Nikkie's Thoughts

I haven’t made a post in a very long time. My last post was regarding our new family addition, Charlie. Sadly, we couldn’t keep Charlie. He was a barker. We really loved him but when he continued to bark and bark it was hard to even like him. We tried all sorts of training techniques. Some worked for a little while, some didn’t work at all. I am a patient person but Charlie’s stubbornness was more than I could take, especially, when he’d go on a potty strike because he was mad at me. Yup a potty strike. He would refuse to go but yet continue to whine at the door or ring the bell (I bell trained him) and not go potty. The little stink. Anyway, we gave him to a new home who in turned gave him to someone else because Charlie bit his son. We have no idea where he is now :(
Anyway since my last post my son graduated high school. Yippee! He is enrolled in the community college. He is taking their 2 year Business program that transfers over to the University. Very smart. He will get the same education and degree without paying the big bucks for the first two years.
Here is a picture of my graduate:

In other news my daugther tried out for Cavalaires at school. Cavlaires is a small ensemble of select singers. Well, she made it! She has wanted to be in Cavaliares since the 4th grade. She will be a Junior in the fall.

As for me….As most know I work as an Instructional Assistant our area school district and as most schools in the country is facing drastic budget cuts. My hours have been cut back for this coming school year and I wont be getting any raises for the second year in a row. On top of that our school calendar has been cut by 10 student contact days. I guess I should be happy I still have a job but it sure stinks that education seems to get the deepest cuts when the state is facing a budget shortfall and is the last to recieve extra money when the state has a budget increase. I could possibly get some of my hours back with the recently passed Ten Billion dollar life preserver bill that Obama is expected to sign by the end of the week. I am not a Obama fan but I am glad he plans on signing this bill.

Anyway, life goes on. I am still alive and kickin’.

We have a new member of our household. His name is Charlie. He is a 5 year old Bichon Frise. He is a sweet little guy but I really need to have my head examined of taking on another dog. We already have 2 golden retrievers!

Charlie is a rescue. His previous owners divorced. Charlie was living with the ex husband until the wife could find a place that would take dogs. Well, after looking for several months she came to the conclusion that she couldn’t afford a place that accepts pets. The deposit for pets are very expensive around here. Lump that into a first and last months rent and cleaning deposit it is a small fortune. 

Charlies previous ‘mom’ started looking for a place for Charlie. In the meantime Charlie stayed with her ex-husband. Who by the way didn’t like Charlie. Because he didn’t care for Charlie he abused him :( Anyway, this guy sold the house and gave his ex the ultimatum to find the dog a home or he was going to take him to the shelter. That is where I came in. I said we would take him on a trial basis.

The first 5 days he was here I was ready to call a Bichon rescue. He was suppose to be housetrained but he kept going in the house just minutes after we’ve had him outside. He even pee’d on my sofa!!! Thank God for microfiber fabric! The pee never soaked into the cushion and cleaned off nicely. Because he was abused he had an instant distrust of my husband and son! He growled every time they came near him. As far as my goldens adapting to Charlie that wasn’t going well either. Mercedes was just plan afraid of him and Lexus ignored him. I was ready to just give up but my husband said that we should give him a month then make a decision.

It has now been 2 weeks and Charlie hasn’t not had one accident in the house. He has stopped growling at my son and husband and will now even sit on their laps for tummy scratches.  Lexus and Charlie  love to chase and play with each other and Mercedes isn’t afraid of him anymore but she still wont play with him. He is starting to really fit into our routine and family. He is one lucky dog to have my husband want to give him a chance! He now has a forever home with us.

So without further adieu….Here is Charlie :)

He needs some grooming. Hopefully, I will be able to find a groomer and take him in while I am on Spring Break.

My daughter is a ‘thespian’ an ‘actress’.  She tries out for every high school play. She has been in most of them. The last play she was in was The Odyssey. She played Calypso. Who was Calypso you ask? She is the one who kept Odysseus on her island as a man slave. She seduced him day and night for I believe eight years until Hermes came and told her that Zues wanted Calypso to release Odysseus. It was a pretty trampy part but my daughter did very well. Maybe too well, because she is now been cast as a whore in Les Miserables. I am so proud :/

Below is a picture of Calypso and Hermes and a picture of  Calypso and Odysseus  as Calypso removes her leash from him. Yes a LEASH!

