Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia really enjoyed the Juniors Theater Camp, and the boys and I survived all the driving. Six of us (including Paul's parents) enjoyed her show on Friday night. I would have liked to have seen her two shows on Saturday, but that would have involved buying 6 more tickets (for the boys and I), which would have cost $48 total so we only saw one show. I asked her Saturday morning if she wanted to skip the last two performances (which would have meant she could attend her friend's entire party), but she was adamant that she wanted to participate in all three performances.

2. I had to pick the kids up early because Oliver threw up at the summer musical rehearsal on Wednesday night, but since then he has gotten back to full health. I was glad to put the nebulizer away again. Oliver had his five year old well visit today. He had lost a little weight during the illness so he weighed in at 39 pounds (with clothes but no shoes) which put him at the 40th percentile for weight and 43.5 inches (55th percentile), which means his BMI was totally fine

(19th percentile). In comparison, Ian was 41 inches tall when he turned 5 years old (12th percentile) and weighed the same as Oliver (39 pounds). Nadia's 5 year appointment was 4.5 months past her birthday, but at her appointment in November 2013 she weighed 47 pounds and was 42.5 inches tall. So between the three kids Nadia weighed the most and Oliver was the tallest. The doctor today gave me a referral for Oliver to see a GI doctor regarding his umbilical hernia. Oliver had previously said he didn't want the surgery, and now today for the first time he says he wants it. I am hesitating for two reasons #1 our co-pay will be $500 and #2 I'm never too thrilled about my children going under anesthesia. But I don't want him to be teased about something unnecessarily. On the other hand his belly button almost NEVER shows because even when he swims he wears a rash guard. Paul and I have decided to wait for now. If he brings it up again when he's older, we will consider it, but for now we're going to hold off.

3. Ian was stung by a wasp and a

small bee on Saturday at a state park. I was thankful to discover he's not allergic, and I was thankful that someone in the park office was able to put some medicine on it and also give him an ice pack. He really hollered over the wasp sting on his neck (under his ear). Ironically he was stung again at a picnic at church on Sunday afternoon, but he didn't scream over that one. The poor guy was stung three times in two days! Nadia is always a magnet for mosquito bites, and unfortunately the last couple of years she has gotten in the bad habit of picking at them until they bleed. She is definitely going to have scars on her arms. Every time I look at her arms I think she looks like she has Chicken pox. I'll be thrilled when she breaks that habit!

4. When I dropped Nadia off at the birthday party at 3:00 on Saturday, I thought the boys and I were going to need to head to a playground to kill more time as we had done from 9:30-2:15 while she was at the theater. I was thrilled when Claire's mom offered to take Nadia home at the end (they live very close to

us but the party was at Claire's grandmother's house in another town). I'm thankful Nadia was invited and got to be there for at least part of the party. She arrived right before they were starting to hit the piñata.

5. Nadia asked to wear matching dresses with me on Sunday. I had been planning to wear the dress I wore to my dad's wedding, but I was happy to change plans and match her. We got several compliments. Last year we never got a picture of us wearing these dresses. Paul was gone on Sunday (at work) until 5:15pm so I asked Ian to take our picture. It was his first time using a DSLR camera. I'm thankful he managed to get one of us.

6. We enjoyed attending a picnic for the volunteers who teach in the children's classes on Sunday after church.

7. Lately most of the things planned for this month on our bucket list  have been changed to the strikethrough font because we skipped them due to illness, exhaustion, etc. However yesterday we did one more thing

on the list - visited Dutch Wonderland amusement park in Lancaster. It was our second time going there; our first visit was two years ago. Paul's parents met us there and joined us for dinner at Friendly's afterward. Paul only worked for two hours (gone from 3AM-7AM) that day, which meant he could join us for our adventure. We watched one diving show and spent some time in the water area, but mostly we were on the dry rides. It was the fourth amusement park we visited this year, and I believe it's our last for 2017. Next year we want

to go back to Sesame Place and Six Flags, which we didn't visit this year.

8. The washing machine has been working as long as we don't wash any bedding or towels. Shopping for a new one is on my to do list once I feel like I'm in a better place with my preparations for this semester. If you have any suggestions on a good brand/model of washing machine, I'm all ears!

9. Nadia had two baby teeth extracted today (our copay was

$76). She did really well. One tooth we probably could have gotten out ourselves, but the other one still had a huge root and wasn't anywhere close to coming out on its own. In both cases the adult tooth erupted months ago and so now those permanent teeth can move into the proper locations.

10. I thought we'd miss the flag football practices this evening because of the Jordan Feliz concert, but we skipped the fair. The practices were cancelled for weather reasons. Nadia's was moved to

Thursday; so she won't be missing her practice after all. The boys' practice was just cancelled. We are planning tomorrow to do one last thing from our summer bucket list - go to our very first Little League World Series game. We're going to try to see Canada vs. Japan.

11. Yesterday the interim Dean called me to offer me the job of teaching two classes. The good news is that it was wonderful to have it be official. The bad news was that she offered to start me at a lower step and rank than I started out in 2004 at

the same university. I was very demoralized considering I have a doctorate and twenty years of experience. Today the department chair called and asked if I'd be interested in teaching a third class  - a second section of one of the new classes, and then a couple of hours later she asked if I would be interested in teaching four classes (FT). I said YES in part because the Dean had said my rank/step would be negotiable if I was FT. The classes would be from 8:00-1:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She said I would find out in the next couple of

days whether I'm teaching 2, 3, or 4 classes. The good news is the 4th class would be one I've taught many times in contrast to the other two that I've never taught before. I'm praying that if I am offered a FT position that I can be placed at a reasonable rank and step. I'm also praying that they will move quickly with getting me set up with access to technology I need to have the class ready by next Tuesday (including getting a parking permit, key to the computer station in the classrooms, etc.). I had been fingerprinted on Thursday, but evidently I didn't do it

the way they wanted so I was fingerprinted again today. They paid for today's finger printing appointment. I'm anxious to find out exactly how many classes I'll be teaching next week. I didn't expect to be teaching at all, and I might be full-time this semester! I'm grateful that FT can be only two days a week as I'll miss my kiddos. I'm very thankful Tab (a certified teacher who just finished her master's degree in reading) is going to do the homeschooling with them those two days.

12. We all enjoyed seeing the solar eclipse yesterday! At the peak it was around 80% where we were.