Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here

Going into my final year of teaching, I didn't exactly know it would be the last year...

But the summer alone with the kids gave me confidence in my ability to take care of all 4 of them by myself without going insane.  We had settled into a routine, and things were going well!  And then, of course, it was time for school to start again.



For the first time ever, I wasn't entirely excited to go back to teaching...  I'll be the first to admit that I don't enjoy the baby & toddler stages as much as many moms.  But now I was starting to have big kids, and parenting them was more challenging but also a lot more fun!  And after a whole summer with them, I knew that staying home full-time wouldn't drive me as batty as I thought...

One of the best things about being a teacher is having the summers off to enjoy your kids.  

One of the worst things about being a teacher is that once you've finally settled into the routine of being a stay-at-home mom, it's back to work.

Who wouldn't miss those smiles?

We found an awesome sitter on Care.com, and knew immediately that she was perfect for our needs - she had worked in the infant room at a daycare (taking care of 4 babies at a time!), and was working in the preschool room currently because her boss thought she was too creative to be "wasted" on babies!  And since our home was practically a daycare, it was an ideal situation.  Gone was the old sitter, whose issues keeping the house picked up and arriving on time caused no small amount of stress for us...



We were up front about it to begin with, I was probably going to stop working this year or next year.  But I still kind of thought I had one more year in me after this one - we were planning on homeschooling John Paul, but he didn't really *need* anything academic from me, so that could wait until he was at least 6.  So two more years of teaching would be fine, right?

And baby plans were kind of on the horizon - the twins were almost 1, my fertility still hadn't returned, and 2.5 years seemed like kind of nice spacing, right?  So I figured I'd teach this year, get pregnant next fall, and finish off my teaching career and then have a summer baby!

Ah, plans...

The year started off really well - I was SO glad to be back with my students, back with adults, back to using the bathroom by myself...  My choir girls sounded GOOD.  And they were so sweet!



It was tough to leave scenes like this every morning, but I had signed a contract, and I had to stick with it!

But the end of November came and things kind of fell apart...  My dad passed away suddenly, so I was left helping my sister plan the funeral while also trying to do last-minute prep for a big assembly and our winter concert.  Oh, and grieve...

It was at this point that I think being at work really got me through things - I worked with amazing people who helped cover my classes, and being away from my foursome at home made it easier to grieve because when I'm upset I need to be alone.  So I think it really saved my sanity being able to kind of escape from things.

But I still wasn't healed, and I just wasn't all there with my students anymore...  And I didn't feel like I was all there at home.  There wasn't enough time to do all the paperwork at school, to take care of all the purchase orders, to enter the student data into our system, to file the music in our library, and I just wanted to teach.
And at home it was always such a rush to get out the door, get people dressed before the sitter was there, try to find a way to shower, get lunch made, etc.



Then on top of it all, we had a record number of snow days that year.  Every time we got into the rhythm of things at home or at school, another late opening or snow day messed things up AGAIN.

Life was just a constant cycle of hanging on for dear life and trying not to fall down on EITHER job!

Not to mention a change in administration at the school had led to a classroom management nightmare - the new principal decided that now cell phones were allowed everywhere in school, and couldn't be confiscated by teachers in the classroom.  No, we had to write kids up and let the administration deal with it if it became a serious problem.  Who exactly has time to add all that paperwork to their already-full load?  Cyber bullying became a more and more obvious problem because kids were writing nasty comments on each others Instagrams during school and letting the drama into the classroom.  And instead of talking to their friends, they were sitting around with earbuds in listening to music or watching movies.  Or maybe watching movies together, sitting there and not talking.

Depressing.



Staying home full-time began to seem like a more and more attractive option.  But health insurance.  How in the world were we supposed to pay the $1200ish/month that it would cost if we went off of my work plan?

A friend mentioned that she had just enrolled in Christian Healthcare Ministries, and we met to discuss how exactly the program worked and what the costs would be - suddenly staying home seemed possible!  I had no idea that programs like this existed (basically you cover preventative care and the first $300 of any incident, and your "premiums" go towards sharing healthcare costs with other members - really, look it up because I can't explain it well yet!), and it would cut our healthcare costs down to about $300/month, which is what was already coming out of my paycheck.

