Girls' Night

In just under 4 hours I will be happily (and hopefully a little tipsily) sitting in the movie theatre watching this movie. I think it will full of laughs and just the kind of night I need.

Special thanks to Cindy for loaning me all her DVD's and getting me caught up on the series!!

11 more days

I am busy laying around thinking about all the things I should be doing but don't have the energy for...... But here is a pic of one of the sweet duckies. None of which I am in charge of anymore! I really miss looking at them and watching them swim and waddle about, but I sure don't miss cleaning out their cage or laundering all of the poopy towels. One thing about ducks... they poop A LOT.... and it's pretty smelly.

Is there anybody out there?

If so, I would like to profusely apologize for neglecting my duties as a blogger. But I must warn you... the next 3 weeks things are gonna be pretty sparse around here. I am a CHRONIC procrastinator, and I have 6 months of memory book pages for 17 kids to complete before June 12. I do have duck photos and prom photos and grad photos from my nieces college graduation. But you will not be seeing them anytime soon. I just can't do it! Sorry, and I hope to be back to normal soon!

Love, Nancy

They're hatched!!

So on Saturday I had to work for a few hours getting to know new Kinders for next year and letting parents know what to expect as well. As soon as everyone left for home I pulled my tray of eggs out of the incubator and headed for the bathroom with the flashlight to candle them. As I was walking I heard this little, "peep, peep......peep" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I about jumped 10 feet in the air and my heart started pounding like crazy! I looked a little closer and noticed that about 4 of the eggs had little holes in them. I couldn't believe it! They were supposed to hatch on Monday. Here it was only Saturday and they were peeping and had broken through the shell. After looking up some very helpful info on the net (how did I ever survive without it!) I learned about internal pip and external pip and figured they would hatch out on Sunday or Monday.
On Sunday we were spending the day in Hayfork at my Granny's (a 3 hour drive) so we stopped by the school to check on the eggs' progress. I raced into the classroom and across to the incubator and saw that 2 of the ducklings were hatched out! They looked horrible and slimy and couldn't move very well. Partly because they were weak, and partly because the incubator is tiny and barely fit 8 eggs. I pulled the tray out a little and removed the shell that was close to the wiggliest ducky to give him a little more room to maneuver. Then we set off on our family trip.
On the way home around 6 pm, we stopped again, and all five of the eggs that I thought were viable had hatched. It was so crowded in there now , it was nearly impossible to even count the ducklings. I checked the 3 eggs that I thought were duds at the 8 day candling (but was too paranoid to throw out), and disgarded them. Then, I got rid of all the shells and wiped the guck out of the incubator. While I was busy, the ducklings were kind of wobbling around in their box, but they didn't look very happy, so I put them back in the incubator and left them there overnight.
In the morning they were even slimier looking than the night before, but when I placed the incubator tray in the box they took off running around. By about 10 am they were looking quite a bit fluffier. By 2 pm they were drinking their water. After school I went and bought some starter food, so by 4 pm they were pecking granules out of my hand (although they seemed much more interested in eating my wedding ring!).
Today they were all pretty active. They eat quite a bit and drink a TON of water. They run around, and are pretty good at darting away from my hand. For the most part they don't like to be held. Although Cindyanna charmed a couple of them after school. :)
Hopefully tomorrow we will pick out names for them. There is a black one with black feet, a bigger brown one with a yellow chest and yellow feet, and 3 brownish yellow ones. One of the yellow ones has some left over guck on his head making it look like he has his "hair" parted. They are completely adorable.

Photos will come as soon as I get my 4 rolls of film developed!

Busy weekend

I so look forward to my lazy carefree weekends.... sleeping in, reading, working out, puttering around the house. Unfortunately, this weekend will be nothing like that.
Tomorrow I will be at work getting to know the sweet little 4 year olds half of which will be my future students. That will last a few hours. Then, I will be working even longer getting my classroom ready for Monday.
Tomorrow night I am going to a benefit dinner for my wonderful friend Barb's Relay for Life team. Hopefully I will get to sit by Cindyanna :)
Then Sunday, it's off to Hayfork to spend the day with my fabulous Granny and all of my other relatives.... including my Mom, thank goodness since it's Mother's Day. That is at least an 8 hour thingy with driving time worked in.
Finally Sunday night we are headed to Mark's mom's house for Mother's Day cake and coffee.
When will the shopping get done? What about laundry? Who will clean the bathrooms? I hate to admit it, but most likely none of those things will get done. And the cleaning that doesn't get done this weekend has no chance of getting done during the work week, so it'll be no clean socks or sparkling sinks around here.... better not stop by or you'll get a nasty shock!

Confession #7

I don't think I will survive my childrens' adolescence.

I was OK at mothering babies. They were kept warm (enough). They were breastfed. I didn't give them solids or sugar until the recommended ages. They had their immunizations and check ups. They were loved and cuddled and talked to and read to.

I loved the toddler years. Watching them get so exicted over discovering the simplest of things. Hearing their little voices form words and sentences and GREAT BIG IDEAS. Seeing their eyes light up when I came home from work or even back into the room they were in from doing laundry. Ahhhhh, that was such a great age. And still there was reading and cuddling and hugging.

The school age years were good. I adored every page of turtles or princesses drawn in marker with chicken scratch writing. I applauded each new nugget of knowledge about dinosaurs and space and how honey is made. I basked in the sound of their voices as they struggled through their first reading of The Cat in the Hat. I even survived my baby girl's chemo and procedure after procedure after procedure. Through all of it we were there together: reading, loving, talking, enjoying each other's company.

Now things are different. I cannot predict the moods of these two. If I sense something is wrong and I ask about it. I am usually rudely dismissed. I am considered an embarrassment. I am begged to be "normal"... don't say this.... PLEASE don't do that. Worst of all there is no reading. No cuddling. Little Hugging. I take the bits and pieces of talking they throw my way and treasure them. I linger over each and every hug. Savoring the seconds. Because it may be days before I am granted another. I want so badly to interact more. To enjoy more. To be more involved. But most nights we sit in separate rooms doing separate things... TV, ipod, computer, treadmill. We do come together for dinner. It takes about 10 minutes, maybe 15. I am holding on to it for as long as possible.

Someone recently told me that this distance, this void between parent and child is nature's way of sending the child out into the world on their own. And that makes sense to me. After all, if they stayed as sweet and wonderful as 4 year olds, and never stopped seeing me as the center of their universe, I would never be able to let them go.