real winters

My current blog title references LIW, whose books I loved as a child, and still love today.

She and her family lived out on the plains, where the weather reaches extremes like I have never experienced. I grew up near San Francisco, where 32° was downright tortuous. Living here in GA has exposed me to humidity and stretches of 100° days.

Now, I am preparing myself to live in a place where snow not only falls regularly, but actually sticks and stays. I am contemplating which winter coat, snow boots, and tires to buy. I am considering the fact that we might actually need to buy a snow shovel.

I feel quite worried about poor Husband. He is moving to NY in January. Just in time for his first real winter. His introduction will be abrupt and harsh.

I, however, will have a more gentle transition. I will go up with him for a week or so at the end of December, then on weekends once a month until I move. My exposure will be brief until next winter, when I will at least have the buffer of fall to introduce me to the harshness of an actual winter.

LIW and her family lived in extreme conditions that. They didn't have the insulation we have, or the heaters. Her whole town almost starved one winter because the trains stopped running.

I realize that my first winter experience will be somewhat less dramatic than hers. But that won't stop me from complaining the first time I have to dig my car out of snow!

some time to sit down

So it's been a while... like four months?

I started my new teaching job, and let me tell you, these fifth graders keep me on my toes. Literally. As in, I don't sit down at work. Ever.

I have 20 of them right now. I also have a co-teacher for 3 hours a day because I am the inclusion teacher.

I often question my teaching abilities, but just keep reminding myself that I have 8 students with IEPs, 2 ESOL students, and only 3 students reading on a fifth grade level.

I describe my classroom as teaching fifth grade material to sixth and seventh graders who read and write like third graders. Yes, I have four students who have been retained twice, and at least two others who have been retained once. Hell, I have a thirteen year old in my room and will have three more by the end of the year.

On top of that fun (and really, it is), we are preparing to move to NY.

Husband will move in January, and I will follow in either mid-April or at the end of May. I have been trying to find a place to live, but the area we are going to doesn't offer much in terms of choices. We are going up at the end of December to find a place, so I hope something falls into our laps.

The knowledge that we will be maintaining two households for 4-5 months is just so much fun to plan for. Our goal is to get through it without breaking into savings or running up a bunch of debt, but we will see how that goes.

I am off this week, and planning to grace you with more of my fantastic insight into teaching, moving, and avoiding boredom.

this stuff is awesome. just awesome.

I love this mouthwash. I drink coffee everyday, and get stains between my teeth. I brush and floss, but the stains persist. I bought the 3D White and after using it less than 10 times, my stains are almost gone. I love it.

easy as pie!

I love renting. It's awesome. Our dishwasher hasn't been cleaning correctly for a couple weeks, and last night the garbage disposal went out.

I called maintenance today, and once the guy came out, he had both things fixed in ten minutes.

I love it.

Owning a house does have its appeal, but dude. I have no desire to stick my hand down the disposal, or to pull the cover off my dishwasher and reach around to find what's not in the right place. No thank you.

teaching

I'm in the midst of preparing for my fifth year as a classroom teacher. I'm also preparing to work at my fifth school, in my third school district, and for my sixth principal! Moving around so much has definitely had it's sucky parts, but it also has shown me what a variety exists in public schools.

I've mostly worked with lower income students. Two of my past, and my current, schools have been Title I, and the other two were for the children of lower enlisted soldiers. I've had all kinds of principals, and prefer a more hands on and actually helpful principal instead of the kind that pretty much seems to do nothing. I've also taught a class with a huge group of English Language Leaners, as well as classes of fully native speakers.

Yesterday, I thought of my teaching experiences in contrast with LIW's. She started teaching at 16, and had some students as old as she was. She taught in a one room school and was responsible for teaching everything to everyone. I haven't read the books in a while so I don't remember the details, but I have a hazy memory of one of her teenage boys bringing a bull whip to school. I did have a student with a knife one day, but he was smart (stupid?) enough to leave it in his backpack and not show off in front of everyone.

