Waiting for something positive

Well, I can no longer complain that good things are not happening to me. On July 15, I was offered a job teaching PreKindergarten for the mornings only at the Catholic school where I was a frequent substitute. I am still waiting to find out about that one as they were waiting to do reference checks. Also on the 15, I was offered a job at OfficeMax and I accepted that one because at the time I had no other options.

On July 18, I had an interview for a full time 4K position. They were supposed to know late this week or next week about that position, so I am still waiting to hear on that one. (I may have to contact them and see where I stand.)

On July 21 I started orientation at Office Max.

On July 27 I had an interview for a part time 4K teacher in Seymour, with the option of staying in the afternoons to provide child care. They are hoping to do orientation on Aug 9, so they hope to have a decision by then.

On July 28 I was called by a Catholic school in Middleton for a K/1st split class. They are interested in setting up an interview next week. The principal is just trying to coordinate with the pastors schedule, as he wants to be in on the interviews as well.

So, now I just have to hope that one of these teaching jobs comes through-hopefully a full time one-and then I can tell OfficeMax that while it was fun, I have to say good-bye!

Thanks for all the positive thoughts sent by all of you readers! :)

OfficeMax

As of now, I am an OfficeMax employee. I had orientation last week and went in for 3 hours today to start my online training. There is a lot of information to absorb, and I am not sure how I am going to be able to remember all the computer stuff and protection plan information. Hopefully it will become second nature the more I do it :) I don't have to go back in until Friday for more training, so we will see how that goes, and in the meantime I will be studying up on my protection plan information.

I certainly think this meets my "out of my comfort zone" goal for the year, as I am not one who would normally just go up to someone and ask if they need help with anything. So, I am sure this will help me open up more and we will see what it leads to.

Of course I am still hoping for a full time teaching job-fingers crossed.

More on OfficeMax as it happens. At least I should have some more interesting posts every once in a while!

Updates

As July is quickly passing us by, I am realizing that I may not reach my goal of 2 blog posts a month. I really need a more interesting life.

The 4th of July left us in the Appleton area to watch the local fireworks with friends. We skipped Rhythm and Booms in Madison this year to save on gas since we would be driving to Baraboo the following weekend for our bi-annual family get together. I have an uncle that lives in California, who comes out with his family every other year and we do something as a large group. This year it was camping in Baraboo. We had a new tent that we were excited to try out, and was thankful that the rain held off until after we took the tent down on Sunday morning-even if it was just barely!

After camping, it was one more week of summer school. I have to say that week was harder then the first week, behavior wise. We had the week of the 4th off, so the kids had to come back for one more week after a week vacation. I think that was to long of a break from routine for them, but we all survived.

I have some positive news on the job front. I was offered a part time PreKindergarten position at the Catholic school here in Kaukauna, where I subbed quite a bit last year. I just have to wait and see how reference checks go-not thinking there should be any issues there. So, while that is not official yet I have to decide what to do about this other job offer I received. I accepted a part time position at OfficeMax and go for orientation tomorrow. I am not sure yet that I really want to keep it. Here is the dilemma: It pays $1.50 LESS then I make at Sylvan (both part time jobs) So I have to see if I will be getting more hours at OfficeMax and what Sylvan thinks I could get for hours once school starts. I will go for orientation and see what he has to tell me about hours. I really don't want to give up Sylvan, but if this school year goes like last school year I am going to need something with more hours. I will keep you posted.

I also had an interview on Monday for a 4K teacher at a day care in Green Bay. This would be a full time position (which would make the OfficeMax decision for me). They had a few more interviews this week and then would be calling back for 2nd interviews next week. Keeping my fingers crossed for full time, that would help a lot!!

Thanks for reading my rambling and keep sending positive thoughts my way :)

Summer school and such

I was reminded recently that it has been a while since I blogged. While my life is not that interesting and I do not want to bore my few readers, I guess something is better then nothing, right.

Well, we are in week 3 of a 4 week summer school. My teaching is officially over as my co teacher is in charge these last 2 weeks. So my job is crowd control and helping where needed. Our class is a pretty good class, active but good. We have a parent that we are not to sure about, but we don't have to like the parents right?!

Next week we have off and will be on a family camping trip next weekend. We are not doing anything exciting for the 4th, probably just hanging out here and trying to catch some local fireworks displays.

