Weekly update

Looks like that is all I am going to have time to do for the next few weeks. My life is chaos... I'll try to give a quick rundown of my week:

Monday- Woke up early and drove to El Paso. It was a four hour drive, plus stopping for lunch. Jason's parents drove me, so I didn't have to do the trip on my own, thankfully. We got there about an hour early so we drove around the UTEP campus (weird) and had some ice cream before my test. The test was ridiculously difficult. On top of having a cold and having to drive 4 hours, it was a 3.5 hour test! There was reading, writing, listening, and speaking parts to the test, all in Spanish, and I have absolutely no idea how well I did. I thought I would find out last week, but I didn't, so I just have to keep waiting. I am honestly not sure whether I passed or not, but I figure I have a really good excuse if I didn't: I was sick! Hopefully I passed because I don't want to have to pay the money to take it again. We drove back right after I was done with the test and got home around 11 pm. It made for a really long day.

Tuesday- I got to sleep in a little bit, which was nice because of the long day that Monday was. I didn't do nearly enough productive things on Tuesday, but I did a few. I got the window on our campershell fixed, finally. It broke this summer and we never got it fixed before I went to Lubbock. After that I was able to meet with my supervisor for my student teaching split here. She is super nice and has a very convenient connection... to the principal at the school that I want to teach at when I graduate! Apparently they are really good friends. It is an all-bilingual school that just opened in Albuquerque and my supervisor is sure they are going to want to expand next year. I am so excited about it because she got so excited about it! I will keep you posted on any developments. After meeting with her I went and spent some time with my new niece. She is just precious.

Wednesday- day 1 of student teaching in NM. I am with Jason's second grade teacher. It is really different because the schools are sooooooo different. I had 13 students in TX, but in NM I have 25. That is not the only difference, but it is one of the biggest. I am looking forward to learning from my cooperating teacher and to getting to know the school.

Thursday- Day 2 of student teaching. I felt much more comfortable Thursday than Wednesday. The kids are getting used to me pretty quickly, which is nice, so I know it is only a matter of time before they start asking me things and pushing my buttons to see what the limits are with me. I just hope I can get used to having so few resources in this school compared to TX. They aren't even allowed to make copies! I don't get it, but something is working because their test scores are pretty good. I am going to learn a lot.

Friday- I had planned on being really productive Friday as well, but it didn't happen. I did fill out a job application, but that was about it. I spent time with my sister and her kids while Paul was out running errands. It is nice being around them so much and getting to know Shelby while she is little. I wasn't around Jordan much when he was this small, so it is kinda nice. I started working on Shelby's baby blanket for Christmas, but I ran into a roadblock, so not much got done. That is all that happened on Friday, though, but it was a pretty good day.

Saturday- Another lazy day. Though I did put a box away, work more on job applications, and cleaned the house a little bit. I spent a lot of time with my family again. We went to lunch with Jason's parents as Jason and Ken took a break from working. Then, I went to town with my mom while Jason was working on pulling out our old fence with his dad. I had a really nice, long talk with my mom (that's another post...) and it was a good afternoon. We took the puppy to "puppy class" and ran a couple of errands. Then, Saturday night, we went bowling with my parents, siblings, niece and nephew. Paul even came. Me, Paul, Lauren, David, and Sam played lazer tag while Jason and Jordan played together and my parents watched Shelby. The boys had never played before, so that was fun. Then we all bowled together. I have no idea who won, but it was so much fun seeing everyone play and helping Jordan. I think we all had a good time. Lauren spent most of the time feeding and holding Shelby, so she didn't get to bowl much, but I think she still had a good time. It was a great day.

Sunday- Today we went to church, Home Depot, lunch, then came home so I could do homework, in that order. We went to lunch with my parents and Jordan, which was fun. I got most of my homework done and I filled out another job application. I am always curious as to whether I filled out the application completely right, so that is hard, but I just have to trust myself. After doing homework we went to a house warming party for Jason's cousin. It was nice to spend that time with Jason's family and extended family. They are hillarious. And after that we went to hang out with some of Jason's friends to watch Sunday Night Football. We don't get to spend all that much time with them, so it was nice to see them. Then, we came home and I have been doing this ever since.

I know that was a really long update, but I had to write about my week because so much stuff happened! Tomorrow I get to get back into the classroom and learning more about teaching! I'm excited to see what this coming week holds and I will keep updating when I have time. Take care, and I hope you enjoyed reading about my incredibly crazy life.