Oh my goodness... I think I'm starting to like this.

I've got to share this realization.  I posted recently about some of the positive things that have happened with this long-term sub job, but today something bigger than those incidents hit me.  At the very end of the day, after the kids were gone, after a faculty meeting... I was back in my room getting organized and such when I walked over to my dry erase board to change our "Days of School Left" countdown. As I was erasing the number and getting ready to write the new one, I actually had the thought and feeling that I was going to miss these kids.  Then I did this... "wait, what?!"  I surprised myself. I honestly had the thought and feeling of realizing that I will miss these kids -at least a little.

Today wasn't even awesome for me to have felt this way.  We had moments where I was ready to smash something and could almost just have started laughing from the chaos that refused to settle down. There are only so many times you can yell "I'm waiting!" or "So-and-So, sit down!" before it's almost laughable. Fortunately I don't laugh -usually. Today, however, I did. My seriously ADHD girl did not take her medicine... and was off the walls alllllll day long. At the end of the day -I do NOT know where she kept getting glue bottles from. For the life of me. Earlier in the day I got fed up and picked them all up and put them up high. I do not know where she kept getting them. She wanted it to be art class all day. I took an uncountable number of glue bottles, scissors, and paper away from her from 8 this morning until 3 this afternoon. During a reading lesson this afternoon, the class was fairly focused and we were talking about poetry... I was in the middle of reading a fun poem to the class, when I look up and see this girl with a pair of paper cut-out sunglasses TAPED to her forehead and eyes. I was beyond frustrated with her -but even so... the girl sitting next to her is an excellent student who focuses and pays attention, and when I saw that she was struggling to focus and not laugh, I started cracking up myself. All day long. Where did she keep finding glue to use?! How on earth is she able to continue making these things when I keep taking EVERYTHING away from her?! The paper sunglasses taped to her face just did me in -and I laughed out loud. It was both infuriating and entertaining. Something can be both at once, right?

Also today, three boys in my room who have all been extremely talkative, reluctant to follow directions (that's putting it nicely), disrespectful, among numerous other things... all had an AWESOME afternoon. They were working so hard to be on task, quiet, in their seats, and following directions. It made me very proud and excited to see them doing so well.  After the bell as we were walking to the car-riders section, one of these boys said something that made me extremely happy. He told me he knew he had been having bad behavior -and he actually said "I kinda think I regret my behavior."  And he was genuine and had an apologetic tone and told me he wanted to do better from now on. It was a great walk with him talking about his behavior from our room to the front of the building.

This week we've also started talking about poetry -and I love poetry and I told the kids that. I think it made them more excited about it too. They listen and enjoy hearing me read them fun poems and today I heard some of them say "I like poetry" and "poetry is fun!"  Seriously. Isn't that awesome?!

I came home in a good mood today. And I'm actually -get this- excited for tomorrow!  I'm excited to see (hopefully) these three boys have another good day. I'm excited to continue talking about poetry. And I'm excited for our Social Studies project tomorrow afternoon. The kids made products to "sell" to each other and the last two days they've made signs/posters in class to advertise their product. It'll be our whole afternoon with the other 3rd grade classes, selling to each other and taking turns buying. It might be chaotic... but it should be fun as well!


8 days left!
 

Bittersweet... 13 days and counting!

