Something Beautiful podcast

Hear part I of my sister Annie's life story on the Something Beautiful podcast!

Top Picks for Employment

In this economy I consider any job a good job. I love where I work and would be delighted if they would pay me three times what I make, let me have summers, holidays and weekends off. And although I am excited about teaching and about the future it is with much reluctance and hesitancy to change that I look for new jobs.

Here are my top five school districts in order of preference and the reasons why: (If you are looking for a teaching job in the DFW area, these are some great schools to consider. Most of this information was gathered through the districts websites or by word of mouth.) Although I am not closed-minded about private schools, I am mainly considering public schools because of the retirement system, better pay, better benefits and I feel that public schools did me a great justice in my own education. I also feel like I would have a broader reach and greater impact by teaching in public school.

1. Lovejoy ISD- offers the best technology program in Texas. Very small school district, the middle school and high schools have been operating less than two years. There are three elementary schools. To recruit the best staff they offer the best salary of any other district in our area, first year teacher starting salary $44,700. Another perk of working here is in-district child care/ preschool program for teachers' children. In addition to the salary, math teachers receive an additional $2,000 stipend. Lovejoy is just east of Allen and would be about a 30-40 minute drive. Although I have applied to their online system I plan to visit four of the schools and introduce myself personally next week.

2. Prosper ISD- in the low end as far as salary goes, first year starting salary of $40,000. The perks would be working in a small town with small schools, $1,500 stipend for math teachers, and $9,000 bonus for teachers whose class passes the TAKS test with 90% or better. The bonus would definitely make up for the low salary, and although professional accountability is very important to me I do not necessarily want to 'teach to a test' or be under pressure to perform. Prosper is about a 20 minute drive from our house. I have visited three schools in PISD and introduced myself as an interested applicant.

3. Melissa ISD-pays about the same as Prosper but has an opening for a 5th grade math/ science teacher. Incidentally, my science scores were the highest on the exam that I took, followed by math, social studies and last language arts. The drive to Melissa would be about 40 minutes but this position would give me the opportunity to find out if I really only want to teach just math or if science is an option too. I have applied online to three positions and plan to visit in person next week.

4. Frisco ISD-Convenient, pays well at $44,500. The fastest student body percentage growth rates of any other district in Texas. Offers an in-district child care program/ preschool for teachers' children. Membership to the AMAZING Frisco Rec. Center that just opened last year, normally $800 per family. FISD also offers a tuition reimbursement program for pursuit of higher degrees. The only down side is that I've heard health insurance is high. I have personally visited 6 schools in FISD within a five mile radius of our house and plan to visit more.

5. Little Elm ISD-On the higher end of the pay scale, about the same as Frisco. Has in-district preschool structured program for teachers' children at a great rate. Has $1,500 stipend for math teachers. Little Elm would be at least a 20 minute drive from our house.

I have also applied to McKinney, Lewisville, Allen, Celina, Farmersville, Anna, a couple of Charter schools, Highland Park, & Princeton ISD's. Most school districts will be winding up the school year next week and starting to fill open positions for the '09-'10 school year.

Trip to the Zoo--Take II

We took another trip to the Zoo on Memorial Day. This time we had Walker and the GrandPlagge's. It really wasn't too bad for it being Memorial day and the weather was just right. All of us had a fun time, here are more pictures of the zoo.

Grammy & Rémy ride the Carousel

The Group crossing into the zoo

Testing the water at the Children's zoo

Observing the chickens and sheep in the barn

Dada showing Rémy the pigs

Rémy, Dada & Grammy look at the giraffes

One pooped little girl!

Two Math Teachers for Hire

Walker received word this morning that he scored a passing grade on his certification exam!! Now we're in a little friendly competition for jobs! We're qualified in different ways. He scored better on his exam 95% compared to my measly 93% and he is specifically qualified to teach math while I'm a generalist--certified to teach math, science, social studies or language arts, both of us grades 4th-8th. This will be interesting to see if we get calls from any of the same schools. Now the fun begins!

