Anyone wanna trade lives?!?!?!?

Brian came home 2 weeks ago to tell me that he quit his job at the bank because they wanted him to sign something that wasn't true. When he told them he wasn't' going to sign it, they said they would have to walk him out. so, they walked him out. He couldn't even tell me this face to face, he called me form his moms house to tell me.
So he is unemployed, again. And I am still mostly unemployed.
He had a somewhat promising interview this morning. Sounded like he would get paid to play with toys and other things all day. His dream job. All he has to do is keep his thoughts to himself and things should be fine. Some days whatever he is thinking comes out his mouth, not thinking about what his boss will think.

I have sent out 4 job applications last week and one more today. I still have nothing lined up and am not even getting any interviews. I would even be happy with a NO so that I know that my resume is at least being looked at. Oh well, it is still July.

So, keep us in your thoughts as we hope for the best. If not, I may be writing this blog from a cardboard box or tent in the backyard as we may have to rent out the house.

Sorry its been so long

Okay, so I logged on to see that it has been a month since my last post. In my defence, it has been a very busy month. Summer school started June 18 and ended July 20. (We had the week of July 4 off!!) So my mornings were packed with teaching soon to be kindergartners how school works, what things are done (and not done) at school, and how to behave. Overall, the 4 weeks went really well and there were no real problems. A few kids that liked to act out and need several reminders, but they wouldn't be 5 year olds if that didn't happen.

So, by the time I would get home I would have to eat lunch, do any prep work for the next day and head off to Sylvan. Sylvan has really been giving me hours, so I wouldn't get home until 9. Then I would eat, do any prep work that didn't' get done in the afternoon and go to bed. Even my weekends were busy with Sylvan and other family things.

The week off for the 4th was also busy. We spent that week camping with my dads side of the family. That was fun and luckily it didn't rain-we were in a tent!!

Now things are starting to slow down a bit. I still have a basement full of summer school stuff to sort through in my free time, but there is no rush. I will still be working at Sylvan 4 nights a week, but have also added 2 mornings a week. I hope to have a bit more time to do some postings on here, for all those of you faithful readers that like to know what is going on in my life:)

Sylvan by candlelight?!?!

We almost went that way yesterday. You see, they are ripping up the road in front of Sylvan-it is down to one lane, one direction. So, it was shortly after 5pm and all of the sudden the lights went out. There was no storm and the winds were not really all that strong, so we figured it must have been the guys out front. But what construction worker works past 4:30???
We continued teaching by the light coming in the windows, thank goodness for the sunlight. Then we had to decide what to do about the last 2 hours of the night. (The power company was called, and the had to track down employees, so who knew when the power would be back.) Did I mention the phones were dead too?!?! So, kids that were staying for the 6:15 hour had to stay since we couldn't contact parents, in an orderly fashion.
We finally decided, the teachers and one administrator (the center owner went home shortly after we lost power), that we would teach by sunlight from 6:15-7:15, but the last hour would have to be cancelled. So parents were tracked down in the parking lot as they dropped their children off and infromed of the change. No big deal and the hour went fine, but we were loosing light at the end-even my eyes were starting to hurt.
Wouldn't you know, right about 7:15 the lights came back on?!?!?!!! Well, guess I get to go home early. I mean, you couldn't very well tell the parents, "just kidding, we are really going to have that last hour of class!" I'm sure parents were a little confused as they came inside to pick up their children and the lights were on, but what can you do? One never knows what will happen with those city employees and their projects.
I will be so happy when Midway road is back to normal, which I know won't be for a while.
Hopefully tonight will be less eventful, I am not sure how much more excitement I can handle!

Summer School-Day 1

The crazy day. Kids coming in early, late, with parents, without parents, not on my list, wrong name on my list. I think kids started coming in at 8:20-the time they are allowed to enter the hallway. Then two families came in, one girl was in my room-her friend wasn't. The one came back a little while later, and now the other girl is in my room too. Can't split up those friends, what will the 5 year olds do!! Then one comes in and says the first name is different, is it the same kid. I don't know, sent them to the office. she came back and said they goofed. So I now have to make 2 new name tags as part of my homework tonight.
Once the parents were gone and kids were where they were supposed to be, the day went fine. I didn't realize how little was actually left in the room until the kids started playing. Oh well, they didn't really seem to mind and now that I know how fast they work, i will have more planned.
I had 4 kids out today, so my total was at 11. What a nice size and they all played so quietly!!
We will see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully nothing blog-worthy, but with 5 year olds, you just never know!