The only catch?  Maternity coverage wasn't included until you were enrolled in the plan for at least 300 days.  And my fertility had just returned.  I did a quick cost analysis in my head - I already knew we weren't pregnant this month, but if we got pregnant this month it would cost the same amount to pay for a few months of COBRA coverage to reach the due date that it would to start CHM coverage.

Shocker, we got pregnant.  And realized at that point that another year teaching wasn't going to happen!  We were in the middle of a super-busy time at school, so I didn't want to shake things up and add more stress to my already overworked high school counterpart (and department chair), so right after we finished up with our next set of concerts, I let him know that I wouldn't be returning, in the hopes that they could find a replacement for me soon so that I could tell the students I wouldn't be back while also saying, "But hey, look, this awesome person is coming to be your director!"

Weeell, public school bureaucracy being what it is, they couldn't actually hire the person they wanted to hire until the school year was over.  And it was only March.  And I was only like, 6 weeks pregnant or something.  So I dressed to hide the bump, and avoided the awkward questions from students (some of whom were definitely catching on), like, "When are you having another baby?" "I don't know, sometime in the future..." "No but WHEN? Like, what DAY???"  #subtle



I was ready to be fully present at home - sure, I was getting it all done, but at what cost?  I'm not one to get stressed easily, but this was a really trying time of getting everything done at work and also trying to give the kids everything they needed at home.  John Paul's behavior was suffering, there were tantrums every morning when I left and every afternoon when I came home, and I was ready to be done.  The decision was made, but I still had to finish out the school year!

I went to work and acted like I'd be back next year, because I wasn't going to check out and leave them to coast for the rest of the year.  I maybe overcompensated with some seriously difficult music when they should have been coasting...  I finally announced the pregnancy on the blog, thinking eventually they'd find it and start asking even MORE awkward questions, but nobody took the bait!

Actually, some of them DID find it, but were too polite to say anything because they didn't think it was any of their business.  Seriously, these girls are the BEST.  They give you hope for the future of girls everywhere!

We went on our end-of-the-year trip to an amusement park and the next week, now that ALL our concerts were over, I finally let them know that I was pregnant.  And not coming back next year.

"But you'll be back the year after that, right?"

"I'll have 5 kids.  So...  No."

Thankfully, they were not too shaken up about it - one of the nice things about teaching middle school is that it's only 2 years worth of students, so either they'd only had me for a year and weren't too attached, or they'd had me for 2 years and were moving on to high school.  Not earth-shattering news for these sweet girls!

A few weeks later school was out, and I packed up all my things and left without a tear shed - it was time, and I was ready!



No more missing the awesome sibling bonding going on all day while I was at work!

Why I Worked, Part 5: Surprise Twins & Mayhem at Home

Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here

When we left off last time, I was getting ready to start teaching again after about 9 months off, one class every other day with almost 70 students...

Middle school girls.

I love them, actually.  Their drama is SO important to them, but for the most part it's not the *real* depressing drama that older high school girls have, so things stay a little more lighthearted.  And I had a really great group that first year back - talented singers, receptive to my teaching style, nobody threatened to kill my baby or anything...

The teaching part of that year was fabulous!  It was an awesome way for me to get out of the house a few times a week and it really energized me.  Finding a good babysitter was tough because the hours were so erratic, but I felt like I had the best of both worlds, for the most part.  I could still have playdates and see all my mom friends, I even kept hosting a bi-weekly storytime/playdate that worked with my schedule.  My coworkers were awesome and the little break I got from the kids was mostly during naptime, so I didn't feel like they really missed me too much.

We still had the time and freedom to GO places and DO things!

We decided to try for baby #3 once my fertility returned in the new year, and were pregnant soon afterwards.  The timing worked out nicely - I'd have a baby right after our winter concert and come back to work in time for the second semester.  It still wasn't really a choice to be working - we needed the insurance, even though most of my salary went towards childcare.  But I wanted to be working because it felt like such a good balance at that point.

Easter 2012 - right after we found out we were having another baby!

I closed out a successful school year and found myself slated to teach a more regular schedule the next year, because my enrollment was up and we were adding a piano & guitar class that I'd be teaching.  I thought it might be nice to have a set starting time every day and that teaching every day would make it easier to find a good babysitter (we had been through three the year before, which was too many...  Two of them were great, though!).

