Monday, May 28, 2007

Reconnecting

This has been such a nice relaxing weekend with very little scheduled or planned! It has been cool and rainy...the perfect weather for catching up on sleep. It's noon right now and Tim is still upstairs sleeping :).

Recently, my roommate from my senior year in college got in touch with me through email (long story about how she found my email address). We have not spoken to each other since I graduated from Pepperdine six years ago. Nothing bad happened...we just lost touch. I knew from other friends that she was living in Denton, which is about 45 minutes from here. Anyway, we decided that we should get together so Tim and I had her (Jillian), her husband (Andy...who I also went to college with) and her 19 month old daughter, Ava, over to our place. Ava was a major hit with everyone...what a beautiful little girl. It was so great reconnecting with them and catching up on the past six years! I look forward to getting together with them again soon.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

MIA

For the handful of you who actually read my blog, you may have noticed that I have been out of the blogging world for a few weeks. I have sat down to write many times and have had difficulty coming up with anything to say. I have been filled with so many emotions lately...excitement for teaching, discouragement about the job and financial situation, worried about some major obstacles that I will soon be facing, feeling like I don't have any friends here, etc. When I feel this way, it can be hard to focus my writing, which is why this post is all over the place :)!

This past Saturday was the last day of my first teaching class. We were all supposed to create a lesson plan, bring it with us (including any needed materials), and tell our group what we would be doing so they could give us feedback. I have to say that mine rocked! I designed a lesson plan around caterpillars and butterflies and their lifecycle. I had a great time creating a caterpillar out of construction paper. Guess I'm a kid at heart :).

Last week I started my second class and it is keeping me busy! I have class every night (M-T) this week from 5-8 and this continues until June 14th. Right now we are learning about literacy and how to teach children to read...fascinating! I have a ton of reading to keep up with. I just purchased the book that is supposed to get me ready for my test next month and it is packed with information! I have to know literacy, math, science, social studies, music, art, and pe. I'm mainly worried about social studies because I have to learn all about Texas history!

Speaking of Texas, you know how we like to tease Texans (no offense to my many Texan friends!) for thinking their state is a separate country? Well, I have had many opportunities to laugh about this lately. For example, the principal who was teaching my class this past Saturday kept implying that everything related to standards and testing is better here (which I disagree). I had a question to ask and when she called on me, I started by saying, "I did not grow up in Texas..." and she immediately jumped in and said, "I'm sorry!" Well, I quickly responded (out of instinct of course!), "I'm not." Everyone laughed. I felt a little guilty later so I went to make sure I didn't offend her, which I didn't :).

Does anyone else feel like there are babies all around them? Maybe it's just me because I can't wait to be a mom! I know SO many women who've had their babies recently and many more are on the way. Congratulations to Andy and Melody who recently had Zoe Brooklyn, Chris and Mindy who had Cade Arthur, and Brian and April who had Wesley Gordon!!! Also, congratulations to all who are graduating! Way to go Val on finishing your nursing program and getting straight A's! I got a graduation announcement from a girl that I babysat for years...I feel old! I'm going to my 10 year reunion in August and she's starting college. Time flies!

Who watched Grey's season finale last week? Wow! I don't know what in the world I'm going to do on Thursday nights now...oh, yeah...class. Well, I'm looking forward to its return in the fall. Tim and I love to order pizza on Thursdays and watch our shows.

For those of you who made it this far, hope that was random enough for you! Have a great Tuesday!

Friday, May 04, 2007

In Case You Were Wondering...

According to the fifth graders I subbed for today, I am "off the chain!" They wrote this on the board at the end of the day, so I asked, "What does this mean?" They said, "You know...you're cool...you're off the hook...you're off the chain." Apparently, this is the lingo kids use today. Boy, do I feel old :)!