It's been a long time

In my defense, I have been very, very busy. I haven't even been on the computer very much this month. And when I was I was to tired to do anything but check for important e-mails and get off. I guess I will start at the beginning of the month. I had subbed pretty much non stop since the 14th of May. I had maybe 2 days off in there. Yes, i was even kept very busy during that last week of school. I guess that is what happens when a parapro quits with a few weeks left of the year. I was not her long term sub, but I subbed for her sub a few times. So, school was don on the 8th of June.
What have I been doing since then, you ask? Well, that day we left for Watertown-Adams graduation party was on Saturday. Sunday it was down to Milwaukee for the graduation party of our old neighbors. Followed by a drive back to Kaukauna. I felt like I live in the car last weekend.
Monday I got to sleep in, it had been a while. Shortly after I woke up, I was asked to babysit for a friend so they could get some work done outside and not worry about the baby. Well of course I said yes, I would never turn down Abbie time. I went back there on Tuesday morning as they had some errands to run and to make them quicker, they left Abbie at home. Wednesday I went supply shopping for summer school and spent the rest of the day organizing school stuff. Today I went to school to see my room and what was there. Minimal things, but I think I will be able to make due. After all, it is only 4 weeks. Hopefully the weather is nice and we can spend some time each day outside. Tomorrow I plan to go to the library to get some books for summer school before all the good ones are taken(hopefully it is not too late already!!) of course, all these busy days are followed by nights spent at sylvan. I even get to go on Saturday. As far as I know it should be a somewhat relaxing weekend, but we will have to see if that proves to be true.
Stay tuned for good first day of summer school stories on Monday!!

Never a dull moment...

...in this neighborhood. When your doorbell rings at 4 in the morning, you tend to get a little worried. Luckily Brian was awake, so he answered the door. At 4am, would you expect anything but the police?! I didn't go to the door, but I guess there were 2 policeman there wondering if there was a 20 something person in the house that was bleeding. Ummmm, we are all sleeping, so I don't think so. Feel free to come in and look. They didn't take us up on that offer, but continued to search outside and visit a few of the neighbors.
(Apparently they had received a call that there was someone bleeding profusely at one of 3 houses.)
But they could not find anything. Supposedly a car that was involved was found about 20 minutes away in another city. What are you doing in this one then!!!!!!
A few minutes later, 2 of the 5 cop cars in front of our house left. I do not know when the others left and Brian said he could still see someone searching the train tracks behind our house. I never heard ambulance sirens, so I am guessing no one was found (or at least not in serious condition).

Have you ever tired to go back to sleep after something like that?!?! First of all, you are looking outside to see if you can figure out what is going on. Then when you finally do climb back into bed every sound makes you jolt awake. By the time you have settled yourself down, it has been an hour and will be time to wake up shortly.

And, if that weren't bad enough, this is not the first time police have been in the neighborhood. The truancy officers have been to a house down the street several times. They are not something i worry about. But the police have been to the neighbors house a couple times. Do you know what it is like to look out the window and see 3 cop cars in the driveway of the house next door, lights flashing and guns possibly drawn?? Makes you want to know exactly what is going on. Is that public knowledge?

If anyone is looking for excitement, come stay with us for a week and you may just find some.

Subbing, Subbing, Subbing

I have finally had a few days off to catch my breath. I have been subbing for the past week and a half. Don't get me wrong, that is a good thing, but it has been a while since I have worked a full week. I have been a preschool parapro, I have supervised in school suspension, I have been in the CD room working with small groups, and I have been a "floating" kindergarten teacher. I have enjoyed all except the in school suspension. I actually thought, at first, that would be easier and more boring than the middle school library. I was wrong, WAY WRONG. The child I was supervising was an EBD (emotional, behavioral disturbed) student and could change moods in an instant. One minute he would be doing his work just fine and the next he would be flipping out about something. And when he flipped out it took quite a while to get him back on track again. Course, I didn't know any techniques that they were using in the EBD room, so that was a bit challenging. I survived, but would not want to do it again-if I had my choice.
The other days went well and it hardly felt like working. Especially in preschool, I mean where else can you get paid to play and color for most of the day. I did have some other "teacher like duties" too, but they were not as tough as controlling my EBD student.
The district is off today for an unused snow day, so I knew that I would have today to catch up on the house work that got neglected by the time I would get home at 8 every night.

oh to be a student teacher again

Ok, maybe not really. I mean all that hard work with none of the pay for it. But subbing when there is one in the room is pretty awesome. This was the case last Friday. I subbed in a 3rd grade classroom and didn't know there was a student teacher in the room until i got there that morning. And he was to the point in his student teaching that he was teaching everything. Again, I was only there to help with crowd control and give feedback as necessary. And I was doing odd jobs for the teacher as she wanted me to leave the room several times during the day. I would have to say it was pretty easy day. And the class was fairly well behaved that I didn't even have to help with discipline, he had everything under control. This teacher is also out on Thursday and Friday of this week, so I am hoping that i could possibly be back there again. Hey, it is more easy money for not having to do a whole lot. I would have to say it is easier than the middle school library.
Thank goodness for student teachers!!

