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Mar. 7th, 2011 @ 07:08 pm It's Been A Long Time!
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: anxiousanxious
So I just realized how long it has been since I have posted. My gosh, so much has happened!

For the last three months of the last school year I got a position as a long term sub. It was so nice to have three full months of full time work as a teacher!

This year I have a part time job as a literacy coach through the end of the year. Not sure what I will do next year, but I am hoping I will find something in the area of teaching. A classroom would be ideal! The principal next year will be different, so I have no idea if I will be rehired as a literacy coach.

On the bright side, my sweetie and I are working down our debt, have awesome roommates and we are both done with school. YEAH! I am learning a ton in my position with all the training I go to and the time I spend researching the training I facilitate for the other teachers.

My massage office is in flux as well. Appointments are down, and I am looking into how to do my own insurance billing. It has been really stressful, and I don't know how it will all work out, but we shall survive.

I don't like uncertainty, but luckily we have been doing things to help us weather such storms more easily (financially speaking anyway). Here is to hoping that some more rays of sunshine come soon :)
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shy
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Dec. 19th, 2009 @ 11:21 pm WARNING: This is mainly a long winded rant!
Current Mood: infuriatedinfuriated
Well, a lot of crap has happened this week. It will take some background info to understand, so here goes:

First the simple and most depressing event - the district needs to cut over $7 million from it's budget for next year, so there will be NO jobs available. All my hard work and building of connections in the district during my time in an underpaid low position...worthless. It's like the Reynolds budget cuts all over again.

I work as a kindergarten assistant in Title I (reading support) at David Douglas in the kindergarten center. The contract classified employees work under (which includes assistants) does not apply to "temp" employees. Since they never know FOR SURE how many kinders they will have, and assistants are only hired if there are enough kinders to warrant assistants, all kinder assistants are considered "temp" employees. Even people that have worked for the district for over 10 years are still considered "temp."

So since we are "temp" employees and are not covered in the contract, we don't have to be paid as much and we get NO BENEFITS. A suit was brought against the district last year about this and after a couple appeals, our OSEA finally won. Now all "classroom kindergarten assistants" will be included in the contract as of Jan 1, 2010. Yeah! Oh but wait, since all our students at the kindergarten center are...well...kindergarten, all Title I and ELL assistants are kindergarten assistants too. But we are not "classroom kindergarten assistants." Therefore I will NOT be getting the $2 raise and will NOT be getting any benefits.

It is a district contract, so it is not like I can talk with the principal about it. I doubt anyone is going to make a big contract issue out of the 5 or so of us that it affects when it needs to be addressed at the district level.

So here I am, a certified teacher for 5 years, a reading specialist, under employed in an assistant position, one credit from a Masters of Education degree. Meanwhile, the 19 year old assistant down the hall with no college credit, will be getting paid more and start receiving benefits. GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! I can not tell you how frustrating this is. I am not mad at anyone in particular. I don't know who I would blame for such a stupid situation. I am certainly NOT mad at the other assistants or the principal. It is great that the assistants got things they really deserve for the job they are doing.

It has been a couple very bitter pills to swallow this week, and I am still angry at the situation in general. Hard work just does not seem to be paying off in this field.
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pissed off
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Nov. 23rd, 2009 @ 08:05 pm Back to Normal
Current Mood: busybusy
Got my car back after about two weeks. It's nice to be mobile again. I am slowly saving for a new car. I figure I might have enough in a year or two to pay for most of it...if I get a cheep one.

We are making plans for the holiday coming up. Looks like deviled eggs all around. We will be going out to see Mike's family before heading over to eat at mine. I look forward to the good company of both my families. It shouldn't be long before we get a tree to put up. Ahhh...I love the smell of fresh pine! Some major rearranging will have to be done before there is room for one. Having two more people in the house makes the living room a bit more cramped.

The school year has been such a whirl-wind. It will be nice to relax over the weekend. I am trying to get some homework done in between everything. The quiet weekend should be good for that.

In other important news, New Moon came out this week. It was awesome! I already got to see it twice. Once the night it came out and then again Sunday afternoon with the hubby. It is definitely worth paying for in the theater, and I will be buying it once the DVD is out. It is just a really fun set of books, and they didn't make a train wreck out of this movie (unlike the first one). We only have to wait till June for the next segment. I wonder when they are planning to wrap it up with the fourth movie. Hmmm...
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shy
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Oct. 11th, 2009 @ 07:17 pm Life in Second Gear
Current Mood: annoyedannoyed
So the shift cable on my car broke yesterday when Mike was driving us over to Admiral Dave's house for games. Luckily we were only a little ways from home when it happened and one of the roomies came down to help out. We figured out it was still in second gear when the cable broke, so we could still get it going from a stop and drive it up to about 35 mph or so. That allowed us to get it back home and even up the hill. I almost contemplated using for a day or two like that while we tracked down the parts to fix it (dealer parts only of course), but then I realized that reverse was kind of useful for getting out of parking spaces and at other times too. So Mike and I are down to one car for at least a few days. *sigh*

