[mood | Tired
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[music| Digital Underground- The Humpty Dance ]
Long time no write, eh? It feels like it has been forever since I have blogged. There’s so much new stuff in my life now I am not even sure to begin…having said that, please excuse my rambling 
H1N1
I’ll be honest. H1N1 scares the shit out of me. I have had 3 students with it so far. One who came to school every day with it, which really pissed me off. Seriously, WHY would his parents send him. Oh how I miss my old school district–parents did not send sick kids to school. Here I get emails about…Dear Mrs. L…sorry my child has the flu but I have to send him bc we don’t have insurance , or we can’t afford a baby sitter, I can’t take a day off, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I really do understand. I know it is HARD out there right now. Come on, I took a 30k paycut this year, my benefits are no longer free, and I am the only income we have (more on that later).Oh and we had to back out of our house and almost lost our entire down payment. But, I would NOT ever send my son to school sick. Period.
To make a long story short…I ended up with H1N1. It was something awful. Seriously. I was in bed for 11 days and quarentined in my room. The worst part was being away from Ethan–he was constantly crying and banging on my door asking for mommy. I don’t even want to think about what psychological damage that might have done. My OB put me on Tamiflu 2x a day for 5 days. Tamiflu is an antiviral…kinda funny, I kept wondering if I would turn into a zombie from it. 
I still felt horrible for a few days after. I still am recommended to get the H1N1 vaccine, just in case, since the risks of complications for pregnant women are so high. My pediatrician, who does not recommend the seasonal flu shot at all, recommends it for my son. Since he has life-threatening allergies to eggs, he has to have it done with an allergist and be observed after. I hope it comes in soon.
Who has gotten the H1N1 vaccine? Who is not getting it and why?
Job from Hell New job
As I mentioned earlier, I took a HUGE paycut. My former school district laid me off in June, which was total BS considering I was already tenured. They ended up cutting my program, which impacted over 700 kids! Now they do not have a K-8 Chinese program. So sad. Anyways, I ended up being hired late start at another school in LA and am teaching Chinese to mostly Chinese and Hispanic kids. The program is not as well put together as my old school. It’s a lot of work for such little pay (like I said, 30k a year paycut, benefits are not free). It is soooo not worth it, but it’s all that is out there right now. Charlie is not working since Ethan was diagnosed w/ having a global delay over the summer and now attends therapy and a special school 4 days a week. It was a really rough transition for us–we had built a house we had to back of a few days before closing, we moved to the border of LA and Orange so that my commute would not be horrible (it is still 45 mins) and so we can stay in OC for Ethan’s services (they’re free through the OC regional center). The job itself is a pain–the district is very strict, I am constantly being observed, asked to do a lot of busy work like making data walls weekly, handing in weekly lesson plans, etc., but the worst part is that the kids are uninspired and quite frankly don’t give a rat’s ass about learning Chinese. For the Chinese kids it’s a waste of time or they’re sick of it bc not only do they have it at home, they have it afterschool and on Saturdays, and for the Hispanic kids, they just aren’t into it. Forthe first time in 6 years, I am out of ideas. And I also am becoming burnt out.
How many of you made a career change at some point?
I am thinking to go back to school and start over. Sorta. I toyed w/ the idea of just getting a Special Ed credential. Not sure if I want to finish that coursework (I don’t regret what I have taken as it has been helpful to me). I think I want to just get out of the classroom. I am sick of it. I would like to do something more administrative, but still with kids and in a school. And I want something that makes a hell of a lot more $$. I am thinking to finish my psych degree and get a school psych license. But that is another 5 years and lots of $. I have toyed with the idea of Occupational Therapy (3 years). I am leaning towards Speech Therapy-it’s another 3 yrs and will probably be expensive, but the starting pay is decent and it may be the best way to use my ability to speak a few langauges fluently.
Oh Baaaaaaaaaby
As some of you already know from FB or in real life…I am 21 weeks pregnant. I know that I said I never wanted another kid for many reasons: Financially it is hard to have a child. I worry constantly about being able to provide for Ethan. I want to be able to give him a house, pay for college, and live comfortably. The other reason is that since Ethan has special needs, he requries a lot of attention. I worry that bb#2 would take away from that. Charlie was even scheduled for a vasectomy the day I had to move out of my old classroom and he cancelled it to help me move and never got around to rescheduling. Anyways, lo and behold I found out the reason for my weight gain was not because I was weaning, or overeating, but preggo. Tomorrow we will find out if it is a boy or a girl. I really don’t care which one, I just want a healthy baby!
I saw something like this on a friend’s blog and thought it was fun. I don’t really believe in these “Wive’s Tales” but find them entertaining:
Here are some of the old wives tales answered:
Girl if you’re carrying high, boy if your bump is low.
My bump is on the low side. Same when I had Ethan.
Girl if heart beats 140+ beats per minute, boy if below 140.
The baby’s heartbeat has been around 150. (I remember Ethan’s was always low)
Girl if you crave sweets, boy if you crave salty or sour stuff.
I crave both sweet and salty. I did for Ethan too. I loved chocolate and beef with him. This baby seems to like curry a lot 
Legend has it that the Mayans determined a baby’s sex by looking at the mother’s age at conception and the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it’s a girl. If one’s even and one’s odd, it’s a boy.
With Ethan both were odd. With this one both are even.
Girl if your skin has been breaking out, boy if skin has been clear.
This was the opposite for me. With Ethan I broke out like crazy the first trimester and had great skin after! With this baby it’s been all clear.
Girl if morning sickness was severe, boy if there was little or none.
I did not have MS at all with either one 
What do you think? Boy or girl for # 2?
Peanut Allergy Sniffing Dog
Ok. I want one. I will beg for it. Seriously. This has to be like the coolest thing ever. I would LOVE one for Ethan (most of you know he has a life-threatening allergy to peanuts, milk and eggs). I am not a pet person, but I would gladly clean up shit on a daily basis if it could help my son, protect him and make our life a little easier.
Any ideas on how to fundraise for this?
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Despite the shitty economy and the huge paycut (35k!) I took this year, I am feeling the holiday spirit! Speaking of, I need to order holiday cards. I have some cute pictures of Ethan and was thinking to order them with just Ethan on them (I could do it tonight) or should I wait until we take some family pictures this weekend? I want to have time to send them out…hmm.
We’re still totally undecided on a name now…I think naming boys is really hard for some reason. Suggestions?
And I have already used my favorite boy’s name on Ethan….soooo it’s back to this again. What to name the baby? It’s so hard as a teacher to find a name that you like (of course you never use ex bf’s names…blah) because there is always some a-hole kid in your class who ruins the name for you. 
I like names that end in -aiden but Charlie doesn’t. He likes Oskar (like Oskar Schindler) but I don’t. I like Tristan, but he says it is not ‘manly’. He likes Ezra, but I think it’s too old-fashioned. So far we agreed on Ian (or maybe spelled Eian), Elliot, Owen and Liam. We are unsure about Nathan (both like the name but it’s very close to Ethan). Any suggestions? Should I stick w/ E names?