It's Been a While

Hello again,

It's been a while since I've updated. I haven't felt like I've had much to say lately. Most of my updates would be about how I haven't had a life since school started. However, some good events have happened.

Last weekend was a great one. Chris and I savored having our house to ourselves for the first time in 6 weeks and we went to the Pet Fair with Coop, to Meadowbrook park, we cooked two amazing meals and enjoyed two meals out.



On Sept. 27th- Cooper officially has lived with us for one whole year. He is such a good family member. He is such a good friend to me. Also, that day Chili's was doing a fundraiser for St. Jude's Children's Home and 100% of sales went to the hospital. Last year, they raised $30 million. Stephanie met up with me and I really enjoyed catching up with her. I've got a super great family!

Unusual Day

We are dog-sitting for the weekend and we had a border-collie mix stay over night last night. Cooper was thrilled with this development and reminded me so at 2 am, 3:30 am, 6:30 am, 8:00 am and 8:30 am. At most of these times, I was having one bizarre dream or another. One dream I have analyzed today and I decided it was related to my grandfather's passing today. I dreamt that the Reinhart family had a gathering and my uncle and aunt were sad. They had to move to VG and sell their farm. It wasn't profitable any more. It was sad to see them go through such a big loss. Well, this morning I was told that my grandfather passed and that aunt was sitting with him and my grandmother as he died peacefully in his sleep. I guess that is the real loss that had to experience today.

My grandfather was an extremely hard-working, family-oriented man. He will be missed. His passing was expected as his health has been declining for nearly 2 years now. I think that my grandmother will have it really hard being in a big farm-house by herself. My dad and his siblings are coping well. I imagine it'll be hard to see them though at the funeral on Tuesday.

Beyond that, today I've taken on the role of watching two dogs. It is much easier caring for them when hubby helps I learned. I was hoping today would be an uber-productive work catch-up day. Instead, I cleaned the house, did laundry, dishes, organized coupons, went shoe, camera, and grocery shopping. Of which, only one was successful (groceries).

I'd hoped to have a fun afternoon with the hubby and end with a romantic dinner date and movie. Turns out that that was not successful at all. Chris and I have been bickering all day. Turns out that I don't want a date with him tonight as it wouldn't have much romance at all. Instead, we are not speaking much, eating $3 Frozen pizza and watching a rented movie. Which is more thrilling because my brother is having friends over to watch a movie too. Yay! What a heck of a day! Tomorrow will be better!

Glutton for...

Thursday August 19th marked a very EXCITING day! After an entire summer of seeking out a teaching job, I got an interview that resulted in the magic words "we'd like to extend a job offer to you." Well, if you know me, you know that I was a giddy girl who jumped up and down for a while after the job offer.

Well, that excitement quickly led to some major tear-shedding on Friday August 20th. You see, the job I interviewed for (or thought I was) was going to be teaching self-contained Special Education in the morning at the Jr. High and co-taught in the afternoon at the High School. Well, Friday morning, there I was at Teacher Institute meeting a LOT of new faces, getting keys, seeing my rooms for the first time, getting rosters, materials, making lists, and unpacking my already jam-packed car because I had been storing these items all summer. Little did I know that I was about to take on more than I realized. I found out at the high school that I wouldn't be co-teaching, rather I'd have a second classroom in which I'd be the teacher of Algebra 1b (Soph-Senior) and Algebra 1A (Freshman) as well as Biology and a class called Link. Wow- after the 40 min drive to get a TB shot read (which by the way had a reaction- an ALLERGIC one). I got home and had a major meltdown. Luckily, (or unfortunately) I had planned to have a garage sale Saturday and babysit 7 hours after that so I didn't have much time to fret on Sat. But Sunday, I just couldn't decide what to do. You see, Danville High School called me on Friday (while driving home) to see if I was interested in teaching there. What would I do there you may ask- teach one class (in one classroom) all day. Wow! SO MUCH LESS PLANNING and SO MUCH MORE PAY!

I decided that I'd already committed to one job and that it was too much to ask myself to do it all perfectly at the beginning. So, I've been setting up my classrooms and teaching simultaneously and so far, things are going okay. My co-workers are supportive and my students are much nicer than last year. So, I'm praying that this turns out to be the God-send I thought it was when I was jumping up and down Thursday Aug. 19th. However, I do have a few prayer requests... namely, that I get the appropriate technology needed to teach a classroom. Secondly, that I find a way to budget my time so I am not working the 14 hour days (or more) that I've put in thus far. Third, that I get a easy to use system to run my Reading-Language Arts class in a room full of students with various needs. With love, Care

reminder

Someone remind me why I went into special ed?!?!?

Got a job and MUCH more

Okay- so I got a job teaching at PBL today! I start tomorrow and I am so relieved. God certainly tested my faith but my spirits never did waiver. I mean, I did pray and fast for a job last spring! So PBL Jr High/HS, here I come!

Let me give you a brief overview since my last post...

Tuesday was good- I went to the pool with Paula for about 4 hours in the cold overcast day. So much for not seeing students at work (as several co-workers had said) I saw 4!!! I had pizza with Tony and Chris and I watched the Changeling- good movie but it angered me a lot!