In other interesting news we fed the last of the crickets to my venus fly trap so it could digest them before it goes dorment for the winter (some time around Oct. the web sites say). Mike and I went to a house party last night that was a lot of fun. The best part was the huge trampoline out back. I am rather surprised no one got hurt with a tapped keg hanging around all those people, but it was all in good fun. Life is moving at full speed, even if my car is stuck in second. It is time to start the rat race of another week.
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shy
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Oct. 9th, 2009 @ 12:24 pm Work and Study and Veg
Current Mood: awakeawake
That's about all I have been up to. Working almost full time at school between my reading instruction and my grad project managing volunteers. I have been working at the office most days and still keeping up with three tutor kids. That doesn't leave much time, but I do try to keep up a little fun.

Last Sunday, one of the roomies and I went to Oaks Park for their last day open. We rode all the rides that probably would have made our guys get sick, for almost 5 hours! We wrapped it up with about 20 minutes in the roller rink, since it was free with our ride bracelet. Mike and I have found time to watch the first couple episodes of Doll House and we watched through the first season of True Blood (borrowed from our roommates).

Not much time for anything else, but I am REALLY looking forward to being done with graduate school this spring!!!
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shy
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Sep. 26th, 2009 @ 06:41 pm Summer Adventures
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
Well, it has been a long and busy summer. Haven’t taken the time to write much. Lets just say that I have spent my energy getting closer to a graduate degree, working hard to earn enough money to keep our house while we are both in school, and dealing with the social fall out of being a grumpy work-aholic. I am happy to say I will be graduated by May, I am current on my bills, still married and still sane :) Well, as sane as I ever was.

This school year promises to be just as crazy busy as any other. I have gotten out to have some fun though. A couple weeks ago I took my big summer vacation. Yes it was grand! I had a full 36 hours free from work and homework! What illustrious destination did I saunter off to? FORKS, WA!

What you have never heard of it? Well, yes, it is not exactly at the top of the tourist destination list. But for those crazed fans of the Twilight books, Forks WA is a coveted destination. This tiny little town of just over 3000 people is where the Twilight stories take place. As I am a fan of the books and a couple of my friends are absolute Twilight nuts, we planned a short road trip up when we heard the town and surrounding areas were having a Twilight celebration. There ended up being just two of us due to illness, but it was still fun.



So off we went around the Olympic Peninsula to visit different places featured in the books. We attended the Bella Ball in Port Angeles with a bunch of high drama teens (very entertaining), and walked by Bella Itallia where (Bella and Edward had their first date).






We made it into Forks around…oh…maybe midnight. We went on out to La Push Indian Reservation, but couldn’t find our way to First Beach (also featured in the book). After driving around for a while we settled for Second Beach, since Third Beach just sounded too lame. Everything in the back was shoved into the front seats and we rolled out the sleeping bags around 2AM.





Five hours of sleep and a few muscle kinks later we were up again. They were not kidding about the weather in forks. 90 in Portland, cloudy and 65 in Forks. The sun did peak out a few times.

We visited Bella's House, Dr, Cullens' parking spot at the hospital, ate free birthday cake to celebrate Bella's Birthday, finally found first beach, and ate at the super dive Forks Diner. The chamber had a rain meter at almost six feet for the year and this...

"Population 3175, Vampires 8.5"

The Dazzled By Twilight store was awesome. It looked like a forest inside complete with a carpet that almost looked like real grass! A reporter from the London Times took my picture when he saw me posing for the second picture below. He talked with us for a few minutes, but I doubt anything came of it. He never e-mailed.



The trip was a lot of fun as short and low key as it was. It was nice to get away from everything and everyone in the town was so friendly!






As for the rest of the summer, we went to the state fair, spent a few evenings at Edgefield listening to the outside concerts (didn't buy tickets so we couldn't see anything, but the music was clear as a bell), went to tea with my mom and got two awesome roommates in our house. We love Loni and Cody. They are an fun couple to live with :)

Don't know when I will write next, but hopefully it will be sooner.
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amused
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Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 09:14 pm Too Much Going On
Current Mood: distresseddistressed
Things have just been too crazy lately. Trying to keep everything on track is been pretty challenging...ok, um...so really, it just hasn't been happening. The research class I am taking is putting me under water actually. My papers are about two weeks behind and the end of the class is next week. Looks like I will be taking an incomplete and will continue to work on it through the summer. Damn! I was really looking forward to some school free summer. But it's what must be done.

Aside from that I have had scattered appointments at the office and seven tutor kids that keep me pretty busy. It is not always easy to plan for kids ranging from kindergarten to middle school!

My HOA stuff is in full swing. We are trying to decide how to proceed with the money we got from the first half of the litigation. It looks like it will not be quite enough to cover the expenses, so we are having to spend a lot of time looking at options and making hard decisions.

