A Year to Remember

Or, "My Cliche Post Detailing the Past Year of My Life"

I've been doing a little bit of reminiscing on the amazingness that has been 2010, and I wanted to share some highlights. A short summary beforehand: 2010 has been berry berry good to me.

• I started dating Tracy. That was good. Still is! Yay.
• I traveled to Wyoming, Las Vegas, Miami, Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, Tampa, and Colorado. I also got over my intense fear of flying by "deciding" that I was adventurous. Seriously, it works. Just get on the plane and continually tell yourself that you're adventurous and that's why you're flying.
• I graduated college.
• I finished student teaching.
• I moved to Florida!
• I got a good score on my GRE and it made me feel smart.
• I went the entire year without getting sick even once, despite being among the diseased (AKA small children) on a regular basis.
• I'm getting a Le Creuset French Oven from Tracy for Christmas... Some of you won't know what that is, but those who do, please join me for a moment of silence for the beautiful French Oven in Caribbean... Thank you.
• I'm welcoming 2011 with my favorite person in the world tonight, and that makes me happy.

... And many many more, but I would probably be typing till after midnight, and that's a lame way to ring in 2011. Happy New Year!!!

Family Time

It's Christmas Eve! Guess what? All my gifts are wrapped and under the tree... That's pretty magical all by itself. I absolutely love shopping for Christmas gifts (especially if I have a good idea of what the person would like), but moving 20-something hours away from my family was really cramping my holiday style. I mean, how do you pack your suitcase with enough clothes for more than a week AND fit in presents for your 3 siblings, brother-in-law, and parents? Well, you don't. So it took a little bit of creative calling of Oklahoma stores and begging them earnestly if they would hold presents for me so that I could just pick them up when I arrived in the correct state. They were nice and did so, so Christmas shopping was really pretty non-stressful and pleasant. One quick trip to Norman, combined with a little online shopping, and I was done. Now I'm just relaxing in (chilly) Enid, Oklahoma, and it has been nice to not have anything pressing to get to for a few days.

Last night, we drove to the small town of Cherokee for Christmas with my mom's side of the family. It was good to see everyone, especially since that side is experiencing some baby-mania and most of the females are pregnant. Not me, however, in case anyone was concerned. There were some little kiddos running around, plus some good food and lots of family time. Today, we had planned to do Christmas with my dad's side of the family, which is smaller, but that was kinda thwarted because my grandma got sick... We still met up with my one cousin and her parents, then visited my grandpa at the nursing home. My family had a nice little visit with him and delivered some peanut butter crackers and sugar-free candy, so he was pretty pumped. I think we're planning to try to visit again in a few days when my grandma feels better.

As much as I'm enjoying being home and seeing family, as well as a few long-lost friends, I'll be ready to get back to Florida to see that crazy doctor kid again. He's in Wyoming with his family for a few days, and I'm glad he gets to have some quality family time as well, as much as I wish I got to go to Wyoming and see his family for a little bit too.

Hope everyone's holidays are relaxing, enjoyable, and filled with family and good food. Merry Christmas!

You May Now Breathe a Sigh of Relief

Oh, it's a beautiful day. Birds are singing, babies are laughing. It's Saturday, and that means I'm about halfway through another excellent weekend full of happiness and relaxation. Oh, did I mention that I did quite well on my GRE yesterday??? The test told me I was smart! Not genius smart, but smart enough to be above the average score for the speech pathology program I'm trying to get into-- which is smart enough for me! To celebrate my newfound intelligence (ha), Tracy and I went out to dinner and a movie to celebrate! Since the movie was starting within an hour of us deciding to go out, we just went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which is an east-coast chain that serves, well, just burgers and fries. If you're looking for a good greasy hamburger (and we were), this is the place for you (and it was). We then went to a real live movie theater! The Tourist with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp was out, and it was very entertaining. We'd both recommend going to see it.

Just wanted to put out a quick little post so that anyone who cares knows that I did not bomb my test and that I can now breathe easy for awhile. Hope everyone else is receiving a little relaxation time this weekend!

Yes, I Do Still Exist

Yet again, it's been awhile since my last post. It seems that each time I go back to Oklahoma for a few days, it throws off the whole blog routine. Oh well, we all lived. While I was on my little hiatus from blogging, I happened to finish my internship in student teaching! Yayayayayay! I hate to say it, but it was a really good feeling walking out of that school. I've had 4 days of true freedom since then, and it's been really great to wake up and say, "Wanna know where I'm not going today? The middle school!" Haha...

On the downside, I've been spending this whole week studying for the GRE. Everyone I've talked to says this test is super easy, I don't even need to study, blah blah blah, but I honestly think it's kinda difficult. I've been trying to learn as many new words as possible this past week (my knowledge of vocabulary is no match for this stupid test), and I'm still encountering tons of words that make me scratch my head in confusion on the practice tests. That might be the most frustrating part of this whole thing-- no matter how much I study and add new words to my vocab (perspicacious, anyone?), there will most definitely be words on my test tomorrow that I do not know. It's not possible to know all the words... Argh. Anyway, I'm going to continue to cram as much as possible into my brains today and just do my best on the exam tomorrow. Eeeeek!!!

Once the test is over, the true fun begins: Christmas shopping! I've done very little shopping, and I'm pretty excited about picking out lots of gifts for people. I love Christmas... Speaking of Christmas, since I'm not gonna make it to Wyoming for Christmas like originally planned, Tracy's awesome sister Kelly sent me Christmas gifts in the mail! She picked out a big heavy cast-iron skillet and the Pioneer Woman cookbook! I was like a kid on Christmas morning, no pun intended. The cast-iron skillet is getting used for the first time tonight, and I've already read all the way through the cookbook (I mean, what? I've been studying nonstop for the GRE....). All in all, perfect gifts for me.

Since Tracy is still on his pain management rotation, we both have the weekend off this weekend! No plans so far, but we shall see if something pops up. Maybe a movie or something, as several good ones are out right now. Anyway, hope all are staying warm in the December-y weather (even here... it's been in the 20s in the mornings!). Have a great week and keep me in your thoughts as I take the first test in awhile that's important to my future!

Smells Like Thanksgiving

Hello all! I'm writing from Oklahoma, which is pretty exciting. It is not exciting that it's 30 degrees here. I miss my 80-degree flip flop weather! However, I'm very happy to be home with my family for a few days, and on this delightful Thanksgiving holiday to just have the opportunity to relax with people who are important to me.

We aren't actually having Thanksgiving until tomorrow with my mom's side of the family, so today has been a pretty low-key day. We ate chicken and mac and cheese for lunch, and we're about to eat a Mexican casserole for dinner. Just like what the pilgrims ate! I'm super pumped for tomorrow, with lots of turkey, mashed potatoes, deviled (devilled?) eggs, chicken and noodles, hot rolls, green bean casserole, and pies. Quite a bit of family is coming over to my house, and to make stuff even more exciting, a good chunk of my cousins are pregnant this year! There will be lots of babies to play with by this time next year.

The cooking has just begun at my house, and it's slowly starting to smell like pumpkin pie up in here. My favorite part of Thanksgiving cooking, making the deviled/devilled eggs, will be a little later tonight. If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure it would be those eggs. Well, maybe mixed in with some chicken and noodles.

I'll keep this short so I can go hang out with people, as Stephanie and Phillip (my sister and brother-in-law), Adam (brother), Sara (his girlfriend), Brendon (his freshman roommate), and my parents are all around. Brian (other brother) is still in Arizona, but he gets to take leave in December for Christmas. Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving! Eat some extra food for me today, and cheer for the Sooners on Saturday!

Life is Gooood

If you've been keeping up with my countdowns, I'm sure you can guess that I'm in a pretty awesome mood as of right now. My little Daytona Beach getaway is TOMORROW!!! We leave after school and head to the beeeeeeeach. Please forgive the excessive use of capital letters, exclamation marks, and draaaaawn out words in this post, as I've had a lot of unnecessary sugar today and was already a little hyper before that. Anyway, Tracy is currently at his very last night shift for his transplant surgery month, I got all packed this evening, and all that's standing in my way is 7 measly hours of school tomorrow.

