Bein’ Franklin

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 14th, 2008

It was a long day.

We woke up to rain. The kids are in swimming lessons, and the registration form stated that lessons would continue even in bad weather. So, we all piled into the car and headed over there. The weather wouldn’t allow the kids to get it, so they had safety day. The boys got to learn some pool safety rules (swim with a buddy, use lifejacket if you can’t swim, don’t swim when there’s lightning) and Emily learned how to throw a life preserver. Important stuff.

After the lesson, we scooted on over to Plainview. We got Timothy signed up for Kindergarten at PCA. The administrator and I showed him his classroom, the cafeteria, and the library. He is very excited to be going where Emily went for Kindergarten. He has it all planned out. He wants to go to PCA for Kindergarten, LaMesa Elementary (Plainview public school) for 1st grade, Crestview (Frenship school) for 2nd grade, and then back to Plainview for 3rd grade. In other words, he wants to follow in Emily’s path. We’ve encouraged him to take his own path. Hopefully he’ll forget about these plans by 2nd grade.

After registering Timothy, we went to get the keys to the house we will be renting from Wayland. We had brought a load of things from the garage with us. We headed to the house and unloaded our things before we headed for a quick lunch. Then I changed in my “interview” clothes and headed across the street for my interview.

My interview went well. The virtual campus team and I discussed where they see the virtual campus going and how I could fit in with that vision. I left feeling pretty good about it. I feel like I could fit in fine with the group and that the schedule would be flexible enough that I would not have to sacrifice family / mommy time.

In the meantime, I still need to get Emily registered for school. We have made arrangements for all the utilities to be switched over, but need to make some decisions regarding our phone and internet. Those decisions can probably wait until the move. After the day, I am actually starting to look forward to being back in Plainview. I’ve moved enough times to know that any real friendships that I’ve made this year will survive me being 45 minutes away. Everything’s going to be fine.

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 13th, 2008

Now that I’ve gotten used to the idea that we are moving, I have started trying to find my place in Plainview. I know it seems that we weren’t gone long enough for me to have lost my place, but the truth is that I have changed a lot in the last year and don’t really want to be in the same place I was in when we left Plainview last year. While I was sad about leaving some people behind, I was also very excited about being able to make a break from some things. Our time here has been a wonderful time of rest from the various activities and jobs I had committed myself to. I’ve learned a lot about how I want to spend my time and the kind of people I want to spend my time with. I want to make better decisions this time around.

#1
In my search, I came across a posting from the Virtual Campus at Wayland. The job is for an Instructional Design Specialist . To be honest, it is the job that I was born to do. My background in computers and education would fit nicely in this job. I would absolutely love to be able to do this job. It would look great on a resume if I decide to head back to teaching in a couple years. There is one flaw though. It’s full-time. I still have Zachary home for a couple more years, so I really don’t want anything full-time yet. At least not full-time away from home. So, I’ve visited with the Assistant Director of the Virtual Campus (she took an Access class from me a few years ago at the Community Classroom) and learned that the director is open to the idea of the job being done at least part-time away from the office. That was enough to get me to apply. I have an interview tomorrow afternoon at 2:00. Hopefully I will leave there tomorrow knowing how this will work for our family. If I am hired for this job, it wouldn’t be long at all before we would be able to buy a home. Plus, I think it would be fun to work at the same place as Scott. Wayland means a lot to both of us.

#2
If the aforementioned job doesn’t work out, there are some other options to explore. I spoke with a friend and former employer of mine this week. She told me of a possibility of a 10 hour / week job working with her. While it wouldn’t be my dream job, it has many plusses. It’s a ministry-type position, the schedule is fairly flexible, Zachary would be able to come with me most of the time, I would get to work with my friend again, and I would get to do some creative design work with a computer. It probably wouldn’t get us into buying a house as quickly as #1, but every little bit helps.

