Pursuing Your Dream Career

As most of you know, Aaron is a special education teacher. His quest to earning his credential and soon-to-be Master's in special education was not easy, especially considering he was working full-time, parenting full-time and husbanding (is that a word?) full-time. Needless to say, when he commits his mind to something, he won't allow himself to fall short of achieving his goal.

This is his second year in this new career, and with the teaching economy being as sour as it is, we both know how blessed he is to have a job. For a recap on how he was offered a job back, read "One Less Thing to Worry About." That was such a wonderful day! Reading that post allows me to relive that day, witnessing God's hand in all of this.

Not only was Aaron offered a job back, but he was given the opportunity to relocate to a closer school and to teach an age group more along his preference. This year, he will be teaching at Gustine Elementary School, in Gustine (duh!), California, which sheds about 20 minutes off the 45-50 minute commute he had to endure last year. That's a huge difference! That is almost 3-1/2 hours off the road each week. You know what that means? That means Aaron will be home 3-1/2 hours more each week! God knows that is exactly what we need.

This year, Aaron will be teaching K to 5th graders, and currently, he has only nine students enrolled in his class (this number can increase throughout the year). Last year, Aaron taught pre-K to 2nd graders, and at any given time, he had fourteen students on his roster. Aaron's preference has always been to teach older kids, so hopefully this new class demographic will serve him well. And not only does he have an older age group, but only one kid is orthopedically impaired, which ideally should make things easier for him and his staff.

Today, the three of us headed to Aaron's classroom to get his keys, unload some boxes and begin organizing. Of course, I brought the camera along. :)

I'm assuming this is the kindergarten playground. There are two bigger playgrounds further down.

Quad area. All hallways lead to this center point.

This is the entrance corridor.

The hallway leading down to Aaron's classroom. Aaron's room is the second to last one on the left.

Before or after? Hmmm...

Inside the classroom, Aaron was quickly setting things up. Where he is standing is where we put his desk. We ran into a couple helpful teachers who opened up the storage unit for him, an oasis of unused material and furniture that is free for taking. Aaron grabbed a teacher's desk and is anxious to get his hands on some other goods. His classroom is really quite empty, so he has his work cut out for him.

While Aaron organized, as did Ella (in her way). I just love her!

Later she got her hands on some dry erase markers and drew our family. I must say, I love our colorful eyes! :)

When I asked her who each person was, she told me. Poor Zoe is all alone. And, I definitely have the best hair and biggest lips of them all!

Overall, the classroom is really great. The teacher before him really left it in nice condition. He just has to scrounge around and find some materials. Looks like we'll be cutting into his teacher allowance early this year.

The bathroom even has a little kiddie toilet!

What a cutie pie!

Through all of this, I'd like to reiterate how proud of Aaron I am. He was unhappy in retail management. And rather than succumbing to the retail industry, with his schedule varying each week, without any consideration for holidays or weekends, he changed careers. It wasn't overnight and it took months and years of sacrifice and commitment on all our parts, but it's so worth it! Now, he gets to spend every weekend and every holiday (and then some!) with us! Being a family-minded husband, sacrificing time with us was simply out of the question. And, in my opinion, he has one of the most rewarding jobs a person can have to boot.

And although special education isn't Aaron's dream job, it allows for a bright future. This is simply a very strong starting point for a dream-filled future. And, as a teacher, it's not about his dreams anymore. It's about the dreams of his students. I have no doubt that he is making an impression on these kids. And seriously, how much more fulfilling can a job get than making a positive imprint on kids' lives?

Fix You

Aaron and I can relate to the emotion behind this song and dance. Aaron wants to fix me. He wants to fix my infertility.

 Click on the square icon to enlarge the video. You will get goosebumps.

Orderliness

Even though I can deal with messes much better than Aaron, I must say not having our kitchen in order is slowly wearing me away. In fact, we were strongly considering going to Monterey overnight as a final get-away before Aaron and Ella start school again, but we both agreed that coming home to an unfinished kitchen would NOT be fun.

