The job hunt and other happenings

Well, all of the schools in Oklahoma have started as of this week, and I don’t have a job.  So I’m a little, okay, a lot sad that I am not teaching.  I called the district office last week to see what the deal was, and they said that my application implied that I would not have a license to teach until November.  I went to check it, and I discovered that the school administrators just don’t know how to read their own application or forgot how the system works.  It is really frustrating becuase I probably could have had a job if my application had been a little different.  So, I don’t think I will be teaching this year.  :`( 

What’s new with us

This is our family newsletter submission for the month.  It will update you on our struggles and our triumphs.  You know, things of that nature.

Its us in the hottest and windiest of states.  Ok, maybe not _the_ hottest, but probably more so than any of you!  Not that I’m glad for that because believe you me, its not pleasant.  The air conditioner in the house hasn’t been able to keep up with the heat, so the afternoons get up to about 79 in the house, and we’re ready for it to cool down.  I don’t know if we said this last month, but we’re staying in Jessica’s parents’ house until our house gets built.  What’s that you say?  You didn’t know we were building a house?  Yep, we are.  It hasn’t been started yet, but our loan has been approved, and right now we’re in the selection stage getting everything squared away with how its going to end up.

Updates & Musings

Well, I have to apologize for the long, unexplained absence on this blog.  It seems like I’ve been so consumed by my work in trying to keep up, and the mental energy involved in that has been immense.  So…with that lame excuse out of the way, here’s an update:

I’ve been enjoying my work and getting into it more and more everyday.  My department is all in one room (all six of us), so it is pretty crazy.  Its always eventful there whether it be jovial harrassment flying around or taking a few minutes to watch our spider Mitch hunt down a fly (oh, the suspense!).  The actual “work” is good.  They’ve been slowly adapting me to the new environment that it is, and though it is still frustrating that I don’t know 90% of what they’re talking about, that is slowly dropping every day, and I will be competent soon enough.

World Cup Disappointment

The US-Ghana game just ended, and I have to vent.  First, referee Markus Merk was absolutely horrible on both teams.  I place probably 55% of the blame for the US loss on this man.  If Ghana hadn’t had the penalty shot, I am confident the US would have come out the second half and scored two more goals for a 3-1 win.  Sure, the US has to be able to take bad calls in stride and still come out swinging (hence only 55%), but the fact is that they would have won.  There were several other similarly bad calls, and this man should get a talking to and a reprimand for altering the game as he did.

Second, Ghana was good.  They played good soccer, but not great soccer.  I say this because the US was playing bad soccer for most of the game.  Ghana only out-played them slightly.  The same went for their game against the Czech.  It was only mediocre soccer, unlike how Czech played against the US.  They were excellent there.  Ghana is advancing, but they will flop against Brazil when they play some high-level football.  Everybodys saying how great Ghana is playing in their first world cup, but frankly, they aren’t that good.  Italy was the only team in this group that was consistently playing professional, solid soccer.

We’re outta here

Well, we’re outta here.  Adam got a job in Oklahoma at Lopez foods as a computer programmer.  We’ve thought about it, prayed about it, even debated it (almost heatedly) and we’ve decided that this is the right thing for us to do right now.

So right now, we are starting to pack things up and get ready to leave.  I have resigned my post as an English teacher at Olympus High School, which made me quite sad; but I’ll be okay.  My principal was really good to me and very understanding.
 
Adam has also left his job with Dan, and he has been great during this whole process.  We are so grateful for all that Dan did to help us right out of school.  Adam had a job to go to that he learned a great deal from.  It was an invaluable experience.  Thanks Dan!

Thank you to everyone here who made our life in Utah as pleasant as it could be.  We have loved our time here, but sadly, it is time to move on to something different.  We’d love to hear from you if you are here sometime before the 20th, since that is when we are leaving. 

So adieu for now!  Please stay in touch with us if you are not already!

Memorial Day

It is almost over!  School is almost done.  I have been so behind with grading, and I am finally getting close to being caught up.  It has been great to have a a three day weekend, even though I went to Oklahoma last weekend.  Spending time with Adam is one of my favorite activities, and we have had a good time. 

Even though we have been working most of the weekend, we did manage to have a Lord of the Rings fest.  It’s funny, because we watch them, but we don’t.  While we watch the movies we have been grading papers, doing sudoku or folding laundry. 

