First day of school!

We're enjoying our first school day here at the Mauck house. I love my schedule: my first class is at 9:30, so I have to leave by 8:50 to get the girls to Calera and back to SE with a few minutes to park and hike through parking lots and upstairs to my office, where I prep for a couple minutes. Then I have two sections of Comp 1 back-to-back, BOTH in a smart classroom this year, which I'm super-psyched about. That way I don't have to make so many copies of handouts or activities; I just pull them up on the computer and let everyone look on the projector screen. I'm back to P&D's house by 12:30. On Thursdays, I'll take Anna to their house and then take Claire to Thursday School before I go on to the college, so I have to leave a tad earlier.

The girls both had a great time with Mamaw and Papaw this morning: Diane pretends they're having school, and they do arts and crafts, recess, and storytime before lunch. Anna ate a rice rusk with some carrots and then took a nap, and was still asleep when I got back!

In other news, I've started running with a friend; we were doing a workout video three mornings a week at her house, but got bored with that and decided to run instead. While it's so hot, we're running at the church gym, but hopefully by the time it cools off, we'll both have secured jogging strollers and can run at the park. We're planning on doing a 5k in Caddo in October.

Speaking of Caddo, I have five former Caddo students in my classes this year! I suppose that's a compliment that they chose to come back for more!

Claire's Thursday School graduation

This was actually a couple weeks ago, but better late than never! Claire had a great first year at Thursday School. It's held at the other church of Christ in town, and it's a great introductory school experience: it's three hours long, with a two-year-old, three-year-old, and four-year-old class, with only six to eight kids and two teachers in each one. The whole day is divided into 15-minute blocks, with time for a Bible story, arts and crafts, library, snacks, and lunch. The teachers are awesome, and they're all volunteers! This year, she had her first field trip (to the fire station), her first school Christmas party, and first school program. They also had a Halloween carnival, Easter egg hunt, Valentine's card exchange, and Thanksgiving dinner and program.She also bought her first lunch box, as they eat box lunches everyday. Claire's usual lunch was ham and cheese rolls (a slice of ham wrapped around a cheese stick and cut into small pieces), carrots and Ranch (without me prodding her, she would usually only eat one or two of these), whatever fruit we have on hand, and some sort of treat, like marshmallows or mini cookies.

I usually ask Claire what Bible story she learned every time I pick her up, and at the beginning of the year, her answer was always "I don't know..." because I suspect, from what my cousin Kim told me, that she spent most of Bible story time sharing a mat with Kim's daughter Katelyn and being silly. Toward the middle of the year, a Bible story finally registered, and she started to answer, "About Jesus crossing on the river." I'm not sure if this was Jesus walking on water, or Moses crossing the Red Sea, because she would respond positively to details from both stories. She used this confusing answer for several weeks, and toward the end of the year, she finally started to respond with an actual Bible story! She would say "Daniel in the lions' den" or "Jesus making a man feel better." It's so exciting to see my daughter learning the Bible, both at home and in school with other kids.

At the program, all the kids sang a couple songs of course, and they also did a slide show of pictures from the year. Mom, Grant, and Ty got to be there, and they haven't ever seen where Claire goes to school, so it was really neat for them to see what a great program it is and how much Claire enjoys her friends and all the things they do.

Anyway, a tradition they have at the Thursday School graduation is to give each child a chance to say something into the microphone. They tell the kids and parents on the day of the graduation that they will all have a the chance to sing a song or say hi to their parents, or whatever. Some kids clam up, get red, and shake their heads no, some kids grab the mic, jump up and sing a song, and some kids say, "Hi Mommy and Daddy, I love you!" This is where the program gets very unpredictable and amusing, as you can imagine. Case in point with Claire. I had talked to her about what she would say into the microphone that afternoon, and I'd said, "You can sing a song, or say hi to mommy and daddy--what would you like to do?" The first time, she answered "Sing the ABC's," but then every other time I asked her, she said she would say hi to mommy and daddy. So I had her practice, Jay had her practice, and we practiced on the way over in the car. What does she do when Miss Amy hands her the microphone? Starts singing the ABCs, and turning slowly around so that by the time she's on G, she's got her back to the audience, but is still singing, at a level just above a whisper. She sang the whole thing, but I could barely hear her for trying to smother my laughter.

