My newest "New & Exciting"!

There's been SO much fun & excitement happening since my last random post! But for now, I'm just gonna put this little update out there!

I'm moving!

I'm moving next week.

Next week I am moving to Satan's Basement*.

*Satan's Basement is also known as Yuma, Arizona. Since Yuma is Hotter than Hades, I decided that to get hotter than Hades, you must be in Satan's basement. Hahaha!

I don't know WHY I'm going to Yuma, other than a Super Excited Principal who offered me an amazing job! But I am pretty sure that I'm supposed to go to Yuma. Here's why.

One Wednesday I sent out my resume, cover letter & letters of recommendation to about 12

school districts with Rodel qualifying schools. That afternoon/evening I got calls from 3 schools in the Crane District in (You guessed it) Yuma. I missed 2 of the calls because my phone only vibrated for calls, instead of ringing. The last call that night, I answered. I talked with a Principal who wanted to interview me for a 2nd grade ELD position, with 12 students in the class! That sounded amazing! She (like the other 2 principals who'd left me voice mails) wanted to do a phone interview on Thursday or Friday. I was leaving EARLY Thursday morning to drive through a lot of unknown cell phone reception, to hike all day of Friday, so.... Yeah. Instead of trying to set something up for the following week, she called me back about 10 minutes later & did the interview. .... & she unofficially offered me the job!! The next morning she called my references & texted me- excited to tell me my references were fantastic & officially offer me the job! H.L. Suverkrup.... I knew that if I went to Yuma, it would be for this job.

Thursday morning/afternoon 2 or 3 more principals

called me, again hoping to set up phone interviews. ... ALL of them were also from Yuma. The only other responses I got from those 11 or so other districts were a couple e-mails telling me the positions that had been open had been filled, & a couple districts telling me to fill out an application before they would even consider me. (Not that there's anything wrong with that! I just felt Yuma calling me... LoL... LITERALLY!)

This was about when I started asking myself... Yuma? Yuma...?? YUMA????

My phone died on that trip, & so bought me most of a week of more time to decide. I kept in touch with the Principal through e-mail, but by the time my new phone came on the Following Wednesday (A WEEK after our phone interview & job offer), she thought I was calling to turn down the position. (NOT because of anything I'd said, or lack of contact, she said, but because I'm "SUCH a good teacher, why would I want to go

to Yuma??" lol) She had asked "on a scale of 1-10", where was I? ... 1 being I'm unable to relocate, 10 being I'm absolutely coming. She was SO excited when I said that I wanted to say 10, except that I hadn't yet found a place to live. I went to Yuma the next day, got my contract & keys to my classroom, & started networking! Before I left Yuma on Friday afternoon, I'd found a place to live, with roommates, a different place for my sweet Bear to live for a year (*SAD thought, but....), & I'd already found some friends!

To be perfectly honest, changes can still be hard for me. I'm SAD to leave some amazing friends & roommates in a place that I love & that has really become home again. I'm scared, but excited! Yuma may or may not melt my brains out, that is yet to be determined. BUT, I know that Yuma will hold many adventures & hopefully a lot of growing experiences!

The Waiting Game... Has Come to an END!

I've been a major slacker at blogging lately, BUT I have something BIG to post about!

After literally MONTHS of waiting, I have finally heard decisive news from the district. I went to Monday's board meeting, & ...

I HAVE A JOB!!

I'll be teaching First Grade instead of Kinder, but at least it's not 3rd of 4th like I was afraid I might get! Switching grades is like having another "first year" of teaching, not easy, but this is probably the easiest way for me to have to do it. I get to just move up with my kids, & I already know almost all of our upcoming First Graders, so that will be nice too! I'll have to learn to work with a whole new set of standards & lessons, (only kind of new to me, actually, I've worked with first graders before!) but it will be nice to move on with my kids, instead of having to try to remember how to teach kids how to be students. It will also be nice, because I KNOW the great things these kids were doing even as Kindergartners, & so I can help the whole first grade team shorten up the review, & keep moving from there!

