Warning, this is a long one

Well Hannah loves school. What can I say. She came home all excited her 1st day and told me all about the things that happened.

At her school there are certain pieces of the playground that the younger kids can't play on...Well Hannah being the "grown up" she is, is now allowed on all the equipment. She is really happy about that. Her little sister (from her dad) is now in kindergarten and they are going to the same school. Hannah is happy she gets to see her little sister all the time now.

Hannah's teacher sounds really great too. Hannah said she is really nice and listens to her when she talks. I've asked around and everyone who knows her said she is really great I can't wait to really get into this school year, to see how Hannah enjoys it. Its nice to be getting back into a routine.



On to another note. Chris and I had to give our nanny her 2 week notice today. Things have not been working out for a while, but she really set Chris off yesterday. We don't ask for much, but what we do ask for we would like it..such as taking Alanna outside to play. Chris said multiple times he has come home or woken up and all Alanna is doing is watching TV. Now of course we feel some TV is okay, but Chris says he never sees Alanna outside or any sign of outside play.

Another thing is she has been calling off on us a lot lately causing us to scramble for a back up. Or she sends over her friend that lives with her or her mom. Yesterdays incident happened like this: I left for work and Alanna started to cry. Chris was in bed and he said about 30 minutes later Alanna was STILL crying. He went into the living room and the nanny was just standing there looking at Alanna screaming. Chris asked what was going on...She said Alanna was crying for me and that she didn't know what to do. Chris said that he told her if she doesn't know what to do with Alanna then there is a problem. Well about 20 minutes later the nanny calls me and tells me she is sick and her mom is gonna come over and watch Alanna. (I don't know her mom). Chris calls me like 10 minutes later and said that when he got out of the shower there was a strange lady in our house and when he asked her who she was, she said she was the nanny's mom and that she went home upset, because Chris yelled at her. Chris told me he did not yell at her and her mother was very rude about it. So when I got home from work, Chris and I talked about it and he said he would feel better if we found someone new.

Don't worry though, we already found someone. My brothers girlfriend was laid off from her job and who is gonna hire a 6 months pregnant woman? Well we do. The girls know her, and she is great with kids. If its not permanent, she said she would at least do it until we found someone else. She also said she has no problem watching our girls after my niece is born, as long as she can have a couple of weeks off after the baby is born. Chris is cool with that and so am I. It actually works out really well, because the girls will get to see their baby cousin everyday and I will see my new little niece. I have all the confidence in the world that we did the right thing...



Thursday night we all gathered at my house to spend some time with my mom before she left. It was fun. My brother and I both cried, but we are slowly realizing that the worked has not stopped and she will still be here for us whether she is around the corner or several states away. My mom set off for Florida early Friday morning. I watched as she drove away and surprisingly, I did not cry. I did tear up a little, but I'm okay. I talked to her 3 times Friday and already once today. She stayed in N. Carolina last night (where my grandma lives) and headed off again early this morning. She will probably reach her new house sometime this evening..Maybe even earlier than that. I miss her, but I know she is happy, and thats what early matters. I still may cry sometimes because I will miss her until I see her again in November, and thats okay. We are gonna set up the web cam this weekend and we have a "date" Monday night at 7:30 to see each other. I can't wait.

surprise

With it being so hot the last couple of days, I have let Alanna sleep in her diaper. She has never tried to take it off before, so it never crossed my mind. This morning the nanny called and said when Alanna woke up she had her diaper off and her bed was wet...

Another nanny story

I feel all scattered, all over the place. My life the last couple of months has been so busy and stressful, I don't even know whats going on anymore. With the wedding, Nanny C's 2 week notice, finding a new nanny, being sick, and then having to find another new nanny.

Did you see that? Thats right, a nother new Nanny. This time its not as bad as you would think though. heres the story.

J (a friend of a friend, who I am starting to get to know really well) called about the ad. I hired her becasue I knew her and her family and I really liked her. So she started on Monday when I went back to work. Her oldest son (age 9) missed the bus and came over with her...no big deal. On Tuesday J called me and told me that Alanna was getting sick. I just had gotten to work. Not even logged on the system yet. Turn around and head home. Alanna gets it out of her system, I get it out of my system..then comes Wednesday. Around 10:00J calls and said that her son's school called and he is sick. Call everyone I know to come over, Chris ends up off work early and goes home to Alanna after working all night. I call my stepdad to see if he can be a back up on Thursday. J calls thursday morning at 7 and tells me she has been sick since 4 and cannot come over. Call stepdad and drop Alanna off to him and he says he will come to my germ infested house for Hannah when she gets off the bus.
I called J on Wednesday and asked her how she felt about the week so far. She siad that its been really hard on her because of her kids and my kids and sickness and her son missing the bus and everything else. So we discussed it and we don't want anything ruining our friendship and she has a lot going on with her kids. So we decided that it would be best if she didn't watch the girls anymore after this week and that I should find someone else. This was fine with me since I did interview a girl I really really liked. I called her and asked if she was still interested and she said yes....SO I have a new Nanny K starting on Monday. Still with me? She will come over on Saturday to hang out with us and the girls to get to know them a little so I don't just throw Alanna at her on Monday morning. Hopefully we have all the germs out of the hosue and will have a fresh start with Nanny K. Whew, I'm just tired thinking about it all again. Hopefully things will start to slow down or at least be a little less stressful.