I've had an "End of the School Year" countdown on my dry-erase board for a couple of weeks now... and I think I'm more excited about it than the kids!  As exciting as it is to be approaching the end of the school year, it is really bittersweet... and the bitterness is starting to grow as I become aware of how quickly everything is approaching!  I know you all know the definition of bittersweet -but let me break it down for you with our situation.  While I am super glad (and I hope it's okay to feel a little be accomplished) to almost have finished out the school year in this long-term sub position, I am also getting more and more nervous and stressed because at the same time, that means I'm about to be unemployed!  And I can't be unemployed.  I need a job for after June 2nd -well ASAP.  And I am so confused about what to do.  Teaching sounds unlikely to be hired but that is what I'm qualified for and all my experience is in.  I have mentioned applying for jobs with Child Protective Services, which I still am, but haven't heard anything again... and so I am not counting on anything.  And now that leaves me with no idea of what to do!  I have no clue (aside from teaching) what I am qualified to do... or what I would like to do.  At this point honestly I'd take almost any job if something was offered.  Ideally I'd hope to find something that can support us financially and that I can enjoy and be successful at.  I just have no idea what that might be!  Just randomly looking around I have applied for several various jobs that I've been interested in and feel like I'd be qualified for and could do well.  I am trusting that God has something out there for me and that He will provide for us.  I'm just not good at this waiting and not knowing time!  If anyone out there has heard of anything, knows anyone or anything, or has any general suggestions for a job/career I could look into outside of teaching, please let me know! I'm open to most suggestions and any and all help/advise would be welcome : )  Just throwing that out there!

You just got TOLD by a teacher!

I want to take this opportunity (of me being in a good mood) to write some of the positive things to note about this long-term sub position.  Surprisingly I have been in an excellent mood today... in spite of it not being a great day.  While I have mostly had feelings of ... oh my gosh, seriously? Followed by... God help me, I want to run away and quit...There have also been some enjoyable moments -such as these:

Today, one of my seriously ADHD kids took her medicine at home, came up to me this morning, smiled, and said "Mrs. Henderson, I took my medicine today! I'm going to have a good day!"  And she did!  She was on task, focused, working hard, and following directions all day and it made me happy for her (and my sanity).  Also at the end of the day... because no matter WHAT ON EARTH I TRY, my room looks like a tornado hit, this same girl ran back into our classroom and started picking up papers off the floor and said "Mrs. Henderson, I want to clean up so you can go home and have time with your family today."  And it was sweet in how genuine she was being in wanting to help me out. Unfortunately we were late (like always) for dismissal... so I did spend forever cleaning up my room... but it was super sweet how she wanted to help and I loved what she said.

On these positive notes... last Friday was probably the best day I've had with my class so far!  (At least for the first half of the day... but hey, that's progress!)  The class as a whole was focused, on task, and following directions... SO much so, that guess what? -We had 3 minutes of extra recess! Count them... 1, 2, 3 whole extra minutes of time.  That's a big deal. Seriously. As normally we are late and have a shorter recess due to not following directions, on Friday, we were so on task, we got done with 3 extra minutes, and the kids and I loved it!  That was a wonderful morning : )

Also on Friday... this was later in the day (not during our awesome time) when I was beyond frustrated and they would not stop talking, moving, or doing just whatever they wanted to do. It finally got to the point where the class was starting to quiet and settle down... then someone would say something... then they'd settle down -then someone would say something... I think you get picture of the endless cycle. Well within all that, one girl made some comment -and another girl quickly replied back "Hush up, you old lady you!"  And oh my goodness. I immediately lost my serious, straight face.  It was just too much.  I started laughing and couldn't stop.  The way the girl said it and the timing was just... priceless.  In the middle of a super frustrating time trying to manage the class, she said this totally unexpected, random comment... and I couldn't stop laughing.  Of course then the kids started laughing as well and one of them says, "Finally!  Mrs. Henderson you're having fun at school!"  -And that comment made me realize I need to try and have some fun with them and be a little more lighthearted occasionally.  I mean really.  Sometimes it's hard to remember they're just kids when they are so disrespectful, disobedient, and manipulative... but when you see them running around at recess pretending to be birds and dinosaurs and such, it reminds me they are still just little kids.

My last positive comment to mention that is something small that I love... the title of this post.  I guess this is their current kid saying.  "You just got TOLD by a teacher!"  It's the best!  I try to hide my smile every time I hear it.  This saying comes around when some student is not following directions and usually talking back, then I make a comment back to them... I guess putting them in their place and/or catching them up in something they said... and then another student goes "Ooh!  You just got TOLD by a teacher!"  And the problem kid quiets down because... I won.  Lol... that is something small that I truly love.