A somewhat unexpected development this week is that I was hired by Sylvan Learning yesterday! This marks my first job ever that requires a college degree. I'm such a grown-up *sniff*. My position even sounds all official and such-- Certified Reading and Math Teacher. BAM! It's like a real job and everything, plus something I can continue while doing grad school. And they're so eager to start training that I'll be getting a paycheck or two before Christmas. I don't remember if I posted about this before (so I'm sure you don't either), but I emailed them way back in June, and they actually contacted me about the position last week. I usually get really nervous at interviews, but because of the circumstances, I kind of felt like they were seeking me out rather than me desperately needing the job (which was the actual case), so I ended up having a great interview. I'm pretty happy with what I see so far, and I'm really looking forward to starting with students.

Just some random little life updates for all my Oklahoma friend-people (and Kelly!) Please enjoy the pretty-colored trees and cool weather right now, as I'm lacking in both of those things and am especially missing the leaves. Be home in less than a week!

Living Weekend to Weekend

As this weekend winds down, I get eager for the next week to hurry up so I can get to another weekend. Does anyone else feel like they're living from weekend to weekend?

This weekend has been uneventful, but great. Tracy had to work, but since there were so few patients, he's been able to just bring his pager home during the day, so it's almost like a day off. Last night I went with him to turn his pager back in, and then we went to the fishy store (we're about to start up a salt water reef tank) and out to dinner at BJs. It was a nice date night to ourselves, which we haven't really gotten to have for awhile. Hopefully he'll get a little time off today too, because today is his 24-hour shift, and I'm sure he'd rather relax a bit before he has to stay there all night.

The big fat reason I'm so ready for NEXT weekend is that it's finally going to be Daytona Beach weekend!!! We got the hotel on the beach reserved and have absolutely no official plans except to eat dinner Saturday night at some sort of oceanside restaurant. If anyone has ever been to Daytona, feel free to give suggestions on what we should do.

Two days after I get back from our Daytona adventure, I get to fly home for Thanksgiving! I'm getting really excited about this, especially since I don't have to take any tests or anything while I'm home this time. When I come back from this trip, I'll have a mere 5 days of my internship left.

So what will I do after my internship is done, you ask? Well, coincidentally, I got an email this week. I applied with Sylvan Learning here way back in June, and they chose this week to finally email me and tell me they have a part-time position open for a certified teacher for reading and a little math. I have an interview with them this week. Still not sure I want to do anything resembling teaching, but if I were to teach at all, this would be more up my alley, with just a few kids at a time and not the full responsibilities of a classroom teacher and such. Whether I take this job or not, I plan to work somewhere else as well in order to save up as much money as possible before graduate school. I probably won't start anything full-time until January though, as I still have to study and take my GRE, and I want time to go home for Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, I may get to go to Wyoming for a few days and visit Tracy's family! Yay high five do a little dance :)

In other news, this week I'm going to a supper club meeting with the Junior Medical Guild, which is basically just going out to dinner somewhere new in Gainesville with a group of girls. They're going to the Flying Biscuit Cafe, which is a breakfast place. I don't know anyone yet, so cross your fingers that they're nice!

Cooking update: This week I cooked the aromatic and ever-popular Chicken Tortilla Soup, as well as Penne a la Betsy, a Pioneer Woman special. Both were a hit with the gentlemen I'm currently entertaining (that's Jonathan and Tracy for all you forgetful people), and it's really funny to me right now to see the leftovers get eaten before I can get to them, and to be asked "Hey... uh... is there any more of that soup stuff?" It's not that I was a crappy cook before, but I'm finally getting a few really decent recipes. I like that when Tracy takes the first bite of that pasta recipe, he immediately says "Wow, this is really good!" and actually seems like he means it. I mean, the kid tends to not get excited about food (ANY food) the way I do, and he sure never ate leftovers before this. Now I come home and the first thing out of his mouth is, "I ate a big bowl of the soup while you were gone." Maybe it's just the girly domestic side of me, but I really enjoy cooking things that people look forward to and request. Next week, I won't be cooking too much since we're leaving early Friday for the beach, but I do plan to cook another batch of the Chicken Tortilla Soup (per request of the boyssss), and I'm going to try out a very simple Pioneer Woman recipe for Sesame Noodles.

I realize my blog posts are pretty much always some sort of countdown/to-do list/here's-what-I'm-excited-about rambling rather than my thoughts on important subjects or focusing on one particular topic, and I apologize for that. I just rarely have a particular topic I've been contemplating that gives me enough motivation to write about it. Instead, my head contains a mash-up of school, cooking, Tracy, friends, my family, Oklahoma, the beach, and downtime. Perhaps if you have a subject you're just dying to hear my opinions on (ha), you could comment and tell me what you'd like to hear. Ok the end.

Muh-muh-muh-Monday

I was feeling a little ooky today (yes, ooky... you don't know the word?), so I ended up coming home from school a little early. After a nap, I feel quite a bit better, so I've been studying for my GRE for a good part of the day. However, it's time for a break, so I thought I'd get in a short entry. You know, break the trend of only posting on Friday after a long week. I'm a rebel like that.

This weekend was pretty good in terms of restfulness. Saturday I cleaned and spent a little time with Tracy in the evening, and then Sunday I hung out with Jonathan (the friend who's visiting Gainesville on his rotation) while Tracy rocked a 24-hour shift. We had a lovely time, cruising up to the hospital to hang out with Tracy for part of the day when he wasn't busy. It still makes me giggle a little bit every time Tracy gets paged and picks up the phone, dials some number, and says, "This is Dr. Sisk and I was paged." Hehehe... You're not a doctor, you're Tracy! Silly. Anyway, Jonathan and I also browsed around Target and Barnes & Noble, as well as one of my favorite places in the world, Publix. Aaaaand finally, I worked on some lesson plans and a behavior management plan, which were thrilling, let me tell ya.

As my GRE looms ever closer (As in, it's in about a month! Eeeeek), I've definitely started a mini panic party and decided to really buckle down and study so that I don't have to cry on the evening of December 10th as I realize I have to take the stupid thing AGAIN. I'm currently studying some antonyms. Seems easy enough, right? Especially for someone who loves English and grammar... No. No. NO. Sadly, no. It's really quite difficult and makes me freak out even more, as I realize my seemingly decent vocabulary is actually rather teensy when it comes to big fat standardized tests. All that being said, I think with a few more weeks of studying (since that's all I have), I'll be in a place in my knowledge that I can at least get the average score to be admitted to the speech pathology graduate program. Cross your fingers, make a wish on a star, etc.

To wrap this baby up, let's go through a little list of countdowns, about which I'm very excited. If you know me, you know I love my countdowns and lists...

15 school days left of student teaching

15 days till Oklahoma for Thanksgiving

11 days till Daytona Beach with Tracy

3 days left of school this week

17 days till Thanksgiving

1 month and 2 days till the GRE

See? Wasn't that fun? Okay fine, I'm done now. Have a great week and try to stay well!

Yeah, I don't know. Just read it.

The bad news: Tracy and I didn't go to Daytona Beach this past weekend.

The good news: We've made plans to go in a couple weeks and spend the night! Much better. Tracy has a 3-day weekend (how? I don't know) coming up, so we're going to leave that Friday after I get off work, drive down, stay in a (hopefully) oceanfront hotel, and then spend the whole day Saturday exploring and shopping and having ourselves a wonderful and relaxing mini-vacation.

Another exciting development is that Tracy's college friend Jonathan is coming to Florida for the month! I'm looking forward to meeting him and getting to know him better, and I'm happy he gets to come check out Florida's residency program.

Only a few more weeks of student teaching left! I love a good chunk of the kids there, but it is truly exhausting. Buuuuut... I'm down to 4 days next week, 5 days the week after that, 2 days the week after that, and then one more week of 5 days. Not too bad! I got to spend time observing the speech pathologist the other day, and I loved it. Definitely quite the motivator to study even harder for the GRE so I can get into the graduate program at UF.

