Fellowship, Tutoring, Daily Activities and Birthday Parties

Hello friends (and family)!  It is the beginning of a new week.  I’m sitting here on my 3rd cup of coffee and the boys are watching Dora and Diego on the TV.  I’m due at the gym in about 45 minutes. 

Apparently, Nicholas “wants to do something fun, but nothing is right now.”  He’s been put on the couch because he won’t quick aggravating his brother.  He has definitely learned the art of pushing Christian’s buttons. 

This week is an exciting one.  It marks the beginning of Ed’s big wave of interviews.  He has one on Friday (Texas Tech) and then one on Monday (Cleveland Clinic).  These are both Top 5 schools and he is really excited for getting interviews to both and even more excited that they are so close to each other.  I am not sure if I explained this, but the way this works is that he interviews and they either invite him to a position or not.  Once they invite him, he has about 2 weeks to decide if he accepts or not.  The catch is that he may have other interviews he has yet to go on.  We’ll have to see how all of this turns out.  It’s quite dramatic around our house when it comes to applying for fellowships.  Everything is up in the air for a while.

I get my interview portion on Thursday night (they are not really interviewing me, but they get to know me better) at dinner for Tech.  It’s kind of nerve-racking even for me because I have to be careful not to say the wrong thing while still being pleasant.  I always have a hard time speaking to new people (I get a little quiet).  I never know what exactly to say.

This past weekend was awesome!  The boys and I almost got Daddy for the whole weekend!!  He was scheduled for Trauma backup on Saturday, but got home at 9:00am!  This let us have lots of fun with him this weekend.  The boys went to the park with him, we all went on a walk, we went and played golf and went out to eat twice!!!  Lots of fun!!!  This is the first time in several weeks where we have had almost an entire weekend with Daddy without work.  VERY NICE!!!

Other things we plan to do this week?  Library, Playgroup, Playing everyday at the Falls while Mommy works out (they love this). 

On the tutoring front, I have had a couple successes—but still no clients.  Summer is hard for new tutoring clients.  My next door neighbor has a friend who is supposed to call me for this fall to tutor college math.  Also, I went to Nicholas’s school this weekend to help paint and mentioned to her that I was the one who had emailed her earlier in the summer about donating one hour a week to tutor at their school.  She was really nice and excited that I wanted to give my time.  She also mentioned that if I am certified that she hires teachers to tutor in the spring for money.  That would be paying work during daytime hours!  Also it would be really flexible work hours.  I told her I would seriously consider it in the spring. 

I have also started using Twitter (notice the updates in the right hand corner of my blog?)  I’m liking it, but not many of my friends are on it.  Anyway, if you are, let me know!  I’d love to “follow” you! 

Also, we are working on planning Nicholas’s birthday.  Right now it looks like it might be on August 22nd.  He has opted to forgo Safety City in favor for Legacy Play Village (that big park out west of town—he’s had his party there before).  We are looking at morning around 10am since it is so hot.  I need to check on reserving a table, so I will get you more info soon!

Well, I’ve gotten in an ear-full this morning!  Have a great day!!!

What’s the Word?

I’m sitting here on my third cup of coffee, and still feeling tired.  It’s 8 am right now.  I’ve been up since 7:00am when the boys came in chanting “Mommy! There’s a 7 on the clock!  What can we have for breakfast today?”  Gotta love’em! 

This week has been pretty busy for us.  We found out Ed got an interview at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio!  This is great!  That means he has interviews at 2 “Top 5” schools!  (the other one is Texas Tech).  He will have that interview on July 27th, I believe.  This means he is gone for 4 interviews in Late July and All of August. 

He also mentioned that he will possibly be going to El Paso for a one month rotation sometime after October.  We don’t know if he is going yet, and we don’t know exactly when it will be…so here’s to hoping it is in October or after the New Year.  He will also be gone for the whole month of April this year (he’s going to Dallas Children’s again like he did last November).  Unfortunately Christian’s birthday will be during that time, so we are going to plan a late March birthday party for him.

Ed’s 32nd birthday was Tuesday.  We went to breakfast (he was on call that night) to celebrate, and we have been getting the house ready for today’s party.  He  wanted to have coworkers over to celebrate.  I have been cleaning all week in preparation.  We are going to have horseshoes, video games, possibly a poker game, and hamburgers/hotdogs.  We are excited!  The boys will have some kids to play with, and we can all have some conversation.  Since they work together, I am sure a lot of the conversation will be work-driven, but that is okay since it does consume our lives and that is what we are.  Last we checked there would be over 23 adults and about 7-8 kids (not including ours, I think).  I hope we will all fit in our house!!!

I am still working on leads and getting  clients for Infinity Online Math Tutoring.  This week I added some content to my website, called some school districts (I have to call next week when they all get back to school-I was unable to talk with anyone this week), made brochures to have put in cubbies at Nicholas’s old daycare, and struck up a deal with the owner of Jump and Jungle to display my business cards.  I have a huge stack of Jump and Jungle business cards to hand out too. 

Since this Math Tutoring business, plus tutoring on Tutor.com, plus doing admin stuff for Avon is taking up so much time, I have decided to stop selling Avon.  Truthfully, I know I can make more per hour doing these other things rather than selling.  Luckily, since I am in admin, I still have an account and can still order things, so if you need something that you have been ordering, let me know and I can get it for you.  I am not seeking new customers or ordering books anymore, though.  This means I can get my discount still, and order for myself (primarily Christmas and birthday gifts). 

Nicholas and Christian are doing really good!  Christian is very accident-prone.  We are having to be really careful with him when he is sitting at the table to eat.  We are putting 2 chairs beside him on either side to “break” any potential falls.  Unfortunately he fell from his chair head first the other day (we have tile under the table).  Luckily Ed was sitting next to him and was able to grab a foot in the air and “break” his fall so that he did not seriously injure himself.  He ended up with a red mark on his head, but it disappeared a moment later.  I was so thankful that Ed was there, because I would have been rushing my son to the ER and praying he didn’t have a brain injury or split open head injury.  It would have been bad. 

Nicholas spent some time this week learning about consequences.  We have started “grounding” him to his room for periods of time as a punishment when nothing else is working.  I can say that this is seeming to work.  Like most things, I am sure there is an expiration on this tactic, but I guess it will work for a little while.  Hopefully he will start thinking about what he is doing before he does it.  I know, he’s only 4 (5 NEXT MONTH), but he is doing things he knows he shouldn’t.  Hitting mommy because your mad is unacceptable, as is hitting your brother.  He’s testing his limits.  It’s okay…he’s gonna figure it out soon (i hope). :)