My new life

Before I start telling you about my new job and new reality, I want to make sure I lead with this:  I really loved this blog post about turning 40 and friendship.  I wrote about my 40th birthday and tried to encapsulate some of these ideas, but she was much more articulate than myself.

As you know, last spring I went through the difficult time of losing my job as the majority of our department got cut at the ESD.  Going through the job searching process and making a decision was not my favorite thing to do, but I did accept a job in the McMinnville School District at Columbus Elementary as a Learning Specialist (aka resource room teacher).  My new job started four weeks ago, and it has been quite an adjustment.

I struggle a little with how honest to be in this blog because a) I don't know who reads it b) I turn it into a book for Trey and I don't want to be bitching and moaning about parenting for him to read years down the road and c) I don't want to be a whiny complainer (my husband and a few friends get enough of that to last a lifetime).  However, I don't want to be all peaches and roses when it feels insincere or dishonest.  I guess I will do my best to skim the surface, and you can read between the lines as you see fit.

The week before work started, I drove down to school to take my boxes of books and file boxes of materials.  I saw this when I walked into my office and nearly gasped.  Randy and I have been married for seven years, but I have been called "Mrs. Clark" less than five times.  At the ESD, I introduced myself as Kristin, so being Mrs. Clark will be an adjustment.  I think I might keep looking over my shoulder to see if my mother-in-law is behind me every time I hear Mrs. Clark.

Somehow in my career I have always managed to have a commute at some level.  I spent nine years in Woodburn, and that commute really started to wear on me at the end.  For about five years of working at the ESD, my commute was only about 20-25 minutes which felt like a breeze.  The last few years at the ESD I commuted from Beaverton, and that was not my favorite time of day.  It could take anywhere from 40-70 minutes depending on traffic...each way.   Now I'm in McMinnville and this commute takes the cake, especially when I have a four year old I'm rushing home to see.  It's about an hour each way.  The pros are that the drive is beautiful, I don't have to sit in freeway traffic, and the time it takes is consistent - rather than having to check Google maps each day to decide which way to navigate home, I know how long it will take me.  Every. Single. Time.  The cons are...well, we don't need to go there, do we?  Seems pretty obvious to me.

Wine country as seen from my sunroof

One of the very best parts about my new job is my new boss.  Lee Ann left the ESD as well as the coordinator of the Evaluation Center, and now she is the Director of Special Services in McMinnville.  Even though we don't see each other very much, it is such a blessing to have her there.  I get so excited when I see her, and I love being able to text, talk, or email her about work things and she knows exactly what I'm talking about.  There is no other person in my current life who will know about my current job and be able to share that with me, and I love her for being that person.

Lee Ann dressed as a Star Trek character during the all-district welcome back

I'm starting my 17th year in special education.  I spent nine years in Woodburn as a Learning Specialist and seven years at the Clackamas ESD as an Evaluation Specialist.  I think I did a good job as a Learning Specialist before, but I can tell you that I would have been very satisfied at never having to go back into a building again.  Ever.  As I started the job search last spring, in a state of mild panic since I was going to soon be unemployed, I felt like my only real option was to be a learning specialist again.  I really don't think I have the skill set to be a self-contained classroom teacher, and I don't have my school psych license nor my admin license.  These might be paths I choose to take at some point, but going back to school and accruing new student loans are not really on my list of things to do right now.  So here I am, back in a building, as a Learning Specialist.  What this means to those of you who aren't in education is that I do not have my own classroom all day long, but I support the students who are on IEPs and spend the majority of the day in their regular classroom.  We pull them out for reading, writing, and/or math instruction, or we (being myself and my assistants) go into their classrooms to support them.  The students I have on my caseload mostly have learning disabilities, communication disorders, ADHD, and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder.  I have a few students this year who have physical disabilities but are in the regular classroom.

Probably the best thing I learned in graduate school is how to schedule with post-it notes.  This is how I started figuring out the schedules of myself and my two assistants.  I put every area of service for every kid on a post it note and then tried to organize by staff member and time slot.  We started serving kids the second week of school, and I have changed our schedules 3-4 times since then.  A new attempt at success starts on Monday.  Wish us luck.

I just read this story about family dinner, and it filled me with joy.  Sort of like the joy I would feel if I read that if your kid has the bottle too late they will not be ruined forever (don't worry - he doesn't still use a bottle, but he did for way too long) or how great it would be to find out that having a relatively picky eater now would turn into a child with a wide palate of food preferences later on in life.  I appreciate how the researchers state, "The emphasis on home cooking ignores the time pressures, financial constraints, and feeding challenges that shape the family meal.  Yet this is the widely promoted standard to which all mothers are held," and "There are lots of ways to have quality family time.  It doesn't have to be around the dinner table."