January Birthdays (still waiting on a few!)

I am officially 40wks today, and still no baby sister! However, I haven't given up hope yet! There's still three more hours of due date for me to go into labor! In the meantime, here's some pics of our slew of January birthdays! So far, we've celebrated Amanda's (shopping in Frisco), Baby Izzy's (one-year-old party at Nana and Grandad's), Jay's (dinner at Paul and Diane's, b-day breakfast, and lunch at my mom's), my dad's (dinner at his house), and we still have two more! Baby Sister's of course, and my mom's is January 31! Jay's brother Brian's is also the day after tomorrow! The previous pics are from Isabel's party, which is actually in December, but the party fell on Amanda's birthday, January 3.



Last weekend, Amanda stayed a night with us and accompanied us for a doctor appointment, pedicures, and haircuts for Claire and me! Claire was very still and solemn for both of these first experiences for her. It was a fun girls day! I could show you a picture of me all slouched up in my pedicure chair, but really, who wants to see that?



I subjected 23 students to me and my big belly today, as I made it to my first day of class at SE. I got a burst of shocked laughter when I told them that today was my due date, and several grateful grins when I said that we would probably not be meeting for class very regularly for the next couple weeks. We will still have online work to do, though!

Fall Fun

We're in the midst of a bustle of Halloween activity--what a difference a year makes! This year, Claire actually understands the concept of Trick-or-Treating, and is excited about it. We went to our church's Fall Festival last Saturday night, where we got to do a hayride, draw pumpkin faces, and do a costume parade. Claire's favorite part of the evening, though? "Playing Ring Around the Rosy with Kim and Katelyn." This lasted like five minutes, and then Claire and Katelyn took up their favorite activity, racing back and forth from and screaming.

That is incidentally the same way that Claire dances when we watch Dancing with the Stars. This past week, half the couples danced the jitterbug, which of course has super-fun music, so she and I would boogie hard for about two minutes, and then wait for the next dance. As soon as the music would stop, Claire would say, "Another dance, Mama?" She still likes to comment on the girls' crazy outfits, saying "Oh, that one's funny" (her usual comment for Karina's ridiculous feathered outfits), "That girl's nekkid!" (a usual refrain on weeks with a Latin dance) or "That dress is pretty." (We're big fans of the ballroom gowns--Claire sometimes calls them princess dresses.)

Today was the Thursday School Fall Carnival, and Claire LOVED it! They had a bunch of little booths set up in the gym, all easy preschooler games, as well as a Bounce House, and pony rides outside! Wowee zowee, was she in hog heaven! She does so well with taking turns and when something is over, saying, "That was so fun!" or "Now I ride the pony!" or whatever else is next. Of course, the good thing about this type of event is that her bucket is full of candy when it's over, so she's perfectly happy to leave!



This weekend, we've got a [last-minute!] trip to the Pumpkin Patch, the Coleman Halloween Carnival, and a church Trunk or Treat. We might go to the trick or treat at the college this evening, too, we'll see. It's in the newest dorm--At least then Claire would get the experience of actually knocking on doors for candy!

School days...

Claire and I are settling fairly well into our school routine: Mondays and Wednesdays, she goes to Mamaw's and Papaw's house while I teach classes and do office stuff from 8 to 11. Thursdays, she goes to Thursday School at 7th and Beech from 9 to 12. And Friday, she stays with my good ol' cousin-in-law, Kim, and her daughter, Claire's buddy, Katelyn, for a couple hours while I go to school. I usually spend naptime either doing stuff for my writing or doing stuff for my class, and then when Claire wakes up, we usually do some house cleaning or errand-running.

Thursday School has been awesome the past two weeks; I've had Oklahoma Today deadlines both weeks, and have used that time to pound out a story. Claire seems to really enjoy school--the first week was a little rough, only because she didn't want to leave! She just about threw a fit to stay and play with Play-doh. Also that first time, Katelyn got upset when her mom started telling the day's Bible story, and couldn't hold Katelyn, and that made Claire start crying, too! But since she now understands about me coming to get her after lunch and some Play-doh time, she's fine with it and says bye to all her teachers and friends just fine.