#3
There is always the possibility that I could go back to tutoring. This would allow me to stretch my teaching muscles a little more. I really enjoyed tutoring when we lived in Plainview before, except for the fact that the only place that I could tutor was at our kitchen table or in the living room. This meant that Scott and the kids had to be confined to the back of the house for an hour as I worked with these students. Well, the house we are going to be renting from Wayland actually has a bonus room that could be a fourth bedroom / office / playroom. The boys love having a bunkbed and still like sharing a room, so we had planned to use the room as a playroom. It’s located away from the living room and bedrooms, so it would also make a really nice office for tutoring. When one of my previous students heard that Scott had returned to Wayland, she asked if I was returning as well. She was looking for a tutor. I am sure there are others who need tutoring as well. Combining this with option #2 would work pretty well too.

So, that’s three possibilities that have popped up in the last couple weeks. Part of me wants to just wait until we get settled so I can see what comes my way, as I’ve gotten in trouble before for planning my life too far ahead. But another part of me thinks that this is God’s way of getting me through the move, and that I need to grasp the opportunities before they slip away. I’m not handling the idea of leaving very well, so maybe this is something to get me looking forward instead of focusing on what I’m leaving behind.

I would appreciate your prayers tomorrow afternoon. I don’t know what I want you to pray for. Just for direction and an understanding of what God wants for me in Plainview this time.

Posted by mommyfranklin at July 7th, 2008

Betcha thought this was going to be a post about our impending move. Nope…

You are most like: You are Blue
You are cool and soothing, with a hidden spontanious side. You are deeper than most people perceive, and you care a lot for those whom you surround yourself with.
Take this quiz: Which Crayola Box of 8 Color Are You?
Visit Toys For Your Blog.com for more blog quizzes

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 28th, 2008

Zachary is at a rough age. It’s that age when he still needs an afternoon nap but he really doesn’t want one. Our summer schedule is pretty loose, so we don’t enforce bedtime and naptime as much as we should. The result is a pretty cranky little boy.

He had a hard day today. Some friends came to visit, so he chose to play instead of crashing on the sofa like he generally does in the late afternoon. So, in an effort to cheer him up before bedtime, he, Timothy, and I were playing This Little Piggy with his toes. After a few minutes, he decided to play it with my toes. He didn’t quite get the words right though.

Here’s his version:
I don’t know what this piggy doos
I don’t know what this piggy doos
I don’t know what this piggy doos
I know what this piggy doos!
This piggy goes wee-weee-wee all the way home.

Close…

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 27th, 2008

Sometimes I feel like a ping pong ball.

(Serve)
13 years ago, I headed to Plainview to attend Wayland. I was 18 years old and had my whole life ahead of me. I had no idea where God would take me in the years that followed. Not long after arriving on campus, I met a boy that I liked. He was in my Calculus class and was a big wig in the BSM, and boy could he make me laugh. Turned out that he kind of liked me too. First graduation, then marriage.

(Ping)
We still had our whole lives ahead of us. We lived in Lubbock while he went to graduate school. He also worked as a children’s minister. I kept myself busy working at a bank for a year and then completing an Internship to be a high school math teacher. A year a half after getting married, we learned that we were having a baby. We knew it was time to find our place to raise our family.

(Pong)
Just two years after leaving Plainview, we returned and soon had a beautiful baby girl. Scott worked full time as a mathematics instructor and completed his degree. I worked part time at several different jobs, had two more babies, and got an extra degree of my own.

(Ping)
After those seven years in Plainview, we again found ourselves in Lubbock. Not as a young couple with our whole lives ahead of us, but as a family. Scott had a new job as post-Doc researcher at Texas Tech. We found a great rent house and a great school for the kids. I even had a job I liked with a wonderful group of new friends. We found a good church and quickly got involved. We were able to get a handle on some debt that had been following us around. Things were good, even with a brief medical issue that had to be resolved. The only thing that wasn’t great was Scott’s job. He found his calling. He could finally say definitively that he knew what career he was called to do. And, it wasn’t full time research. Six months after we had left Plainview, he started driving back to teach at Wayland. We found ourselves wondering what we should do next.