So far, I feel very good about my new school. I'm a little apprehensive about the student population, just because there's really no way to know what it's like until we start and I meet my kids. The staff seems great so far though. I have a grade level chair, and she and I have been emailing back and forth and are setting up a day to meet and have lunch. She's been very welcoming. The principal seems friendly, helpful, and very experienced with our population. I've also met a couple other teachers, and they all said good things about the school.

I have new teacher orientation next Thursday and Friday, then three work days the first week of August, and the first day of school is August ninth!

shopping!

I went to IKEA yesterday to shop for things for my classroom and got quite the haul. It was a great day. I planned to go with one friend, then invited another friend at the last minute. They were both so helpful with choosing what I needed, and then with packing it all into my Mazda3. If we had gotten one more thing, I would have had to leave a friend in Atlanta. ;)

I was thinking of painting the walls in my new room, but with all the colorful decorations I found, I'm thinking I can skip the painting. I may still do an accent wall, but I want to speak with the other teachers first and see what it involves. I haven't actually painted anything before...

I bought this rug. All my students won't be able to sit on it at the same time, but it will be a nice defined space to sit when we need to. I'm really hoping it doesn't get too dirty.I got these frames in blue and green. I have four, but I may get more later. Right now I plan to put a photo of Husband and me, and a photo of each cat. I realized after the shopping trip that I want to take a photo of the class on the first day, so I'll need a different frame for that.

This chair is for the front of my classroom, so I can sit and still see the class. I like it because it has a foot rest that fits me. I'm 5'3", and many tall chairs don't have foot rests at the right place and my feet just hang there. It gets tiring after a while.

I really like having plants in the room, so I bought four pots. I couldn't find any of the right plants at Ikea, but I know Lowe's will have them. I got pots in red and blue.
I also bought two table lamps, two wire drawer organizers on wheels, and wall stickers of poppies, but I can't find pictures on the website.

I don't really have any good chunk of time to go decorate the room until Friday, but I may go in between my morning and afternoon shifts at Sylvan. I'm itching to see everything in place!

My BIL got married!

We are back from our week in CA. It was definitely a whirlwind of a time! We had stuff to do each day, and rarely had much time alone. I have pictures and stories to tell...

Here's Omar on my suitcase. (Stupid thing costs $50 to take to CA. Stupid fees from the stupid airlines.) As soon as we take the suitcases out of the closet, a cat climbs on. It's like a magnet. I think I took this shot after I packed, right before we left. Husband had to pick up the suitcase and dump Omar off. Poor guy!

My mother-in-law gave me these earrings during our trip. Her mother asked for, and received, them as a 20th wedding anniversary present forty or so years ago. She and her husband had just moved to HI with the Army. He was spending all his time fishing, and he asked what she wanted. She figure since he was gone so much, she wanted something good! So she picked out diamonds in platinum. I very much appreciate the gift, and love the story behind them.

We went to an A's game with my sister and parents, and Husband's brother, his girlfriend and Husband's two cousins. Please notice the jackets and hat. Summer in Oakland, CA is much colder than here in GA. There were fireworks after the game, and we got in line to go down on the field. BIL and his girlfriend didn't get in line with us, but somehow managed to get down on the field, while the rest of us didn't. So much for following the rules!




The wedding was on Sunday of our trip. The ceremony was at beautiful house in Sonoma, CA. The bride's mom works for the owners, and they have a huge piece of property. Their backyard itself wasn't immense, but they'd had 100 guests at a wedding the week before we came. It was very well landscaped, with a pool and vegetable garden. They also had horses and a barn. It was amazing!












The reception was on the Napa Valley Wine Train. We had a delicious dinner with plenty of wine. My in-laws and the brides parents brought their own. I stuck Rosenblum Petite Sirah, and it was so good! The view was wonderful too.









