Playing at the park....

Yesterday we took EJ to CB Smith Park for a bit so he could burn off some energy. The playground isnt that great but its less than a mile from our house and it was between morning and afternoon nap time so it didnt leave us much time. He ran around and played in the dirt. He seemed to enjoy that much more than actually climbing on the toys. He picked up every thing he shouldnt like straws, cup tops, plastic bags so he kept us busy chasing him around to take them away. He liked digging his hands in the sand and ended covered in dirt and all sweaty but he has fun and slept well after lunch when we got home.

We figuredout he loves sandwiches, PB&J and grilled cheese work well. he eats the whole sandwhich. so thats progress. although cutting them up into amillion little pieces is a pain it works. He likes to put the whole piece in his mouth no matter the size so we'll be cutting it up for awhile. but he eats it so thats good. hopefully he'll move on to something a little more substantial soon.

House hunting sucks

3 things to talk about....

so the house we had an offer on was officially denied, they wanted 20K more than we were willing to spend so we passed...it had a huge hole in the roof and needed a whole new one not tomention whatever damage resulted from the hole and water damage. so yeah, 3 months we waited for that answer. nice. we have expanded our search to a little farther north of where we live right now, looked at 2 yesterday. one way out of our price range by like 50K and the other was nice but the main power lines ran right behind it. which isnt all bad sice it gave us tons of space behind the fence to run Es RC cars and play ball and whatnot but living near main power lines has been assiciated with a higher rate of childhood cancer so yeah, that threw that house right out the window. So E andhis parents are looking at a few more tonight. me and the baby stayed home since we had him out way past his bedtime last night just to look at those 2 places.
so i think we decided not to even try with a short sale property as this last one was 3 months of waiting and waiting sucks.....so we are back to square one.
and we would like to be in a new house by february as thats when our fixed rate mortgage turns adjustable and we got a letter the other day saying our payment would most likely go up like $250 a month....and that doesnt include the HOA which also kicks in next feb at another $250 a month and thats to live in a 3rd floor apartment which is quickly turning more ghetto by the day.


and that leads to my next topic. our fabulous community. this past sunday we looked out our windo and there were 2 guys grilling in their driveway. not a big deal on itsown. of course most people do it on their balcony but whatever, so they were grilling chicken and had a tent to keep the sun off. ok, getting more ghetto but not too bad yet. the best part was that they had brought their tv out and run the powere and cable lines outside to watch the football game, while they grilled and ate chicken. ther were 2 of them. TWO OF THEM. you think the a/c inside would be more comfortable but i guess you just cant take the ghetto out of some people. oh, wait, i forgot, WE live in the ghetto now ;) and to add to the swell-ness of our living arrangements i was outide yesterday and kicked something metal on the ground. so i looked and i thought i was mistaken, but no, it really was a bullet casing. yup, you read that right...a freaking bullet casing. now i know there havent been any gun shots here but seriously, why was it on the ground in my parking lot?!?! :) i love my condo community...oh wait, i forgot, its not a condo community anymore, they are renting them again becasie people wont buy here, sobasically those of us that bought before the market crashed are just screwed......

and the third topic....we went for our one year check up. he weighs 19lbs 12oz. hes not even 20lbs yet. that puts him in about the 8th percentile for weight while being in teh 50-75th for height. so we had a long talk with the doctor about his eating. he was eating lots of table finger foods beofer i went back to work but my MIL will only feed him puree. shes afraid he'll choke. adn e is afraid she'll panic. so if he doesnt trust her i definately dont. a little background info: she fed E puree until he was 3. and he drank milk from a bottle till who knows when...7? (but most latin families are like that...even ones that have lived most of their lives here) so yeah, we are trying to feed him table food at dinner. last night he ate like 5 tiny pieces of chicken (if that) 2 pieces of carrot and a few watermelon. pieces. tonight he ate a piece of bread, a itsy bitsy piece of carrot and like two little bites of turkey lunch meat. those two meals together shouldnt even be enough for a snack. so i have no idea how we are going to put weight on him. ???????


other than that things are good. work is great. i love my kids. they have a test thirsday or friday so we'll see how well they do....

Birthday Pictures

So here are the pictures from EJs first birthday. We decorated with Curious George since the only thing he has attached himself to is his monkey....i dont think he really even noticed but thats ok, i liked them :)

Opening presents was fun, his attention span got him through about 2 presents until he had had enough....bedtime was quickley approaching and he certainly let everyone know it!

He was unsure about the cake, watched everyone as they sang and immediatly took the little Curious george figurine off the cake and played with that. He had no desire to eat the cake and even though we put his hands in it he really just wanted to play with the monkey.
Amelia saw that EJ was having trouble understanding what to do with the cake so she thought she would helphim out by showing him that you are supposed to eat it......
and she ended up having more than he did!

