Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersEmma quote of the day
This afternoon we got out of the van and I put the hood of Emma’s jacket up. “Ohhh…,” she said, “I so ahbayawest!” I looked at her in disbelief.
“You’re what?” I said.
“I so ahbeyawest!” she repeated.
“You’re embarassed?” I asked.
“Yeah…like Gwovah,” she said.
I busted out laughing. She was referencing the end of The Monster at the End of this Book, her recent favorite bedtime story. She aboslutely loves that book…just like I did when I was little. She is such a little mini-me.
We have a contract!
This afternoon our teacher’s union finally ratified a contract. Yes, we’ve been in school for something like 11 weeks now, but we’ve been working without a contract this whole time. Finally, our negotiating team and the school board resolved many of their issues, and a tentative agreement was reached. With this afternoon’s vote, the TA was approved, and I will finally get a raise!
The new contract isn’t offering much of a raise, but it is only a two-year agreement, which is huge. Hopefully the economy will be better in two years, so we’ll be able to ask for more than a 2% increase at that time. The other really beneficial thing for me in the new contract is that a curriculum chair will be created for the IMCs. There will be one representative from the high school level, and there is a good chance that representative will be me. The only person with more seniority than me is retiring in a year and a half, so her salary was locked in three years before her retirement date. I’m excited for this new challenge. We’ve been asking for district level representation for years, so this is a really great advancement.
It’s amazing how rejuvenated I am at work this year. The change in IMC personnel has made a huge difference in my excitement and enjoyment with my job. That makes me very happy…I sure hope it lasts! 
Our daredevil
Well, Emma did it again…we have another facial contusion to add to the list. Last night the kids were downstairs by themselves when we heard loud crying. I ran down and Emma was standing behind the couch crying hard. She ran over to me and I was thrilled that there wasn’t any blood. Shew. But there was a big red blotch near her eye and a scrape and bump on her forhead. I asked her, “Emma, did you fall off the back of the couch?”
“Yes,” she sobbed.
“Now do you understand why Mommy tells you not to climb on the couch?” I asked.
“Whyyyyyyy”, she cried harder. *Sigh* The little girl just doesn’t understand that her daredevil ways lead to injuries. Thankfully, this time, it just looked like she’d just have a shiner and a bump on the head. Yes, I said looked that way. That was last night. Today, however, when I picked them up at Danielle’s, she came running up to me with a big, fat, split lip. Danielle said, “Well, Emma took a little spill. She was trying to climb on the couch.” *Sigh*
I know it could be worse. She’s very lucky that she hasn’t hurt herself too seriously. Knock wood, because I don’t think the message is sinking in.
Ahhhh…
Today was seriously one of the laziest, most relaxing days we’ve had in a very long time, and I enjoyed it very much. Since we set the clocks back an hour last night, the kids were of course up super early, but we all laid around in bed watching cartoons for about 45 minutes before technically starting our day by getting up and ready for church.
After church, we came home and did very little the rest of the day. Both of the kids had a lot of fun working in their new Halloween coloring books from Aunt Theresa, and Ben worked especially hard on some sticker puzzles she gave him. Emma had a three-hour nap, which was desperately needed, and Daddy got a short nap in for himself, too. I enjoyed watching the Bears game without interruption for once. It was great, and they even looked good and won! We had a couple of battles over wanting more candy, but Ben didn’t beg for it too much, so I was happy with that.
It was one of those days where Dave and I look at each other, smile and say, “This is the good stuff, Honey.” The kids were in good moods and had fun playing with each other. The crying was at an all-time low, I think. Ok, sure, Emma did fall off the back of the couch downstairs, got a big lump on her head and cried really hard for a few minutes, but hey, no day is completely perfect, right? Overall, there wasn’t a ton of chaos in the house, and we all spent some really enjoyable time just chillin’ out together.
Halloween fun
The weather made us nervous all week, but luckily it pretty much cooperated in order for us to have a very fun Halloween night. It was a tad bit chilly, but thankfully the rain finally stopped.
We started the night with pizza, and Grandma & Grandpa Kerber joined us first. Then Aunt Theresa came, and finally Auntie M, Salina, and Bella rounded out our group. It didn’t take anyone long to finish eating…the anticipation of trick-or-treating was on the forefront of everyone’s mind. 
So after we ate we changed into our costumes (which luckily were big enough to leave room for a couple of extra layers underneath) and headed out. Ben the panther, Emma the lion and Bella as Magenta the dog made up our costumed group. 
Since Auntie M and Salina both came with us, the adults outnumbered the kids for once, which is never a bad thing!
We started down the street and the kids were into it right away. Emma had not napped this afternoon, so after only a couple of houses, she was getting droopy and was pretty far behind.
But Ben was very patient with both of the little girls. He would wait out on the sidewalk and I can’t remember him complaining once. After about 40 minutes of trick-or-treating both of the girls were ready to head in. Neither of them really knew what any of the candy was in the first place, and they were pooped from walking. Plus, Bella had other stops to make, so Auntie M and Salina were off.
Ben, however, was still ready to go. So Dave took him around one more block. Needless to say, his pumpkin was very heavy by the time they got home a half hour later. He was so excited about some of the things in there. It was too funny. By this time Grandma & Grandpa had gone home, but Aunt Theresa still had a bag of goodies for the kids. They both loved opening these, and we had to have just one more treat before bed.
Both kids had so much fun trick-or-treating. 
We ran into almost all of our neighborhood friends and saw some pretty cool Halloween houses. While Halloween is certainly not my favorite holiday, I have to admit that a smile came to my face on more than one occasion tonight. There’s not much more you can ask than that.
