What I want....

After six and a half years in the public school system, I am officially fed up. I sit here, feeling overwhelmed because of all the darn paperwork required of us and I just want to scream. Why can't it just be about teaching these kids!?! So after much thought I have decided what I want to do, but I am just not sure how to go about doing it. I would LOVE to work with special needs children in their homes as a private teacher. I know there must be families out there that do not want their child or children in public school who would hire a qualified special education teacher to provide instruction in their home. I've been thinking about this for a while now and last week actually met someone who is doing just this. For her, the position fell into her lap, and so far I have not had any luck finding any angency that does these kinds of placements so I am beginning to formulate a plan to market myself in hopes of finding this kind of position. Any ideas anyone has would be appreciated! Wish me luck!

I know.... I am a lousy blogger

Ok, so it's been 5 months or something like that since the last time I posted. Guess I really haven't had much to say. I have been pretty busy, with DH gone pretty much every week for work, leaving me to manage the household issues and take care of Lanie, which is a full time gig all by itself! Lanie is having fun with her preschool, swim lessons, and dance classes, which also keeps me running around a lot!

We had our annual family pictures taken today, courtesy of Katie and I can't wait to see how they all turned out! She sent me one great picture of Lanie, so I thought I would share it here:



Isn't she cute!?!?!

Keeping busy

We have been keeping busy here in Alesund. We have been visiting relatives, enjoying the sites, and just enjoying some restful time as well! We are staying at my cousin's apartment, which is right in the central part of town, very convenient to pretty much everything. I am getting a lot of walking in, since my mother's apartment is a little farther out of town and we go out there at least once a day. We don't have access to a car so we either have to walk to get places or use the buses, which run frequently and get you pretty much anywhere you want to go. It's so different from what we are used to back home.

Our trip

July 4-5, 2007

After our stay in the Flagship Lounge in Chicago, it was off to London. We flew in a 777 and the business class seats are about the size of first class seats in smaller planes. It was pretty comfortable and Lanie fell asleep before they even got us our dinner. She slept the whole flight until I attempted to wake her for some breakfast. That didn’t work too well, so it was probably only about a half hour before landing when she actually woke up. We had a few hours in London, most of which were spent walking across Heathrow Airport! Word of advice; if you ever have to fly through Heathrow make sure you wear your walking shoes and that you have at least a 2 hour layover if you have to make a connection! We made it to the British Airways Lounge and they had a children’s room with a TV and toys which kept Lanie occupied with her Mormor, while her aunt and I took a look around the airport shops. At first look, the prices seem great, but then when you have to double them (it’s about $2 to 1 pound), then it’s not such a good deal! Finally, our flight time came and we got on our 3rd flight of the trip. Again, Lanie slept pretty much the whole flight. We arrived in Oslo, and had to deal with passport control and customs, so we had to collect our luggage. It is neat here in Norway with the Duty Free shop because they have one right in the baggage claim area, and with your incoming international boarding pass you can take advantage of it. So we did a little shopping there while we waited for our bags. We then sailed through customs and made our way to the SAS desk to check our bags in for our final flight to Aalesund. Unfortunately, they are the only airline flying into Aalesund and because they are not a partner with American Airlines or British Airways they don’t care that we were traveling internationally, and only give us the domestic baggage allowance. With a little re-arranging we managed to get everything checked without any charges for additional luggage, unlike on our trip in 2005. We had a few hours layover in Oslo, but after dealing with customs, rechecking bags, and getting Lanie something to eat (polser, of course) we didn’t have too much time left before we were able to board the plane. Unlike the other flights, Lanie was wide awake for this one, while I was so tired that I had a hard time keeping my eyes open! Of course, Lanie helped make sure I did!

Once we got in to Aalesund, we collected our bags. After I had gotten all of the bags off the conveyor belt I went to get the carts and my backpack (which had all of my money, passports, etc), and it was missing! I was about to come completely unglued, thinking someone had stolen it, when we saw Lanie standing by the conveyor belt which was still going around (at one point the items enter through a opening in the wall, and go around into another opening). She was grinning and at that moment I saw my backpack coming out the other side! Lanie thought it would be fun to put Mommy’s backpack on the conveyor belt and watch it go around! Needless to say, I was relieved and infuriated all at the same time! After that, we made our way out of the terminal and to the bus that took us into the city (the airport is on one of the many islands around Aalesund, and the bus has to go through tunnels that go under the sea to get from island to island). The bus stops right near my cousin’s apartment, where Lanie and I will be staying for our time here. She came down to help with our luggage and we finally were able just to relax a bit after a very long trip!

We made it!

After 4 flights and 25 hours later we finally made it to Alesund! The trip went fairly well, but I am really tired. Lanie slept on the first 3 flights so right now she is pretty wired. It is almost 10 pm here and still very light out. It won't even start getting dusky until about 2 am. Hopefully that won't keep Lanie from sleeping because I know I need some sleep! I was pretty happy with how Lanie id on the trip. She only had one fairly major meltdown in Oslo, after already having been on 3 flights, and she wasn't too loud on any of the flights. It's always nice when your kid isn't the one bothering everyone on the plane!

