What a Weird Weekend!

So I had a really surreal weekend. My dad was in town, which was cool because I don't get to see him that much and I really miss him. I'm the world's worst phone-caller so most of my family thinks that I hate them because I really suck at staying in touch, but whenever they are in town it's sure nice! I was especially glad to see dad because he's doing really well. He's started working as a Land Man recently and the career really seems to suit him. I think it's got just enough freedom for him to not feel boxed in, but enough structure that he doesn't have to worry about all the little details. Sounds like a good match to me, especially if you know my Pop!
It was kind of weird having him in town for so long, though, since he hasn't been able to do a whole lot of traveling since I've been up here in Utah, so he doesn't make it up here unless someone's getting married or burried. It was nice to see him without the stress of either one of those hanging over my head.
It was also a weird weekend because we had a FULL house. With mamá and Ana and Dad and Kenley and Andrei plus Luis and myself I had a few people stuffed into every room, it seemed. I haven't entertained that many people ever, so that was odd. I loved it, except for last night when we had Andrei in our bed and he kept waking up all night long like a maniac. Seriously. Every 20 minutes or so. Just like when he was a toddler. Andrei didn't sleep through the night regularly until he was almost 3 and we had a repeat of that last night. Weird. He hasn't slept that poorly for some time now... not since I started teaching. I'm feeling it today.
It was also a weird weekend because I kept having dreams about babies. I don't know what that was all about, except maybe my sister Melissa being literally due at any second. I think I'm worried about her. With Lauren's tragedy a few weeks ago I'm feeling very overprotective of my pregnant friends/sibs these days. Plus I think I've been worried about my store and getting our wholesale contracts off the ground. Since my store is kind of my baby, maybe that has some connection.
Anyway, I'm still here at the store and it's getting dark so I'm going to go now. I hate how dark it gets here in the Autumn and Winter. It's like Sept. 1st someone reaches up and turns off the light and summer is over. I always feel weird this time of year.

Small Victories!

So I've been really struck lately by the duality of my situation as a teacher in school and a teacher at home, especially since the kids I teach are basically Andrei in 6 or 7 years. It's funny because today we had some small victories with my kids at school and my kid at home.
First the kids at school: I teach ESL. Or as they say know days ESOL. Somehow over the past 3 years we've picked up a vowel for some reason. But anyway, I have everyone at school who comes from a non-English speaking background who has not passed the UALPA (ESOL) exam or the CRT (no child left behind) test. These kids are usually fed up with school and frustrated by years of constant failure, so trust me they are NOT usually cool with spending a hour a day doing what they do worst- reading and writing in English... which is of course what they need the most. Today we played "good ange/bad angel" in my 8th grade advanced class. I have decided that they are going to read Treasure Island and they are going to love it... but that's kind of an uphill battle because of the time period and the language. Well, after we played for half the class I think the kids started to get really in to it and by the end of class we'd made some MAJOR strides.
Andrei is doing a little better, too. He got his first positive comments from his teacher today. Apparently the 45 minutes we spent role-playing appropriate behavior in class helped him understand how to sit still and behave a little better today. He's still got a LONG way to go, but I think he'll really start catching on if his mom doesn't get in the way too much.
Anyway, it was a long, stressful day, but I'm grateful for small victories.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel?