Also exciting in my life: I booked my trip home to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving!!! I'll be leaving Tuesday after school and getting back Sunday afternoon. I'm very much looking forward to relaxation, home, my kitties, and of course FOOOOOOOOD... Can't wait to just smell the yummy smells that come from Thanksgiving cooking. Hopefully I'll get to help put up the Christmas tree while I'm home too.

Cooking updates, since that's what I'm into right now (you can leave if you don't like it... ha!): I'm going to the grocery store tomorrow, and besides buying assorted random crapola, I'm buying the ingredients to make Pioneer Woman's white chili, which is basically white beans instead of red beans, chicken instead of beef, and some delicious spicy spices, as well as Monterey Jack cheese on top. It's cool and rainy here, so that kind of food just sounds good. Also on the menu for the coming week is Pioneer Woman's Penne a la Betsy, a tasty-looking dish with shrimp, penne pasta, fresh herbs, and a tomato-cream-delicious sauce. Aaaaand finally, I'm buying the stuff to make very yummy slow-cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup, which is amazing and surprisingly not Pioneer Woman. Yet another week of wonderful smells coming from my kitchen; this means another week of jealousy for you. Sorry. That's just how I roll these days.

PS- I decided to make random things bold in this entry. My technological prowess is astounding even to me sometimes.

In My Happy Place

I would like to start off by saying this has been a pretty darn good week so far, all in all. I don't want to talk about school in this post, lest I get off the "pretty darn good" topic. All I will add about school to my post is that it was a 4-day week, meaning I'm off today, meaning that makes me very happy.

So what else is good? Well, Pioneer Woman, for one. I had heard random Facebook rumblings about my fellow friends trying out recipes and such, and I finally got curious enough to say, "What IS this Pioneer Woman everyone is talking about?" I googled it, and came upon this: www.thepioneerwoman.com. Oh. My. Goodness. This is a mecca for people who like to cook delicious, non-weird things. You may not know this about me, but I like to cook delicious, non-weird things! What a coincidence. I'm not going to lie to you and say her dishes are low-fat or necessarily healthy, but they sure are tasty. I made her homemade chicken and noodles last night, and I must say that both Melissa and boyfriend had happy, full tummies by the end of the meal. Looking forward to trying more recipes soon, as I bookmarked like 1000 of them the other night. Now if only someone wanted to be rich and buy me a bad-a KitchenAid mixer, that would really help me do some of the baking stuff. K thanks.

Continuing with the cooking theme... During the week I don't really have too much time/energy, so not much actual cooking gets done. So when I realized that I had a 3-day weekend this week and Tracy is off work for 2 days in a row (for the first time in a couple months!), I hit up the grocery store for some real food. No more bagged meals and pizza rolls for us, my friends. I got the stuff to make the chicken and noodles, but also got ingredients to make french toast (with cinnamon and vanilla and nutmeg...yummy), plus pot roast with red potatoes and carrots.... Aaaaahhhh it's going to be a good weekend. Be jealous you can't smell the wonderful smells that will be going down in my kitchen in the next few days.

There's a possible rumor going around via Tracy that we might consider going to Daytona Beach tomorrow on his first day off. Well that would be just swell, because it's in the 80s here, and I sure do like me some beach and adventure. Cross your fingers that this happens. If it doesn't, it's really no skin off my teeth either, because I also love me some laziness and football, but whatever.

We have no Halloween plans, which is plenty okay with me. Tracy and I both really kind of dislike Halloween, at least in terms of being adults and dressing up. We are excited about some cute little trick-or-treaters though! That should be fun.

When you leave out the school part, life in Florida is really quite grand. If I could just cook, play at the beach with Tracy, and relax, I just might die of happiness. Have a wonderful last weekend of October, and Happy Halloween!

Long Time No Blog

Oh jeez, where to start? It's been about two weeks since I've blogged, and lots has happened. I guess I'm gonna have to go with the old standby of a bulleted list to cover everything...

• I went to Oklahoma! It was awesome, but the visit felt so short. I don't even want to confess to you how much I ate in those few days, but it was a lot. Ok ok, so I had Freebirds, Jason's Deli, Taco Bueno, Uptown Subs (Enid), and Olive Garden. My belly was SO happy! Other happenings in Oklahoma included getting that pesky OPTE test out of the way, going on 6-mile walks with the parentals, getting new running shoes, and watching OU kick the poo out of Iowa State in the first shut-out of the season.
• Middle school has begun again for me, my friends. Only this is middle school like I never experienced. There are over 1000 kids and like 6 or 7 buildings at this middle school (as compared to about 200 kids and one hallway at my middle school). A few of the interesting situations I've encountered--- students kicking out the boards on a ramp to the portable (right in front of me, I might add), suspensions for everything from soliciting sex in the hallways to holding blades to people's wrists to trying to sell rock salt as cocaine, etc., enough wacko slang to make me feel decades older than these kids, and so many bad home situations it's not even funny. We're not in Norman anymore, Toto. It would be an understatement to say that this school is ROUGH. I've never experienced anything like this in my life, and Capitol Hill Elementary in OKC didn't hold a candle to this. Every day is interesting, however, and I do not sit down from the time I get there till the time I leave.
• My cooperating teacher is really nice. We even look a little alike, prompting at least one or two "Are you sisters?" comments a day. She's a great teacher, and I can tell she really cares. The only downside in all of this is that school is literally her life. Somehow she has gotten it into her head that the later she stays at school, the better she is as a teacher. Long after all the teachers have gone home, my teacher stays at school. On the nights that she doesn't have to go tutor at UF, she stays till 9 or 10 at night, no exaggeration. Then she's back at 8 the next morning. Because I have to do as the cooperating teacher does in student teaching, I've been staying till around 6 each night, doing nothing in particular. I understand being dedicated to your job, but I personally feel that this is a little obsessive. At some point you gotta go home, say hi to the guy you're with (she's engaged and put off having a fall wedding because she was too busy with school.... for real), and just not think about teaching for a few hours a day. There's more to life than work, and I think it takes a healthy balance for you to be good at anything, professional or personal.
• Speaking of work, my tutoring job is no more, unfortunately. I discovered that they were being paid MUCH more in federal funding than what I saw for tutoring (as in, they were getting 70% of what I made every hour), and they also wanted me to drive around to several surrounding towns for very little money and no gas compensation.... Quite frankly, I could not afford this job. I lost money doing it, and I've got to find something else. I'm hoping I can find a place that will let me work exclusively on the weekends, due to the fact that I now don't get done with student teaching until after 6 p.m.
• On a more positive note, other areas of life are going well. My GRE has been scheduled for December 10, and I'm still studying when I can find the time and energy.
• Tracy and I are commiserating over our utter lack of time off work, as the hospital makes him work some pretty bozo hours. He's working a 24-hour shift today (well, and tomorrow technically; he gets off at 6 a.m.), so I'll be bringing food up to the hospital for him this evening. 24-hour shift nights are our date nights! Haha, I bring a bag of Chick-Fil-A or Chipotle, we sit around in the little lounge area and eat and chat for a few minutes, and then he's back to work with his zillions of pagers. It does break up the looooong shifts though and lets us at least talk face-to-face instead of by text.
• Oh! And I may be joining something called the Junior Medical Guild, which is basically a social club for people who are girlfriends/wives of residents here. I guess a lot of people have my problem of moving to the area and not knowing anyone, so they have a little club thing that sends out invites to dinner, a book club, girls night, all kinds of stuff. I'm really excited about the opportunity to meet other people who are new to the area and want to check stuff out. I think that's all the updates I have now-- I'll try to get back on track with updating on at least a weekly basis so that I sort of remember the stuff that's happened. My brain is like spaghetti after these past two weeks. Enjoy your weekend, and BOOMER SOONER!

Been There, Done That, Got the Shirt to Prove It

Sooo I want to enter a 5k. This has been a goal of mine for awhile now, and while a small goal to all my marathon friends, it's plenty of running for me. I've been consistently running for about a month and a half now (minus a few days here and a few days there for my foot issues), and I'm getting close to where I would feel comfortable running that distance in a race. The beautiful thing about Florida is that I can run this race in November and it won't be all that cold! I need to wait till late October or early November so I have time to get used to new running shoes, which I'll finally be purchasing next week, as well as build up some endurance.

