One down

I survived my first day of work! It actually isn't a huge deal because I didn't see kids today, but it was still overwhelming and a little stressful. I feel like I am on information overload. I met a bazillion people today and yesterday, many of whom I don't remember, and many of whom I have met twice. I got to see my friend who works there, which was fun, but I didn't get to talk with her much as we were so busy. I got to help with planning and scheduling some testing today, so I was able to do something productive. I don't get a desk or anything for a while at least, so that is a little stressful, but I don't have to teach kids for about a week either, which will give me some time to try to organize my life.

Another productive thing I did today was translate for a couple of parent-teacher conferences. The first one was great because I didn't actually have to translate the whole thing, I just have to help clarify if anyone needed it. The second one was much more difficult. I had to translate the entire conference and I was pretty uncomfortable about it. I just felt like I didn't have the skills yet to competently translate. It was hard because I could tell the mother was having a little bit of difficulty understanding me. I did what I could, though, and I figure that is all I could ask for. I know my Spanish skills will get better as I use it, and as I take chances. I am very hopeful!

I am excited about starting to work with kids, but apparently I am going to have a "very tough group." The kids have some issues, which I know nothing about, and apparently the teacher before me didn't do a whole lot for the students and kinda made them hate going to her class. I feel like I have a lot of ground to make up for these kids to be successful. I am already brainstorming ideas for lessons and techniques I may be able to use. I am excited to use what I have learned and figure out what works for these kids. I want to make a difference! I think I picked a good school for that, if nothing else. These kids like to fight, cuss, be mean, indimidate each other, etc. I am sure they are going to try some of those things with me because I look so young, so I am going to have to be very tough at first, and if they cooperate and are respectful then I can ease up a little, but I know if I am too lenient at first then I know they will try to take advantage of that.

I know I have a LOT to learn, and I really want to do the best I can for these kids. Teaching is my passion and I want to make a difference in the lives of these students. I want to be able to work with their teachers to make a successful team and do a lot of good for them. I am still nervous that I am in charge of kids though. I am having a hard time remembering that I am my own entity now, no longer a student teacher who has to do what my cooperating teacher says. It's quite different from what I am used to, but I am going to have to get over it quickly!

Ok, enough for now. Gonna go relax in the bath tub for a while. And I need to go to bed early... 5:15 comes too soon in the morning.

Excited, Anxious, Nervous... Shall I go on?

These are all the emotions I am feeling about starting my job tomorrow. I went and took a tour of the school, saw my classroom, and met several teachers. I am not going to see kids tomorrow, which is comforting. And apparently I never have kids on Fridays, so I will have two half-days this week to get everything organized and ready, then I will start with kids on Monday. I am so thankful that I am starting with two half-days, and that I won't have kids right away. God is so good to me.

Kitchen update: Our cabinets are in and finished!! They have handles and knobs on them and everything! Tomorrow the counter guys are coming to make the template for the counters, and the electricians are also coming tomorrow to upgrade our power and put all the plugs and stuff in around the kitchen. I am excited, though, because I am actually doing laundry in my OWN laundry room! It is still loud because we don't have the doors on it, but it is super convenient now that it works again.

Gotta go finish laundry and eat some dinner. Work tomorrow!! So early...

New job

Yep, I got the job! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I start on Thursday, which will be weird because it will be a half day, but maybe that is a good thing so I am not thrown in right away. I am going to be the 4th, 5th, 6th grade bilingual teacher at a school called Desert View. I know one of the teachers there so it is going to be nice to go in there and have a resource right away. I am going to take a tour of the school on Wednesday, which will hopefully calm my nerves and whatnot. Anyway, that is the update.

The kitchen cabinets are going in as we speak and they look amazing! It is different than I pictured in my head, but in a good way. They look so rustic and beautiful, especially with the wall color. It is going to be just that much better when the countertops are put on next week. I am not going to post pictures until it is completely finished, though, so you will have to wait a little while longer to see what it looks like.

OK, I have to figure out a way to leave to go sign my contract over at the administration offices. Maybe someone can come hang out at the house with the cabinet guy while I run that errand. Adios!

Painted

Our kitchen is painted! We spent the day painting the ceiling and all of the walls. The color is pretty dramatic, but I love it! Our cabinets are very light, so the color will hopefully contrast very nicely. We will see on Monday!

My brothers came over at about noon today to hang out for the afternoon and spend the night while my parents go out and spend the night at a hotel out of town. They were very entertained by the xbox and the super nintendo, in fact they did that most of the afternoon. They tried to ride their scooters for a while but it was way too cold. They didn't even lift a paint brush, but that was probably more helpful than if they actually tried to help. We had dinner at Dion's, which we have had quite a bit recently, but it was still good, and we needed a change of scenery after being cooped up in the house all day.

At the moment we are watching Looney Tunes that Jason has recorded on the DVR. I am getting tired, though, so I think it is time to go read.

Prayer request- Some friends of ours from Lubbock have spent the last few days in the hospital with their baby who is fighting RSV. She is still on oxygen and is feeling pretty puny. Please pray for quick recovery for her and that her parents would be able to get enough rest and know how to comfort their baby while they are in the strange environment. I don't think they are able to go to work or school while she is in the hospital, though he might still be going to class, I am not sure. Thank you and I know they appreciate the prayers!

