Perfect Moment Monday---Date Night

To those who alleged that the Melting Pot would fondue all my worries away....you were SO right!

My "Perfect Moment" from the last week was enjoying a date night with DH. We haven't had a date night/overnight away from Emma since last spring when we went out for our birthdays. But last Saturday, Em spent the night with her friend, which gave DH and I time to....

Enjoy our first ever visit to the Melting Pot!

Course One: Cheese fondue with veggies, apples, and bread for dipping. Yum!

Course Two: Salad. The sweet & tangy house dressing was divine!

Course Three: Oil/wine/garlic base to dip our meat dishes: chicken, prime rib, shrimp, and brats. SO good!

Course Four: Worth the cost of dinner all on it's own...seriously, it was THAT good. We chose the milk chocolate with peanut butter dipping sauce. We dipped strawberries, bananas, brownie bits, marshmallows, cheesecake bits, and poundcake bites. HOLY DELICIOUS YUMMINESS!

I also enjoyed a mango margarita. Yum! Definite two thumbs up.

However, though the food and beverages were divine, they weren't the best part of date night.
The best part was partaking in a slow, leisurely meal with DH. No interruptions to cut up food, no menu coloring, diversions, or "I Spy" while we waited for our food to be served. I forgot what it's like to have a nice meal sans Emma. The meal took just over 2 hours...we had enjoyable ADULT conversation the entire time.

Date nights are gentle reminders as to why I chose DH as my partner for the long-haul of life... His patience is something I witness each day. His wit and humor still crack me up after nearly 15 years together.

Yes date night...definitely perfect moment worthy.

To see other blogger's Perfect Moments, check out Lori's blog at: Weebles Wobblog.

Frustrated

Lots of "icks" the past few days...

DH: Rumor-mill at work says their office building might close at the end of next quarter. (April-ish.) He's trying to determine if he should job hunt, or wait it out for definite answers.

School/Work: I had a "training" day yesterday and was able to observe for a half day at KMS, the school I nearly worked at when I transferred schools 2 years ago. (I was hired there before the principal at my current school offered me a job. As no official paperwork had been done yet, I was able to "jump ship" for my current school as soon as the offer was made because I felt great about my former principal during our interview.) Yesterday was a neat experience! The reading department head, Katie, is encouraging me to transfer to their school if they have an opening (she anticipates they will) at the end of this year. LOTS to consider....the kids were great. The behavior issues are MUCH less than at my current school. Like my current school, KMS has an "A" rating. Most importantly, the reading department is tight-knit and works as a team----collaborating ideas, sharing the work load, etc.....all the things I miss from the department at my prior school. The con: None of the reading teachers have their own classroom. 2 share the former band room with small book cases "dividing" the room in half. The other 2 share the former choir room---NO dividers....just all 42 kids in one room with half belonging to Teacher A and the other half to Teacher B. I'm not a fan of not having my own space. I don't mind co-teaching. I love, love, love the inclusion teachers who help in my room each day....I just don't like the 2-classes-in-one-room scenario. But it is definite food for thought---giving up my own classroom to work as part of a team again. Hmmm.

The "ick" is that the 2nd half of the day, I hosted Katie and another local reading person at my school. We toured reading classes. When we observed one of the teachers on my team he was doing things in his classroom that are against the fidelity of the reading program we use. I was especially irritated to see he had his students doing WORD SEARCH puzzles when we were specifically told last year NOT to do word search or cross word puzzles in our classrooms, as they are not rigorous enough learning tools for our students. In addition, he had mobiles made by students that listed adjective synonyms. Out of a ceiling full of mobiles, my colleagues and I could only spot THREE words on the mobiles that were actual vocabulary words from the texts we use in our reading program. WHAT the HECK is this guy doing?? He is totally doing things that are NOT in our curriculum. Now I'm in a bit of a bind...as the department head, it is not my role to "tattle" on my peers....however, it is important that my principal be notified of the teachers' off model behaviors. Sighs.

TTC: My biggest "ick" is TTC related.

I am SOOOOO irritated with myself for not starting to use the fertility ovulation monitor my friend loaned me sooner. I tried it last year, but wasn't consistent therefore didn't have accurate results. I was determined with the new year, I'd jump on the band wagon. I was happy with myself for monitoring my cycle so I could discuss it with my OB next month.

