My sweet girl

Tonight I was having a bit of a pity party for myself because I am losing my job. I was crying and Anneliese brought in a plastic ice cream cone and said, "Mommy you need some ice cream." Then she hugged me, patted my back and said, "it will be okay, Mommy." That actually made me cry more but a different kind of tears.

Anne being girly

Anneliese would not stand for barrettes or ponytails in her hair as a younger child. None of that for her! She would rip them right out. She also hates dresses and I only put one on her once in a while for Church. She will tolerate it for Church but demands it be taken off as soon as we get home. There are 5 girls and 3 boys at daycare and Anne plays with the boys but that is all fine. She loves to roll in dirt and little kids should do that. She has suddenly taken to wanting barrettes in her hair. I had some I bought when she was really little but they didn't do much because they were small. She wants them in all the time. I bought her some new ones at the store with flowers. Gerhardt almost puked at how girly they were. We did need another set of sheets for her bed though. I gave her the choice between flowers and airplanes and she looked at me like I was crazy for asking and said, "Airplanes!" Today she wore a dress Georgia bought her and her flower barrette and was very cute and girly all day.

Update

Wow, I haven't blogged in a while. There is a lot to say. Not much of it is good though. First of all we do have a new car. Gerhardt found a 2008 Ford Fusion with only 14,000 miles on it in Maquoketa and we paid only $12,000 for it. I think we got a good deal. It is a manual transmission but that I what I learned to drive on and it came back pretty quickly. Gerhardt doesn't have as much experience with a manual but it is picking it up pretty fast too. I am now wondering if we should have waited though and not spent the money. We may not need 2 cars next year.

The school district needs to cut 2.8-3.8 million dollars from next year's budget. A committee of I don't know who gave the school board 4 different plans with different teachers on them. My job was listed on every list. They also had that cutting me would save the district $78,000. ?????? I don't think so, they don't pay me that much even with benefits and the 5th grade band does not cost the district much at all. One of the plans cuts 6 music positions, mine, another middle school band director, the entire orchestra program and 2 vocal teachers. It also cuts elementary art. Who wants to send their kids to our school now! I don't think that one will happen but it looks like my job will go. Unfortunately they would offer me another position but it would be elementary general music because of a retirement. One of the middle school band teachers is least in seniority and if life was fair I would get to take her job but it isn't so I am screwed. I would have to resign because me and kindergarten is just not going to happen. If I were cut and not reassigned then I could get unemployment benefits and call back rights for when an opening occurs. One of the other band teachers is going to retire in 2 years. I can take a year maternity leave but then would have to come back and teach general music for a year. I think I will do that anyway in case Ted decides to retire early. The superintendent has not put forth his plan yet though. He told the elementary art teacher there would be no cuts in art or music in his plan so who knows. The school board decides though. I am going to try to talk to the superintendent and tell him I would be willing to go to part time and not get benefits until Ted retires. Then I could take his job and go back to full time. By then Anneliese will be in kindergarten. Putting me to part time would save the district a lot of money too. I also could go teach at Notre Dame 5-12 band. I would get paid half what I am getting paid now and would be a lot more time. They do offer free daycare and free tuition for my kids though. There is a lot to think about and I have been very stressed about it. I know I need to calm down because worrying isn't going to change anything and it is not good for the baby but I just can't help it. I have liked my job this year and fear if I resign will never get another teaching job again. I don't know what else I would do.

Through all this stress I managed to catch another cold. Anne has it too. This morning she woke up at 6 screaming that she had made a mess. Her bed was covered in puke. I picked her up and said, "let's go take a bath." She said, "no, potty first." Okay, yes potty first. Then she wanted bear. I picked up bear and her face was covered with puke. Anne freaked out. "Bear is hurt." I told her bear just needed a bath like her. Everyone is cleaned up and she seems to be okay now. She is eating breakfast. I think she got to coughing and it made her throw up.