Role of a Lifetime

Walker and I went to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Fair Park Music Hall yesterday afternoon. Both of us love musicals--both in movie form and on stage. It's been a while since we've been able to see one on stage...I think the last one we saw was Phantom of the Opera a couple of years back. Anyway, Walker's all time favorite musical is Fiddler on the Roof. Ken & Debbe know this and knew the show was coming to town so as a Christmas gift to us bought us tickets to the show, along with a voucher for babysitting. We have been anticipating this show for six months! Incidentally, this is Topol's farewell tour. He has played the role of Tevye for over 40 years, you would also recognize him as the movie Tevye. He is 72 years old and started playing this role shortly after serving his three and a half years in the Israeli Defense Force. The play started as a short story based on a surrealistic painting. The show was fantastic. He gets around that stage like someone in his thirties. The show is no longer in Dallas so I can't recommend that you go and see it immediately, but I am so glad that we had this unique opportunity to see the person who made this role his own.

On another note, this show increased my love for being a Dallas girl. I love that we can go to a musical and have people in jeans, cowboy boots, baseball hats, shorts, cocktail dresses and suits feel so completely comfortable and at home with one another. I also love that the row behind us thought we were 'kids' and were so eager to talk.

In Red Chair 3 mos

I am three months old! I can grab for objects, coo and smile at you if you smile at me. I like to sit up straight and tall and look out on the world, so what if my head bobbles a little bit? I like my bumbo chair and my exersaucer and mama thinks I might be drawn to the German words on Baby Einstein. I am a very happy and smiling baby. I had my first taste of apple and my first wagon ride thanks to my big sister.

In Red Chair (a day late) 17 months

I almost forgot about Red Chair series yesterday, but while we were out playing in the yard remembered and just brought the chair to us this time.

Grandpa & Grandmother's house

Playing with an exercise ball

Rémy offering Grandpa a kitty figurine

The girls sharing a chair and toys with Grandmother

Amelie having fun with the cat toy!

Ben enjoying the ambiance of the new bedroom!

After going to the zoo the other day we stopped by for a visit with my Grandparents. They have spent quite a bit of time and energy redoing their bedroom. I wish I had taken more pictures of the room, it looks amazing...I could spend all day in there. We also got a tour of the trail through the front yard, which looks like a nice place to sit and have morning coffee or read the paper. The girls had fun investigating the new things while Ben napped the entire time.

Dallas Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. We went with Nana, Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle JP, Aunt Tracy and cousin Amelie. The girls had a great time together. Rémy especially loved being able to associate the sign language that Grammy has taught her with all the animals. She was able to do giraffe, elephant, bunny, fish, pig & bird. The girls lasted all morning and Nana packed us a fantastic lunch. We visited the penguins after lunch and then went to visit Grandpa & Grandmother.

Here we are starting the morning off with three strollers

Rémy and Aunt Elizabeth watching the giant Koi

Ben hangin' out with his cousin Amelie

Rémy in the petting zoo looking at a white bunny

Aunt Elizabeth with Rémy on a wooden horse in the children's petting zoo

The Dorsey family

Nana shows Rémy the giraffes


Mama feeds Ben at the Elephant fountain

Graduation!

What a fantastic day! To see a goal come to fruition after working toward it for so long truly makes my heart content. Although, I'm not sure it was actually me that graduated. I walked across the stage, of course, but someone named Doyle Magdalena Plaggay is the one who took the credit. I kind of had a feeling this would happen, even after submitting a phonetic pronunciation card and personally speaking with the name announcer about how to pronounce it correctly.

It was interesting to meet some of the people in the same degree plan as me. The last two semesters of classes have been online, so I recognize a lot of the same names but finally put faces with names at the ceremony.

Thanks to all of you who were able to come and be a part of this special day! We intended to go to a park and play and have lunch, but because of the rainy weather ended up taking over a Subway restaurant (where we had ordered the food for the park)!

The job hunt continues. I have applied to over 30 schools and have personally introduced myself to 8 of those schools. I'm hoping once the school year comes to a close I'll start hearing from some of them and landing some interviews.

Tutor for Hire

Can I tell you about this young man? He stayed up 'til midnight quizzing mom on over 300 questions for her Biology final! Mom received a 98 on the test, the ONLY 'A' in the entire class! (This was in addition to the 10 hours of essay questions submitted for this same test.)

Now what teenager do you know would stay up late to quiz their mom for a test?!?

And WAY TO GO Mom! You finished the semester strong. You excelled in 17 hours worth of classes and survived to tell us about it!

Bumbo

Ahhh. The Bumbo. We tried this chair a couple of times with Rémy, with faces like this....



we didn't use it very often! This was when she was around 3 1/2 months old.

Here's Ben today, a little over 2 months.

