What Noel has been up to:

Noel wanted to have a party to celebrate her coming to Ellie's house.

Noel wanted to take a ride to school with us.

We found Noel watching a movie one morning.

Noel just wanted to help Ellie get ready for school.

Noel hid way up in the top part of the tree.

Instead of poker night, it was "Go Fish" night.

Noel decided to take a nap in Ellie's bed while we were gone one day.

Noel wanted to go on a horse ride, but no horses were available. So Scar had to do.

Noel the Elf from the North Pole- day 2 and 3

Today Noel reminded us that she is from the North Pole (specifically) Santa's Workshop.

Noel wanted to practice writing her letters! She found Ellie's note pad and I think she did a great job!

Noel the Elf from the North Pole

We got quite a surprise last night!!! Santa came early to visit us!!

He told us a story of how Ellie and Grandby went to see all the lights in Cullman and had lots of fun. But at the end of the drive, Santa was waiting for her, but she wouldn't go see him. He said he was so sad! He doesn't want any kid to be scared of him. He just wanted to know what she wanted for Christmas. So he decided that since she (Ellie) might be a little scared of him, and he really needed to know what she wanted for Christmas, that he would just send an Elf to stay with us until Christmas morning. This is when he decide to give us Noel. Noel is a beautiful little girl Elf that Santa thought would fit perfect in our family since she is a little bit like Ellie (precious yet sneaky). He also wrote Ellie a little note letting her know that Noel was there to watch her. But before he left our house, he told us to be careful in the mornings. Noel was known to do some silly things over night.

Here is our little surprise:

Elf

Santa's little helper... Elf on the Shelf... has arrived at our house! I can't wait for Thanksgiving to be over with so that we can start Christmas! I think I'm more excited this year than ever. Actually it's cause of this Elf on the Shelf. I'm so excited to create something new every night. Ellie is getting into Christmas too so she will love it!!

You will all have to stay tune for daily (hopefully) Elf on the Shelf updates.

Oh what do to...

So I have been stressing myself out over where Ellie needs to go to school! I thought when I got the job at New Hope that it was set and was perfect. Ellie would go to school with me and be in the same building as me. Great! Wonderful!

But now I am at Scottsboro High school. If I take Ellie with me, she will have to wait one more year because SCS doesn't have pre-k. She would also be in a different school from me and would get out of school about 30 minutes before me too. Soooo....

I don't know what I want/ need to do!! I don't want to drop Ellie off at NHES everyday and then have to put her extended daycare until someone can get her. If she was with me, I could get her but then she would have to stay with me throughout practice because who is going to come all the way out there to pick Ellie up? I could try to quit coaching but then I probably wouldn't have 4th block planning and then I couldn't get Ellie picked up on time. I don't know if she could ride the bus over to the HS and get off there or not. I guess it might be an option. But again. I am so torn over this! I really don't know what to do!!

Any suggestions!?!?

Terrible Three's

I go to pick Ellie up today and Mrs. Debbie (the daycare director) opens the door for me and says "Hey, I've been meaning to talk to you." I instantly thought she was going to ask me about my new teaching job, etc... but no. She proceeded to tell me that Ellie was not behaving the way she needed to be. She would make faces at Ms. Amanda (her teacher) when Amanda would tell her to do something. She wouldn't stay in her seat and do her work. She won't go to sleep at nap time without one of the teachers sitting with her to get her to calm down and stay still. She has been in time out a lot lately because of all of this.

I was in tears from embarrassment when she was telling me this!!! I wanted to jerk Ellie up and spank her!

I walked outside to get Ellie and Amanda walked passed me. I apologized over and over again! She assured me that Ellie was great today and must have just been testing her last week (it was Ellie's first week of "school"). I apologized again and told her to please let me know if she acts up again.

So... I get Ellie to the car and the whole way home we talked about all the bad things that she has been doing and how those bad things cause her to lose privileges. I told her that if she acted like that for Ms. Abby (her dance teacher) then she would not ever go to dance again. Ellie did not like that comment. She told me, "Mommy, I won't do bad things again. I'll be nice."