This may sound silly, but the true reason I want to run a 5k is for the shirt haha. Don't get me wrong; it has been motivating for me to have a goal to work toward, and I am challenged every run when I think about racing 3.1 miles. I haven't raced since high school, and the thought of racing now motivates me to work hard in my runs to get better. But really, some 5ks have super cool shirts! I'm sure greater people would run for a cause close to their hearts, or to be a healthier person, or to set a personal record. No, I'd like the shirt, please. There aren't many options here in Gainesville in the next few months, so I'm branching out a little and thinking about traveling somewhere fairly close to run. I think it would be a good way to see some of Florida and entertain myself on the weekends while Tracy is busy working. There are runs coming up in Jacksonville, Melbourne, and St. Augustine (my personal favorite place in Florida so far), and none of them are too far away.

In other news, I fly to Oklahoma in less than 8 days!!! Can't wait can't wait can't wait. I'm going to eat about 8000 meals in the four days that I'm there to make up for all the restaurants I miss, enjoy the cool weather, see my family, and watch some OU football in a land where nobody cares about the Gators. Pretty sure no one in the whole world is more excited than I am about next week.

Finally, I have only 2 days left of this placement! While I'm ready to move on, I will miss the kiddos. Today they told me that I need to marry Tim Tebow so that I can stay at their school (1. Yuck, 2. Not sure how that would keep me at the school). When I told them that I don't know Tebow, they promptly suggested that I become a cheerleader so I can meet him. I asked, "What if I already have a boyfriend?" and one of my students informed me that he would punch my boyfriend in the face. Look out, Tracy. You have an angry 8-year-old on your trail.

Life continues to go well, partially because of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Yeah, I had never tried one before last week, but I finally caved after hearing so many rave reviews. It WAS that good, and I'm now patiently waiting till Friday so that I can celebrate my last day of this placement with some coffee. Hope everyone's week is going splendidly and that you're all able to enjoy the amazing weather!

First Day of My Life

Life is just pretty darn good right now. I've had an amazing weekend, filled with football domination (which I got to watch with Tracy! A whole day of laziness together. Awesome), cooler weather, a really good run, and very little school-related stuff to do. I feel so much more refreshed; weekends make me a much more pleasant person to be around.

The only thing I really want to share today is an excellent song/video that most of you have probably heard, but it's a good one, so here you go...

First Day of My Life- Bright Eyes

Enjoy!

Things Are Looking Up

I began this week determined to have a better, more positive, more productive week than last week. I think by having a good attitude, you bring a lot of good vibes around and stuff really does go better in general. Some things I'm grateful for this week (in no particular order):

1. My part-time job finally came through. I am tutoring 3 lovely (or should I say, HOPEFULLY lovely) children, starting tomorrow. It's difficult to pay for all the little unexpected things that come with moving when you have no job. I've been stretched pretty tightly financially while waiting around for this job to start, so I'm incredibly happy that by November 1, the tutoring company will be sticking some good money in my bank account.

2. I've gotten to teach all week in my internship! While I do get frustrated with the small children some days, it's better than being frustrated with my cooperating teacher because I have no responsibility. Things have gone relatively smoothly, including my 2nd formal observation by my supervisor.

3. Tracy. He's quite nice to me. He listens when I gripe, helps me be lazy when I have trouble slowing down, and acts goofy with me on a regular basis. Not really sure how I would have survived these last 2 months in a new place/new life without him.

4. I only have 6 days of this internship placement left!!! This marathon is almost halfway done, my friends. For this leg, I have only 1 Monday, 1 Tuesday, 1 Wednesday, 1 Thursday, and 2 Fridays left! Everyone do a little dance. Right now.

5. My incredibly kind mommy randomly decided to send me a pair of ballet flats that actually have arch support in them so that I can wear shoes to work that don't continue to mess up my foot! The foot that I hurt running has continued to give me some problems, but I've come to the conclusion that it's partially because I keep wearing flat, hard shoes all day with no arch supports. These should help at least some, and after I eventually get some new running shoes and insoles, perhaps I'll be good to go. I'm spoiled :)

6. Last, but certainly not least (and in fact, probably most importantly), THIS WEEKEND IS OU-TEXAS!!! I wish I was going again this year, but I'm perfectly content to sit on the couch and watch it long-distance as well. Tracy is miraculously off work that day, so we plan to stuff our faces with unhealthy junk and watch the Sooners dominate some Red River Rivalry. Yeeeeah... Everyone enjoy your Friday tomorrow, and Boomer Sooner!

Make a Good Choice

This week has been really insane (bad insane, not good insane).

I was a little nervous about this week to begin with, due to the fact that I was supposed to teach and be in charge of absolutely everything for the entire week at my internship. That requirement was mandated by my supervisor, and agreed to by my cooperating teacher. Taking over some third graders and kindergarteners may not seem like a big deal to most people, but it's amazing how many little things there are to plan, how much stuff keeps you up at night, and how little brain space is left after you've done all your thinking about doing the job well. Nonetheless, I walked into my school on Monday ready to tackle the challenge presented to me. I had lesson plans printed, materials prepared, about 3 hours of sleep (due to aforementioned "stuff" keeping me up at night), and an optimistic attitude. There was a sub, however, and things only went partially smoothly. She wanted to teach one of the sections REALLY badly (she's a former teacher of thirty years, as she assured me many, many times), so I let her. She also turned out to be a crazy sticker lady, so the kids got stickers for breathing. What did they do with these stickers? They put them on their eyelids and made faces at each other, of course! I did get to teach reading, if you can call it that; I pretty much administered the weekly test to them.

On Tuesday, I walked back into school, still hopeful and with a positive attitude that now that my teacher was back, I'd be the one calling the shots and teaching what I had spent all weekend planning. Instead, my teacher insisted on administering the math test (fine), but then she also decided she was going to teach absolutely everything that day, and she kept assigning me tasks away from the students, like entering data into the computer and grading tests for her. Let me be clear that I don't mind doing stuff like that. However, at this point in my internship, the entire purpose is for me to be the one leading the class as though I'm the teacher. I cringed as I sat at the computer, entering MY lesson plans into her template, while I heard her teach something far different from what I had planned. My lesson plans for the rest of the week were completely screwed at this point. If you know me well, you realize that I cried that day after school on my way home. I was frustrated to the point of not ever wanting to set foot in that school again. I had only gotten the opportunity to teach one lesson to the students before this past week, and that was for my formal observation by my supervisor. I had lost lots of sleep, time, and energy trying to be prepared and trying to do my very best at giving these kids a decent education, and it was all thwarted within a matter of 4 hours of teaching.

On Wednesday, although I told my parents I didn't want to do this anymore, that I didn't want to come back, and that I'm incredibly unhappy right now, I did march my butt back to the school, bright and early as usual (or dark and early, actually). I was still not allowed to teach, and (spoiler alert) I didn't really get to teach at all this week. My supervisor came to the school to have a meeting with my cooperating teacher and me, and my cooperating teacher told her that I've been taking over planning and instruction all week, which as you know, was not the case at all. Eventually she sort of backtracked on that, and my supervisor emphasized that I really need to be teaching. Supposedly this COMING week, I will be teaching. Sounds familiar, eh? However, I'm trying again to be optimistic, prepared, and find ways to make learning valuable for these kids.

Friday I did actually get to do a little bit of teacher-y stuff, as my cooperating teacher was absent again in the morning. Unfortunately, my body chose that day to get one of those migraines that makes you feel like you just might violently throw up (pretty picture, I know). I had to leave at about 1:00 and just go home and go to bed.

Clearly this has not been the best week of my life, but I feel hope in the thought that I have only 2 weeks, a mere 10 days, left in this classroom before I move on to middle school science and math (who knew I'd ever look forward to such a combo?). It is finally the weekend, here to alleviate my boiling blood pressure and stress. Today, now that my migraine friend is gone, I will plan the week's lessons to the best of my ability, knowing that my actions are the only ones I can control. As I tell the crazy small children almost daily, "Make a good choice," Melissa. My good choice on this fine Saturday will be to finish those pesky lesson plans, and then sit on my butt and watch OU kick the snot out of Cincinnati. The end.

