I should be cleaning my house....

...or something equally productive. ;) But I'm not. We finally got our wireless stuff that we left at the in-laws like, months and months ago. So now I can blog while sitting on the couch instead of killing my back sitting in our cheap IKEA desk chair. Yay! So maybe you'll actually be seeing more posts on here now!

So, just for fun, I thought I'd post some stuff I did to my classroom at the beginning of the school year. I'm actually trying to figure out a way to rearrange my classroom right now, but it just hasn't come to me yet. I got the approval to do it, but it came with a few conditions, so I'm having to rethink what I had in mind. It's proving a lot harder than I thought it would be. Anyway, on to the improvements I have made so far!

First is my management system for centers. I have nine center areas in my room that I use. Technically, their suggestion is to have the seven learning centers by subject as choices, but I don't always do centers in the same place and my kids don't really get that. For example, not all of my science activities are appropriate to do at a table, and I don't even always use the same tables for the same activities. So instead I labeled my pockets with pictures of the general areas I use rather than the subject of the activity.
Each kiddo has a stick with their name on it to choose their center. I just realized one piece of my little management tool that is not in my picture that helps control which centers we are using for the day. Each pocket has a little two-sided insert. One side is colored red, and says "closed" and has the number zero. The other side is colored green, and says "open" and has the number of kids allowed in the center written on it. I did the numbers with a vis-a-vis (my cards are laminated) so I can change the number of kids per center if I need to.

And there's a close up shot. I just printed a library pocket template on some cardstock, glued those together, and glued my pictures on the front. Oh, and the pictures are of the actual stuff in my room, so there's no confusion because it all looks the same. Then I put contact paper over the pockets to attach them to the shelf. The kids love it and it has worked really well. I wish I had started it with my last group. They just go over to the pockets and move their stick to an available center and don't have to ask or interrupt or anything, it's all in their control.

This is my job board. We change jobs every day. I actually am only using four of the six jobs right now, because I only have six kids and part of my goal here was to teach them about taking turns so it didn't make sense for every kid to have a job every day. So, I just take their name cards and move them every morning. These are just sentence strips with pictures of the kids actually doing the jobs, again attached with contact paper, but not over the top edge so I can stick the index cards behind the sentence strips.

I have to say, these things seemed so simple when I was prepping them, and I was kind of torn because I felt like I had decent classroom management without them. Plus, when kids moved up at the beginning of the school year, my class size shrank, so I felt like I didn't really need the extra tools. But honestly, I am so glad I did it. Especially the center management. It is so much smoother to be sitting and doing a project, or even be prepping a project for later on, and be able to say "Go move your stick" instead of having to watch the time and rotate kids around the centers myself. And I have fewer kids whining about being bored or not getting a turn somewhere or complaining about not being able to play a certain place. The turns are much easier for them to visualize and they even tell each other "That center isn't open today" or "There are already four sticks there, yours won't fit." I am actually very impressed that the kids have picked it up so well. It's really one of those things that I've heard forever but it really is true. Kids will live up to the expectations you set, and I am so happy I've set them high because they are totally capable of making their own decisions! :)

I think that's all for tonight. Hubby will be home soon and I should totally go fluff the clothes in the dryer so it looks like I was being a good housewife this evening! :D

Not real sure how to start this one.....

I've been meaning to write this blog for a few weeks now, and I've been putting it off because I'm just not sure where to begin. And I've finally come to the conclusion that there really is no good way to start it, except to just jump right in.

There is yet another move in my near future. And I'm doing it somewhat voluntarily. :)

I am so tired of moving. In my mere 25 years, I've moved nine times (that I remember). Four of those have been in the last 3 years. I hate moving. Like, really hate moving. I hate the packing, I hate the unpacking, I hate looking for a place, I hate using a storage facility, I hate putting Twila through it, I hate the total upheaval of me and my stuff, I hate finding a place for every little thing we own, I hate the stairs that are usually involved, I hate the stress, I hate finding a new grocery store, I hate leaping into the unknown. I just want to be settled. I want everything to have a permanent place. I want to have enough space to not have to stash stuff under furniture. I want all of my kitchen stuff to fit in the kitchen cabinets. I want to be able to decorate for holidays consistently. I want to be able to have people over. I want to live somewhere for longer than a year.

So after that paragraph, I'm sure you're thinking, "why on earth would she voluntarily move again?" And honestly, a tiny part of me has been wondering the exact same thing. So here's the scoop. I'm doing it for my amazing husband. Because he is awesome and I am so lucky to have him, and he's the leader of our household and this is the direction he's taking us right now. And because quite frankly we've been trying things our way for about 3 years now, and we've run into more than our fair share of closed doors.

