Holla back internets

Life, as always, has been pretty busy lately-- the transition from summer to after school has almost completed itself and our new checkout system is in place at work so things are going fairly well on that front. We're also getting a chance to relax at home and since after school is on, I get to think about taking a break!

This weekend, we're going to Knoxville thanks to a LivingSocial escape-- I'm DEFINITELY excited for a three day weekend to relax with Jeremy and to see S-K and Chelsea while we're there! The deal lands us two nights in the Presidential Whirlpool Suite, a facial massage at an Aveda salon, and a trip to the movies! I'm very excited, we definitely need a weekend of relaxation. I'll take the computer anyway, but I'm dedicated to not checking work stuff the entire time we're there. Period!

Next month we have a week that we could potentially take off, and we're hoping to go to NC to see my Aunt and Uncle. We'd thought about going up to Memphis, but it looks like Ana won't be there by the time we'll get there. We really hope we get to see her again before they leave the country because we promised we would, but we'll see how long it takes for them to get everything straightened out. We'll also be in Memphis at the end of October for homecoming and then up to Indiana for Thanksgiving. Since all the schools have the entire week off for Thanksgiving, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have enough people to sign up for Thanksgiving break and we'll get the whole week off automatically! What a blessing THAT would be!!

Christmas is here this year with my mom, and she's really excited to have us be at OBC for their services. It's a nice, quiet, peaceful service and even though we won't have a white Christmas like last year I'm sure it'll be beautiful! I need to figure out what we're going to do for our second anniversary, too. I've already decided that I want to have everyone sign the guest book from the wedding at each anniversary. I missed last year, but I can start this year-- there's so much space left in that book, and every year that we're together we have more friends and there's nothing to say that our anniversaries aren't just as special as our wedding!

I'll stop there and see if I can think of anything more interesting to post-- if nothing else, I'll put up pictures from Knoxville when we get back!

Full Day Camp!

Jeremy used the camp camera to document the paper airplane fun during full day camp a few weeks ago-- check it out!

Doozy of a Week!

I realized last night that at the moment, I am essentially running three programs-- I'm wrapping up after school for the 2010-2011 school year, organizing/promoting/registering for summer 2011, and organizing/promoting/registering for after school 2011-2012! NO WONDER I'm exhausted!

Earlier this week was cold and icky, felt more like November than May, but we lucked out big time for our after school cookout last night! There was great turnout, everyone had fun, the weather was PERFECT, and we ate all the food there! Someone even brought a quinoa salad that was delicious!! It was great to see everyone having fun and as exhausting as it was, I really enjoyed myself. There are some amazing families there that really make my work worth it! I made ribs (which I'll have to do all the time now!) and now I have blisters on my hand from chopping them up to serve! Who knew?

I have to go in to work tomorrow, which really stinks, but we're leaving Thursday night for a long weekend in Memphis which will be soooooo nice. We'll have all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and half of Monday there! Valerie and Ana are coming in, so we're really excited to see them-- we haven't seen Ana in over a year and can't wait to see how much she's grown!! Without a doubt, she will remember Jeremy-- she always does!

Finally, I'm published!! AOL owns a network of local news and opinion sites called Patch, and I'm officially a blogger for them! The editor loves my Agape posts so much, she wants me to edit them to fit a local market and post them up!

More later, gotta go get some SLEEP now!

Whoops!

I'm so sorry! I got so caught up on updating the Agape Events blog that I've totally neglected this little spit of the internet! Not that things have been slow otherwise-- I've been staffing for summer camp and pushing the registration really hard-- my least favorite phrase at the moment is "Oh, I'm sorry, I just keep forgetting!" Well, guess what? When you show up the first day of camp after forgetting all those weeks, we won't have the staff to take your child! FORETHOUGHT!

We are also already in the throes of 90+ degree weather which, for those of us used to having a spring, is a little bit obnoxious and makes me a little worried about our field trips this summer. It also means we're likely to have a very active summer as far as severe weather goes, so here's to hoping no tornadoes at Six Flags (which I will miss AGAIN this year-- gah!).

My PT is going well, second appointment is tomorrow, and on the first appointment he fixed my foot! It's sore, of course, since all the muscles are getting used to functioning again, but it doesn't feel like there's cement on my foot anymore which is amazing! I think I'm going to ask him to look at my wrist and see if there's a quick fix for that... that way Jeremy can stop feeling bad when he's messing around and grabs the wrong wrist (which usually puts a damper on sneaking up on me and tickling me while I'm in the middle of doing something, just to define "messing around" for y'all).

