We took Max to the BEACH yesterday! Bob's sis, Laura, goes to Stockton College, which is ridiculously close to the beach. She lives in Brigantine, a nice little shore town about half an inch from Atlantic City. You can walk up the beach easily and hit the AC boardwalk. But Brigantine is nice and small and quiet. She lives with 3 other girls there in a little rental house from September to May. And to somebody who lived in a small hole in the wall through half of college, while outside the 'scenery' included cows and Hershey mascot characters standing in 2 feet of snow, it sounds like freakin' Heaven. So we visited Laura's place, and walked the block and half to the beach to give Max a taste of shore living.
Hee-hee. My laptop is sitting on my lap, bouncing around. This is surreal...
We got the 50-foot "long line" and let Max have some freedom. At first he wasn't very interested in the water (our dog? yes, our dog didn't understand the concept.) He DID however go right to the water's edge and relieve himself - both ways, how sweet - leaving Bob to chase after the washed up pieces of poopiness rolling in the waves.
We eventually started throwing stuff in the water - we HAD gathered some sticks from our backyard to throw and left them in the car, cause we're all smart and stuff. When we threw in the shells, THAT did it.
And awaaaaay he goes:
Retriever that he is, he kept trying to bring back the shells and stuff. Doesn't work well in the ocean, they don't stay still and float on the top like a floaty toy in a pool. He still loved it though.Great action shot (I was the designated photographer of the day, and I'm QUITE happy with how these turned out.) Check it out:
There were seagulls in flocks, but Max paid no attention to them. (We do not have a bird dog, obviously.) THEY however went flying if he got near enough.This one is my desktop wallpaper right now. I just think it's so cool. The dog, the leash, the birds, the ocean, the sun. Damn I'm good.
And then we lay down in the surf and chill. He's a water dog!
I just love this one. Crazy ear dog! He was having SOOO much fun...
Laura and Max on a collision course (nobody was hurt). She's brave, though. 100 pounds of fur running at ME sends me the other direction. Check out the high-rises in the background. Yeah, that's AC. You can walk to Trump's & back for your morning exercise. We really loved this beach..."MAAAAAXYYYYYY"
And he made a friend. A little Corky named Gizmo came jogging down the beach, and of course told Maxy who was in charge (our dog's a sissypants). Little dogs own him, I swear. He started out being barky, but eventually Corky won. Corky also wouldn't shut up. Still, very cute interaction.Our new friend Corky and Max, getting acquainted:
So we had an awesome day, and a very tired dog when we got home that afternoon.
That was definitely the highlight of the week. Not that it was a bad week, mind you, but we both have lots of work to do, and with my maternity leave looming closer and closer, school is keeping me quite busy. Not usual school stuff. That runs itself. But just preparing for somebody else to run my program for 5 months creates constant streams of "oh, crap, gotta do that now".
I guess my biggest concern remains that I STILL do not have a substitute. Yeah. I'm gone in 3 weeks. 15 days. And technically I COULD have gone out 2 weeks from now (you get 4 weeks pre-duedate. I only took 3, to finish out the Halloween season, prepare Chorus, and save my sickdays). The last I heard from my principal was that she "has to call those people who sent in resumes in June". DAMN it, we should have been interviewing people in SEPTEMBER. Who the hell are they going to get now? And why the hell didn't she call these people the minute my original sub dropped us? That was a month ago, literally. It is NOT my place to tell my boss "um, you better get on that, I'm not staying around because you never found a replacement!" GRRRRR... she KNOWS there's a public concert on December 13th. If I didn't love the 68 fabulous kids (yes, 68 freakin' kids this year. I love it! How cool is that, from my tiny school?) I would prepare them only as far as I usually would in 4 weeks of rehearsals, and let the concert crash and burn. Not do anything extra, push them no harder than usual, nothing. But I desperately feel the need to make sure they're at least concert ready on the 3 or 4 easiest songs, so they can at least carry that to the concert, no matter what happens, sub-wise. That equals a lot more work and stress for me. Which, by the way, I'm NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ADDING TO MY LIFE RIGHT NOW.
I mean, they can call a different sub in every day or every week or whatever, during the school day. Using the teachers' manuals, a regular sub could teach the class, conceivably. It wouldn't be a high-quality music educaiton for that time, but they can at least have music-related class. If they don't get a real long-term sub who will take over Chorus as well, Chorus will stop, literally. They can't hire a sub to teach JUST an after-school activity. Won't happen. *sigh* Damn, I have the most kids ever, love them dearly, the majority of them are not musically illiterate, and I finally know what the hell I'm doing up there in front of that many kids day after day...and I have to go. Well, I'll be back. What happens when I'm gone is NOT supposed to be my concern.
