Took the boys this morning to their first day of Co-Op at the new location. I figured that Al would be ok, but that DJ may want me to stick around for a while. Boy did I get that wrong! They went in fine, washed hands, moved their names and went about their business. They didn't even really want me to walk around with them to explore what the different rooms had to offer! I was bummed! Guess they are growing up.
Well while the boys were at school and the girls with our sitter I worked more on this pesky dissertation. Suffice it to say Microsoft Word and I are no longer friends......
So on Tuesday & Thursdays when the boys have Co-Op they get out at 11:30 and S's kindergarten starts at noon at the same location. Today we packed a picnic lunch of hummus, veggies, tortillas and the kids got a juice box. S finished quickly and was really anxious to get into school and get going. When they finally started to let her class in she ran off without even a good-bye! I had to catch her and ask if she wanted a good-bye outside or us to meet her in the classroom when the boys finished up. She asked for an inside good-bye, which was funny, because when we came in she was so engrossed in her book that she didn't really want to say good-bye. :) I can't believe that she is the same child who was a little timid yesterday (literally yesterday) at Kindergarten and today was ready to go without even a by-your-leave........
I have always wanted my kiddos to be independent, but these past two days have been a shocker. They were never super clingy, but this has been surprising. I'm glad that they love their new Co-Op and I like to thank them for some of this independence. It's just been a surprising day.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
A new year, a new schedule
So today made me realize that this year is the start of a new world in schedules. Here is a synopsis of today from midnight forward
midnight- pack up from school and head home
1am- turn off light and get some sleep
7:15- wake-up & shower
7:45- get kids awake & dressed & fed
8:45- kids done eating and starting to clean-up breakfast
9:15- out the door to go to swim lessons (mind you the house has to be checked for cleanliness since it is on the market)
9:30-10- boys have swim lessons at YMCA
10:30-11:15 boys took first gymnastics lessons at YMCA
11:15-11:45 leave Y, head home, drop off Al, DJ and B with sitter and leave to take S to kindergarten
12-2:30- kindergarten
3-6 playtime
6- dinner
7- leave to head to school to finish edits on dissertation
midnight- head home!
Whew! I'm beat just looking at that! I am SO thankful that I will be DONE with this dissertation very, very soon, but even without the schooling on my part this is going to be interesting. I am used to the kiddos only going to school 2 days per week, this whole 5 days per week thing is throwing me off already and we have only had 1 day thus far!
So here is my lessons for the day, when scheduling things you MUST remember that your child now attends school everyday!
midnight- pack up from school and head home
1am- turn off light and get some sleep
7:15- wake-up & shower
7:45- get kids awake & dressed & fed
8:45- kids done eating and starting to clean-up breakfast
9:15- out the door to go to swim lessons (mind you the house has to be checked for cleanliness since it is on the market)
9:30-10- boys have swim lessons at YMCA
10:30-11:15 boys took first gymnastics lessons at YMCA
11:15-11:45 leave Y, head home, drop off Al, DJ and B with sitter and leave to take S to kindergarten
12-2:30- kindergarten
3-6 playtime
6- dinner
7- leave to head to school to finish edits on dissertation
midnight- head home!
Whew! I'm beat just looking at that! I am SO thankful that I will be DONE with this dissertation very, very soon, but even without the schooling on my part this is going to be interesting. I am used to the kiddos only going to school 2 days per week, this whole 5 days per week thing is throwing me off already and we have only had 1 day thus far!
So here is my lessons for the day, when scheduling things you MUST remember that your child now attends school everyday!
Kindergarten......day 1
So off she went to school........
But I could pretend it wasn't real today. I took her in, dropped her things off in her cubby, we had a small circle and then a nice parent meeting while the kiddos played. When we finished the parent meeting we had another small circle, then snack and playtime outside. After our adventures outside we had another circle (storytime!) and then went home. So it wasn't a *real* first day was it?
I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes!
S did love it though. I think her biggest "issue" will be that she only really knows one of the girls in the class from last year, but she makes friends pretty quick from what I can tell. The other really good thing is that the class is primarily girls, so lots of great opportunities for her.
But I could pretend it wasn't real today. I took her in, dropped her things off in her cubby, we had a small circle and then a nice parent meeting while the kiddos played. When we finished the parent meeting we had another small circle, then snack and playtime outside. After our adventures outside we had another circle (storytime!) and then went home. So it wasn't a *real* first day was it?
I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes!
S did love it though. I think her biggest "issue" will be that she only really knows one of the girls in the class from last year, but she makes friends pretty quick from what I can tell. The other really good thing is that the class is primarily girls, so lots of great opportunities for her.