We miss orderliness! So much so that even though Aaron vowed to not help me anymore, he helped me put wood filler on holes and gaps today. The pool was the only thing keeping his sanity. Once his core temperature got too hot and his forehead was beaded with sweat, he took a dip. All the time, Ella was playing in the pool with two My Little Pony ponies, a turtle and a rubber ducky. She was having a blast!

As of late this afternoon, all the trim work is glued and nail gunned onto the cabinet doors and drawers. Take a look for yourself!

The drawers were not nearly as time-consuming as the doors, as you can probably tell.

These doors are ready for painting!

I'm really surprised at how well I matched the 45-degree angles. For not having worked with wood much before (other than installing crown moulding in some of our rooms and floor moulding throughout the entire house), I'm quite proud of the way everything is turning out. 

Our entire back porch is filled with unhinged doors and drawers! But hey, at least the mess it outside, right?!

I figure I should show you some of Ella's artwork from her countless hours painting. This is by far her best piece! What does it look like to you?

Bad boy! Ella must've left a lot of crumbs on the table tonight. Enough for Bob to catch a whiff through his limiting Pug nose. He was scolded, but of course, after I got a picture. :)

This has to be one of the highlights from the past week! I found the cross Sister (Becca @ Food, Fitness & Faith) gave me last year as a Matron-of-Honor gift. The fragile chain holding the cross broke some time ago and I thought it was gone forever. I'm so happy I found it! Now, to make my way to a store and get a new, more sturdy chain. I can't wait to wear this necklace again. :)

Wearing this necklace will help keep God center in my life. I remember simply feeling it on my neck or seeing it while looking in the mirror was all the reminder I needed to focus my attention on God. If I did that more in my life, I think I would be a happier person. :)

Thoughts on Becoming A Mother ...again

"There are women that become mothers without effort, without thought, without patience or loss and though they are good mothers and love their children, I know that I will be better.

I will be better not because of genetics, or money or that I have read more books, but because I have struggled and toiled for this child. I have longed and waited. I have cried and prayed. I have endured and planned over and over again. Like most things in life, the people who truly have appreciation are those who have struggled to attain their dreams.

I will notice everything about my child. I will take time to watch my child sleep, explore and discover. I will marvel at this miracle every day for the rest of my life. I will be happy when I wake in the middle of the night to the sound of my child, knowing that I can comfort, hold and feed him and that I am not waking to take another temperature, pop another pill, take another shot or cry tears of a broken dream. My dream will be crying for me.

I count myself lucky in this sense; that God has given me this insight, this special vision with which I will look upon my child that my friends will not see. Whether I parent a child I actually give birth to or a child that God leads me to, I will not be careless with my love. I will be a better mother for all that I have endured. I am a better wife, a better aunt, a better daughter, neighbor, friend and sister because I have known pain. I know disillusionment as I have been betrayed by my own body, I have been tried by fire and hell many never face, yet given time, I stood tall. I have prevailed. I have succeeded. I have won.

So now, when others hurt around me, I do not run from their pain in order to save myself discomfort. I see it, mourn it, and join them in theirs. I listen. And even though I cannot make it better, I can make it less lonely. I have learned the immerse power of another hand holding tight to mine, of other eyes that moisten as they learn to accept the harsh truth and when life is beyond hard. I have learned a compassion that only comes with walking in those shoes.I have learned to appreciate life.Yes, I will be a wonderful mother." - Unknown


My love for Ella is so special. She is my first born and our bond is made in the heavens. The painful road to conceiving our second child is not only going to make me a better mom for our second child, but it is making me a better mom for Ella right now. "I will be a better mother for all that I've endured." God blessed us with Ella so quickly and easily and He is not blessing us any less because we are not conceiving our second child with as much ease. I think through this experience, God was hoping I'd see the incredible beauty of motherhood, a beauty that had been hidden from me. 