Needless to say, I'm pretty darn excited to stay at my school, stay with my kids, & most of all, just to know! I was NOT a fan of the waiting & wondering game, & so I'm super excited that it's over! It's also a wonderful thing to know, since school starts in about 4 1/2 weeks, & I go back to work the week before that! & I have to set up an entire classroom again, since my classroom got moved! I'm going to keep busy! :o)

Blah, Blah, Blog

Nothing I've posted recently has been very important, or much of an update. So... Little as it may be, here's an update.

I've been taking 3 college classes. One was in person through Yavapai College, & (YAY!), it's done! The other two are online, & are prooving to be a struggle, since I have to work with a child for tutoring sessions. The best time so far seems to be pulling her during specials to work with her, since her mom isn't being entirely helpful.

At this point I am still VERY unsure of my job for next school year. I'm still trying to be hopeful that I will be employed, but I'm also putting out applications, & even had a job interview today. It went pretty well, but I think they don't want me, because I need to be in a high-poverty school in Arizona, & will take a position in that kind of situation before I would stay with the preschool. They sounded like they might hire me for a sub, but I doubt I'd have much work that way.

Every single one of my kids hit (or well exceeded) their end of the year Benchmark goals for their testing! We're having a party tomorrow with pizza & ice-cream to celebrate! Our entire Kinder grade level is at 99% benchmarked kid-o's, with only one left to be tested! That's better than ... pretty much EVER! :D

School is coming to an end- only 15 more days of school! In the meantime, we've got our pizza/ice-cream party, more "Flat Stanley's" coming back, a tie-dye shirt project, swiming day, report cards, learning-learning-learning & Celebrating, before Kindergarten Graduation on June 4th. That's also the day I'm supposed to have my classroom empty. :( It will be a terribly sad day. My kids have grown up so much, & are really, pretty much Amazing!

Right after school ends, I'll be heading up to Flagstaff! Friday June 5 is Laurie's HS Graduation! (Congrats to Laurie!!) I'm excited to see Dutton's, since it's been FAR too long since I've been able to spend some time with that great family!

And in Flagstaff on the 6th I'm taking the Early Childhood AEPA... WISH ME LUCK! I'm a little bit terrified of all the technical things I may or may not know/remember! :P I think I need to figure out some way to study before I have to take that test!

Seth is adorable, though I don't get to see him much lately. He doesn't talk a lot, but he knows a few signs- (most especially please, & food... "food please"), & is very effective at communicating what he wants, where he wants you to come, & yes & no. If you want to see him nod "yes"... just ask him if he's hungry (especially after he's been with his mom.) Or, when his diaper's wet, ask if he needs a new diaper. He'll tell you. :D He's just about ready for potty training... or, really I guess I'd say he seems ready NOW, but I'm not sure his daddy's quite ready. ;)

Bear is loving having 2 other dogs to play with. He also loves raiding their food bowls & has gained back all the weight he lost & then some. If anyone has suggestions on putting a big, fat, black lab on a diet, please share! Last night I (FINALLY) bought him a nice, BIG, new bed from costco. No pics yet, but maybe if I can get him to lay on it & pose, I'll get one up here.

Well, for now, that's a little update. Hope you enjoyed it!

1999

10 Years Ago...

• It was 1999, a different century!


• I was a sophmore/junior at Prescott High School.


• Daily life consisted of PHS & Seminary, & getting closer to some of the biggest changes of my life.


• I was seeing a strength in my Mom that I hadn't seen before, a strength that has been an inspiration to me ever since.


• With the exception of one small memory, all of my "home" memories were of the same house I grew up in, until we moved... 3 times THIS year...


• My family became "Homeless" (McKinney-Vento Act style, but not living-on-the-streets style).


• For most of the year I wasn't old enough to date yet, but I was already falling in like with the first boy who liked with me back.


• I went on my first date.


• My aunt took me to Williams, & I got my driver's license, after I passed the parallel parking on my fourth try.


