I'm so divided

So, I had an interview for a job for next year.

(Background: We decided I lived too far away from the district I worked in last year.  It was a killer drive and I always crumpled into a heap on the couch when I got home.  Was it the drive?  Was it pregnancy?  Who knows.  But I couldn't handle it very well.  Plus, I had to be out the door by 6:30 in the morning.

Now, if we add in time getting superbaby ready in the mornings, well, I'd have to wake up at 4:30...give or take half an hour. Not gonna happen.  Plus, the Russian decided that daycare was a no-go after hearing some horror stories.)

How can you send this cuteness to daycare and go to work?

But then I spied with my little eye a job posting for another part time position.  This one is in the district we live in.  Perfect!  The drawback?  It's still a 3 day a week position.  We were hoping for only 1 or 2 days.

Can't hurt to try, though, right?

I filled out the application and sent it on it's merry way.  A few weeks later, after I had decided they must not have been that interested, I received a surprise phone call requesting an interview in two days. Okay.

I never know how interviews go.  I prepared myself for the questions it seems like every district asks me, plus the typical "what's your biggest strength/weakness?" and the like.  Unfortunately for me, all the questions were situational or related to my knowledge of the field (i.e. blah blah blah, explain the criteria for qualification for grade students and how it differs for preschool). Not bad, but I didn't get to use some of the excellent answers I had come up with to the questions they did not ask.

Ah well.  I can be a stay at home mom.  It is the best for superbaby, isn't it?

Then I heard they were actually checking my references.  That's probably a good sign, but still not a guarantee of being offered the position.  I'm so split.

I don't want superbaby to go to daycare, even for a couple of days a week.

But I don't want to lose my certification and job experience.

You really think you can leave me?

Buuuut, maybe I could handle daycare for a day or two a week if the end is in sight, which it would be.  This position is a long term substitute covering maternity leave and ends in January.  Even better! I guess we decided we'll take it if offered.

But inside I still go NO! YES! NO! YES! NO! YES! Gaaaaah!

Oh chocolate, welcome to my hips

Please excuse the not-so-perfectly dripped glaze.  I was hasty.

Schools are notorious for potlucks. Alright, maybe it's more teachers than schools.  We educators love our food.  Celebration?  Food.  Birthday?  Food.  Working late?  Food.  Random event happening?  Food.  It's Wednesday?  Food.

We celebrated para educators again this week (after the stress of conferences, ya' know, gotta get through it with food). It was also a coworker's birthday.  Count 'em...two reasons to eat.

Aka we had several potlucks this week. For some odd reason, I always get elected to bring desserts. This time I headed to the man friend to help with my inspiration: double chocolate torte, peanut butter cream torte, or chocolate peanut butter cake. (Leftovers always seem to make their quick way to him.)

Cake is the ultimate choice.

However, chocolate peanut butter cake is a lot of work...relatively.  It's a lot more work than just buying a pre-made dessert.  Therefore, the ever-caring manfriend talked me out of spending the time and effort for the time being...

(Strawberry shortcake was perfect for work:  whip up homemade whipped cream, slice a few strawberries, melt some fudge icing that needed to be used...voila!)

That is how chocolate peanut butter cake became a gift for the upcoming spring break. (Someone convinced me that they deserve it, even if my coworkers don't.)  A very tasty gift, I might add.

Someone needs to come take this cake away from me.

I licked the frosting bowl clean.  Literally.

(I might have done the same with the chocolate peanut butter glaze, too...but there was definitely no sampling of the actual final product... I swear...)

It might kill me to wait 24 hours to cut into this.

Three layers of chocolatey, peanut buttery goodness

Do you feel appreciated yet? (Hypothetically speaking)

It's classified appreciation week at work...aka, 'Thank you tutors' week. In honor of such, (and because I'm due to bring in snacks at today's monthly meeting anyway) its cake pop time.

I tried to make them cute but simple. I appreciate the help I get from my tutors, but frankly, there's only so much effort I can go to.

Anyway, I pose the question to you...good enough? If these were handed to you at work, would you feel appreciated?

(Not that we're not doing something each and every day for our personal tutors...)

Safari cake pops!

Another request from work... (although I wasn't too happy with how they came out).  I figured it out pretty close to the end that I wasn't getting them cold enough, even though they were in the freezer longer than recommended.  But whatever.  The lions did come out cute.

Most of the monkeys are kinda disfigured...I kinda want to redo them all.  I'm positive I can make them better next time.

Maybe I'll make mini peacocks in honor of my wedding theme?

Just cuz I can...(I'm not crazy enough to think I could make them for the wedding.)  (But that would be cute.)

What do you do when there is no snow?

Make some, of course!

This month, in Language Group,* we are studying winter.  And how do you learn about concepts hot and cold if you do not have the snow which you can feel and go, "ooooh, cold," and the hot chocolate to go "ooooh, warm (hot!)" with little marshmallows that melt into the chocolatey goodness?

We need snow.  My cohort** and I have a brilliant idea.***  We shall make our own.

But how, you ask, your little minds spinning with suspicion.  How are you, ya'know, non-gods, going to make it snow?

I'm so glad you asked!  (Teachers should be moved up on that god-like scale.)  We shall use "InstaSnow."  I know you are all asking what InstaSnow is...my knowledge of it came about a couple days ago at the initiation of this little activity.

