A little bit of shameless honesty...

Elie used to bite her finger nails. Almost incessantly. We tried a bunch of different tactics to get her to stop- including hot sauce- and nothing worked. One day last week she said to me (completely out of the blue) "I am done biting my nails" and I haven't seen her do it since. She has an unbelievable concept of self and determination for such a small person. Those are gifts that I know have the potential to serve her well one day. HOWEVER- her gift is also her curse (and my curse). The same determination she can flip around and be completely non compliant. Since moving here she has totally boycotted bedtime. She has never been a great sleeper but we had a routine and 95% of the time bed time has not been an issue in the last two years. The last month has been a complete and utter nightmare. Every night is a battle. Her in hysterical screams and getting out of her bed and doing absolutely nothing we tell her. She does not wear her self out crying, she does not eventually give in and she does not accept any form of reinforcement or punishment. Nick and I are seriously at our wits ends. We have literally tried EVERYTHING. Sticker charts, bribery, punishments, I have tried sitting in her hallway until she falls asleep. Absolutely NOTHING works. And then she is exhausted because she doesn't go to sleep until really late and wakes up early and this is grouchy all the time. I feel like I don't even know who she is half the time anymore. On top of all that we are both just sick of each other and being stuck in the house all the time because we have no friends. I do recognize that she has undergone some extreme changes the last few weeks and she has been getting better. (Before last week she wasn't even sleeping through the night) Anyway... if anyone could take pity on us and pray that she starts sleeping that would be fabulous.

Elie's New Room

We finally decorated Elie's room and this is the result. Nick's sister, Larissa, got married this weekend and her wedding was decorated with all kinds of pennant banners. She was generous enough to donate the banners and the bedding sets. Thanks Larissa!!! And yes, it is always this clean. =)

what we have been up to

We have sort of settled into a schedule. I can't believe I have already had my classroom for two weeks. The kids are not quite as difficult as I expected... most of the time. My coteacher is nice and so far we are getting along pretty well.

Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks:



Elie found a baby hawk in our back yard. My dad caught it and it spent the night in a box in the garage recuperating before flying away.




This is one of the Zucchini's from our garden. So we've made a few batches of zucchini bread/cake/muffins.



These are our lemon cucumbers. They are hard to peel but yummy.




Sweet Lainey Kate is growing and sweet as ever. She is very nearly walking and could definitely be walking if she believed it. She is also babbling constantly and says "momma" "daddy" "Elie" "hi" and has just started saying "baby." She also started throwing temper tantrums this week.

Hooorah!

I passed my big fatty ugly test!!!! Yeah. That means I can officially be offered the job at North Marion (although I already signed a contract so I am not sure what would have happened if I hadn't passed)!!!!! Such a HUGE relief. God was truly faithful and it yet again confirms that we are where we are supposed to be.

I have my first day with students tomorrow. I am terrified.

Culture Shock

I went to a park near our new house today, in Lake Oswego. When we got there I looked around at all the other moms and I felt something I haven't really felt since High School. I had that feeling like when you show up to a party that you thought was casual but it turned out to be formal. We were at the PARK. With our children and all these super skinny women are walking around in their skinny jeans and designer tops with hair and make up done and starbucks cup in hand. All the kids looked like they'd walked out of Gymboree catalogs. Elie stuck out like a sore thumb in her typical Elie ensamble. It made me really miss Corvallis.

chaos

The theme of the last two weeks. Chaos. Absolute, utter, sleepless chaos. I feel like we hit the ground running and haven't hit the finish line yet. We started the moving process the Friday before last. When I say we started the process I mean we started. I was in denial and knew we had our place until the very end of September so I was in NO hurry to pack anything up. So we started packing and brought a load up friday afternoon. Saturday was spent making room at my parents house. Saturday night Lainey woke up in the middle of the night covered in throw up. She didn't stop throwing up until the same time the next night. 24 hours of a puking baby while attempting to move, pack and organize was not fun. Elie got sick a couple of days later. Oh, and a bookshelf fell on my head.

The job- I am constantly vacillating between fear, anxiety and peace. I have such a strong sense of rightness. My coteacher and I are getting along really well and have very similar teaching/personality styles. She actually grew up in Corvallis and went to CHS. I found out today that this year the district hired 5 teachers. Each position had over 50 applicants. I was chosen out of that.

My classroom will be almost the same as the preschool class I worked in before only with a 180 lb fourth grader who likes to be naked and has severe athletes foot. I have never had a student who outweighed me before. (this being where a lot of the fear lies). Also, the question of that test is still looming over my head.

I spent an impromtu 11 hours on Monday cleaning and emptying out the apartment so now we are officially out.

Lainey also took her first steps this weekend! She is really reluctant and prefers crawling though, so it might still be awhile.

anyway... that's where we are