So all this to say there are some things I really am enjoying about this teaching experience!  There are still a majority of moments that I do want to tell them 'adios' and literally walk out the door to never see them again lol... but sometimes I remember they are kids and we are able to have fun together, and it makes it a wonderful and enjoyable day.  Only 17 more school days left! Whoop!  Hopefully we'll have more of these positive days than negative ones to wrap up my time with these kiddos.

Life Goes On

I know that's kinda silly to state... but just lately that's how I've been feeling... life goes on.... it just keeps going and going and we always seem busy and always seem stressed and always seem to not be able to just relax and have time to be together. Any one else feel that way? I'm not totally complaining because this long-term sub job is exactly what I and we needed. I needed a consistent job I get up and go to daily and we needed the paycheck. God provided this exactly when we really needed it. Now it's just... we're both constantly busy with work! I guess that happens. Life just keeps going one day at a time... busy, busy, busy. It's weird feeling like I miss my husband in the middle of the week!

Anyways. So a little general up-date on life. I've been at the long-term sub position 2 months now, and we have the TAKS test next week!  I'm assuming there will be less stress for the remainder of the school year after the TAKS is over. Maybe I'm wrong... guess we'll see.  It's still difficult.  I feel like an awful person for wanting to punch some of these kids.  I'm honestly really torn about whether I just am not good at this, or if it would be different if I was officially a hired teacher and had started the year from day 1 with my own classroom. I don't know. All I know is it's difficult and I don't know how I'm handling it. Not well I'm assuming because it's not really getting better. ...Only something like 28 or 30 days left?! -Right? I think that's the last number I heard from a friend who's counting down.

Cody is taking the GRE on May 2nd!  He's been looking at study material online every now and then and he is pretty confident (you know with his genius math brain and all) for the math portion, it's just the verbal/writing section that makes him nervous. I know he will do awesome though!  He's a smarty!  So feel free to lift up some prayers for him to do his best on that test.

On a different note... I have been applying (actually since before I got this long-term sub position) for jobs with the Department of Family and Protective Services, specifically CPS.  And actually I was moved onto the next step and did about 8 hours of online assessments over a 3 day period a few weeks ago... and then got a call for an interview! Which I was extremely excited about... however I got the voicemail and the interview was for the very next day at 2:00, and I replied I couldn't make it without more notice, and then I guess I lost my chance at that position. I was really disappointed, but I guess that one wasn't meant to work out. I have recently applied for a new posted position -for the same thing, same title, so I know I am qualified, and I am hoping and praying to get another call. I told Cody, no matter when they say the interview is for... I'm not asking for a different time again; I'll be there!  So that's something I've been interested in and looking into a lot lately. I have no idea if anything will work out with it or not... I am trusting that God will provide a job, I just don't know if this is it or not.  I am kinda hoping to get a call though. We'll see.  Just wanted to share since this is something I've been looking into now for several months and am still excited about.

That's about it!  Callie is her usual pain in the butt.  Sometimes I wonder why we got her!  (Please don't judge me... she's big and often hurts me a lot!)  I told Cody just the other day that it actually just recently hit me that she is like a 10+ year commitment!  Somehow I hadn't realized that.  She's ours and we're stuck with her. Cody loves her to death. She bothers the heck outta me though!  Anyways... on that note, I've gotta take her out!

Catch-Up: Post 1

Here is finally a start to getting caught up in blog world!  Because I tend to ramble and it's already a lot to catch-up... I'm splitting this into 2 posts, with the second one being about spring break.  So this one is kinda just general other stuff.

We've enjoyed going to a couple Spurs games lately!  I think it was last year when I honestly started enjoying watching the Spurs play and Cody was (and still is) thrilled.  I actually love going to games with him and I genuinely root and cheer for the Spurs to win.  I think I've mentioned before that I kind of 'heart' Tony Parker... however, I will admit I've lately been growing more and more fond of the Spurs as a whole team... Tony is now NOT the only one I cheer for.

Spurs game!  Yay for nights out with my loves!