I am on the job hunt, as always. I had 2 interviews this month, both produced a thank you for your time, but we went with another candidate letter. I have sent out 27 resumes this month, so far and have 3 more waiting to get completed. I am in the process of revamping my resume, based on a friends suggestions in hopes to get it looked at more often, so we will see what happens. I will keep all of you (the 2 of you readers) posted on any successes.

Off to work on that resume!!

Third Grade From HELL

I know it is the end of the year and kids are getting squirrely, but this went beyond squirrely.

I got the call late, so I didn't get to school until 9:30. Walked into the room where the principal was covering until I could get there (so of course they were well behaved!) They were good for the end of the lesson and the group bathroom break. We came back to have snack and a little free time-where they played games and talked. No big deal. The rest of the day was filled with noisy 3rd graders and lots of talking when there shouldn't have been (Of course not everyone, there were about half the class who did what they were supposed to do all day )

After school, in the car, I noticed my wallet was missing from my purse. I was trying to think if I had it in the morning or if it was at home on the kitchen table. Since I had to go to Sylvan until late, I decided I better go back and check the classroom. In the games bucket, I found my store discount cards scattered around. So, I checked desks and obvious places for the wallet. No luck, so I went to talk to the office. The secretary and I went back to search the room and I found the wallet behind a crate, under a table, with my debit card missing. Back to the office to talk to the principal and call the police.

Long story short, only the debit card was taken (luckily I had no cash in my wallet). Called to cancel the card right away and the police came out to fill out a report. The principal was going to talk to the teacher, and the class, today. I was hoping she would contact me if she found anything out, but I haven't heard anything yet. And she had the nerve to say that she hoped this didn't discourage me from subbing for them again!! At this point, I have them removed from my preferred schools list, and hopefully I will have a job for next year and won't have to worry about being a substitute teacher anymore.

Sorry that this post was a bit of a downer, but I needed to vent some more. I will keep you posted if I hear anything, but I am guessing I won't know who took it.

Whirlwind week

Boy, I feel like I have been on high speed for a long time. Let me break down what has been happening in my life in the past week.

Friday: Major cleaning day since my parents were coming up for Easter on Saturday. I think I started around 10am and stopped around 3:30, with not quite everything cleaned. That is when I jumped in the shower so we could run a few errands and head to dinner at a friends and egg dying.

Saturday: Woke up to a strange noise coming from the basement. Brian went down to check and the water pipe leading to our toilet broke and we had water shooting everywhere. So that had to get cleaned up and the plumber called. All that got finished just in time for us to take a shower and head out to meet my parents for lunch. After lunch and a few errands, we were finally back home to relax and dye some more eggs.

Sunday: Easter was at our house. My parents dog decided that he wanted to see what our bed was like, at 7:20am. So, I got up and did some last minute cleaning and preparations. After dinner, Brian noticed that the water meter in the basement was making loud clicking sounds and not spinning to register water use. So, in a last minute effort to use all the free water we could, I finished up some laundry and did the dinner dishes.

Monday: Brian got up early to call the utility company about the water meter. They came over and discovered that something was leaking in the house and struggled to figure out just what it was. It was finally found that our reverse osmosis unit was leaking. Those guys were coming over later to change filters anyway, so we talked to them about that-we are still waiting to fit them into our schedule to come and fix that. Then I had Sylvan.

Tuesday: A rainy day and I had to drive to Fond du Lac to pick up a bridesmaid dress for the 7th. Then got back here and spent an hour at the tailor to figure out how they could alter it-turns out the dress was designed for fuller figured women than me. Then came home to research cheap hotels for that weekend since we need a place to stay. I also had to tutor that night, so a quick dinner and I was off.

Wednesday: Subbed in a kindergarten classroom all day, luckily it was not raining and they could go outside to play. Then it was off to Sylvan were I had a few crabby kids that night.

Thursday: Subbed in kindergarten again. Came home and had to call WE energies to relight our furnace since they replaced our gas meter today. Then caught up on some house things, like folding the laundry from the weekend.

Tomorrow I will be back in kindergarten and who knows what Brian has planned at night. Then I have Sylvan on Saturday morning and hopefully we can rake the yard this weekend. Next week looks a little calmer, so far. Only 1.5 days of subbing and 3 nights at Sylvan. Then it is wedding weekend. I will try to post about that as I am sure that will be an interesting event as well.

Thanks for reading about my whirlwind week!!

As much as I enjoy sleeping in....