Tea and Running and Sleep, Oh My!

Okay, I just wanted to share my excitement in this moment-- today marks ONE FULL WEEK of no carbonated, delicious, fizzy beverages! Sad day for my taste buds, happy day for the rest of me. I've been combating the extreme urge to pop open a can of yummy by keeping a filled water bottle with me constantly, drinking hot tea (with no added sugar), and occasionally having a little milk or orange juice. I also try to go running when I'm craving a cold can of something tasty. I think a few of the hardest parts during this past week have been 1. when I come home tired from work but don't want to take a nap, 2. when Tracy opens a can of Pepsi and I can hear it... My mind is clearly conditioned to react to the sound, and it practically makes my mouth water for my own can, 3. when I see all the pop in the fridge that I can't have. I know it's only been a week, but I already feel better. The lack of pop combined with the fact that I've been running for about 3 weeks now makes me feel as though I'm looking a little more toned than I was. Also, I'm sleeping (a little) better. With the student teaching I don't typically sleep well at night because, as my friend Mary Rachel pointed out, your mind just doesn't stop racing about all the little details of teaching, even though your body is exhausted. When I was drinking pop, if I took a nap after school, I wouldn't sleep till after midnight; now, I can take a little half-hour snooze to recharge and still go to bed at a decent hour. And finally, I'm just beginning to see myself craving less sugar. I got on quite the little sugar binge for awhile, and it's nice to be able to pass up the Oreos or the popsicles without my brain screeching, "No!!!! Miiiiiiine!" like a demented 3-year-old. So that's the big exciting thing going on in my life-- try not to wet your pants or anything :). We'll see how round 2 of Operation: Stay Out of My Belly goes between pop and me.

What's Been On My Mind

So today has been a teeny bit stressful, to say the least. Luckily, it's all school-related. For the second day in a row, my supervising teacher has decided it would be a really cool idea to tell me five minutes before class starts that I'll be teaching the hour's lesson. Never seen the material, didn't plan the lesson, no idea what I'm doing. I don't mind teaching, but I sure would like a chance to look over the material a bit, think about what a good way to teach the concept would be, and come up with something fun to do so that I don't make the kids do the next 4 workbook pages, which is what she had me do today. Tomorrow is my first observation, which means that someone from the University of Florida is coming to watch me teach third grade math. I'm actually more comfortable with this thought, since I made up the lesson and there's not a boring workbook page in sight. Still stressed, but at least I'm able to prepare.

I left school at noon today because I had a professional orientation seminar with the other interns here. We were supposed to learn about the certification process, resumes, how to get hired, etc. After overhearing from students that the special education program at UF has THIRTY other interns this semester who will be looking for jobs in the middle of the school year (OU only has three, counting me), I was a bit surprised to hear the certification director of UF tell the group that in order to have more than a temporary certificate in the state of Florida, one absolutely must get his or her master's degree in education. This is not the law in Oklahoma. So, to summarize: If I attempt to obtain a teaching job, I will be competing against 30 special educators with master's degrees, while I will only have a temporary certificate. In the middle of the school year. Riiiiiight. The principals who were there to answer questions told us that there are typically up to 200 applicants for a single open position in this area. Needless to say, this seminar started to deteriorate quickly for me, as I have no intention of getting my master's degree in special education.

Okay, so I suppose now would be an appropriate time to talk about my future plans, which I referenced a couple blogs back. I actually wasn't planning on talking about this for several more months, but I intend to take the GRE this semester in order to be accepted into UF's speech pathology master's program. Teaching is not something that I'm enjoying, and it's not something I see myself doing long-term. I absolutely believe teaching is a worthy profession, and I fully support all my teaching friends in their endeavors. Unfortunately, it's just not for me. I've been struggling with this idea for the past 1-2 years, and the goal was always to wait to make a decision until the pieces of the puzzle become more clear. Well, everything has become crystal clear for me this semester as I take on more teaching responsibilities and spend my days in a classroom.

My current intentions are to take my last certification test in Oklahoma in October, finish my student teaching internship in early December (so that I do have a certificate, rather than just a wasted 4 years of college education), take the GRE in December (which I've been studying for in the evenings), and find a full-time job as soon as student teaching is over. Because of above-mentioned circumstances, the likelihood of that job being a teaching job is low. Pending acceptance to graduate school, I will begin the speech pathology program in the fall, because the program only begins once a year. Because I don't have an undergraduate degree in speech pathology, the program will take me 7 semesters to complete, but that also includes summers. All things going smoothly, I should be done with the master's program in 2 1/2 years. I would like to work with adults, possibly at a hospital or nursing facility. This has been the decision that I've been struggling to accept for awhile now, and I finally feel at peace that I'm making the right decision for myself. I appreciate the support of others during this somewhat unexpected and difficult change in career paths upon which I'm embarking.

"My life, my career has been like a roller coaster. I've either been an enormous success or just a down-and-out failure."

-Judy Garland

Eat, Nap, Repeat

I just sat down to write a lesson plan for my observation this week in student teaching. That's why you're getting a blog (ha). Motivation for school work isn't exactly striking me at the moment, so writing a post is a nice little diversion. It has been a great, relaxing weekend, and I'm not ready to go back to school tomorrow AT. ALL. As I mentioned in my last post, Jake drove up from Ft. Lauderdale for the weekend, and he brought a new friend with him. We got some pizza, watched the OU football game (which I'm sure both of them were thrilled about, since neither went to OU), went out to dinner at Stonewood Grill and Tavern, and watched a movie (or halfway watched it, for those of us who couldn't stay awake very well). They left this morning, and Tracy and I have done nothing all day except catch up on sleep. Aaaaaahhhh, football season weekends. I kind of love Saturdays that consist mainly of eating chips and salsa and queso and snoozing in the middle of football games. Alas, it's back to reality tomorrow, full of 5:30 a.m. wake-up calls and IEP writing and making small children sit in their seats for long periods of time.

My foot is much better, for those of you who care. I appreciate the words of encouragement on my last post! I was going to try to run on it today, but it's currently pouring down rain and we're in some kind of advisory that involves small hail, so I may be putting that off. I have been walking on my foot just fine now with no limping for a couple days though, and so far everything seems fine. I'll be getting some new running shoes, but probably not till October or so. Part-time job isn't kicking in for another week or so, and unfortunately new shoes cost money, believe it or not. I'll just take it fairly easy till then and pay a little better attention when my body starts yelling at me.

On a somewhat related note, I think I may try this week to finally quit drinking pop (or sooooodaaaaa for all you people from the East). I love it a lot, and I've gotten back into drinking it way more than I used to, but I neeeeeed to stop! If anyone has any suggestions for how to make this easier, please share! The end.

When Running Goes Bad

Normally, I would be at school right now. In fact, I'd love to be at school rather than at home with a mysterious injury... Last night I was out running when it felt like my left foot got a cramp. Since cramps aren't really a huge deal, I kept running, and I ended up having a great run. I thought nothing else of the foot pain until about 1:00 in the morning, when the pain woke me up in a most unpleasant manner. I knew at this point that my foot was not having a cramp, so I took some ibuprofen and stuck a heating pad around my foot and went back to bed, crossing my fingers that I would be miraculously healed in the morning. Unfortunately, I woke up, put my weight on my foot, and promptly said (and I quote), "Owwwwww..." Because my teacher's classroom is at the far end of the school, the thought of hobbling through a school day sounded pretty unbearable. Instead, I trucked it on over to Urgent Care. Let me be clear: I hate having invisible injuries like this. I always feel like everyone thinks you're faking it when you walk around with a limp. Soooo then I felt like I looked like even more of a faker when the doctor saw no stress fractures and no weirdness in my foot. It turned out to be a fairly useless visit, and I was prescribed an anti-inflamatory and a pain reliever and told to rest, ice it, blah blah blah. Hopefully my invisible mystery injury heals soon so I can get back to running. It has felt great to get back into a routine, and an injury wasn't so much what I was going for.