He currently weighs and measures exactly the same that Rémy did when she was 4 months old. (12 lb 6 oz, 23 1/2 in) And such a strong little guy. He seems to like the Bumbo....and I'm guessing someone changed her mind about it.

Potty Training Early

This is the reason we decided to start potty training early. Diapers. This picture is roughly a day and a half of diapers 'round here. Ben goes through 15-20 a day and Rémy goes through 5-6. Rémy has always been perceptive and smart and it has been fairly easy for her to catch on to the general idea. I've encountered much disagreement and lack of faith in being able to potty train early...and for this reason I hardly mention it in conversation anymore. Actually there's really only a handful of people that give me any hope in this succeeding. My mom said that all five of us were potty trained by 18 months and certainly by two years. I figure if she can do it with five then I can do it with one, especially since either Walker or myself is home with her every day.

We started setting her on the potty once a day a few weeks before her first birthday. She knows the routine now. Sit down, wipe, flush, wash hands. There have been two times in the past couple of weeks that she told me she wanted/ needed to go. Saying 'diaper' or 'tee-tee' and pointing to the bathroom. I haven't really been able to encourage this behavior yet because of being so strapped for time...but now we're going full steam ahead.

I've read a few books on the topic including Early Start Potty Training, The Diaper-free Baby and Potty Training Your Baby. I found this last one to be most informative and structured. It is by Katie van Pelt and provides encouragement and support to help you as a parent find the best possible ways to promote this natural behavior.

Somewhere along the way Americans have gone coockoo over the whole process. Other cultures don't seem to have the struggle that we do with establishing these habits early and making progress. The main thing she encourages is to find a good potty that works best for you, stick with that model...don't go back and forth between several, if she does do something in it, go overboard with praise and excitement. The author actually suggested to become so excited that the child thinks that mom must have gone crazy...this will make them laugh and realize how proud you are. It's not necessary to promote the behavior with rewards--it's the praise and enthusiasm that is the reward. (I liked this because I don't want to have to carry candy or stickers with me all the time if we are out and about.) Although, I've seen many families use sticker charts and candy rewards successfully.

It is also equally important, if not more important to never criticize or get upset if she has an accident or does not go on command, as this seems to only further the problem and foster shame.

I realize this method is more time intensive. We started at 11 months old and will probably not be finished until 18-20 months. So there's a good 6-8 months of daily training involved. If you start training at 2 years it may only take a month or two of intense training. But this method will definitely start saving diapers sooner and we may have a good 6 months worth of diapers that this method will save being sent to a landfill.

Of course there is the strong possibility that this isn't going to work. In which case, I will not consider it wasted time because Rémy is definitely learning about the process. Do you remember potty training? Are you potty training now, or about to start? What was the process when you trained your kids? What did you find helped most? Any funny stories or experiences you'd like to share?

Fridays with Nana

Cuddling with Nana

Nana, Rémy & Ben have lunch with Uncle George

Uncle George & Ben
(Uncle George is getting in all the practice he can...
he and Katie are due with their first child on October 21!)

Aunt Annie making Ben smile before she goes to work

Mom has graciously agreed to watch the kids on Fridays so that Walker and I can complete many hours of observation at Kaufman Christian School. These observation hours help to complete our certification so that we can teach in the fall. This turns out to be an interesting day for us. We leave the house at 6 am and we're home by 6 pm. We've been doing this a little more than a month. Rémy is starting to get the hang of it all. She loves Nana and Suzie (doggie) and Bob (kitty-kitty) we think she's even starting to like Uncle Tony! Here are a few pictures of the kids with Nana the past few weeks. They have adventures like dropping Uncle Tony off at school, having lunch with Uncle George, visiting the farmers market and Texas Discovery gardens. Poor Nana had a terrible experience with the stroller and called six people trying to figure out how to collapse it...and no one called her back. What a trooper! Thanks Nana!

Fourth Birthday Party

Rémy and Ben were able to attend their cousin Jeffrey's fourth birthday party. Daddy and the Grandplagge's took them to Wylie to Maya & Jeff's house. I think they all had a ball. Rémy's really starting to come out of her shell and is a little more comfortable around new people. Looks like Jeffrey had a great day!

Grampy with Rémy and Uncle Daniel

Rémy playing some sort of ball

Daddy hanging out with Ben & Grammy

Here's Ben jumping right into the middle of everything,
he's so uncontrollable...we just can't take him anywhere.

Maya helping Jeffrey open gifts