So for those of you who know me, you know I've been working now as a teacher for 3 years, despite how much I hate my job. The hours suck if you're not a total morning person, which I am not. I have to be AT work at 7:30 a.m. or earlier, and even though school gets out at 2:45 I am often at meetings after school until 4:30 or 5:00. I get paid salary so I don't make any overtime, even though I routinely go in on weekends, holidays, and nights. I am constantly under pressure to raise test scores while cutting budgets, and until I pass the PRAXIS exam, I can get fired at any moment without even being told why. Basically I'm like a slave to my job, and true they did give me a raise this year, but it's not a rewarding profession most days and I don't care how much they pay me, I want out!
Anyway, I started my wedding dress company this spring with the idea in mind that I could hopefully build the business enough that I could do that instead of teaching, and we're actually starting to make enough money that it would be a possibility in the near future. However, I also learned that owning a company is a huge pain in the butt, and it's almost as stressful as teaching. So I've been really depressed lately trying to figure out how we could pull things together so I can quit, because honestly after a lot of soul searching I realized that I do not, nor have I ever really wanted to work anywhere except in my own home, especially now that I have a home that is nice enough to really appreciate. I love the dress store, but I really just don't want to work anymore. I've been on my own and running in the rat race for 10 years (1/3 of my life!) and I'm TIRED! I graduated and came to BYU when I was 17, and have been working to pay rent, insurance, car payments, mortgages, cell-phone bills, and credit cards for a REALLY long time now. I put myself through college, and then I put my husband through college, and then I bought a house when I was 23... and a bigger house when I was 25... and now I'm exhausted.
Our contract with the realtor who is selling the 300 West house is up in June, and if we haven't sold by then we're going to approach the hospital and try to negotiate something with them on our own.
Today Luis and I sat down and crunched some numbers and we realized that if our starter home sells for as little as the hospital wants to pay for it, I could realistically quite both my jobs in the spring and just take a part time somewhere. 20 hours a week, nothing to take home, no leadership responsibilities... heaven.
If we can sell to them for how much we think our house is worth, I can quit my job altogether and just stay home for the first time in my adult life. You know- just chill out, cook meals, work in the garden, do crafts, take Andrei to his afterschool programs, obsess over my Primary lessons... clean my house they way I actually want it to be cleaned.
Sigh... if only...

I Heart the 80's

So I spent a great deal of time on Saturday vegging out and making my ultimate 80's playlist. Andrei spent the weekend with his mom (for the first time in literally I don't know how long) and I took advantage of not having a kid attached to my hip all weekend by doing a whole lot of pointless stuff that makes me happy!
Aside from the playlist, which you can listen to here in all its glory, I took an excessive ammount of time today making quite possibly the most delicious quiche I've ever eaten, utilizing ingredients from my kitchen garden. I'm really going to miss that garden this winter when I can't just go outside any time I want to grab onions, tomatoes, and peppers. I love quiche and I never get around to cooking it during the week because it's quite time consuming, and I only bother cooking kid-friendly dishes on the weekend because Andrei' is the pickiest eater on the planet.
I also took a THREE hour nap today after church, which I haven't been able to do on a non-sick day for years. It was glorious.
So here's to 80's music, and thanks to my sisters Terra, Tiffani, Sara, and Peggy for inspiring most of this playlist. I would never have known who Whitesnake, Chicago, Depeche Mode, or Bananarama were without you. And here's to myself for growing the most prolific tomato plants of all time. They're producing an average of 2-3 pounds of ripe tomatoes a week these days. If you want to know my secrets I'll be happy to share them. And here's to Jerly for finally stepping up and being a mom for once in her kid's lifetime.
It was a good weekend!

If you find yourself sad or depressed, get a little dog.