I don't know if I could ever be a mentor teacher. I am not sure that my teaching skill are the greatest yet. Maybe someday i can have the luxury of having a student teacher in my classroom-course, I would need a classroom first!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Between subbing, Sylvan, friends visiting from out of town and the beautiful weather, I haven't had much time to write in the past week or so. Last week, I subbed 3 days and so far this week I have subbed 2. last week I even got a few days in the middle school library, so those were easy days, but tiring. I would much rather be doing something, after all I am getting paid to work. Middle schoolers just don't have book check out as often as those elementary schoolers do.
I am hoping to get more subbing in as the month goes on, I mean there are bound to be personal days when the weather gets warmer, right?!?!
This weekend was full of visiting and reminiscing. Someone Brian and I went to college with and her husband were up from IL this weekend staying with some other friends of ours, so we spend the weekend out of the house-literally. On Saturday, we visited in our backyard since the weather was so nice and then we went out to eat and back to Bill and Kristins house. Sunday we went to Oshkosh to the outlet mall. All six of us and the baby found something during that journey-and accomplished our goal of me finding dress pants and Brian finding shorts. What a great weekend.
I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend again. And hopefully I will get a few more sub days in this week so that i have a reason to want to relax.

Back in the subbing game

still not as much as I would like to be, but better then a sporadic call every few weeks. I subbed Wednesday-Friday last week and I have 3 more days set up for next week. I still don't have anything for this week, but it is only Tuesday. I wish I could get more teacher jobs instead of the parapro jobs, since they pay more, but I guess at this point money is money and I will take it however I can get it. (Short of having to go stand on the corner of College Ave. somewhere downtown)
Still no job leads for next year. I have sent in a few recent applications and am still waiting to hear back on them (or not hear back) I am sure that more will be coming up in the next few weeks as contracts come due and districts start working on budget things for next year. I am not going to totally worry until the end of August. I didn't get hired until the middle of August when we first move to the Fox Valley, so I know that a lot of schools are not in a real hurry to hire sometimes. I also have to decide how far I am willing to drive each day to work and how that drive would interfere with the hours i would work at Sylvan. But at this point I am willing to do about a 30 minute commute, one way.
Off to do more job hunting.

Successful Easter

As mentioned before, we had Easter dinner at our house this year. I would have to say that everything went pretty well. Brian's mom couldn't make it because she "won" the work lottery and had to work on Easter Sunday(Do people actually call with insurance questions on Easter?!?!) But Brian's dad was able to make it for a little while, my parents came up, Adam came in from school (probably more for the home cooked meal then the visiting), and my aunt came up from Fond du lac. I think that everyone had a great time, even if Brian's dad didn't come with an off button and talked pretty much from the time he got to our house until the time he left. That's okay, I spent most of my time in the kitchen preparing food along with my mom who brought pretty much everything that we would need for that day.
Overall a wonderful time spent with family.

Spring Cleaning???? Happy Easter!!!!!

Not sure if you can really consider it spring cleaning when it is snowing outside, but I am cleaning my house. Oh and not just the normal dusting and vacuuming. I have cleaned out closets, drawers, file cabinets, kitchen cabinets, and the normal cleaning as well. It is just so hard to think of it as spring cleaning. Does this mean I will have to do it all over again once we really get spring?!?! I won't be-once a year is enough for this kind of cleaning for me. And I probably wouldn't be doing it now if it weren't for the fact that we are having people over for Easter. Sure, I didn't have to clean out closets and cabinets, but as long as I knew I wouldn't be called to sub this week I couldn't think of a better time. So,, I have completed (almost)my spring cleaning in what would appear, to anyone reading this today, to still be the middle of winter.
I hope it stops snowing so that all our travelers can get here safely tomorrow. Not that any of the snow is really sticking, but with Mother Nature you can never be too sure.

