Stats and the roller coaster that is my life plan

Stats:
Today was Magnolia's three-year well-child appointment and Cora's third ear follow-up. Really it's like Cora's fourth ear follow-up if we count our trip to the audiologist.

Magnolia weighs 27 pounds and is 34.5 inches tall. She has officially left the sixth percentile. That's right folks, she is now 13th for weight, and 3rd for height. She checked out in every way. The one thing I forgot to ask, which I'm going to call about tomorrow is the lead levels in her blood. With Cora, it was a routine test, though I opted out of it, but we do live in a 92 year old house. The only time M really comes into contact with a surface that could have an area of exposed lead paint is when she sits on the back of the couch near the windows so I'm not really too concerned. It's more of a curiosity thing for me because two of my friends who live in old homes had elevated lead levels in their sons.

Cora's ears looked good today. Her doctor and I laughed about it. Of course they look good on the day I go back to see him. They made perfect mountains. I went ahead and got a referral for a pediatric ENT. I'm ready to be over the worry of whether or not my daughter is operating with hearing loss from week to week. Our pediatrician drew a lovely rendering of what's going on inside of her ears with the addition of possible adenoid enlargement. I haven't even thought about her adenoid. At any rate, we're waiting for the ENT's office to give us a call so we can schedule an appointment and hopefully [finally] get to the bottom of her hearing a speech issues.

These are some pictures from Magnolia's birthday dinner.

Opening Presents

Trying on new shoes

The roller coaster that is my life plan:
I enrolled in classes for this summer and spring. They were the prerequisites that I needed to apply for PA school. We bought a second car last month so I could go back and forth to school. I went to class with Jake's cousin's wife who is in PA school at OU, and that's where my plan changed. Being in class and hearing more about the PA program made me even more excited about the idea, but after I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about the schedule and my girls. I've been arranging for a sitter for the fall, and in two years when I would hopefully start PA school, it's 8-5. And then when I'm done it's 8-5.  I knew all of this before, but the reality hit, and all I could think was, "Why now?"

Did you know I took the LSAT two years ago? I did, and while the real point of avoiding law school is because I don't really want to be a lawyer, I think a lot of not doing anything with it could have boiled down to a "Why now?" And I applied for teaching positions one year ago, but after looking at many daycares, I knew I just couldn't do it. I've had [MANY] mixed feelings about going back to teaching. I loved my students. Being around the kids at the school I taught at was beyond rewarding. Their stories can shake one to one's core. I had to get creative about getting them to do things that some students wouldn't think twice about doing because they'd grown up in homes with expectations (not high expectations, mind you, just any expectations at all). What I really hated was dealing with the imposed busy work from the district level. All the "extras" teachers have to do is soul crushing. It's exhausting. It takes away from the most important part of teaching. And I was lucky. I had the freedom to create a course of my own choosing because I had an amazing principal with a strong vision and high expectations about where our school could be. Most teachers are crushed my district and state impositions as well as the worry over test results at the end of the year. I didn't have those tests waiting for me.

I could go on and on [and on] about the perplexities of public education, especially in schools and districts that are "at risk." But I won't. As I was thinking about what to do in terms of prerequisites and PA school, I couldn't help but think of a day in the library when I was in high school. Our counselor was there asking about our interests and giving us advice on possible careers. She spent a lot of time with me, and I decided that I was going to major in creative writing and do whatever I needed to do extra to get certified as an English teacher, then when I had kids, I could stop teaching and do freelance writing. (She introduced me to the idea of freelancing.) I thought it was the perfect plan. I've epically failed in the freelance writing arena - and by epically failed I mean not even attempted. But as my girls are approaching school age, there's a part of me that feels the value in teaching and sharing the same schedule. For now. I'm not applying for anything this year, which was hard not to do because there was an opening for a high school English teacher at a private school my girls could go to through high school, though I don't think we could leave the school they're at now. For real, it's amazing. When I do start looking to apply, I'm going to be very selective. There's only one public school in the Oklahoma City Public School District I'm going to look at, one public and one charter that is. Ideally there will be an opening at a private school.

I'm slowing down. Do you remember the Alabama song, "I'm in a Hurry (And don't know why)?" I've been thinking about the lyrics for the past few weeks:

I'm in a hurry to get things done
I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I've really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why

What am I doing in my "off year"? I'm going to become a certified yoga instructor. I went to a class yesterday with the teacher who could potentially lead me through the certification process, and I'm going again tomorrow. I'm still not so secretly hoping that a friend I went to college with who now owns a yoga studio will become a teacher of teachers. This, among all of my life plans, feels like the perfect goal to be moving toward now. Be prepared, I'm going to offering some community classes for $5/whatever you feel you can donate to help with the cost of certification. I'm working on a venue.

And of course, I felt a little bad about deciding to drop my classes after we got a second car, but that  didn't last for long because Jake almost got hit way too many times on his one-mile commute to OCU than I care to know about. It's also nice that we both have forms of transportation that can get the girls to and fro. And I love our Prius. And because we financed it with a local credit union rather than big ol' Chase, and that local credit union offered us an even lower interest rate on our Outback. Today I went through the easy process of refinancing with them, and we're saving $78/month. ;) Oh, and we sold Scoot last week. We now have two cars for just a little more than one car and a scooter. [I might miss Scoot a little - but we've got a good set-up at this moment in our life.]

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