The joy of back yard gardening...

One of the joys of backyard gardening is being able to enjoy the fruits (literally) of your labor. I must admit that we haven't been treating our fruit trees with the care they deserve, but regardless, they have given us peaches every year. Here are some great pictures of the girls enjoying the bounty on a hot summer day.

Abigail is a hoarder type eater. She stuff the whole thing (whatever it is) in her mouth at once. We have to really watch her or break things into pieces for her. She would eat the seed if we let her!

Annabelle on the other hand, is a "holder eater." She likes to hold her food. Look at it. Carry it around. Nibble at it. Sometimes it gets dropped somewhere when a more interesting object catches her fancy. We have to keep her focused to eat. 

The two girls were looking at Daddy as he brought more goodies into the yard for them to enjoy.

Abigail gets her third peach!

Daddy and his mini-me!

Change of jobs

As many of you may know, I decided to change schools this school year. I spent my first seven years of teaching at American Canyon Middle School (ACMS) teaching students with learning disabilities, and I really loved it there. My last year there, I went part time, teaching only 70% so that I could be home in the afternoons with the girls. I am one of those lucky people that has a 10 month a year job so I already get a lot more family time than most people in the business world do.

However, every year the position that I have as a special educator changes based upon student enrollment. When my caseload (or the number of students I am responsible for) varies, then the percentage of my position varies. This year, my position was cut down to 30% at ACMS, and then I heard it was eventually eliminated. So I made the decision to move to a new school, closer to home, in Napa.

The unexpected benefits of this was saving about $50 a month on my car insurance, as well as saving gas money. I am now looking at the possibility of saving some money on childcare because I am only 7 minutes away from home instead of 30 minutes away! Another unexpected benefit is a small weight has lifted off my shoulders in being so much closer to home. I feel like I can be there for my girls should something happen to them and I need to run home. Soooooooo many people were telling me about this aspect, but I was so fixated on the fact that I would need to make such a huge move that I couldn't understand the benefit of that. So to all you out there who told me that, "Yes, you told me so!!!"

Another big change about my new school is the position I am teaching. I will be working with students in special education still, but these students will need support within the general education curriculum. This means that they are higher functioning because they can access this curriculum, whereas with my previous students, I was teaching them the curriculum, but modified. Because I am supporting students in the GE class, I am currently no longer a teacher in my OWN classroom. This is a huge change. Instead of being the queen of my own castle, I am entering and exiting many different castles each day, just as my students would.  I need to learn the individual requirements of each class in order to help the students with their work. (Can you say, "Hello, 8th grade Algebra!")

As far as my resume goes, I feel that this new school will really help me expand my school experiences. I did my student teaching and volunteer work (2 years) in an elementary public school setting. I taught for seven years in a public middle school setting. And I was a dorm parent and school secretary for 6 years in a private high school setting. The new school I am working at is called The River School. It is a public charter school at the middle school level. Even though I've done middle school before, I have never done a charter school. It is so interesting to see how their governance differs from that of a public school, and to learn the different freedoms and challenges this school encounters because of it's charter.

All in all, I am really liking my new job. I have soooooo much to learn, and I have had a few bumps in the road like not having a computer or printer, passwords to the student databases, and getting my new "shared" room set up. But I am enjoying the challenge, and I hope that the students and I will both benefit from our work together.

Living on the corner

Those of you who have read previous posts may remember how we had the cribs positioned in an "L" shape in the bedroom.

We had this shape at first because it was the only inside wall in that bedroom. The other two walls face the streets outside our house.

Old paint job... old fence... our house looks waaaaaay better now!

This was an issue because we were once hit by a drunk driver, who crashed into our backyard while we were eating dinner. And the prompted the fear that eventually someone will hit our house (and possibly our dear girls' bedroom!) next.

This spring one of our neighbors house was hit by two men arguing in their car. It was a hit and run. Luckily it was just a huge scrape on the side of their house and a huge nick in their lawn, rather than a direct hit inside their home. However, it brings up those concerns to us again and again.

