Since I'm bored and awake, I figured I could spare a few minutes to give my blog a much-needed update. While I really should be planning my science lessons for next week, I'm so sick of school crap that I need a distraction.

Student teaching is going really well. I just finished my 5th week, so I have 7 weeks to go! It is going really fast, but these past 5 weeks have been the longest of my life. Does that make sense? My kids are all (mostly) sweet. About half of them brought me a gift for Valentine's; I could hardly believe it. There's one boy in my class that just gets on my every last nerve for whatever reason, but other than that, the kids are great. We really don't have any discipline problems in the classroom, other than just typical 4th grade stuff. The first few weeks of teaching were really rocky for me - I was beginning to think that I'd made a horrible career choice. Everything was just really overwhelming. The last two weeks, though, have been great. I'm really enjoying it and I think that I'll be mostly happy as a teacher. I do think that I want to move up a few grade levels, though. I just can't get into the cutesy-cutesy elementary stuff, and I think I would like to focus more on math and science than the reading that is emphasized in elementary schools. I would have thought that I would really like teaching reading and language arts, but I so do not. I dread reading every day. To me, it's just damn boring and tedious teaching kids to read. Is that horrible? I would much rather be doing math and science experiments. I guess every teacher has their own strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes.

These damn kids have also made me and everyone else I know sick. I've had some sort of respiratory infection now for over a week. It's finally starting to get better, but dang it sucked. Donald also got sick, and so did my dad, but somehow Lauren has escaped it (for now). All hail the power of booby juice!

Speaking of Lauren, she seems to be doing okay with me being gone all day. The first few weeks were rough, but she's gotten used to my dad now. I really do miss hanging out with her all day. We spent today cuddling and just hanging around the house, which was great. I'm ready to be done with school so I can go back to being just mommy! Sadly that will probably only last a few months, since I'm probably going back to work this fall. I would really love to stay home with her for a few more years, but my student loan payments are going to have to get paid. It'd also be nice to get a bit more money saved so we can put a down payment on a house in a few years!

Speaking of houses, I don't know if we are moving this spring or not. With the economy going the way that it is, I don't know if it is such a good idea right now. I can just see us moving all the way out there and not being able to find jobs. We have enough money saved to live for 6-8 months, but I really don't want to blow through all of our savings. I'm going to begin applying for jobs here next month, and we'll see if I get any offers. If I do, we're really going to have to think about it. I know Donald is all gung-ho on leaving in May because he's sick of his job, but he really does have it good at work. I definitely don't want to stay here long-term, but we may end up sticking it out another year or two. We shall see.

Hhhm, what else? I can't sleep right now because it is supposed to storm pretty badly tonight. I bought a weather radio today, but I don't know if I have it set-up properly. I really should be working on school stuff, but I'm so not into it. Maybe tomorrow?

Go Barack!

Good Lord, I am tired. I don't know how people do this every day, all day. This work thing is kicking my butt. That being said, student teaching is going fine. I can't say that I LOVE it, but I'm hanging in there. Three weeks done, nine to go. When will the light come on at the end of the tunnel?

Yeah. I don't have much to say because I don't have time for anything except school. Lauren's doing pretty well with me being gone all day. The first two weeks were pretty tough on here, but last week she did better. At least she's not screaming bloody murder when I leave in the morning anymore :o( She started gymnastics a few weeks ago and is really loving that. She calls it "wee class". Hah. She's also speaking really well now. I can understand almost everything she says and most of the time she talks in sentences. She can recognize her name when it is written and can name almost anything you point to. Brilliance must run in the family, haha.

Well, I'm going to bed before I pass out at the computer. Just wanted to give a quick update since I know most of you have assumed I've died. Maybe you'll hear from me again in a few weeks :o)

Happy Birthday, Lauren!

Happy Birthday, Lauren!

I can’t believe that you are two today! The last two years have been two of the longest years of my life, yet they have flown by. I know that doesn’t make sense to you, but someday it will, I promise.

You are such an amazing girl, and daddy and I are already so proud of you. You are so smart that people cannot believe that you are only two! You’ve known all of your letters now for three or four months, and now you can count to thirteen all by yourself! You are talking in three and four word sentences now, and you always know just what you want (and aren’t afraid to let anyone know it!). Some of your favorite things to say are: “Have it now, Mama!”, “Naughty kitty cat”, and of course, “More ummies please, Mama”.