Vacation, part 1
We FINALLY had a family vacation. We have been planning on a super fabulous vacation as our family present when I graduated. Well after my defense in July we finally got around to planning this vacation. It was crazy, but wonderful!
We undertook over 30 hours of driving to and from our home to manage this vacation but it was worth every hour we spent in the car. We started our vacation in NJ for the wedding of one of my wonderful cousins. This should have taken us about 12 hours of drive time, in reality it took close to 18. We left Thursday evening and finally crashed into a hotel room about 2 am. Hit the road the next morning and expected to be in NJ about 5pm, well unfortunately for us a semi carrying explosives decided to catch fire a few miles in front of us in the middle of nowhere and our 6 hour drive to NJ turned into 12 hours on the second day. The wedding was wonderful. Honestly if you are EVER invited to a wedding in NJ, GO! I have been to 2 awesome weddings in NJ.
Leaving NJ we headed for Chincoteague, VA, home of the famous Misty of Chincoteague books, which was about 5-6 hours south of where we were in NJ. This is a wonderful place to take kids. There is a beach, things to do without being in your face crazy tourist crap, and places to hike and bike. The island is really designed well for biking (we didn't, but it looked like fun) and there is a trolley system that runs in the afternoons/evenings as well. We rented a lovely 3 bedroom townhome that had a private deck and dock and view of Assateague Island. It is actually very close to where they swim the ponies ashore. Of our 5 full days on Chincoteague we spent 3 full days on the beach at Assateague in the guarded section of the beach. The waves were nice, nothing to high or rough, and a small current. This was our kids first time at a beach. S had been to a beach at 20 months or so, but of course she doesn't remember that. They were all a little timid at first, but the big 3 warmed up quickly and were playing in the waves by the end of beach #1. Miss B (we're trying not to call her baby B) was not a fan of the beach, not sure why since she loves both water and sand, but as long as we held her she was ok.
On our alternate days we explored in town and attempted to hike on Assateague. We actually alternated beach days and explore town/Assateague days as hubby tends towards sunburns. Now being in town was great, but exploring Assateague was another story. There are mosquitoes galore! I purchased 2 new DEET-free repellents which did work, but unlike DEET-based repellents the bugs would swarm around you (and the stroller- OMG the stroller). In fact on our first hike to the Assateague lighthouse we didn't pack repellent and were so intent on getting inside the lighthouse we left the camera in the stroller. Luckily for us the kids LOVED climbing the lighthouse so we did it again on our last day with repellent and a camera. Now the 2 visitor centers of Assateague are very nice and I recommend them, but we didn't get a chance to try out their children's activities so I can't give you an opinion on them. We did attempt to hike another trail on the island, but the bugs swarming us again made it a bit miserable. Oh well!
Now this area is a GREAT place for seafood, which hubby and I dearly love. We found a great place called The Crab Shack and ordered from there twice. The crabs........OMG the crabs........ YUMMO! It was heaven. I enjoyed oysters and crab and flounder- all local to the area. One more reason why we would like to move that way.........
But I digress (as usual). So the beach was amazing and the people super friendly. In fact on our first day at the beach a couple shooed away the seagulls from our stuff since we had inadvertently left pretzel crumbs around and the birds were apparently going through our things searching for food! The kids found some other kids to dig in the sand with on some days, but mostly played together. It's times like these that I really appreciate having a "large" family. I love that my kids bring along their own playmates, what a special experience for them. One I particularly cherish being an only child.
So after 5 full days on Chincoteague we had to unfortunately return back to our lives and split our 12/13 hour drive up across two days. We did take the children across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel system, which was a great experience for them. Luckily for us we did not meet any major traffic developments on our trek home and rounded out our vacation with a fabulous dinner and margaritas at our favorite local Mexican restaurant.
I promise to post pictures and more stories about vacation in the next few days.
We undertook over 30 hours of driving to and from our home to manage this vacation but it was worth every hour we spent in the car. We started our vacation in NJ for the wedding of one of my wonderful cousins. This should have taken us about 12 hours of drive time, in reality it took close to 18. We left Thursday evening and finally crashed into a hotel room about 2 am. Hit the road the next morning and expected to be in NJ about 5pm, well unfortunately for us a semi carrying explosives decided to catch fire a few miles in front of us in the middle of nowhere and our 6 hour drive to NJ turned into 12 hours on the second day. The wedding was wonderful. Honestly if you are EVER invited to a wedding in NJ, GO! I have been to 2 awesome weddings in NJ.