Cecilia and John Paul visiting my classroom

The theoretical plan was for me to keep working until we had 4 or 5 kids, at which point Andrew would hopefully be making enough money that we could actually afford the cost to insure all of us.  But everything kind of got thrown for a loop when we found out baby #3 was actually twins...  Now my maternity leave would certainly have to start earlier, I wouldn't be able to make it to my December due date, and going back to work was going to be a LOT more complicated.

A week or two before the twins were born

I finally managed to find a long-term substitute who could teach music, and almost made it to my self-imposed maternity leave before I went into labor - luckily my amazing colleagues covered my classes for the two days before my substitute could start.

A rare moment captured of them sleeping while NOT physically attached to me

Mostly they finished nursing and had to sleep right against my belly, usually holding hands, and they'd wake up screaming if I put them down.

Maternity leave was rough, obviously, because twins are hard.  So I was REALLY ready to go back to work and have a little break.  It was stressful being at home and I hadn't adjusted to being the only one caring for 4 kids under the age of 4.



Especially nursing the twins nonstop, I needed to be not in the house with them all day long.  Going back to work would be a welcome break!

A VERY rare moment, in which I wasn't holding any children

But of course, I got back to work and the stress was still there - my students HATED the long-term sub.  And to top it all off, I returned right when they were signing up for next year's classes, so I lost a ton of good students for the next year because they had such a bad experience with my substitute.  The new babysitter (the old one decided to go back to school) was the only one we could find, but she couldn't seem to grasp the concept of cleaning ANYTHING up, or putting away dishes, or really doing anything except keeping the kids alive.  I figured that was about all we could ask for because life was so nuts, and so almost every waking minute Andrew and I were home, we were cooking, cleaning, catching up on copious amounts of laundry...  And we decided to move to a house with more than 2 bedrooms, a wonderful thing but MORE stress.

It's amazing how much mess accumulates when nobody's dealing with it during the day...

Not to mention the fact that there was no time for any playdates anymore, since all my friends were stay-at-home moms whose kids were all napping by the time I got home every afternoon.  We couldn't leave the house to go anywhere because the twins needed to nurse ALL THE TIME still, and John Paul and Cecilia couldn't be trusted to fend for themselves outside of our bubble.  Oh, and the sleep deprivation...  There was no napping, because I was out of the house when the kids were napping and Andrew and I were up late every night trying desperately to do all the necessary chores.

So cute, and so terrifying...  As you can see, this is mid-move!

The break from the kids to go to work was great, but things were deteriorating at home.  And I was terrified that there was no way I could handle this all by myself.  I jumped at the chance to sign a contract for the next year, working my schedule so that I didn't have to be away from the kids for as long (it had been only 5 or 6 hours at a time, but it felt like too much), all the while knowing that either this year or the next year was going to be it for me - once we had baby #5 there was no way I could outsource child rearing to a babysitter...  We'd have to find a way for me to stay home, somehow!

But for now I was just worried about surviving the summer, and taking care of all 4 kids all by myself, all day long...

Read Part VI here

Why I Worked, Part 4: Another Baby, Another Move, Another Job Search

Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here

Here we are right after John Paul's birth - I was excited to go back to work for my first FULL year teaching, and not even a little bit concerned about leaving my newborn.  We had a sweet babysitter hired for the times when Andrew couldn't watch him at home, my freezer stash of milk was huge, and I was reeeeeeeeeeeally ready not to be nursing a baby all. the. time.

Dad in grad school = LOTS of father-son bonding time (when Dad's not studying, at least...)

Yeah, John Paul was one of those babies.  He would nurse for like, 45 minutes to an hour, and then 30 minutes later he would need to nurse again.  After all my pre-labor research and the information at the hospital saying "every 2-3 hours" I was a little disheartened.  So it was actually a HUGE help to my mental health that I could be at work and just have to take pumping breaks every 3-4 hours (which worked out really well with my schedule, and my body has always responded well to a pump).

My students were so sweet and SO excited.  Being a choir teacher is seriously the BEST job (if you're doing it right), because teaching kids who want to learn and want to be in your class is so rewarding!  I learned a ton teaching them that year, but there was a lot of uncertainty brewing underneath...

