Master Barby

This week went well. My graduation was last Saturday, and it was a great day. It was pretty windy, but other than that everything went well. The ceremony was at UWO, and it lasted a little under two hours. It seems like it flew to me, but I wasn't sitting on a bleacher. Caden sat very patiently through the entire ceremony. Here are some pics that Ryan got:

Told you it was windy!

Here are some family shots after the ceremony.





Pam threw a party for me. We ended up moving it to our house because of the lake flies. Here I am with some of the goodies people got me.


I got a couple of gift cards for Archivers (Thank you Sam and Linda), so I headed up to Appleton on Sunday with Pam and Caden. I got some great scrapping items. I am excited to use them.

This week was pretty chaotic at school. On Monday the budget finally came out for the state, and it is projected that each school district is going to have to cut 5% of its budget. So on Monday, 22 teachers in the district were told that they may possibly be cut. I am not one of those teachers, but I am still sick about it. Some of my close friends from school are on that list. I am hoping that somehow this budget problem will be solved. I'm not sure what will happen. Oshkosh is going to have to cut 2.3 million dollars. It is crazy...

Caden is getting very close to crawling. I think it could really be any day now. I had to take the hammock thing out of the Pack N Play this week. I had him in there playing with his toys, and I heard a scurrying noise. I looked over and he was peeping at me over the edge. Here he is:



That told me that it was time for him to go to the bottom. He is not too fond of it. He acts like he is in prison. Still pretty cute though.



We also tried the teething biscuits this week. He liked it a lot. I took him outside to eat it. I stripped him down to his onesie, and put him on a blanket. It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed it outside. Sassy watched on as Caden ate. Whenever a chunk broke off, Sassy was quick to help with the clean up.

Yummy!

The nice weather also means that Caden gets to be barefoot again. He loves it. Here is a pic of his cute little feet!


This Sunday is the half marathon in Madison. I am running it...no, I have not trained. I'm not sure how it will turn out. My only goal is to finish. I don't care about my time. I will make sure to tell you all how I do.

Have a great loooonnnggg weekend!

Mama!

We have had some major developments since I posted last Thursday. The biggest things are a tooth and the fact that Caden said "mama" on Sunday. Yes, he is smooth enough that he said "mama" for the first time on Mother's Day.

Saturday was pretty fun. I hit some rummage sales and found some good things for Caden. I found a few really nice, practically brand new toys, some cute clothes, and also a new bed frame for our bed. We decided we are going to take the huge head and foot boards off of our bed. They take up so much of the room. We bought a plain metal head board at WGR. The frame is connected to the head and foot board, so I found a nice one at a rummage sale for $10. Good deal!

Two things I got accomplished last weekend are finishing (finally) Drew's baby blanket and also his small car seat blanket. I made a small green for Caden that he loves. He always has it with him. I thought Drew would like one too, so I crocheted him one on Saturday. I forgot to take a picture of it. I did, however, take a picture of the baby blanket. I followed a pattern. I was nervous because I usually just wing it when it comes to blankets. It is called Tiramisu. I decided to go with mint green for the yarn and chocolate brown for the ribbon. I think it turned out pretty nice. Here it is:


Sunday was Mother's Day...and great. Ryan went overboard and got me a great scrapbooking bag and a beautiful pendant. I will have to take a picture of both to put up for you to see. The best gift that I got was when Caden said "Mama." Ryan was so excited. I think he had been working with him for a few days prior. He did a good job!

We went to brunch at Fratello's. It was very good. Here is a pic from later that afternoon of the fam:


I was also feeding Caden last weekend when I noticed he has a tooth. It is in the front on his lower jaw. I tried really hard to get a picture of it, but it is pretty much impossible to get it in a picture. Maybe if I have Ryan help me I can get it. I will try again later.

We are getting to the end of the school year. I can always tell the end is near when I start the Romeo and Juliet unit. It is a fun unit to teach and the kids really like it. The rest of the year is just going to fly!

I am still working on finding someone for next year for one day a week, Wednesday. I tried one local place, but they have a three day minimum. I will have to try to figure that out sometime soon.

Still no news about what I am doing next year. I am waiting for the meeting still. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I don't get hosed. At least I'm not too worried. If it is going to be too much of a salary drop, I just will stay full time. Since Caden will be with Grandma most of the week that doesn't worry me.