• This was probably when I was really learning how your family can be your best friends.


• Change was not my favorite thing. It still isn't, but a lot of changes during this time of my life helped me learn to appreciate CHANGE!
  
  
• I would've liked the idea of staying in P-town forever. I'm glad I didn't stick with that plan!
• This year held the first anniversary of losing my Aunt Misty. Ten more years have passed, & I still miss her.
  
  
• We were still kids, & all of us kids were still together. The years have taken us apart to distant places, but I will always love the good memories from those times that brought us together stronger than before.

Thanks to Jodi for this idea! :)

Teaching: Week One!

Wow! Week one is gone! I'll admit, it was a little bit terrifying as I prepared for starting out a classroom, especially for Kindergarten, with little ones who don't know HOW to go to school, and line up, or walk in line, or write their names, or any of the basics that my kiddo's are starting to get already.

I started the week with 15 kids, and even though one didn't get there until almost lunch time, they all came. One little boy was absent the whole rest of the week... probably because of a swollen eye & a note home from the nurse saying that he shouldn't come back as long as his eye was red & swollen. I'm hoping he'll be back on Monday. I got a new little boy on Wednesday or Thursday, so that put me up to 16 kids. (an AMAZINGLY SMALL class!)

I have a little girl who is pretty much terrified to be at school. On her first day she didn't eat (except for one bite of pizza at lunch, because I begged her.) All day she cried off & on... a pattern that followed for most of the week, although each day got a little better- except for the day after I accidentally sent her on a bus that gets her home, but not the bus she was supposed to take. The next day she told me "you put me on the wrong bus." & I said " I Know, and I'm SO sorry Honey!" She forgave me & we moved on, & got her on the right bus the rest of the days. I felt awful though. (Especially because it didn't feel right to me, but I still put her on the bus I had on my list, instead of the one it should have been changed to.) Hopefully Monday will be even better, & she'll be great.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that my class, although acting like a normal Kindergarten class, is labled Kindergarten ELD (English Language Development). I love the fact that this means I get to use my spanish... For communicating with the parents, (because it's illegal to teach in any language other than English). I Love My Class, but I don't necessarily like the segregation idea that creates at T.E.S. 2 ELD & 3 "Regular" Kindergarten classes. I like that idea even less when it means that one of my sweet little girls will be switching to a different K class on Monday, because she doesn't speak spanish. Why do they think they need to move her & change things for her when she's doing fine in my class? Poor kid. She just got used to Kindergarten, & now on Monday she'll have to start getting used to a different class, kids, & a different great teacher.

Monday I'll also get a new little boy in my class, because he does speak spanish, & only Spanish & that makes it hard for the teacher he's had all week to help him. I hope he'll do good in my class.

Oh, one more note about the first week of teaching... NEXT Friday is payday, and I'm really excited for that, because I'm tired of being the most broke I've been in my life. During the past couple of weeks I have maxed out my credit card, paid a little bit on it from my overdraft loan on my checking account, & repeated that process. It's kind of depressing. I hate debt.

Update!

Wow! This is an update I should have made on here a long-ish while ago!

I am NOT teaching 4th grade at Territorial when school starts next week!
I will be however, teaching Kindergarten ELD! Yay!

Now I'm going to stop blogging so that I can get ready for "Meet the Teacher" tomorrow!
Wish me luck!

I did it!

Yay!! It's been over a month ago now, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about my GRADUATION!! On May 9, 2008, I graduated from NAU with a B.S. in Elementary Education and a minor in Spanish!

Maybe there isn't a whole lot to blog about, but... I've got some FUN pictures! So... I'll show & tell a little bit.

This first, strange looking picture, is the view I had for all of graduation. The girl in front of me had bright, pink, feathers all around the top of her cap, and around her sleeves too. It was a little obnoxious if you ask me, but it made it easy to answer the text: "Where are you?" "Right behind the girl with the pink." ha ha... and we could see where we were on the giant TV screens, because of the pink.