Yes, I meal plan and try to cook dinner every night and sit around the table.  Yes, it is a stressful time because I walk in the door at 5 and try to eat by 530.  Most nights we eat by 6 which pushes back bedtime which means that Trey isn't getting enough sleep.  It's a viscous cycle, and it's my least favorite time of night.  While sitting around the table together is really the only time the three of us sit together and talk, getting to that moment sucks.  Throw in Trey complaining about what is on his plate for dinner, and the whole experience feels like a shit show.  "You want to sit in front of the tv and eat corndogs and yogurt while I sit in the other room looking at Facebook and Twitter? Go right ahead, honey."  (Insert Mama Guilt here.)

I will say that for the past four weeks we have been getting meals made most every night and that has probably been my biggest success of going back to work.  I like looking at food blogs for ideas and also magazines like Cooking Light. I was excited to have Jenny Rosenstrach's new book on dinner come out.  I bought it right after it came out, looked at it for half an hour after I got home, and haven't picked it up since.  Typical.

A place where I get my inspiration

Another evening ritual

This usually starts before the dinner prep gets going.

One way I'm managing to cook dinner every night (or sometimes Randy cooks) is that I'm prepping whatever I can on Sundays.  It makes it so nice to come home and already have the veggies cut up.  It's not like it saves THAT much time, but it means I'm one step closer to getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time.

I've been doing a lot of driving - 47 minutes to work and 55 minutes home - which means a lot of listening to NPR (is anyone else freaked out about the Ebola virus?), but I also get to listen to a lot of audio books.  I just finished listening to the Summer I Turned Pretty, and I just started the autobiography of Edward Kennedy.  I bookmarked this post for ideas for other audiobooks.  The only one I've listened to so far is Bossypants by Tina Fey (super funny to listen to since she reads it herself).  Listening to the first part of the Kennedy book really makes me think of my mom.  She loved biographies, she loved the Kennedys, and I'm still disappointed she wasn't here for the Clinton-Obama primary and then the presidential election of 2008.  She loved that stuff.

One of my views on my way to work...I won't deny that it's beautiful.

Just because I'm back to work doesn't mean our normal life stops.  Far from it.  We have been chilling out on the weeknights but making our weekends full.  Well, at least one full day, and then I try to keep the other day pretty relaxed (well, relaxed for Trey and productive for me).  A few weeks ago, Julie and Tim had us over for dinner and cocktails on a Friday night.  It doesn't get much better than that.

The adults were in one "room"...

While the kids were in the other.

Trey is still doing swimming lessons, and he just progressed to the level where they go the long way of the pool rather than the short way.  Trey is doing great, but it sure wears him out.

Two weeks ago we went to McMinnville for Brews and BBQ with Kris and John.  It was fun to try something new, but we probably won't hit that brewfest again.

Checking out the kids' area at the brewfest

On a Sunday we met Camille and Mindy at the park and then went to lunch.  We got to the restaurant about ten minutes before they opened, so we kept the kids entertained at the hardware store.

Trey went to a birthday party for a friend from daycare at the Little Gym.  It was a super fun party, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good place to do parties.  The people who worked there even cut the cake AND wrote down the list of gifts.  The mother just got to watch the party and take pictures.  Seemed pretty ideal to me.

Last Friday I got to go back to the ESD for a training on the newest version of the main test we administer to see if a child qualifies for special ed.  It was so fun to see so many of my old colleagues and people from the districts in Clackamas County.  I was sort of in heaven.  Afterwards, people from my department came from all over to meet for happy hour.  It was awesome.

This is Jane, one of our old speech pathologists from the ESD.

Does anyone see a resemblance between her and anyone else I/we know?

An example of how I'm coping with my new job...

Last weekend Randy took Trey camping with some friends.  On one hand, I was disappointed to not see Trey for the weekend, but on the other hand, I was looking forward to having some quiet time and getting some things accomplished around the house and running errands.  I had about 20 hours alone before they returned due a mysterious foot injury of Trey's.  We still don't know what was wrong, but Randy thinks Trey woke with a foot cramp and then just freaked about it.  He was really disappointed about coming home early, but when your kid won't walk, what are you supposed to do?

I brought home some short ribs from Gartner's for Randy's consolation prize, and we still made Trey's favorite thing...

S'mores!

Yesterday we had a full day: swimming lessons, I met a friend for breakfast, we met friends for lunch at Hopworks, went grocery shopping, and then went to Sarah and Neil's for dinner.

Hopworks with Ana

One of them was more excited than the other to be there. 

Being cool at Winco

Trey was so tired by the time we got home that he fell asleep easily and I promised him a relaxing day today.  It'll be relaxing at least until Uncle Wags gets here to watch the Broncos-Seahawks game and then all bets are off.  Happy Sunday everyone!