Working Mom Life

Kelly, over at Kelly's Korner, is having a link up for working moms. Since I fit that category I thought I'd join up and write a post about my job.

For those of you who are just meeting me my name is Ann. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska with my husband Dan and our two boys, Jonathan and Jason. Dan and I are both teachers. He teaches 7th grade math at North Pole Middle School and I am a building substitute at Ladd Elementary School.

Being a building substitute is a busy but very fun job. I'm assigned to one school and I show up there every day. If no teachers are out for the day I spend my day helping out in classrooms around the building. Some days I read with kids others I help them with math. Basically anything the teachers need help with I'm there to help.

When a teacher is absent I get to teach in their classroom. One of the advantages of being a building sub is that I already know most of the kids, I know all the school rules, and the kids know me. As a result I don't get mistreated. The kids know that I'll see their teacher when they return and that I will definitely see them again. I really enjoy getting to build a good relationship with the students.

Another distinct advantage of being a building sub is that I don't have to do any of the planning or grading. If I know the teacher well I might grade the papers I collect but I take nothing home which means when I'm home I'm just mom. It's wonderful to be able to leave work at work. Although I would like to have a classroom of my own in the future this really works for our family right now.

My tip to other working mom's is to find a routine. When we all get home from school my boys know its dinner then homework. After homework is done they can play until bed. Having that schedule helps eliminate fights over when homework is going to get done.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll come back again!

The Brough Family

Ann, Jason, Jonathan, Dan

Duck Pond

I absolutely love watching my kids creativity. Between the two of them they have so much fun pretending and playing. One night Jonathan created a little duck with Duplo blocks. After having some success with one duck he decided to make a family of ducks. Jonathan and Jason had an absolute blast playing and pretending with the duck family.

Aren't those cute little ducks? :)

 

A few minutes later I noticed Jonathan was digging through our bin of Duplo blocks, pulling out all the blue blocks and putting them inside a circle he'd made with train tracks. When I asked him what he was up to he said "Mom ducks HAVE to have a pond to swim in!" as if that was supposed to be obvious to me... Needless to say we have all had a lot of fun playing with the ducks in the duck pond.

Hungry Eyes

The title says it all, those are some hungry eyes! A couple of weeks ago Jonathan and I were making cookies for his class, and having an impromptu lesson on fractions. When I lifted the mixer to put the chocolate chips I caught him looking at the mixing beater with the hungry eyes. He did have the self control to only stare longingly and not actually lick the beater.

While we were making the cookies we had a talk about fractions and I was astounded at just how much he really understands about how fractions work. He knew exactly how many quarters would be in 2 1/4 cups. He was also able to break it into halves and quarters. Each measured ingredient he was able to talk about in at least two ways. He's in the first grade! I'm pretty sure I was in fifth or sixth grade before I understood fractions.

Sleepy Jason

Remember the other day when I said Jason can sleep anywhere in any position. Well I wasn't kidding.This is how we found him the other night. I went in to check on him before I went to bed and found him basically standing on the floor slumped over his bed. Of course I had to snap a quick pic as proof before I moved him. When I showed him the picture the next morning he said, "Wow mom I'm a silly sleeper boy!" Yes love, yes you are!

Not a real post

So I was going to post about day 3 of our trip but I've got a lot on my mind right now and a post just isn't coming together. But I didn't want to not say anything because then bad habits of NEVER blogging start and I didn't want that to happen AGAIN!

Um Hi

Is anyone still out there? My blog has been suffering from some serious neglect recently. I blame it entirely on the fact that my computer and the internet don't always get along. I can use Dan's computer but all the pictures of the kids are on my so rather than try to force my computer to get along with the internet I just give up... I really need to work on this. I miss blogging. So here I am and I'm really going to get back to this! I promise!

It's a Monday

How is it February 1st already? Wasn't it just Christmas? Time sure does fly by!