I love dogs. That's really weird beacuse I hated dogs until about 3 years ago. I come from a VERY long line of cat people and was raised thinking that dogs were the devil. That basically they are noisy, foul smelling monsters who destroy everything the come into contact with and are a constant nuissance. I knew several dogs growing up who proved my hypothesis correct. I also was never fond of the jumping up and crotch sniffing.
On the other hand, I was raised to believe that cats are naturally refined, elegant creatures with distinctive taste. Basic message: Cats good, dogs bad.
When I got married we started trying to have kids almost immediately and after a year or so realized that it wasn't going to be a walk in the park. I hit a really low point after our first official year of trying when I was labeled medically infertile (infertility is defined medically for women under 35 as having regular intercourse without contraceptives and without conceiving for 1 year, in case you were wondering). I hit a brick wall emotionally and slumped into a MAJOR depression. Someone suggested to me that I get a pet because having something to play with and nurture that could reciprocate love and affection might help me not be so sad all of the time, which I thought at first was a buch of hooey. After some serious thought on the matter, however, I decided to go for it.
I obviously wanted a cat because of my long-standing hate relationship with most other animals, but Luis hates cats more than I hate waking up early to work out, so that was clearly not an option. I tried to convince him to let me get a bird, a hamster, a guinea pig, a turtle... a fish! Nothing. He was raised by a father who believes domestic animals are disease ridden, useless, and filthy and have no business being around humans, so he didn't really care for the idea of having any pets. However, one day I was at Life Skills kicking it with my homies and the CNA that we had on-staff then got a phone call from her sister asking if Cami (the CNA) knew anyone who wanted a dog. I jumped on it.
Turns out the lady had recently purchased a pure-bred, papered Chihuahua for $350, had paid for all the shots, licensing, training, accessories, food, outfits, leashes, etc., and then found out she was 6 weeks pregnant with her 3rd child under 4. Aside from incapacitating morning sickness, stress, and overall anxiety, her pregnancy also brought along an acute allergy to her new puppy and after much debate the family decided they needed to get rid of their little dog. She'd spent $600 total for the puppy, but was letting it go for $300. I talked her down to $100, and picked up Bella the next day. Her name was really Anabelle, and they called her Belle, but I didn't want to offend my SIL and MIL (both named Ana) and I hate Disney Princesses, so I changed it to Dolce la Bella and that's my doggy's official AKC registered name. She's the biggest, fattest, spottiest pure-bred chihuahua in the world, I think, and I love her. She likes peanut butter, tomatoes, taking long walks, and barking at the post-man.
Walking Bella, bathing Bella, and training Bella became my full-time-hobby for a while, and let me tell you- it did the trick. Luis didn't want to get her but he disliked dogs less than all the other animals I'd suggested, and when he saw how happy Bella made me, he was sold. She's such a good dog that she totally won him over after a few months, and then she converted the rest of Luis's family to dogs as well. Now his two little sisters both have pets, and Ana actually has 4 chihuahuas. Bella turned 3 this April, and she's going strong. She had a litter of 4 puppies last October.
We got another dog 6 months after Bella as a companion dog when I went to work at Dixon full time. Our 2 year old poodle Star looked just like the dog on "Zoolander" and we loved her a lot. We also loved to put her in silly outfits and yell "obey my dog" at random. We loved her even more so because we rescued her from an abusive situation and nursed her back to health. She was rail thin and clearly had been beaten. I spent the first two weeks she was with us nursing her on bread soaked in chicken stock because she was too emaciated and weak to eat. She regained full health and was actually carrying a litter of puppies we think when she was tragically struck by a car only 7 months after we got her. We still miss her to this day. However, we immediately replaced her with a third puppy, Leyla, because Bella stopped eating and wouldn't get out of bed after Star died. Leyla is a silver purebred miniature poodle with champion bloodlines. She is hilarious, and the major reason why I'm writing this post. Today I gave her a haircut (yes, I clip and groom my own pets, and they're freakin' adoreable) which is always a pain in the butt, but SO necessary for their health and sanity. The funny thing, though, is that every time I cut Leyla's hair and bathe her, afterward the thinks she has developed some sort of super power and she goes running through the house like she's on speed. It's SOOO funny! She ran up and down our main hallway like 4 times in one minute, and then lapped the entire 3rd floor of our hous a half a dozen times before shooting out the dog door like a rocket. She's still bouncing around a half hour later, and I'm still laughing out loud.
So, if you're sad, lonely, depressed, or just feeling blue, find yourself a little dog. They really do the trick. Mine have really brought a lot of joy to my life and I'm so thankful for their honest, loyal companionship every day of my life. I always hated dogs, but after living with two clean, happy, healthy, well-trained dogs for almost 3 years now, I totally understand why they say dogs are man's best-friend. If you doubt me, stop in for a visit. I'm sure the girls would be more than happy to send some love your way.

Puh-lease!

So we had a bride come in today to pick up her dress and it was so stupid. She tried the dress on Friday night and was concerned that the jacket was to heavy, so she left and came back like 15 minutes later and stood in front of the mirror for almost an hour hemming and hawing trying to decide if she liked it or not, and we offered to correct her issues with it, but she finally decided it was ok.
So she came to get the finished dress today and brought her best friend along with her, who convinced her she hated the jacket and I had to spend an hour talking to her trying to get a straight answer out of her what she wanted me to do. I told her we could arrange to have it altered, that she could get a refund for it, that I could discount it, etc.... and she just kept hemming and hawing and complaining about how the jacket wasn't what she really wanted and how she had picked us specifically because we told her we would make the jacket how she wanted... etc.
Although I sympathize with her and fully take credit for the fact that we had to move her pick-up date from Friday until Wednesay, my issue is this- Jenny spent as much time finishing the jacket she ultimately decided she didn't like as it would have taken her to make a new jacket in the style that she finally admitted she really wanted. She could have been 100% satisfied with her dress and I wouldn't have had to lose almost $200 giving her a 20% discount.
Everybody lost in this situation because of her failure to be honest with us about our work. So here's my advice for the day- if you are hiring a service person to do ANYTHING for you, and you don't like it at any step of the way, let them know. It might come off sounding rude or bossy, etc. but at least you'll get what you want, which is what you're paying them for anyway. Being rude and bossy halfway through is better for you and for them than being disappointed with the results when you're done and having to get a refund or discount. Seriously. Take it from me. I have now had to deal with this several times.