Yesterday, I asked Claire what her Bible story was about that day, and I asked, "Was it about God?" She said, "No, Jesus!" and then I asked, "What did Jesus do?" and she said "Crossed the river." I asked her if he walked on water, and she said "uh-huh." So in any event, Claire remembered learning that Jesus at some point crossed a river.

Claire is also becoming quite bossy, and sometimes about weird things. Like if I lay my head down on Jay's shoulder in the car, she almost always says, "Don't lay your head down on Daddy, Mommy!" and sometimes she adds, "Sleep in bed!"

She's also becoming an avid drawer of things, usually cows and deer and fish. Hmmm, is she a country girl or what? But her shapes are actually starting to look somewhat like the animals they're supposed to--a cow is a big humped circle with sticks coming out of the bottom and back, and a deer has additional sticks coming out of its head. A fish is again, a humped circle, with a few other shapes drawn around where the fins would go.

Speaking of fish, Finding Nemo is definitely her movie of the moment. She loves the sea turtles, and will say, "Did you see me? Did you see me?" like Squirt, or "Gimme some fin" like Crush. Also, the other day, she asked for something, and I said, "No problem," and she said, "Like Dory!" And if I say something like "Ah!" she'll sometimes pipe up with some "Hoo hah, Hoo haha"s! It's pretty funny.

Here are some other highlights from the past couple weeks:

• Saw Mamma Mia in Dallas with Kim and her mom and sister. So fun! Probably one of the most enjoyable musicals I've seen.
  
• Went to Norman last weekend to do some interviews and exploring for two Oklahoma Today stories. Claire and I spent the night with Amanda and got to go to Edmond to see my niece Abby in a musical production of Annie. We went to the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History Saturday morning. Claire loved pushing all the buttons on the interactive exhibits and playing in the kids' Discovery Room. We even got to see some lizards get their daily dose of crickets doused in powdered vitamins!
• As I posted on FB and texted almost everybody in my phone (including one person who didn't know who I was--whoops, old number!), we found out we're having a girl, and are thrilled. It's going to be neat to have two girls two and a half years apart, almost just like my sister and I. We are actually just 21 months apart. I had my five months' appointment this week, and everything is going well.
  
• I've starting to feel the baby's movements in the past couple weeks, which is amazing. Jay's even felt it a couple times.
• I wish I could think of something exciting to report about Jay, but he's just staying busy, as always. The other day I asked him, "Don't you feel like you're so overworked since you've been working most Saturdays this summer?" And he said, "No--Haven't really thought about it." He said if you're working for somebody else, getting up at the crack and working on weekends is a pain, but when you're working for yourself, it's just what has to be done, no bad feelings. Or something like that.
  
• Oh! I thought of something about Jay--He is building my Nana and Grandad's house in Coleman, right next to their old house. So that's really exciting; they've been in their house now for like 40 years or something (Aunts and uncles, correct me in the comments!), and it's going to be so nice for them to have a new, sturdy brick house where the family can all gather a little more easily.
  
• But we'll still have to suffer through a few OU games in the old house though!
  

Speaking of which, BOOMER SOONER!

ABC's and weekend with Aunt Manda

Forgive my banging around in the kitchen during this!! This is the best ABC video I've seen of Claire yet, and she skips Y and Z! Usually when I grab my camera, she forgets about performing. Amanda must inspire that in her!

My sister Amanda and her dog Lucy spent a night with us last weekend, which Claire and I both thoroughly enjoyed! We jumped on the trampoline, went to the park and did some shopping at Bliss Boutique. I was right; that store is so Amanda. Her one repeating comment was only a tad offensive to my beloved hometown: "This is so not like a Durant store." We also watched girly movies (Ella Enchanted when Claire was awake; Confessions of Shopaholic after she went to sleep--Hugh Dancy-a-thon!! That's okay with me!). Lucy kept wanting to explore our house, so Claire kept having to tell her, "Come back here, Ucy!"