Anyways, I finally figured out 95% of staffing last night, so that's a huge load off my plate, and I'm hoping that I can wrap up some other pesky things this week. At the end of the month, we plan to go up and visit Marc and Jan since we haven't been in a while and I might actually be able to finagle a four day weekend out of Memorial Day!

More later, off to work for the day!

Spring Break!

I don't know if we'll do Spring Break camp or not next year, we'll have to see what the numbers look like at the end of the month, but this year made it tempting to keep it around! I did a Classics-type theme which included Olympics, a Pyramid Building Contest, a trip to the Mythical Creatures exhibit at Fernbank, Ancient Gods craft projects, and then the kids watched Hercules or Percy Jackson on Friday. So much fun!!

Roman in his home made Hoplite armor

Kornel presents Duncan, champion of Athens, with his shield

On your marks...

Lennox picks up big brother's discarded weaponry-- for Sparta!

Jimmy marks the oranges for shotput

Louis helps the kids with the pyramid building contest

Remember the TIV? We got a surprise when we got to Fernbank-- the DOW (Doppler on Wheels) was visiting! I got to meet Josh, too!

Thomas mimics the troll-- pretty scary!

K group numero uno outside the entrance

Who's On First?

I'm still irritated, but mostly to the amused point now...

This guy broke in again last night, busted several locks in the process, and stole a new laptotp from the children's ministry for their kidcheck program (fingers crossed, we'll be in on that program!) that was just donated three weeks ago! This morning, Jeremy and I came in, looked around and didn't notice anything different from when we left yesterday. After hearing about Debbie's laptop and speaking with the police detective, Jeremy and I went through and cataloged all the electronics and their serial numbers. Jeremy went to the Small Games Room to look for the CD player and BAM there's HIS phone AND a phone stolen from the community school upstairs! Obviously, they'd both been turned off and he couldn't get anything for the phones themselves, but why bring them back?! Best we can figure, he thought maybe if they showed up he couldn't get arrested for stealing them? Plus, he was coming back to get something else, so it wasn't out of his way...

Apparently the guy called his daughter from the first stolen cell phone to convince her that he was reformed and had stopped thieving... when the police told her he called from stolen property, she apparently got pretty irritated and told them everything she could think of that might help!

My boss (the youth pastor) is spending the night there tonight in his office since they think the guy might try to come back and get in to his office (next to the children's ministry offices) and then he can call the police for a robbery in progress and the cavalry will show up. Throughout all of this the guy must have worn gloves because they only found one fingerprint on the other stolen cell phone, so that's the only thing they can actually bust him for unless they catch him in the act of B&E this weekend!

Quote of the day:
Hunter: I mean, it's not like there's much else in this office that isn't kept locked up
Me: Yeah, I mean there's the [digital camera, case, and SD card that I got on sale at Thanksgiving so we could have lots of pictures up on our website], but that was in my purse... from the last... son of a mother. He stole our camera.

The upside is that I got all the pictures off of it before he stole it!

Welcome Iris Elizabeth!

Welcome to Iris Elizabeth Salcedo!

7lb 11oz, 20.5''

Monday December 14, 9:49AM

Here's the pretty baby

And with her big sisters Sidney and Eliana (two of my afterschool babies)

Their mom and dad are definitely my favorite after school parents, and Nicki has gotten me hooked on cheesy romance novels involving vampires. I'm so excited their amazing family just added one more monster!

Let's Get Funky

I've been in a funk this week-- we're so busy with our lives that it's hard to have a night to ourselves. Every time I think it might happen, we're so exhausted it turns in to falling asleep on the couch. Right now I'm in the midst of a bout of insomnia, no doubt bolstered by accidentally sleeping for four hours this afternoon... my mind just won't turn off!

I'm also really stressed about work since the end of this year pretty much sets next year for me. Under $40k a year combined is hard to live on (that's after taxes) and we'd like to get to a place where we can be settled and be there for a while-- not a cruddy one room apartment in a duplex! I realize patience is key, that we've only been married a year, but things have been tough and it would be nice for us to get a little break.

On the upside, we're actually done with all our Christmas shopping! We're not doing a lot this year, small things for a few people, but it's always nice to realize that something you weren't even trying to get done is done!

We have two weeks left of after school, then holiday camp; somewhere in there we'll go to Indiana to see the Clark side for Christmas. We're excited to see Josh and Sarah as we haven't seen them since the wedding, and of course it's always nice to see Marc and Jan, plus a few days away will be nice for both of us.