Speaking of ummies, you still love to nurse. Mama never intended to nurse you so long, but you do love it so much that I don’t have the heart to take them away. Not that mama minds, really. Our ummy time is some of my favorite time to spend with you, when it is just you and mama and we can talk and hug and cuddle. I don’t know if you will still be nursing next year on your birthday, and if you aren’t, mama will really miss our ummy time together. You love to give your baby doll ummies, too. Just today you wrapped your baby up in a blanket, laid down next to her on the floor, and gave her ummies to help her go to sleep. You are very sweet to your baby doll and someday you will be a wonderful mother yourself.

You just started gymnastics class last week (which you call wee class) and you love it! Grandpa took you last week because mama had to be at school, and he said you did a great job! Mama is very excited because she gets to take you today and see you do your wees. I know that you will be just wonderful! You love to watch wees on TV and today you were trying to do them by yourself (all the while shrieking, “weeees!”).

One of your favorite things to do these days is read books. We don’t get to read nearly enough together anymore, now that mama has to go to school every day, but we do try to read every night together. Your favorite books right now are “Millie Moo”, “The Barnyard Dance”, and “Go, Dog, Go!”. You have so many books and we’ve read all of them at least once! I hope that by next year on your birthday you are beginning to read yourself!

Well, baby, I hope you have a great birthday! You are so excited because we are going to play games and eat pizza later. Grandpa is making you a clown cake and mama and daddy have gotten you lots of Dora presents! When you wake up this morning, you will be two! Mama will miss her baby, but she can’t wait to play with her BIG GIRL!!!

Love always,

Mommy

Day 3 - Oh the work

I'm starting to get overwhelmed already and I'm just getting started! After getting to school at 6:30 and not getting home until 4:30 (at least), I'm already exhausted! Then, I have to do the mom thing, the wife thing, plus all my extra stuff for school! I honestly don't know how two-working parent families do it! I imagine we will all get used to it.

I had a short day in the classroom today. All the 4th grade teachers had science training this afternoon from noon until 3:30, so that took up the second half of the day. The school is working with an AWESOME science program through Delta State University that essentially gives teachers science kits with everything done. It will save so much time in the classroom and be so great for the kids! It is wonderful!

One thing I did notice today in the classroom was some disorganization/chaos during research time in the computer lab. I think it can easily be said that we don't spend enough time on science or history (30 minutes twice a week for each subject) and today's science/history session was nearly worthless, in my opinion. My HT told students to research either The French and Indian War for history, or flowering and non-flowering plants for science. She didn't really give them any direction as to what to look for while doing this, just to print off good research. Needless to say, the kids went print crazy, printing everything they found (many things duplicates because they all went to the first result in the search engine) and not reading any of it. After 30 minutes in the computer lab, we had over 300 pages of printed material. I'm not sure what my HT is planning on having the kids do with it, but most of it is way above their level anyway! I think it would have been much more worthwhile if students would have had a few specified sites to go to and find specific information.

I'm going to start working on my first lesson plans tonight. My first real lesson will be in Mississippi History. I'm thinking of doing a jigsaw lesson, and I think that will work out really well as the students really enjoy working in groups.

Student Teaching Drama

For the last six months or so, I was all geared up to start my student teaching January 7, the first day back after winter break. My dad arranged his schedule so he could be home then, and I cleared my own schedule. I left Wisconsin when I did so that I would have time to get my stuff in order before school started. It was all working out just fine.

I met with my host teacher the Friday before I was supposed to start, and it went really well. She seems very nice and really knows her stuff. She uses a ton of group work and really involves students in the classroom. I left our meeting Friday afternoon ready to get started on Monday.

Friday evening I got an email from my placement coordinator stating that I wouldn't be starting until January 28! Needless to say, I panicked. It was Friday night, and of course everyone at my school was out of their office for the weekend. I did manage to talk to my mentor, and we agreed that I would try to get it all taken care of and hopefully start on Tuesday. He thought the email may have been a mistake, but wanted to make sure first before I entered the classroom.

Well, turns out the email wasn't a mistake, so after about 3 days of trying to figure things out, I decided to just "go with the flow" and start the 28th. I figured it might work out better, anyway, since my dad had just gotten home and not had a lot of time to adjust to Lauren and him to her. I scheduled some appointments and bought a few books to pass the time.