After the reception, we stayed up in Napa. Because really, who wants to drive an hour home after two hours on the wine train? Not this girl! So at our motel, there may or may not have been an after party. It was Husband and his brother and their two cousins, brother's girlfriend, and the bride's sister. We had several bottles of wine, but no opener... Husband's brother used the wine stopper we got as a wedding favor to push the cork in part way, then used a toothbrush to finish the job. The cork was in the wine, but not in pieces, so I call it successful!

leaving on a jet plane

We are heading to CA today.

Husband's brother is getting married this weekend, and Husband is the best man. That's been a load of frustration, but mostly just for a lack of communication. For a while there, we thought BIL wanted Husband to wear his Class A's at the ceremony, which I was totally against. Once we actually talked to BIL though, it came out that he didn't care, so Husband is renting the typical tux. I'm much happier with this development.

We are lucky that my parents live about half a mile away from Husband's parents. We will be able to see both families easily without running around too much. My parents are also flying my youngest sister into town, so I'll get to see her. We are planning to do sisterly things on Friday morning. I'm hoping this entails shopping and eating lunch.

We also have plans to have lunch with my great-aunt and great-uncle, to see our friends and their six month old daughter, to attend a rehearsal dinner, to go to an A's game, to spend the night in Sonoma, for me to have mani/pedis/champagne with the girls, and for Husband and his brothers to have a bachelor party. Wow. I hope we make it home in once piece.

When we travel across the country, which we do way more than I wish we did, I am always thankful that it only takes 4 hours on a plane. For LIW, going from GA to CA for a wedding just wouldn't have happened. And if for some strange reason she felt like packing up the wagon for the 2,500 mile journey, it certainly would have taken longer than 4 hours. I am definitely glad for the ease of long distance travel. Although I would prefer to go back to CA less frequently, I am at least happy that it is a relatively painless trip.

new job

I'm cautiously optimistic about this...

I had an interview, and they loved me, and recommended me to HR for hire!

The cautious part is because I have yet to hear from HR. I'm really not worried, seeing as how the VP called HR on Friday, and they were closed yesterday. I'm meeting the principal today, and I'll ask her when I should expect to get a call. Until I sign those papers though, I'm not counting on anything.

The job is teaching fifth grade, which I love, at a Title I school. Title I pretty much just means poor. To qualify for Title I status, and the federal funding that goes with it, schools have to have 40% of students designated as low-income. Title I often also means low achieving students with poor behavior, but not always.

I taught fifth grade my first two years, both in Title I schools. My students at those schools were a mix of recently homeless and living in transitional housing, Coast Guard families, English Language Learners, and just plain old low income. My second year teaching, of my 30 students, 10 were ELL students, and 5 of those spoke very little English.

In my interview, the VP was very excited that I speak Spanish. She said their Spanish speaking population is increasing, and they need teachers who can communicate with families. While I'm glad to find a place that needs my skills, I'm hoping this doesn't mean I get all the 5th graders who speak Spanish. I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

morning workouts

After a good break from the gym, I'm back at it. Last week Husband and I went 4 times, at 5am. This week I've gone twice already, at 6am. Husband was off yesterday and needed to sleep, and he had to be at work by 6am today. I'm hoping he can go with me tomorrow.

I've been gymming long enough to know that I need to get up and go. If I dawdle too long, I end up skipping it. When I workout before heading to work, I leave the apartment within 20 minutes of waking up. It's wake up, pee, put my contacts in, feed the cats, drink some water, and go.

Back when I was going to Jazzercise (from 2000-20007!), I went after work. I very rarely went home first, because it made leaving so hard. I know that once I'm at the gym, I'll stay and have a good time. But it's actually getting there that's the tricky part. ;)

New dress!

I ordered this dress from JCrew to wear to a wedding next month, and I love it! Even though I got it in petite, I need to have the straps altered a little. It fits really well other than the straps, and makes my legs look long and my waist look small. I'm quite a fan!

I'll wear it with my grey heels, which are from last season, and I can't find a picture.

Husband is in the wedding, as the best man, and he'll have a tux on. I don't know what colors he'll have, but I hope it matches my dress!