The main problem on my plate now is assigning shifts for holiday camp; we don't have monster enrollment so I can't fill the shifts as heavily as I'd like, but I know everyone needs a little extra cash. Plus, the family from Hell (no, really, I'm fairly certain that's where they're actually from) is breathing down my neck again. This is the family that was soooooo unhappy with our program and pulled their kids out (because when the kids bully the campers and counselors, really what's happening is that THEY are being bullied by US) and swore they'd never come again and now they're acting like they own the place and want back in. I told them enrollment was closed (because I don't WANT them there, nobody does) and he blew me off and said that my boss would let them in. WHAT A JERK! The dad just loves setting a bad example for his kids, "See, son, if a woman talks back and doesn't give you what you want, just go to her boss so she can be put in her place and we get what we want." That's his general mantra.

I could rant about that family for a while, so I'll leave it at that, but if they don't take no from my boss (who will, as I told them, just tell the dad to talk to me) and disappear like good little jerks then I'm going to have to give them a big long talk about how they are poisonous and I don't want or need them in our camp. Not to mention he's already hounding me about summer and I'm sorry, but I haven't even thought about that yet. But I am going to stop now...

Anyway, I'm going to go watch some more Psych and try some breathing exercises. And consider the fact that, in spite of my excellent grammar and superb spelling, I still have to use spell check for the word "exercise" because I just can't spell it!

Ciao for now, a cheerier post and some pictures soon!

This is Halloween, everybody SCREAM!

Another year, another Halloween! Only some of the kids dressed up, but the staff went all out-- it's days like this that remind me just how much I LOVE my staff!

Brandy as Princess Giselle from Enchanted!

Me as a PANDA!

The Game Room/Carnival Room

Carnival Stop-- Pin the Eye on the Ghost, Feed the Monster, and Drats (darts with sticky rats)

Drats up close

Diana (aka Picabo Street) and Jillian-- I totally dubbed Picabo, Diana was just going to be a skier lol

Farmer Kesler-- moustache and all

Jeremy as Ang, The Last Airbender

Sharon (Cheetah), Brandy, and Jillian

Hunter, Me, Jeremy, Diana, Louis

TP Mummy Contest!

Diana and Jimmy working Feed the Monster

Marcus making his witches hat cookie

Kendra the Kitty (she is the cutest kid at after school after the Salcedos!)

Lilia's Witch

Sharon

Shreya

Chava

Fran paints Isaiah

Jackie paints Malachi

Stephen works Drats

Nia, Kendra, Bridget, and Chava

Octavia-- meow!

Abebech, Alyssa, Sidney, and Emily do their best "hard" face

Lennox the Vamp!

Autumn pulling her sad puppy look

Kurt (my boss/youth minister) looking Grr-y

Me and the Monsters-- I loooove these girls! Their mom and dad are OK, too ;)

Miss Fran grosses out Mr Louis!

A real update?

I know, it's shocking! An update that isn't entirely comprised of pictures!

Three hasn't been too much interesting going on lately, just the usual days dragging on, getting slammed at work, and keeping our fingers crossed that things will work out! Jeremy's yard sale thing seems to be panning out a little better than we'd originally thought, which is nice, and I keep finding more piles of things to work on. I tell you, being a child care provider is a thankless and painful job. There are brief moments when the parents tell me how awesome I am that it seems worth it, but there are days I just want to walk out the door and never look back! I've also decided, as I'm working at a church, that I'm sick and tired of hearing the phrase "non-Christian" used as a derogatory term. There are lots of "non-Christians" in my program, that's the POINT of my program, and that doesn't mean they aren't perfectly awesome kids who deserve the same amount of love, caring, and kindness. I can tell the parents who say this to me don't realize that I'm a "non-Christian" and that they're being terribly offensive, but I also have seen the reactions of my quite Christian seminary friends when they hear people say these things. Since when is being exclusive and looking down on people who don't share your views Christian?

I'll stop my rant there now, but it's probably the most irritating thing I deal with. Kids are kids, let them be.

Anyway, I've been getting myself together, did a lot of laundry and have been trying to get back in to the habit of cooking. It was so hot all summer that we didn't cook much and now that it's a reasonable temperature, I have to get back in the habit of shopping properly and cooking!

We've watched a lot on Netflix's instant play server, it's probably the best thing I've paid for in quite some time-- Jeremy can watch cheesy movies and I can watch Anthony Bourdain and Futurama!

Jeremy's birthday is next week, so I'm still trying to figure out what to get him, and though I'm fuzzy on the date I know Ana's is as well-- I totally messed up on that one and forgot to mail her present to Marc and Jan to be included, but no worries, it'll be on its way soon!

I'm basically rambling at this point, so I'm going to have a snack and hit the hay! More when I'm coherent/actually have something to say :)

Ciao for now!

This Week...

This week is...

The leaky faucet and picking out paint for the bedroom

The last of physical therapy (!!!)