We've been doing a whole lot of nothing around here. Going to school, eating and sleeping pretty much sums up our lives recently. The boys are doing well. Jason is talking more and more and has picked up singing as well. He can even sing the Idaho Fight Song. I'm still working on getting that on camera to share with y'all. Jonathan is his normal energetic self, although he's got a bit of a cold right now. I woke him up this morning and he asked to go back to sleep so him and I are home today. I think it will do him some good to have an easy day at home and hopefully he'll fell better tomorrow.

At the request of one of my friends I will leave you with the picture of our family, the Humanitarian Bowl trophy, Joe Vandal, and a less than thrilled Jason.

Humanitarian Bowl

It has been a long time since University of Idaho football fans have had much to cheer about. Since 1998, the last time we appeared in and won the Humanitarian Bowl, there have been a lot of forgettable years. There were the Tom Cable years, the Nick Holt years, and the Dennis Erickson year, which left Vandal fans very very bitter.

Then Coach Robb Akey came along. The first couple of years were rough but there were glimmers of hope. And we had a coach who was excited about Idaho Vandal Football and committed to the team. And then the 2009 season began and we were winning games. Excitement for Vandal football was contagious. We got games on ESPNU and even highlights on Sports Center. And we were one of the first teams to be bowl eligible. It was exciting to be a Vandal fan again. Even during the darkest days I still cheered loud and clear for my Vandals!

Since Boise State was going to a BCS bowl game Idaho was invited to the Humanitarian Bowl. Let me tell you, if we had not been in Alaska we would have been in Boise for that game! Instead we watched with baited breath. Our hearts stopped when they went down 42-35 with 35 seconds left. And then we got a touchdown. Then we went for two. AND THE VANDALS WON! It was AMAZING!

This weekend there was a parade to honor the Vandals for their win. After the parade there was a celebration at the Kibbie Dome where fans could get the teams autographs as well as have their picture taken with the trophy. We were stoked! And so we bundled up on a very cold Saturday morning and headed out to the parade that Vandal fans have waited years for!

There was snow on the ground and believe me standing around waiting for the parade to start it was cold! Underneath all our gear we are wearing our Humanitarian Bowl Champions shirts. And I am darn proud to get to wear that shirt!

I-D-A-H-O IDAHO IDAHO GO GO GO!

Part of the team, including Coach Akey, with the trophy. It was totally awesome to see the trophy rolling down Main St. in Moscow!Up at the dome with Joe Vandal! Jason was terrified of him. We tried to get a picture with our family, Joe and the trophy but Jason would have no part of it!

We bought a poster and stood in line to get our autographs. And the very last autograph we got was Coach Akey. We shook his hand, my hand was shaking at the thought of shaking his, and we got a picture of Jonathan with Coach Akey. Jason gave him a high five but would get no closer.

That's my son sitting on Coach Akey's knee! WOW!
Me and my best girl Meghan with the trophy. She came down from Coeur d'Alene for the weekend to go to the parade and hang out with me. I LOVE HER.

And there is our family with the Humanitarian Bowl trophy. Totally awesome!

Kristen, the whole time we were there I was thinking about how excited Mike would be to get his picture with the Rose Bowl Trophy for Ohio State!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgivivg to everyone. I hope you all have a fantastic time with friends and family!

What we've been up to

So it's been a few days (or maybe a few months) since I've blogged so y'all are a little behind on what is going on in the Brough Family Life. I think I shall do a full update in bullet point form.

