Kiddos

As a teacher I have had many "Kiddos" in my life. It is funny how some remain at the forefront of my mind, while others will fade in and out. I never forget any of them, I just think my mind puts them in different order every now and again.
The last few weeks have been difficult with all the changes in my life. Our move still seems so far away not knowing if the house will sell quickly, slowly or at all. I have a job to do at the moment, but will I be able to find another job in our new area, questions, worries and more uncertainty than I am used to or like in my life.
My patience has been wearing very thin on all fronts, and I caught myself snapping at the kids on Thursday. I did not mean to, I did not want to, but one more repeated question of "Where do I put this?" My answer was, In the same place you have put it all year......
Not good for the teacher to act like that. I decided we needed a break. We are studying magic the next two weeks. Not having a movie that covers the topic, I asked the kids what movie they think they could find magic in?
I was hoping and I was thrilled when they chose Charlie and the Choc. Factory. We all sat down to color some mother's day gifts and watch this movie.
The children would chime in every now and again where they saw magic and optical illusions like I had shown them on the computer.
As I sat resting, one child came up and asked to sit on my lap. As I gently rocked my chair I asked her if she felt okay, cause she was so warm. She said it is not me Ms. Comer, it is you that is warm. I think you are sick. I was caught off guard and she went back to her seat. Moments later another child came up and said "Are you giving free rocks in your chair?" I said sure and he sat on my lap. I asked are you feeling okay? and he said yes but I think you need to rock cause you do not feel good. I said really how do you know that? You are all white and warm he said.
So two hours later as I drove home to check on my husband who was ill, I realize that I really do not feel very well, I wake up to a well husband, and a sick me, with the fever , the chills and the headache.
Children know so much, they sense everything. Jeff and I have been going and going so much that it finally caught up to us.
I look forward to feeling better and returning to my little kiddos on Monday.Hoping that they are the ones that gave this little bug to us and that I did not pass it on to them of course.
I wonder if I ask them, if they have insight into when our home will sell???

Oh, yeah, and they can tell when I am sick, but not one of them told me that I forgot to put my makeup on for work on Monday. Maybe that means I do not really need the makeup or is it that I look that poor all the time????

Our Home

Moving

So moving is so mind boggling at times.
I have moved as a married lady seven times. As a child I can't even count how many times we moved. We moved from state to state, house to house and town to town.
Moving can be very cleansing, literally and figuratively. I have cleaned my house so many times in the last few weeks, I can't even remember what needs to be cleaned. I have gutted closets, packed up items to declutter the house and even cleaned windows, screens and misc. items that I did not know we owned.
Getting rid of stuff that I really do not know why we still had, why I had in the first place and just what and why is this????

I always think that moving will be so easy, but I really have tried each and every move to like where we live. Each move has offered new places to explore, new friends to be made and new experiences that we never even thought of. I hate leaving my houses, ( we had a lady that would paint each of our houses for the last 5 moves. She is now too old to paint them so I am in need of my current home and our soon to be new home )Our house always becomes our home.
I hate being told to clear off the pictures hung on the fridge, What? This is our life? You mean I have to put it away.

I am probably the realtors worst nightmare when they suggest that I make sure the house is magazine ready and picked up. But I live here........I also work all day and come home exhausted most nights.
I am never caught up on laundry, job security, I very seldom have the dishes done by the next morning and I love to have my blanket on the couch at night.
So for the next few weeks, I will be frustrated in having to clean my home continuously and the worry that it still is not clean enough. I hope another wonderful wife, mother will come in and fall in love with this home like we did. It is an amazing house with amazing sunsets and has been a wonderful home for six years.

To our new home, I know you are out there waiting just for us. You will offer new adventures, new cupboards to fill, neighbors to meet and friends to make. I can't wait to find you and fill you with all of our love .

Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Had so many great plans for the list of days in this title. Thursday, work, go look at a few of my favorite little stores for inspiration and home to watch the draft.
Not!!!!
Work long, go home to pick up house for realtor to take pictures , text Jeff all the draft names, cause he was at work late and then fall into bed missing Survivor and CSI.
Friday, field trip to Payson, two hours away with 20 kids and parents to look for geodes, and fossils. Cold and blustery, but a wonderful trip. The children we so excited. The geodes were plentiful. These are rocks, that when broken open have crystals in them. Our wet winter was a true blessing, there were millions of them that washed down. The children were so funny, loading down their backpacks and then realizing that they had to walk back about a half mile to the bus. If you want to find geodes, you will find many a pile on the side of the road tonight as the children learned of their error in judgement and dropped them like bread crumbs in hantsel and gretal.
Fun and exhausting home to pizza, a bubble bath and watching the draft on the couch with Jeff.
Tomorrow, sleep in and clean closets again.
Life is full and we are all blessed to be living it.
Go rock hunting, it clears the senses.

Wings

So I told you all, all eight of you that read this silly little blog of mine, that today I would let you know about my wings.
I really do not like birds. I never have and they really freak me out if they get to close but I have always loved angels. I collect them and I relate to them and not to be weird or anything, I feel as if I have a few that watch over me on a daily basis. So my wings are angels wings not bird wings.
I will not be working in Show Low anymore after May and that was really hard to accept, but on top of that Jeff had started looking into a new job for himself. He has felt the need to grow and learn and I can't blame him. He needs some new wings.
So last week he accepted a new position that will be giving us both wings. We will be relocating to Mississippi. Yes, back to the south for us.
The girls are torn and Ally and Brody will be staying in Arizona for the time being. Robyn will go to visit with us this summer and then she will decide where she wants to continue her schooling. This is okay, they are both growing up and I know that they are getting their wings.
I look forward to the new area, new friends and the chance to possibly teach in another state. Can I just take one test and get a certificate for all fifty states here people. This will be my seventh move in 25 years and our seventh state. I will miss my friends here, but know that the true friends never leave I am hoping our house sells quickly and putting my faith to work on that note. I am grateful that Jeff will have a new adventure and his wings are growing and I look forward to what our new town has to offer. (THEY have a TARGET). Jeff says that means I definitely have to get a job......
I am in awe of living somewhere with all the amenities. I am going from 3,000 people in our town to over 70,000. I may be walking around dazed and confused for a while.
Oh,yeah, did I tell ya it is an hour to the beach.......
I know, I am just in awe of that fact. All of my life I have wanted to be able to drive to the beach and walk around looking for shells for the day. What bliss that sounds like to me. Read a book watch the waves, etc.
So tell all those that you know to pray our home sells quickly and that my new wings are strong and soarable.

Mood

I so wanted to do a picture for this weeks art. My Mood has been cloudy all week and then I got the news that I was one of the teachers being Riffed. This is a reduction in force notice. In other words I have no job for next year. Yesterday, my mood was horrible. I felt bad for myself, felt like I was losing my friends and I felt bad for the children that will be in much larger classes next year.
I gave myself 24 hours to process this entire thing. Then I said I will get up and get over it.
So today on the way to work I heard three songs in a row with one word in common. WINGS
I now have wings and I will let you know what I mean by this on Monday. God is great and It feels wonderful to fly.

Spring Cleaning

So are all the rest of you suffering from this ailment or is it just me?
We decided that over the winter we have collected much clutter in the house. This is usually the case as we tend to live in the living room by the fireplace. Wouldn't you after you get over 6 feet of snow. The warmth of the fire and the blankets make it the perfect place to read, do art and to watch movies.
Now I have to go thru all these books, magazines, movies etc.
So we decided to start in the garage and clean it up, move the snow blower etc. Well, the dust, dirt and wind equals asthma attack for me.
I coughed until I could cough no more, I sneezed until I could sneeze no more and then the attack. I could not get any air in. I was freaking out. I stopped, shut my eyes and remembered the words from lamaze class, slow down and do not panic. It worked. I have never had an attack like that. I was scared to death. I knew air was getting in but the feeling of panic was so overwhelming.
What did I learn from this experience?
1. I need a maid. Wishful thinking
2. Spring is not my favorite season anymore.
3. We have too much crap collecting dust that makes me sneeze.
4. Simplify, simplify, simplify
5. I need to take this cleaning thing one room at a time and not try to do as much as I did yesterday.

So here is to a clean house, no more asthma attacks and summer when all the pollen is gone.

Happy Day to you all.