InstaSnow consists of two ingredients:  water and powder.  Mix them together and what do you have?  Instant snow!  Water explodes into a mountain of snow on a plate, in a bowl, in a sensory table...yes!  It even feels moist to the touch, and slightly cool.  Let it sit and dehydrate for a week, and presto!  You are left with powder once again to use next year when it doesn't snow again.

It was fun to experiment with it by ourselves to make sure it would work.  It was even more fun to watch the children's faces as they saw the water explode into heaps of snow in their bowls.  Eyes grew wide, mouths dropped agape, "mira" echoed around the table.

Of course, then we dumped it in the sensory table and had a blast.  Check it out in my rather anti-climactic video.

*So-called speech therapy group for preschool-aged children.

**By cohort, I mean the other SLP, the one who provides English Language Group, whereas I provide the Spanish Language Group for the Spanish-speaking children.


***Alright, fine, it was her idea.  I just glommed on for the glory.

Clowning around

The latest and greatest in the cake pop series:  Clowns!

Made specially for a birthday party for my coworker's son.

They came out rather cute in the end...but I had my doubts.  The first ones seemed not-so-cute...maybe a tad on the scary side*.  My coworker didn't like the party hats she saw on clowns in my Cake Pop book, so I skipped that part.

I had a bit of difficulty with them...as you can tell, a lot of them fell off the stick.  Oh well!  We have stick-less clowns!  (Does that make them clown balls?)

A bit of advice for anyone who attempts to make these:  use tightly twisted fruit roll ups for the mouth, or Twizzlers.  Do not be like me and use Rips Whips, which does not conform to a smile shape very easily.

* It's the eyes.  I didn't like** the eyes...

**Hint for others:  Do NOT use mini m&ms for eyes and add dots.  I unfortunately decided to on one that was already doomed with a stick through it's head...it really lends itself to the psycho murderous clown image.

Do my eyes deceive me?

As I mentioned previously, one of my coworkers requested my cupcake creations for her daughter's birthday.  The catch was her daughter is allergic to chocolate (and chocolate flavoring).  However, candy melts still work.

I agreed to make something cute for the party and showed her my cake pop book.  Ice cream was immediately chosen as the favorite.

So, without further ado, I present the cupcake version of ice cream:

They're so cute I almost don't want to eat them...yet on the other hand, I want to devour them as fast as I can.  How many do you think I can shove in my mouth at one time?  I'm willing to find out... I didn't think about snapping a picture of some of the "fallen" cones, but they might be my favorites.

Because of the chocolate problem, we have strawberry cake inside the pink candy coating, and it really tastes like ice cream...just without the coldness.

Next, it's clown cake pops, for another birthday party.  After that, I'm dying to make some for Halloween...suggestions?  I want to try spiders, spider webs with mini spiders, pumpkins, candy corn, ghosts, black cats, mummies, eye balls, witches, and maybe a monster or two.  That's a few too many, though (unfortunately).

To cater or not to cater

Some of you know of my addiction to sweet little morsels of cake mashed up with frosting and dipped in chocolate.  Said goodness is then decorated to be the most sickeningly scrumptious treat you can imagine.

Cake pops.

I do not claim to be a master, but I can't stop making them.  By making them I mean eating them.

Recently, I made cake pops, partially because I wanted to, and partially because it was around my birthday.

Each time I make cake pops, I want to make something new and cuter.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Birthday/thank you butterflies with flowers.

"Fancy" glitter snowballs.

Reindeer.

And my personal all-time favorite:  Snowmen.

The recent ones earned me the not-uncommon* "Can you make these for me?"  One of my coworkers wants me to make some for her daughter's soon-to-be birthday.  She's offering to pay the cost of materials...and labor.  Now, I can't justify asking her to cover my time and effort (yet), but it is tempting.  All through grad school people have told me how I could cater part time around my career in speech therapy.

I'm starting to think it might be a good idea.

*People have asked me to make cake pops for their weddings**.  It hasn't worked out with anyone, yet, but I'm hopeful to be able to make some for my own wedding someday.

**It's not limited to cake pops, or to weddings.  Everything from truffles to rye bread to Spinach and Cheese Cigars has been requested...

Back to work I go

The 2011-2012 school year has started.  Parents around the world are sighing in relief as they wave to their children disappearing onto yellow buses.  Mothers are taking a moment to regain their sanity after a summer of child watching.

Teachers smile and welcome new students into their classrooms.  It's a time of change for many people.

In the midst of it all, I have returned to school as well.  Finally, I am returning as a certified speech language pathologist and no longer a student myself.  Soon, children will grace my doorway and resume speech therapy in Spanish.  But until that time,  I am stuck in a disorganized office amidst piles of files and children's games.  New items for preschool arrive by the truckload and have blocked me in a corner of the office.

It has taken me a week to figure out my caseload.  A week.  You'd think I would have managed to get it done faster, wouldn't you?  Or that I would have at least managed to put the room together into a workable space.  But, of course, there is a wrench that has been thrown into the mix...I'm sharing my school and preschool with another slp.  Luckily, she's one of my close friends.  But that means finding my caseload is finding hers as well...so it's like doing two at the same time.  And she's busy starting up a new preschool program and mentoring not only me, but all of the new slps.

The next step is scheduling.  Do you think I can just "be sick" for a week and force someone else to figure it out?

Photo courtesy of Photostock.