• I started my student teaching in September. I have to do a full year of student teaching and I am fortunate enough that the teacher I'm with this fall wanted me for the full year so I don't have to get a new placement for the spring. I'm in the 6th grade at Russell Elementary School in Moscow, Idaho and I could not be happier. I've got a great team that I get to work with every day and I'm learning a lot from them. I also have a great group of students. I also got to go to the McCall Outdoor Science School for a week in October. That was an experience! One week basically on 24 hours a day, lots of hiking, and a few embarrassing moments. It was beautiful there and I would totally do it again!
• Dan started his 4th year of teaching at Pullman Christian School. This year they changed the format of the school so his home room class is now 6th-8th grade instead of 7th-8th as it was for the last two year. He's also still teaching Algebra I and computer class. He also had the opportunity to coach soccer this year. He loved coaching and the relationship that it builds with the students, and he learned a little about soccer too. I loved watching the team play and was sad when the season ended, although very glad to have my husband back! They finished 5th in league for the regular season.
• Jason is now almost 19 months old. He is a wonderfully sweet little boy. His vocabulary has really taken off recently and he is always saying new words or phrases. His latest is "lunch box". He is full of joy and always makes us smile and laugh. He is showing some hints at the "terrible twos" but hopefully that's far as it goes. Hey, I can dream right!
• Jonathan is in preschool and continues to blow us away with all that he knows. He loves to learn. He is full of energy and definitely keeps us on our toes. He loves books and can read some sight words but isn't "reading" yet. He as already shown hints of his daddy's gifting with numbers and rhythms.

As of right now that's all I can think of right now so I'll end this with a recent picture of our two boys. I think this picture pretty well captures the boys personalities, Jonathan hamming it up for the camera and Jason too busy and on the go to be bothered with taking a picture.

My Bathroom

One of the reasons we bought the house we did was because of the bathroom. We looked at another house that had a walk-in closet but the bathroom was smaller. We decided that it was much more important to have a large and comfortable bathroom than a large closet. After all my clothes aren't going to complain if they are squished but my husband will complain when we bump elbows while he's shaving.

We have always planned on painting the bathroom but have never found a color that we really liked with the towels and shower curtain that we had. For the last year or so our towels have been slowly falling apart. Finally this past Saturday, while we had company visiting, I'd had enough and we headed off to find new towels, rugs and a shower curtain. And we can't just have one thing going on in our house so while my friend and I hung out, played with the kids, and made dinner, Dan painted our bathroom. I LOVE IT!The colors compliment each other so well and it is so absolutely calming. The color is soothing in the evening but doesn't seem dark when we are getting ready in the morning. The blue towels are my new favorite color. And oh my gosh are they soft. The rugs are super soft and feel amazing on my feet. The aren't non-slip so we need to get some carpet sticky stuff to hold them in place but for now we just walk carefully.
We also got brown towels to use when the blue ones are dirty. You can kind of see them up in the right hand corner of the picture above.

And we decided to purchase this cute toothbrush holder that matches the towels we got. Before we had our toothbrushes in a cup that I got when I moved into the dorms 8 years ago. It won't come clean anymore and just looked disgusting, this is so much better.

I LOVE my new bathroom! And I love my husband for being willing to paint our bathroom on a whim!

Phone

There is nothing Jason likes more than to play with my cell phone. He texts and makes calls usually leaving the recipient very confused. I don't make a habit of letting him play with it and usually try to keep it out of his reach. Keeping it out of his reach has become much more difficult since he's started climbing. I used to keep it on the back of the couch but he can get there now. I tried the table but he can get there too. I'm thinking my pocket may be the safest place to keep my phone. But I don't always remember that so if I have your number and you get a text or call that makes no sense (or a tweet something that makes no sense) its Jason not me!
If I won't let him play with my phone a toy wrench will work. He'll even pick it up and say hello. It's so cute. I tried to get it on camera but as soon as he sees the camera he just grins at me. Maybe one of these days.

Jason Fit

For my birthday my dad bought me a Wii Fit. Actually my dad sent me some money and I used it to purchase a Wii Fit. What loving father, or self-respecting man for that matter, would buy a woman in his life a Wii Fit for her birthday?

I usually exercise while the boys are taking their afternoon naps. The other day Jason woke up before I'd had a chance to put everything away. I left him alone long enough to get a cup of water and when I turned around this is how I found him.
I love his expression in this picture. The Wii was on and he was moving the cursor around and making my Mii freak out. He thought it was hysterical. When I tried to put everything away he was ticked with me. I turned off the TV and he was perfectly happy sitting on the balance board investigating the remote. So there he sat for quite a while until he lost interest. As soon as he moved on I put it away.