When we moved back to the Austin area, James was able to transfer with LifeWay. And he's had lots of opportunities open up for him here at the Austin store. He's currently in charge of receiving as a part-time manager, among other things. He's been trusted with a lot of responsibilities, and I'm proud to say he's been really outstanding at everything they've asked of him. (Not that I'm biased or anything.) It's been suggested that he apply for several assistant manager positions in other cities. At the time we were still being stubborn and ignoring the prodding God was doing. And now the opportunity has presented itself for him to enter into the manager-in-training program to become a store manager. So we spent a lot of time praying, discussing, and crying over the decision and felt we couldn't ignore the prodding any longer. So we're going for it.

And man, is it scary. And slightly exciting. But mostly scary still. What all this means is that, right now he is working with his store manager, his district manager, and the guy in charge of the training program to get prepared to start the training. Some of the things the training will cover, he's already doing in the store. But there are other areas that they would like to see him improve in before he applies to start training. I think this is mostly because he is so young. One of the things they've asked him to do is work on being certified to be an assistant manager, even if he doesn't get a position as one right now. Ideally the guy in charge would like him to work as an assistant first, but I'm not entirely sure that's a requirement, I think it's just preferred. The way I see it, James is already doing a great job of proving himself to be a competent worker and very motivated, or his managers wouldn't have brought this up to start with. But no one ever asks me. :) From here we wait until January or February, at which point we have to start looking into actually applying and interviewing for the program (which will require a trip to Nashville). Then the plan, assuming he's accepted, would be for him to start the training program around March or April, so that he finishes in late July right as our lease is up. Assuming all of that goes as scheduled/planned, when he is finished we will be sent to the first store James would manage. This is where the moving comes in. Once he has finished the program, and there is an opening for a store manager, we can basically be sent to any one of LifeWay's 100+ stores in 27 different states, including Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, and Illinois to name a few.

I still won't claim to have written this blog very well, but there it is. Now you know. I also won't claim to be completely okay with this every day. Some days I'm mostly okay with it. But this is big stuff, and it's taking me a while to deal with it. And I won't at all claim to be ready to think about moving again, especially if it's out of state. But I can claim to be completely confident in my husband and his choices, and I know God won't take us anywhere we aren't supposed to be. And I can claim that I have fully learned that making my own plans never works, and that I am 300% ready to give in and try it His way. So that's what we're doing. And I'm determined to work on being excited about it. And I will do my best to keep everyone updated as we get more details.

And I promise to blog more now that I'm not working 7 days a week!

I'm still alive I promise!! I'll be taking some pictures of what I've done to my classroom for my new group of kiddos this week, and hopefully will have time to post them soon!

Finally!

I have a full-time job!!!!! Teaching!!! WOOOOOHHOOOOOOOO!!!






That is all. :)

Go Big or Go Home

Ok, I have been waiting and waiting to post this blog, and I am so excited to finally be writing it! Most of you may remember a former post of mine, Babies everywhere! Well, this time around I decided to take on something just a little bit bigger. Back in September, I found out that my friend Holly was going to use a Mario Brothers theme for their nursery. Of course, the first thing that went through my head was "What am I going to make them?" But the second thing that went through my head is that it has to have Mario, because it will be so hard to find stuff to buy that has Mario! So I of course started scouring the Internet for cross-stitch patterns involving Mario Brothers. And amazingly, there are quite a few out there, but none that really just jumped out at me. So I went to Hobby Lobby to look at my options for material, and noticed the afghans. Well that was all it took for my imagination to take off. I immediately pictured a character per square, and figured I could piece together enough of the patterns I had found to fill up the blanket.So I got busy sketching patterns, and soon realized that there weren't enough cross-stitch patterns. However, I found that there are a ton of images of perler bead art that pop up on Google images when you search for cross-stitch. Turns out those little circles that are the beads translate perfectly into the little squares for cross-stitch. So I ended up with a ton of choices. :)
And then I got busy stitching. And stitching. And more stitching. This was by far the biggest project I have ever taken on. But, go big or go home, right? I knew that it would be worth it because the more I read Holly's blog and saw that in fact very few gifts were showing up that went with their Mario theme, the more I knew that this blanket would be special to Holly, Cole, and little Max. The whole reason I make gifts for friends is because I think they deserve something that is special, homemade, and has some thought behind it. Sure, it's easy to run out the week before the shower and grab something off the registry. Sure, they'll be glad to get something they picked out. But a baby can always use a bib, or a blanket. I just feel like people have moved away from thinking about their gifts and I like to bring that old-fashioned aspect back. Plus, there's never any chance that they'll get two of my gift. ;)So was I stressed and panicked Saturday morning as I hurriedly put the last few stitches in the blanket the day of the shower? You bet. Was my grandma, who helped me attach some fleece to the back at literally the last minute, just a little bit frustrated with me? Oh, I'm sure, and I'll be taking her to dinner sometime to make up for it. Was I just a tad bit overwhelmed that it took a lot longer than I expected, especially considering I had been working since September? Most definitely. But, was it all worth it in the end when Holly opened the gift? No question. No doubt at all in my mind that every last bit of it was totally worth it. I have a feeling my "little" hobby of making baby bibs for friends' babies may have just evolved into something a bit larger. But I have no doubt that bringing such happiness to a mom to help welcome a little one is something I will continue to enjoy and honestly is one of my absolute favorite things to do. :-D