Our other concern right now is the Malvern School. Did I mention this yet? We originally planned to take Baby D there for the 2 1/2 months that I'll be back to school in the 06-07 school year. We registered and put down 1/2 the first month's tuition as a deposit to hold our place (to the tune of $478. Yeah. Daycare is pricey.) Then a few weeks ago Bob's cousin Shannon offered to watch Baby D. those months for a piddlin' $25 a day. Works out to half of what Malvern charges, and she's family, and she has only 2 kids in her care, and their ages are nicely spaces out (her 3-year old who we love, and a 1-year old boy). So we jump at the chance, call Malvern, and withdraw Baby D. Well I understood that the registration fee was non-refundable ($75), and was fine with that. But now they're arguing with me about the $478 deposit - not calling me back, having to "call the executive office" about it, etc. And now they "can't find our file". How precious is that stpuid spot to them if they can't even "fine our file" now?!!? Grrrr...
Well, I'm armed baby. We are NOT losing almost $500! There is NO mention in any of the forms we have from them mentioning the deposit being non-refundable. None. Just the registration fee is mentioned. In addition, they have a clearly-stated policy that says you have to give them 2 weeks notice before withdrawing your child, or you pay that 2 weeks tuition anyway. Well we're giving them 6 months notice. I think they can fill the spot in 6 months, seeing as they have waiting lists. They let enrolled, attending kids give 2 weeks notice, but babies who are not even in the world yet, 6 months isn't enough? Well, I have the numbers of the Camden County BBB, the NJ Consumer Protection Agency, and an attorney who works with teachers through our state union, and I'm sooo prepared to use them. Unless they can show me a policy stating that the deposit IS non-refundable - and can prove that they made us aware of it (signed by me!) they better show me a check.
Monday I'm calling the two agencies and asking what I can do in the meantime - Malvern said they'd call me by Friday with word from their executive office. Of course we didn't hear from them...yeah, I'll be pissed if we lose, but I'm not letting $478 go without a fight. I'm a bitch like that. IF we end up not being able to get the $ back, Baby D. WILL be with them for the 2 weeks we paid for, and THEN we'll be withdrawing her anyway. (There's your 2 weeks notice, bitches!) We're not flat-out losing that money. So either way, they have to fill that spot in April. Plus - being a public school teacher in the area - I'll promise to let ALL parents I can know what kind of business they're running. (I won't really, probably, Evesham mommies don't do 'daycare', please! But the threat is a powerful one when you can prove that you are in contact with 500 sets of parents every year.)
Seriously, we're NOT rich people. We have are having a baby in (hopefully less than) 6 weeks. And $478 is a HELL of a lot of diapers. I don't give up without a fight when we're talking about that many diapers.
*Deep breath, off soap box. Can't do anything about it all till Monday anyway*
Bobby's doing well - he's busy with school, of course. He's really making an effort to keep school at school as much as possible (and of course at times it's just not possible, for either of us) so that he has his nights and weekends for himself and the other things he does. I think one of us says, "Thank God I'm/You're not doing marching band anymore!" about ever other day. It's amazing having him home on weekends and in the evenings. He was saying yesterday that it actually feels a bit like Thanksgiving or Christmas break; he's home, has time to do stuff, and doesn't have to leave soon for a practice or parade. Well, this time of year last year, that didn't happen except on breaks. He's at Home Depot right now buying soil, fertilizer, mums, etc. He's into gardening, and he'll be putting in the spring bulbs and setting up the garden for fall & winter. (If it were left to me, on the other hand, the dirt would be left as plain dirt. That's the kind of gardener I am. What, I have a garden?) SO happy I have such a smart hubby.
Baby-wise, we're doing well too. Baby D. has had 2 sets of non-stress and amniotic fluid tests, and 2 check ups, all of which went very well. She kicked the freakin' fetal heart monitor out of place its place on my tummy last time during the non-stress test! We have a growth scan on Wednesday (and a million other commitments too) and we'll see how much she's grown. I'm really hoping for a good growth percentile, seeing as my sugars have risen here and there lately. They told me the farther I got in this pregnancy, the worse my numbers would get and the more insulin I'd have to take. They're totally right - and that's a nice indicator that perhaps this whole diabetic thing really is gestational and not type 2, since it IS getting harder to control as I get more and more preggy hormones.
The baby's a source of entertainment as always. The kicks and rolls and punches are starting to really HURT at times, but for the most part, she's fun to watch. She's still head-down, which is happy news. We're still going for the weekly tests on her heart and amniotic fluid and all the other things they watch for on me - protein, anemia, sugar, blood pressure...and soon I get the unbelieavable joy of having "internal examinations" weekly. To check out how the good ole cervix is doing. I will forget about these weekly joys when I'm holding my beautiful baby, but until then, we have a combo of EW and OUCH to think about.
Well, I have to get my ass to Babies-R-Us and return a few things and get a store card. We want to buy the breast pump (yes, I said a 'breast pump'. Behold your future, girls, if you're going to breastfeed!) and I don't want to buy it until we have the Breastfeeding For Dummies class on 11/11, so we can find out what to look for. And I want to hit Michael's and get those cute little wooden letters to spell out HER NAME (wha ha ha! I love knowing what nobody else does!) for her room wall.
So I go now. Oh, and I've had to pee for like 1/2 an hour now.
39 days, 15 hours, 19 minutes, 20 seconds till I'm not supposed to be pregnant anymore.
...3 weeks still she's full-term and could come at anytime. Holy.
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