Yesterday Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon it looked like this outside.
It was a beautiful afternoon and the temperature was just right, so the kids and I spent the afternoon out on our large deck. (our lawn is a work in process)

Jonathan played at his picnic table with his "space ships."

Jason chillaxed and looked cute in his favorite green lawn chair.

And I sat in a pink lawn chair and sipped on this, a double shot nonfat mint mocha, delivered to me by my wonderful husband between work and worship practice.

It really was a wonderful afternoon.

A Secret Project Complete

Remember this room? If not here are the pictures again to refresh your memory. This room was supposed to be our office and guest room. Looks real inviting for a guest, right? Yeah not so much. This room has been a thorn in our side since the day we moved into this house. There were just so many things that didn't work about it. *
Problem number one with this office is that darn corner desk. We thought, when we bought it, that it would work perfectly. Fail! The desk space wasn't big enough so if I had my laptop out I had no place to work. The shelves didn't hold enough stuff in a useful manner. Those plastic stacking containers work well but scream dorm room, not guest room/office space. Storage was hard to find and as a result most things ended up just dumped in the middle of the floor. This was the room where things went to never be seen again. When my mom came we would stash the junk in other, less noticeable places, and then bring it back to this room when she left. No kidding.
Another problem with this room was the guest bed. It sat really really low to the ground. You practically had to fall into bed and then roll out onto the floor and get up from there. The bed in Jonathan's room was more appropriate for an adult and the guest bed was definitely better for a kid.

I made a New Year's Resolution that this room would be clean by the end of January and stay clean. Yeah... that so never happened. The room got clean the night before my mom arrived in March and was a disaster shortly there after. Literally we never used this room. Dan's computer was in this room and was never used. Rather than use his computer at home and have to brave the disaster room Dan would bring his laptop home from work every day. We would have to close the door to this room to keep the kids from getting into trouble or hurt. It was bad.

Dan was fed up, so was I. He started looking at new office/guest room options and I started looking at money. Honestly there was no way that we could afford to do anything different in this room. Then we got our tax return. Dan looked online at IKEA and found an office set up that he liked. He pitched it too me expecting to get a no way but I was tired of the disaster room and threw caution to the wind and jumped into his idea.

So while we were in Portland for Sarah's graduation we made a trip to IKEA to pick up the furniture that we had decided on. We debated on wall color, talked about how it would go with the bed when the bed was so small and the totally wrong color, we talked room assessories, size, and spacing. And at the end of the day what we came away with was this...
I'm in love. Seriously, in love. The weekend before finals Dan cleaned out the office and painted the walls a beautiful yellow. The color is called Friendly Yellow and I believe it lived up to its name. I love the color. I love the way the yellow on the walls goes with the dark wood of the shelves and desk. I love all the storage in the bookshelves, although it was a pain in the rear to organize. I love our red accent boxes and I think next time we are in Portland we might get another one. I spend the majority of Monday and Tuesday of finals week in this room working on homework and it felt so good. It was nice to be off the couch, even though I have a laptop always typing in my lap gets tiring.
The bed that was in this room was a really light color and very low to the ground. We solved both these problems, an one more I'll blog about later, by moving the darker bed from Jonathan's room into the guest room and the other bed into his room. The bed isn't an exact match but its way better and I'm sure my mom will be excited to not have to fall into bed this time. :) I got teh bedding ant Macy's for a great deal. We had the curtians already and they are the perfect compliment to the yellow wallas and red bedding. The red bedding ties the office and guest room sides of the room together. I think it looks fantastic!The dresser matched the bed, kinda, so it was too light in for the space. So we took the darker dresser from Jonathan's room and switched it with the dresser that was in this room. This also solved another problem but again I'll blog about that later. ;)

All this has been done without telling my mom. Its been really hard not to tell her because I tell her everything. I slipped up and told her about the bed switch but that's all. I don't feel too bad because she remodeled an entire bathroom in our house in Fairbanks as a surprise for me. I think she'll really like the space and I'm excited for her to see it when she gets her today.