Fun, Easy, Awesome Craft!

No-Sew Fleece Blanket...
I got this idea from my friend Bibi who was my visiting teacher a few years ago. Once she made these for her teachees and I love mine.
The materials you need are really cheap and easy to find: a pair of relatively sharp scissors, 1 1/2 to 2 yards fleece fabric (available at almost any craft or fabric store, usually for under $7 a yard or so) a ruler, some heavy-duty paper (like brown paper grocery sacks)
Instructions:
Using the ruler, cut a strip of paper that is approximately 3 inches long and 1/2-3/4 inch wide. This will be your guide for the rest of the project.
Cut out a 3 inch by 3 inch square from the corners of your fleece. Then using your guide cut the edges of the fleece into strips, making sure to keep strips nice and even. This will give the edge a fringed look.
When you're done cutting the perimeter of the fabric, tie all of the little fringes into knots. This will hold the fleece together and keep it from fraying, no sewing necessary. The total craft time takes only like 30 minutes or so.
Ta-Duh! You have a very inexpensive, cute, and snuggly throw, perfect for curling up with a good book, keeping cozy on cold rainy days, or providing some extra TLC when you are sick.
I think this would be a really cool craft to do with kids that they could give to friends or teachers for holidays, etc. Or just make a ton to have laying around the house. We have like 5 and they are always being used.

I really hate doctors.

I know it sounds strange, because aren't doctors supposed to be like heros or something? But I hate 'em all. I have never had a really competent doctor that I felt really diagnosed me correctly or helped me in a time of need except for one guy at the IHC Instacare facility in Orem named Dr. Christiansen. But aside from him... clowns. All of them.
A few weeks ago I started feeling like I was coming down with the flu or something. It was actually the day Kenley was born, so I remember it clearly. The first symptom was a dry scratchy throat, followed by a fever, coughing, and sinus congestion. Classic flu symptoms. I didn't bother to go in to get checked out because all they ever do when you have the flu is tell you to drink fluids and sometimes give you Codine cough syrup, which I freakin' love but didn't really need.
Well, the fever cleared up, but the sore throat remained. It was just an irritation for most of the last 2 weeks, so I ignored it, but yesterday afternoon the pain got so bad I decided to finally go in and get checked out. When I say pain, I mean like an 8 on the smiley face scale. I'm sure it's not as bad as child birth, but it's worse than when I cut off half of my toe a few weeks ago.
So I waited in the waiting room for a half hour or so- nothing drastic, and then got called into the exam room. The doctor was a total clown. He did a throat swab to check for strep, and then disappeared for an hour. Literally. Actually more like an hour and a half. Finally I got the nurse because I was in terrible pain, and starving, and she went and got the doctor who said that I don't have strep, that it's just a mild infection that should clear up on its own, and there was nothing he could do for me except give me a perscription throat rinse to ease the pain.
Well, the throat rinse didn't do crap and I spent literally the entire night waking up in excruciating pain every time I swallowed... to the point where I spent the better part of 1-2 a.m. bawling like a baby.
So I'm calling in a sub for today and I'm going to head over to instacare AGAIN to tell them that if they don't give me an antibiotic for this I'm going to perform an tonsilectomy on myself in their office because it would probably hurt less than what I've been through the past 24 hours. What a pain in the butt! I have to miss ANOTHER day of school, get ANOTHER sub, go to the doctor's AGAIN (when I was there for literally over 2 hours last night!) all because some stupid jerk refused to listen to me when I told him my symptoms. They better give me Christiansen today or else some poor attending nurse is going to get cursed at a lot.
I HATE DOCTORS!!!!!!!!!!
Update: I wrote this post around 4 am. After I finished I put together 2 tests, a quiz, and a writing assignment for the sub and headed over to the school around 6. At 7, I left school and headed up to Orem. I stopped along the way for something to drink to ease the pain, but it was pointless because I can't swallow and had to stop every couple of miles to spit because I couldn't handle even swallowing that.
When I got there the lady at the check-in desk at first looked at me like I was kind of crazy or like one of those pill-poppers that bug doctors until they can get a fix, but I think the fact that I was nearly in tears convinced her to go ahead and check me in.
I got Dr. Christiansen (thank heavens) who tested me for a bunch of stuff which all came up negative. He said since it's probably viral an anti-biotic probably won't do much, but he said he'd give me one anyway because he was concerned that I'd been ill with this for 2 weeks now and was showing no improvement. He also gave me Lortab for the pain and told me to only use it if I wanted to sleep because it would knock me out cold for a few hours... yes!
After that it was merely a matter of going to the WalMart pharmacy to fill my perscriptions and by 10 I was in bed sleeping soundly. It's about 1:15 and the pain pills have worn off, but just having some sleep sure helped a lot.

