April 29, 2006
Whew, this dog thing is WAY more than what we expected! He's a sweet dog, but he needs more attention than my KIDS!! I am already getting really worn down between getting up early to walk him before work and trying to give him some attention in the evenings while trying to cook dinner, get the three older kids kids through homework, and spending time with Jacob and Jeff. Not to mention trying to keep the website up to date. It's a little overwhelming.
It would definitely help to get to bed earlier. (so why are you up at 11 p.m. blogging, Kate?) Or if the kids were more help with the dog. Not likely, and I remember being the same when I was a kid. I have more and more respect for my parents with the way that they handled all of the typical kid BS they had to deal with from us. And I never felt anything less than fully loved. I worry sometimes about how the older boys feel. I hope that, even when they know I'm completely frustrated with them, they know that I really love them.
Jeff actually brought up whether or not we should keep the dog. I hate to say, "Oops, we took on something we couldn't handle," and I think that Berkeley is better off with us, getting plenty of attention and etc. It's just US who are worse off. Hopefully this is just an adjustment process. He's improved in some ways...not so barky now, is doing better about not jumping all over people. We will, however, still be investing in obedience classes once I'm out of school for the summer!
Semi-nice day, otherwise. After getting up with the dog at 7, I went back to be once Jeff got up with Jacob (it was my day to sleep in...tomorrow is his). Slept until 10:30. Ahhh!! Would have slept even later, but Heather called about going for lunch. I'm really glad to have that friendship developing. I like her a lot, and it's been such a blessing to get to work with her! This year, I have a fabulous team...everyone does their job and more. Big improvement over the past two years!! Of course, I can take some credit for that. I had the WORST aide in history for two years...and the second year, I actively worked to either change her or make sure she wasn't rehired. She didn't improve, so she wasn't rehired.
I learned my lesson, too. At the beginning of this year, I had another terrible aide. Just didn't get it. This time, I really worked hard from the beginning to educate her about expectations and what to do to fulfill them. Worked hard in vain, because she was very neglectful of her duties. This time, instead of feeling frustrated and letting her make me look bad because I didn't have the balls to deal with the situation, I documented every problem with her and everything action I took to remedy it. No way was I dealing with things the way they were for the whole school year this time. Both I and my students deserve better than that! And then, she did me the favor of having a bench warrant out for her arrest in another state which showed up on her background check...so she was fired!!
I watched my mom be miserable for years due to other people, people whom she supervised. She ended up quitting a job she'd had for 16 years because she couldn't deal with those people anymore, and now she has to work 2 jobs because she isn't making near (in $ or vacation time) what she did at her old job. I worked hard for my degree, hard for my job, and I'm not going to let someone else chase me out. I'm a lot like my mom, too. It's a lot easier for me to complain to other people than it is for me to talk to the person who is causing me the problem...but other people can't fix it for you! It's a lot easier to confront the problem-- no matter how uncomfortable that makes you--than it is to be miserable for years because you can't stand up for yourself!
Ooh, that was a long digression from my day! Anyway, after going to lunch (at Krieger's--didn't care at all for the chicken deluxe sandwich...alfalfa sprouts were all limp and yucky, and the chicken didn't have much taste), I took the dog for a walk and then we headed to Six Flags. We got season tickets this year for the first time, so we'll see how that goes. Most other years, the kids have each gotten a free ticket from the school reading incentive program, but this year Daniel was too old and the other two didn't do it. Plus, Daniel and Kelsea have to go on Friday with school for their chorus concert, and their tickets were going to cost $24 each. We'll certainly go at least once during the summer and once during Fright Fest in October, so between the 3 trips, it made sense for us to just get the passes. Hopefully we'll get lots of use out of them...it helps being off in the summers.
We didn't plan to stay long, but we ended up being there for about 3 hours. It was not at all crowded as the weather was pretty cruddy. Cool, windy, and drizzly. We still managed to ride quite a few rides. Jacob loved the big train, and the bigger kids got to ride the roller coasters several times. Ate dinner out, dropped the boys back off at their dad's, and came home to walk the dog (I'm definitely getting more exercise now...somehow not losing any weight, though ...probably all of my stress eating is doing away with the walking benefit LOL). And now, I'm heading to bed!