Charles has started to attend meetings with other neighbors on our street and in our neighborhood about getting the city involved in traffic calming measures, slowing traffic speed, and decreasing cut through traffic on our street. The process is very slow, but we are hoping that something positive will come of it.

In the meantime, we added some additional safety measures to the outside perimeter of our house to protect it, just in case.

1) First, a few years ago, we installed a new 6 foot fence (previously it was just a white picket fence). This new fence posts were installed into 3 feet of concrete along the side of our house, making it a much stronger barrier than it would have been otherwise.

2) Second, on the outside of the fence, we installed some spreading bushes. These bushes were small at first, but they are starting to fill in, and will provide some additional privacy should the boards of the fence stretch open. In addition, they as they grow, they are getting stronger and deeper roots, which will help slow down anything coming our way.

3) We got the city to purchase new street trees for us (we planted them for them). I got to choose which trees we wanted from their approved list. Luckily, on the the side of our house, there are no power lines, so was not limited by trees that could grow tall. This side of the house is westward facing and gets a great deal of sun. We currently don't have any trees in our backyard at all, and are looking forward to the additional shade that these trees will eventually provide to our yard and our house. We got three red oaks planted, which have a fast growing habit; and although they are somewhat slender, they will eventually have strong trunks that can help provide an additional layer of protection from moving vehicles should they come towards us.

4) When we redesigned our front yard, we planted one large, non-fruiting pear, which has grown tremendously. Right behind that pear tree is a small decorative fence that Charles built and I painted. It is also in 3 feet of concrete.

5) Lastly, we decided to buy some large boulders. After much debate (Charles wanted to install concrete pylons and I wanted to buy some large boulders....ha! see who won?), we got the boulders. They look so much more natural than concrete pylons! Now, these are not rocks. They are boulders. The biggest one weighed like 2 tons. It took four men, with four crow bars, three hours to get these boulders placed properly while trying hard not to crack our new sidewalk or break any of their bones. We got four boulders, two in front of each of our bedrooms. They are beautiful specimens, with natural moss growing on them and everything. Right now, the boulders kind of stick out since they are laying in dirt, but eventually we hope to plant some native grasses and ground cover around them, and soon they will look like this land looked before we came and laid asphalt all over it.

So, now, Charles and I can sleep better at night, knowing we have done all we can to protect our biggest investment: our little girls.

Who needs TV?

Sad state of affairs

It's a sad state of affairs when my first post of the year is in JULY! So sorry folks. I was debating on whether or not to continue my blog. Sometimes it was a wonderful way to release some of my thoughts into the world, and other times, it was just a burden.

The problem: People want pictures! They don't want to hear my blabbing! And well, I had lots of great excuses why pictures are so hard for me to load, and it still isn't perfect, but my brother Matt made things a ton easier!

He spent considerable time working on my computer and fixing the things that made it tick.The first problem was that my computer was crashing a lot. Matt installed a new windows operating system, defragged the whole system, cleaned up the hard drive, replaced my back up drive, and deleted a bunch of programs that I don't need anymore. This made the system run SOOOOOOO much smoother. Rarely do I have a crash now.

The second problem was that I had no program really to organize my photos. I just had windows explorer. I was very organized, however, and always saved my photos into organized folders (I create a year folder like 2011 and inside that year folder, I create folders based upon event, which is also named by month. Like 3.28 First Birthday.) That way I have everything ready should I want to print photos chronologically. And truthfully that is the biggest problem with my printed photos and that they don't have dates on them.

