Last Day of School

I am exhausted but I am so glad it's over again. I had a roommate from January until now and she is in the process of moving out. She is going to Williston ND to live. She will not be coming back to teach. Kendall is a teacher I went to college with that moved here this year and she is in the process of moving in. I haven't even had time to clean or anything and no time on my own. Oh well it will be nice to have Kendall around.

I am teaching summer school from May 31-June 30. James (my youngest son) got his GED so he will be starting trade school on June 30. I am so proud of him I never thought I would see this day. He is going to school to be a auto body repair and paint guy. Jeff is graduating this June from mechanic school and starting the same schooling with James.

I don't know what else I will be doing this summer except got to Chicago for an interview to go overseas. If I get the job I will pack and move all my stuff to Oregon. (better storage climate). Visit my friends and relatives. Then I will drive my car to Houston TX so my sons will have a reliable car and then fly out from Houston. If I don't get the job I will spend part of my summer planning out next year and reorganizing my room and who knows after that.

10 More Days of School!!!

Sorry I have not been blogging. I have been so busy that time has slipped away. There is nothing much to talk about but work because I have not done much of anything but work. There is only ten more days till school is out for the year.

I don't believe in coincidences but I do believe in signs. I just don't always interpret these signs correctly. First sign is I have had a roommate paying rent to me since January. The money has come in handy since I needed to go to the dentist recently for a root canal. While I have not been able to save very much money, I have had enough to not struggle. I was hoping that the extra money would mean provisions for moving this year but I see now that it was probably just living provisions.

The second sign is I have an interview with a company that will take me to Abu Dahbi, a country in the United Arab Emirate. It is located on the peninsula in the Persian Gulf. It is one of the riches countries in the world. If I get the job they pay for me to fly over, my pay would be almost 44,000 a year tax free. I would get a three bedroom apartment rent free, airfare to come home once a year, and great benefits. My interview is in Chicago in June. I have not given up on Oregon and I have three applications in for jobs there but so far nothing.

The third sign that I may be moving out of North Dakota is that we have not received any contracts as of today (5/10). This is good in that by law they have to give me 30 days to sign the contract. Last year I had to decide that I was coming back by 6/1/11. Now I will have till after my interview to sign my contract. Once I sign I have to buy myself out in order to break it so if I have another job it is nice to not have to pay off my old employer. Plus Oregon is just now starting to look for new teachers, so it is nice to have more time to look for a job there.

What will I do this summer? Well, I am going to teach summer school for the first month. Then it all depends on where I am going to work next year. If I have a job in Oregon, I will move back late July early August. If I get the job in Abu Dahbi, I will move my things to Oregon to store in a moderate climate and since in two years I will have paid off my student loans, I will be moving back to Oregon afterward (unless I fall in love with overseas teaching). After I move all my things to Oregon, I will drive to Texas to give my sons my car. Then I can see everyone before I go overseas. If I get this job I am spending Christmas in Bethlehem or Scotland or some place cool like that. If I am staying in North Dakota I will spend a large portion of my summer taking classes to renew my North Dakota license, and spend time reorganizing my room and planning my year so I am not struggling to keep on top of things.

If I stay for another year, there are some changes to prepare for. It has been decided by the school board that we are to give a pre-test and a post test and the student must past the post test in order to move on to the next grade at the end of the year. This means I must plan on what I am going to teach all year and test students on what they need to know to be a sixth grader by the end of next year. It might even help in discipline if the students realize they must learn or they will stay back until they do.

I started this year off with a cold and that is what I am ending it on as well. I have lost my voice and I have a sore throat but I will finish this year out and then....

Only 44 more school days!!!

I am so excited. This year is almost over. Only 44 more school day or 10 weeks. The school year is almost over. It is the thought that is keeping me motivated. I am tired of being a babysitter and then the administration turning around and asking me to justify everything I do because I am judged by my students test scores.

This weekend I went to Bismarck to take the Praxis II test. It is a series of tests for teachers. Oregon is one of the only states that does not require teaches to take this test. Only high school teachers need to pass it for their Oregon licence. It makes sense to have this test because it asks about theology of teaching and what are the proper things you should do in classroom management and all that. It was a tough test took four hours for two tests, a lot of writing.

Anyway my friend and I took Friday off so we could get to Bismarck (3 hour drive) and to the hotel. Then hopefully have time to play since it is the "big city" (maybe the size of Pendleton). So we drive there, it was clear as a bell. We can't check in to the hotel right away so we went to the mall to look at stuff. We are in there for about an hour and when we got out about an hour later it was a white out blizzard. We went to the store picked up some stuff to eat and went to the hotel and stayed in for the rest of the day. It closed down our school and the teachers at school got stuck there and had to spend the night with some of the teachers that live near the school. It was wild. Next day it was cold and sunny and on Sunday when we went home it was clear as a bell. You could not tell there had been a snow storm. Talk about freaky.

I am back to looking for a new job and praying that the Lord sees fit to move me somewhere else. I am tired of this school, I have totally lost my love of teaching. If it was not for being surrendered to God and the large student loan debt I would go back to being a secretary.

Bumbed

Sorry I have not been updating my blog but I have been extremely busy this year. I spend all evening on Monday's grading. Then I tutor on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays. I plan on Friday for what I will be teaching during the next week. The weekend I clean, shop and do laundry however my dryer is broken so laundry takes a little longer because I have to hang everything.