I also started school yesterday. I'm teaching two sections of Comp 1 at 8 and 9 a.m. YIKES! That's a shock to the system after Claire and I have been waking up in the 7:30-8 range most of the summer! Plus, Claire and I both had terrible nights' sleep Sunday night, so we both had long naps on Monday afternoon. But my classes went well. I'm apparently a pretty long-winded teacher, as I kept both my classes for at least 40 minutes, whereas my office mates both made it back within 25 minutes. Last semester, my schedule was opposite those of my office mates, so we communicated only through Post-Its, but this semester, we teach on the same days, their classes right after mine. They're both girls close to my age and have or are about to have young children. So that's fun.

Claire starts Thursday School at 7th and Beech Church of Christ on Thursday--her first Mother's Day Out program!! Her cousin Katelyn goes to the program, too, and Katelyn's mom Kim is a volunteer, so that makes me feel so much better about it!! It's from 9 to 12:15, I think. There's a parent meeting tonight. She's picked out a lunch box and Dora yogurts for her lunch (why she gravitates toward Dora products, I don't know; she barely watches the show). I think we'll make cookies tomorrow for her lunch, too.

Big ultrasound in T-minus 30 minutes!!

Come on, summer!

I read a really interesting article last week on the New York Times opinion page about how America can and should raise our collective IQ, and what parents and teachers can do to help. Did you know our collective IQ has risen substantially in the past century? Interesting fact: Half our country's population in 1917 would be considered retarded by today's standards.

Anyway, this article also says that children form a lot of their IQ before age six. This got me thinking that I need to start doing some more structured learning activities with Claire. She'll start going to "Thursday School" one morning a week at the other Church of Christ in the fall, so she needs to be able to sit and focus on an activity, anyway. So I ordered a book from Amazon and checked a few out of the library about Montessori activities for kids aged 2-6. That's our plan for this summer. As you can see, Claire is already getting ready! (She really wanted to "read" this book for some reason; when I told her it was "Mommy's book," she actually ran in the other room with it, like she needed to hide from me to read it!)

Another Claire note: She's started saying "What's that?" and "Who's that?" The questions are starting!

Life as a part-part-time college instructor

Hi everyone, and I'm sorry it's been so long! I've been super-busy with the start of school and deadline after deadline. Seriously, I've barely even been reading your blogs! But I have a little time now on my ice day, so I thought I would go ahead and post.

First off, I'm really enjoying my class at SE (that's right SOSU is beginning a transition to SE, which seems incomplete to me). I originally had two sections of comp 2, but the week classes began, I was informed that one class didn't make. It actually wasn't my class that didn't make, but a full-time instructor's, but she needed another section to be full-time, I suppose, so she got my 8 a.m. section. So now I'm just teaching one class at 11 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is really nice. I leave the house around 9:30 to take Claire over to Mamaw and Papaw's, which she LOVES, and then get to the college about an hour before my class starts to get stuff done. Then I pick up Claire just before naptime, and still have my hour and a half of mommy time.

That's right, Claire's afternoon nap has decreased to somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half. I HATE it! This morning I woke up at 7 and had Jay check whether or not classes were canceled on his phone (we were both awake because of an early-morning catfight in our garage). I went ahead and got up and he was like, "What are you doin?" I said, "I need to make use of every minute I have while Claire is sleeping!" And had a luxurious morning routine of yoga, shower with leg shaving (whoa it had been way too long on that one), and making pumpkin waffles.

I have had no less than FIVE story assignments this month, so have been kept very busy with traveling, interviews, researching, and writing. I love it! It's the perfect job for me. I do interviews in my sweats and write stories until midnight! Last weekend, Jay, Claire, and I went on a trip for a story, and paid for nothing! That's the way to travel! First, we ate at Two Frogs Grill in Ardmore, which I'm writing about for the May/June rock 'n' roll-themed issue of OKT.

