A Proud Big Sister

This past weekend, Emily and I made it into Boise very early on a Saturday morning to watch Payton & Presley's extra-curricular activities: basketball and cheerleading.

They play/cheer for "Upward", it is a part of the Idaho Sports Foundation. It's Christian based, the teams line up at half-court prior to the start of the game (which doesn't start with a tip-off, I've seen them start by picking a number and whoever gets closest to the ref's number wins, and of course with the classic rock, paper, scissors) for a prayer. At half-time of each game, someone also shares their personal testimony. It is a very positive experience for all the participants! Something else I really like about the organization is that there is an award ceremony after each game and each person is awarded a star (with snack time, as well, because you can't play youth sports without a great snack afterwards!) For Payton, they get ironed on her jersey's undershirt, and they go on Presley's megaphone. In basketball, you could get a star for best offense, defense, sportsmanship, etc... In basketball, best spirit, knowing the cheers the best, etc...And for both there are "Christ-like" starts.

The morning started at Payton's basketball game at 9am! Marcel and I had been to her game 2 weeks ago and it was so awesome to see how much she had improved in that short amount of time. She had 4 rebounds, and went 2-3 in shooting! Also, this is her first time in the sport. Marcel is currently in a Human Development class so he is documenting her athleticism, among other things, so we've been videoing (is that a word?) everything. Too bad for us we only have the recorder on my digital camera, so the quality isn't great and there isn't a way to zoom in.

In case you can't tell who we were watching...she's the tall one with glasses!
And don't mind all the commentary; we were having conversation through the whole game, knowing Marcel would be able to mute it for his presentation.

After the basketball game (I don't know how many they have had, but the season is almost over and they've only lost their first game), we headed home for a quick bite and for an uniform change. Presley had to start cheering for a little boy's game at 12pm. She is a very good cheerleader and seems to have a lot of fun with it. She was very excited to do the dance (in the video below) because only 1 of her coaches has been working with them on it and because she too is currently a cheerleader she's had competitions and hasn't been able to be at all the Upward games.

There are only 3 girls in the screen, but many more cheerleaders on the squad. We like the one in the middle!

In the spring, they are both going to be playing softball, something I'm really excited to watch! Maybe Emily and I will go help them practice, as it too is something they've never tried before.

Taxi Drivers, Landlords, and New Bosses!

Marcel has subbed 6 days now and has been an instructional aide (at Desert Springs Elem, Sage Valley MS), PE teacher (Birch Elem, Vallivue HS), 1st grade teacher (Central Canyon Elem) and an Alternative School teacher (Vallivue Academy). He has loved each of them, even if he was a bit nervous going back to first grade. They have each provided many wonderful opportunities for him. Like today at Sage Valley, he wasn't really needed as the classroom aide, so he was able to meet the Band teacher and even conduct the jazz band! At Birch, he was able to meet the music teacher who has now personally requested him to sub in her classroom for 3 different days! Back to the original point of my post.

Being a substitute teacher is quite an art form. I learned that from a guy I worked with at the gym. Because of what Dan taught be about subbing, this is our nightly routine:

Check the sub site multiple times throughout the night, and right before bed. Wake up at 4am to check the site again in hopes of there being an opening to claim before the calls start going out to fill spots last minute. Return to bed until needing to be up to get ready for the big day of work!
(last night was the first time Marcel had a job prior to going to bed)

That alone is quite an art, but we also do one more thing nightly:

We call/text the people pictured above to see if Marcel can be driven to work in the morning.

This is how awesome they are: we are able to put them "on-call" to take him all the mornings that I am at work and they get him to wherever he needs to go. Marcel just calls them at 6:45am (when my mom gets up) and lets them know where his job is for the day.
(Marcel has been able to get himself to work only twice, which happened to be his first 2 days)

Our current financial situation requires that we both be working (and ideally, more than we are!) but without the public transportation that we had available in Oregon, it would be impossible for Marcel to sub and for me to stay as a stock associate at Banana, because of the schedules. Also, because of our financial situation it is not feasible for us to get another car. We did some used car shopping when we got here, but it is so hard to think about adding another expense to an already tight budget.