I would also like to wish everyone reading a Happy Easter Whether you are cooking or someone else is doing the cooking, I hope you all have a wonderful time visiting with family and friends.
Off to do more cleaning:)

March goes out like a lamb

a cold wet lamb, but at least there was no snow. What a month March was!! I think we experienced all the seasons in 31 short days. (We even saw fall, with leaves blowing off our roof from last fall!) Gotta love Wisconsin. I mean where else can you experience at least 2, sometimes 3, seasons in one day? Now, when we should be having Spring weather, we are getting colder temps with a threat of snow over the next couple of days. I would much rather have the rain that we had all weekend-at least I don't have to shovel that. Sure, it makes the already large puddles of mud on the lawn every bigger, but then it also keeps the neighborhood children off the lawn. And if not, you can at least track them by the footprints left in the mud!:) Just kidding, we don't really do that. And the neighborhood children and pretty good about staying on the sidewalk, it is the neighborhood dogs that we have to worry about. If you ever see a story about flaming dog poop found on someones porch in Kaukauna, it was probably us:)

Menasha is on Spring Break this week, so I don't have to worry about any wake up calls. That is okay, because we have having the parental units (and an Aunt) over for Easter on Sunday and I could use the the free time to clean the house. I plan to spend a good portion of the week doing a huge spring cleaning of at least the first floor of the house-the basement is pretty organized and cleaned out. (Too bad I won't be able to open the windows, without freezing, to let all the dust that will be stirred up out of the house.) Oh well, life goes on and so do we.

A bit of good news

No, I don't have a job for next year yet. However, the interest rate on the car loan for the new Outlander went down. So did our payments. We will be paying $20 less a month:) The money we will be saving makes up for all the money we had to pay in our taxes this year. Unemployment really stinks. They could at least take out some taxes so you don't get socked with them all at the end of the year. At least we won't have to worry about that next year. And I am hopeful that I will find a full time teaching position so we will be able to pay down some of our debts. Contracts are due in a few weeks, so I am waiting to see what kind of postings I will see then. Can't wait. I have the printer warming up for all those resumes it will need to spit out. All I need now is more resume paper!
Sorry that this is all the exciting news I have. Subbed last Friday for an LD parapro, but nothing since.

Death and Taxes

Those are the only things that we can count on in life. And right now I am not happy about that. We decided to have our taxes prepared again this year, by H&R Block. All was going well, until we got to the IRA contributions. Turns out they were entered wrong last year, giving us a credit that we should not have gotten. So, H&R is doing an amended tax return from last year, for free since their guy screwed up. (Which doesn't surprise me after the trouble the guy had last year. which is why we specifically asked for someone else this year.) H&R will also cover any interest or penalties that occurred because of the error, but we still have to pay the back tax. And, as if that weren't bad enough, we are probably going to owe the feds quite a bit this year again-mostly due to my unemployment and the fact that they are not taking enough taxes out of our paychecks. Needless to say we have changed our exemptions so that will not happen again for 2007. So, we go back in on Saturday to find out exactly what our damage is to the government. I am sure that it will not be good since that seems to be how our life is going right now. I just hope that someone in a higher power grants me a much needed full time job for the 07-08 school year. If that could happen, things will slowly get better.
There is a piece of good news though. I only have 2 more payments on my truck and then it is mine. And we will have that extra money each month. Yeah, we will finally own something!!

I learned something new yesterday.

Ok, for all you computer savvy people this may not seem like a big deal, but I was pretty excited. I was subbing at the middle school library as the parapro yesterday. the librarian was showing a video on the big 6 steps to research paper writing. Well, during the research stage they were talking about searching on google. If you want to narrow your search, you can put a minus sign in front of any words you don't want included in the search. I never knew that before, but it is going to save me a lot of time next time i have to google something. I also learned that if you are searching for a name of a person, put that name in quotes otherwise it will look for the first name and the last name, not necessarily together. I thought those were pretty interesting tips and wish I would have found them out sooner, would have made all those college paper searches a little bit faster. Oh well, I guess this just further proves that you are never to old to stop learning.

Since I am not subbing today, I am not really expecting to learn anything new today-unless it comes from the news. Course, the book that I am reading for Lent has provided some pretty thought provoking questions. (Rae Ann, still waiting to start discussions!)

Haven't gotten a wake up call in a week.

I haven't subbed since last Wednesday. I thought for sure with cold and flu season lasting longer this year I would be kept nice and busy. Guess teachers have found ways to stay healthy. Oh well, hopefully something will come soon.
I have been keeping busy applying for a few jobs. 2 in Kimberly and 1 for the new school they are building in DePere. I already got a no from Kimberly for one of them, but I am still hoping. The jobs are starting to show up more now that contracts are coming out.