Now why I am bumbed. I was planning on taking a three day weekend starting this Friday. I was going to shop for a dryer and sleep in and rest. But I woke up this Monday with a tooth ache. I made it through the day teaching and then it got worse. I was in a lot of pain by night fall. I got to use my personal day to try to go to the dentist. ONLY I live in North Dakota and there are not enough dentists or doctors to go around. So I called several in the area and there is no way to see a dentist for at least two weeks. Luckily, I was able to get into a doctor and get antibiotics. Which is good since the whole side of my face is swollen. I look like I have been beaten without the "pretty" bruise coloring.

Now I am taking Multron, and major strong antibiotics. I can't eat a thing. I have been drinking soup. Funny thing the antibiotics require you to eat food with them. Only I had no soup so I stopped and got a bag of M & Ms to suck on so I could take my meds right away. Good thing because the roads are terrible right now and what should have taken me an hour to get to Dickinson took me an hour and forty-five minutes. Most of the way was up and down hills, round corners, and all covered in ice. A real nail bitter of a drive and I couldn't even grit my teeth. Ouch!!!

SO I have a sore mouth, I am hungry because drinking soup does not keep you fool and I am wore out from the awful drive. I am going to bed.

Christmas VIllage

My brother requested I post some pictures of my Christmas Village. Only thing is, it's too big for just one picture so I took this video to show off my village. The village started with seven houses the my mother's younger sister made. Aunt Patty poured, fired, and painted the houses herself. She then made most of the trees, bushes, and animals. The bear, baby bears and the foxes were made by my Aunt. Two of the smaller houses were sent to my mom in a floral arrangement that my mom's older sister sent her for Christmas two years in a row. They are from the Thomas Kincaid collection. The houses my aunt made were Charles Dickinson style. It became a holiday tradition for my mom and I to buy at least one item each year for the village.

I inherited the village when mom died. I added the lighthouse and the ship. I also got one of my brother-in-laws to help build the base. It is a full sheet of plywood that we cut in half and added hinges so I could close it for storage. I painted the board and added the gravel roads, cobblestone roads and we drilled holes and added the lights. The table that it sits on was made by my middle brother. The base is four feet wide by a little over six feet long. I have the base overhang on one side of the table so I can use the table edge for more room. Two years ago I added stars hanging from the ceiling but chose not to put those up this year. I am currently looking for small snowflakes to hang with the stars maybe next year. That is provided my youngest son is living close to me because he is tall and real good at hanging things from high places. (My definition of a high place is anything out of my reach and I am only 5' tall) The mountain is just a folded sheet.

As I write this it is snowing. It has been snowing since 10:00 this morning. We actually closed school 45 minutes early to get the students home safely. We were almost too late because the buses had a lot of trouble making it to school. When I left for work this morning my sidewalk and driveway were clear of snow. When I got home at 3:45 the snow covered my shoes. I have posted some pics. It was too dark to video the blizzard. But it really dumped on us this time. It is supposed to warm up a little tomorrow then drop below 0 again for the next week.

I hope I can get out to go shopping this weekend. I have planned my first progressive party for a week from tomorrow and I need to get supplies and food. Also I am getting a little stir crazy and need a break before winter really takes hold and I have to with stand cabin fever. Here is the video and pics enjoy.

Winter is Here with a vengance

It snowed again today. I drove my car to work because I had too much to carry back to school after grading and planning during the long weekend. I parked it and did not think about it again till I wanted to go home tonight and there was six inches of new snow plus the packed snow that was freezing underneath. I drive a Saturn 3 door coupe with very little ground clearance and you guessed it, when I tried to drive home I got stuck. It took two other people and a shovel to get me unstuck. It took me almost an hour to get home and I live 500 feet from work. When I got to my driveway I discovered that the plow had been by and I had over a foot of snow plowed against my driveway. So I went to the neighbor to ask them to get facilities to use the bobcat to dig out my driveway. My neighbor works for facilities, facilities does maintenance and other things for the people who live on the school campus, which I do.

While I waited for the bobcat, the neighbor's son who is in third grade dug out my driveway, the part that meets the road and I was able to get into the garage. Getting into my garage is very important to me because it is going to drop below zero for the next couple of days and my car does not have a block heater to prevent my car from freezing so the garage insulates it enough to prevent freezing. So I am now warm and cozy in my house, a half hour after I called the bobcat has just shown up and dug out my driveway and my car it tucked in for the winter.

Have I ever told you I hate the cold and snow? Well I do even more now that I have had to survive on winter and am starting on my second in North Dakota. Oh up date on the kittens I found in my garage. I have lost three and am down to two who are fat and happy and currently climbing my leg. Momma kitty is doing well too. I doubt I will keep any because the cat box and mess drive me crazy.

I don't think North Dakota knows about the winter solstice!!

Sorry for the picture quality but the wind was blowing and that is as still as I could keep the camera.

Its only November 24 and we have already had three blizzards and about 11 inches of snow on the ground. It is also very cold. Evenings have been getting about 8 degrees below zero and sometimes it doesn't get much warmer during the day.

Well today was the last day of the week because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the start of a nice long four day weekend. School was suppose to get out 45 minutes early at 3:00 but due to wind and snow we let out at 1:30. So I had lots of time to plan and get all my copies made as well as get organized for next week. I have gotten pretty spoiled. We had been having a lot of four day weeks either due to planning or water pipes breaking. Now I look at the schedule and we have five day weeks until Christmas break. Yes I do have cheese to go with this whining.

But you try 18 loud kids that have trouble following directions and cannot figure out how to stand in line, work 12 hour days and see if you don't whine a little.

Happy Thanksgiving, and for the record I don't have to dream of a white Christmas and if you really want one, I have a spare room. Come on over, I'll keep the light on for you. It doesn't matter you wont find me without a map and a guide.