March and April... back to the grind. May is bringing some change....

As soon as we got back home from Colorado - literally - within hours, we were working on a project for Isabella and a project for Mercer that was due on Monday. Usually, kiddos don't have homework over breaks, but they did this time.  We were scrambling (and up late).  Unpack.... get back to the grind:  home, school, life.  

I had a big grant proposal go out for my school a week after our Colorado trip as well (I was, of course, doing some work over our vacation on the grant).  The day after it went out, I was let go.  Seriously.  Enrollment is down by about 100 families and they're discontinuing the high school.  Lots of the middle school and rising middle school families are bailing.... there's an online computer program that they started using this year and I think generally people hate it.  Although I'm no longer teaching the middle and high schoolers - I had moved to the K-5th grade group for the majority of my classes - I was still let go.    

[Speaking of not having high school anymore.... two of my former students graduated.  The 3rd senior did not.  He still has to work through the summer, but it was an absolute pleasure to really get to know these kids.  Jeremie - the boy here in blue - was adopted and he openly talks to me a lot about adoption stuff and things that I could do / should do to help Mercer as he gets older.  He's such a great kid!  It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know both of these young people.]

Back to the job situation:  my school gave me 1 ½ month’s notice (through the end of April), however, I still have not been able to find a job.  At this point (mid-May) I have been applying across multiple industries:  teaching, environmental non-profit, architecture and property / construction management… but after 2+ months of applying and interviewing, I still do not know what my future holds.  It’s a bit scary.  (And – it is, quite frankly, exhausting working full time with 2 children trying to find a job.)  Since early March, I have felt very uneasy, quite stressed out and a bit defeated – especially after not having heard anything from anyone for the first full month of applying.  At this point, I only have 2 prospects – A couple of weeks ago, I had a 2^nd interview with an environmental non-profit whose board I have sat on previously + I have a 2nd interview lined up for an environmental non-profit where I used to work in early June.  I know that this may take some time, but I really wish I knew what my next chapter was going to look like.  This is HARD!!   

The woman who runs Isabella’s preschool offered to let me help her out until I find something.  For the past three weeks, I have been up & down on the floor with infants / chasing crawlers / etc.  Whew…. I am too old for this!  My “reprieve” is when I head back upstairs to my classroom to deliver Pre-K STEM / STEAM programming.  Here's a photo of Isabella in my class.  She's enjoying this new arrangement.  It’s cute, but it feels odd when my old K-8^th graders ask me why I’m not teaching them anymore.  "I miss you.  Do you want to be downstairs with the babies?"  How do I even explain?!  Now - since this STEM / STEAM stuff is going well... the head of schools wants to keep me.  What?!  My morale is down and moving to preschool my pay is down, but I need something to continue to provide insurance for the family & because of that, Isabella will still need daycare while I work.  So, I am there for awhile.  (I am hoping that the work in preschool will cover insurance and her tuition?!)  It seems natural to keep her there.  

She has basically 2 more months until she starts Kindergarten where Mercer goes.  (She is so excited to ride the bus and go to school with brother.  He will be annoyed, of course, but this is the only year they’ll be in the same school – assuming that we keep them in our city schools all the way through.)  

Isabella attended a “Teddy Bear” tour at Mercer's school recently.  (When Mercer went, he took a frog.  Isabella took a pink poodle.)  This is done to get the kids into the building so they can see what it’s like.  Isabella is an old pro, of course, having visited Mercer up there dozens of times!   She is going to rock their worlds when she arrives on the scene in August!

She is doing MUCH better in her preschool, thankfully.   She still tries to push limits, but the teacher that’s been there since October (Ms. Helen) has really turned that classroom around.  She is very structured and has introduced more literacy and math and the kids are gobbling it up.  The structure has been great for ALL of the kids + it is really impressive with ALL of the things they have learned.  She’s starting to read lots of sight words and sounding out others she doesn't know to figure it out.   They even held a spelling bee!  

I loved the sweet little preschool where Mercer went all the way through & where Isabella started (which was recently sold).  I am grateful, however, for the extra things that this preschool offers… especially music and language (Spanish daily + Portuguese AND Mandarin once a week.)  She is now also getting this stellar STEM / STEAM programming once a week too from me. ~wink~  They get to go to the dress rehearsals of plays that the K-8th grade kids put on, dance performances, etc.   Her exposure to different things is fantastic!  

They recently had a tricycle rodeo too.  I was teaching a class so I couldn’t attend, but she rode around the parking lot after school for me.   Afterwards, we packed the trike up into the car and headed home for an evening to celebrate HER.  

We went out for a picnic, hung out at the playground and took her out for ice cream to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of her Adoption Day.  The amazing thing about this…. We ran into the social worker who did her paperwork and performed the home visits so we could finalize her adoption!  Serendipitous! 

We try to celebrate with an adoption day gift too.  Here's a cool one - a Roominate Kit (designed by women for girls to get them interested in engineering)  Isabella had fun putting it together and she literally rolled up her sleeves to get into it!  

It was late, so we created a circuit and wired up the fan another day.  Pretty cool!

The next week, we were back out at the same park & playground.  I "strongly encouraged" Mercer to take his bike, spent about 20 – 30 minutes with him off & on, giving him encouragement and a little balance as needed…. and he DID IT!  He’s ridden several times at home on his own as well.  (And at this writing in May - he's riding almost every day.  yay~)  

I texted the woman who is an Occupational Therapist who taught him initially to ride his bike 2 summers ago without training wheels and she was just as proud as I was that he finally did it on his own (and at home afterwards)!  It just fills my heart to see him want to get on the bike and ride.  SO PROUD.  Seriously proud!!Now we can go on bike-riding adventures again!