The big birthday weekend....

went well. EJ is now "officially" 1! I cant believe how fast time goes and how big he is. he's practically running around the house and wanting to play with everything he shouldnt. Unfortunately I have been super sick since last thursday and that seriously put a damper on the weekend, but my best friend sara and her boyfriend matty flew in from Philly this weekend which was awesome. it was great to have them here. and they brought food for the party and apparently matty loves to wash dishes and washed every dish in our house by hand the entire weekend. it worked out well! :)
saturday morning was spent cleaning and straightening out before the party. people started to arrive about 2:30 and everyone was here by 4. it was nice and low key (13 people) which was good since i spend the first half curled up ion the couch in a fleece jacket and under the blanket wishing i could just crawl into a hole and dissapear. i was upset because i could barely move and i was missing my son's party but then i puked and was able to join everyone else (nice huh?). he opened presents and got a lot of cool stuff and some super cute clothes (thanks sara!). cake also went well although he was pretty uninterested in the actual cake, he was more excited to play with the miniature curius george figure on top. but thats ok, Amelia helped him out with actually eating the cake. she would sneak up to his high chair slowly reach out her hand and then pull a piece off quickly and into her mouth (like she didnt think we would all see her!) it was super cute.
overall a success...and there are pictures to follow.....

sunday we (E, sara, matty and i) went on a driving tour of miami to see all the "important" miami stuff. it was a nice ride and i actually got to see stuff i had never seen before. we ate at fridays as the baby was cranky and we needed a "kid friendly" environment. the food was good i guess but since i got sick i havent really eaten much (i had 2 wontons at fridays). we headedhome and watched some stand up comedy and then i was off to bed.

monday (hooray for long weekends) we drove out to the everglades and "alligator hunting" well not really but we drove down loop road which is a dirt road through the everglades where you can look for gators. we saw a few. apparently it usually only takes about and hour and a half to drive through but the road was flooded over in most places so it was a slow muddy ride. my car was super pretty afterwards!! it still needs a bath.

First days at La Salle..

have been good, of course there have only been 2 thanks to Tropical Storm Fay. Having Monday and tuesday off were nice and i have to say that Fay was an increadibly dissapointing storm (i am not saying thats a bad thing.). we went out this weekend to stock up in supplies like baby food and bread and canned food and water and the like but in the end our power never even flickered and we have had thunder storms worse. But i am NOT complaining, i am sure another will come and make up for the dissapointment i am sure we all felt not having to suffer in the heat with no ac or power or any other "luxuries"

la salle has been good. so far so good. i have 2 freshman classes and 3 senior classes. the freshman are ridiculously cute for now, however i am sure that will all change. and i already know which senior level class will be my trouble makers and "annoying" class. already they dont want to shut up, but thats ok. i am going to email all the parents this week and tell them that this particular class seems to think my class is a joke and if that doesnt work i will start to single people out. that should fix things pretty quick i'm sure. but all in all they seem like good kids, some just lack in the "smarts department" as Sister Pat, my principal told me today.

the other teachers i've befriended are cool. easy to talk to and one is my department chair and so far i really like her. we also get to eat for free in the cafeteria which is AWESOME, it really cuts down on my morning prep before heading out the door at 6am and also keeps food cost down, always a bonus, not to mention the food so far has been pretty good. and while my legs are super achey from walking aorund all day and my voice is fading things are good.

Work is going well. Students report on friday and so far everyone seems really nice. so far so good. today some students came in to help the teachers put their classroom together and move all the books into the appropriate rooms. i had a few girls helping me who were awesome. As i was organizing stuff I was listening to two of them talk about their summer and their boyfriends and their summer work projects. One of the girls was talking about how she was mad at her boyfriend about him going out with his friends and leaving her "home alone" or whatever it was. It made me think about how lucky I am and how happy I am that I have such an amazing relationship with my husband and how we have matured from that high school immaturity of having "ask permission" or "give permission" for someone to go out. E came home today and told me he was going out with the "boys" on friday and my immediate was response was "thjats cool, what're you gonna do?" and he told me.....but whats really nice is that I didnt care that he's going out without me nor do I care where or with whom he's going. trust is an amazing thing and was definately something that came with age for sure. and i do the same thing, neither one of us has to worry about what the other will say or if the other will be mad. we definately dont do much together anymore with the baby but thats ok. we enjoy our family time together and do get out occassionally alone. i even remember when i was pregnant not caring that he went out, he definately hung out with me and did his "husbandly duties" by bringin me take out or ice cream or whatever but i have never felt he had to always be there. of course i sometimes wish i could go too but thats normal. So back to the girls in my class....they were talking about this one girl's boyfriend and as soon as they started talking about it they were on to something else...amazing how quickly their train of thought changes...

Back to Work

I had my first day at La Salle this past friday. it was ok. i, along with about 8 other new teachers were orientated (is that a word?) from about 9am to 2:15. it was a long day but honestly it wasnt that bad. they didnt read the handbooks verbatim only told us the stuff we ACTUALLY needed to know, which was nice. YEsterday we relaxed. tried to go to sawgrass outlets but as we got htere the sky opened up and there was torrential down pour and severe lightning storm which was nice enough to follow us home. so we were stuck inside the rest of the day. today was much of the same. we ran some errands, returned some stuff and finally bought another real car seat for E's car. and pizza for dinner. it was a very romantic way to spend our anniversary! :) i highly suggest pizza and beer for an anniversary dinner. :)
today i decided again it would be a good idea for me to play soccer again (i suppose i sort of have a love hate relationship with it. i love it, it hates me) i am SO out of shape. but it was 7 v. 7 with 2 girls on the field and it was fun. an hour long and in the morning (11am) so it wasnt too bad. however i am now a tad sore. ugh.
back to work tomorrow. :( that means i have to get up early, get the baby ready and out the door and then be productive.....icky.....work sucks. but at least i think i will really like where i am teaching and the people i will be working with. so thats good.
i had more to write but i am way to tired and will be headed to bed momentarily, and probably fast asleep by 9....