It really does break my heart that she will not listen and do what she is suppose to do! I'm a teacher so you would think that she would be the best student ever!! I know I want her to be that way. Josh and I are doing everything we can think of to make her behave. We spank, we put her in time out, we take things away, we won't let her do things, we reward good behavior... nothing is working. I am having a really hard time with all of this tonight. It's just really upsetting.

I have to keep reminding myself that she is just 3. Three year olds have a hard time sitting still and listening. But I also have to tell myself that she will be in school in a few years and she has to be able to do all that. Not sure what to do, but I am open for suggestions.

School Again?

Well it is that time of year. School is back in session. This year I will be starting in a new school. I will be teaching at Scottsboro High School teaching Physical Science. I am a little scared about it because it is such a big school!! But hopefully everyone will be very nice and accepting. My friends from NHS will be greatly missed! I loved each one of them and they understood my humor. LOL. We got along great, so I hope that these new teachers will be the same way. At least I am back with an old friend, Cindy. We coached together at WHS and probably will be doing the same thing here. I guess I always have her to hang out with. If only she was at the same school...

Here is my new blog

www.kellyetheredgephotography.blogspot.com

If interested please let me know! Also spread the word!

A New Adventure

So I know I haven't been blogging lately, but I haven't really had anything to blog about. Losing a job and being depressed all the time isn't really what you want to hear. So, I've just kept to myself and have been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I think I may have found something that might make me a little money.

I want to be a photographer.

I wish that I could be as good as others like Heather Bookout of Huntsville, but hopefully over time I will get there. I may be biased, but I think I have been taking some good pictures here lately. I have been reading the manual that came with my camera (who cares that it was purchased three years ago and I am just now learning about it) and I have figured out some things. I also have been playing around with my iphotos and recently purchased an upgrade (ilife) for my macbook. So I can do a little bit with these photos. I really really want to purchase photoshop cs5 so I can do so many amazing things with them, but because it is so expensive, I think I will have to get a few jobs under my belt first. Or maybe I can talk my wonderful husband into buying it for me. ;)

If you or a friend needs some photos taken, I will be glad to do them. I am still figuring out prices (I am trying to see what the competition has). I want to be reasonable but still be able to make a profit.

I am going to leave you with a few of my recent pictures that are my favorite. Maybe someone will see these and say "hey these are great! I want her to do some pictures for me!" And thus my business gets started! I apologize that they are all of my daughter Ellie, but she's all I have to practice on. Oh, I am putting in one of my nephew Colt cause its cute and my sister won't care.

Goodbyes

Two years ago I packed up my classroom at Woodville High school to move to New Hope Elementary school to "Better" myself. It was the best thing to do at the time. I was now going to get paid more, be closer to home, and be at the school that Ellie will attend. I really struggled with wether I should leave or not. I had tenure in Jackson County and would lose it moving, but again I felt it was the best decision.

Guess I was wrong.

Now two years later, I'm packing up my classroom at New Hope Elementary to move it into storage. No other classroom to move it into. Are you shocked?

I was, when I got my letter Tuesday afternoon. I had made it through two rounds of cuts and transfers, and even signed my coaching contract for next year!!! I thought I was good! Then out of no where I get hit with this. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. It came out of nowhere.

For two years, I taught 7th grade life science. I used lots of my high school lessons and labs to help "enhance" the students learning. Test scores proved what I was doing worked. Kids liked my class. I also coached basketball and softball. I felt like I was doing the best I could with those too. I enjoyed it. I was part of the LTF training (getting kids ready for AP classes in high school), took over the 21st century classroom (lots of technology and tech requirements), headed up the athletic banquet this year, got along very well with co-workers, and seemed like the "tech" person for 7th grade teachers. I thought I finally found the perfect job for me. Where I wanted to be till I retired.

I felt like I was a failure as a teacher. I thought I had done everything I was suppose to, played it by the book. I don't remember the last time I was this upset. Why? was the only thing I kept saying. That "Why?" still hasn't been answered.

Guess someone else has something better planned for me. I can't believe that this happened. All I can do now is pray and hope for the best. It's scary not knowing if you will be able to find a job or not. I am so scared that I won't find one. This economy and new laws may not allow it. I feel like I am valuable as a teacher. I hope that someone sees that and gives me a chance.