Leaving NJ we headed for Chincoteague, VA, home of the famous Misty of Chincoteague books, which was about 5-6 hours south of where we were in NJ. This is a wonderful place to take kids. There is a beach, things to do without being in your face crazy tourist crap, and places to hike and bike. The island is really designed well for biking (we didn't, but it looked like fun) and there is a trolley system that runs in the afternoons/evenings as well. We rented a lovely 3 bedroom townhome that had a private deck and dock and view of Assateague Island. It is actually very close to where they swim the ponies ashore. Of our 5 full days on Chincoteague we spent 3 full days on the beach at Assateague in the guarded section of the beach. The waves were nice, nothing to high or rough, and a small current. This was our kids first time at a beach. S had been to a beach at 20 months or so, but of course she doesn't remember that. They were all a little timid at first, but the big 3 warmed up quickly and were playing in the waves by the end of beach #1. Miss B (we're trying not to call her baby B) was not a fan of the beach, not sure why since she loves both water and sand, but as long as we held her she was ok.
On our alternate days we explored in town and attempted to hike on Assateague. We actually alternated beach days and explore town/Assateague days as hubby tends towards sunburns. Now being in town was great, but exploring Assateague was another story. There are mosquitoes galore! I purchased 2 new DEET-free repellents which did work, but unlike DEET-based repellents the bugs would swarm around you (and the stroller- OMG the stroller). In fact on our first hike to the Assateague lighthouse we didn't pack repellent and were so intent on getting inside the lighthouse we left the camera in the stroller. Luckily for us the kids LOVED climbing the lighthouse so we did it again on our last day with repellent and a camera. Now the 2 visitor centers of Assateague are very nice and I recommend them, but we didn't get a chance to try out their children's activities so I can't give you an opinion on them. We did attempt to hike another trail on the island, but the bugs swarming us again made it a bit miserable. Oh well!
Now this area is a GREAT place for seafood, which hubby and I dearly love. We found a great place called The Crab Shack and ordered from there twice. The crabs........OMG the crabs........ YUMMO! It was heaven. I enjoyed oysters and crab and flounder- all local to the area. One more reason why we would like to move that way.........
But I digress (as usual). So the beach was amazing and the people super friendly. In fact on our first day at the beach a couple shooed away the seagulls from our stuff since we had inadvertently left pretzel crumbs around and the birds were apparently going through our things searching for food! The kids found some other kids to dig in the sand with on some days, but mostly played together. It's times like these that I really appreciate having a "large" family. I love that my kids bring along their own playmates, what a special experience for them. One I particularly cherish being an only child.
So after 5 full days on Chincoteague we had to unfortunately return back to our lives and split our 12/13 hour drive up across two days. We did take the children across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel system, which was a great experience for them. Luckily for us we did not meet any major traffic developments on our trek home and rounded out our vacation with a fabulous dinner and margaritas at our favorite local Mexican restaurant.
I promise to post pictures and more stories about vacation in the next few days.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Growing up
My little S is growing up. Tomorrow begins her Kindergarten journey. Hubby and I made the decision to keep her at her Co-Op preschool, which offers a half-day afternoon kindergarten, to minimize the stress to her in this period of transition. And to be honest- we can put off that day of dropping off our oldest at "big kid" school a little longer. I worry about how she will adjust to big kid school having been in Co-Op for 2+ years, but I know she will be fine. But what about me?!
I am excited for her. I know she is excited about learning to read and I can only imagine the doors that will open for her, but it's frightening to me! Today was our last afternoon home together and I so wanted to do something special with just her, but it just wasn't feasible. I'm feeling a bit guilty, but I have to keep remembering that we did some mama & daughter stuff earlier in the month. I don't think it will matter to her that we didn't have one last special afternoon, and I won't make a big deal about it because Al is already upset that he cannot have a special lunch date with me (his request) for a while due to scheduling issues.
So I'll let you know how tomorrow goes, but of course tomorrow is the first day, but parents are required to be present the entire time, so her first "real" day isn't until Thursday. Can I stretch that out some more? Please? No?! This whole school thing is a lot more stressful that I thought it would be.
I am excited for her. I know she is excited about learning to read and I can only imagine the doors that will open for her, but it's frightening to me! Today was our last afternoon home together and I so wanted to do something special with just her, but it just wasn't feasible. I'm feeling a bit guilty, but I have to keep remembering that we did some mama & daughter stuff earlier in the month. I don't think it will matter to her that we didn't have one last special afternoon, and I won't make a big deal about it because Al is already upset that he cannot have a special lunch date with me (his request) for a while due to scheduling issues.