Now, this morning, I got another email from my placement coordinator asking me to start THIS Monday, the 14th! Ugh! After I just got all those appointments scheduled and rearranged! Not to mention that I have to get myself into a "mindset" to start big things like this. I was all ready to go last week, but now I've put myself into "vacation" mode again! Talk about annoying!

So, I guess I'm starting on Monday. It will work out better in the end, as I'll be done April 11 now instead of May 2. We will be able to have more time to pack and move, plus my dad will be able to get back to California sooner. Now I have a lot to do this weekend, including some serious shopping and planning. Yikes!

Hahah, guess I haven't posted in a while. Well, we made it home from Wisconsin safely. It really was a nice trip, other than the fact that Lauren and I were both sick nearly the entire time we were there. First it was a nasty stomach virus, then a cold from hell. We are both still coughing, actually. I suspect I may have had a touch of bronchitis, but I seem to be nearly back to normal now. I was a huge slacker with the camera while we were home, so unfortunately I don't have too many pictures, but here are what few I have.


This is Lauren and her cousin Logan playing after they opened their Christmas presents at Donald's parents house. Both of them are only children and they played together surprisingly well!
Here's Lauren on Christmas Day at Great Grandma's house in Dubuque, Iowa.


Here she is with Great Grandma. It's funny - grandma usually scares the crap out of little kids, but for some reason Lauren loved her. They sat together all morning!This is my mom with Lauren. After not seeing my mom for over a year, it was strange to see how old she looks now. I had a really nice time with my mom this time and I'll miss her!

It snowed A LOT while we were home! The day that this picture was taken we got about 10 inches! Lauren had a great time playing in the snow! We had to borrow a snowsuit from the daycare because we (obviously) didn't have one, so that's why looks like a blue snow bunny.

Brrr!!!Aunty Charlotte (Donald's sister)Aunty Anna (Donald's youngest sister)Uncle Jake (my brother)
Lauren just loves her Uncle Jake! They had a great time playing together.
Aunt Lexy (my sister)
More about why her face looks like that later :o(

We've been having such a good time here in Wisconsin, it almost makes me want to move back home. Almost. Lauren and I have both been sick nearly the entire time we've been here, and it's cold as hell, but it doesn't matter. It's nice to be home again.

The weekend Donald was here went really fast. We spent most of the weekend with his family. We got a big family portrait done (which was a fiasco, but made his mom happy), and went to the casino. We left for Chicago on Monday, and on the way there Lauren puked all over the car and continued to puke for the next five days. Needless to say, the Chicago trip was pretty much a bust, especially considering that I caught her bug Tuesday night and ralphed all day Wednesday. We did manage to make a quick trip to the Shedd Aquarium and to Ed Debevic's, but that was about it.

We spent the next few days after Donald left recovering from the stomach flu and shopping. Boy, did we shop. My mom and I also made a trip to Ho-Chunk in which I lost a hundred bucks and she won a thousand. After Lauren's diarrhea finally went away (another lovely side effect of the stomach flu), we both decided to get colds. This has went on for about a week now and I'm getting sick of it! I haven't had a voice hardly at all for the past three days (and if you know Donald's family, you know this is a big disadvantage - the only way you are heard is if you talk louder than everyone else!).

Yesterday, Donald's sisters, his mom, and I spent the day baking. We made peanut butter cookies, peppermint fudge, chocolate chunk cookies, cheesecake, brownies, brandy slush, and lots of other yummy goodies. We had a great time, even though Lauren was a pain in the rump most of the afternoon. Today we had Christmas with Donald's family, and Lauren received enough toys to keep an entire small country entertained for a year.

In other news, Lexy dumped her loser boyfriend after some serious drama that I was unfortunately involved with. Even though the drama sucked, it is definitely for the better and I even think that if I wasn't here it wouldn't have happened at all. The ex (Erik) is a serious piece of work and there are not enough bad words in the world to describe him. Maybe I will talk about it more when have more time.

Tomorrow Lauren and I are hanging out at Donald's parents for most of the day and then going to Lee's mom's house tomorrow evening, and then having Christmas with my family. Christmas day will take us to Dubuque, Iowa for Christmas with Donald's grandma and aunts. We are leaving for home on the 3oth and will be home the 31st, and I start student teaching January 7th!

Bye!