And the on going text conversation with Mom during the ceremony. "Where Are You? Get up and Dance." "I'm right behind the girl with the pink feathers." "Good, maybe she'll want to dance with you." "ha ha" "No really, do it now or you'll miss your chance." ... Something like that anyway. It made me smile even more.

There was a big group of us from the Christensen Partnership. This is Barry, Devin, Ashley, Emily, me, & Andrea. There were a few more of us, but I haven't gotten a copy of the bigger pictures we took yet.

This is me with one of my Partnership Professors, Jeanne Dustman. She was a great support to me through the two semesters of death that preceded my Student Teaching.

Mom & I. We started celebrating all together when we got outside. Terina & Brent didn't get to stick around for the other celebrations, so this was the best we had with all of us.

This was a favorite, because Trenton was hiding, and Terina quickly ducked, & I snapped... & between our combined efforts I caught a really cute grin on Trenton, & a fun, cheesy grin on Terina. :o)

I really don't think I'm photogenic, but that it's better when I'm in pictures with other people, so... That makes this naturally a favorite, because ... it just is.

I've got more pictures of the parties... one in Flagstaff that day, and one in Chino Valley about a month after, but I'm REALLY tired for now, & I've got to get this posted & get some sleep. Tomorrow it's back to work!

I Did It!!!!

Graduated, that is.
Yay!

Done!

I Just Finished My LAST Undergraduate FINAL!!! Woo-Hoo! So I wanted to share the joy! Now it's on to Travis & Stef's Wedding, & then Graduation Here I Come!

After that, I guess it's time to find my place in the "real world".
Wish me luck!

Busy, busy BUSY!

I am ALMOST done! I'm almost done teaching already anyway, but I still wouldn't have imagined that these last few weeks could be SO busy. I'm finishing up my big senior capstone paper for resubmition tomorrow, I'm down to 3 more spanish classes & my final, Student Teaching is going to be over sooner than I know (and maybe sooner than I'd like with only about 7 days left!), I will finally be done suffering through my spanish 314 class at ASU, and maybe I'll have a minute to sit down and BREATHE! That is, AFTER Travis & Stef's wedding, the trip involved with that (and the fun yet to be had), and my actual Graduation. :o)

For now I'm still running around like crazy, and working on all I have yet to finish.

The good stuff

Life is beautiful. It just is. And I just need to remember that. Seth is out of the hospital. Mac is doing well. He's working hard, and he loves me. I'm pulling a solid B in my spanish class. Things are coming together as I'm teaching in my student teaching placement. I had a screening interview today with MPS. I passed the AEPA, even though the day I took it I was sick, and it was moving day. My roommate's dog loves me. My lesson plan for Monday's observation is done. My week is planned out. My bed is painted and ready to be put together. Nikki is in Mesa right now. Danelle and Kristine are comming and staying with me tonight. I'm going to the Temple with Danelle tonight. I'm out of my boxes (almost ALL the way) and today is March first, which was my goal. I've been sleeping in my own bed and not waking up hurting.

Life is beautiful.

Yesterday was the strangest day. All day it felt like Friday, and I wasn't the only person to feel that way or say so. Really though, it was Monday, and really, I'm glad that it was Monday instead of Friday. If it were Friday, I probably would have been leaving instead of spending my whole evening with the Duttons again. I know that I need to finish my final. I know that I need to pack. I know that I am moving away and I need to get settled into my new place quickly before everything starts up. I know that I need to stop being sad about it. And I need to accept that life is moving on, and this time, again, I will be moving with it. Litterally.

When I get discouraged about the changes life is bringing, I should look at the big picture. I am changing too. I am moving towards goals that I've worked for a long time to accomplish. I'm making something of myself and my life. But it's so easy for me to see instead, everything that I want to become, and feel that I should already be, that I'm not. That probably just has a lot to do with how I see myself... might be something good to work on.