Wed- I got my Physical and TB test done and will need to go back tomorrow to get the results. I made lunch with Chris, swam with Trisha, went wedding dress shopping with Jessi, dropped off water at RUM and took Paula to swim therapy. I also got a call saying that I would have an interview thurs.

Today- I interviewed, beat myself up most of the drive, got groceries at Meijer, went to the Library, napped, walked the dog, showed Jessi how to use a wedding budget tool and found out I got the job and set up a garage sale and loaded my car with teaching supplies...

I am ONE BUSY GIRL!!!

Pools, cards, birthdays, and more

So, let me get you up to speed since Friday. Friday, at some point, I strained a muscle in my back which led to me getting little sleep on Friday night. Sat, when my alarm went off after staying up late, it was really hard to get up. However, I made it on my way to my 3 hour trek to Lil's place. Lilian had Lisa, Heather and myself over for the day. We totally had a blast! We ate great food at a deli (http://www.jasonsdeli.com/) and then went swimming at her local pool. This pool wasn't like the one we have in Champaign though- it was much nicer! It has lap lanes, huge tube slides and water slides, it also had diving boards and a waterfall that you jump off. (Since no one had a camera- Google images below)


We had so much fun and the water made me temporarily forget how much pain my back was in. We had dinner at Fox and Hound which turned out to be great and we enjoyed playing cards (well maybe not Lil as much) . I had so much fun- the pace was totally my speed. To me there is nothing better than sitting around talking/ playing cards/ just being with friends. I also got to show Lilian the wedding budget tool that made my life so much simpler when planning our wedding. (http://planning.theknot.com/wedding-budget)

Sunday, we got a late start getting up because we stayed up til 3 talking. So, we arrived at the very busy restaurant a bit later than planned. But, breakfast was amazing. Lilian ordered this apple pancake which looked more like apple pie and tasted like cinnamon rolls with apple.
(The picture below was the closest resemblance I could find on google images)

I got this amazing Banana French Toast that was rolled in corn flakes and topped with bananas- delish! I truly enjoyed every moment spent with my girls! On the way back, I missed my road when it split and had to take an alternate route. I arrived at my niece Olivia's 2nd birthday party late but I did get to see her play with her new toys (wooden make-up kit, bubble blowers, wagon, "whooshing" and more)


and I got to watch her eat her chocolate cupcake with green icing!! We hung out all day and played some cards until nearly midnight.

Today, I woke up so exhausted that I hit "snooze" for an hour. I don't do that- EVER! I had a great "Back to School Breakfast with my old co-workers: Jackie Baxter, Jill Cappa, and Carah Ferrill. Afterward, I decided to "suck-it-up" and pick up a substitute application that turns out to be a book and a mile long list of things to do before getting hired. This evening, I volunteered at our church's "Back to School Blast" and I felt so overwhelmingly humbled and grateful for my church. They gave out so many freebies to the people in our community who just really could use a hand. Our church gave our backpacks and school supplies that our members donated. They gave free professional haircuts, family photographs, manicures, dinner, food from the food pantry to take home and they also had inflatables and games set up in the gymnasium. After I painted nails of some very familiar faces for 2 hours, I got my free dinner and I sat so awed at how wonderful our God is and how grateful I am to be a part of such a generous group of believers.

When I got home, Trisha came back and we walked Cooper and Deja together and watched the dogs play together. We did several rounds of card games that ended around 11:30. It has been so much fun lately!

Lady Antebellum & State Fair

Well, today was a great adventure! We (Michael, Stephanie, Chris and I) faced the 100 degree oppressive heat at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. It was quite a fun day despite the heat! The day started a bit rocky when Steph nearly fainted from heat exhaustion. But, she quickly recovered and we got to see the sites! Sheep, cow barn, butter cow, milk a cow, food, food, food, dancers, clowns, phew!! We got relief from the heat when a storm front rolled in, it really was quite nice because we could just watch the storm clouds roll on in and the wind dropped the temp 20 degrees instantly. The Fair announced that we should find the nearest storm cover in case of storms. Shortly thereafter, the wind picked up and we all laughed at the people running and screaming and took that as our opportunity to get the good food with no waiting! It did begin to rain a bit but we made our way to the Grand Stand where we stood in the excessively hot, crowded downstairs portion. They let us in to our seats and when we finally got to the top, we were met with a waterfall that was splashing all over our seats. Let me take this moment to say that this was Chris and my gift to M&S for their birthday- do we know how to give a gift or what?!? Ha ha, we sat in our wet bench and we waited for an hour watching a team of people debate about what to do. We got a great lightning show!! They finally decided to cancel the concert- afterwards, we of course got to wait in traffic for the entire duration of the Lady Antebellum cd. What a memorable day!!! Ultimately, I had a BLAST! (pics to come later)
Cow milking-


Smooching aboard the sky glide-


This is what one looks like with sand blowing in their eyes and a huge eery cloud looming behind them...


And this was our concert...