The City of Marietta opened a new section of a walking / bike trail that will eventually stretch from Kennesaw Mountain down to the Chattahoochee River.  (called the M2R Trail… Mountain to River)  Marietta Rocks was contacted (that’s me) to have a presence as the organizers wanted a lot of different kinds of artwork along the 2 mile stretch of the trail. 


Seeing that I’m not as into the rocks and my kids certainly are not, I only put out some that were painted back in January.  We placed the rocks, walked along the trail, ran into lots of neighbors and friends, checked out the murals and sculpture that was unveiled, took in music from live bands along the way and just had a lovely evening along about a mile or so of this new trail.  

Obviously, Isabella felt moved by the music at a couple of the different locations / different kinds of music playing (the one on the bricks is of a band that one of our neighbors is in and she did this funny gypsy dancing to.  Well, they played their bluesy-zydeco again and she went for the same style of dance.  She's a trip!  The artwork is supposed to be temporary, but I imagine it will be up for awhile!  There was such a great energy in our fair city that evening!     (Check out this photo of Isabella brooding by the LEGO "paintings."  How does she know how to brood?!) 

Mercer was supposed to have a bike rally along the new trail for Cub Scouts the next day, but it poured rain.  Honestly, we like the cub scout activities, but haven’t participated in as much this year as in years past.   

Maybe we can take bikes to ride the trail soon now that Mercer is feeling good on 2 wheels ?!!

Mercer did FINALLY make it to a cub scout camping trip.  He usually misses because of baseball... but convinced Todd to miss an early game so Mercer could go.  He actually has to be self-sufficient by next year if he wants to advance to Boy Scouts.  Todd took him and said it was nice (except for being cold and dodging rain)... not having to bear the brunt of the work and set-up / clean-up.  The boys are doing more and more each camping trip!  

One of the GREAT things about this trip.... he cooked (again) and now he has been interested in cooking something many weekends here at home!  He's also watching those kid cooking shows.  yay... this is a good thing!


This blog post is flowing by subject within March and April.  A couple of other things happened.... we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in early March.  It totally snuck up on us.  Because of the ski trip, we were so focused on that - then the grant in early March... so no planning for the anniversary!  (And there are no photos of us for the anniversary - but there was nothing too photo-worthy...we just went to a cajun restaurant we like that is hard to get into on a weekend.  It was a school night and the kids were cranky + they did not like cajun so much.... wonk-wonk for a nice dinner out!)  Oh well.  We will have to GO BIG for our 25th!  (We have been wanting to go on a Mediterranean cruise.... hmmm.... think we can pull that off in 5 years from now?!  We'll have a 10 year old and a 15 year old.  Yikes!) 

Aside from his camping weekend, March and April were full of baseball practices and baseball games for Mercer and coaching for Todd.   The team he is playing on is, unfortunately, will not advance through the playoffs.  There are a lot of young players who just moved into this division and several who have not played before.  Also - Todd noticed that they seem to lack focus as a group.  

Overall, however, Mercer is doing well.  He has really hit his stride with pitching and playing 1^st base.  He’s only allowed to pitch a certain # of times each week so he straddles between the two different positions.  Unfortunately, he has had to stop pitching sometimes as his arm has been hurting him.  He’s been icing it down most nights, but… we hate to see him hurt!



They haven't won any games but again we are proud of him and his playing.  It has been fun to watch him and his natural instinct on the field!

Even though he is a little upset that he didn't win any games, he did have fun with his teammates.   The league photographer is - luckily - on our team.... so we get some nice shots from her (including this informal team photo + candid shots). 

Isabella - after seeing a girl play on Mercer's team - said that she wanted to try little league ball.  Since gymnastics and baseball would both be on Saturdays, we asked her to make a decision between the two.   Within a split second, she yelled out:  gymnastics!  (As of this writing - she is signed up for the summer session of Gymnastics.  whew!)

Mercer was playing baseball this year during the egg hunt, but he's sort of aging out of it.  Isabella was into it.  In our n'hood, we do a "progressive hunt" at multiple houses.  Isabella picked out her dress, a black band-aid for a boo boo on her knee and Disney princess winter boots. ha~

Easter fell on April 1st this year.  We did not have much luck getting the kids to smile for the camera at the same time, but here are our best shots.

We will sometimes go on a hike after church, however, a woman that we've known for a long time - the Executive Director for Keep Marietta Beautiful who says she's the "Georgia Grandma" to our kiddos - had a stroke.  She doesn't have family in town, so folks have been signing up to hang out with her.  We signed up for Easter and decided to make an Easter dinner instead of hike with a picnic.  

After church, she got to hang out with the kiddos while we cooked and then we had an egg hunt and played outside.  Of course, Todd and I were tired from cooking and cleaning and entertaining.... but she left exhausted too - saying this was "real life."  Yes... it was.  Yes... it is.  Our kiddos do have a lot of energy and take a bit of energy to keep up with!  ha~    

(Not sure where Isabella is getting this "kick-your-leg-up-for-the-photo" pose this Easter day.  Funny!)



The day before Easter, the kids went to a bowling party.  It's also funny that our kids wanted to dress up for the party - both of them!  

It was cool when the lights went down!

Here are some more outdoor shots to close out activities in March and April.... these photos are of one of our favorite places to hike -- where there is moving water and old mill ruins! Paper Mill park was especially beautiful the last weekend of April.  The colors reflected in the water were just gorgeous (pale green with deep purple undertones).  

Photos of the kids are included here of course, but I was really intrigued by the beautiful rippling water that day!!  What a relaxing hike it was playing in and splashing along the water's edge.