As for now, I will say my goodbyes to my New Hope friends. I hope that you will stay in touch (and I secretly hope you will miss me more when school starts). So Goodbye Friends! I'll see you around.

Life with my three year old

Well, Ellie got her cast off!! She is back to normal. Although I still see her from time to time using only her left hand, but I guess she just got so use to it. She is back to running and playing like normal. In fact, the night we got her cast off, we couldn't keep her from jumping on the bed!!!

I think that Ellie is starting to go through a phase of some sort. I have other friends that have kids the same age as Ellie and they are going through it too. I really don't want to think that she hates daycare. I know those ladies take extremely good care of her. Here lately she has been extremely clingy to me. She doesn't want to go to school because she "doesn't have any friends" or because the teachers "put me in timeout". She gets really upset when I leave her there. In fact, there have been numerous times that the teacher has had to pull her off of me!!! She wants mommy to do everything!! Of course she loves her daddy too. She will run to him and squeeze him so tight when she seems him. She always says, "Thank you so much for picking me up today", every time that we get her!! It's like she thinks we are going to forget her. I have never forgotten her! Well, maybe forgot to buckle her in her car seat once and went all the way to Walmart, but never just left her!! I hope that it is just a phase that she is going through. Summer starts for us in a week and she will be at home with me more. I don't want her to get use to that and make it even harder for me to leave her next school year.

On the lighter side, we have been getting more and more personality from her. Wow she is so funny! And sweet! Here are just a few sayings that I hear on a daily basis:

"I love you the mostest"

"It will make my dreams come true"

"Your so crazy"

"Come mere my kitty kat" (talking to me)

"Heyyy what are you doing?"

"Are you my friend?"

"Mom, mom, mom, mommy, mommy, Kelly"

"My name is Ellie Grace Etheredge" (produced by her f-fridge)

What else will happen this year?

Well since the break-in, not too much has happened... thankfully!!

This past week, we had our first trip for x-rays. I have been waiting for this day, seeing as how our daughter is not a girl at all. She is a little tomboy like I was. Always running, jumping, spinning, and playing. Well, last Friday Ellie and I were playing (running actually) throughout the house. She went running into her room and looked back at me and ran into the door frame. She hit it so hard that it spun her around and she landed on her back. She immediately started screaming and would not move her arm. I grabbed her up, sat on the couch and tried to get her to show me were it hurt. She pointed to her wrist and I grabbed our ice pack and put it on there and tried to get her to calm down. Daddy came home soon after and I told him I think she really hurt it. So we got to moving it around and she stopped crying. So we thought she was fine. Saturday, she only complained maybe two or three times. Sunday, she said nothing about it. So Monday comes around and I send her on to school. I did however make sure to tell her teachers what had happened so that if she complains they know what it was from. About 10:30 I get a call from school. Sure enough, she had fallen off the merry-go-round at school and hurt her arm again. The teachers said they would watch her until I got there. Well, this time of year you can't get a sub at all. So poor Ellie had to wait it out until the end of the day. She was fine when I picked her up. Even using her hand!! But I went ahead and took her to the doctor.

I was really afraid that she would not let them take x rays of her arm. She is not one for sitting still. But Ellie was excellent! She sat perfectly still the entire time the lady took x rays!! We only had to wait about 5 minutes for the doctor to see them and send us on our way to the orthopedic doctor. We then went down the road to the TOC and got a cast put on. Again, Ellie was great. She sat still and let the nurse put on her cast. She even picked out the color... purple.

When we finally made it home, Josh was already there. As soon as Ellie saw him, she said "Hey daddy look at what I got." (held up her hand). Josh felt so bad for her that he went to Walmart and bought her some popsicles and a movie. It only took her about six hours to realize that cast are not very fun. At about 12:30 that night, she woke me up crying wanting me to take it off. She has had it a week now, and seems to be doing much better with it. I haven't heard her complaining about it. The biggest thing she probably hates about it is that she can't go on the playground at school anymore (at least until she gets it off). So, its finally become second nature to her now. She is becoming a left handed person. I have noticed in the last two days that she does everything left handed now. But, when you look at it from a softball coach point of view, I like it. Left handed batters are great! LOL!

Well we only have two more full weeks with it on. Hopefully we can all make it!

The worse year to date!!