(Pong)
In five weeks, we are moving back to Plainview. We are ready to be home owners again. Rising gas prices have made it impossible to save for a downpayment while Scott continues to commute, so we are going to be renting a faculty house from Wayland until we are able to get into OUR house. There are things that I am very sad to be leaving, but know this is the right step for our family. God has guided us here through many steps and even led us to the largest faculty house that Wayland had which just happened to be the only one available now. It will serve us nicely as we transition back into Plainview.

What’s next?

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 21st, 2008

This morning was Timothy’s awards ceremony for t-ball.  It was scheduled to begin at 9:30.  We arrived at the ballpark at 9:00.  It was sprinkling.  At 9:10, everyone gathered on the covered patio as it rained .  We were a little worried we’d be rained out.  We’d been rained out of a few practices, but no games.  It would be such a shame to be rained out of the awards! 

About 10 minutes later, it seemed to let up enough to venture onto the field.  Luckily, it stayed clear enough to get through the ceremony.   All the teams lined up on the field and the announcer called the players one at a time to get their trophy.  Then, they all gathered for a group photo.  It was fun!

Timothy had a great time playing t-ball this year.  He said he wants to keep playing so he can get more trophies.  We told him that this is his last time to play t-ball.  Depending on where we live next year, he’ll most likely be in a Coach Pitch league.  And, they’ll start taking score and keeping track of who wins.  Yikes!

I couldn’t leave out the proud supporters.  Zachary can’t wait for his turn on the field next year.  Emily is happy to cheer from the sidelines.

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 19th, 2008

Zachary has taught himself how to choose.  He says he made this up all by himself.

Eeny, miney mo
Catch a tiger toe
Mama said I get the last one
So I get this one

Emily will be home in an hour!

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 19th, 2008

Emily has been gone to GA camp since Monday.  She’ll be home this afternoon.  With the exception of times that she has visited grandparents, this is the first time she has been away from home for more than one night.  We went to visit her last night for family night, and she is having a great time. 

I am looking forward to her return.  Her absense has made me realize how much the boys depend on her for entertainment.  They have kept us busy.  On Monday, Timothy decided he wanted his bed to be turned into a bunkbed again.  We had taken it down last Fall because he was having some trouble getting off the bed to go the bathroom in the middle of the night.  Now that he’s older, that shouldn’t be a problem.  So, we put the bed up and rearranged toys to occupy the space that his bed used to have.  We installed some pet nets for stuffed animals in each room and arranged their toys on them. The rest of the day was spent playing with toys we had pulled from the closet to fill the space in their room.  It was a fun day.

On Tuesday, the boys and I went to a local library where Kenny’s Korral had set up a petting zoo.  Kenny’s Korral is Lubbock’s answer to not having a zoo.  Timothy’s class had gone there on a field trip in May, so he was very excited to get to see Kenny and the animals again.  Zachary really liked seeing the animals.  He even fed a goat from his hand. He said it ticked.  An added bonus for Zachary was getting see a friend from school.  The two of them hugged for a long time and even exchanged a couple kisses.  This really disturbed the friend’s older sister, who said she would get in trouble for doing that.  Her babysitter and I told her it’s okay at 3, but not 7.  She seemed okay with that.

The rest of the day was spent running some errands and more playing.  We had considered going to see Emily, but decided it would be better to go on family night so she wouldn’t be one of the few kids without parents there.

On Wednesday, we went swimming.  The boys had been begging to go, so we finally consented.  We knew we had to leave town by 4 to go see Emily, so we decided to go to the pool as soon as it opened at 12.  We were the first ones there.  Scott was quite proud that he was the first person in the water that day.  We swam for a couple hours, then decided to head home for lunch and then off to see Emily.  We were at camp for about an hour and a half before heading home.  It was wonderful getting to see Emily and hear about all the fun she’s had.  When it was time for her to go to worship, we tearfully said goodbye and headed home.  When we got home, we changed the bedding in Sneakers cage and gave him fresh food.  We put him in his ball and let him run around the first floor of the house for a while.  He moves fast!

That has been our week with only two kids.  It’s been a little quieter and a lot less exciting without Emily.  She’ll be home in just a few hours, so I better get some things done so I can spend some quality time with her.  I am sure she will have lots of camp stories to share.

