Substituting

I've had a successful 2 days substituting under my belt. Last week at the high school went pretty well. I had 3 World History classes- 2 were working on projects and the other took a test. I got lucky because the high school has an early release on Fridays....so I got to go home early too!

Today I was subbing for a "para educator"...what they are called here...basically someome who goes into a classroom and works with anywhere from 3-15ish kids on reading and math for 20-45 minutes. It varies for each group. I had all ages of elementary school today. Everything went really well, but I don't think I would want to do that full-time everyday. I ran from 1 end of the building to the other to the other all day (the building has 3 hallways connected in the middle), with hardly enough time to get the next folder for the next group and find their class. I think I would rather be the teacher in 1 class instead of preparing for 6 different age groups in multiple subjects.

Some fun moments:

1. I walked into a Kindergarten class and immediately got a hug from a little girl.

2. Lots of kids asked where I was from.
       "Are you from Texas?" "No, i'm from North Carolina." "Oh, so you're country."
       "I like your voice. I like your hair. I like your sweater. My eyes are blue just like yours. Guess my name. ....Guess my last name." (dont think i'll EVER get that one!)
3. A 3rd grade teacher asked "How long have you been substituting? You've got a glow." "Thank you...this is my 2nd day." "What are you doing next Wednesday?" guess i'll be subbing again!

It was a fun day at the elementary school. One of the teachers who I shared the office with said "See you soon!" on my way out the door.......I sure hope so!

A Chicago Wedding

What a fun weekend in Chicago! Congrats to Adrienne and Dave Williams on their new marriage!

I flew to Chicago on Friday and met Mama at the airport. We had a lively evening catching up and settling in. Saturday we got up early and headed to the church for a 10:30 wedding. The music was incredible! All the songs Adrienne and Dave picked were beautiful and played very well by ALL the musicians. We had a little time between the wedding and reception so Mama, Bob Kuenzel, and I stopped at Portillo's for a hotdog. Portillo's is known for their hotdogs, but they had other stuff too. The reception was super fancy...with a 4 course lunch! It was a lot of fun to see and visit with Lenoir people and see some familiar faces again. That evening, we went with Rob and Ginger to a famous place for Chicago style pizza. It was fantastic. We also watched Dook lose to Maryland which was also fantastic, but the pizza really took the cake. :)

Sunday we got up and went to church with Adrienne's folks and enjoyed a very good service filled with lots of music. After church, Adrienne's parents let us borrow one of their cars so we could go out to lunch with my cousin Annemarie who lives in Chicago. That really helped make the afternoon. We went to PANERA (!!) for lunch and had a great visit. I had fun hearing all about her class and students. After lunch, we went to the mall across the street for some shopping. It was fun to be in a place where I could shop! I had choices!! (I didn't actually get anything, but it was fun to look anyway!)

Monday was an early morning to get to the airport in time for my flight and both Mama and I were home by lunch.....her to NC and me to WY. It was such a fun weekend!

Tuesday I got all my paperwork turned in to be on the substitute teaching list.....I have my first class tomorrow.....it's a high school Social Studies class (I got lucky with that one!) so I hope that it goes well!

The biggest news is that I have a job interview!! March 5th I will go out to Heart Mountain for an interview for the education/archives asst. position I wrote about earlier. I'm 1 step closer!! And really excited about it!

Volleyball continues to go well...I got my first floor burn in a looooooong time this week. I have musical practice tonight, and 2 more times next week before our big performance! I'm have the words memorized probably 70% and hope to get more of them at practice tonight.

In case anyone forgot to count, there are 27 days until my birthday. :) Just wanted to throw that out there!!

A Month

Well.....i've been here a month. Time has gone by REALLY fast and it doesn't seem like a month at all. A few updates:

1. I get to see my Mama this weekend!! We are both going to a wedding in Chicago, so I get to see her for an entire weekend! I'm very excited!!

2. The temperature was 1 this morning. I just felt like that was worth sharing.

3. This is my last week with Hazel. She has been so fun to play with! I know i'll still get to see her regularly, but I will miss seeing her every day! We've had lots of adventures together...including 2 new teeth.

4. Once I get back from the wedding I will be getting into my substitute teaching. I know that will be an adventure too! I have a couple of job possibilities...one is a part-time education job at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center (the site of a Japanese internment camp during WWII). I feel pretty good about that one, and since it is part-time, I can still substitute the other half. The other possibility is too far out in the future to talk about, but it is really exciting to have leads and possibilities finally opening up. I feel really validated about my decision to move across the country, which is great since it was such a BIG decision! Praise the Lord! :)

5. I have been pleasantly surprised with how many UNC basketball games I've been able to watch. Thank goodness we have such a great reputation that ESPN and ESPN2 will pick us up for most games on the weekend! Despite our recent setbacks, it has been really great to be able to watch MY team play from so far away. We've got a big game this week against the dookies! GO HEELS!

6. I got a new coat this past week so I can finally go skiing! Hopefully I'll get to go the weekend after next!

Have a great week....and here's to the next month!

Buffeted

I feel like I completely understand the word "buffeted" now. Wow.

I drove up to one of my favorite places in Wyoming today- it is up the Chief Joseph Highway about 15 miles, and overlooks the Sunlight Basin. There used to be a metal statue at this particular pulloff, but it wasn't there this time. I am fairly positive that it blew away.

I had been listening to a CD on the drive up and wasn't really listening to the noise outside the car. I knew the wind would be strong, because I could feel it blowing the car around, so when I opened the car door, I braced myself for the wind to pull at the door. Oh. My. Word. The wind did not whistle at me- it howled. It was fierce. The trees didn't look like they were being blown- because there was no pause in the wind for them to have relief and sway. I walked to the edge of the overlook where there was a sign to show which mountain peaks were which. I was pushed and shoved and blown all the way over (don't worry, there was a fence, so I didn't go over the edge). Naturally, my camera battery died and I hadn't charged it before I came so I whipped out my phone to take a few pictures. In the 1.5 minutes I was out of the car my hands froze stiff. Very uncomfortable.

My biggest surprise to being buffeted around was how difficult it was to breathe. The combonation of cold air streaming past your face and high altitudes (not to mention beautiful scenery!) really took my breath away. I had to grab on to the fence and steady myself to try to breathe. It was like jumping into freezing water that makes you gasp because it is so cold. It was a very interesting experience.

I sat in the car eating an orange contemplating going out 1 more time for another picture from a different angle (because the cloud cover had changed so much in those brief moments) but decided to wait for another day.

On the way back to town, I had to slow way down to dodge the herd of 24 mule deer eating grass beside the road. It was a great afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sky was a gorgeous blue. Perfect after a UNC victory!

 

 

 

Side view of Heart Mountain.