My husband is a drummer and he teaches percussion. Here is a video of him just messing around one day.

Happy New Year all! A bit late but I suppose as long as it is still January I can still wish everyone Happy New Year right? I hope you all had a good Holiday season. Mine was good. This was the first year that I didn’t host the family Christmas Party and let me tell you it was so nice not doing it!!! I will not be hosting it ever again. One of my sister in laws had it. It was alright, kinda boring but this family (husbands side) doesn’t really know how to have a fun party. We just sit around, talk and eat. Games, singing or something would be a lot more fun.

This New Year brings with it new adventures. My daughter had her first date this weekend. It was the high schools Winter Formal. She was asked by a friend of hers who said that he wanted to go with some friends and just have a good time. So, with out much thought my daughter thought ‘sure that would be fun’. Well….as the time grew closer for the formal the guy who asked her began to reveal his plans for the evening. They were going with another couple (who have been dating for some time now) and he was making arrangements for a limo and dinner reservations at one of the most expensive restaurants in town! Yikes. It went from feeling like a few friends going to an actual date and I haven’t even met this guy! Not good. Even my daughter was wondering what she had gotten herself into. She kind of felt like it was a bit of a ‘bait and switch’ deal. She likes this guy as a friend but she sure didn’t want him to think anything more. He sure made it more of an event then she had in mind. Anyway, the formal was last night. He came here to pick her up. It was cute. He knocked on the door,  she answered it and told him to come in. Her dad and I standing right there as he came it :) He looked a bit nervous when he saw us there. Did he not expect us to meet him before taking our daughter out? Anyway, he was very respectful and kind. I got a good feeling from him and felt comfortable about her going with him. Btw I had grilled my daughter about him for weeks prior to her actually going out with him so I had a good idea what he was like it helped meeting him face to face . Anyway, they had a great time. He was nothing less than a gentleman. They are just friends who had a special evening.

Here are a couple of pictures:

As most know I am an instructional assistant at an elementary school. My job consists of helping teachers prepare materials for their class, correct homework and tests, watch the kiddos out on the playground during recess and occasionally read with them. The past three years I worked with sixth graders only because I was at a ‘satellite’ campus due to over crowding.  The day was a bit different there but generally the same. The one difference was that I had a small class I taught. I taught Phonics. It was a no brainer really.

Now that I am in a new school with all grade levels from k-6 things have changed a lot. I still watch the kids on the play ground and still prepare materials but I prepare materials for my lesson plans now. Yup I am teaching 3 small groups of kids. I am teaching English and Reading. What?! I am not a teacher! I am not paid nearly what a teacher is paid and clearly teachers aren’t paid nearly what they deserve. Anyway, I am a fish out of water here. I haven’t been trained as a teacher and feel very ill equipped for such a task. What I am teaching is part of the RTI (Response To Interventions) program. These kids are under benchmark so I re-teach the things they should know in order to be at or above benchmark. I like teaching but would feel more comfortable if I knew how to prepare better and if the kids wouldn’t ask me questions that aren’t part of my lesson plans. This has happened a few times. Sometimes I know the answer and sometimes I tell them that I am not sure but will find out and get back to them tomorrow about it.

I did, however, have a rewarding moment this week. One of the teachers told me that one of her students who I have in my class raised his hand to tell her what one of the vocabulary words were on the board. He proudly told her it was ‘mammal’ and gave the definition for it. She asked him how he knew the word. He smiled at her and told her ‘Miss Nikkie taught me that word last week.’ :) She was excited to see that what I was doing was working for him. That made me feel really good at a time I felt like I was second guessing myself.

Teaching is a lot of work and time but I can see how it can be rewarding. I may not be paid the same as a teacher but I get the same rewards :)

Is just another day. We don’t celebrate it. My kids don’t trick or treat. When they were younger we use to go to our churches Harvest Festival. They would dress up,  play all the carnival games and win tons of candy. They didn’t even know about trick or treating. As they got older they began to be curious about it so we took them to the mall to trick or treat (we lived in a bad neighborhood not a safe place for that). We told them that we don’t believe in Halloween but would allow them to experience what it is like to dress up and trick or treat. They had fun but they didn’t want to do it again.  They really didn’t want to go to the Harvest festival either so now we have a family nite on Halloween. . We shut all the blind and turn off all the lights so no one will know we are home, we get pizza, lots of candy and a movie and just enjoy each other. I love our Halloween tradition.