I'm slowly coming to terms with the nanny leaving us. I talked to a friend yesterday, and she told me to calm down and we came to the realization that things happen for a reason and maybe she wasn't the right person after all. Even though Chris, I and the girls all really liked her. So maybe the right person will respond to our ad in the paper that starts tomorrow and we will be happy agian. Dispite the fact that the wedding is in LESS.than.2.weeks (final countdown is 10.days) and all the stress I am dealing with, the notice actually came at the best time. Why you ask? Because, I have time off after the wedding for interviews and to get to know the person. Even though I have no weekends left to fit one more task in, its gonna be okay...I hope.

On to other news. I got word that my sister is coming to the wedding. You may think to yourself, sisters are supposed to be at your wedding. But this is not the usual sister you may think about. This is the black sheep, drug user, can't take care of her self sister. The one where you hope the invite was lost so she doesn't remember what day the wedding is on, so she doesn't show up kind of sister. I''m sure nothing bad will happen, because if there happens to be a scene it will make for a good laugh when the bride is sitting in jail for kicking the shit out of her sister.

Another one bites the dust

I feel like crying. Our nanny gave her 2 week notice today. She has only been with us about 6 weeks. She said she found another job with more money. I can understand, but I am sad. Now I have to go through all the horror of trying to find another nanny. The interviews are still so fresh in my mind and I don't know if I can handle that. Plus now we have to go through trying to get to know another person. Especially for Alanna. She was getting so attached to her. Well another ad goes in the paper today. Wish us luck and sanity.

YAY for me, we hired Nanny C

Well the search is over and I feel very confident in our decision. Her name is Nanny C for privacy unless she somehow discovers me online then all bets are off. She will start in 2 weeks and that will be the true test of time. The girls took to her right away and she was NORMAL. Normal people do you know what that feels like to interview a normal person. I feel relieved, happy and confident in her taking care of my children. It was sure a long road to come to this pint. Let me tell you about my weekend. I had interviews every hour on the hour for the most part. Saturday times went like this 10:00-5:30 and Sunday started at 10:00-6:00. I had no free time over the weekend except at night.

Saturday:

• 10:00-Hannah said the woman scared her....Not to be mean but she did look a little weird
• 11:00-NO SHOW
• 12:00-NO SHOW
• 1:00-NO SHOW, at this point I was highly upset. What is with these people that they can't show or at least call me to cancel. So I called everyone else on the list to confirm their appts.
• 2:00-I really liked this one. She was the 1st normal gal to show up. Except she had a 3 year old and being in my home and Chris sleeping during the day we thought better to go with someone who had no kids.
• 3:00-NO SHOW
• 4:00-NO SHOW
• 4:45-She too was really awesome. She was going to school to be a pediatrician. She is currently getting her pre classes at community. However she just moved out on her own and needed more money than we could afford.
• 5:30-NO SHOW

Sunday

• 10:00-I called and confirmed, and HE was still a NO SHOW
• 11:00-Called and confirmed, NO SHOW
• 12:00-Called and cancelled the night before
• 1:00-Called and confirmed, NO SHOW
• 2:00-Called the night before and cancelled
• 3:00-She showed up but she had some medical problems that we thought might be dangerous for her to be alone with the kids...
• 4:00-Called and cancelled earlier in the morning
• 5:00-Called the night before because she was offered another job
• 6:00-HIRED

Don't you think its kinda pathetic that she was the last one. We actually had 3 calls on the position today, but I am swearing off ever interviewing again, so I told them the position was filled when it really wasn't. I told Chris that if the last one didn't work we would flip a coin to see who gets to quit their job....Luckily it didn't come down to that and we are saved, and not poor because both of us get to keep our jobs. The next hardest part is putting our 2 week notice in at the current daycare. This is hard for me because Hannah has been off and on at this daycare since she was 15 months old. Its just lately we feel as if the girls are not be cared for properly. I know its business and these are my kids we are talking about, but I am not a mean person and am just nervous about the whole situation. Thats is for another day though.