Since I've started this long-term sub position we've been feeling awful for poor Callie!  We knew as soon as I either got a long-term sub job or any other full-time job that this would happen... but we just feel so bad that she is literally in her crate all day!  She's pretty much locked up from 7-5:30 and often 6 when Cody gets home and then I've been getting home between 6 and 7 usually.  I also feel bad for Cody because he is doing almost everything with Callie! He has been amazing with taking her out in the morning since I get up and leave earlier than he does... and then also taking her out and on a nice looong walk when he gets home!  He loves our dog though... that is for sure.  Sometimes I think he loves her more than me! -Okay, obviously not really. But often he plays with her in place of cuddling with me... and sometimes I definitely get jealous!  She steals my Cody time and Cody often enjoys joking that now he has two ladies that fight over him lol.  It's funny... most of the time!

My loves with Callie.  He loves her to death!

Cody is still teaching away... I guess this is now the home-stretch for the year after passing Spring Break.  I think it's 9 weeks left now after tomorrow is over.  At the elementary school with my sub job, I'm finishing up my fourth week teaching there.  There are occasional moments where I smile at something cute one of the kids has done, or when we are having such a great day and it is encouraging.  Honestly though, most of the time I am sooo frustrated and upset.  The overall class is fine, but the certain individuals who are difficult are SOO difficult... they ruin it for the rest of the class, and honestly I find myself standing there wanting to pull my hair out almost on a daily basis... and often multiple times throughout the day.  However, this is what we've been praying for ... for quite a while now, so I am definitely thankful for the job!  I just keep expecting things to get better in the classroom and they're not... honestly a lot of it is getting worse, and I don't think that's a good sign!  Just sharing and venting... I can do that, right?

My desk area... that is constantly losing things due to students using my items without permission and then losing/keeping them. Seriously. I have no pens left.

Our Recess Count... I set a timer and wait, and they lose that recess time. It's one of the only things I've found that they care about.

... I showed some pictures before of how incredibly messy they leave at the end of the day... it's getting better! Some days it's still awful... but not as awful as those first weeks! (If you're thinking... this picture isn't messy at all... that's because I had finished cleaning up myself before taking it!)

I think that's about it for this Catch-Up Post #1!  Next up will be all about Spring Break!  We were buuuusy!  It was all great though.  Wonderful time off together!

Oh one more thing... this is kinda gross, but also humorous to me... so I'm sharing. Callie decided it'd be fun to pee on our bed this week.  Right before we were getting in bed.  Oh and the mattress pad was off because she had peed in our bed EARLIER this week as well.  So. This is how we are still sleeping due to the pee incident... at this point it's because we're super lazy and haven't remade the bed... but still:

Sleeping bags on our bed.  Avoiding the pee spot at the end (on my side) of course.  Just FYI -it is practically impossible to cuddle in bed when both of us are in sleeping bags!  I am not a fan.  I want our normal bed back!  Someone wanna come help us make it lol?!

PS -Happy birthday to my brother, Ryan!  He turned 22 yesterday!  Love you! And congrats on Pharmacy school... whichever one you end up at!
  

Long-Term Sub Position!

Hello All.  So my update is as follows... last Monday I started at an elementary school in NEISD as a long-term sub to finish out the year in a 3rd grade classroom.  I'm not technically hired as a full-time teacher but am pretty much the teacher for the rest of the year.  Granted I am receiving a TON of help.  3 subject facilitators are coming in to do most of the lessons right now but it sounds like they will start dwindling off and letting me take over through this week and next.  However as of right now... just getting the kids through the day... is difficult enough!  So I am very grateful for all the help and support I'm receiving from everyone at the school.

Rules/Expectations

I have had a few moments already where I thought "Oh my gosh, I can't do this." -Quickly followed by, "I must be awful at this." -And then, "Maybe I don't want to be (and/or shouldn't be) a teacher."  However... I'm hoping it'll get better and the kids will start to follow our new rules and expectations!  But seriously.  They are CRAZY. -and NOT cute crazy.  Crazy as in... I stand there and just want to pull out my hair and don't know what else to do.  And for now it's complete chaos in the room.  Like I said, we're still trying to just make it through the day!  Hopefully sooner than later we can actually have significant time during the day where we -you know, learn something!