Other than this unexpected development, my life is pretty average at the moment. Almost done with this week of school, and my first formal observation is next Thursday... I think I have my next step in this whole career thing mostly worked out, but I'm gonna wait awhile to talk about it... I have FOUR WEEKS till I'm back on beautiful Oklahoma soil for a visit! :) Can't wait for that... I believe tomorrow Tracy's and my delightful friend Jake may be coming to town from Ft. Lauderdale to hang out, and we always have lots of fun. Also can't wait to see OU kick Florida State's butt this weekend in football. Um, that's all... Enjoy your Thursday!

There's Only One Oklahoma

It's football time in Ooooooklahoma!!! Alas, I am not there. I can't tell you how much this saddens me. Even though toward the end of college I usually just watched games on TV, I still miss the option to go. I also miss seeing everyone decked out in their finest crimson and cream apparel, as everyone here dressed up in orange and blue on Friday. I've decided that next week I'll wear my OU stuff to the elementary school. Please cross your fingers that the rabid Gator fans don't chomp me into little pieces for that. And now, inspired by my friend Elise, a small list of things I miss about Oklahoma...

1. Certain restaurants. Taco Bueno (first and foremost), Freebirds, Jason's Deli, Sonic, ice cream from Braum's, Red Robin, Chicken Express... the list goes on and on.

2. Being able to walk in the grass in bare feet. This is something I never ever had conscious thoughts about while I lived in Oklahoma, but you can't do that here due to the ridiculous amounts of fire ants. I learned my lesson within the first week of being here, when I tried to pull a few weeds with no gloves and wound up with two nasty fire ant bites on my arm. It felt like, well, fire.

3. The ability to drive home to see my family for the weekend if I want to. Twenty hours is a little ridiculous sometimes.

4. Get-togethers with my special ed friends. I miss meeting up at Cheddar's (oh, that's another restaurant I miss) or the Library and catching up on all the events going on in everyone's lives.

5. The beauty that is Oklahoma. Don't get me wrong, Florida is very beautiful. It has insane amounts of trees (including palm trees everywhere, which rocks) and the weather is pretty much constantly warm, but there's something about the flat, pretty land when you can see for miles. This particular item on my list of things I miss will probably be intensified when fall comes around and OU's campus is full of autumn-y colors and crisp air, although I'm still looking forward to a pleasant winter here.

All that being said, Florida is still treating me quite well, and I'm happy I moved here for the experience of living somewhere else (plus it's nice to not be worrying about a long-distance relationship). It's no secret that I'd like to get back toward the Sooner State in a little less than 4 years when the Florida adventure is finished, but until then, I'll make the most of my time in a gorgeous state with beaches and tons of vacation destinations.

Student teaching is also trucking right along. I've been sick twice already, leading me to believe that they have some different strains of stuff here than they did back in Oklahoma, where I hardly ever got sick. The kids are cute though, and I'm a little sad that I'll be moving to a different school in 5 weeks. A couple kid-isms from this week-- 1. I was asked if the grass is growing, and then if grass sleeps at night. 2. I was asked if bears lay eggs. 3. When I said I wasn't married, one of the little boys said he'd come live with me. 4. Another little boy said that I should be an angel for Halloween because I'm pretty and angels are pretty.... They're a bunch of suck-ups haha. It's like they think I'm the one giving them a grade or something :)

My second placement has been changed slightly. I'll still be at Westwood Middle School, but I'll be with a teacher now who teaches special ed science (who knew they had such a thing?) and co-teaches math. Science and math. With middle schoolers. This should be entertaining.

I found out from my current teacher that one of the community colleges here offers "community education," which is a bunch of leisure/recreation classes you can take cheaply as an adult. They offer classes in oil painting, pottery, yoga, kayaking, foreign languages, guitar, and all kinds of other stuff! I think I may do this instead of join a gym. I've been running outside here, and it's cheaper to just sign up for a yoga class than to do a full-blown gym membership. Plus, with so many options, I can learn lots of fun stuff that I'd never do otherwise, and hopefully meet some people while I'm at it. I just missed the first deadline, but another set of classes starts up in early October.

Tracy has several nights in a row of working the evening/night shift, so I'm currently chilling by myself and watching the very amazing match-up of Oregon State and TCU. Should be a good game. He has next weekend off, so we may go to the beach! Yay get excited. Thaaat's about it for this week. 5 weeks till my visit to Oklahoma!

What We Think, We Become

This has been a weekend of much time in thought. It's been relaxing, in that I haven't really had a whole lot of pressing work to do. However, it's been exhausting as well, due to the massive amount of just thinking about my future I've been partaking in. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm not the only person who exists in the world, that there are bigger questions to be answered in the world than what my long-term job should be. I don't know how it is for everyone else when they're trying to make a big decision, but for me, there's a certain amount of friction that goes on in my brain, constantly irritating my thoughts and not allowing me to focus on much else until the decision is resolved. I haven't been sleeping much in the past 2 weeks, with the exception of last night. Fortunately, I believe clarity is coming to me on my decision, which is allowing me to finally focus on other people, other activities, and on just being a functional human being. I ran outside today (after about 2 months of nothingness), cleaned, and did a legitimate amount of homework, none of which happens if my mind is a complete mess. That's about all I want to say about this decision for awhile, but please just keep me in your thoughts that the choice I make is the right one.

When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go

Ah, another week down. My first week with kiddos has been exhausting, frustrating, exciting, entertaining, and gross all in one. Probably not in that order, though. A few highlights (and lowlights) from my week:

• One of the students told me that he hopes I get a job at Stephen Foster so I can be his teacher all the time, because I'm the best teacher. And then he gave me like 10 hugs. Yes, all the education interns experience this stuff during their internships/practicums, but I still love it. I do not, however, love it so much when I move to middle school and boys try to do that.
• My teacher may be having to move to a non-special education class due to some issues with numbers of students in classes. If this happens, I will have to get a different teacher to work with, which will set me back quite a bit in getting my assignments done. I won't be too upset either way; if I get to stay, I get to be with all the kids I've already gotten to know, and I'm well-aware of what's expected of me at this school. If I don't get to stay, I might get a placement in a school closer (e.g. not an hour of driving each day) to where I'm living, which is an area of town in which I'd prefer to work.
• I've been asked if I'm married more times than I can count this week.
• For an hour and a half each day, I have kindergarteners. On the first day of them coming to special ed, I was sitting next to a little girl at the computers when suddenly I heard a weird noise and felt my foot getting wet... I looked down, and this adorable, precious child had let loose the contents of her bladder aaaaaaall over my foot, the chair, and the floor. Reminds me of the movie Billy Madison, when Adam Sandler tells everyone that all the cool kids pee their pants. That was quite a day.
• I got my first flight home planned out! Since I have to fly back to take the OPTE, I'll be in Oklahoma from October 14 through October 17 so I can get that done. I really like Florida, but I'm glad to have a visit to Oklahoma in my sights at the moment. A month and a half till I get to feel that glorious fall weather!

I become more and more grateful every week that there's such a thing as a weekend. Around Monday or Tuesday, weekends seem to be a myth, but I have definite confirmation today that they do in fact exist. I've been trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my special education degree when I finish student teaching-- find a teaching job for January, apply with HeadStart (an early intervention service for at-risk kids), go to grad school to get a Master's degree in something different but related (such as speech pathology), or go in a totally different direction for awhile. Some days I have a great day at the school, and other days I leave wishing I never had to go back. These feelings aren't really based on anything specific, like a certain bad event, but I don't always feel confident that this is what I want to do. I go back and forth on my career thoughts on a daily basis, and I'm trying to keep thoughts of panic out of my mind until at least toward the end of the semester.

This weekend, Tracy's dad is visiting! He'll be here tonight and Saturday, so that'll be fun. We may have to go try out a new Mexican food restaurant while he's here. Saturday night, Tracy and I are gonna hang out with friends, but not sure what we're going to do yet. Sunday will be a day of major relaxation, as well as attempting to start on some of my work for my internship. We're both staying veeeery busy and taking life as it comes, but overall that's a pretty good feeling. Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Unpacking AGAIN, Falling Objects, and Extreme Exhaustion

First, let me preface this post by stating that I absolutely love my cooperating teacher for the first part of my internship. She's funny, flexible, and so helpful to me. We've had a great week together getting the classroom ready for students to come (they show up on Tuesday for her).