We were waiting and waiting and waiting for a job offer, any job offer for Andrew.  And my school was closing, staff being transferred to a new school that had just been built that year.  Meanwhile, my sister had moved in with us after a brief stint in the convent, and we were pretty cramped in our 2-bedroom apartment.  She was moving out that summer, but we needed a bigger place so that we had space for a new baby due in January!

We waited.  Still no job offer for Andrew.  I threw myself into visiting elementary students and recruiting for what *might* be my new choral program the next year, assuming we were still in the area.

We waited some more.  Still no job for Andrew.  I signed my teaching contract.  And got an ego boost when I found out that my program enrollment had increased by almost 100 students over the last year!  I took a tour of the school, including my gloriously huge classroom, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a pond.  We found an adorable condo in a nice neighborhood that would be perfect for our growing family.



Andrew graduated.  Still no job. We packed everything up for our move and a few days after our lease started at the new place (but right before we moved) in July?

Andrew got a job offer.

2.5 hours away.

Yeah, that condo wasn't happening.  I started searching for jobs in the area where we both grew up, but it was July already.  Pretty much everything had been filled.  We moved in with Andrew's dad and I resigned myself to "just" being a stay-at-home mom for now, until I could find another job (Andrew's job had a pretty low starting salary and no health insurance for us, so I really needed to find something if we were ever going to get out of his dad's house).

The school year started.  I was feeling, once again, really fabulous about the fact that I was AGAIN unable to find a teaching job.  And this time I even had experience!

Then of course on the first day of school, I got a call.  They needed a long-term substitute at a local high school because the teacher had to go on bed rest for her maternity leave.  They needed someone NOW!  And it worked out that that someone was me.  The pay was practically nothing (just enough to cover daycare for John Paul), but it was a great way to get into the district and hopefully find something for the next school year.

It was a blast, even though I had to teach show choir (don't even get me started. Those kids would sing SO well in rehearsals, and you put them on the stage and add choreography and 90% of them are just screaming the melody. Ugh.).  I got the lovely runaround when their teacher couldn't decide if she was going to come back from maternity leave or not, but I finished up my stint, we moved into a townhouse closer to Andrew's job (the hour+ commute every morning and evening was KILLER), and got excited about the prospect of a full-time job for me!

But apparently it was still not to be.



Cecilia was born and I got used to being a stay-at-home mom.  I joined a mom's group, a book club, met up with other moms at the playground.  I even started a blog!

I kept applying for jobs in the spring and summer, but nothing was opening up and I was kind of okay with "just" staying at home (despite the fact that we really needed the money, or at least the health insurance. I try not to think of what a horrible financial situation we were really in at this point...).



We spent a lot of quality time with "The Baby in the Mirror" that year

The summer was almost over, and I had no leads.

Then I got a call from a local high school director who needed someone to teach a class or two at the middle school.  It was a secondary school, and the choir position had never been full-time for middle school.  I took John Paul and Cecilia to a playground nearby where a sweet former student from my subbing watched them, and talked to this director to see if we were on the same page.  It seemed kind of perfect, so we set up a formal interview for the next week.



Incidentally, I got the call very conveniently while she was passed out!

Did I really want something part-time?  They didn't even know if it would be one or two classes...  After much prayer and deliberation, I accepted the position.  And then found out I would be teaching ONE class.  Thankfully it still qualified me for part-time benefits, so it was worth it financially.

I was so excited to be back teaching again!  We had a really sweet babysitter lined up.  And the schedule was weird, but nice - I could still do all my stay-at-home mom things, and every other weekday afternoon I headed off for a few hours to teach choir.



I was ready for a much-needed break from these two, no matter how adorable they were!

The only issue?  I got my final enrollment numbers shortly before school began.  69 middle school girls.  One class.

Coming up next: My last teaching job, the craziest maternity leave ever, and why I left teaching for good. (Read Part V here)

Why I Worked, Part 3: A Job, Finally!

Part 1 here, Part 2 here

When last we met (to talk about THIS at least), I was unexpectedly (although really, unsurprisingly...  NFP has rules, people!) pregnant, working 4 jobs, and had been applying for teaching jobs for nearly a year with no luck.  My most recent interviews were in school districts that were both about an hour away, and I never ended up hearing back from either of those schools.  And at this point in the year (November), either somebody was going to have to get sick or get pregnant for me to have a chance.