Ritalin does not fix anything.

So I've been really lazy about posting anything for most of this week. I think I'm just at that point in the school year where the crushing reality of actually having to teach a group of students for the next 8 months is starting to settle in, without the benefit of having been paid yet. That's something most people don't realize about teachers. Sure, we get cushy work hours, never have to ask of weekends or holidays, and have the entire summer (cough... not really) free, but when I went back to work on August 10th it was full knowledge that my first pay check was not coming until Sept. 15th. I challenge you to work 8-10 hour days for a month without getting paid. It sucks.

Anyway, not to be negative, but it's just been a really icky week. Not particularly bad, but just a long stream of hassles to be dealt with, without too many rewards. Andrei is really struggling with reading. Ironic, considering I taught myself how to read when I was 4 and was into 100 page chapter books by the time I was his age. I just don't know what to do with the kid. We spent like an hour today trying to get him to memorize some sight words. I think we're both exhausted from it, but he can now read most of "Hop on Pop" without assistance, so there is some progress.

Hopefully this will get his teachers off of our backs a little this next week. His school is freaking out about this weirdo kid who wandered into their tidy little programs this year from a Montessori background. Unfortunately, most public school teachers don't even know what the heck a Montessori is, and have no concept of alternative school systems. We warned both his teachers at back to school night that he is coming from 3 years at a Montessori, and would have serious problems staying seated, quiet, or focusing long-term on tasks he doesn't like... We mentioned he only knows phonics and not sight words and therefore is a SLOW reader at best, and that he's never studied writing at all...yet when he started doing all of those things in class (wandering, engaging in conversation, misspelling his own name etc.) they freaked and are like testing him for ADHD, Special Ed., learning disorders, etc. I keep telling them he's not retarded, he's just not used to school, but they don't listen to me. I mean, what the hell would I know about education, or Andrei as a person in general?

Anyway, we're meeting with his teachers AGAIN this week to try and sort it all out and get him on a tracking system of some sort so that we can hopefully get him turned around before he gets turned into the stupid hyperactive retard that they're treating him like. I mean for crying out loud, the kid is SIX! I have had 13 year olds who read as poorly as he does, and felt like that was a serious issue that should be dealt with immediately. But six? Really? He's only been at their school for like 4 weeks. Is it really that big of a deal?

Anyway, sorry for the rant. I just really love my kid and hate how the public school system slaps the ADHD label on any kid who displays a little bit of non-conformity and then pressures the parents to drug the kid up to get them to stay quiet in class. Most of the adults that I know who were labeled ADD or ADHD as kids had serious consequences resulting from it with self-esteem, sustained effort, and a host of other things. The ones I know who were medicated from it suffered even worse. On the other hand, most of the ADD/ADHD adults I know who were never diagnosed or treated until their adult years suffer no long-term ramifications from the disorder. It's not that I oppose legitimate medical treatments for ADD, I just oppose medicating problem students to force conformity in the classroom when there are other non-medical options that produce lasting authentic results.

So, the message for the day is for teachers and parents: If you have a 6 year old who can't read well, try actually teaching them to read before placing them on behavior altering medication and shoving them into 3 hours of special ed classes before and after school. It just might work.