Now, let me say that it's not even a little bit nice when the principal tells you Thursday morning of the pre-planning week that you'll be moving classrooms. I wanted to cry as I moved my teacher's 40-plus years of junk from one portable building to a further away one. Did I mention that summertime in Florida is kinda toasty? It was about 95 degrees with 95% humidity. When I moved here, I was really looking forward to not having to move stuff in the heat again for a long, long time. Eh, I lasted approximately 3 weeks.

A side note for all you teachers and future teachers out there: when filing cabinets are moved from one classroom to another, the contents shift inside. This may result in falling glass snow globes and various other gravity-loving objects. These objects may fall on your head and cause a couple days of pain. Just saying.

On the bright side of all this, I met a lot of people while moving. I had good conversations with the custodians, the art teacher, the lady who hands out the year's textbooks, and the librarian. For the first time in all my practicum-type stuff, I feel as though I'm beginning to know what it feels like to actually be part of a school and feel welcome. I have a hunch that I'm going to be pretty sad to leave this school in 7 more weeks.

School has been dominating my life this week, so it's nice to get done and spend time with Tracy. I'm quite proud of him this week because he got a card from the people on his last rotation (trauma surgery) saying that the nurses voted him someone who gave excellent patient care and always made sure that problems and issues were resolved. They gave him a little gift card and thanked him for being a bad-a :). Yay for Tracy!

I've been looking for a fitness center to join in Gainesville so I can work out, as it's waaaay too humid here in the summer to exercise outside. Unfortunately, there aren't too many good ones here, and some of them are REALLY expensive, so the search continues.

Ok that's all! Haha. Good luck to all my new teacher friends as they begin their careers! Thinking of you all.

Becoming a Teacher

Suddenly in the past two days, I've become busy. I have to say, I like it a lot. Well, except for when 6 a.m. rolls around and my body is still trying to get caught up on sleep. I had my first official day of student teaching yesterday (minus the students), as I went to Foster to help with pre-planning. This includes going to faculty meetings and grade level meetings, plus helping organize/set up/decorate my teacher's classroom. Thing I do like to do: Go through classroom books to find a wide variety of interesting reading materials for the students to choose during the school year. Thing I do NOT like to do: Cut out giant sheets of colored paper by myself to cover up an ugly chalkboard, preferably in an artistic and non-four-year-old manner. People who know me well could tell you that I am not an artistic person. I don't write neatly, I don't do well with the sparkly happy girly decorating stuff, and I don't enjoy super artsy-craftsy projects. That being said, trying to maneuver ginormous pieces of paper to lay perfectly smoothly on a chalkboard is not my idea of a good time. However, the book part of the day did make up for that. As I leafed through titles about space, nature, pets, and pretty much any subject you can imagine, I remembered how I felt in school when I got to choose ANY book I wanted for free reading time. There was a sense of wonder in that, as though the possibilities were endless. No book report, no one telling you the book wasn't on your "level" (whatever that means), no one choosing for you. It was a big deal as a kid to get to truly pick something as part of your work at school. With that memory in my mind, I did my best to choose a large variety of books with diverse subjects, illustration styles, and levels. Sometimes I wish they would pay me to just read children's books all day...

I've met some really nice teachers at the school so far. They've invited me out to lunch both days, so I feel pretty included right now. I've never been at a school that has teachers who are this friendly right off the bat; even though most of them are old enough to be my mom, I enjoy the time I spend with them and (after a little pep talk with Tracy) realize now that I'm not really in college anymore, a lot of my "friends" will be people I work with, who may be a whole lot older than me. They invited me to a jewelry party this Thursday, and I think I'll probably go :).

This first 8 weeks, I will be teaching an hour of 3rd grade math, an hour and a half of 4th grade reading, an hour and a half of kindergarten reading, and an hour of interventions (which I believe is pretty much double doses of certain subjects for certain kids). I'm actually really excited about this schedule and can't imagine a better range of ages. I love kindergarten kids, especially for reading, but I also think I want to teach around the 4th grade level, so I'm pleased that I'll be doing a little of both.

On an unrelated note, I wish Oklahoma had Publix grocery stores. That's all they have here (seriously... it takes 40 minutes to get to a Super Wal-Mart), and I must say after my first experience at one yesterday, I love it! Everything is brightly lit, the produce doesn't suck, and no one is rude/trashy/rushing you while you're trying to get your stuff. Sorry Wal-Mart, but Publix is my new grocery store soulmate... That's all for now! (Don't worry, I'll work on these endings)

Ti Amo

As part of my last weekend of freedom before the school-ish stuff began, Tracy and I planned to go to Cedar Key, which is about 50 miles from here, for the evening to eat dinner and have a fun little date night. Alas, sometimes I think Gainesville should be called Rainesville, because in the summer months it does a LOT of that. We decided it would kind of suck to drive all the way to go eat at a waterfront restaurant if it was pouring down rain, so that idea is tabled for another day.

Instead, we went downtown to a really cute restaurant called Ti Amo. It was kind of a cool atmosphere, with dim lighting and understated decor. The menu has some crazy-looking stuff on it (octopus and baby goat, for example), so it took us a minute to find acceptable-sounding meals, but he settled on a gyro made with lamb instead of their traditional tempeh (which is apparently fermented soybeans. Odd), and I had the Gulf shrimp on pasta with some sort of slightly sweet sauce. It was pretty good, especially when we discovered that even though it was a fancy place, they'd still bring us Coke to drink :). They had amazing focaccia bread, and we both really liked the departure from our usual type of restaurant atmosphere. We wouldn't necessarily go there again often, simply because it's a little more exotic than we typically like, but it was a novel experience for our Saturday date night.

After that, we watched Death at a Funeral and had a relaxing evening. Definitely a nice diversion from the fact that SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW!!! Aaaaaahhhhhhh... Although no kiddos for another week, so I still have some time to have a little bit of a summer with no assignments and no paid work. Tomorrow morning at 7:45 a.m. I'll be making the half-hour-ish drive to the school where I'll be spending the next 8 weeks of my life to meet my supervising teacher and help her set-up her classroom. Getting closer to being a real-live adult!

He who fails to plan, plans to fail

I'd like to report that our dinner date went quite splendidly last night :). The place was actually called Blue Highway Pizza, and with the exception of the electricity going out for a few minutes, it was a really fun evening. I enjoyed getting to know a few new people in the area, and Tracy and I are pretty confident that we'll continue to be friends with these people in the future. It was really nice to get out and socialize a little, and I hope to be doing more of it soon.

I've gotten final confirmation that I've been hired with a tutoring company here, so now I'm just waiting for school to start so I can start teaching some kiddos! Since the tutoring company contracts with schools, I don't get to start working with kids till the school year starts. It'll be excellent to actually make a decent paycheck even in my student teaching semester. I'll be busy, but Tracy is busy too, so at least we'll both be busy and getting paid for it.

One important thing I did today was take the advice of the above-mentioned new friends and get to Wal-Mart early for some school supplies (UF students haven't all flooded back into town yet, but they're coming). I searched for and found the ever-so-important planner, something that I hold more dear than nearly all material possessions. I never thought I'd be one of those people, but in the last couple years of college, I came to depend on my planner for keeping school, practicum, field experiences, and extracurricular stuff organized so I didn't forget vital due dates and appointment times. It sounds silly, but purchasing this planner gives me the biggest sense of calm about beginning the semester. I've already written everything important that I know of so far into the planner, and I'm waiting with pen poised for more assignments and obligations. I feel as though if I have it written down, it's do-able. From my planner I can make a list for the week of what I need to get done and in what order, and each step gets crossed off the list one by one. You may laugh at how anal I've become about these things, but it has helped me stay a week ahead of my college due dates for the past 2 years, thus alleviating a lot of the stress I used to feel.