So last night I had this great post about running into the wife of a college teacher I had and how he inspired me and made me feel like a better person. It was a great post if I may say so myself. Then I hit publish and blogger said error. It was like talking to Alanna. I tell her no and she does it anyway, you know what I mean right? I yelled no blogger not error, I said publish. Blogger threw his (her?) head back and laughed and went into the error mode and I lost the entire thing. I was so mad I got up and walked away for a while, while blogger thought about what (s)he did to me. When I came back I asked if (s)he was ready and (s)he agreed and that is how I got to write about me being mad at stupid blogger.

Last nights post went s little something like this.
Have you ever read the book by Mitch album, Tuesdays with Morrie? Its this book about Mitch when he was a young man in college and he had Morrie as a teacher. Morrie touched Mitch's life in a way he didn;t think was possible. years later he found out that Morrie was sick and every tuesday he would go to Morrie and sit with him, hang out and ask questions..Mitch continued on with this until morrie passed away.

When I was in college a required class was public speaking. I was less than thrilled to have to take the class since I have a fear of getting in front of large groups. I picked a teacher, not knowing anything about him and wished for the best. Little did I know this was the best decsion I made probably the entire time I was in college. I whized the class and some what became comfortable with speaking. A couple years later I had to take public speaking 2 and picked the same teacher. When I walked into class he said Good morning to me and asked how Hannah was. I looked up in amazement because it had at least been 2 years since I seen this man and he remembered me and my daughter. The 2nd class was even better than the 1st. The class became friends, we hung out together, we talked in the halls we even all went out to dinner once and then for ice cream. At the end of the class I had this feeling of emptiness, I was sad I would not get to see these people everyday like I was used to. I was not the only one..more people felt like I did, so we decided to put together a book for our teacher to show him how he touched our lives. We put together stories we wanted to share with him explaining why he was special to us. I told about the 1st day of class, how he remebered me. That was an important moment for me. he inpored me and made me feel like a better person. one of the books we had to read in class was Tuesdays with Morrie. To us he was out Morrie. (If you have read the book, you will understand.)

With all that said. I ran into his wife and 2 daughters last night while at dance with Hannah. Just talking with her about him...made me feel good. he was like that one person that will stay with you through out your life. I feel better just saying his name. Do you have anyone in your life like this? A teacher, a neighbor, a family member?


*Interviews for the nanny start up again tomorrow. Pray for me.

nanny hell

Who knew that an interview could be so hard. I think there is a hidden camera here and any minute the candid camera crew is gonna jump out and yell 'gotch ya'. These people are unbelievable. I know everyone has seen Mrs Doubtfire...kinda like that but in real life. These are real life, I am not kidding about any of this...please read on.

• The first lady gave the answer, "what ever you want"for everything. Which this is the right answer but give me some of your personality please.....No stories, no personality, nothing but "what ever you want is what I will do"..NEXT
• The next girl only said "I don't know" to everything which is even worse. We asked questions like "how would you entertain the girls?" "I don't know", "What is the worse emergency situation you have had while babysitting?" "I don't know" At one point Chris asked if she just wanted the job until something better came along and she said, wait for it.....YES!~ OK NEXT
• The next lady was nice, she had great personality, told stories, was super sweet, and looked professional. Until we asked if she has ever been arrested.....She said yes. She went into this story about her ex husband and the kids and custody and grabbing of the throat...then she says she doesn't even have custody of her own 2 kids..her ex is in jail and his parents have the kids...NEXT.. NOW!
• Then we had a no show
• Another no show
• Then a woman brought her 9 year old daughter with her on the interview. All she had to say was that her husband doesn't really like her to work outside of the home and wanted her home before 4:30 to cook dinner...She even asked Chris if he would be willing to wake up everyday at 4:00 so she could go home...OKAY lady, I can't even wake Chris up to eat dinner with the family and you want him up at 4:00...NEXT
• Then the 2ND no show called 4 hours after her interview time and said she lost track of time. Her interview was at 1:30, and she called at 4:30, I wanted to ask her if she was smokin crack and she is sober now, but I told her thanks but no thanks.

My god, can I get a decent person? We had such an over whelming response to the ad, and this is what I get. We have 6 interviews Saturday and 5 more on Sunday...Hopefully at least one person will be a match. If not another ad will be ran next week. I am not settling at ALL. Oh did I tell you about the professional nanny that called and wanted $15 an hour, per child....I told her if I was paying her that much I wouldn't be working. Thats more money than I make. If I could be a nanny for $15 an hour per child I would not be working where I do now....give me a break.