I have decided that I am the least germophobic person I know. While all the other moms at the grocery store are sanitizing the shopping carts before they put their little angels in it (or worse, using one of those cloth cover things), I plop Lauren in and hand her a piece of fruit from the sample tray in the produce section. Germy carts and finger foods together - I am daring.

Tonight we were getting Lauren ready for bed and it became apparent that she was eating something, which becane cause for concern since we hadn't given her anything. Donald glanced at the floor and noticed what she was consuming. "Is that a Pop Tart?" he said. I said, "Oh yeah, must be left over from breakfast," and we both let her finish eating it. Bad parents.

I don't know. Sometimes I think that all this sanitizing people do actually does more harm than good (case in point - MSRA). What ever we're doing (or not doing) must be okay, because Lauren's only been sick twice, and once was a reaction to her MMR shot. I really do surprise myself, though - before I had Lauren I really thought I would be one of those anal, over-protective moms. I'm totally not.

My friend Cortney asked me to post about her friend's 8 month old daughter who just underwent a liver transplant. They are raising money to help fund the operation as well as the family's living expenses. If you want to learn more and/or help, visit Hope for Valery.

Several Rants, all School Related

First - I'm still waiting on my student teaching placement. My coordinator emailed me a few days ago and said that my school district of choice (Madison County) has been in constant contact with her, but doesn't want to give her a firm answer one way or the other. I had to give her two alternate districts that I'd be willing to work in so that she can try to find some sort of alternative if Madison County falls through. I was really hoping to get a placement before we go out of town so that I could go in and meet my host teacher and principal, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Second - I tutor for Brainfuse.com, mainly students who come from low-performing schools. Today I was tutoring a 6th grade girl from a school in Chicago in math. We always start students at one grade level below what they are in, unless they have really good quiz results, so I started her today with the very first 5th grade lesson on writing numbers in different forms. She was really struggling (as in not knowing how to write one thousand forty two in standard form - 1042), so I decided to quickly review place value with her. Turns out the girl had no concept of place value, period. She could not show me the ones place in a number, or any other place for that matter. She has no clue that 10 ones equals one ten, and ten tens equals one hundred. No clue. No wonder the girl isn't doing well in math! I just want to know how it is possible for a student to get to 6th freaking grade and not know place value. That is not her fault - that is a teacher's fault somewhere along the line. So, next week, I will be working with her on 1st grade place value lessons. It makes me want to cry. Our educational system should not be failing kids like that.

Third - Saturday is my last day teaching my first Kaplan ACT class. I'm so proud of all (well, all but one) of my students! I have two boys in my class, twins actually, who both came in with 27s. Their dad was going crazy because they could not get their score up, no matter how hard they tried. Well, on our last practice test, they made a 32 and 33! I couldn't be prouder. All my kids have went up at least 2 points, which is just great. The one girl who I'm not proud of has missed 4 out of 8 classes and 2 out of 4 practice tests and then wants to know why her score hasn't gone up. Gee let me see.....

All that being said, I really am enjoying teaching/tutoring. I'm getting excited for student teaching, but really anxious, too. It is going to be a tough 12 weeks, and I am sure I'll be ready for it to be over. Not to mention that my heart is going to be breaking every day when I have to leave Lauren :o(

Why We're Leaving Part II

Donald and I have always talked about moving out West somewhere. Donald has always had fantasies about living in Las Vegas, and we briefly discussed it, but I just didn't feel good about it. There are some positives - easy to find a teaching job, lots of entertainment - but I don't want Lauren growing up in Las Vegas. Not to mention that it's in the middle of the desert, so there goes my desire for green grass. Anyway, we were both really clueless of where to move. We knew we wanted to go somewhere better, but had no idea where.

One night we pulled out our Atlas and started putting x's through places that were a definite no-go, like Maine and Alaska. We also marked off places that one of us felt strongly against, for me it was places like Florida and Nevada, for Donald, Wisconsin and Minnesota. After doing this, we were left with probably 15 or so states, like Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, North Carolina, Vermont, and others, too. I started to research places that I'd heard good things about. I wanted to go to Chicago, but Donald wanted nothing to do with that. We really couldn't come up with a place that we both agreed upon.