Photo from the manual shows what my "high fertility" time should look like. Note the DAY12 in the upper corner.


This manual pic shows "peak fertility" time. Note the DAY15...


This photo shows MY fertility....DAY 16 and still in the "Low fertility" range.



AAAAACK! I'm wondering if I'm ovulating realllly late, or am not ovulating at all. Sighs.

Need to run....Em IS spending the night with Adrian tonight. DH and I again have reservations at the Melting Pot. Yay....here's to fondue-ing my worries away. And shaving my legs...because ridiculous as it is I am still hoping that my increased libido (sorry TMI) means I CAN get PG even if the monitor doesn't correlate.

Did I mention it's been an icky couple of days?

2009 Books

Cutting/pasting my 2009 books read list so that I have a record, since I'm deleting the list from my sidebar. :)

2009 Book Challenge (Goal = 75 Books)

• 70. The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
• 69. Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers
• 68. The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Nightfall by L.J. Smith
• 67. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
• 66. Silent Night by Mary Higgins Clark
• 65. Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher
• 64. The Shack by William P. Young
• 63. Among the Free by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 62. Among the Enemy by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 61. Among the Brave by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 60. Among the Barons by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 59. Among the Betrayed by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 58. Among the Imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 57. Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 56. Disappearing Acts by Terry McMillian
• 55. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• 54. The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion by L.J. Smith
• 53. The Vampire Diaries: The Fury by L.J. Smith
• 52. The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle by L.J.Smith
• 51. The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening by L.J. Smith
• 50. Tonight on the Titanic AND the Nonfiction Titanic Companinon Guide by Mary Pope Osborne
• 49. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
• 48. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• 47. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• 46. The Conjurer Princess by Vivian Vande Velde
• 45. The Changeling Prince by Vivian Vande Velde
• 44. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
• 43. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
• 42. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• 41. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
• 40. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
• 39. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• 38. The Sweet, Far Thing by LIbba Bray
• 37. Navigating the Land of If by Melissa Ford
• 36. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
• 35. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
• 34. Dragon's Bait by Vivian Vande Velde
• 33. Because I Said So by Dawn Meehan
• 32. Twilight: Director's Notebook by Catherine Hardwickie
• 31. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
• 30. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
• 29. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
• 28. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
• 27. The Film Club by David Gilmour
• 26. Irish Rebel by Nora Roberts
• 25. Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of LIfe by Wendy Mass
• 24. Quentins by Maeve Binchey
• 23. The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake
• 22. All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark
• 21. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
• 20. Peter and the Secret of Rundoon by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
• 19. Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
• 18. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• 17. Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks
• 16. Twilight Movie Guide by Lois H. Gresh
• 15. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• 14. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
• 13. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
• 12. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• 11. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
• 10. Northern Lights by Nora Roberts
• 9. The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
• 8. Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts
• 7. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• 6. Birthright by Nora Roberts
• 5. Witness by Karen Hesse
• 4. Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Macguire
• 3. The Book of Mordred by Vivian Vande Velde
• 2. Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
• 1. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson

Saturday Randomness

ICLW: Welcome visitors! I appreciate you stopping by...

Date Night: Stacye (Adrian's Mom) graciously offered to babysit Em for her FIRST EVER overnight with a non-family member, so that DH and I could have a date night tonight. Ooh la la! I made reservations for the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant we'd been wanting to try. We hadn't decided yet if we were going to go to a movie, or were just going to have some "alone" time at home. Em was excited to sleep at Adrian's house ("He has bunk beds!") Then this morning, we awoke to Murphy's Law of children... Em threw up multiple times and had diarrhea twice today, thus we had to cancel the sleepover. BUMMER! Luckily, she has been feeling better (and has even kept down some Spaghettios.) As I type this, we're in the living room where Em is watching "Up," DH is working on his book, and I read a book and a half today. (I'm on book 5 of L.J. Smith's Nightworld series now.)

School/Work: This past week was the last week of 2nd quarter. It's hard to believe the school year is already halfway over! I'm still carrying most of the load for my department, but I've managed to create a grading and lesson planning schedule for myself that has been working thus far. (I've had the last 2 weekends with NO school work....so as long as I don't have a plethora of meetings or conferences, I'm managing to stay ahead of the game.) We had a school-wide faculty meeting yesterday where we were informed that school-wide the majority of students are not showing enough "growth" on district tests, and we are therefore in danger of not having enough academic "gains" when our students take the state FCAT test in February and March. Sighs...it's difficult to determine what (if any) changes should be made in instruction in order to best meet the students' needs.