It would definitely help to get to bed earlier. (so why are you up at 11 p.m. blogging, Kate?) Or if the kids were more help with the dog. Not likely, and I remember being the same when I was a kid. I have more and more respect for my parents with the way that they handled all of the typical kid BS they had to deal with from us. And I never felt anything less than fully loved. I worry sometimes about how the older boys feel. I hope that, even when they know I'm completely frustrated with them, they know that I really love them.
Jeff actually brought up whether or not we should keep the dog. I hate to say, "Oops, we took on something we couldn't handle," and I think that Berkeley is better off with us, getting plenty of attention and etc. It's just US who are worse off. Hopefully this is just an adjustment process. He's improved in some ways...not so barky now, is doing better about not jumping all over people. We will, however, still be investing in obedience classes once I'm out of school for the summer!
Semi-nice day, otherwise. After getting up with the dog at 7, I went back to be once Jeff got up with Jacob (it was my day to sleep in...tomorrow is his). Slept until 10:30. Ahhh!! Would have slept even later, but Heather called about going for lunch. I'm really glad to have that friendship developing. I like her a lot, and it's been such a blessing to get to work with her! This year, I have a fabulous team...everyone does their job and more. Big improvement over the past two years!! Of course, I can take some credit for that. I had the WORST aide in history for two years...and the second year, I actively worked to either change her or make sure she wasn't rehired. She didn't improve, so she wasn't rehired.
I learned my lesson, too. At the beginning of this year, I had another terrible aide. Just didn't get it. This time, I really worked hard from the beginning to educate her about expectations and what to do to fulfill them. Worked hard in vain, because she was very neglectful of her duties. This time, instead of feeling frustrated and letting her make me look bad because I didn't have the balls to deal with the situation, I documented every problem with her and everything action I took to remedy it. No way was I dealing with things the way they were for the whole school year this time. Both I and my students deserve better than that! And then, she did me the favor of having a bench warrant out for her arrest in another state which showed up on her background check...so she was fired!!
I watched my mom be miserable for years due to other people, people whom she supervised. She ended up quitting a job she'd had for 16 years because she couldn't deal with those people anymore, and now she has to work 2 jobs because she isn't making near (in $ or vacation time) what she did at her old job. I worked hard for my degree, hard for my job, and I'm not going to let someone else chase me out. I'm a lot like my mom, too. It's a lot easier for me to complain to other people than it is for me to talk to the person who is causing me the problem...but other people can't fix it for you! It's a lot easier to confront the problem-- no matter how uncomfortable that makes you--than it is to be miserable for years because you can't stand up for yourself!
Ooh, that was a long digression from my day! Anyway, after going to lunch (at Krieger's--didn't care at all for the chicken deluxe sandwich...alfalfa sprouts were all limp and yucky, and the chicken didn't have much taste), I took the dog for a walk and then we headed to Six Flags. We got season tickets this year for the first time, so we'll see how that goes. Most other years, the kids have each gotten a free ticket from the school reading incentive program, but this year Daniel was too old and the other two didn't do it. Plus, Daniel and Kelsea have to go on Friday with school for their chorus concert, and their tickets were going to cost $24 each. We'll certainly go at least once during the summer and once during Fright Fest in October, so between the 3 trips, it made sense for us to just get the passes. Hopefully we'll get lots of use out of them...it helps being off in the summers.
We didn't plan to stay long, but we ended up being there for about 3 hours. It was not at all crowded as the weather was pretty cruddy. Cool, windy, and drizzly. We still managed to ride quite a few rides. Jacob loved the big train, and the bigger kids got to ride the roller coasters several times. Ate dinner out, dropped the boys back off at their dad's, and came home to walk the dog (I'm definitely getting more exercise now...somehow not losing any weight, though ...probably all of my stress eating is doing away with the walking benefit LOL). And now, I'm heading to bed!
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