It's already been better.

I was looking through old blog posts today and came across this one from last year on New Year's day. I was so full of hope after having an extremely stressful year in 2008. I really wanted 2009 to be an uplifting and easy year, but you can't win them all. Just a day or two after that post, a good friend of my husband took his own life. It was pretty much an indication of how difficult 2009 would become.

I think the hardest part of last year, aside from our house being worth half what we bought it for and pay cuts, was the fact that I was forced to go back to work (because of the aforementioned house and pay cuts). I had really hoped that I would have been able to get a part time job in the evenings and not have to go back to teaching full time. But, that didn't happen and after an extremely stressful job search, I got hired at a school that is about 45 minutes from my house. It's a lot of work and very different from my previous teaching experience.

We're hoping to get our home loan modified to expand our options job and money wise. We really wanted to start trying for baby #2, but the job things and money (freaking money!!!!) is putting the kabosh on that for a little while. Once we find out about the loan, we can start making some decisions on that front.

But as for now, 2010 is already looking better. I'm praying that it will be.

Where's the time going???!!

I'm such a slacker. I just read my last post about how it was already November and here we are in December. Rather than lament about how quickly time is going by with my little boy, I thought I'd share what he's been doing these days. So, here are some of Bubbie's latest tricks!
*Repeats lots of what you say - time to watch the language!

*Says "Thank you" and "Bless you" - hoping on please getting thrown in there soon.
*Eats with a utensil most of the time
*Knows when he dirties a diaper, but has zero interest in actually using a potty
*Can go to daycare and not cry when he gets dropped off - I don't know how I feel about this.... :)
and much much more!

Since I've been so busy with working out of the house and in the house, I'm sure I won't be back until January...so Happy Holidays!

Wait....It's Already November??

October was a super busy month with home visits, parent conferences, ear infections, really just a lot. So I'm kind of glad that we're into November. This year should be interesting with a very mobile, toddler-y Bubbie. He's into everything these days. He's running, talking, dragging me around, and generally just being a lot of fun.

As for Halloween, Bubbie was a monkey and B and I were zookeepers. We had a little family party carving pumpkins. It took Bubbie a little while to warm up to all of the people in his house mainly because he was asleep when they all showed up. He wouldn't let me put him down - appropriatley hanging onto me like a monkey. He finally came around once my parents came over and loved playing outside for the majority of the day. I think he'd live outside if we let him.

We didn't take him trick-or-treating. I have issue with people bringing little kids who obviously can't eat candy to go. We had people at our house with little babies, like in the infant carrier car seats, out trick-or-treating for their kids. Yeah, just say it's for you. He did enjoy coming to check out the kids who did come to our door. We kept him up pretty late in the hopes that he'd adjust to the time change better (he didn't). One thing I was pretty bummed about was how few kids we did get this year. There were maybe 40, 50 tops. That's not a lot for our neighborhood. We did get a lot more compliments on our decorations than we have in the last few years, so that we cool. And we have a ridiculous amount of candy left, which is not so cool for my waistline...

Anyway, here are some photos of Bubbie as a monkey and his pumpkin picking adventures.