- I've been dealing with multiple discipline problems with the kids in my class and Jake was gone for two nights on a camp for the 8th graders. Needless to say, I was a little stressed out. Thank God my own boys were actually quite wonderful... if you've seen the Freeze Dance video, you know what we were doing!

It all came to a head this morning when I had a parent at my classroom door. I had her wait as I got the kids in and settled- I could kind of tell she was upset so I was stalling trying to think furiously... what could I have done to make her mad? As the kids were leaving the classroom to go to P.E., I saw she had a vocabulary quiz I had given earlier. I went to talk to her thinking, oh she just has a question... I had miscounted the score, so it should have been a 30% instead of 20%. I said no problem, I could fix that but apparently she was REALLY upset because I had written a note in her child's planning calender something to the effect of "Johnny didn't write down anything about signing and correcting the quiz or the upcoming test on Friday. He got a 20% on it and it seems to me that he doesn't want to show you his low scores, however I wanted to let you know he is getting low scores" (because I had pulled the test out from the back of his desk and put in back in his agenda). This is a parent that has some serious issues with herself and the school, she has caused problems in every grade level... it's a wonder why she even keeps her kids at Brent if she's so unhappy.

Anyways she proceeds to rant and rave about how I could have wrote such a thing and don't I have kids and how she really likes me and doesn't understand how I could do this... on and on. At first I said "Now calm down, I care about Johnny (not his real name) too-" but she wasn't hearing me. She kept ranting about how she wanted to meet with all these people but they weren't there (like my principal, the counselor, the pastor, the headmaster) but they were gone or told her to talk to me. Well, I wasn't going to talk to her like this and by this time I was getting upset so I told her she needed to make an appointment at the office. She still wasn't hearing me so I got a little more upset, almost crying and said "I don't deserve this and you can't talk to me like this". She still wouldn't shut up or leave so I ran- I ran down the hallway crying all the way into the office to the teacher's lounge, sobbing uncontrollably.

My kids were still in the hall as this was happening, although the specials teacher was there. I wish I would have just went back into my room and left her in the hall but all my kids were coming out of my room and I think I was afraid she would follow me and I would be trapped. It was fight or flight, and well, you know what I did!

I have never had a parent shake me to the core like that and I have never broken down in front of a parent. I may have cried afterwards but never in front of them. I think what I felt the worst about was that my kids saw that. Luckily I had first hour prep so my good teacher friends helped me calm down, but I still was tearful up until the kids walked back in at 9:30. Jake had texted me that he hoped I would have a good day since the previous day had been rough and I cried to him over the phone. So I texted him back, saying thanks but it actually was worse.

I was more worried about the kids would react than what this lady was going to say to my bosses. I knew I was okay in that area. As the kids came in, some asked if I was okay and I told them yes. I sat them down on the floor by my couch and told them that sometimes adults have disagreements and when I get upset, sometimes I cry. I asked them "Do you guys ever get upset and cry?" All seven of my girls said yes and all the boys were saying no! I told them, well I'm a girl so I cry. And they thought that was funny and I reminded them about the conversation that we had yesterday about behavior, Jake being away and that it had just been a tough week. Then we moved on to prayers and praise reports, and just like that, it was good. I also worried about Johnny, who's in my class and watched what was happening, perhaps the only one who really knew what was truly going on. I spoke with him privately and said that although his mommy and I had a disagreement but that we actually both are on the same side- caring about him, but that the disagreement had nothing to do with him. Later, I had a meeting with my principal and he was backing me 100% since he has a history with her and the family anyway.

So I moving on and letting go. I think some of the staff were a bit taken aback and so was I. Normally I'm not a crier but sometimes things are just more than you can take at that moment and I wasn't going to let a parent make me feel like I'm not doing the best job I can with my class. I've been working extra hard and I am exhausted helping them to become better people. I miss Lora, my partner in crime, who was always there to lend an ear.

There was some important lessons learned by all today:
1) My class learned I'm only human and I have feelings just like them
2) That they better start behaving or else they'll make me cry again!
3) My daily devotional talked about how the devil uses threats but God uses warnings to help us, which I thought was relevant
4) That I started this new bible study book with our group and it's helping me get closer with God, well anytime someone does that, there's always opposition and you just have to keep persevering through it
5) I am so glad that Jake is not working nights at the Zoo anymore! Although my own two boys were wonderful, it just brought back some bad memories of me being alone many nights...
6) The living abroad honeymoon is over and this where the "rubber hits the road"

I think this day would go down officially as my worst day at work in my professional career, however it is slightly reminiscent of a time when I was a cashier involving some silly string... but that story is for another day.

What I am thankful for is the wonderful people who I work with, who didn't make me feel bad and gave me encouragement. Also that I have a three day weekend- no Monday for us! We are taking a trip to a camp of sorts, more grass to play in and outdoorsy feel with the Yap family. So I will be using this time to recoup and recenter myself.

Back to Bloggin'

One thing that we have learned about living in the Philippines is things never go expected... that can be said about anywhere and anything, but believe me, it happens here a lot more! Like not being able to upload my website suddenly, even after being able to for five months. Or not having internet service for five days because "something was wrong"... really? Like we didn't know that already. We currently have three different internet sources at the moment, none of them helping with our skype connection either- we're lucky to get two good minutes before we're shut down. We have internet through the school, Smartbro (the only internet service available here) and their modem prepaid service as well. What about the 43 minute limit on phone calls? I'm not kidding- the phone line goes dead, although sometimes my mom and I have pushed it to 49 minutes.

So I'll leave that rant and rave now and let you know that this is the new website (at least for now... you never know). I'll be posting pictures and random information once again. As for the videos, I'll put them into a Smilebox and then attach that to the site, if all goes well.

Needless to say, I'm am really looking forward to a long three day weekend we have starting February 21st. However, before I get my nice break I'll be on my own with two kiddos while Jake taking the whole 8th grade to "Camp". Camp being a relative term, because it really is a resort with minimal nature activities- go figure, but they call it camp anyways.

Valentine's Day was great. We were able to meet up with the boys from the group home and hang out with them at a park. They range in ages from 6-12. The sad thing is, due to the economy issues, they are having to send the boys that have a home back and only keep the older ones. Many of these boys have a home but one of extreme poverty where most of them were street kids. In the home, they get fed, clothed, and sent to school. They are so grateful for any attention they get. Jake was busy swinging, spinning and throwing with them. The cutest thing is all the boys absolutely adore Coleman and Carter, taking care of them like brothers.

Coleman and Carter got little goodie bags in the morning filled with small treats, like lollipops and flashlights, and yes, they were eating a lollipop at 8:30 in the morning. Later, a small kitchen was delivered. It is handmade in the Philippines, which is important to us because we like supporting the local economy whenever possible. Hopefully, there will be more posts and pics to come. It just took me about six tries to get a pic to save.