Mom Memory

This week at school I was standing in the lunch line with my kids and one kid said, "Mrs. Bailey, Did your mom die?" I was a little shocked, because I don't talk to my students or parents about what happened to my mom. I said, "Who told you that?" Another kid said, "My mom told me that." In my head I was thinking, "okay?." So they proceded to ask a 100 questions like little kids do. "Did she go to the hospital? How did she die? Did she get hurt?" I just said, "She got really sick." They took that answer and went on with getting there lunch. I was like "Whew!" glad that was a good enough answer for them. But just as I answered the wondering kids, I noticed another student behind them. I immediately felt awful for the answer I had just given. The student who was listening in on the whole conversation has a parent who is very very sick. My heart breaks for this child who makes cards for their parent when we have free writing time in class. This child is so young and needs their parent for all the things that life will bring as the child grows. When you pray, please say a prayer for this child and their family. It really makes me thankful for the 21 years I did get with my mom and all the memories we had together.
I thought I would share a memory of my mom. Every year my mom and I would go with the girls of my family to the Kenny Chesney concert. My mom loved Kenny Chesney! We always had so much fun. The year my mom died the concert was at the beginning of June right after my 21st birthday. For my birthday my mom took me shopping for some new clothes. I wanted a new outfit to wear to the concert. Anothing memory of my mom is that we found any excuse to go shopping; we loved to shop! I still can remember that day. I picked out an outfit and then we met my brother for my birthday dinner. Even though the outfit no longer fits, it is still hanging in my closet and probably will forever. I keep this picture on my night stand; it is my mom and I before we went to the concert that year. When I look at the picture I think about the 21 year old girl who had no idea her life would change in just 2 weeks. I am so thankful for all the memories I had with my mom and everything I learned from her.

The Back Row At Church

I have to admit that since Kade was born we have been church slackers. We didn't want to take him to the nursery because we didn't know anyone in the nursery; also I felt guilty about dropping him off in a nursery on the weekend when he goes to a babysitter everyday during the week. We were not really sure if it was "ok" to take your baby into the service, so we have both been really nervous about going to church. Tim and I both agree that it is important for Kade to grow up going to church and that we go as a family. So 7 months later we woke up this morning and tackled our fears.
It was a good morning. Kade woke up happy and we all played for a little while. Then we had breakfast and started getting ready for church. We got to church just on time to a new building that the church just built and we had not been into yet. On the way there we decided we would sit in the back and so we would have easy access to get out if Kade started to get restless. We got there and to our surprise found several families with babies and little kids sitting on the back rows. Never before had we noticed the back row people. We joined the end of a row and Kade was sleeping peacefully. Kade slept through the band playing and woke up at the last song. Tim and I both held our breath not sure what Kade's next move would be. He woke up smiling and Tim took him out of his seat to hold him. He sat so calmly with Tim and listened as the pastor walked out and started speaking.
Then he decided he had a enough of this sitting still and so I gave him a toy. That held his attention for about 2 seconds. He enjoyed smiling at the little girls behind us for awhile. Kade was being very quiet; he played with my necklace and then the toy again. Tim was on the edge of his seat, he gets so nervous and embarressed. I kept whispering it's okay! At the very end of the service Kade wanted down and started to cry a little. That's when Tim noticed that right behind us at the back of the service room there was a "Cry Room." It is a glass room with chairs and you can see into the service and hear. We were so excited; what a great idea! The old building did not have this room. Tim and Kade joined some other restless babies in the "Cry Room" for the rest of the service.
So that was Kade's trip to church; I feel bad that it took 7 months for his parents to get the nerve up to take him. We plan to keep going back, it was not as bad as we had thought. The great thing was that we were just like all those other parents on the back row.

Little Monkey

Not much has been going on at our house lately. Kade is now an expert crawler. For awhile he was scooting around the house, but now is up on both hands and knees and crawling the "regular" way. He has really gotten fast! Kade's new favorite thing is to pull himself up on everything. He falls all over the place and just keeps going. I think he needs a helmet! He does not like to be trapped at all and he even tries to climb the baby gate. I keep telling him he is only 6 months old and needs to slow down. Tomorrow he will be 7 months old. I really can't believe how fast he is growing. Here are some pictures of the Little Monkey at our house...

Back to Work (Sort of....)

I made it back to work for 1 whole day. Monday was a good day, it was fun to see the kids again and hear all their stories about the break. But at the same time very hard to leave Kade. I had a great 2 weeks at home with him. I was not very productive and did not get my list of things I wanted to do done, but I did have alot of fun!
So, about going back to work, I went back Monday but stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday night I came home feeling awful after I picked up Kade. I went to bed early and the next morning felt awful again. I knew I couldn't miss school after a whole 2 weeks off, so I started getting ready for work. Well, on the way to work I threw up and decided to turn back around and go home after calling another teacher on my team who was able to get a sub for me. I slept most of the day Tuesday, when I woke up I was feeling better but very weak. So I stayed home again today. I have been able to eat now and feeling much better. My kids at school are probably wondering where I am after just one day back.
If you know me you know that I hate to miss work. I think it is the need to be in control side of me. Growing up my mom never let us stay home from school; we seriously had to be dying to miss. She never missed work either. When I was old enough to get a job she never let me "call in sick." I used to get so mad, my friend's moms would "call in sick" for them; my mom would make me feel so guilty if I ever missed work to do something else I wanted to do. She taught me if I had a commitment to be somewhere I needed to be there. I remember that when I met Tim in high school he wanted me to skip school to go to the Opening Day Ranger game. I couldn't just be "bad" and skip I had to ask my mom if I could go, and she said I could go.

Kitchen

When we were building our house a model house in the neighborhood had a kitchen with really pretty textured walls and faux painting. At the time we had already upgraded our house to our budget, so the pretty textured walls had to wait. December 31 was our 4 year anniversary so our gift to ourselves was to have our kitchen textured and painted. I love how it turned out. Here are some before and after pictures. The pictures don't really do it very good justice, so you will just have to come visit us to see the kitchen in person.

Before

After