Back when I was teaching and making serious (well, serious compared to what I make now) money, I got my toes done every two weeks. Now that I'm part time and hourly, I still get pedicures, but much less frequently.

However, I'm not sure this is an economically wise choice, as I have started buying nail polish like it's going out of style. I really like this Sally Hansen line. They have all kinds of bright colors, and the brush is super wide and makes it easy for me to paint my toenails.

So today, I'm painting them Speedy Sunburst. It looks like a watermelon kind of pink. My toes are currently red, from a pedicure I indulged in two weeks ago. And I hope this Speedy Sunburst lasts until I get to CA and do the girls' day pedicure with my MIL, my SIL to be, and her mother and sister.

Jekyll Island

We went away for the weekend, and had a great time. We left after Husband got off work Thursday, and came back Sunday afternoon. We wanted to leave Thursday morning, but Husband's work got in the way.







After breakfast in the mornings, we walked on the beach. It was huge, and practically empty! We didn't swim though, because the water is sandy. We did our tanning at the pool.

We had a nice dinner on Saturday night, with wine and coffee.

We had no idea this kind of place was in GA! I always knew GA had coast, but never really thought about what it would look like. We definitely made a good choice in going here.















For lunch on Friday we had oysters and shrimp. So.freakin.good. I only eat oysters on vacation, and they're always delicious.















And Husband had a fruity drink. I always tease him that he can keep his umbrella drinks next to my plate, and I'll put my beer next to his. ;)















We wanted to go up in this lighthouse, but it was closed for renovations. It was still fun to look at.

on the porch

Our apartment has a screened in porch, and I love it. I'm out on the porch right now, and listening to about 3879 different birds calling. All I see are trees, with the morning sun breaking through and hitting all the green leaves. (I can hear traffic too, but we'll ignore that right now.)

Juan Carlos is out here with me too, sitting on the windowsill. The cats, especially Bella and Juan Carlos, enjoy coming out here. When I open the blinds in front of the sliding door that opens to the porch, Bella always runs over and waits for me to open the door.


She came out this morning, but the JC did too, and got too close for her comfort. She's a princess like that. When he leaves her alone, she'll just sit up on a windowsill and watch and listen. She's the most graceful at jumping up on the sills. Omar can do it, but he's pretty big, so I think he has a hard time fitting himself n the 2 inch wide beam. JC is the smallest, but I guess he's just not as strong as Bella, because he's always scrambling to make it up all the way.

I really love coming out here at the end of the day, when it's hot and humid, and drinking a beer. Right now I just have coffee. It's not as fun, but I supposed it's more appropriate for 8:40 in the morning.

PS- Of course, right after I posted, Bella came back out!

workout buddy

I went to the gym today with my friend SS. She and I met almost two years ago, and she's great. We first started hanging out at the beginning of last summer, and went to the pool as much as possible. Once winter hit, we got together 2-3 times a month for lunch, coffee, a movie, or girls' night.

She doesn't have a gym at her place, and the on-post gym is 45 minutes from her house. But since I have the apartment gym, she came with me on Fridays last summer. Now that she's out of school for the summer, she's been coming again, and it's nice to have a buddy! I told her that she didn't need to wait for me to invite her, since if I'm not already planning to workout, I should be.

Last night, she texted me to see if I wanted to go today. I was glad she did, because I really meant that she should feel totally comfortable inviting herself. So we went and had a nice little workout.

I usually watch TV when I'm there alone, but if she's there, we just talk the whole time. There's rarely anyone else there, so it's just us.

wildlife

We certainly don't live in the country here in GA, but sometimes it feels as if we do. I see much more wildlife here than I ever saw near the house in CA. Back in the SF Bay Area, we had squirrels, birds, ducks, possums, and raccoons. That was pretty much it. If we went up in the Oakland hills or somewhere more forested, we'd see deer or something, but that was it.