On a more personal and fun note, we ventured out to see Harry Potter last night. It was quite the zoo! The line went all the way around the front of the theater, down the side, around the back, along the other side and back out front. Do you realize how large the theater building is? Do you realize how many people that includes? Luckily we had friends with us to help us through the two hour wait to get into the theater (the tickets were purchased the day before). The movie was awesome!!! Almost three hours long, but awesome. They really do a good job with these movies. True, it is not the same as the book, but they really get the essence of the main plot and don't change things around like many other book-to-movie adaptions. I highly recommend it :)

We had a good scare last week with some medical stuff. It has all worked out now, everything back to normal and no long term effects will be seen, except for the bill we have to pay :P

Lots of other stuff going on too, but this is about all I have the time and energy for today. Maybe I will post again in less than a month. Who knows, anything can happen :)
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rushed
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Jun. 10th, 2009 @ 10:18 am Lots of Change
Current Mood: excitedexcited
Well, it has been an eventful two weeks...or has it been three weeks...anyway, lots of stuff going on. My sweetie will be staying home for the summer - Woo Hoo!! - but still does not have a job :(

We have a roommate now, but I am not sure if that will last much longer. He is older and seems rather drama intense. Mainly we can't walk by him without him trying to talk at us for a half an hour.

I had two job interviews this week. The first was for a day care center and the second was for a Title I teaching position. Both went well, but I am waiting to hear back. Past experience has told me not to get my hopes up too high. I feel I have a fighting chance at the teaching position, but I had to answer two pages of questions on the fly. I hope I didn't make a bunch of spelling errors that will immediately disqualify me from consideration.

Last week was packed as I worked every day at school. The extra time on my pay check will make it easier to get through the summer. This weekend was taken up with interview prep and meeting new tutor students. Looks like I may have 4-7 students that I will be tutoring once a week or more.

My car is acting up. A strange noise coming from the alternator. Wish I had kept the receipt for it. It just got replaced last summer I think, but the warranty probably isn't good without the receipt. I have a receipt for every oil change I have ever gotten, but the one for the expensive alternator is nowhere to be found. Sheesh, I really need to get more organized. So for all of you out there who wonder how I can "do it all." This is one of those times that shows how there are eggs in my juggling act that get dropped. Hopefully I can find some time to get it fixed this week.

Oh yeah, and the Corbett Engineer is getting married to the lady engineer a week from Saturday, but they never got around to sending out invitations. Guess I will have to check my work schedule and maybe rearrange a few things. He says that there will be no actual wedding to see. Just a reception for about four hours, so I guess they felt they didn't need to do formal things like actual invitations. I think it is kind of cute really. Each person makes their wedding experience their own, in ways that fit their life.

School is now out and I am a free woman! Well except for that research class I start on Monday. Yeah, no big deal, just a research proposal to write of about 40 pages or so...I guess my summer won't really start for another five weeks.
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hyper
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May. 22nd, 2009 @ 09:43 am Lonely Summer
Current Mood: gloomygloomy
So my sweetie will be leaving in about four weeks to go to Alaska. Time feels very short and I am trying to figure out what I will be doing this summer. No, I am not running away to Alaska for the summer too. Maybe keeping up a steady work pace this summer would help. None of the summer school jobs have come through, so I will start posting on Craig's list again for summer tutoring.

*sigh*

I am pretty sure I will be ok. We did date for a year and a half long distance. I also got to work with a lady last year that was away from her husband too. She attended acupuncture school here in Oregon for three years while her husband stayed in Michigan. Then of course I could think about all the married military people. At least my husband will not be in the middle of a war. He won't even be on a fishing boat :)

It's going to be a long lonely summer. Our friends across the street have promised to keep me company, encouraging me to come over often. With three couples living there, someone is almost always home. The summer sunshine should help keep my spirits up too. So I will savor the time with my sweetie for the next four weeks. Velcro girl returns!!!
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shy
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May. 19th, 2009 @ 10:12 pm Exporting . . . my husband?
Current Mood: hopefulhopeful
With job prospects looking more and more bleak all around, my sweetie decided to try something a little out of the box. His classes end in about three weeks, so we thought he could contact the brewery in Alaska to see if they might have some summer work for him. (Yes, I realize Alaska is still inside our country and therefore not technically a place to "export" to.)

They will discuss it in their next meeting, which was today, and get back to us when they figure out if there would be enough work to justify hiring him as a temp for the summer. So it is more of the waiting game for us. Till we find out, it is business as usual.

I will really miss him if this does work out to be a good job opportunity, though he has mentioned that I could visit during the annual company party again. For his part, he would like to go for the mild summer weather and to see friends and family again there. Oh yeah, and if he can get pretty good pay, he could afford a new computer.

So, like so many things in life, we shall have to wait and see.
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shy
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