2/366 The Grand Canyon I Did Not Visit

Jason, Papa and Ollie are on the road today. They left Monday night from San Diego and are somewhere through Arizona when I got this picture today on my phone - the Grand Canyon. I am so jealous! I have always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, though I am a little bummed that Ollie is 4 and to him it is just a giant hole in the ground, but it is still super awesome that they took the time to go see it on their long trek through the west and into Chicago.

As for me, I started back at work today after a nice long California break, been staying busy, so I have not really felt the effects on being "alone" yet. I am reading everynight though which is great. Anyways - 2 blog posts in one week - that is great for me!

Project 365 Bandwagon

Okay so I know this Project 365 thing is old news, something that you intend to do everyday for the entire year, but I think - just like every other party that I am late to, that it is time to jump on.

I am going to attempt to blog every day. It might be boring, short, exciting - who knows. But I am going to work on it - and.....drumroll....I can start today because technically this is a leap year so it is 366 days - so missing yesterday still gets me 365 :) Yesterday I was a little jetlagged from my week in California. Anyways, so hopefully I will get an iPad soon and can blog from there a little easier. So, here is my entry. I will leave you with a little picture from California. Hopefully I will be back tomorrow!

Our First Full Week of Preschool

I won't lie or deny that it is not a little sad that, albeit quite empty, this blog was started when Ollie was about 4 months old, and here we are blogging about his first full week of preschool. I guess I am kind of sad that I have not been better about blogging his life, but trust me - I do have some nice looking scrapbooks on the shelves to show for it ;)

So we completed our first "real" week of preschool. I say real because last week was half days. It was a great week for Ollie. He really loves school. It is weird for me because I was so convinced that we would homeschool, and that it was the best option for any child, but the way he is taking to school I am second guessing that thought. Kilby is such a great school and we are so lucky to have gotten in there. Ollie loves playing outside, riding the bikes, and I swear in 2 weeks has has learned the phonics of the entire alphabet - he likes to quiz me in the car..."mom, what letter is 'ba, ba'?" -B!-

They have gone to the library, they eat their little lunches together (which he is trying new foods - wonderful!) - it is just a really special place, and it doesn't hurt that his best bud got in last minute, so Ollie and Sterling get to have a blast together everyday.

It will be interesting to see what happens this year. I am not making any decisions regarding Ollie's schooling until the year is over, whether we will homeschool or send him to kindergarten. I try to not regret much, but I do regret not putting Ollie's name on the waiting list for Kilby Kindergarten when he turned 3. There are so many names that his chances are slim to get in, so we will have a lot to think about for K. But for now, the best we can do is enjoy every minute of preschool. It is such a fun age. I cannot believe that I have reached the point in my life where I am no longer home with a toddler, but have a child in school everyday - weird.

"You gotta blog this kid"

I guess being the mother to an only child who has not really been to school yet, I don't really think about how quirky and awesome my kid is. Yes, really, I did not really think much of it when I dropped off Ollie's preschool paperwork at Kilby last week, while he was dressed in his Optimus Prime hand-me-down costume with his "sunglasses" aka disposable 3D glasses from our last movie adventure. Yup - that's my boy. I guess he is the prime example of self expression. I will try to make note of these silly and crazy things that he does, for the enjoyment of all.

Who wants to be an art teacher?

I do! Is this the part where 31-year-old me wishes that 16-year-old me would have stuck to the plan? Probably, but I choose never to have regret :) When I was in high school I thought I might go to college and study to be an art teacher, but my life ended up taking many twists and turns along the way. I still ended up going to art school and receiving my BFA, but I am not qualified to teach art in a K-12 setting. I still hope to one day go get my MFA, so that I can be an adjunct and teach the 101 classes for art, but for now I get to teach and play art with......2 year olds! Well, 2-1/2 to be exact. I will be a teacher at Early Arts two days a week teaching the 2-1/2-year old class. I am excited to start my lesson plans, in fact I need to get on it right now - researching craft and art projects for 2-1/2-year olds with a a pitstop over at Blogger :)

When do you start feeling like a grown up?

Getting up "early" for a 10:00 class? That was the complaint I overheard this morning from one of the MOPPET workers who are in college and paid to watch our kids while us MOPS moms do other things. Early? 10:00? By 10:00 I am already planning lunch! But yet with this realization of how far I have progressed as a person who reproduces and then lives the full-time life of caretaker, I still do not quite feel like I have obtained "grown-up status."

I would chock it up to the fact that my husband is once again a college student or that I am financially not able to go out and do glamourous things, but really we were not all that different pre-Oliver...and I did not feel like a "grown-up" then while I was working my 9-5 in downtown Chicago.

So when does the self-realiztion of grown-upism come? I am secretly hoping never. When one admits that they are officially grown up it seems like you then have surrendered to yourself, that change is no longer coming, and that you are now and forever the status quo. That just seems too bleak for me, but maybe that is just the way I am wired. Similar to how I cannot wrap my head around people that grow up and never move out of the same town, while envious I find it imcomprehensible - but that I will leave for another day!

Dear Sir, Please hire me.

So you want to be a writer. Well, maybe you don't but for some reason I do. I guess I must have the urge to create, pick your medium. Seriously though, I think I really need a job, and I am not really sure what to get a job at, I would really like to do something that I enjoy. I know you are saying, "If wishes were horses, we would all have nickels" - no wait - that is not it. I know getting paid to do something that we enjoy and can be proud of is not always obtainable, but I am going to try, I mean what else is an art school graduate living in Small Town, Alabama to do but go big or go home - unemployed.



So I am applying to 2 freelance writing jobs that I really want. One is at About.com and is P E R F E C T for me. It is a Guide Writer job on your expert topic, and they have an opening in Interior Decorating, Bedroom. Since my BFA has a concentration in Interior Design, I could totally work this. The second job is a bit more tricky, but is for Living Social, writing up wry, obnoxious, and funny paragraphs advertising the local deals, as well as coming up with things to do in your chosen city. Trouble is the chosen city is Mobile, Alabama....so either prophetic for Jason getting accepted to USA - or I get to visit the beach once a month. Either way I will take it.