Lots of Updates, Be Prepared!

Lots of things are going on here at the McRae house. My knee surgery is back on for May 5th. No time as of yet. I have to see the surgeon that took my tumor out, so he can clear me for the surgery and then I will get a pre-op appointment date.

Well, I had hired a girl for the school age teacher job, but she hurt her back the weekend before her observation.( I require people I am interested in hiring observe and interact in the classroom before I will hire them) She went through with the observation and I offered her a job. She seemed like sh would be a good teacher. I wanted her to start immediately, but she wanted to wait a week in order to rest her back. She was supposed to start today, but she had to have an MRI on her back and then said she was going to just stay home and rest. I called the next applicant and scheduled an interview. I am not even attempting having this girl at the day care with those kind of back issues. I also hired another substitute (we worked together at another daycare). So hopefully everything will be covered and I can recooperate for 5 weeks without having to worry about the daycare.

Phillip is sick. I think it's a head cold thing. He's been home all day in bed, which is completely not like him. He's feeling a little better, but this just kind of took him by surprise.

We are hoping to take a quick trip to the beach this coming weekend. After this week I will be stuck on crutches, so it will be a nice vacation before a lot of hard PT work. We are hoping to go to Wilmington NC.

On Monday I am heading up my homeschool support group's annual used book sale. We will have 43 tables of sellers and several people selling other items such as Creative Memories, Mary Kay, handmade purses, etc. It's going to keep me pretty busy and preoccupied, so I don't think about the surgery and get freaked out....lol

My camera is messed up again (reason for no new pics)and the Ritz camera where my warranty is through is closing, so not taking repairs in any more. I now have to go to the store in Greenville SC in order to get my camera fixed. I haven't had the time to do that yet. Hopefully I can do it after my surgery depending on how my knee is doing. I will be in an immobilizing brace and on crutches for a while until they release me. How long it will be depends on how well I recover and how the PT goes.

I've been spending alot of time on Facebook lately. I have found alot of old friends. I just recently found a bunch of friends from Germany and of course from high school as well. it's been alot of fun looking at pictures. I even found a few of the people I was in kindergarten with !We are all looking through pictures and posting them . I didn't realize how many pictures of me are out there! It's been great. The picture in the beginning of the blog is of me in Switzerland when I was 11.

Tentative Surgery Date

I have a date! We finally have enough substitutes hired to cover me while I go out for surgery. I hired a girl yesterday to cover the school age room and do some work in the preschool room. Hopefully she will be better than the past few employees we have had to deal with. She is very promising, has a great attitude and interacts well with the kids. She was pretty impressive at her interview and during her 2 hour observation in both classrooms.
The date is May 5th. It is a Tuesday and the day after my Homeschool groups book sale, of which I am over seeing, so it works out well. It also gives me 2 weeks to train the new girl and get everything in order. I have an employee going on vacation for two weeks in June, so I need to be back by then or at least able to work half days.

If anything changes (which, with my luck usually does) I will post it ASAP :)

Easter Trip to Florida 2009

WE'RE BACK!

We had a good trip with awesome weather. We spent a day at the beach, had breakfast and Easter service at Grandma's church, went to the dog park, visited my aunt (dad's half sister) in Lakeland. It was a short but busy visit. We ate at a really cool restaurant in Lakeland. It was a Mongolian grill where you put your own stirfry together. You put raw meat, vegetables and spices and sauce in bowls, give it to the cooks and they grill it in front of you. Very cool. The kids loved it. We went for a short walk and enjoyed ice cream at Cold Stone. Monday we were able to stop in Moultrie GA to have lunch with Amy Ward who I worked with and lived with at the Children's Home. it was great to see her. She hasn;t changed a bit and is still the sweet loving person she has always been.

I took Tuesday off and enjoyed a relaxing day to get back to reality. We've had very few kids at the daycare due to Spring break, I probably could have taken off the entire week!

Easter Trip to Florida

This trip has already started out rough. I was stuck at the daycare until 4pm, we still had a few things to pack and had to make 2 stops before actually getting on the road. We officially got on the road around 5pm. We are still in South Carolina. We stopped in T.R. for headphones at Wal-mart, then stopped for dinner in Seneca. It's alost 9pm. Not looking good. I'm hoping it gets better, but it is definately hard to drive late at night, especially when you've worked all day. Phillip had the day off, but he cleaned the house and ran errands, so he did work too.
So, at this point, we are still looking for the interstate to head toward Atlanta. We both wanted to drive straight through, but there may be a hotel in our future........

Rough Week,,,, ALREADY!

This has been a crazy week and it's only Tuesday!
After my surgery, my school age teacher gave her two week notice. This Friday was to be her last day. She was sick 2 days last week and called me last minute to say she was sick. She worked yesterday,but was asking my Lead Teacher if the old school age teacher (who still substitutes for us) wanted her job back. She kept asking if we had substitutes to call in ,etc.
She is scheduled for 8am today. At 7 am i got a text message saying her nerves couldn't handle to school age room any more and couldn't work out her notice. I told her she was putting me in a bind because I have to transport early in the day. She said she was sorry but couldn't come back. UNBELIEVABLE! She doesn't even work in the school age room until 3pm. She is in a classroom with 2 kids from 8 am until 1pm (they both loeave early.) Then she gives a break, takes a break and cleans. I even offered to let her go home at 3pm and not work with the school age kids.
It is really aggrevating because I told her from the beginning I don't like to hire people with no child care experience. She begged and cried for the job and I gave her a chance. I have bent over backward to help her, move her to another classroom and help her with her school work (child care class). So, this time around, I am hiring some one with experience, even if I have to wait for a few weeks to find them. I have a few substitutes that will help us get through. We are a little down on kids, especially in the toddler room, so we have not needed 3 teachers all day.

We had snow this morning as well. We got a pretty good amount, but it didn;t stick to the roads. Sadly, no 2 hour delay, no closed schools, no early release. Sadness.

On the up side, I've had 4 calls for the school age job. Only one had experience. I have an interview at 330pm. I had a girl fill out an application yesterday, but we only can offer her a substitute position because she has no experience. Working as a sub she will gain experience and we can hire her later as a teacher.

We are still working out whether to go to Florida or not. I am pretty sure I can cover the center, but the cost of gas is the problem. We will be driving the truck, which is diesel, which obviously costs more. I love going to the beach with the kids, but we will see what works out.

Jonelle, our amusing child

Jonelle has kept us laughing this week. Yesterday she asked me who Jesus' mom was. I told her Mary was. She said, "oh so God and Mary are married?" I said, "not exactly". She said "they got a divorce?" I said, "NO!" so then she thinks a minute and says, "so God just magically put Jesus in Mary's tummy, then he divorced her. " I left it at that. really didn't want to explain the virgin birth to a 9 year old.

Today we went to bookfair and she got The Time Traveler's Journal. Its a huge book about different time periods. She comes and tells me, "Dragons were real once cause there's no way knights made up those fantastic beasts to just impress the ladies!"

She is hilarious. She really thinks outside the box and is so funny to listen to.