Anyway, Matt installed Picassa. Let me just say, I must have had my head in the sand for like a million years because why had I never noticed this FREE program before? It is absolutely amazing! It freaking recognizes faces, ya'll! That is insane! But beyond that, it allows me to post to Facebook AND this blog site DIRECTLY from Picassa. OMG amazing. Before I had to sort through Windows explorer and then upload things onto blogger and it took forever. I still have to upload pictures from my camera onto the big computer in the kitchen (which I only turn on 3 x a month or so to do bills and such), go through them, delete the bad ones, organize the good ones by event and month and then decide which ones to upload. But now I have a great process where I put the "okay" photos that I want to keep inside a different folder, leaving only the publishing ones in the main folder so then when I go to upload them from Picassa, it just selects all from that main folder and Badda-Bing! I have them up on the blog. Yippee!!! Special thanks to Matt for helping with this!!!

I also wanted to start adding videos, but the program I had to edit videos was just the camera software. I haven't even attempted to start editing videos (By golly. Keeping up with all of this is definitely a full time job!) but the program seemed confusing. Matt to the rescue: Picassa edits videos too! Now I have all my videos and photos in one place. A-MAZ-ING! I was also having this internal debate about whether or not I wanted videos of the girls on the blog. I have some really cute videos, and I would love to share them. But at the same time, I hear about videos getting viral and getting on You Tube and a million people see them, and that was just making me feel weird. Thoughts anyone?

Beyond the technological reasons I stopped the blog, one of the main reasons I stopped blogging was because 7-12 months was a really tough time as a parent of twins. For whatever reason (there were many... ex: waking up in the middle of the night 3-4 times after they already learned to sleep through the night, needing to be guarded and held during every minute of playtime because they kept trying to stand up and kept falling down, crying during the entire hour it takes me to prepare dinner), they kicked my mommy butt. I was very, very, very tired. And I didn't have the energy to write nor many positive things to say. (See facebook status post about sleeping in a wet bed...)

Maybe that's okay though. I don't have to be superwoman and be super positive every minute of everyday. Right? I mean, this is a reality of parenting, and not just an anomaly for me. So, you guys may see some posts that are all lovey dovey, and you may see some posts when I am struggling! And maybe you all can help me through those struggling times.

Overall, I have to say that parenting has been all that I have hoped and even more. Even the struggling parts were not so much unexpected things but "just wear you down over time" things.

So, here's to, hopefully, many more blogs to come. :-)

St. Helena Shopping Trip

In June, I went shopping at one of the fancy towns up valley with my friend Erica. To be appropriate for this fancy town, I dressed the girls up fancy. Despite the month of June being...well...summer, it was cold, overcast and windy. (Texas, can we go halvsies and share some of each of our weather to get a balance please?) So I took my picked out summer outfits and winterized them by putting on tights and turtle necks underneath. It ended up being SUPER cute!

When we got home, the girls were playing and they looked so cute I just had to take their photos. Bellie was cracking me up with her poses. Believe me, the camera was an afterthought; I just seemed to be catching her in such a way that it looked like she was posing.

Abigail was her quick-moving self. It was hard to get a photo of her that wasn't blurry, but when she would look up and notice me and smile her radiant smile, it was pure joy!

I was not very conscious of the poor lighting in the house so many of the pictures are dark or grainy. I just used natural light (overcast) from the front door being open.

Enjoy!

Cleaning with Toddlers

I was just telling Charles that the only two times in the day when our house is clean is when we wake up in the morning and right before we go to bed. (And his note to me, was "And sometimes not even then!")

The biggest change in the cleanliness factor occurred after the girls started walking. Walking in and of itself, is not a problem at all! But when they get coordinated enough to be able to walk AND carry things, that is when we got into toddlerville house.

Doing laundry looks something like this: I take the dirty laundry from the hamper and walk with it to the laundry room. I drop something along the way, which I will go back to pick up. I put the laundry in the washing machine. Abigail follows me into the laundry room, and sticks her head into the washing machine while pulling things out and putting them onto the floor. I retrace my steps so that I can find the thing I dropped. I find it with Annabelle inside my closet, along with all of my shoes which have been piled off of the shoe rack and onto the floor. I grab the thing I need and head back to the laundry room. By this time, Abigail has left the laundry room and is in her room. I put in the item (plus whatever was left on the floor) and open the soap tray. I reach up to the get soap, and when I look down to pour it in , the tray has been closed by, none other than Abigail! I open the tray again, while she tries to hold it closed. Then I tell her why I need it open (to pour the soap in), I open it, pour the soap in, let her shut it once again, set the knobs, and start the washer. Fifteen minutes later, I end up in her bedroom and find two items that she dragged from the washing machine (dirty) into her room that will have to go into the hamper for a different bout of laundry-go-round.