Oh wait, icing on the cake…the Illini football team beat Michigan tonight, too! Woo HOO!!
Welcome home, Mommy!
When I talked to Dave from Springfield last night, he told me that the kids would be very excited to see me today when I got home. But I had no idea how right he was!
When I walked in the door, I realized that the kids were downstairs with Dave. As I started down the steps, I heard Dave say, “I think someone may be home…” Then the screaming began. “MOMMY!” As I hit the basement floor, Ben threw himself at me for a huge hug, and Emma was soon to follow. They both came back for more hugs and kisses repeatedly in that first few minutes. That awesome reception surprised me. But even more of a surprise was how often the same scene has been repeated today. While I haven’t gotten any more screams out of the kids (not necessarily a bad thing) I have gotten LOTS of hugs and kisses and have been told over and over that they missed me so much.
I had a great time at the conference, and really enjoyed reconnecting several professional relationships. But nothing compared to today…coming home is always a treat, and this time it was even more so.
Off to ISLMA
As I type this, the car is packed and I’m ready to head to Springfield for the annual Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA) conference. While I’ve attended the conference several years in the past, this year is different. For the first time, I’m presenting at ISLMA. Friday and Saturday are filled with what we call concurrent sessions. That means there are like 7 or 8 different sessions going on at once, and conference attendees can choose whichever one he or she feels will be the most interesting and beneficial. My colleague Ellen (who is one of the media specialists at West, the other high school in our district) and I are presenting together, and it’s the very first session of the conference. We’re anxious and very excited to see how many people we get for ours.
As always, there is some guilt attached to leaving the kids and Dave for a couple of days. But this time it seems like I’m handling it a little better than usual. Maybe that’s because I’m actually going to be working while I’m gone instead of just playing with my friends. I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends there, but it’s so much m ore about networking and getting some fresh ideas for the IMC.
Wish me luck with this new professional endeavor. Maybe this will become something I do every fall…like teaching the ISU class did.
We just can’t wait!
Today when I picked Ben up from preschool, the first thing he said to me was, “Mommy, next time we come to preschool it’s our pumpkin party!” There was so much excitement in his voice, and he had one o f the biggest smiles I had ever seen. So I decided that we should try on our costumes tonight to make sure that everything was all set. As soon as I got the coats on each kid, they were crawling all over the floor roaring (that would be Emma the lion) and rawring (from Ben the panther) all over the place. It was hilarious.
While I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween, it is definitely fun to anticipate something with the kids. While Ems is still not really sure what’s going to happen Saturday night, Ben remembers it well and is just so psyched for the big event. Let’s hope that Mother Nature cooperates with us so we can have all the fun we think we will!
Carve-o-rama
Tonight was pumpkin carving time! We had gotten a perfect carving pumpkin this afternoon, and after dinner we cleaned off the table and embarked in our adventure. It was decided by the kids that they wanted a happy face, so I drew the face on the pumpkin, and Dave cut the top off. 
As we expected, Ben wanted nothing to do with the “gross part” and Emma dove right in to scoop out the guts. 
So typical! It was cracking us up…she was totally into it. She said things like, “It’s digutsing” (which isn’t a typo…that’s phoentic Emma talk) with a huge grin on her face.
Since Ben was pretty much doing nothing during the entire “gutting” of the pumpkin, he decided he wanted to draw on his with a marker. He wanted very little help with this, and I was actually surprised at how awesome it turned out. 
Of course I had to use some serious persuasive skills to talk him out of drawing animals on it, and I also convinced him to put his name on the back so he wouldn’t write all over his pumpkin’s face. Once Emma saw him doing this, she wanted to do hers, too. I tried my best to help her draw a face, but of course she let me help with one eye before she yanked the marker away from my hand and said, “No, Mommy, I can do it myself!” Little Ms. Independent pretty much just drew some straight lines all over her pumpkin, but she was thrilled with it. In the meantime, Daddy was busy carving away on our big one.
Things definitely got a little hairy at times, and Mommy’s patience was tested big time, but overall, we had a great time, and the results were awesome.
Off to the pumpkin farm
Between the weather being crappy and a couple previous commitments, we were not sure that we’d get to a pumpkin farm at all this fall. Luckily, though, the rain subsided for awhile this afternoon, and we were able to hit Rader’s Family Farm for a short time. Our main goal was to have some fun and to get a good carving pumpkin. We had two smallish pumpkins sitting on our porch from the kids’ visit to Grandma Judy and Grandpa Scott’s, but they were smashed in the street last night, so situation had instantly become more urgent. We needed a pumpkin to carve, darn it! So after church and lunch, we were off.
Since we’ve had so much rain lately, the place was a total mud pit. The owners had done as much as they could to help with the mud situation…there was straw laid down all over the place out there, but it was still a muddy mess. Nonetheless, we played on the straw pile, in the big trough of corn, ran around the play area a bit, and even stopped at the photo spot.
You’ll probably notice how talented my kids are at posing for a staged picture. (Yes, that is written with a great amount of sarcasm…look at that picture!)
As the clouds started to roll in, we decided that the play time could wait and we had better pick out a pumpkin quick! 
Daddy found the carving one, and Ben and Emma each picked their own that they could carry. As Dave paid for our treasures, the kids and I quickly went through the barn and looked at the animals, and then we headed for the car. The first sprinkles were coming down as we loaded up.
It was a short, but profitable trip. The kids were thrilled with their pumpkins, and we were home in time for Emma to still get a nice nap in. A win/win situation, if I do say so myself.