At 4:45 Thursday afternoon, my world was literally turned upside down. I had left the softball field all excited to get to see the Varsity team play that night. I decided to run home and get Ellie some milk and then go pick her up. I pull into my driveway, open the garage door, and I walk inside.

I drop my things in the floor by the kitchen table and realize that the back door was wide open. My first initial thought was the wind got so rough that it opened the door, but then I saw that the tv was gone and all the lights were on. Panic! My heart was racing. I ran out the door, called Josh (who couldn't really understand me) and I slowly walked back in. It was like I was not looking at my house. I just couldn't believe it. I looked out the back door to make sure that no one was in the house and I walked through, surveying the mess. I walked back out and called 911. I stayed outside until he came. We walked through the house together trying to find what all they had taken. Three tv's, playstation 3, Xbox 360, all the games to both, my mac book, ipod, ipad, and another laptop, and a duffel bag. Everything gone within seconds!

After the police office walked around the house and outside, it was determined that the robbers must have went to the house next to us first (b/c it's for sale), looked in the back window and noticed nothing was there. Then they proceeded to just back straight into our backyard and up to our door. They first tried to get in through the windows because the screen on our bedroom window was torn off and so was the kitchen. Then they kicked down the back door.

The crime scene investigator was wonderful and was able to get several prints from around the house. The robbers left a hand print on the window outside, one on the window of the door and all over the places where these items were at. After he left, we boarded up the back door, and started cleaning. I changed the bed since they had moved the bed, washed our clothes they touched and wiped down the light switches. I couldn't stand the thought of someone touching all my stuff.

Josh and I were able to stay and sleep in the house last night. Mom and dad went and got Ellie from school and kept her overnight. It was a very scary situation. I am thankful that I didn't have her with me, and that we were not at home at the time. Like I said, earlier all our things can be replaced.

Ellie's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe that it has been three years!! WOW! Time flies. Since her birthday is always during the "cold" season, we can't have her party anywhere but inside. We can't have it at our house because we have such a huge family not everyone can fit at one time. So I did a little research and found this cool place. The Little Gym. They said they would do everything for us (set up, clean up etc...). I just brought the food and cake. It was wonderful!!!! I really enjoyed myself because I didn't have to do anything! The girl came out and helped brought everything in, set up everything, fixed the plates, cleaned up, and took everything to my car!! How wonderful is that! But the big kicker.... the kids had a blast!!! I mean a blast!!!!!! They didn't want to stop for a few minutes to go eat and get a drink. As soon as they were all done, they went right back in there. We decided that they were having so much fun that we would just wait to do gifts back home. Glad we made that decision. They just had sooo much fun. We are definitely doing this again!!! Here are just a few pictures of the day.

First Snow of 2011

After having snow for Christmas, I was surprised that we had it again a few weeks later!! I love the snow!! Seems like we never got it as a kid, so I am loving it now. I'm trying to get Ellie interested in it, but all she seems to want to do is eat it! At Christmas she would go outside and grab a handful of snow and just stuff her face!! So this time, I was smart. I sat a bowl outside and caught more than the bowl full of snow!! It was overflowing because we had so much snow!! I couldn't believe it. Josh and I looked outside about the time it started and thirty minutes later everything was covered!!! I loved it!!

I have also loved the time off!! We had only a week and a half off for Christmas so this extra time off is pretty sweet. Josh went to work today because he was getting a little stir crazy, but I'm not yet. I am loving this time with Ellie. We are still potty training and it is really getting to me that she will not get it on a consistent basis, but we are trying. Being at home like this is helping. She is finally knowing that she has to go (and may go just a little in her pants) but realizes it and goes potty. Hopefully in a few more days she will get it completely. It has also been helpful that we have been off because she developed pinkeye!! We haven't been able to get out to the doctor, but thankfully the nurse called in some eye drops and Josh was able to stop at Walmart and get them for us. Her poor eye is so red and irritated, but I pray this eye drops help and clear it up before we have to go back to school.

Well, here are a few pictures of our days in the snow!! Enjoy!

Josh creating a snow angel

Knee deep in snow!

Driveway, layer of ice, layer of snow, small layer of ice on top

My favorite picture of them ever!

WOW lots of snow!!!

Don't drive on the roads!!!