Anyway, I am going to try and get some sleep here soon, so I will post more later!

Off to Norway!

Well, we are on our way to Norway! We left today out of DFW at 1:00 p.m. and will get to my mother's hometown, Alesund, tomorrow around 8 pm local time. It will take over 24 hours of traveling! So far, Lanie is doing well, but the wait here in Chicago is annoying her quite a bit. She just wants to get on the plane! She slept most of the way to Chicago, but didn't get as long of a nap as she usually does so I would have to say she is a bit on the cranky side, but overall doing very well. We are spending our 5 hour layover in Chicago in the Flagship Lounge which is for First Class travelers (no, we are not in first class, but my mother and sister are, so we were able to come in as their guest. It is a nice place to wait but a bit on the snobbish side. We were told when we came in that we would need to make sure we kept Lanie quiet or we would have to leave! They do have food and adult beverages so we'll put up with the snobbery! It is very nice having two other people here helping keep Lanie occupied, especially when she won't listen to me she will usually listen to one of them!

Anyway, I will post again when I have an internet connection and when I start taking some pictures I will get them posted as well!

Birthday Party Pictures!

The birthday girl before the party begins!


Outside playing with bubbles.


In the swimming pool with Kikishell! The kids had a blast in the pool and the weather cooperated.


Time to blow out the candles! (And, yes, those are partylite votives because I was unable to locate the #3 candle I had purchased, which was later located in the pantry!0


And then it was time to open presents.


After the party, we went to the Texas Rangers game, where Lanie made her jumbotron debut!

Long time no post....

This spring has been crazy! It seems I have been going non stop since Spring Break. We had a lot of fun at Sea World for Spring Break. Lanie loved seeing Shamu and playing in the water. Then shortly after Spring Break I was wrapped up with Lanie's 3rd birthday festivities. Katie (katieskrew.blogspot.com) made the most beautiful invitations for the party which was themed "Under the Sea." The whole party turned out great and the mermaid cake I made was a big hit. After all that was done, then I was busy with getting ready for the end of the school year and all that entails. Well, this past Tuesday was my last day of school, and I now have time to try and catch up with the almost 1000 e-mails in my inbox (most of which are spam!). Most of all, I am looking forward to all the fun things we have planned for the summer, including our trip to Norway! I am going to try and post some pictures from Spring Break and Lanie's birthday later today or tomorrow and will try once again to be better about posting on this here blog!

Almost there....

Well, it is almost time for Spring Break!! Only 4 more school days and I will have 9 glorious days at home with my little girl. My husband has to leave Sunday for training so he will be gone most of the time which is disappointing but we will deal with it the best way we know how.... by taking a road trip! Me and the little one are going to go to San Antonio for a few days to spend time with friends of ours and go to Sea World! It will be Lanie's first time in an amusement park of any kind and I think she will love it. I'm also just looking forward to having some time in my house to try and de-clutter a bit. Lately, between work and working out all the time I have had very little time at home for anything. I really want to get all of my scrapbooking stuff organized so I can start putting together albums of all the great things we have been doing.

On another subject, I have been doing pretty well with my weight loss and have lost 22 pounds so far since January! I may not win the little contest we have going on at school, but I still think I am doing great.

So cool.....

Well, I seem to have found a back door to Blogger from school. Not sure how long it will last, but while it does, I will probably have more frequent posts!

I am very proud of myself right now. In the last two months, I have lost 20 pounds and am working out at least 5-6 times each week (if not every day). It is keeping me very busy and I have been neglecting some of my friends, so if you are one of those neglected people, please know I'm still here, still love you, and will try to do better at keeping in touch! Between work, working out, spending time with my daughter and husband, and just trying to keep my head above water with housework, it leaves me with absolutely no time! I'll figure out a balance sometime soon I hope.

Anyway, my break is over, so I better run!

Whew...

Well, it took a while but I finally finished updating my daughter's blog and picture gallery. I have uploaded all of the pictures to the gallery through January and even did a little update of the past few months on her blog. So, for those of you interested you can head over there and see pictures of the most adorable little girl in the world!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, today is my 36th birthday. It hasn't been the best of birthdays, but it can always be worse. My little girl is sick and we spent 3 hours at the urgent care, and since she is sick we had to cancel the sitter and stay home tonight instead of going our for dinner and a movie. But we did pick up a pizza on the way home and are watching a movie at home, so it's not so bad. My husband even mentioned us going out next week instead, so all is not lost.

I hope everyone else is having a great day!

Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the trip:


A family snowmobiling portrait... maybe next year's Christmas card?


Our whole group.


It was absolutely beautiful in Taos! The picture doesn't do it justice.

Snowmobiling!

Last weekend we took a road trip to New Mexico with some friends of ours to go snowmobiling in Taos. It was a blast! The long drive there and back with two children under the age of 5 was definitely worth it. Actually, both girls did really well the whole trip; I just wish Lanie would have napped better. The place she seemed to nap the best was on the snowmobile!
This picture was taken at the end of the tour, and she was just wiped out. She had been riding with her daddy, who said it was a bit difficult to maneuver the snowmobile with 35 pounds of dead weight in front of him!