Decisions, decisions

Our lives are full of decisions right now! First of all, we are trying to decide when to have children. We want the timing to be right for us, but we also want to trust God to tell us when He wants us to have kids. It is really hard giving up that control, but we are at the point where we are just going to place our trust in Him and let Him lead us.

Another decision is getting another car. We have started looking at cars to replace our Tacoma. We don't really "need" a new car until we have children, but because we are such planners we are trying to figure out how what we want now. We will probably get a car sooner rather than later, simply because my truck is worth more now and it will help us pay for our new car. That makes it a little more complicated because we will need something that can pull our boat if we get it now, and if we wait until the end of the summer we won't have to get something that can pull the boat, but we will have to have another vehicle that CAN pull the boat at the beginning of next boating season. It is all very tricky. We also don't need a 4WD vehicle, because we don't do much off-roading or anything, but there are occasions, about once or twice a year, where we head up to the ski area in the snow, or drive up to the cabin in the snow, and it would be really nice to have 4 wheel drive at those times. This is a hard decision for us. We are looking between the Highlander and the Pilot right now, both 4x4 and both can pull our boat. Oh, another qualification is it has to hold Abby with no problem, which means we either have to get a 3rd row seat that can fold down, or a very large trunk area. Those two cars both have a 3rd row seat that folds down. It might be tricky taking Abby with much stuff, but we could make it work, especially before we have kids. We are only doing this because my truck will not hold a rear-facing car seat, and that is kinda important for when we have kids (obviously). But, considering I am not even pregnant, there is no rush. I don't know why this is eating at me so bad! Not to mention, the Tacoma was my dream car that I paid for outright when I was in high school and I have loved every minute of driving that truck. If it held a car seat we would not even consider getting a new one. Blah. I'll keep you posted.

On a positive note, I am going to be tutoring this summer. I will be tutoring two kids in both Spanish and Algebra, and a third kid in reading. The two that are doing Spanish and Algebra are doing it to get ahead for next year, so it will be fun to work with them and I think they will work really hard for me, even though I will be making them "do school" during the summer. The child who will be doing the reading is going to be a little more tricky. He is unable to attend school for medical reasons and it seems like the school doesn't really care, they just tell him to "come when he can" and that will be enough. Well, thankfully his mother really cares about his education and wants to see him reach his full potential, so she asked me to work with him. I am going to try a new program I have been trained in and I hope it helps him. I think it will, but it is going to be a matter of how much time I can spend with him each day and each week. I got enough materials to work with him for 20 lessons, an hour and a half each. I don't think we will get through that much, but I am going to try to work with him as much as possible. I hope it helps him! Luckily, this money that I am going to make while tutoring will be enough to cover our future car payment (that we have never had to make before because both the cars we own now are completely paid for). That is a good thing since I am not entirely sure I will have a job next year.

That brings me to another thing. I have to keep reminding myself that I will at least be able to sub next year, even if I don't have a job. Several of the subs at the school I was at this past year are going to be doing their student teaching in the fall, so that opens up some permanent sub positions at the school. I don't know if I would get hired there, but it is worth a shot, if I don't get a job somewhere else. What makes me a little more hopeful is that there are so many bilingual openings in Albuquerque, and even though I can't apply for them right now, I don't think they will all be filled by the time school is supposed to start in the fall, because none of them are going away when I check the website. I'm so glad God put it on my heart to get my bilingual certification, because without that my opportunities would be much more limited. I keep praying something comes my way and God would open those doors for me (and all the other teachers who have lost their job in this budget crisis).

Ok, enough of my rambling for now. I'll post more when some things happen. God bless our troops on this memorial day!

??????

How is it possible that in one school district, there are 3 job openings for teachers, and two of those are just for the summer? And in another school district, there are 45 elementary teacher jobs available, but completely unopen for the general public to apply to?? It is so frustrating!! There are several jobs that I want to apply for, but can't. Should I just send off my resume anyway? Should I wait and see what God has planned for me? Does God want me to keep trying as hard as possible? Or does He want me to just relax and let Him take care of most of the details? It is really confusing. I just don't know what to do.

Day 1 of summer

Ok, so this is really a post about the whole weekend, but today is officially the start of my summer break! And as exciting as it is, I got to have 4 cavities filled this morning... yippee! My whole lower face is numb and my jaw is killing me. Welcome to summer.

On Friday I had to say goodbye to the school I had worked at since January. It was pretty sad because I am going to miss everyone so much. I know God has a plan for me, and at the moment that plan does not include that school, but I am just going to miss everyone, especially the students. Apparently they are getting another teacher from another school to take my place, and that is only because of the budget crisis. I know the school would like to keep me if they could, but the budget is not going to allow that, unless something drastic happens in the district. Anyway, I know I will be missed and they know I will miss them. We will just have to see what happens.