Saturday is the big day! I graduate at 2 pm. I am pretty excitedwebsite.. If you would like to view the graduation (which I'm sure you would) you can go to this You can see a live webcast
http://live.uwosh.edu/commencement Don't forget that if you are in Toledo, the ceremony will begin at 3 pm. I will make sure that plenty of pictures are taken.

I hope you all have a great rest of your week!

Here are a couple random cute pics!

Taking a snooze in his new kicks

Enjoying the sun with Sassy

Rolling over!

Yesterday (Wednesday) Caden was able to roll from his back to his front. He did it twice for Ryan. He even rolled from the back to the front, and then back again! He is such a big boy.

This week has been dragging! I have felt exhausted the entire week. Caden did sleep through the night Monday night and Tuesday night. He woke up last night because his diaper was saturated and he had leaked. He hasn't done that in a long time. As soon as he was changed he was a lot happier. As long as we were both up I fed him also. I am hoping that the trend of sleeping through the night wasn't just a trend. We will have to see how tonight goes.

Tuesday night I went to the UCP dinner/fashion show at the Convention Center. It was nice. Caden hung out with Daddy, Uncle Danny, and Grandpa. They decided to take him to a new establishment in Oshkosh: The Tilted Kilt... Ryan said Caden really liked it. I'm pretty the rest of the guys were the ones who really liked. I wouldn't doubt it that Caden got hungry there. If you don't know what restaurant I am talking about, Google it. You will get quite the eyeful. Ryan told me that the outfits they have on on the website are the exact ones they wear in the restaurant. Oh well!

Last night Ryan's cousin Stephanie found out she will be having a little boy this fall. We are very excited for her since that is really what she wanted. Not to mention it will make it easier with hand-me-downs since Cara and I both have cute little men. Congrats Steph!

Finally

I am back now. As you can see, I did go back and fill in the missing pictures. It is amazing how hard it is to get caught up when you get behind on a blog! Whew!

Last week was a pretty good week. Caden had his 6 month check up on Tuesday. Pam went with us, so that made things easier. Here he is on the table waiting for the doctor to come in to see him:


He is 15 pounds and 13 ounces. Still only the 25th percentile for weight, but Dr. Johnson said that is fine. In fact he used the word "perfect" to describe him. I guess I'm not the only one who feels that way. :) He also gave us the okay for pretty much all food (baby) for Caden. He is now eating stage 2 food, which is the same as stage 1 got more. He has been eating the little puffs as well. I guess gumming is the better word. He still isn't too sure about them. He also is trying to use a sippy cup as well. Here is a picture with Ryan trying to get him to get a hit of apple juice off of it to get him going:


In other Caden news, he said his first word on Saturday. Danny and I were witnesses. He said, "Da Da" as clear as could be. We both looked at each other. Unfortunately Ryan was not in the car with us to witness it. It was cute. I'm sure he will be saying that again and many other words soon.

I got Spring fever yesterday and actually planted some flowers. I'm sure that will come back to bite me when we got a frost, but I figured as long as I had the time I was going to do it. I will take some pics to put up as soon as all of them are in. I think I can just cover them with towels if the temperature is supposed to drop too low. Here is Caden helping up pick out some flowers.:


Well, not actually helping that much.

I am supposed to meet with the union president and the Uniserv director this week or next to discuss what I am doing next year. Even though Pam is retiring (Did I mention that? :) ) I still think I want to drop below full time to have more time with Caden. Ending the day at 1:30 I believe will put me at 75%. I need to see what that means exactly as far as salary and benefits. I will keep you posted.

This past weekend was just beautiful in Oshkosh. Yesterday was 70 degrees. Of course we went for a walk with Caden and the dogs. I know Caden likes getting to go outside and not being all bundled up. Let's hope the nice weather stays!

Ryan and I are trying to figure out if we want to get anything for the backyard for Caden this summer. We don't know if we want to get a sandbox, a little swingset... There are too many choices. Any suggestions? Oh, and we don't want to have to rob a bank to keep the little guy happy.

It is getting down to crunch time before graduation. Well, since I have everything done and turned in already, and I guess it is more like waiting time. May 16th will be here before I know it. I am very excited. My Dad, Andrea, and Stephanie may even come for it. Dad is still checking to see if it is possible to come. I am looking forward to it. I didn't realize how much of my time it really took up until I wasn't spending the time on it! Yay!

Here are some other random cute pics

Looking too cute in his hat

Sick of winter...but still smiling!