Can you believe it!?! Two posts in one week!

As you’ve read in a previous post, I am at a new school and have new co-workers. I work with three other ladies. They are nice and pleasant but boy do they have walls! I consider myself friendly and easy to get to know but these ladies seem to be the polar opposite. I am trying to get to know them but they don’t seem to try to get to know me :( I ask them about their families, their weekend, their favorite things they like to do. You know the usual stuff when you are in a new situation. They answer and they don’t seem to mind that I ask. But, they don’t even bother to ask me anything about me, my family, my weekend or anything. Is it wrong to think that there should be some kind reciprocation in the conversation? Since they don’t ask I mention some things about my kids or whatever and I still get nothing. Maybe an ‘oh really?’ or ‘Glad it you had a good time.’ but that is as far as it gets. I am use to having some kind of relationship with those I work with. I am not talking about anything ubber personal just the usual niceties and comradery.

Because there isn’t that comradery I find myself becoming like them. I say ‘Goodmorning’ or ‘How are you….That’s good’ and “I am fine’ and then just go about my day. I hate it! I am frustrated by it and I don’t know how to deal with it. Any advice?

School started last week. I am in a new school (BRAND new first year in operation), with new co-workers, new rules (or no rules until we make them up), new schedule, and new hours. Let me tell you that I have discovered that I am an old dog and I have not been adjusting to all this new stuff! I love the school, the teachers and the principal but I am having a hard time with the lack of routine and my new hours. I did get an hour added to my contract hours thank goodness. I only had 2.5 hrs. per day which was great when I started 3 years ago. This was my first job after being a stay at home mom so it helped me get my foot in the door and back into work mode. My plan was that this year I would take on more hours, at least 4 or 5, but the economy sucks and has taken it’s toll on school budgets. At the end of last year I was guaranteed only my 2.5 hrs for this year so I consider myself lucky to have the additional hour. I just wish my hours were earlier. I use to work 10:00-12:30 now I work 10:30-2:00 giving me only 45 mins. before my husbands music students arrive. Hardly enough time to decompress from my day before I have kids in my house banging on drums.
I will adjust I am sure. I sure have been exhausted and would you believe that over the weekend I had a cold! Goodness only 4 days into the new school year and I get sick! I am glad all I got was a cold because there have been a lot of kids each day in the office puking and now half the office staff are sick with the flu. I haven’t heard yet if it is the dreaded swine flu or not but I am taking precautions. I bought a couple bottles of Purell for the workroom and have made good use of it believe me.

I never knew I could love Val so much. She is always on time, she is right most of the time but is flexible when I decide to change plans. Her voice is calming, she never gets mad and she really knows her stuff. She is the best! Thanks Val!
I bet you are wondering, who is Val? Val is my new Magellan 1470 GPS. I named her Val because she sounds like Val on Solitary (a reality show on FoxReality). I never really got the value of a gps when they first started hitting the market. I figured I would just look things up on Google maps and print it out. Why spend a couple of hundred of dollars? But I changed my mind when I went on a road trip with a friend and saw how a gps at work. My friend has a navigation system that came with her car and it was really cool but I wasn’t sure how a gps would really be a benefit to me since I don’t normally go places unfamilar to me. Then I got to thinking why don’t I go to unfamilar places? A ligh blub came on…because I am afraid of getting lost! If I don’t know how to get there I wont go or scramble to find a ride with someone who knows. Then I got to thinking of what my biggest challenge was when trying to go someplace new even tho’ I have the directions. That challenge is reading street signs. For the life of me I can’t read them until I am practically passed them.
Val has totally taken away all my concerns! I bought it a few weeks ago and have used it several times and actually went to places I’ve never been before without the fear of getting lost! And once I got to where I was going it was lunch time but didn’t know what was around to eat so I just asked Val for a list of restaurants and voila found someplace to eat and was able to drive there. Never been there, had no clue how to get there but Val knew! I am in love with Val!
Here are some pictures….