The Live Music Capital

I am definitely enjoying that aspect of Austin since we've been here. I love going to concerts. And I've mentioned before on this blog how important music is to me. That being said, I would love to experience more of the live music scene here in Austin. Somehow I need to figure out how to stay up to date on all the stuff that happens in Austin so we can catch some more great shows. :) If you have the info, please share!

So far, we've been to two great concerts! The first one was Brandon Heath and Jars of Clay. They rocked it! This one was the better overall concert experience. The whole concert was put on much better in terms of flow and lighting and such. Plus, both sets were fantastic. And of course it helped that we had free VIP seats that James got from work. :)

See all the people behind us? :)

Brandon Heath and his band

Jars of Clay

The second concert was just this past week and it was at Shoreline and we were not VIP, but it was ok because we could actually see more of the concert that way. I must say it was not advertised well, nor was it sponsored or run very well. Rebecca St. James opened, which I did not enjoy too much. She only did about four songs, spent a lot of time talking, and the lights stayed on the whole time. I mean, she's got a good voice and I don't mind her music, but it just didn't feel much like a concert to me. Then they spent like 30 minutes promoting a charity. Which is totally great, and I totally support this charity and what they do, but that is not why we came. We came to see MercyMe and you're just prolonging that experience. I just didn't think it was managed very well. Jars of Clay and Brandon Heath were actually supporting two charities, and I didn't have the feeling like I was conned into a fund-raising event there like I did at Shoreline. However, once we finally got to MercyMe, it was awesome! It finally kicked into concert mode, and they were amazing! Comparing the four artists separately, disregarding the details and focusing just on the individual sets, MercyMe blew the other three out of the water! Absolutely made my week and I know James loved it (and killed my voice, which is really what you want out of a concert, right?)!

I really wanted to crop this, but have no editing software at the moment.

MercyMe (and as if I didn't like them enough already, they threw some Beatles and Tom Petty into the mix!)


And they had THE coolest drum set I have ever seen! They lit up!

A big fat pile of....

....now what?

(Probably not where you thought I was going with that title.)

Life right now is a big fat pile of "now what?" Which by the way, sucks. I hate it. I am really really tired of it actually. I feel like a failure. And then I turn around and think, wait a minute, that can't be right. I worked too hard to be a failure! How did this happen?!

Now, some of you may think I sound just a little bit dramatic and even whiny. But let me just catch you up to speed on the suckage that is my career. Well, actually my lack of career would be more accurate. I graduated (with honors, I might add) with a Bachelor's in Education in December of 2008. That would be over two years ago. I spent a semester in denial that my plans were perfect and I didn't need to worry. Then I spent a year applying everywhere within an hour's drive. And trying desperately to get on sub lists and then trying even more desperately to actually get a sub job. Then we decided that wasn't working and we'd try a different market. And, naive me, I thought it was getting better. Got right on the sub lists, and started raking in the jobs. Comparatively at least.

But that brief period of hope is over now. Squashed and not coming back. RRISD started a hiring freeze, and they are really sticking to it. AISD is closing several schools. I think the total number is somewhere around 9, and I'm fairly sure at least 4 of those are elementary schools. HISD just opened a new elementary school for this school year, and will be closing it after this school year because they are over budget. So even though subbing is going better, I am no closer to the ultimate goal of my own classroom and a full-time contract position.

So I am once again back at the question of now what? And I'm beginning to really hate this question. Because I never really seem to get an answer for it. How long do I wait to find out if I have any remote chance of a job for the coming school year before I quit trying? Do I finally give up and find another career? And if so, what in the heck would that be? Do I try to find something that is relatively close to what I actually want, like tutoring or daycare/preschool? Or would that be beneath my degree? Or would that even be good enough? This whole paragraph has been on repeat (with a dash of speed) inside my head all week. And it is driving me crazy. Absolutely totally crazy. And I still have no answers to any of the questions.

Which is a horrible way to end a blog post. But I have nothing better, because I have nothing else to say.