this is me and my husband.  we were at a dress up party this past weekend.  Our weekends are pretty busy with family.  We own a photography studio and I love helping him with weddings and baby pictures.  I am creative so he likes my candid shots.

these are the love of my life.  my girls Franny and Alena.  I do everything for them.  Franny is 8 and Alena is 5. They are my world.   My days are spent at school.   I am an Early Childhood teaher and I spend my day with 32 littles (morning and afternoon) some have special needs and some just need extra love.  I love my job but it is challenging.  this year has been a rough start, but i put too much pressure on myself because I am so vested in their lives and their future...I want better for them.  It is my downfall.  I am the vice president of our union.  I am very active on committees throughout our district and I like participating in fun nights that the school does.  I think it is important that the families see you are there for their kids.  I am a thyroid cancer survivor.  I had my thyroid taken out 3 years ago and have been free from anything since (Thank God).  I have become very in tune with my body since then.  I know that if I eat too much sugar, my ears start to get moist which means an ear infection is starting to brew...I use some coconut oil and cut back on the sugar and then it usually helps.  there's no tired like a special education teacher who has thyroid problems...my doctor had described me as a "walking zombie"

just a picture of some of my creativity.  my husband is self employed so money is tight.  I find cool things that I want for my classroom, but i create them instead of buying them.  when anyone in my family has art projects or something creative they need to think of, they come to me..i love that.

this is a picture of my dad.  he is also a cancer survivor for over 16 years now!  my nephew is my "son" and I love them both.  they are both named Andrew so he holds a special place in my dad's heart, but my father is my rock.  I love my mom too, don't get me wrong but when a decision needs to be made, I know my father will give me well thought out advice and be there financially and emotionally to support me if the decision needs that.











  My philosophy:


I think as a teacher this resonates with me.  It is so hard to see kids struggle when they are smart.  I have always had a hard time taking tests.  I hated them (not sure how I became a teacher) but I was very smart.  I have a master's degree  and speak 3 additional languages.  but stick a test in front of me and i feel like the dumbest person around.
this is also true for my upbringing.  My older sister got good grades so I was always compared to her.  My father would compare us and although I think it pushed me more knowing that, I don't like to do that to my girls who are complete opposites.

my week:
A good day is when I leave from home and feel comfortable in my clothes, not too tight, not too hot/cold and then get to school and find that the room is not too hot or too cold depending on how I am dressed!on days that I am wearing a tank and a sweater and my room in boiling hot , i become lethargic and unfocused...if the room is too cold, i become achy and it hurts to get up from the floor or chair...
a good day is when I get to work in enough time to get my coffee for the day and still manage to get into the building without our 8 am meeting that happens right by the front door having been over becuase i am late. I am always late.
a good day is when a few kids are absent but a bad day is when they are not only all here, but cranky, loud and some come with poop in their diapers :(
a good day is when no one poops themselves or when another adult comes into our room to help. a bad day is when my Principal walked past my room and saw me crying because my Teaching assistant was out helping with vision and hearing and 2 kids needed to go to the bathroom while I had to break up the throwing toys that were happening and I had no one in the room to help me..that was a horrible day...
a good day is when I can go straight home and not need to stop at my parents house and get stuck either making dinner for them, or doing their bills, or making calls, or trudging my sisters kids to their after school activities.
a good day is when my kids listen to me when I say we are leaving from my parents house and they are ready to go before my father remembers one more thing he needs me to do which tends to take another 30 minutes to my day!  a good day is when I can be home before 8 pm because of all the additional things i need to do for everyone.
I feel stressed...i feel tired, i feel achy, i get chest pains and headaches...

since I had my thyroid out it has been a struggle to find the right levels to help me make it through the day.  I have picked this picture because I feel that I am breaking through in terms of my body and getting it to function right in my life right now.  I have an amazing homeopathic doctor that is looking to get to the bottom of making my body work right for me and has put me on a more natural medicine.  it has helped and although like in the picture, i am still behind the bars, we are getting closer to finding out what I need to get my body/life back in which I am bending the bars and breaking free.  I am not good about what i eat.  I had a whole mini (like pizzaria mini, not frozen mini) pizza for lunch...the whole thing...then I had a mini baby ruth bar and sitting in front of me i have a package of peanut m&m's...I am getting better though...really...the pizza was to satisfy a craving I have had for weeks , which...means I have not had pizza in a long time so that is good :)
one thing I do need to work on is sleep.  i fight through feeling tired and when I sit down to watch tv or play on the ipad or read or whatever, i fall asleep...for about 20 minutes...at 9:30 at night...then I wake up and am awake until 2, 3 and have a hard time falling asleep...or staying asleep...I need to start to realize the urge to sleep and go to my bed  and hope that I will stay asleep all night.

 i am thinking this describes me perfectly.  at work I am supposed to do lesson plans, create projects, upload assessments, take pictures of the kids, respond to emails, go to meetings, update IEP's and the list goes on.  None of these things happen while the students are here so I stay after which like now, it is 3:40 and i was allowed to leave 10 minutes ago.  I have not turned in my lesson plans for this week so I have to work on those.  but i also have to go home by 5 pm to pick up my daughter from dance and it takes me at least 30 minutes to get home.  when i get home, there is nothing that I can do for work because i am opening mail, making dinner, doing homework, cleaning up...and that is if I do not have to stop at my parents as I stated above.  then we get home around 8 because we eat dinner there...and yes that takes one thing off my plate,but gives me another 2/3 new ones.  by the time 9 rolls around, my kids are also fighting going to sleep and i am comatose on the couch which means my cycle is just going to repeat itself tomorrow.  I love sleep, I need it...but I feel that i have learned to adjust myself to do without it.  I have been working on getting myself to bed when the sleep hits me and not be on my screen right before.  some times I will just turn on the TV with the dim on so that the popping images doesn't distract me and just have the hum of the noise.