Unloading the Dishwasher looks something like this: The dish rack comes down. Yippee! Girls come running. (How do they recognize the sound of the dishwasher opening? I do not know.) They immediately go to the side where the silverware is. I quickly grab all of the sharp knives and graters and put them on the counter. Then I start grabbing whatever large glassware I can get while they are distracted with the silverware.  Abigail started this "unloading the dishwasher trend" by coming there first one day. She picked up a fork and held it into the air as if to say, "Hey, look what I found JUST sitting here!" And I said, "Thank you!" and held out my hand as if to say, "I was looking for that!" And she was so excited to give it to me, that she did it again with another fork, spoon or butter knife. Heck, I thought, if this keeps her occupied for five minutes, and she isn't grabbing sharp knives, why not have her help?

Soon, Annabelle wanted in on the action. She is a different creature, and although she enjoyed handing me things just as much as Abigail did, Annabelle does not rely on the praise of others for her enjoyment (the way Abigail does). Annabelle is interested in the new items she encountered on her journey through the dishwasher. She runs her hands over the soft bowls and looks for the bright colors. She finds the bright red spatula and holds in the air so proud, but sneaky girl, when I go to grab it and say "Thank you!" she holds it behind her back as if to say, "This new toy is mine!" Then she hands me a fork instead and runs off with the spatula. Inevitably, Abigail follows suit, and claims something of her own and runs into the other room. While I am quickly trying to unload the glasses, and bowls, and salad plates (before they go running off with glass things), half of my CLEAN silverware is in their mouth, on the dirty floor, or hidden somewhere in the house. So, those things will go back into the dishwasher for a different bout of dish-go-round.

The biggest cleaning change: is definitely the floor. Specifically the kitchen floor, but all floors will count. Once upon a time, I could vacuum the house (carpet, wood floors, and kitchen) once a week and it would stay clean for a few days (even with a dog and a cat) until something happened and then I would clean it up, but I knew it needed a deeper cleaning, which I would do on the weekend.

Nope. Not happening with two toddlers. Sorry. I sweep the kitchen floor at least three times a day. Yup, you got it. After every meal. They drop things, throw things, spit out things, spill things every time, every meal. There is no way to keep everything contained. It is impossible. They sell all these crazy mats and gadgets, trays and bowls. It doesn't matter. Believe me, it doesn't (just more crap to wash). I just use the table and their high chairs. And we wash them ALL three times a day. I usually just mop once a day, after dinner. I figure, if I mopped after every meal, I'd never get anything else done! Most days I grab the Swiffer and do a quick one. It is not the best mop in the world and I don't have the proper wipes for the mop I have so it's kind of like taking a baby wipe and wiping the floor with it, but the Swiffer is fast. Then once a week or so, we will get out the real mop; the one my sister said looks like Medusa. The one that you stand outside your house when you are done to let it dry. It goes in for the deep clean and doesn't leave streaks which is nice.

Now that the girls are not scared of the Swiffer, broom or mop anymore, I have a little problem. They like to sit in my dirt piles, walk where I've mopped and most likely slip too (which they've done). My new sweeping technique: Allow one child to hold the dust pan (while I am holding it, or else it just get re-dumped onto the floor) while the other child gets to hold the broom that sweeps the dirt pile up (while I am holding it). My new mopping technique: Mop a small section of the floor with the girls behind me so they can watch. Stand on a large towel. Once it has been mopped, immediately scoot your feet and towel over the wet area to dry it. This prevents slipping babies and gets the area dry before it gets muddied by little feet.

Clever girl.