So I'll let you know how tomorrow goes, but of course tomorrow is the first day, but parents are required to be present the entire time, so her first "real" day isn't until Thursday. Can I stretch that out some more? Please? No?! This whole school thing is a lot more stressful that I thought it would be.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Advice Requested
So I need a little advice..........
I have to find a job and my problem is that I'm not sure what to do. My goal after completing this PhD was to find this magical clinical research position that allows me time to be a physical therapist and treat clients AND have time to participate in research. These jobs are few and far between and when you add the pediatric factor they are almost non-existent. I have spent the past month poking around at jobs, trying to find something, but the jobs are generally clinical, administrative or faculty. If we had the financial luxury I would continue to hunt, or at the very least wait until February (when our national convention occurs) to find a really good fit, but without the influx of student loan money that would usually come in August to get us settled, things are tight, really tight. Thus I need to find something soon.
I would love to be back in the clinic, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do any research. Most clinics are not designed to allow their practitioners time to research. That being said if I did return to the clinic full-time in 2 years I would be able to sit for my specialist certification exam. This would make me more marketable in some respects.
A faculty position would give me the access to research and possibly (depending on the position and location) access to practice in a clinic up to 1-day a week. The issue with a faculty position is that my vita is a bit lacking in the publication department. The other issue is that I must determine what else I am qualified to teach outside of pediatrics.... *sigh* I love pediatrics so much and it's not that I'm not competent to teach other things, but pediatrics is my love and it is the ONLY thing I have done since graduating from PT school in 2003, other than a 3 month stint at a nursing home (ugh!) I could potentially teach research courses, lifespan, parts of adult neuro and basic skills courses, but usually these are well covered in most programs. Also I enjoy teaching, and I like to think I'm good at it, but it doesn't give me that feeling that I get when I have either presented my research or helped a child learn to walk..........
The other option is a post-doc, which are also few and far between for pediatrics and PT in general. This pays a lot less than both the clinic and faculty, but may give me a leg-up. The issue is that there is 1 possible post-doc that I could qualify for that has been advertised and the rest I basically just have to send out some emails and see if anyone has any money laying around or coming in shortly.
It's just frustrating. I don't want to start a local PT job here in a clinic doing pediatric work knowing that I am looking for work elsewhere, it's not fair to anyone. And since I probably haven't made it clear we WANT to move out-of-state. Nothing against our current state, but we are ready to move on. This was always to be a temporary move, and our next move may be temporary as well, but we'll worry about that later! :)
So any and all advice is welcome.......
I have to find a job and my problem is that I'm not sure what to do. My goal after completing this PhD was to find this magical clinical research position that allows me time to be a physical therapist and treat clients AND have time to participate in research. These jobs are few and far between and when you add the pediatric factor they are almost non-existent. I have spent the past month poking around at jobs, trying to find something, but the jobs are generally clinical, administrative or faculty. If we had the financial luxury I would continue to hunt, or at the very least wait until February (when our national convention occurs) to find a really good fit, but without the influx of student loan money that would usually come in August to get us settled, things are tight, really tight. Thus I need to find something soon.
I would love to be back in the clinic, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do any research. Most clinics are not designed to allow their practitioners time to research. That being said if I did return to the clinic full-time in 2 years I would be able to sit for my specialist certification exam. This would make me more marketable in some respects.
A faculty position would give me the access to research and possibly (depending on the position and location) access to practice in a clinic up to 1-day a week. The issue with a faculty position is that my vita is a bit lacking in the publication department. The other issue is that I must determine what else I am qualified to teach outside of pediatrics.... *sigh* I love pediatrics so much and it's not that I'm not competent to teach other things, but pediatrics is my love and it is the ONLY thing I have done since graduating from PT school in 2003, other than a 3 month stint at a nursing home (ugh!) I could potentially teach research courses, lifespan, parts of adult neuro and basic skills courses, but usually these are well covered in most programs. Also I enjoy teaching, and I like to think I'm good at it, but it doesn't give me that feeling that I get when I have either presented my research or helped a child learn to walk..........
The other option is a post-doc, which are also few and far between for pediatrics and PT in general. This pays a lot less than both the clinic and faculty, but may give me a leg-up. The issue is that there is 1 possible post-doc that I could qualify for that has been advertised and the rest I basically just have to send out some emails and see if anyone has any money laying around or coming in shortly.
It's just frustrating. I don't want to start a local PT job here in a clinic doing pediatric work knowing that I am looking for work elsewhere, it's not fair to anyone. And since I probably haven't made it clear we WANT to move out-of-state. Nothing against our current state, but we are ready to move on. This was always to be a temporary move, and our next move may be temporary as well, but we'll worry about that later! :)
So any and all advice is welcome.......
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