Becoming a mom to one, two, three kids is not a simple thing I can put on my to-do list and cross off right away. It's a journey. This has been a long journey, and I am learning that it's not the prize (a baby!) at the end of the journey that validates it successful, it is the person I am becoming through this journey that matters most. A baby will come when a baby comes, but what good of a mother would I be if I was bitter, depressed and angry at the world for this happening to me? I need to treat our infertility as a beautiful miracle...a new woman is evolving through this journey and that is a lot to be thankful for.


"Like most things in life, the people who truly have appreciation are those who have struggled to attain their dreams." I appreciate Ella more and I know I will appreciate our second child that much more, too. Thank you, God, for this journey. I am no longer going to doubt your reason through all of this. Instead, I will wait patiently for our little blessing.

Pictures From This Weekend

Aaron got some great shots of Ella's ballet recital Friday night, but I'm only going to share a couple (since I posted the video of the performance).

Contrary to what this picture may signify, Ella was very excited (and not the least bit nervous) to go on the big stage. She was constantly asking when it'll be her turn.

Watching some performances, with Grammy and Grampy in the background.

Grandpa + Ella = best buds for life!

All the girls lined up and ready to perform! Ella, Alyssa, Hailey, Thea, Londynn and Adelyn. :)

After the recital, we all had pizza and salad at our house. Good laughs, great conversation...perfect way to spend a Friday evening. Oh, and it looks like my dad has a really good idea in this picture. Hahaha! Okay, that was a lame joke, but I couldn't help it!

Ella has become quite the painting diva. There are a couple pieces (I'll have to take pictures of them later) that turned out surprisingly well! My girl's got some mad art skill!

Lately Ella has been refusing to wear hair ties. As you can see, her hair just flops in front of her face. I don't know how she stands all that hair in her face, but I gotta choose my battles with her, and her wearing a hair tie isn't going to be one of them.

Gotta love the black and white!

Cupboard update:

With Aaron letting me finish my project, I'm not getting as much done as I'd like, but I did have a very productive weekend!

I painted two coats on the backside of all the cupboard doors and cut all the trim work I will need for the frontside of the cupboard doors (and even glued and nail-gunned trim onto half of the doors). So, while cutting all the 45-degree angles, I ended up with a ton of wooden triangles. Ella took it upon herself to paint some of them.

And once the triangles dried, she organized them by color. She truly is a mini version of me. I love it!

The front of the cupboards don't look that great yet. They only have a coat of primer and then the trim was already white. I plan on filling any cracks or holes (from the nail gun) with wood filler and then paint two coats. It's going to look SWEET once it's all done...whenever that will be. :)

To see pictures of the old cabinets, click HERE. That'll give you some perspective as to what I'm trying to achieve. Even though Aaron thought just painting the doors white would be fine, I didn't think painting over the black indented designs would turn out good. I wanted the doors to be more 3-dimensional, giving them a more updated look. Even though our cabinets will no way look like the ones you find in brand new homes, the new door and drawer faces will brighten up our kitchen with a fresher look.

Aaron tells me, "Hey, if it's that important to you, then all this work isn't for nothing." I put in seven hours today and my back is absolutely killing me, but I feel great otherwise. A proud sense of accomplishment! I never thought I'd be patient enough to deal with tedious woodworking, but I guess I do have some of my dad in me. :)

Most of the day, Aaron and Ella enjoyed the air-conditioned indoors, so it was just Zoe and me hanging out on the back patio. Poor Zo Zo got sawdust all over her. That's what she gets for laying under the table saw!

Happy Zoe!

Later in the afternoon, Aaron and Ella decided to take a dip. And, of course, there's no possible way they can take a dip without Bob joining in. :)

And there's also no possible way they can swim without some extreme throwing! Is it just me, or is Aaron throwing Ella higher each time? Oh my!

Oh Roberto!

Bob casually enjoying the cool water with Ella.

Okay, that's it! Hope you all had a great weekend. It's August already...can you believe it?!?