Dan and I really feel like this is a space we will use and keep clean. We have some great storage slutions in place that will make it easier to keep the room tidy.

And so that is my surprise project that I've been working on. I can finally mark off that New Year's Resolution! And hey, its not even June yet. I'm doing great... or something.

*Those before pictures were taken in January, I forgot to take new ones befe Dan graciously cleaned out the office while I was at a birthday party. My Christmas tree box and the suitcases from our vacation were put away long ago... just sayin'...

Boredom Strikes

I don't think I can really adequately explain what is going on in these pictures. We just got new laundry sorting bags and we were bored. I'm not really sure there is more to say than that, the pictures speak for themselves...

It's the newest, coolest backpack.

It gives you a giant head and big muscles.

Oh my... um... yeah

Fear not they are now in the corner of our bedroom being used for their intended purpose. This will never happen again, I hope!

That sucked!

Alternately titled: The Morning from Hell

(but I didn't think that was appropriate to show up on people's blog roles)

The day started out well enough. I got up, showered, got my kids ready for school, got everyone out the door almost on time. Then I went about my morning business. I packed my bag, dried and straightened my hair, put on my make-up, got dressed, and was pretty much ready to go. Just three things left to do: make my lunch, eat breakfast, put dinner in the crock pot.

I opened the fridge to grab my lunch and noticed that Dan's lunch was still in the fridge. Bummer! Oh well no problem I have plenty of time I'll just drop it off on my way to Moscow. It's a little out of my way but not a huge deal.

Move on to putting dinner in the crock pot. All the veggies and meat are chopped up so all I have to do is put it in the crock pot, season a little, and add the chicken broth. I put the veggies and meat in and had added the pepper, all that was left was a dash of salt. Then tragedy struck.

I keep my kosher salt in a large shaker, similar to this one. I was just adding a dash of salt when all of a sudden the lid came flying off and the entire container of salt was suddenly emptying very rapidly into my crock pot. I screamed, said a bad word, and started to cry. Dinner was ruined. I tried to rinse all the chopped veggies and meat off but it was no use. There was too much salt and it was already absorbing into the food. I was crushed. I mean it was only dinner but I'm not usually on top of things enough to have something ready for the crock pot, plus split pea soup was sounding so good. But it was not to be. So instead we went out for dinner and had an early out to dinner celebration for Jason's 1st Birthday, which is on Saturday.

Hopefully next time we make split pea soup things will turn out a little better!

BTW if you are wondering no I didn't eat breakfast before I left the house, after the disaster there wasn't time. I hit the coffee stand drive thru on my way out of town and got coffee and a muffin. And yes I still delivered Dan's lunch. The rest of the day was much better!

Me and My Keys

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that my keys and I have some issues. Or probably more accurately I have issues keeping track of my keys. In fact I have such a reputation with my keys that they young man I dated in high school gave Dan and I a key holder as a wedding gift with a note that said simply "She'll need this. Trust me." And these aren't recent problems that can be blamed on pregnancy or having kids, no these problems go back to the first week I had my drivers license.

I kid you not in the first week I had my drivers license I locked my keys in the car 4 out of 5 days and twice the car was running. Not having a cell phone at the time I couldn't discretely call my mom to bail me out. Nope I had to swallow my pride and take the walk of shame and ask to barrow a phone. It was quite embarrassing.

I have locked myself out of every house I have ever lived in at least once. When Jonathan was really little, still small enough to carry around in his infant carrier, I managed to lock myself out of the house and car without my cell phone in the rain. I had to walk almost a half mile to our church, with Jonathan in his carrier on my arm. By the time I got there I was drenched and rather upset.

Last January I really out did myself and managed to lock Dan out of his car at work. While attempting to rescue him from my mistake I managed to lock myself out of my car and our house. I was at home with the keys to his car and he was at work, with a car he couldn't get into, with the keys to the house and my car. You can read the whole story here. Believe me it's worth it. Yet another proud moment and my biggest key debacle ever.