On top of everything else, they leave behind the MESSIEST classroom I have ever seen!  Today I asked the custodians to leave it... and tomorrow morning we (they) are cleaning!

It's amazing what they manage to hide and play with throughout the day... and once I finally catch them with something it goes in my lovely "Confiscated!" basket.

Anyways.  That's my latest update!  Just wanted to share and fill everyone in.  I have no clue if this may lead to a hired position for next year... I know the school already has made comments about cuts and such, but in any case, it's a big step closer than I have been.  Thank you everyone for prayers for a job... and please continue to do so for this long-term position to improve!

List of privileges as a reward for the group that earns the most marbles along with our class Treasure Chest they can choose to pick out of.

Our Classroom Jobs chart.  I still haven't found somewhere in the room that I like to display this!

No More Kindergarten

So I've started subbing again  -or I guess you'd say finally started for this year after everything last semester.  I haven't done a lot yet but I am already ready to be done with my time in a kindergarten classroom!  I've only subbed 2 half days in 5th grade and this week I've had 1 half day in Kinder and today was a full day and tomorrow as well in Kinder.  And that'll be enough for me!  Wednesday's half day went A W F U L.  --Don't tell that teacher or the school's principal... I still want them to like me. But seriously, it was horrible. I wanted to cry. Two kids did cry.  I'm embarrassed to admit all the things that happened during my whopping 3 hours there -1 hour of which the kids were in Specials... so everything bad that happened managed to happen during 2 hours that I was there with the kids.  We had boys trying to pencil fight (2 kids got stabbed and required band-aids and consoling).  A boy got stuck in the bathroom.  A girl simply would NOT stop talking to me... she tried to tell me about every single one of her relatives and their pets... she would not sit down to work and would not stop telling me her life story.  We had kids spill pencil sharpenings all over the floor.  Oh AND we had a mom come in for her daughter's birthday to hand out ice cream sandwiches... and so she witnessed the chaos.  I'm sure it will get back to the teacher after all.  She was nice about it and said she could never handle a Kindergarten classroom... but seriously, she had to walk away thinking 'wow.'  -Not in a good way.  I mean that's how I walked away from the day.  Anyways!  Today was much better than that first Kinder class.  Tomorrow I go back to the same classroom for another full day.  They were still difficult but not nearly as bad as Wednesday's half day class.  So that's it.  I wanted to vent/share.  Please don't judge me -Kinder is the only grade I definitely do NOT prefer.  I just don't know how to properly handle them I guess.  They love stickers!  And will be perfect angels to get one, but as soon as they do, they're back to doing whatever they were before.  And I don't mean to be rude but some of them neeeever seem to shut their tiny mouths!  Ever.  lol.  We'll see how tomorrow goes : )   Hopefully I'll come home with a face like that... but I'm not counting on it!

Nerf Guns & Yahtzee

Well week 2 of school is coming to a close.  Cody is extremely excited for the 3 day weekend!  (I am too; I feel like I haven't seen him all week.)  I think so far (granted this is me judging from how he acts and what he says... not actually being in his head and truly knowing) school is going well for Cody.  There were a couple stressful points this week, but they were dealt with and the small situations improved.  Definitely compared to last year, these two weeks have been good! I know that at least.  It's amazing what just having that first year under your belt does I guess.  While yes he's still working a crazy amount, he's not as constantly stressed or overwhelmed as last year.  He's more confident going into each lesson and each day.  I'm so proud of my husband!  He's doing a wonderful job! -and some of his students have even been telling him that he's a good teacher.  I guess we'll see what week three brings, but for now, it's all going well, and we're both very thankful.