...it does not get the bills paid. I haven't gotten a wake up call in 3.5 weeks!! I have subbed a few days in those 3.5 weeks, but they have all been pre planned. All this free time is allowing me to get my classes done in order to renew my teaching license, but that is not bringing in any money either. I have just started class 2 of 2 this morning, with hopes to finish it this week and get the paper done, and have everything mailed in by Easter. If the lack of subbing keeps going this way, there is a good chance that will happen.

We had some storm action here last night. Just before 8pm, the tornado sirens went off. We grabbed phones, flashlights, lighters for the candles, and headed to the basement to continue watching the storm coverage down there. After over an hour and 7 sirens, the storms had passed and we went upstairs. There was a tornado touchdown in Kaukauna, a few miles from our house, but surprisingly no one was injured. Today is going to be a big clean up day around the city. Luckily nothing happened in our neighborhood, even though we were hoping for some damage to the roof (we could use a new one), or that the wind would knock our already leaning fence down. No such luck, and everyone is safe.

Hopefully you stayed safe in all the storms that rumbled through WI last night.

Off to do some more classwork!!

Renewing my teaching license

Two posts in one day!!! Wow, aren't you lucky!!! And there is only one day left of the month to get my 2 posts in (and i am subbing tomorrow so I know there will be no time for posting)

I am not sure if this would qualify as procrastination, but I am pretty sure it does. My teaching license expires at the end of June. I have to take 6 credits and get graded, before then. So, last week I finally ordered my video courses, so that I could get those credits in. I am halfway through my first class, after a week, which I am thinking is pretty good. (Course, not subbing at all this week has helped me to push through them)

The classes I am taking have to do with choice theory and the 5 basic needs that all students have. It shows how to incorporate those needs into teaching lessons and your classroom to help prevent behavior problems. Now i only wish I had a classroom to try some of these activities. It is giving me great ideas in case I get a classroom next year.

I will switch to that thought, a classroom for next year. No, don't get excited, I don't have a classroom for next year yet, but things are looking promising. I know this whole collective bargaining thing with Walker is causing a lot of teachers to seek early retirement, therefore creating openings if the budget allows. Well, I have my application in to 2 districts already and I just found 2 more postings yesterday that I have to send my stuff into yet. I am sure there will be many more postings to come, I only hope that I have something that all the other teacher candidates don't have :)

Lent

I know Lent is half over, but since I never got around to posting about it before I thought I would do it now.

I was lucky enough to be subbing at the Catholic school on Ash Wednesday so I didn't have to try to squeeze church in somewhere between subbing and Sylvan (which would not have happened if I were subbing in a public school that day, there would have been no time). So my day started with mass and then I spent the day teaching the 4th graders. I also spent the day thinking about what to give up for Lent. I decided to give up soda ( I have done chocolate in the past and that was just too hard. I know that is the point, but why torture myself) I have been doing well with not drinking soda-it is harder when we go out to eat then it is at home-since we have no soda in the house. On the positive side, it is forcing me to drink a little more water. (I am still about a glass or 2 a day with that on though)

So, with about 24 more days to go until Easter, I am confident that I can keep my promise to give up soda for Lent.

Randoms

I haven't posted in week and I need to keep my goal of 2 posts a month, so I thought I would write something-as boring as it may be!

*My 2011 goals are coming along. I can see the top of my kitchen table, end table, and printer. (And most of the desk.) I am still drinking at least a glass of water a day, some days more. All this free time has lead to great time to read. It is only Feb. 16 and I have already read my 2 books for the month. At this rate, I will have no problem with my A to Z list. (Be sure to check it out once in a while, if you haven't already). With this being my second blog entry for Feb, that goal is coming along too. Still working on the comfort zone one and some tutoring possibilities are in the works. My dishes are getting done nightly (with the exception of this past weekend, when my brother was here. We were having too much fun playing the Wii.) I am still working on the positive attitude, building the relationship with God, and not sweating the small stuff. I haven't started any of the craft projects yet, but we have bought some of the supplies to get going on them. And I would hope my facebook friends think I am making meaningful comments.

*We had a gas leak last week. Thursday there was an overwhelming gas smell in the back room of our basement. Brian called WE energies and sure enough, a leak in 3 places. Brian called a heating guy and they came out and replaced the entire pipe. (We are still waiting for a bill on that one). This spring we are also going to be getting a new meter, outside, since ours is like 50 years old. This will supposedly involve digging up some of the lawn (which we just replaced last summer), but the are supposed to replant any grass they dig up. So we will see how that goes (I'm sure I will have a blog post about that one!)