Well, as luck might have it, I got another call for a position open at a school only 5 minutes from our apartment!  And it was a middle school (my favorite)!  And it was actually full-time!  And the teacher was pregnant and didn't want to return after her maternity leave, so I would actually be under contract, not just substituting!

And I was convinced that I was out of luck again.  Because really, what had I learned from all these interviews?  That nobody wants to hire a wet-behind-the-ears new graduate with no experience outside of student teaching.

Morning sickness was bad.  I was puking more times than I could count every day.  I was starting to get things under control by the time my interview rolled around, only to wake up that morning feeling worse than ever before.  Apparently on top of the morning sickness, I had also caught a stomach bug!  Hooray!

But I had to go to this interview.

So I puked probably 10 times, squeezed myself into the new suit I had bought weeks before John Paul was conceived (I think I was about 10 or 11 weeks pregnant at this point?), and did my best on the interview.  Days later I actually got a call - the job was mine!

Luckily my due date wasn't until a few weeks after school was out for the summer.

What an exercise in trust, huh?  And I certainly needed it - I was so cocky about the fact that I was so qualified that I'd get an awesome teaching job right off the bat.  And we'd obviously postpone kids for a couple of years so Andrew could finish law school, and that would be no problem, right?

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

16 weeks pregnant

Things went a lot more smoothly at that point, although it wasn't exactly the cushiest teaching job...

See, I had inherited a choral program from a very nice lady who seemed to attract some of the less-than-savory characters in the school to her choirs.  For example, one of the groups I taught started out with two of the kids on long-term suspension, one of them (a girl) for smashing another girl's head into a locker and giving her a concussion.  The other one, a boy, had such anger issues that I had to send him out of my classroom one day for throwing a chair across the room.  The girl with anger issues also very frequently complained in class about how racist all white people were, and how slavery was all our fault and we should be apologizing to her for everything we made her ancestors GO through.

So that was fun.

Then there was the time some kids ratted on some other kids in the class for going to McDonald's after school before they had a rehearsal.  They thought I was the one who had snitched (like I really cared? Hardly.), and at the prospect of their punishment (not being able to go to the dance), one of the girls told another that she was going to punch me in the stomach and kill my baby.

So that was cool, too.

Honestly, it was a good place to be for a first teaching job.  My standards stayed low, I worked with some really tough kids and got good experience in those types of situations, and I learned how to work with choirs that had absolutely no training.

I took my 6th graders to Festival (or Assessment, or whatever they called it at that point), and they were pretty terrible but scored higher than any group at that school had for years.  That's how low expectations were.

The position was kind of a revolving door - two teachers before, a group had gone to Festival and performed an original song with a rap section that made fun of a rival school, including profanity.  They got a IV.

37 weeks and looking large

Meanwhile, here I was hugely pregnant with John Paul, and just holding on until the last day of school, at which point I would drive up to Northern Virginia to be with Andrew while he finished up an internship and we waited for John Paul to be born.  And everybody kept saying, "So you're not coming back next year, right?  You're going to stay home, right?"

Um.  Husband in law school.  Zero income.  I'm coming back to work.

And honestly?  I wanted to.  I mean, I wanted to stay home with my kids eventually but just one newborn and me?  I didn't think I could do it.  And when John Paul was born and I got a taste of life with a newborn?

"Newborns nurse every 2-3 hours"  HA!  Not him.  Every 30-45 minutes?

It sounds terrible, but I was really glad I had signed that teaching contract.

Andrew had a year left of law school, at which point we'd see where he found a job.  But for now, I was ready to return to the same job in a new year, with students who actually signed up for my class and not just an "easy A."

Coming up: my 2nd year teaching, moving for Andrew's job, not finding a job again, having Cecilia, finding a job, having the twins, getting pregnant with #5 and quitting teaching... (Read Part IV here)

Why I Worked: Part 2

For Part 1, click here

So here I was in college, getting the very practical degree I wanted, on a beautiful campus, with awesome people around me.

I did a lot of really important things, like dress up like a ninja and febreze the boys' rooms on our hall:



Dress up in crazy outfits for our weekly "Hump Day" dance parties in a friend's dorm room:



Audition for American Idol with my sister (we didn't make it):



And just generally have a fun college experience that didn't involve getting drunk or doing drugs or any of those "typical" college experiences.