For the last few days of school, my classes are going to get to watch The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  Most of them have read The Magician’s Nephew (the first book chronologically in the series).  So they are pretty happy that I’m not giving a big nasty test, and my tests are known to be pretty nasty.  They are a little upset that I am taking role though.  😉  Oh well!  Can’t win ’em all!

Happy Memorial Day and Happy Summer!

Missing her…

I love my wife, and I’m not afraid to admit it. Unfortunately, sometimes I forget just how much I need and depend on her. She left me today…to go to Oklahoma to see her family for the weekend. 😦 Well, as soon as I got home from taking her to the airport, I had this depressing, dark cloud of despair fall on me. Sounds pretty bad, I know, but that’s pretty much what it felt like.

It seems like that is always how I feel whenever we’re apart like this, where I don’t have immediate access to her. I know there are some in the world that would say that its not healthy to be dependent on someone other than yourself, but I think it is an indication of the deepness of our relationship and that it (our relationship) is something that is meant to last.

Don’t get me wrong, its not like I’m actually depressed (because I know she’ll come back! :)), but I think it interesting that I feel this way. She is my everything and I feel so blessed to have her as my companion. Jessica, I love you so much. I need you so much. I think it is a good thing!

It feels later than it is…

I am so tired.  Adam has been sick today (not that there is much I can do to make him better since he just has a cold), and I have been drowning in papers for weeks.  I have been fighting my students about taking CRTs, which are a nightmare to give) and them asking me everyday if I have this project or that paper graded yet.

 Just to keep you up on what happened at school:  I planned the 4th quarter VERY poorly, and I knew it when I did it.  Being the silly girl that I can be, I thought, “Oh I’ll take these classes projects home over the weekend the weekend I get them, and grade the rest the week after.”  HA!  Anything I try to take home doesn’t get done.  So I have to do it at school, and I don’t want to do what I did to myself at the end of the third quarter (I stayed at school until 5:30 for about a week and a half trying to get caught up).

As a result of my grading stress, I haven’t been able to give my students the end of the year that I was hoping to give them.  I had visions of reading a play and them actually enjoying it.  Alas, I have resorted to listening to bits and pieces of the play, talking a little bit about it, and watching the movie.  Not quite the perfect end of the year that I was shoting for when I started in January.  Oh well.  I guess I have to let go of some of that perfectionist that lives in my brain. 

 Adam tells me that to be a good blogger, I have to give you a link to another place for the reader to move on from my blog.  Well, he’s the good blogger then. 😛 I just wanted to vent a little and say “Good Night, Dear World!”

Soccer mania

Jessica and I went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game tonight. For those of you who weren’t aware, Real is one of 12 teams in the MLS (Major League Soccer). Anyway, Jessica was kind enough to come with me as many people think that watching soccer is akin to watching grass grow.

Well, she’ll tell you different after tonight. What a difference the atmosphere makes. I really felt like the game never lulled and that it was completely interesting for the full 90 minutes. She was pleasantly surprised (as was I), and I’m all ready wanting to go back.

They ended up losing 1-0 to the Columbus Crew, and that was kind of a bummer, but our team had control for probably 80% of the game. Oh well. A guy a few seats down from us got thrown out because he threw his Coke onto the field after they scored on us. I think he had season tickets, too (well, there’s $200 out the window).

Unfortunately, the team is having problems securing funding from the county to help fund their new stadium in Sandy. It really is quite unfortunate as this is SLC’s only professional team besides the Jazz, and we all know that’s probably going nowhere. Anyway, here’s a good link with all the latest news. Also, here’s a quality article on why soccer is more American than baseball

Wootered

“Wootered”?  Yeah, it means “woot-entered” or “I put in a submission for this week’s woot photoshopping competition”.  Anyway, at Woot, they have a weekly competition where they give a prompt (usually involving one of the week’s sales) asking for people to submit photos or illustrations altered to some crazy theme.  Anyway, this week’s prompt was “Show someone using the Gyration Ultra keyboard and/or mouse to control something other than a computer.” 

Well, I gave it a shot (my first time entering), and after much too much time later, this is what I entered.  I know not everything looks completely natural in the pic, but hey, I thought it was at least a pretty good idea.  Go here to check out all the other entries and check back tomorrow afternoon for the results on the winners. 

Edit: I got an honorable mention!  Yay!  Not too shabby for a first time.  I’ll probably try again next week.