Here though, we have fun animals right outside our apartment. We live in an apartment complex right near the Chattahoochee River, and have a ravine right behind our building. This picture kind of shows the trees and such growing in the ravine. When it rains, there's a little creek at the bottom, sometimes running surprisingly quickly! ( You can also see Bella, who we found in the parking lot and adopted, and Omar, who we brought from CA.)


There are chipmunks living in the trees of our complex. They're adorable! Most of the time, I only see them scampering away from me, but when I'm lucky, I catch one sitting still. So cute! Bella loves to sit in the window and watch them. Sometimes I think she's going to break through the window and chase one!


Every now and then, and frequently lately, I see a turtle. Most of the time, the turtle is in the same place, sitting in the breezeway between our apartment doors. Today, as I was pulling out of my parking spot to go to the gym, I saw a turtle walking across the sidewalk.


A few days ago, this little guy moved in. He's been outside our door pretty much every time I come or go. This morning, he was on our doormat, and hopped into the apartment when I opened the door! He hopped right back out, thank goodness, because I think the cats would have found him pretty interesting. Mostly, he just sits on the ground and hangs out.

Finally, a skink. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what it is that I've seen. They get on our screen porch all the time, and I saw a big one with a missing tail today. Once, Omar found one inside and chased him for a while. Husband caught the poor skink and put him outside before Omar could do any serious damage.

husband

Husband is out getting me dinner. He spoils me so much! He came home from work about 30 minutes ago, and wasn't hungry, but he asked what I wanted, and then went out to get it! I can't believe how much he does for me. He's amazing.

oh boy

Husband and I have reservations at two hotels for next weekend, one in FL on the gulf, and one in GA on the ocean. We planned to go to FL, but after the oil spill, we made a second reservation in case the oil reached Fort Walton Beach. We decided to go to Jekyll Island, GA so we know our trip will be oil free.

And now... argh. Husband tried to put in for leave from work. He got the forms all completed and turned them in to his boss. A clerk got them, and told Husband he's missing a signature, which is he wasn't really, but whatever. So he turned them back in on the last day possible, 2 weeks ahead of our vacation.

His boss said oh no, you don't have to take leave, just get a pass. So he told Husband to fill out the paperwork for a pass and bring it back Monday. Husband just wanted it taken care of, and tried to just turn in the leave paperwork so things were done. But the boss said no. Husband, of course, knew that the boss was leaving Monday.

When Husband went back Monday, the guy in charge wouldn't take his paperwork. This guy doesn't like Husband, for a reason that is seriously petty and stupid, and not even Husband's fault. So now Husband can't get leave or a pass. And his boss is gone for an undetermined amount of time.

He said we'll go anyway, since his real supervisors know he'll be gone and are fine with it. The only issue will be if for some reason there's a recall, and Husband can't get there in time.

Argh argh argh. Such a freakin' pain!

90° and sunny

It's Friday! That means I'm off work. And since the weather is beautifully sunny and hot, I'm heading to the pool this afternoon. My friend S is coming along, and bringing her daughter A. I plan to sit in the sun until I feel like I might actually melt, then jump in and cool off, and repeat for the next two hours.

I went to the gym today, and lifted weights for a bit. I was doing this whole planned out program for a few months last fall, and got really discouraged when I started gaining weight again. Awesome. I know from past experience that working out doesn't help me lose anything at all. But it does make me look better, so I'm back at it.

I'm also back to tracking my food and counting calories. It worked last time, so here I go again!

I also need to finish my last assignments for school. After tonight, I'm done! Grades will be in on May 18th, but I'm assuming I've passed everything. ;) I signed up for two classes this summer to get a reading endorsement, but I'm pretty sure I'll drop them. I'm ready to not have anymore homework hanging over my head. I can always get the endorsement later if I want it.

PX trip

I'm heading to the PX with a friend today. The PX is awesome. It's pretty much like Target, but with lower prices and no sales tax.

We're heading down there because I need new makeup. The PX has a Clinique and their prices are about 25% cheaper than in a department store. Score!