Then we went to Arbuckle Wilderness in Davis just north of Ardmore, a safari park that is 400 acres of llamas, camels, emus, hyenas, zebras, buffalo, wolves, ostriches, donkeys, giraffes, gazelles, and a rhino and white tiger! You buy feed cups and they're all super-tame and practically stick their heads in your car to get food! Except the dangerous animals, which are in cages, which makes me sad. There was a hand-painted sign by the wolves' cage that said: "We love humans; they taste like chicken! Please STAY IN YOUR CAR!" There's also a walk-through park with a reptile house, peacocks, and monkeys! Unfortunately, the monkeys stay in buildings during the cold months, so we didn't get to see them. Claire wasn't any the wiser though. She loved the whole thing! She would spy an animal and say "Ammal!" and point, and then grab the cup of feed and say "snack."

Next, it was on to Pauls Valley, to the Toy and Action Figure Museum. It is such a neat place: there's a batcave in the back with all the Batman paraphernelia, a WWII set up with GI Joes engaged in battle, a dress-up area where kids can try on comic book and superhero costumes, and a play area with toys kids can actually play with! And thousands of action figures on display! Claire wasn't so wild about it, but she had fun. It would be a great destination for dads who collected action figures and will recognize a bunch of the older ones with sons who now play with them (I'm thinking of Kyle and Carson, Audrey!)

The traveling to these kid-friendly places has been for a pair of stories I'm doing for MetroFamily Magazine, based in Edmond. They're doing a really neat issue this summer, in which they'll include 3-4 day itineraries for family road trips to each of the six regions of Oklahoma. It's been so fun to travel for and write these stories, and I hope that they will be a good way for me to get into the family writing market.

On the way home, we ate at the Burger Shoppe. Let me tell you out-of-towners, this is high-quality fast food my hub's partner serves up! Chicken strips made with actual strips of GOOD, seasoned chicken! Free beans with every meal! Corn nuggets! YUM! And always nice to cap off the day with another free meal!

School's Out!

Woo-hooo! One teacher workday left! (And Claire's going with me to that!)

After tomorrow, I will officially no longer be a dreaded first-year teacher! Yes!

NO MORE GRADES!

I'm through with grades for three months! No more kids pestering me about turning in late work, or asking what their grade is at the most inopportune moments. I'm THROUGH! Woo-hoo! Now I've just got to hang out with the hoodlums for the last THREE FULL DAYS of school!

Prom is OVER!

We worked all year for that? Three hours and done? They came, they danced, they read the wills and prophecies and crowned a king, a queen, a prince, and a princess, they danced a little more, and they left! All year raising money, the last two weeks scurrying about to buy last-minute things, eight hours decorating that ballroom, and now it's done. I feel like a new woman!

Six weeks left...

Late Easter pic! Sis sent me some. Sorry I've been MIA in blogland in the past couple weeks. School is eating my lunch, with prom looming ever nearer. After next Friday night, I will breathe a huge sigh of relief...and then take a deep breath and try to get through the last month of school. The kids are already wild for summer. I'm told it's this time of year. Your prayers are much appreciated in this area!

Our little 11-month-old is a huge mess-maker. Since she took her first steps almost a month ago, she's been growing slowly more confident in her walking abilities, taking two or three steps one or two times a day. Usually though, she's too busy to slow down for walking!

She's also becoming ever more vocal, entertaining people in church with her "singing" and other squawks and sighs. Jay, Ma-Maw, and Pa-Paw have succeeded in teaching her what a cow says: "Mmmmm!" She also says "Ba" for ball and "Da" for dog, and "Mamamama" when she reeeeeally needs me.

Her fave foods are the kinds she can feed herself: sweet peas, buttered toast, peaches, grapes, chicken, fish, and turkey. She's not too big on the veggies, but we manage to get some down her everyday.

Molten Lava Cakes, Becoming Jane, and belated V-day dinner!

Well, my lovely Valentine's Day evening fell flat when Jay came home early that day sick! He hit the couch at 4:30, fell asleep by 6:30, and didn't wake up the whole evening, even while I called out rave reviews of my molten lava cakes, dunked some strawberries in chocolate, and even made him some homemade chicken noodle soup! So I ate my romantic V-day desserts directly out the pan!

Friday night, Jay still didn't feel too well, so he let me watch his Valentine's gift to me, the movie Becoming Jane, which I LOVED! The perfect combination of my faves: period movie, smart heroine, and great script. Even though I know Jane doesn't get married, it was still suspenseful! Also beautiful, sweet, and inspiring. Ladies, watch it! Okay, I'm done.