We are so grateful for all the help they provide us. Besides this amazing taxi service, they are also great landlords that don't expect payment while Marcel is in school. I don't know what we'd do without them.

They are going to be able to retire as taxi drivers soon, as I have been offered a job to watch a 4 month old in my home, so Marcel will be able to take the car. The family is a bit worried about our 1 car situation, because if Marcel was working, I'd be stranded at our house with no means of transportation. But, our awesome landlords/taxi drivers have come to the rescue once again! They have agreed to let me park their old suburban at my house to be used in case of an emergency; not that I'd want to drive it any other time because of the cost of gas for such a big vehicle. I need to get in contact with the parents again soon (we always seem to play great games of phone tag!), but it looks like I will be starting March 16th!

C25K

I believe it was Saturday when I noticed on a friend's facebook that her and her husband had just completed day 2 of week one of the C25K. I had THOUGHT about doing it awhile ago, with enough thinking about it that I had enough information on it to remember that C25K stands for Couch 2 5K! It turns couch potatoes into 5K runners.

A little backstory, mainly for the journal part of this blog: for as long as I can remember, especially since we've been married, Marcel and I have had big plans for exercising, but it never really comes to be. He was doing really good leading up to the wedding, but then graduation, wedding and honeymoon slowed him down. I had a gym membership from working at a gym and NEVER used it (well, I think I might have walked on the treadmill 2-3 times while reading a book, not much exercise!) After dealing with the kids at work all night, which came after being at BR all day, when I got to clock out I was ready to be home. One of the many things that I did take away from the gym was that if all those parents can make time for exercising, I should have no excuse. Most weeks I wasn't working full-time, had no kids with school, sports, church activities, the list could go on and on. I knew that if we didn't make it a priority now, while we are kid-less, we'd have a very hard time keeping it in our schedule with kids.

So, together Marcel and I have now completed 2 days of our first week in C25K. I am embarrased to say that on Monday (Day 1), we both almost died. It's not much running (week 1 has 8 sets of a 60 second run and a 90 second walk), but it was very difficult. Today, however, was already a lot better. Don't get me wrong, it was still hard, but the kind of hard that you want exercising to be. Even after just 2 days, it already feels so good to be back to exercising. I may have to find some weight training exercises to do at home (no gym membership in this budget!) on the off days for a more balanced regimen.

It feels so rewarding to do this with Marcel. I was so exhausted today after getting up at 4:15am for work that all day until when I picked Marcel up from another day of subbing, I was hoping that he'd offer to skip today (you just have to do 3 days a week) and that I'd happily agree. However, once we were together and catching up on life, I felt like I couldn't let him down. Oh, and I do have to add, that this running would not be possible without Marcel's musical abilities. We found a "music" track that has a narrator telling you when to walk, when to run, when you are done. And with a program (Garage Band) on his computer he was able to lay it over actual music, that is very fast-beat, good exercising music. I want to make the next week's playlist to learn the program, but he set the bar so high, mine could never compare.

For all those readers hoping for a Bailey Baby take note:

This new priority on exercise in no way means we are ready or trying for kids. It is simply something for us to do together, to get healthy together, and to support each other together!!!

Valentine's Day Weekend

We haven't even reached Valentine's Day for real, but it has already been celebrated in our house. Working at Banana Republic makes it very difficult to make any plans for Sundays since we get our schedule for the new week Thursday night. Instead of just hoping I wasn't going to be scheduled, we were proactive and went out last night, since I'm always working in the mornings on week days.

We had dinner at TGI Friday's and even splurged on dessert! Then we went to see Valentine's Day. All Friday I was seeing links online for the bad reviews of the movies, but I didn't read them as to stay optimistic. It worked, because we both enjoyed it. Such a good movie; totally worth saving our movie passes from Christmas, as to make this holiday as budget friendly as possible :)

Like has become our tradition, there are no pictures of us out for the night, but we took some when we got home...

I look a bit ghostly, so we relocated...