For anyone wondering, we ended up driving to Watertown on Friday night. Not the best drive I have every had, but we made it in one piece without landing in the ditch. It took us about an hour longer to get there then normal, which was actually quicker then I was expecting. The main highway was not too bad, but the country roads had major drifting. Especially as we got closer to my parents. By the time we pulled in, the back of my car was buried in snow and the underside was also caked in snow. It is days like that where i am glad that I own an SUV, even if it does not have 4 wheel drive. I am not sure we would have done so well in a car.

Well, I am off to do some more applications.

To Go or Not To Go...

that is the question. It is snowing now and we are supposed to have 2-4 inches by the time it is done. 1-800-ROAD-WIS says all the roads are snow covered and slippery. The sun is out right now and I am sure there are at least plow trucks on 41. The only problem is after 41 I still have about an hour drive on 2 lane dark roads. I really want to go to Watertown just to get away from everything here for a weekend, but I don't want to end up in a ditch. I guess I will wait to see as the day goes on and call the roads again later and see how they are. Who knows, maybe the snow will stop sooner then they expect and the roads will all get cleared up. If things get too bad, guess we could always leave early tomorrow morning and drive at least in the day light. Too bad Brian works until 5:45 tonight.

Speaking of work, they didn't cancel Sylvan last night, but they might as well have. I didn't have to be there until 5, but called at 4 to make sure they were still having classes. they said they were, so I made the trek in. 2 minutes from Sylvan, my cell phone rings. they are asking me if I am on the road yet. Hmmm, 10 minutes before I am supposed to be there and I live 20 minutes away in good weather-YES I AM ON MY WAY. So she said okay, come on by and we will figure something out. I got there, ended up teaching no students at the 5 class, but got everything pulled that they need for Saturdays classes. 6:00 class, there were 2 students that hadn't called in by 5:45 and there were 2 teachers. Would be a slow night. At a little after 6, one of the students called in. So, we were all heading home at 6:15 and the director would teach the other student if she showed up. I busted my butt to get to Sylvan and will only be getting paid for 1 hour of my 2 hour scheduled shift. They didn't close because of the hassle it would have been to schedule make ups for all the kids in the schedule that night. Well, now they have to schedule make ups for all those kids anyway-except for the 4 that showed up for the 4-6 class. Snow has a way of screwing everything up. GRRRRRR-I hate snow!!!!!

And March Comes In Like A Lion

We are getting our second major snowstorm this week, and it promises to be worse then the one from the weekend. "Edward" is going to be dropping about the same amount of snow as "Danielle", but it will also be bringing sleet and freezing rain. Wonderful news for all people without a snow blower. Course, I am not sure how well a snow blower would work with really wet snow. Many schools are closed today, with many more closing by 1pm. We are supposed to get the brunt of everything tonight, and I am hoping they are right. We are hoping to drive to Watertown tomorrow night to visit my parents and I really don't want to do the 2 lane country roads if it is snowing/sleeting/raining. And according to the radar, the precipitation will be changing depending on the part of the state you are in. Gotta love this wonderful winter weather. I guess I shouldn't complain, I mean we had to know that we were going to get hit hard with the way winter started out so mild.
So, now I sit here, watching the snow, waiting to see if Sylvan will be cancelled for tonight as well. I am assuming they will, since most area schools are closing early, but you never know. And I am sure that schools will be closed tomorrow, so no subbing there either. Luckily I got a little bit of subbing in yesterday afternoon.

The rest of my life

I know that I haven't written in a while. That is for 2 reasons. 1. I subbed on Thursday and Friday last week and didn't feel like sitting on the computer when I got home. 2. I have been battling a cold since Friday, which kept me off the computer since then too. I am feeling a little bit better, but still have a stuffy nose and cough(not a very productive one either)
So, my Lenten goal has not been off to a good start. With subbing and this cold I haven't fit it in. I was recommended a book, that I am going to dry to find and hopefully that will help (thanks Rae Ann)
When will the snow stop? We got about a foot here, and there is more on its way for sure on Thursday. I wouldn't mind it so much if we had a snow blower, but we have to shovel the heavy wet snow(actually, Brian had to shovel this weekend since i was sick). Hopefully we are getting one soon. Mom said that Dad wants a new one and he will probably give us his old one. Luckily we have nice neighbors who snow blow our driveway for us, but it would be nice to return the favor.
OK, I think you are filled in. Sad that it only took a few sentences, but what can I say.