Posted by DaddyFranklin at June 9th, 2008

We had big plans for this past weekend  Most of them went off without a hitch. On Friday we attended an Amarillo Dillas game as part of an Alumni get-together for Wayland.  Three players on the Dillas are Wayland alums themselves.  There was a barbecue dinner before the game got started.  We arrived a hair late but still enjoyed a lot of good brisket, sausage and potato salad.  The only downside to the meal was the wind blowing upwards of 20 mph.

When the game was about to start we moved from the picnic tables over to where our seats were.  We all decided (our kids had already latched on to the Petty’s so this had to be a joint decision) to move up to the “nosebleed’ section and enjoy the game in the shade.  We would have cooked to a crisp in our original seats.  Fortunately it was not a sold out crowd so we had our pick.  Plus, I’ve never heard of the “seat police” coming to move someone from the worse seats to the better seats.

We left around the fifth inning because we had a long trip ahead of us.  Little did we know just how long.  We had planned to visit my parents in Canadian for the weekend.  After picking up all the pets from my grandparents house in Amarillo which we had dropped off before the game, we made our way toward Canadian.  Just about 8 or 9 miles shy of Pampa, disaster struck.  The front right tire on the Trailblazer had a blowout.  It didn’t shred itself but it went flat suddenly.  The first of the bad news was that it was well after dark, almost 11:00 pm.  The second item of bad news was that we never obtained our owners manual for the Trailblazer so we were left to figure out how to get the spare down from under the cab, where to find the jack, and how to properly use the jack.  Finding it was easy, lowering the tire took a while, and piecing together the various bars to make a crank for the jack was a long time coming.  But it all happened leading up to the real bad news.  The spare was flat.

At first, I thought it was only low and maybe I could drive it the next 9 miles into Pampa and fill it up.  This was a bad idea.  I managed to ruin the tire after a couple of miles.  At this point, I was at a loss.  I called up Dad and asked for some help.  I managed to catch him well after his bedtime so good ideas on my plight were not easy to come by.  Suspecting that the spare might still hold some air, he agreed to bring me a tank and an air compressor to see if we might be able to make it into Pampa and perhaps all the way to Canadian.  After an hour’s drive from Canadian, we quickly learned that the tire would not hold air. 

I finally reached the last resort.  I called the wrecker service and they sent out a tow truck.  He tried to air up the spare tire as well but to no avail. It had quite a large hold in the back, I am supposing from my driving on it.  He hauled the Trailblazer into Pampa, while all seven of us (Mom, Dad and my crew) followed in the Impala.  Now, the Impala is a spacious sedan but 7 plus three pets is probably beyond its specs.  The tow truck left the Trailblazer at Walmart at about 2:30 am and I wrote him a check for $115. We finally made it back to Canadian around 3:30 am. 

First thing next morning, I made sure the Wal-mart Automotive Department would be open all day.  Dad and I headed to Pampa, where I had them put two new tires on the front of the Trailblazer and move the extra tire to the spare.  This ran me about $285.  Add in the gas, and that made for a pricey weekend to see the folks.  The rest of the weekend was great, we took it easy, celebrated Mom’s birthday with some cake, and watched a few superhero flicks.  Kids had a great time as well and I just about caught up on the missed sleep by the time the weekend was over.

Lesson learned: When checking the pressure in your tires, don’t forget to check the spare!!!

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 4th, 2008

About a week before the end of school, Emily brought home a permission slip for her name to be put into a drawing to take home one of the class pets.  The class had 2 hamsters.  There were 21 kids in Emily’s class.  We signed the form thinking there was very little chance of "winning" a hamster.  We even prepared Emily so she wouldn’t be too disappointed if she didn’t win.

What we didn’t expect was only 2 of the 21 students to be in the drawing.  Emily called us from school on the last day of school to let us know that we would be taking a hamster home from school.  She was so excited that we couldn’t help being excited too.

Meet Sneakers.  He lives in his cage in Emily’s bedroom.  He seems to enjoy his new home a lot.