Along the way I still knew that this was definitely the major for me, and definitely the career for me - every experience I had teaching cemented that, which made life a lot easier!  Meanwhile, Andrew added a history major and decided that maybe singing wasn't the way he wanted to make his living...  So it started looking like maybe I *wouldn't* need to work forever, and he might end up with a promising career making loads of money doing...  Something?

He graduated and took a year to work.  I returned to school for my Junior year with an engagement ring on my finger!

He decided to apply to law school, and ended up at William and Mary in Virginia.  I started researching jobs in the area and realized that there really weren't a ton of schools around there...  But I was going to HAVE to get a job, because we couldn't just live off of student loans and love!

I started sending out applications in January of 2008, planning our wedding and planning for my graduation in the process.



Not a single bite.  Teaching certification and a degree from one of the best universities in the country, and nobody wanted me.  Nobody was hiring music teachers ANYWHERE!

Meanwhile, friends were getting job offers left and right.  People who weren't constrained by location could go ANYWHERE and get a teaching job!  People like me who were limited to one geographical area that wasn't heavily populated?  Not so much.

I graduated.  Still no job.



We got married.  Still no job.



We went on our honeymoon in Jamaica and I got a call from the local school district asking me for a phone interview!  They suggested it for the day that we were driving all my stuff from Chicago to Virginia, but I figured I'd stop at a rest stop for the interview.

Meanwhile, we paid like $70 in roaming charges so that I could set up the interview...

I had my interview (while driving somewhere in Ohio, because I waited at a rest stop for an hour and they never called, so we got back on the road) and it went really well - they called me in for an in-person interview!

I had the interview, and it went really well.  The principal loved me, and talked about all the ways that they'd be able to help me get ready for the upcoming school year, and I impressed him with all my philosophical knowledge of music education.  The department chair seemed unimpressed and unfriendly, but honestly?  He was a high school band director.  I didn't take it personally ;)

Weeks went by.  No call.  I finally called to find out if there had been any decision, and they were shocked that HR hadn't informed me the position had been filled.  Don't you love it when they just leave you in the dark like that?

So we got ready for Andrew's upcoming school year and I kept filling out applications for school districts that were farther and farther away...  I had a few interviews, but nothing panned out.  And suddenly the school year was starting and I was still jobless.  

I filled out a profile on an online babysitting website and immediately had job offers.  I started working two babysitting jobs, and added a job at a local tutoring center on top of that.  Andrew and I decided that he probably needed to keep his church job in Washington, D.C. because that money would *really* help pay the bills, and they offered me a spot in the choir too.  So we commuted to DC every weekend and I still had NOTHING to show for my very, very expensive teaching degree.  

Talk about depressing.

Then, after 4 months of marriage and some very half-hearted NFP practicing, we found out we were pregnant.

And we were terrified.

No insurance, no actual job (or job prospects), and a baby on the way.

To be continued... (Part III here)

Why I Worked (Outside the Home) and Why I Don't Anymore: Part I

Would you like to hear the story of my career?

No?  That's not why you read all these mom blogs?

Well, I don't blame you - it's gonna be a long series of posts sharing my experiences in various jobs, which I haven't really shared publicly before...

Ages ago, Colleen had a Working Moms link-up, which I meant to join but never got around to writing a post...  So here's my contribution now!

We're gonna start waaaaaaaay back in elementary school - I went to a kind of swanky private school (scholarship + financial aid, not exactly rich kids...) where the teachers got INCREDIBLE presents from students at Christmas and at the end of the year.  Which led me to the belief that I wanted to be a teacher.  Because presents.

Adorable? Yes. Materialistic? Heck yeah.

Fast forward to high school, where all I really wanted was to get married and have babies.  Job? Maybe I'd do something while I waited for the first baby to be born, which would obviously be approximately 9 months after getting married.

But college was kind of a non-negotiable, and there's no way I even would have considered not getting a degree.  And there wasn't exactly a husband on the horizon, plus NOBODY got married out of high school in this area.  So the plan was to go to college, get some sort of degree, get married right after graduation and work until we had our first baby.