Perpetual waiting

I am STILL waiting to hear about my job. I was told I would get a phone call yesterday and I didn't. I called the office this morning and was told that a decision still hadn't been reached because the "boss" still hasn't looked over my peperwork. The lady I talked to said she hopes to have a decision for me today, and that everything still looks good, but she is just waiting for her boss to look over everything. I still don't have my certification, but I took my application to Santa Fe on Wednesday so that saved about 2 days. Plus, I was able to get a confirmation that I turned it in for me to fax the office that might hire me, so I hope that cuts it when it comes to my certification, at least for the next two weeks or so. Ugh, I just want to know already! This is two week I could have been subbing and making money, but I have been on hold...

On a different note, our sink and hardware has made it to our house, which is good because we didn't think they would make it on time. Our kitchen is completely drywalled and textured. Today we are going to prime the whole room, paint the ceiling, and hopefully decide on a wall color for the rest of the room. I got a quart of paint that I liked on the sample card, but I'm not sure it is going to work, so we may be back to square one... We will just have to wait and see about that, though. The people from the cabinet company are coming today to make sure the room is ready to be finished. The electricians have not finised their work, which makes me a little nervous, because we don't have any switches or plugs or anything. But, the best news is that the cabinets are coming on Monday!! They will be installed on Monday and Tuesday. The countertop people will come on Thursday to make a template for our counters. Supposedly it will take about a week for the counters to be finished. We were hoping to be able to have a Super Bowl party, to celebrate our new kitchen, but we are pretty sure it won't be done :-(

I feel like my life is all about waiting right now. I guess God is trying to teach me patience... I'll update when something new happens...

Floors and more

Yep, I said floors. We finally got our floors put down in the kitchen! It is so exciting, but we covered them up with paper before they were down for even 24 hours so we didn't get them dirty when we finished the work. We spent today mudding and taping the drywall to get it prepared to be textured and painted. It's coming along! We are hoping that by the first week in February we will be completely done with the whole thing.

I finally finished the baby blanket for my niece on Saturday. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it to my sister, so I will have to do that later. I'm really glad I got it finished, though, because now I don't have to worry about it any more. I have a bunch of other projects that I could work on, but I Don't have much space to work on them since our livingroom now holds the refrigerator as well as everything else that normally resides in the kitchen. We will see if I can get anything else done, but I am not holding my breath.

This week could be interesting. It is hopefully my last week of unemployment (which I will know for sure on Thursday) so I have some things to get done. I want to spend some time with my sister and her kids. I also want to run some errands that I won't have time for later on. Our cabinets might come in this week, which means we can get them installed either late this week or early next week. I guess I am going to have to see what all I am able to get done! Updates to come as things develop this week.

Also, I have a couple of prayer requests. One is for my mom's aunt. She fell last week at work and had to have a partial hip replacement. She is already up and walking around with a walker. She was in good health when she fell, so we are praying that her recovery will be quick and complete.
Another is for me. I have started reading my Bible daily again. I go through phases with this. I will get in the habit, everything is going great, then I get out of the habit. I can tell that I am so much happier and much more at peace in my life when I am reading it every day, but since I haven't for a while now I noticed my relationship with God was suffering. I know people go through this a lot, and I just pray that I can get back in the habit and that my desire to learn more and more from Him will be as strong as ever.

Thanks so much! Until next time...

God is great!

I (unofficially) got a job! I haven't gotten an offer yet, but the assistant principal at the school I interviewed at called me back today asking me to send him some information. I had to fax him my certification from Texas, my application for licensure in NM, and I will have to send him my scores from my certification tests when I get my results from the bilingual test back. He said, "I can't offer you the job, but I want to get all the paperwork in order so we can send it off to central office so they can let you know..." I thought that was really funny. But I'm so excited about it! My mom thinks it is going to be the perfect first job for me because I won't necessarily have my own classroom and I will be more like a consultant, working with students individually on their work, and working with the other classroom teachers to help the students. I agree with her that this is going to be great since I am coming in at the middle of the school year. I need to talk to a friend of mine who works there to get the scoop, but I had a really good feeling when I went to the school for my interview. It isn't quite real yet since I haven't officially gotten an offer, but I am very optimistic!

On a different note, my youngest brother has had an erruption today. He was being very defiant about school and was arguing with my mom. Once they hit 5 times arguing they get priveledges taken away. I guess he was at 3 and he just said go ahead and put him at 5, so mom did. She told him to go get his iPod from his room and he said no. She said if he gets it he only loses it for one day, but if she has to get it he loses it for two days. He told her to go get it, so he lost it for 2 days. He then left on his bike and was playing with some other toys. My parents took everything away until he finishes his school work and chores. Him and David were on a walk when I went to my parents' house and I haven't heard anything since then. I know it is stressful for my parents but they also knew things like this happen when you are parents. If you could say a prayer for them today that would be great, and I know they would appreciate it.

Today has been spent watching Harry Potter (I now own the whole collection, thanks to my outstanding husband) and quilting, while I wasn't sending off that stuff to the school. I had a great birthday yesterday and I'm excited to go spend some of the gift cards I got yesterday with Jason. Off to do more quilting!