Staff meeting and Taco Mac

Laundry getting done

Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner with the neighbors

Sussing out insurance stuff

Getting back on track with Weight Watchers in preparation to start dance again

Watching a bunch of Law and Order, trying to get work done so I can sleep at night!

Quick update

It feels like it's been longer than a week since I last updated! I guess that's what happens when you work every day straight through!

Last weekend I did tons of training, and it was ridiculous. I don't understand why you would put the home address and phone number, or any identifying information, in plain view on a child. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but... I think it's much better to teach a child that information and teach them how to find someone who can help them should they get separated from a group. Then again, I expect people to be able to fend for themselves and that's what my parents taught me to do when I was little. Ridiculosity.

After school is in full swing, which has been fantastic because I've actually gotten some work done. Jeremy's not getting as many hours, but I'm trying to scrape together what I can to keep us afloat. Plus the 60 clock hours from my training will help!

Nothing too exciting has happened, though. We do have some awesome new neighbors who like all the things we do-- wine, movies, food --and are really fun! I sat out on the porch with them and had a glass of wine while we waited for Jeremy to get done with his running group, tonight we're all having dinner with them and at some point we'll probably hit up the Movie Tavern. "Those are my two favorite words in one title! Movie and Tavern!" -John

We also had a small victory in our potted garden-- I'm sure you noticed a lack of pictures, it's because the heat killed them dead! We were watering them three times a day and they were still wilting from the heat. It's cooled off SLIGHTLY so now the basil has bounced back, another jalapeno grew, and they seem to be flourishing again-- I even have a tiny tomatillo that's growing!

Well, off to work, gotta make them dollaz! More later!

"You should get a bonus for this!"

The first week of after school has gone so much better than I could have ever hoped! I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that this is an indicator for the rest of the year!

Monday was tiresome, as mentioned in my last post, but we didn't have trouble with the schools and none of the kids were weirded out about getting on the vans.

Tuesday was OK, we did have one of our UMCH kids scare another child in his group in to having an asthma attack, but she was so impressed with my response ("Miss Meg got my breathing treatment in like two seconds! She's awesome!") that thankfully it didn't put her out on playing or after school. I also had a parent tell me that she's never seen it this organized, that she loved my parent handbook, welcome letter, and wish list and that I should get a bonus! Talk about an ego booster :D

Wednesday and Thursday went by pretty smoothly, with not a whole lot of remarkable things to pass the day. Sarah and I have gone ape on getting the place organized and ready for the school year, and I've started writing up a list of goals for the program. I'm almost done staffing, and it looks like a good group of kids coming through! We even have a kid named Bruno who doesn't speak any English only, get this, PORTUGUESE! He's super cool, and is learning a little more English every day and my friend Megan helped me learn a few phrases in Portuguese that kinda weirded him out at first, but I think he appreciated it. He's had a lot of fun with the counselors, each of them trying to figure out what the other's asking for, it's pretty hilarious!

Today was great, it ended with a huge storm and more parent compliments. My entire enrollment is up 30% in a recession!! while other programs are struggling to make ends meet. What's that you say? Reasonable prices, quality service, and an awesome staff made this happen? Why yes, yes it did.

This weekend we'll be back in the office working, but gotta make them dollaz while we can!

Aminals! (aka photo spam)

We went to the zoo on Wednesday! Zoo Atlanta is a really awesome zoo, loads of animals, really helpful staff, and we had a blast! So, here's your photo spam for the week :)

Very cool British guy who told Ellie and Emily about the hornbills Zazu and Gumbi. Thanks to Zazu, I had Lion King songs stuck in my head all day!

Milky Eagle Owl-- he was HUGE!

and really pretty!

Zoo Atlanta has lots of bronze statues around, they're all beautiful!

Keeper Talk at the Elephant pen

Taking blood for the weekly physical

PANDA SLEEP!

PANDA SLEEP! (in tree)

Herow

Komodo Dragon sleeping in the shade

Maclain and Mikinzi taunt the rattler

The rattlers pile up and conspire

The Orangutans were the hit of the day!

This guy was up on the highest point in the habitat playing "Thinking Man" most of the afternoon!

Red Panda

panting in the heat

"Screw you guys, it's too loud, I'm going to my crate."

Sun Bear

This guy saw us taking pictures and started posing

Juveniles playing

Waiting for food

Keeper comes up on top of the building to feed them

The big guy gets first dibs

Willie B, Atlanta's most beloved animal! This statue's dangerous, though-- bronze is such a good conductor that during a freak lightning storm about 10-15 years ago four kids were electrocuted!

The fat one up front was just sitting there staring

Entrance to the Parakeet Cage

They're watching you

She was stripping the vegetation off the branches and munching-- I think elephants are fascinating!