My special skill struck again last Thursday when I locked my self out of my house and car again. But this time we were prepared and had placed a key in a magnetic box under out deck. Unfortunately that was before we latticed in our deck. I reached under the deck and found the keys but they were just a little out of my reach. I shoved my arm further under the deck and grabbed the container with my fingertips. The magnet released and at the same time my finger tips lost their grip and I dropped the container under the deck and out of reach. Crud! By this point I'm running really late to pick up my friend and am on track to be late to class. I'm also up a creek without a paddle. Fortunately Dan had a prep period on Thursday morning and came to my rescue. He got to the house moved a piece of wood and exposed a huge gap between the ground and lattice and pulled out the spare key with ease. Well if I'd know there was a gap I could have done that. Oh well!

I'm sure this won't be the last post about my keys but hopefully there won't be another one anytime soon.

The Story of a Window

It looks like an ordinary drivers side window and on most days it is but today it has a story to tell. You see yesterday this window looked a little more like this...


Quite a difference. We've had a lot of rain and snow here in the PNW this week. With rain and snow comes a lot of road spray while driving. To top that off yesterday on my way to campus I ended up behind a truck hauling dirt. Of course with the road wind some of the dirt was falling off the truck and being blown around, mostly onto the car right behind. (that was me) All the muck on my window was actually making turning left a little difficult, actually it was making it dangerous. On my way home last night, around 6:30pm, I stopped to clean it off at a gas station but since it was below freezing they didn't have window cleaner out. Defeated I headed home and figured that I would just swing by on my way to campus today. When I got home I had forgotten all about my window and didn't say anything to Dan.

Well as luck would have it my darling 3-year-old decided this morning was the perfect day to throw a fit about everything. Friday is my earliest morning for class and I need to leave the same time Dan and the boys do. This means that I have to be able to get dressed and eat while dressing and feeding the boys. Most mornings I have an hour after the boys leave to get myself ready. As Dan left the house, late for work, I knew that I was going to be even later and I knew that a stop to clean my windows wasn't a possibility.

I didn't noticie it at first but when I looked out my drivers side window while turning out of my neighaborhood I realized that I could see. I called Dan and asked if he had cleaned my window. He said that he was scraping my windows, we had a little frost last night, because he knew I was running even later than he was. While scraping my windows the dirt had started smearing so he grabbed a chunk of snow and rubbed it on the window and then used the ice scraper to clean it off. I was so blessed I almost cried!

Thanks for cleaning my windows. I love you!

Ears

And for my 100th post we will talk about ears... I feel like I should so something for this momentous occasion but I've got nothing...

Well it seems my sweet little Jason has been "blessed" with his daddy's ears. Growing up Dan had chronic ear infections. He has had tubes twice and has some hearing loss from all his ear problems. I took Jason into the Dr today for a follow up about his ears. I'll spare y'all retelling the whole story, if you need a refresher go here. The infection has cleared up but there is still fluid in his ears. To prevent any possible hearing loss we will be going back to the dr every three weeks until the fluid is gone. Dr. Mike is hoping that the fluid will clear up when the weather gets better. He said if the fluid is still there when Jason turns 15 months (9 months from when it showed up in October) then we will discuss tubes. So Jason you have until July to get this problem cleared up!

In other news he has also apparently been "blessed" with my allergy to penicillin. This I do have to share the back story for or nothing will make sense.

While I was pregnant with Jason I managed to get pneumonia. The Dr gave me Augmentin which I promptly had an allergic reaction too while Dan was out of town. Oh the timing on that one! Anyway about a week after starting his Amoxicillen Jason broke out in a big time rash. I was in class so bless his heart Dan had to tackle this problem by himself. He did great taking both kids to the Dr and still feeding everyone dinner by the time I got home. Anyway Jason has been labled as allergic to penicillin, which greatly reduces the drugs that we can use to try and clear all this fluid up. So friends please pray that it clears up and tubes are not necessary.

Oh heavens I love this kid. Seriously I could just eat him up, but y'all know that already!