Saturday all I did was clean the house. It was disgusting because we hadn't been home the last two weekends and it was in desperate need of a scrub-down. So I got that taken care of while Jason hooked up the A/C. We went to lunch with Jason's parents and went to an Isotopes baseball game with some friends that evening. It was fun, but we sat so far away that I couldn't see much of the game. It was a really high-scoring game, though, so that made it a little more fun, as far as baseball goes.

Sunday we went to church then ran some erands in town. We went and looked at cars! We are interested in getting an SUV and trading in our truck. We went to the Toyota dealership and looked at 4Runners and Highlanders. I thought I wanted a 4Runner, no question, but then I sat in a Highlander and I really liked it. We are still in the pre-planning stages of this adventure, but hopefully we can make a decision relatively soon so we know how to budget for this purchase. We are trying to decide if we need one that can pull the boat or if we will just get it after we are all done going to the lake for the year and then get a truck by the time we start going to the lake again next year. Who knows what we are going to do, but it is fun to think about getting a new car! After that we went and looked at plants at a nursery in town. We are working on landscaping right now and we wanted to see some of the plant options that are at the local nurseries. Finally we made dinner for our families- fajitas. It was nice having everyone over.

I am not looking forward to this week because Jason is going to be out of town from Tuesday through Friday. This will be his first business trip and it is going to be really good experience for him, but I don't enjoy being apart from him at all, much less for three nights. I told my family that I might be joining them for the evenings and just hanging out at my house when I have to, lol. I doubt that will be the case, but we will have to see how it goes.

Well, my face is still numb and I am hungry, so I will see if I can eat something without making too much of a mess. Have a fabulous day!

Closin' in on the end

Ok, I admit it, I'm a terrible blogger. I haven't been on in several weeks, my apologies. Really there is not a whole lot new in my life, at least that I can think of. School is out in 5 days. I can't believe I am already done with my first grownup job. Yep, I am officially not going to be at that school next year. I had thought that was going to be the case for a while now, but as of Friday it was pretty official. Unless something miraculous happens between now and August. I'm so thankful I have my bilingual certification, though, because without it I wouldn't have been able to get this job in the first place, and it is definitely an experience I am glad I had. I have learned so many things at this job that I will take with me wherever I go next year. I am going to miss the school terribly, they were like a family for me while I was there. They accepted me right away and I made some great friends that I hope I will continue to see regularly. This summer is going to be rough, though, because of the anticipation of having to wait for a phone call about a job in the district. I just have to have faith that God has me taken care of. I was skeptical about this job at first but it turned out to be a huge blessing, so it is easier to trust him now. I know that isn't the right attitude and I should trust him no matter what, but he helped my faith by doing this for me.

Jason and I went to the lake this weekend. We have gone a couple of times now and it is so nice to just get out on the water and relax. We had a big group of people this time as my whole family and Jason's parents went. It was fun, though, and other than our dog driving up bonkers with her whining (she always wants to be on whichever boat she is not on, or swimming...) it was super relaxing. I was even able to work on my tan a little because it was beautiful weather. We slept great, at least the second night, and now we know some of the kinks we need to work out of the boat before we go to Lake Powell in a month and a half. I'm REALLY looking forward to that trip.

I'm feeling kinda lonely here these days. It is hard not having friends here like I had in Lubbock that I could just call up whenever and go hang out. And the friends I have here live so far away it makes it even harder. It is really nice being so close to our families, but I feel like they are pretty much our only social network, except for the occasional dinner out with friends (once a month or so). What I really miss is going over to my best friend's house, playing video games or watching a movie, and just laughing the evening away. Oh what I wouldn't give to live closer to her. It would be extra nice to have some couple friends here, too, of which we have NONE. I don't even know how to go about making couple friends.... any ideas?? Our church is so huge that it is hard to get plugged into anything. The only class they have for young couples is a newlywed class, which we don't really fit into anymore (depending on your definition of newlywed). Plus it is on Friday night, and we do stuff on Friday nights a lot of times. It's just hard making a whole new set of friends. I'm thankful for the friends we have here, don't get me wrong, but I just miss the closeness that we had in Lubbock.

Our house is coming along, slowly but surely. We are working on landscaping right now, which is really exciting. The sprinkler lines are trenched and we have a plan for the back and the front yards. Our garden is coming along and I'm really looking forward to having fresh veggies! We have garlic, onions (hopefully), carrots, tomatoes (yellow and red), corn, green beans, zucchini, bell pepper, and green chile. So far they are all good, and we only killed the tomatoes once (a late freeze) but we replanted them. All the seeds we planted are sprouting (it's like watching children grow, lol, I get so excited when I see a little sprout sticking up through the dirt!) and the plants are thriving. It is going to be awesome when the veggies start growing.

Ok, I guess that is enough for one post. This weekend really got me thinking about how much I want children... but that can wait for another time. I will hopefully have more time to blog when school gets out, but no promises... We know how I am.