One day while surfing the net, I came across a website called Find Your Spot. Basically it is a series of questions that you answer, and based on your answers, the site recommends the top 10 cities that best match your wants/needs and personality. Donald and I both took the quiz, and most of the places in our top 10 matched. Number 1 on both of our lists was Little Rock, Arkansas, but because we weren't prepared for the looks we would get when we tell people we are from Arkansas, we crossed that one off. Other cities in both of our top 10's were Portland, Corvallis, and Eugene Oregon, Hartford, Connecticut, and Baltimore, Maryland. Neither of us are keen on the East Coast, so we crossed off Hartford and Baltimore right way. We were left with three cities in Oregon.

We stared to do some research into Oregon, and found out that it seemed like it would be a pretty good match for us. The weather is rainy during the winter, but the summers are (from what we hear, anyway) unbelievable - 80 and sunny for 4 months straight. I don't mind the rain, and it is a thousand times better than snow. The politics lean towards liberal, especially in Portland and Eugene, and people are environmentally aware. After doing weeks of research, we decided that we would be moving to either the Portland or Eugene area.

Just in the last week or so, we've decided to stick with Portland for now. I think I would really like Eugene, but it doesn't seem like such a good match for Donald. First, it's sort of a "hippie" town, and Donald gets annoyed with drum circles and poetry readings and all that counter culture stuff easily. Portland is bigger (about 2.3 million), has more to offer in the job sector, plus a larger school district. Housing is more expensive, and we will more than likely be stuck renting for a while, but I'm willing to live with that (as long as we can find a place with a yard). We are planning on getting rid of at least one of our cars (Donald's), and possibly the second as we find out how much we can rely on the public transportation (MAX train and bus - and bike of course), depending on where we live.

We are insanely excited and would move tomorrow if I didn't have to do student teaching this spring. We have already started getting rid of stuff (selling what we can on craigslist and giving away the rest on freecycle). Our move date is tentatively set for the third week in May. Right now we are in the process of researching neighborhoods/communities in and around Portland, getting moving quotes, and doing some preliminary job hunting. We are hoping to have a house lined up before we move, but if not, then we will stay in an extended stay hotel for a week or two until we find something. I will be going to work in the fall (which makes me want to cry, but student loans must get paid back sometime), and will begin looking for a teaching job this spring. We will keep you updated the more we find out and make plans!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're not doing much this year. I don't feel like cooking for just the three of us, so we are going to go out to lunch/dinner tomorrow and then take Lauren to go see Bee Movie. It'll be her first movie, and I think she'll like it! At least if the movie is a bust we'll have popcorn to distract her. Heh.

I am definitely NOT doing the shopping thing on Friday. First of all, we aren't buying a lot for gifts this year. Lauren has a few things that we've picked up already, and that's all she needs. The kid has so many toys and she never plays with any of them, so we're not buying any more. Plus, I know the grandparents will be buying her crap, so we're saving our money, heh. I am knitting stuff for a lot of people this year and everyone else is getting stuff out of our "stock" closet. Honestly....does anyone really NEED all that crap stores sell at Christmastime just because we don't know what else to get them? Probably not.

We do have to venture to the mall on Saturday, though, as I have a secret shop that I'm looking forward to. I'll tell you all about it afterward, but I can't right now! Top secret, sheesh.

Oh, by the way, Gymboree is having a really good sale right now if anyone needs a few more things for winter. I got Lauren two fleece hoodies, two fleece pants, a winter coat ($14!!!), a swim suit for a little over $50. I have an extra 20% off coupon if anyone wants it, let me know and I'll email you the code if you want to order online. Everything is already 30% off, so with the extra 20% off, the stuff is dirt cheap.

So it's official. My sister's due date is July 23. Yep, after a dozen or so close calls, she's finally pregnant as confirmed by a real live doctor. I really am trying to be happy and supportive, but it's not easy. It would be much easier, of course, if I hadn't received the phone calls from my mom last week telling me that the cops had been to Lexy's house twice in the past week because her boyfriend's been hitting her.

So that's the way of it. 19 and pregnant, with a job at Taco Bell that pays $8 an hour, and a one-room efficiency apartment. Oh, and we can't forget the $1000 in outstanding fines she has for various driving infractions (the latest obtained last week when a neighbor called the cops because the boyfriend was trying to smash her windshield when she was trying to leave - turns out the cops don't like it when you try to drive with a suspended license). And a boyfriend that hits her. Fuckin' lovely.

