Called into the Principal's Office

On Monday I got the dreaded note in my mailbox- "Carrie, please see me before the end of the day." Now, I didn't think I was in trouble as it was only Monday and I couldn't be in trouble yet, right? I almost wish I had been in trouble because it may have been better than the news I received. Due to MAJOR budget cuts and the fabulous passing of a tax cap in the city where I work - my position has been cut for next year.

Now, you have to understand that this position is my dream job. When I was working on my master's degree a few years back I always said that my dream job would be to teach computer classes to kids. Well, for the past two years, that is what I have been doing. I absolutely love it. The icing on the cake with this job is also the fact that I do not have to deal with parents, correct papers, do report cards, etc - all of that "stuff" that takes up all of your free time when you are a classroom teacher.

The good news in all of this is that even though my position was cut, I have enough senority in the district (10 years) that I still have a job. But that job will be back in the classroom. They won't be able to tell me what grade or where (we have 7 elementary schools) until probably the end of June. I hate the fact that I will be in limbo for the next few months. If I had known this might happen, I would have never left the classroom 2 years ago.....

Deep down, I am truly happy that I still have a job as that is a better situation to be in than the first and second year teachers who will lose their jobs totally. But it still sucks ......big time.

February Quilt Blocks

We went yesterday to get our new quilt square kits for February. Because we are both big dorks, we decided to be over-achievers and do them today. Mind you, they don't have to be done until the first weekend in March. There were a lot more triangles to sew together this time, so they took a bit longer. We are pleased with the outcome though!

Here are the two different fabric choices for this month:

Here are the little triangles all cut up and ready to be put together.

And here are the finished products - the first two are mine, and the last one is MJ's!

Naughty Sadie

So, we owe another post to the furry friends. You see, our golden Sadie can be very naughty. Often she will scratch incessantly at the floor. She also has a thing for all things paper. Paper towels, tissues, napkins, regular paper, etc. On Friday night she was in one of her moods again and we were going crazy. MJ just gave her a hunk of paper left over from correcting papers and this is what she did with it. The mess was fun to clean up, but it kept her busy for quite a while!

Here is another cute one of the little boys laying together the other night - you don't see this happen very often.

Page Kit of the Month

Today we go to our Quilt Block and Page Kit of the Month Clubs. Here are our layouts for the January Kit. We had a bit of trouble because the printed paper was for sledding and ice skating. We don't have any pictures for that, so we just cut out some of the words on the page to use in our layouts. We weren't real thrilled with the outcome, but at least we got four pages done for the 2009 book!

Other than the Kit of the Month Club and a few errands, not much else going on. Have a great weekend everyone!

"I Love Jesus..... But I Drink A Little"

For those of you who have never seen this it is HILARIOUS.... I saw it when it originially aired on Ellen, but every time I see it again, I laugh just as hard as I did the first time. It is a bit long, but SO FUNNY! Enjoy!

HB436

HB436 - that stands for House Bill 436 relative to civil marriage and civil unions. This bill will be in legislative session today at the NH State House. This bill is proposing that gay marriage be legal in NH beginning January 1, 2010. How exciting would that be?

Let's hope that things go smoothly today when the bill is in committee. I know it still has a long road to travel before it can become law, but I will remain hopeful that I can marry my love someday soon!

***the above is a pic of our rings from our Civil Union***

Happy Birthday, Laura!

Today's post is for Laura - today is her birthday. She is one of our best friends and Mama to Miss Olivia. Happy Birthday, Laura! Enjoy your day!

***the above pic is from her 40th a few years back****

Another Update..

Some of you have been asking if we are putting TTC on the back burner and the answer is NO! We will be trying again in a couple of weeks. If that doesn't work, we have April and June as well. At that point, I think we are done TTC. It will be 12 tries, and more than 3 years. We don't have coverage for IVF, nor do we have the finances to pay for it ourselves. We are definitely still holding on to that glimmer of hope that we will be able to have a child of our own.

In foster parenting news, I talked with a super nice lady from the agency last night and got lots of information. We will definitely be attending the training on the 21st and we can have all of our other training modules done in March - we just have to call and sign up.

The only bit of bad news (if you want to call it that) is that this agency pretty much only deals with kids from grade 5 and up. We were really hoping for YOUNGER children. The benefit of this agency is that the kids they have are all pretty much looking for permanent homes. If we went through DCYF - those kids usually come to stay for a while and then go back to their families. So, we have alot of decisions to make. This agency said that it is not impossible to get younger children, we would probably just have to wait.

So, we have decided that we really want to stick with this agency as it is a private agency VS. working with DCYF which is state funded. Nothing against DCYF, but working as teachers, we know how underfunded, understaffed, etc state agencies are. Since we feel strongly that we would like to stay with this agency, we are going to let the chips fall as they may and really work with them to find what will fit best for our family in terms of placement of a child.

That's the update from here!

We've Started the Process

We received our packet in the mail for Foster Parenting this weekend. It was very exciting! The best part is that the agency we want to work with "values diversity in all areas including gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation." I am so excited about that! It is great to be able to work with an agency that will value us for who we are and not judge us because of our lifestyle!

So, we dropped our initial Interest Survey in the mail today and have sent an email to sign up for the first two modules of training on February 21. The ball is rolling, and we are excited about it! Keep your fingers crossed that things go smoothly for us throughout the process.

From the research we have done so far, we need to do the following:

1. Background/Fingerprint check
2. Doctor's Statement saying we are physically able to care for a child
3. Application
4. Home Study
5. Fire/Safety inspection of home
6. 21 - 24 hours of training to get licensed

We'll keep you posted.

The Sleepover Part 2

We finished the big sleepover by making cookies this morning. We found a cute recipe for making domino cookies. They were so easy - all you do is roll out cookie dough and cut it into rectangles. Then use chocolate chips for the numbers. Olivia had lots of fun doing it!

After the cookie making, we made little Valentine treats for Olivia to give to her moms. They came out really cute!

We had lots and lots of fun with her this weekend. Can't wait until next time!