As you can probably guess since I'm writing this new post mid-morning today, I did not get a sub job as I was hoping.  I really hoped that I would today... now that two weeks of school are almost done, and it's a Friday, I thought something would come up. Nope. I did get a call for an afternoon job -but it was bilingual and I had to speak Spanish... and well, I don't.  However, I was slightly encouraged yesterday.  This week a couple days I went out to some schools and put my sub card in lots of teacher mailboxes and then yesterday I compiled lists of teachers from other schools and sent them a brief email introducing myself and saying I'm available as a sub and telling them my qualifications/certifications and such.  I got a call yesterday evening for a sub job next Wednesday from a teacher who read my email; one of the schools is having an in-service day then.  And I got a call later last night, and a call at 6:30 this morning from teachers from the same school asking about the same in-service day.  If only I could sub multiple jobs on the same day!  Oh well.  I was encouraged that I know at least 3 teachers read my email and were willing to use me!  ...I am hoping more than just those three will call eventually lol.  Anyways.  I don't know if that really counts as an update... nothing really new, but that's what's going on with subbing.

Oh, very briefly, a while ago I mentioned I had started working out (haha) and said I hoped sharing it on our blog would keep me motivated to continue... well, it did for about 2 weeks.  And I haven't since.  My 2 week kick was ended during our South Padre trip, and for the sake of honesty and since I did mention it before, I thought I'd just share that, well, it didn't last.  I'm not broken up about it.

-Cooking Experiment: Success or Failure-
While I'm sure this isn't anything new to most people, it was new to me.  This week I made chicken with an Italian Dressing flavoring (thank you to Kari for that idea a while back!).  And it was amazing! -If I do say so myself, actually, Cody said so too!  I didn't cook the chicken in any different way than usual, I just smothered it in Italian Dressing as it cooked, and it turned out awesome. I will absolutely use that to flavor chicken a lot more often.  (I do tend to make chicken a lot.)  This was hands down a success.

I also within the last week made my first double layered round cake (actually I made two back-to-back, but I'm only gonna talk about one, cause the second one didn't get icing).  I know that's probably nothing new or special to most other people as well, but again, it was the first time I'd tried it.  The double layered and round parts were easy enough, however the icing was another story.  First off, I hardly ever make cakes because Cody doesn't really like cake.  Secondly, whenever I do make cake, I don't ice it because he also doesn't like icing.  So.  Needless to say, I'm far from an expert as icing even a regular sheet cake.  This double layered round cake was unexpectedly quite difficult!  Seriously.  I felt ridiculous getting icing everywhere and all over me... I couldn't figure out why it wasn't spreading smoothly as I wanted it to.  I ran out of icing; there were bare patches all over lol.  It was probably the funniest/worst looking cake you'd ever see!  I will say it tasted wonderful though!  Not a show cake by any means, but still delicious.  Unfortunately I'm claiming that as a failure, because I've made cakes before, that was no big deal.  My goal was a pretty and perfect iced double layered round cake... and I failed at making it pretty like I wanted!  That was my main goal with that attempt, and I definitely failed.  I will try again at some point.  I need another birthday for someone who appreciates cake!

Now... to the title of this post.  Recently Cody and I have been on a game kick again.  We go through phases of finding a game we like, playing it every chance we get, and then burning ourselves out on it and not wanting to play that again for a year.  But for now we're still in the 'play every chance we get' phase.  And yes, believe it or not, we're playing Yahtzee!  Also Ultimate Yahtzee, which I'd never heard of before.  It does make the game much more strategic and exciting.  I will also say, the dice absolutely like me better than Cody.  I posted on Facebook a while back that I finally found something I'm better at than him! Sadly it's just a non-skill board game!  We're having lots of fun with it though.  It was a random purchase one day that I forced Cody to go with me to HEB.  Of course it was him, not me, that saw it and grabbed it to add to our mass game collection.  But we are enjoying it a lot, so I'm not really complaining about the impulse buy.