This guy she's with, Eric, is just a winner. He got out of jail six months ago for drug dealing and assault charges. He won't let her go to Chicago with me next month because I wouldn't let him go along. He won't let her out of his sight. I can't even talk to her about it because he listens on the phone when I talk to her. She flat out told me a couple of weeks ago that he verbally abuses her and threatens to beat her if she doesn't give him her paycheck. He quit his job at Taco Johns to go work at Taco Bell with her so she couldn't be alone at work. I don't know what she's going to do.

Of course, she is playing house right now. I'm not saying she shouldn't be happy, but I honestly think she should be more concerned than anything. If the dude will hit her, he'll hit a kid. "Oh, he just has anger issues," she tells me. Yeah, let's see how those anger issues manifest themselves when he has a screaming baby at 3 AM. I don't know. I don't know what to say to her or even how to feel about this.

When I was on the phone with Lex yesterday talking to her about this, Eric piped in and said, "You know you have to move back to Wisconsin now so you can watch the baby for us". Fat chance, dude. I know my mom is going to end up keeping the kid, just like my grandparents kept me until I was six because my mom was too busy being a teenager (I was better off for it, but a mother should still take responsibility for her own child).

I don't know. I just don't know. I'm so worried for her.

We've all been bordering on the very edge of sick for the last few days, except for Donald who crossed the line last night and is now miserable. Lauren's had an on-and-off low grade fever the last few days and so has had no appetite and runny diapers. Yummy. I've been Zicam-ing so, hopefully that wards off the worst of it for me. We shall see.

Other than that, there's nothing exciting going on here. I've been making candy Christmas wreaths and Donald's been selling them at work, so that's keeping me busy. We started to dig out our storage closets last weekend and put a few things up on craigslist, so our house is a disaster. We have three weeks until we leave for Wisconsin, so I really need to focus on getting some of it out of here.

I still haven't heard anything about my student teaching placement. I emailed my placement coordinator last week and she said she hadn't heard anything back from the district yet. I hate not being in control of this, and it's starting to make me crazy. I really want to have it finalized before I leave because I was hoping to go meet the host teacher before I left, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. We'll see.

So apparently it's Christmas now. I had an event at Wal-Mart today and spent the entire five hours listening to Christmas carols play over the loudspeaker. I like Christmas as much as the next person, but not in the first week of November! Heck, Target has had Christmas cards out since the middle of October. I guess there's something to be said for getting a head start, but by the time it's actually Christmas, I'm so sick of Christmas that I just want it to be over!

A Southern Halloween

Getting ready to leave! (Sidenote: she calls sunglasses "goggles". How cute is that?)

Neigh! I'm riding a pony!

After we got done doing Trunk or Treat at a local park, we headed to the 'burbs to go trick or treating with our friend Kelly and her daughter. Her husband towed us around the subdivision in this thing. She told me the name of it, but I can't remember. It must be a pretty popular thing to do down here, because there were about four of them driving around the neighborhood.

I was taking her door-to-door, but she was crying for Daddy, so Donald took over and she was totally happy!

Sharing the goods with Daddy.

Silly papa!

Well, I was going to start knitting the P a scarf, but I can't find my knitting needles. Donald might know where they are, but of course he's in bed already. Darn it! Now what am I going to do.....?

We went to FreedomFest tonight in Madison. It was a lot of fun for Lauren. They had some band there that was supposedly big in the 60s, and Peeler danced her heart out for quite a while. She also got to go down one of those big blow up slides with the help of mommy. We watched the fireworks and Peeler gave a running commentary throughout the whole thing..."neat", "wow", "loud!". Heh.

Darn it I'm irked about those needles. Where the hell are they? Donald probably hid them somewhere so Peeler wouldn't find them, and now I can't find them! Dang it!

I'm Finished!

I finally finished my last class! I'm just waiting on my last three papers to be graded, and then I won't have to worry about anything until January! Yay!

So now what am I going to do with my time? I have a few things...

*Figure out what I'm making people for Christmas. I have a whole discussion thread full of ideas that I need to wade through.

*Convince my dad to get rid of all his crap before we move so that I can start selling some of it.

*Do more research about where to move and plan some of the logistics.

*Clean out the spare bedroom for my dad.

*Find more ways to make some extra cash!

*Teach Peeler her colors! The child calls everthing blue or red.