*Subbing is really slow. I have subbed 3.5 days this MONTH and only have half a day scheduled for this week. I was expecting to be busy today with all the teachers going to Madison, but only got one call, while I was in the shower, and they didn't leave a message. Oh well. Hoping that March/April will bring lots of job postings which will lead to a full time job!!

*I seem to be losing hours at Sylvan some weeks too. Some days I am only there for 1 hour. I know, I know, I should be grateful that I have a job that provides some steady income. It just seems like a waste some days to drive 12 miles (one way) for only an hour, especially with gas prices on the rise. But, I am helping kids, and luckily I like most of the students I work with. I am just waiting and hoping that tutoring picks up a little so I can drop a few more days from Sylvan.

*Tutoring is going well. We are finally on a once a week schedule. Mostly I just listen to her read and help with sounding out words. I think we are both getting a little bored with that, and since I am not sure that we can convince her to bring home her Science or Social Studies textbook when she doesn't have homework, I may have to find something more exciting for us to work on in order to practice fluency.

*No news to report from the neighborhood. We are pretty sure that some people down the street are involved with dealing drugs (this was mentioned to me by a cop that talked to me one day while I was shoveling). This is nothing new, we always though they were strange and had strange people coming and going at all hours of the day and night.

Thank you for reading my random ramblings. Hopefully next month (or later this month) I will have something more exciting to blog about. I am sad to admit that my life simply is not that interesting.

Punxsutawney Phil v. Green Bay Betty

So, who do I believe? Phil, who didn't see is shadow and is predicting and early spring. Or Betty, who saw her shadow and is predicting 6 more weeks of winter.

Granted they both ultimately mean the same thing, shadow=6 more weeks of winter, no shadow=6 more weeks until spring. I guess it is all in your mind. With much of Wisconsin being buried by Snowstorm Connor, I am sure that an early spring is sounding great to everyone!!

I am not sure what I prefer. I like the snow, even though I don't do any winter sport. I think it looks pretty on the lawn (before any animal footprints get to it), and on the branches of the trees. I also like the way it sparkles in the sunlight. I don't even mind a few new flurries every once in a while because it covers up the dirty snow by the side of the roads. On the other hand, spring is nice too. You get to wear less clothes (or at least ones that are not so heavy), the days get longer (which means I can come home from Sylvan in the light!), and you actually WANT to go outside.

I don't mind the shoveling, or even the snow blowing, as long as I am not on a schedule to get it done. I also like the planting and preparing the yard for spring.

I guess it doesn't matter to me when spring gets here, as long as it gets here. I do know that I am not looking forward to the melting of all this snow. Hopefully it does not happen all at once!!!

It is good to have it back

I am talking about my computer. We were without a computer for a week while it was having some parts replaced. I felt so very out of touch with everything, but got some organizing done around the house. I have spent much of today on the computer, just catching up on everything, including all my Facebook games :)

I thought I would include a little update about my goals for this year, and I figured another post for the month wouldn't be a bad thing either.

I would have to say that my organization is pretty good. I can't see the kitchen table at the moment, but I can see the top of my printer, most of my desk (I just paid bills), and my end tables. I would say that is pretty good.

I am drinking at least a glass of water a day. I know that I should be drinking more, but for someone who is used to not drinking any glasses a day, one is a good place to start. Perhaps by the end of the year I will be up to the 6-8 they say you are supposed to have a day.

I have read 1 book and am in the middle of 2 others. I am going to try the A to Z and hope to have a link up soon.

I am happy to report that so far, my dishes have been done every night!! They sit in the drying rack for the rest of the next day, but at least they are clean, right?

I guess those are really the only goals I have anything to report on. The others are still very much works in progress as they will be all year.

11 for 2011

As promised yesterday, here are my goals for 2011. Some of them are the same, but I have added a few new ones. So, in no particular order:

1. Stay organized. I want to be able to see the top of my kitchen table, end tables, computer desk, and printer at all times. (At the moment I cannot see them all)

2. Drink more water.

3. Read at least 24 books this year-which works out to 2 a month. I would like to try Rae Ann's A to Z reading list, so that would give me 26 this year.

4. Make at least 2 blog entries a month (guess my 2 for January are covered!! JK) I can do more, but unless my life gets more interesting, 2 a month could be boring for you readers!

5 Do 2 things out of my comfort zone. (Rae Ann, this is where you come in again :)) Perhaps add more students to tutor.

6. Do dishes daily/nightly. I usually wait 2-3 days in between doing dishes and then spend so much time on them. (I currently have a sink (kitchen) full of dishes at the moment.) Also, this way the food may be easier to get off!