My sister says our heads touch in every picture we take, but after 3 attempts at a decent picture with acceptable lighting the only one I like is the one with our heads touching, so I'm standing up for us taking pictures this way :)

This morning, we went to church for a Ministry 101 session. We feel that we've found the church God has called us to so we are hoping to get involved. How else do you feel connected in a church of 1200+ people? Marcel signed up for worship team as well as being an A/V guy, and I walked away from it wanting to pray about where to serve. Here are some pictures I made Marcel take with me as we were walking out the door

Marcel was whisteling so there was a few more rounds...

We will be back in church tomorrow morning. We are very excited for the message, "Having the Marriage You've Always Dreamed Of." I've heard many sermons on marriage in my adult life, but none since being married, so I'm very excited to see what we can take away from the pastor and his wife's message after being married 28 years.

PS: I've never really been too against or overly for Valentine's Day, but was very excited for our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife. We did have a great day/weekend, but I still prefer the dates we go on just because we want to and showing each other love when we want to and how we want to, instead of society telling us when and how. It is a pretty silly excuse of a holiday if you ask me.

Mr. Bailey

This morning, at approximately 6am, I woke up to Marcel yelling something and running out of bed towards the living room. It was like an emergency, and the first thing that ran through my still sleepy mind was that someone was breaking in! Well, he came back to the bedroom saying, "That was the call!" In was indeed the call, he received his first call to sub in the Vallivue School District, but since he had forgot to bring it into our room to charge like we do every night (I honestly don't remember the last time he hasn't done that) he missed the call. He then logged into the system online and found 3 jobs. He accepted the first one he clicked on and after that the other 2 had already been claimed by another substitute.

As he was getting dressed, he kept saying "Mr. Bailey" over and over. I'm sure I gave him a funny look because he said to me, "I have to respond to that when the kids need me."

In celebration for his big first day of school, Marcel asked for a special breakfast. I laughed and said, "I'll make you a special lunch, I'm going back to bed!" I also made him pose for a picture (it isn't the best, but I had already crawled back into bed at this point).

Mr. Bailey's first day is actually a half-day at Desert Springs Elementary School as an instructional aide!

We're very excited about having 2 incomes again, even if it means he goes running out of bed every morning!

As of Late

Last Saturday, Marcel cooked dinner. He went all out: steak with sauteed peppers and onions and homemade french fries. It was delicious! Nothing out of the ordinary for Marcel to make a delicious dinner, but about halfway through he said, "I'm surprised you aren't trying to take pictures of this." As you can see I did then get out my camera. He was very proud of the kitchen management skills for the dinner, 3 pans on the stovetop at once!

My personal chef

Sunday, on our way to church...
if I REALLY would have looked at this picture on the camera, we would have taken a second!

Sunday, we woke up to this in our yard. I'm really done with the snow and ready to start wearing less layers, but more importantly: flip-flops! Marcel went out early to have the windows scraped and the car warm, and I found this on our camera. He is so artistic sometimes.

In other news: Marcel got his application, etc. turned into the Vallivue School District today to be a substitute teacher. He should be in the system tomorrow morning, so he can start subbing as early as Thursday, as long as there are classrooms with an opening. It will be a great addition to my lousy income from Banana. I actually make somewhat decent money since they kept me at my wage from Oregon, which is much higher than Idaho's minimum wage, but working 5-10 hours a week doesn't go very far to cover bills. Better news is that I may be able to start watching a baby in my house full-time. A lady that works with my mom needs a new babysitter for her 4 month old. She's calling me tomorrow so I'll know more then (including what they can pay me), but it would require me to cut back my availability at Banana drastically, but a steady income is VERY needed right now! Enough with the money talk...

We still are thoroughly enjoying spending so much time together. We just started the month with trying to do something fun each day, instead of just watching TV, killing our brains with the internet. It will honestly be renting a redbox movie for a lot of our fun days, because I have coupons for 20 free movies and that fits our budget :) but it still gets us out of the house for a bit to pick the movie! We just realized that the days of having so much time together are going to end sooner or later, and who knows when we'll have another chance like this one (I'm guessing retirement!) so we don't to look back in a few months and regret all the time we did have together and didn't use. It is such an awesome feeling to be so connected emotionally and spiritually with your spouse. I am one very lucky girl!