On a side note, I taught Andrei how to play checkers last week, and he's kicking my butt. The tally is 4 games to 2. I actually tried to beat him half the time, and he still won. Yeah. He's a real slow learner...

And now Presenting...

My Store!

For those of you who aren't on facebook yet, here's some pictures of my store. I'm always getting new merchandise and equipment, so it'll probably change again in a few weeks, but this is it for now.

Lobby and reception area.

Fitting Room

Mannequins and Dresses

Workshop

I recently got a few photos from one of our previous clients who just had her bridals done, so here is our work in all its glory. Props to Jenny for putting it all together, and props to me for spending 20 + hours on the internet and probably another 10 driving around town trying to find that lace!
And last but not least, here are a few snapshots we took of Sasha when she picked up her dress last Monday. They're not the greatest photos, but you can see the dress and how well it fit her. I will put some professional photos of her up for you to see if she sends me some.

I guess we're all going to pull through.

It was a rough weekend, with Kenley spending her first days at home. I can tell mamá is not used to waking up all night long because she's taking an extra long time to get herself made up in the mornings. Ana is coping ok, but is having a hard time keeping anything down. She's lost her apetite and is starting to get frustrated when the baby cries. I haven't been able to help because I've been horribly ill all weekend with heaven only knows what. At first I thought it was strep because my throat hurt, but then that was overshadowed by the worst sinus pressure I've ever had, combined with chest congeston, so I think it might just be a bad upper respiratory infection. That left Luis in charge of caring for Andrei for most of the weekend, which is really stressful for him. I should add, though, that he did a wonderful job, and Andrei had done a great job of behaving himself.
Ana's husband Jacob came over last night for a few hours and again tonight. He really wants to be involved in the whole baby thing and he's a really hands-on parent, but Ana is from a really traditional family where the dad never fed them, changed them, held them, or played with them, and she really can't understand why Jacob won't just leave her alone and let her do her thing. So it's been interesting around here this weekend with those two trying to find some sort of balance in their relationship with this baby.
The good news is that I'm getting better, Luis and Andrei made it through the weekend without killing each other, and it looks like Kenley is starting to sleep a little more these says so maybe Ana and Mamá will get some rest tonight. Oh... and my toe is getting better. It looks truly disgusting, but no longer hurts, so I guess superglue and rubbing alcohol saved the day again. Nice! Take that ER doctors. I think I should pay myself like $700 for my services. What do you think?

Seriously... LAME!!!!

Here's some information I came across today that would have been really helpful to know about, oh.... 4 YEARS AGO!!!!

Two common fertility treatments offer little benefit, study says

Sun, Aug 10, 2008 (HealthDay News) — The infertility drug clomifene citrate and artificial insemination do little to help certain couples who can't have children naturally, according to Scottish researchers.Their study included 580 couples who had no obvious reasons for their inability to conceive. The couples were divided into three groups and received either the drug, artificial insemination, or no treatment. There was little difference between the three groups in the numbers of women who had babies, the Associated Press reported.Women in the clomifene citrate group had 26 babies, compared to 32 babies in the no-treatment group and 43 babies in the artificial insemination group. The findings appear in the British Medical Journal."These treatments are a leap of faith," said lead author Dr. Siladitya Bhattacharya, a professor of reproductive medicine at the University of Aberdeen, the AP reported. "None of the treatments studied had any significant benefit over no treatment at all."

LAME!!!!!!

And to think that I've been freaking out about this for 4 years, both before, during, and after my experience with fertility treatments. All the time I could have just been chilling out, or obsessing over other things. Hmm. What to do know?

Nothing's cures a pity party better than a bubble bath!