7. Keep a positive attitude. This one will be a tricky one, but I know it will make me a better person in the end. I will find a job and/or win Publishers Clearing House!!!

8. Build my relationship with God. I have recently started trying to have daily conversations with him (sometimes forget). Perhaps I could add a scripture reading a few times of week and reflect on that.

9. Put all my craft ideas into action. Possibly get into a craft fair by the end of the year.

10. Don't sweat the small stuff, especially at home.

11. Make more meaningful Facebook or blog comments. Something more than just "liking" a post or saying sent when I gift an item.

And there you have it, my new goals!! I am going to go work on those dishes now!!!

Reflection on 10 in 2010

I decided it was time to look back on 2010 and see how I did with my goals. I will copy the original goals and then comment after each one in a different color and you can decide how well I did or didn't do.

1. Get organized and stay organized. (almost done with the get part) This lasted maybe a month. I have a very hard time keeping things off the kitchen and coffee tables. However, now that our coffee table is being used as a TV stand I may have less of an excuse. I ended up taking time once a week or so to go through all the clutter on the tables and computer desk and putting it in the appropriate places. So I would have to say that this goal was not accomplished. (It will be on the list for 2011!!)

2. Drink more water. (when I am not subbing, I drink much less water. Maybe if I put it in the same water bottle I use for school, it will help) Another fail. I am not sure what I need to do to get myself to think water. I know that it is good for me, I just can't get it in my mind to actually do it!!!

3. Spend less time on the computer and more time reading. (This doesn't mean less blog or facebook status updates, but less "time wasting" activities) I am not sure that I have spent less time on the computer-although I do have less blogs, I think-I did do more reading this year. I decided to keep track, and I read 21 books this year. I would have to say that is pretty good, as I really have nothing to compare it to. Always looking for recommendations for any good books. ( I might have to steal a page from Rae Ann and look for a book for every letter of the alphabet!!)

4. Do more random acts of kindness. (I generally hold doors open for people behind me and smile at strangers, but I think I can do more) Did the smiling and door holding and think that I was more conscious of people entering or leaving a building behind me. I did let someone go in front of me in the grocery story. They only had 2 things and I had a cart full.

5. Be more tolerant. (Not sweat the small stuff) An ongoing goal, but I tried to remind myself that it really is not worth being upset over. I need to do this more often though.

6. Do something out of my comfort zone. (I am not sure what this is going to be, but it seems like something good to strive for) I think I accomplished this one 3 times. 1. I went to a food pantry in Milwaukee, with Rae Ann, and sorted and handed out food. 2. I have started to privately tutor the daughter of someone Brian works with. 3. I have started to write a story/book based very loosely on what happened that led to the end of my job at the Catholic School.

7. Write more comments on friends blogs or facebook pages so they know that I care about what they have to say. Have done this, even if it was a simple as "liking" a Facebook post or simply saying sent when I sent a gift in one of the games.

8. Stay on top of house cleaning (This could be a never ending goal, but it seems that since I have more "free" time lately I should make the most of it.) Nope. Always ended up doing a big cleaning at the end of the week, or when we were having people over (which doesn't happen often) Guess I need more local friends so I have reasons to clean, or my far away friends need to come visit!!!

9. Start some sort of craft project that can be sold at craft fairs (Everyone could use extra money and again, with all this "free" time I might as well put it to good use) Did not start this one, but have some great ideas. Have even bought a few of the supplies, so I am hoping that this one will be accomplished in 2011 as well as the years to follow!

10. Help all of you to reach your 2010 goals!!! (Whether you want me to or not!!!) Well, I know I helped Rae Ann with her volunteering goal. Not really sure if I helped anyone else, but I would like to hope so :)

And there you have it, my reflection on my 2010 goals. I did accomplish some and there are others that will continue to be worked on.

Other 2010 happenings in the Burns' household include:

*continued to stay healthy and employed (even if mine is only part time)

*I taught another year of summer school-finally in the same school as last year!!

*enjoyed a TimberRattler game on Brian's company

*saw Dave Coulier (Joey from Full House) live in Neenah

*went to Wisconsin Dells for a few days, and spent very little money but enjoyed lots of attractions-thanks to WIXX (local radio station)

*had some sleepovers with our godson and his sister :)

*got rid of awful landscaping in our yard and planted grass

I think that about covers it.

Stay tuned tomorrow, when I post my goals for 2011!!!!