Yesterday felt really wierd too, because I was entirely unproductive for most of the day. I went to sleep very late Sunday night because my roommate and her boyfriend were in the living room, and I just couldn't fall asleep until he left... at least partly because I was afraid that he wouldn't leave. Monday morning I worked at the butt-crack of dawn (okay, it was BEFORE dawn because it's winter and it takes the sun a long time to come up right now). But I was really tired, so when I came home from work at 9am, I laid back down and watched more Heroes. I'd kept myself awake Sunday night watching several episodes, and then spent my entire morning yesterday watching more. It's another one of those shows that's addictive to me, but at the same time, another one that kind of leaves me feeling dark. Ugh. Why is it always that kind of show that reels me in? I have a goal to not watch Heroes at all today. I've got way to much that I still need to do.
1. I should hurry up already and finish my final. The semester's over, but I'm not going to get a grade in my technology class until I submit my final. And if I did, I'd just have to chant the mantra: "C's get degrees." over and over. Because I would still get a C. 2. I need to move this week. This means that I need to pack. This means that I need to get everything cleaned. And it means that I can't keep procrastinating, because I've got to rely on others to help me out. 3. There are books that I want to read. There is my journal that's been highly neglected for months. There are people I want to visit with before I'm gone, or they are. I need to priortize so that my life can be productive and joyful. So, for this morning I'm done.

P.S. to the rough day...

Oh... and just for the record, Wal-Mart photo department has OFFICIALLY lost my business. EVERY time that I give in, or forget, or just decide to try their photo department, they dissappointment me again, and give me new reasons to take my business elsewhere. Bah!

AND! Today could have been MY graduation day! That was real strange, as I watched 6 of my classmates graduate. This probably has something to do with my thoughts of graduating and the real life stufff. Congrats to my fellow Christensen Partnership peeps who took those big steps today!!!

That's all.

Really.

JOY??

So... I Love the idea of JOY, and not just happiness. And that's definitely part of my reasoning behind the title of my blog. BUT! I do NOT always feel joyful. Today is Definitely a SAD day. This morning I worked really early, then as I hurried across the parking lot to try to talk with my professor, my feet flew out from under me and I fell flat on my back. My backpack was counted as a miracle, because it really did break my fall. Pretty much though, I am just sad. This is kind of just a rough time because changes can be hard for me, and I miss Mac a TON, but on top of it I've been really emotional for the past week or 2, and tonight left me with a few things that just brought me down. (I don't think the very LOUD, very pessimistic lady sitting behind me at the Lady Eagles Basketball game helped much...) So... my night has been really sad, with a lot of tears and frustrations. Despite all that though, my roommate helped cheer me up, and fudge is always happy, and I DIDN'T miss the AEPA registration deadline like I thought I did. The night is ending on a slightly happier note than where it began.

I'm still sad about leaving Flagstaff for a lot of reasons. 1. My roommates have been great! We've had a semester full of fun times, and laughs, and hillarious quotes, and just hanging out and living room "sleep overs".... and ... and ... and... It's been a great apartment. 2. The Dutton's have been like "home" to me, and I feel so much like a part of their family, but they're not going to be 5 minutes away anymore. I won't be able to stop and visit at my whim. Scout will miss me, I will miss him, and we'll both miss our walks. 3. I LOVE the weather in Flagstaff. Yeah, it's 4 degrees outside right now, which can be painfully cold, but I LOVE it. It's really cold right now, but we've got SNOW. Where I'm moving, snow only happens in the movies. and I will melt there. 4. Student teaching is one HUGE step closer to the real world responsibilities that are coming so soon. I realize that after the semesters I've been through recently, the semester that's coming up should actually be pretty easy. 5. Moving is a lot of work. I like to move, but I hate moving. This time in particular is really hard, because my wonderful, new, little car is TINY! ... Normally that's a great thing, but NOT when I need to move all of my posessions 200 miles. 6. Did I mention that I'm going to MELT when spring comes??? 7. I'm going to be farther from connections to Mac, and memories of Mac... but each big change, and each little struggle brings me closer to dreams coming true.

Well... These are my ramblings for tonight. Take it. Or leave it. Just don't judge me for it.

The End.