Saturday, we got to eat a belated V-day dinner, as Paul and Diane bought us a couples dinner at Angus Pit Stop in Calera. You know that meal included a big slab of delicious meat! Claire was the only baby there, but she was very good.

Today was a long, lazy day, and I'm still refusing to do any work for this week at school! I know I'm going to have 100 papers to grade this week, so I'm giving myself a free night to anticipate a couple late nights this week. I keep somehow making all my classes have a paper due the same week! I've gotta stop that.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Don't look too closely at this picture; it's actually one from when Claire had a cold, and I believe she's got some snot coming out her nose (well, there, I just went and ruined it anyway!).

Anyway, Claire's first Valentine's Day has been just another day at Mawmaw's so far. I, on the other hand, have had a wild day! I had forgotten what a ridiculously big deal Valentine's Day is at school! TONS of balloons, flowers, and candy clogging up the hallways and kids racing around to see who got what. So silly!

I did a bell work activity that told the story of one of the legends of how Valentine's Day became a romantic holiday, so here's a fun fact for you: Legend has it that an early Medieval Roman emperor made marriages illegal for a while, because he was trying to build an army of young men undistracted by the indiscretion of love. Well, a Catholic priest named Valentine continued marrying young lovers in spite of the edict, but alas, he was found out and imprisoned. Of course, Valentine himself fell in love while in jail, with the jailer's daughter, to whom he wrote the very first valentine, a love letter marked "from your Valentine." Ahhh, how sweet! (My freshmen gave a class-wide groan instead after I related the story. Grrr!)

Jay has to work fish night at the restaurant, of course, so I'm making V-day desserts for us: Paula Deen molten lava chocolate cakes and choco-covered strawberries. If the cake turns out good, maybe I'll post it to Mauck Kitchen Adventures (maybe!).

Feeling better!

Claire is still a little stuffy, but is kicking her cold in the behind! Bathtime seems to help her nose and lift her spirits.

I'm counting down the days until Christmas break! After this week is over, only two full weeks! I have no idea if I'm going to get through all the stuff I need to with my lesson plans, but I'm gonna try!

I'm a working mom!

I wrote a post about my first couple days over at my teacher blog, but over here, I'll just talk about Claire. She's been doing pretty well with her Maw-Maw this week, I think. Yesterday she did have a stomachache that made her cry half the day and blow out several diapers, but today she seems to have made a full recovery. Also, I think she's going to drink about as much milk as I'm able to pump at school each day, so that's good. I want to be able to provide for her as long as possible. I read the other day that formula will set you back between $1,400 and 4,000 a year! Yet another reason to breastfeed.

Jay has been flipping burgers at his and Preston's restaurant in Kingston almost every night until close at 7 or 8. Yuck! I am not liking the restaurant business, especially when I have work to do each night for school the next day that I normally can't get accomplished until Daddy gets home.

Well I'm off to take a much-needed walk with my baby.

Working on my classroom!

I cannot believe I will be teaching high school students next week!! We had New Teacher Orientation today: in the high school, there were three coach/teachers, a family and consumer sciences (that's home ec for you old-schoolers) teacher, a middle school math teacher, a fourth-grade teacher, and me! The fourth-grade teacher is a friend of mine, and we were the only two first-years, but she student-taught at our school last year, and has worked in the office there all through college. So I'm the only true newbie. She gave me the grand tour today.

I also tried out pumping at school today--this isn't going to be easy, but lots of parenthood isn't, right? At least my door locks, and my planning period is close to the middle of the day. (For those of you who wonder what I mean by pumping, you don't want to know--I'm just letting the mommies out there know what I'm up to!)

Claire stayed with Maw-maw and Paw-paw today, another good half-day before the full days start next Monday! Yikes! I stay so busy (more like overwhelmed!) at school that I don't feel like I'm missing her too much yet, but once I see her when I get home, I feel terrible for having missed another day with her. I feel like it takes her a minute to realize that it's me. (This is an approximation of her expression.)