A new month, a new job, a new post

Life has just been trucking along here and I figured I should pop in for an update. I never would have guessed that I could get sick of winter (what winter?) in CA, but I'm ready for summer to arrive. I'm looking forward to the warm days when we can leave the windows open all day and the chance of rain is slim to none, where play dates at the park only get cancelled because of too much heat or poor air quality :-). I'm looking forward to being able to comfortably bbq every night of the week if we want to, although I really do need to figure out how to operate a bbq :-). Jason's our bbq expert, but when he doesn't get home until after 6, it's too late to cook the meat for dinner. I guess I'll make that my goal for the summer: learn to bbq. As all of you know, I have lofty aspirations in life :-).

I got to teach my first cake classes this week, to a total of 13 students in all. 9 the first night, 4 on Saturdays. My Saturday class is a HOOT!!! It's 4 elementary school teachers who are doing this just because it's fun and they are a riot! I had more fun in that class than I had had in weeks, and I got paid for it. Doesn't seem right in a way :-).

My manager told me that I have more students in my first class this year than they had all year last year. YES!!! Thank you, Lord! My Thursday class is so large (I know. Only 9. But that's large for a hands-on cake class) that I went up a pay grade. I get an extra $10 per class because of it. SWEET! I've been pretty stressed the last few weeks because of all the learning and organizing involved, but I really do enjoy what I do and I know the stress will diminish as I become more familiar with how everything works and build confidence in myself and my skills.

Jason's had a tough go the last few weeks, but still really seems to be enjoying his job. The kids LOVE having so much time with Daddy and I love the flexibility of him running home if I need to run out for an hour or so. He works incredibly hard and in return, he gets to set his hours and take time off when needed. Pretty good deal, all in all.

Gabby has definitely left her baby years behind. She is now 38" tall and has an incredible vocabulary. She sings her way through the day and tells story after story to her babies and stuffed animals at night. She has become quite the night owl (GRRR!) and would rather take a nap so she can stay up than skip her nap.

We had moved her gymnastics class from Monday evenings to Wednesday day because she was starting to skip naps and would be really tired by the time her class ended at 8 on Mondays. Unfortunately, when we switched her, she went from looking forward to gymnastics all week long to crying and clinging to me every time she had to go :(. She said the class was too big and that she missed her friends. I didn't realize that she was close to the girls in her Monday class, although now, looking back, the fact that she asked me every week if she could have them over for a play date should have been an indication. duh! After talking to her teacher, we decided to switch her back. She went back to her old class last night and the jump in her step was back. She was grinning ear to ear and she came out from the class at the end and said: "Mommy, that was fu-un!"

James has developed a strong interest in God and anything related to God. He started AWANAs two weeks ago and while the memorizing part is not his favorite, he loves the stories. I took him to Borders to pick out a new Bible with actual chapters and verses, rather than the kids' story Bible he had. I showed him the kids' Bibles with pictures and things, but he adamantly chose an NIV backpack Bible with no pictures. I asked him if he was sure he didn't want to get one with pictures and he said: "Mom, I don't want a Bible for the pictures. I want it for the words!" Over the last week, we have read Matthew 1 through 11, geneologies and all :-).

That's all for now! I need to go start the brownies so the kids and I can make Valentine brownie pops for James' class on Thursday.