Then I started dating Andrew, who soon went off to college to major in...  Vocal Performance.

Yes, he's a lawyer now.  I don't think I have to tell you that plans change!

So I realized that if we were going to get married, probably I was going to have to work to help support our family.  But what was I going to DO?  I went to a math and science high school and had decided pretty early on that math and science were NOT my thing.  In fact, nothing was really my thing except singing.  And if you didn't know it already, sopranos are a dime a dozen.  Ain't no way I was gonna make a living singing...

Look!  High School us!

But I did a whole lot of choir stuff for fun, in any case.  And ended up doing rather a lot of rehearsal-leading and leadership stuff, and eventually realized that actually, it would be kind of awesome to be a music teacher!

And so a career choice was made!  And it all would have been smooth sailing, were it not for the fact that I didn't actually get into the music school of my choice come senior year...  See, I only applied to one, because if I wanted to go to music school I only wanted to go to Northwestern (I said because the academics were excellent, I wanted to get off the East Coast, and it was the program I wanted it.  I probably meant, "Because Andrew goes there.").  And I was wait-listed at Northwestern.  And also at Notre Dame, where I would have happily gone and majored in... Something, because music education isn't a major there (or at least wasn't when I was applying).

Something tells me my less-than-stellar attendance record in high school had something to do with this...

Anyway, I accepted a spot on both wait lists, figured, "Hey, God's will!" and accepted a spot at UVA (yeah, not everybody's safety school, I know...).  At this point I desperately felt as though Notre Dame was where I needed to be.  And then I went to All State Choir and had one of those life-changing experiences (I'm talking 100 sobbing choir girls singing Z. Randall Stroope with an amaaaaazing director) and I knew that music teaching was all that I could do.  And that Notre Dame wasn't going to happen, because I didn't want to have to get a master's degree when I still wanted to have all the babies.  

Long story short, I ended up getting into Northwestern and, RIGHT after I accepted, I got into Notre Dame.  And I excitedly started packing for Northwestern, imagining my future life as a music teacher with an awesome husband and a million kids (the logistics of this hadn't yet entered...)!

So young! So in love!

To be continued... (Read Part II here)

7 Quick Takes - Back to School!

--1--

Sometimes I see all the back to school pictures moms of school-aged children are posting and I think I should start taking pictures of what I wore every first day of school.  And then I remember that that would be weird, because I'm a teacher and not a student...  Although it would actually have been pretty awesome the past 5 years:

First year:

Didn't start working until January, 14ish weeks pregnant?

Second year:

6 weeks post partum, probably pretty similar (or rather larger...) to the first year picture!

Third year:

20ish weeks pregnant with Cecilia.

Fourth year:

7 months post partum and actually fairly normal-looking...

Fifth year:  

26ish weeks pregnant with twins, large and in charge.

Sixth year:

9ish months post partum and fairly normal-looking.   

--2--

Am I really in my 6th year of teaching?  Granted, the first year I only worked half the year, and the third year was the same...  But still, time has flown!

--3--

In the race for teeth, Elizabeth has pulled WAY ahead, cutting her two top teeth this past week.  Mary Claire STILL only has one on the bottom right!

--4--

 Speaking of babies, they're pretty hilarious these days - they tend to follow each other everywhere and want to play with the same toys all the time...

 

"Oh hey sister, that looks like a good toy!"

 

 

"Here, move out of the way so I can have a turn!"

 

 

"Yeah, that's good.  You sit on the floor and I'll play."

 

 

"No, YOU sit on the floor, and I'll play!"

 

 

"Oh hey, the window!"

 

 

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that window!!!"

 

 

"Mom, did you need something?"

 

--5--

 

 

Of course, the allure of toys isn't exclusive to baby toys...  After all, train tracks are pretty awesome too!

 

--6--

 

Mary Claire is clapping.  Cutest. Milestone. Ever.

 

 

In motion!

 

"Cool.  Got it."

 

--7--

 

This happened between breakfast and morning nap yesterday:

 

 

Independent play...

 

Independent catalog reading...

 

Independent puzzling...

 

So I got to eat my cereal and drink my coffee in peace!  It DOES get easier, moms of twins!!!

 

Right now they're even playing with their music cube together while I blog and make dinner!

 

Check out more quick takes at Jen's!