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.

Car Shopping

Car Shopping has not been too bad so far. We went to Shottenkirk in Burlington and got a good salesman who was not pushy. He asked what we were looking for and since we really had no idea suggested we try 4 different cars. I let Gerhardt test drive them by himself to narrow down the field and so we didn't have to put a car seat and Anneliese in each trip. He tried a Kia Optima, Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry, and a Honda Accord. I think we are leaning toward the Fusion. Now we are just checking out prices and hopefully will have some new wheels soon.

Anne and the Baby

Friday night we babysat for the orchestra teacher's 3 month old daughter, Annabelle. We were interested to see if Anneliese would share her toys and how she would react to the baby. When she first saw the baby she got very excited and said, "It's a BABY!" Annabelle dropped her binky and Anneliese immediately retrieved it and gave it back to her. Annabelle's mother told me she had eaten a little over an hour ago but Annabelle was acting hungry. She cried a little and Anneliese said, "Mommy, the baby is hungry" in a tone that said, "Get to work lady." I heated up the formula and Annabelle took it down immediately. Then she was happy. Anneliese brought a blanket for her, and different toys, she even shared her beloved bear. Anneliese didn't mind the baby in her bouncy seat or even in her crib later. She was a little disappointed when she tried to roll her the ball and the baby did not roll it back. She is going to be a great big sister, I hope. She has told me she wants her little sister to be a baby boy. She will get one of those.

Ludwig is the best cat!

This morning Anne spent quite a bit of time chasing Wolfie around the house. I heard hissing and laughing and then either, "Wolfie is sad." or "Wolfie is scared." Yes, Anne leave him alone. After Wolfie finally found a good hiding place I walked into the living to see Ludwig completely wrapped in green tissue paper with only his head sticking out and Anne trying to pick him up. Ludwig wasn't fighting it at all. What a cat! Anne said, "Kitty wanted a blanket." I told her I didn't think the kitty wanted a blanket and got her distracted from him. He wore the tissue paper for a while before finally getting it off.

Anneliese is in the "kiss it and make it better" stage which is very cute. At least she doesn't cry when she falls. She will say, "I hurt my finger." I kiss it and it is better. Some hurts need multiple kisses. Now when Bear falls (or is dropped) I have to kiss him too.

Snow day number 2

I am really not sure why we aren't school but it must be bad in the country but most of our students are in town. I don't know, no school and I realized yesterday I thought our make up day was going to be June 3, nope June 4. This one will be June 7. I won't be there. I will either have just had a baby or be very unhappy that baby has not come yet.
Anne and I ran a few errands this morning and had lunch with Daddy. She held up one of her french fries and said, "Mommy this is a fish pie." At first I was confused. I thought she was confused with her chicken strips then I realized she was mispronouncing french fry. She is growing and learning so much. I think she has actually put on some weight which is good in that she can finally wear her 2T clothes bad for pregnant Mommy who already has backaches and has to pick her up. She loves to sing and is constantly singing. I love it. She crawls up on the piano bench and pounds on the keys while singing. Sometimes it is a real song and sometimes it is completely made up. One night she was making up a song and Gerhardt and were dying laughing on the couch because it was so funny. She stopped, looked at us, and said, "That was a good song!" She loves to read books and many of our books she can now read to herself because she knows them by heart. She can recognize her letters most of the time and knows what sounds they make. I know my daycare provider works with the kids a lot on this. She is not as good at her numbers. She can count to twenty but doesn't recognize the written numbers as well. She loves to hug her stuffed animals and Ludwig. Wolfie still runs in fear. Ludwig gets so much love that he really doesn't want. Sometimes we hear Anne yelling, "Ludwig (actually she says Wudvig) come back!" She is sleeping in her big girl bed most of the time and has figured out she can get out of it and play with toys on her own. She doesn't get out at night but naptime is interesting. One day I told her I would be back to check on her and if she wasn't in bed Mommy would be mad. Well, when I checked on her she was in bed. She had 4 puzzles and several other toys on the bed and was having a great time but she was on the bed and hadn't left it. She could reach all those things from her bed. Now, I have to say Mommy will check if you are napping. Sometimes she is out of bed and makes a mad dive for the bed like I won't notice or something. Today she was very tired and went to sleep right away though.