TTC: My friend MEB (who kicked IF's butt and is currently PG woot-woot!) loaned me her fertility monitor. Which brings me to a question for my lady friends (Gents, you can skip down to the next "bullet," to avoid TMI girly stuff.) Ladies---I've seen mixed info on this on the Internet and plan to ask my OB about it next month, but wanted some input. What do you consider as "Day 1" of your cycle? Do you count spotting as Day 1, or do you not count until your first day of full bleeding? I've been considering my first day of full bleeding as "Day 1," and am wondering if this is the most accurate or not.

I think that is all the latest here, so I leave you with some Emmaisms:

On states in close proximity:
"I wish Grandma and Grandpa lived in a state that was only like 5 minutes away. I wish we could see them more often." (Me too, Kiddo.) 1/8/10

On sexy vampires:
"Look, it's Mommy's boyfriend! Let's make fun of her favorite guy!" (regarding Robert/Edward and Kristin/Bella's pic from the Twilight soundtrack on DH's iphone.) (Oops...didn't know I'd been so obvious! Giggles.) 1/10/10

On helping others:
Em: "I did a good thing today."
Me: "You did?"
Em: "I found some moneys under my booster seat in Daddy's car and so I put it in my pocket. When I got to school I put the moneys in the thing to help the people in Haiti."
Me: That WAS a really nice thing to do!

(Did I mention, I love my sweet girl?) 1/20/10

And my most recent favorite... On global consumerism:

"I'm trying to find the 'Made in China' tag so I can cut it out of the dress." 1/17/10

(For the record, it turned out the dress was actually made in Sri Lanka...)

Life Updates

Life Updates...

Emma: Her reading skills astound me each day. I LOVE hearing her read stories! It has been wonderful for me to experience firsthand many of the reading components I learned about during my reading-teacher course curriculum. Em's teacher and school use the Beka learning program which teaches phonics. Em constantly "sounds out" words wherever we go. I am a HUGE phonics advocate. Many of my 8th grade students don't have the same skills Emma already has. Due to being taught with the "Whole Language" style (wherein students memorize sight words, rather than learning letter sounds and blend sounds) I have many students who struggle with "word attack" and have NO idea how to break words into syllables or how to determine root words and affixes. It is awesome seeing Emma's early success and witnessing the beauty of phonics in action.

DH: Is currently working on a children's series. He never thought he'd want to write for a young audience, but thus far he has really enjoyed it. I'm thrilled he has been writing so much. Since graduating from college, DH has never had a job that truly used his skills...I'm glad he is putting his "smarts" to good use...and in a way that he finds gratifying.

Work/School: Continues to be cumbersome, but I DID manage to get 3 weeks of lesson plans done last weekend so that I could have this weekend totally OFF. Sweet! DH and I mostly finished turning Em's old room into an office area yesterday. Now DH has a writing nook! :)

I've used the 3-day weekend to get TONS of cleaning and laundry done. You know---all the deep cleaning stuff I should've done during winter break, but spent lots of time in my PJs reading and playing online B.oggle cooking with Emma and her new E.asybake Oven instead.

TTC: The doctor's office called to say they needed to re-schedule my appointment, as the CPN my appointment was scheduled with left their practice at the beginning of the year. I was a little annoyed with having to re-schedule. However, my re-scheduled appointment (on Feb. 16th) is with the head of the practice who is also the awesome OB that delivered Em. (The appointment is for my annual checkup, plus fertility counseling.) I guess at this point, what's another month of waiting?

MLK, Jr. Today Em and I are home from school. I'm babysitting her good buddy, Adrian while his parents are at work. Thank you MLK, Jr. and all the others who contributed toward making multi-racial friendships possible. Em and Adrian have been good buddies since they were less than a year old.


Big smiles...


Adrian on the monkeybars.


Emma's Turn. (Note the shirt I got for her at OU last summer, "I love OHIO this much!"


Crossing together...

I've enjoyed spending the day with them. Conversations between 5 year olds...SO precious! Let freedom ring!