And now to the Nerf guns, which is probably way more exciting to read about than Yahtzee!  This was something we did A LOT last summer, and played again for the first time in a long time this week.  Hopefully (I have a feeling we will) we will start to play this again more often.  So, last summer we bought two Nerf guns at Target, and we said it was the best buy all summer that we made!  Anyways.  Our Nerf gun fights have several varieties of style that we go through.  We do duals, ranging from a full barrel of bullets to just one.  We do minimal forts... where we have only a chair and toss pillow as protection.  And we do fortified forts, which includes the basic chair and pillow, but then adds a bar stool, more pillows, possibly the bench and some couch cushions, and various other things we find and add to our barricades.  Let me tell you, we highly recommend this activity if you your spouse (or just friend I guess) are bored and either happen to have Nerf guns, or have like $10 to go buy some.  After building our forts we proceed to count off and start our fight.  The first person to successfully shoot and hit the other one 5 times wins.  A head (we don't aim for the face though it still accidentally happens) shot counts as 2 hits.  Our rules are that you don't have to stay behind your fort, if you want to charge the other person's fort you can... it's just very risky.  Unless they happen to be out of bullets, and you know it, which then makes it an easy and swift victory.  Anyways!  That's something we really enjoy and have recently rediscovered!  Again, we highly recommend it to other couples who find themselves bored mid-afternoon or are just looking for something fun to do together.  Seriously.  It's way fun.  You should go buy Nerf guns and try it out.

I guess that's it!  I'm off to go eat breakfast/lunch and start being productive for the day.  Thanks for reading!

And thus, school begins again

Week 1 of school: check!  Second Monday of school: check!  Who's already looking forward to the long Labor Day weekend? -My husband is.  (I'm sure along with most other teachers.)

So Cody's starting year two of teaching, and I think his first week went pretty well.  Thank you Lord : )   He did start to get exhausted and stressed towards the end of the week and over the weekend, I guess as to be expected.  This year he has 3 preps instead of 2.  He's teaching (I think I've already shared this with yall... but oh well) regular Geometry, Pre-AP Geometry, and Pre-AP Algebra II.  He has some students again from last year... not repeats, just they had him for Algebra I and now for Geometry.  He doesn't feel as prepared for this second week as the first week.  I'm hoping and praying that he'll be able to stay organized and on top of grading and such throughout the year so that these 3 preps don't make it all too stressful.  So far his favorite class is the Pre-AP Algebra II.  I think he's really enjoying the ability to have real discussions with those classes and getting their brains thinking and sharing about it all.  Hopefully that will continue.

I haven't had a sub job yet.  I guess teachers make a real effort to not be absent at the beginning of the school year (-I guess it's understandable).  Today I went to a couple schools (and if I don't have jobs during the rest of this week, I plan to continue) and dropped off some business cards with my contact info and certification areas in lots of teachers' mailboxes.  Hopefully some of them will give me a call to sub for them.  And then hopefully they like me and use me again, and share my name with other teachers, and I get very familiar with a couple schools, and then if either a long-term sub job opens up, or a full-time teaching position, the principal will consider me.  Hopefully.  I guess that's the new goal.

Filling some of my spare time at the moment, I've become a bit of a blog addict.  I currently have four.  This one (that obviously I don't need to tell you about) and a private blog that acts as my journal-thing, (I don't really like to say that I journal for some reason...) I've had for a while now.  But after lunch with some friends from church on Sunday (yesterday), I decided to start two new ones... and that process kept me up later than I have been in quite a while.  But I love it.  I half feel bad because I'm sharing this... but I'm not going to tell you what/where they are.  Sorry!  One is under a different name so that I have anonymity to be completely open and honest and express myself through the outlet of blogging, and another was a suggestion of my friends at lunch... a writing blog.  That one is also private (I might open it up later, not sure yet) and the focus there will be for me to have motivation to actually write something every now and then.  I love writing and have a secret (guess it's not secret anymore) dream of being a writer -although I honestly don't think I have the talent to, it's still something I enjoy.  So... sorry I tend to ramble.  These two new blogs are sort of experiments.  We'll see if they continue to develop and last for long.  I hope they do... but you never know.  Four blogs might just be too much!

Anyways.  Gotta go help Cody grade some papers and figure out dinner plans.  I had a new meal to try tonight that I was excited about... but another dumb headache that is very quickly worsening will probably get in the way of that.  Maybe another night this week.  We'll see.

PS - Happy birthday to my Dad!  I'm glad you have leftover chocolate cake to enjoy today!