My SIL Ana finally had her baby this morning at 10. She was induced yesterday. They started the Pitosin around 3:30 and had her up to a full dose by 5. She spent most of the night only dialated to a 2, however, and the heavy contractions didn't kick in until 1:30 or so. By the time the anesthesiologist got the epidural in, however, it was almost 3. Apparently it took him 5 or six needles and a full 30 minutes to do a 5 minute procedure, and the entire time Ana was in excruciating pain. Contractions were steady throughout the rest of the night and they had her start pushing around 8:30. Little Kenley (or Kenlie, or Kenly) Schumann was born this morning at 10 after 10. She is 7 lbs. 9 ozs. and is about 20 inches long. She looks just like her mommy, as this picture can attest.
Middle names are being debated. So far, the front runners are Enedina, Michelle, Iris, and Yvette. Any suggestions? They're kind of stumped. What goes well with Kenley?
She's a really good baby, and the best eater I've literally ever seen. Within the first minute and a half of the first time breast feeding she was totally latched on and sucking away. Mom experienced no discomfort and was able to produce plenty of food for the baby, so she's not had to take a bottle yet, which I understand is actually quite remarkable. I think this is Karma's way of paying Ana back for her less than ideal pregnancy.

Babies always make me a little melencholy. I love them, but I'm never fully able to appreciate them because of my own situation, which is really difficult to sort out. I feel happy for Ana and I love the baby, but at the same time I still feel resentment towards the universe in general, which makes me feel guilty, which usually just leads to a very confusing emotional state. I didn't really know how to cope today besides alternately crying tears of joy and frustration. I decided that I needed something stronger, however, around 8 o'clock, so I took a bubble bath. I know. I'm such a rebel. But that helped. It's amazing how that works.
So the moral of the story today is that babies are cute, and if you're feeling blue to get some bubbles, a good playlist, and something frosty to drink. It's good medicine. I guess if you're a guy that might look a little weird, but you should try it anyway, because it's beter than Xanax. I think I'm getting a little off topic though, so...
Welcome Kenley Michelle Yvette Enedina Iris Schumann! You sure are a cutie.
UPDATE: AFTER MUCH DEBATE THE BABY HAS A NAME.... Kenley Enedina Schumann.

OUCH!!!

I'm in the middle of entering grades for the first two weeks of school. Ick. Grading and then entering grades has to be my single most hated part of being a teacher, even more so than lesson planning. If all I ever had to do was show up and hang out with the kids, I'd love my job. Maybe I should look in to counseling or something like that.
In the mean time, the dress store is doing pretty good. We finished Sasha's dress today. Finally. Jenny does really great work but sometimes she has a tendency to drag her feet a little bit, which sucks because Sasha had to reschedule the photographer who's doing her groomals like three times. Dumb! The dress looked fabulous, though, and Sasha looked demure yet sexy... It reminded me of the dress that's described in Stephanie Meyer's latest book "Breaking Dawn." As slow as Jenny can be, sometimes, she really knows how to fit a dress to a woman's body, if I do say so myself.
I got to spend the greater part of this holiday weekend hanging out with Andrei, because he got in trouble at school and was grounded on Saturday, and then his mom no-call, no-showed last night and again tonight. He behaved exteremly well all weekend, though, which makes me wonder why is he so good with me and so rotten with other people. Something to do with mommy? Maybe all of that stuff I said about structure and discipline being necessary even for very small children was right. Hmmm... something to ponder. He's really growing up to be a very awesome kid. He's really intelligent (although I think he might be dyslexic), athletic, funny, and very kind... Not that I'm biased or anything. :) He's recently come to a very profound understanding of what our relationship actually is. This year he discovered what step-mothers are and explained it to me this way- He said, "I grew in my mommy's tummy so she's my first mom, but then I grew in your heart so you're my second mom." Pretty deep stuff for a kid who's just barely six, if I say so myself. Anyway, if you don't know him you should get to know him. I am not a huge fan of most kids (I find most of them sticky and smelly) but I think he's the bomb.
Anyway, 6th period awaits, so I better get going. But in closing, I'd like to share with you the gory story of how I mutilated my big toe today. I am in the process of finishing up the decorating in the store, as we are approaching our major publicity time of the year and I anticipate business will be steady throughout the fall, and I wanted to update the pedastal in the fitting room. We've had some carpet tiles stacked up to make a platform, but it's wobbly and kind of ghetto looking. So I had the brilliant idea of getting some luon and sticking vinyl flooring tiles on it to create a hard floor platform for the brides in the fitting room. I was unloading the fiberboard from my truck this afternoon when I lost control of it. It swung down like a pendulum catching my big toe on the upswing and slicing off the bottom part of it. It's quite grusome. I didn't want to get stitches, though, so I just soaked it in alcohol and superglued it back together. I'm attaching a picture, but don't look if you've just had lunch. Happy Labor Day!