I hope this weekend to possibly go to some of the natural springs around here. For the Oklahoma people, this is a lot like "floating the river" near Tahlequah. I think it would be a cheap and relaxing way to spend my last truly free weekend with no school stuff to worry about.

Tuesday

Here I am again, ready to entertain you with yet another riveting piece about the daily happenings of the final week of my summer vacation. Ha.

Today I drove across town (when I say across town, I mean a good 35 minute drive with some traffic) to get fingerprinted for my part-time job. After some confusion about in which building this process was to take place, I finally found where to go, paid my 80-something bucks (ridiculous), and had a crazy lady take my fingerprints as she told me about how she made up the word "fluffy" to describe angry people. As in, "I don't know if I can take my lunch break when the office is this busy. I wouldn't want people to get fluffy." All in all, a strange experience. After that, I drove by my new home for the next 8 weeks, Stephen Foster Elementary. Have I mentioned that their mascot is the Steamers? Hehehe.

The only other semi-productive thing I've done today is amble over to the pool for an hour or so. I'd like to report that I'm tanner than I've been all summer, although still probably pale by most people's standards. I'm a person who kinda hates lying by the side of a pool and sweating my face off in the name of a sun-kissed glow. However, if I had the option to go play in the waves for a few hours each day in St. Augustine to achieve said glow, I'd jump at that chance. Sooo that being said, I got bored quickly and came back. Now I'm just waiting for Tracy to get off work so we can hang out. Would it be a crime if I said that I'm actually sort of ready for school to start? I'd like to meet some people and be occupied during the day, and preferably make a little moolah as well.

Oh, tomorrow night Tracy and I are going to dinner with another resident and her husband. Trying out Blue Moon Pizza! Yay for making a few new friends in the area and going out to eat. The end.

Tampa and Other Happenings

This was in the backyard. Fancy! (It's a Redheaded Woodpecker)

Hello again! Sometime on Thursday, Tracy and his parents and I decided we'd go down to Tampa and spend the night so we could check out the Gulf... We drove down yesterday and stayed at a hotel right on Clearwater Beach. I wouldn't go as far as to say the water was actually clear, but it was warm and made you bob up and down and was a totally different experience than St. Augustine. Due to said bobbing, I got a little nauseous on this trip, but it was nothing that a little nap down by the pool couldn't fix. Did I mention that I'm really suffering and deprived of fun times? :) Actually, I feel like I've been on about 3 vacations this week. It's been nice to explore some of the state, but this coming week (my last week before school starts), I look forward to a little downtime in Gainesville... Sadly, we had to take Tracy's parents back to the airport today so they could catch a flight back to Wyoming. I really enjoyed spending so much time with them this week and "bonding," as Tracy likes to say.

Another exciting event since my last post is that the tutoring company I applied with here has decided to hire me, pending some fingerprints (which, by the way, are expensive to get done in every state... Why they can't just use my fingerprints from Oklahoma, I'll never know), as well as a completed W4 form and a direct deposit form. It pays well and will allow me to not have to work myself to death outside of my 40-hour a week unpaid job (yay student teaching) in order to have some cash for bills and saving.

Finally, my supervising teaching at Westwood Middle School-- that's my 2nd student teaching assignment-- has responded to my initial email, and she seems incredibly nice. I believe I'll be doing inclusion math, which scares the ever-living crap out of me, but I hope it'll be a good experience. The teacher was very friendly and is getting back to me on what I need to do to prepare for her classroom since she now knows the dates I'll be there.

It's currently hot, humid, and thundering, so hopefully we'll get some nice rain soon. Tracy and I are going to watch "Salt" at the movie theater tonight. A first date in a new state, one might say (if one liked to make up cheesy rhymes. Which one does). Life is moving right along, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

St. Augustine

Yesterday was vacation day! Tracy and Co. and I drove down to St. Augustine, which is about an hour and a half from here. We ate lunch, then hit the beach for a couple hours. The water was absolutely perfect-- I plan to come back for Thanksgiving looking much tanner than you all! Haha... Once we all dried off, we hit the outlet malls for a little shopping. Guess jeans, 2 pairs for 50 bucks. Amazing! Tracy's parents asked one of the cashiers where would be a good restaurant to eat dinner, and she suggested Creekside Dinery, a place all the locals like to eat. The atmosphere of that restaurant was really cool. We sat out on a big deck overlooking a waterway, and there were a couple of raccoons that would venture to the edge of the deck for a piece of breadstick or some fish. It was about dark when we arrived, and the deck was surrounded in Christmas lights and shaded in big trees. There was also good live music. Oh, and did I mention that the food was pretty delightful too? Shrimp scampi, get in my belly! We finally arrived back in Gainesville around 11:30 last night. Tracy and I really want to spend several more weekends in St. Augustine, and I'm enjoying the fact that I have a place to go for cheap mini-vacations within a short driving distance. A great day of sun, shopping, and of course, fooooood.

Unpacking, Unpacking, and More Unpacking...

Today has been a day of getting some stuff organized. I always feel better when things are unpacked, clean, and put away (even though I'm a messy person), so as I have unpacked today I've started to feel more calm and less frazzled... For lunch, I went with Tracy's parents to meet his aunt and uncle at Steak and Shake (my first time at this restaurant!), which was very enjoyable.

I also found out some more info about my placements. Stephen Foster Elementary School is a Title I school, with 68% of the school population being economically disadvantaged and 21% having a disability. The school is very racially mixed. I'm excited to begin my student teaching here, as it sounds as though it'll be a completely different experience than the schools I'm used to being in in Norman. This school gets out at 1:45 each day, except for Wednesdays, in which they are finished at 12:30. That's going to be a nice change as well-- I can actually eat something other than a sandwich for lunch on Wednesdays! It's the small things that make life enjoyable :)

The second school in which I am placed, Westwood Middle School, has school uniforms. I am with a co-teacher/inclusion specialist, which means I'll probably be in a general education classroom at least most of the time. I'm not sure their school even has a distinct special ed classroom. I'm a little nervous about this aspect of my placement; middle schoolers without disabilities intimidate me slightly, and I don't feel that I look much older than them, so it feels difficult to establish authority. At my most recent middle school placement, I was mistaken for a new student a few times. I'm crossing my fingers that my teacher works mainly with 6th graders.

Things I Have Learned So Far

1. Gainesville is humid. Very humid. Sometimes I can't tell if I'm walking or swimming.

2. I am a directionally challenged person. I have not yet mastered the art of knowing whether I'm driving into town or out of town.

3. Things come when you finally stop worrying about them. I received my email from Dr. Lovett last night telling me where my placements will be this fall, I will be at Stephen Foster Elementary School and Westwood Middle School.

4. I already love living somewhere that's completely dense with trees.

The beginning of life in Gainesville is going swimmingly (see #1). I'm moved in, have begun to unpack, and I'm exploring the town. Gainesville feels quite a bit bigger than Norman, and it's hard to know where you're going because you can't see around all the gigantic trees everywhere. I love driving and having Spanish moss hanging down over the road, and the whole town is honestly beautiful. So far the only disaster is that my dad and brother forgot to load the legs from my kitchen table onto the U-haul, so my table is currently resting on the floor until those get mailed to me. Tracy had the day off today, so we got to spend some time shopping with his parents and went out to lunch. He works the next two days, but then we may all make the trip out to the ocean. Not a whole lot else going on at the moment other than packing, but I'll write more when I can.

D-Day!

TODAY'S THE DAY!!!

D-Day = Driving Day... 13 long hours for day one, about 7 for day two, and I'll be there!

Perhaps if you're lucky I'll be kind enough to update from Montgomery, Alabama, tonight :). Keep me in your thoughts!!!

Final Preparations

2 days till the move.

Today has been a day of little last-minute things. I finally realized today that I have a LOT to do before I leave, and most of that got done. It takes more work than I thought it would to wrap up every loose end and pack every last thing you own when you're moving your life to another state. I've always lived in Oklahoma, so this cross-country move thing is new stuff to me.

The best part of today was my time tonight with Marisa, one of my friends from special ed who I've started hanging out with on a regular basis. We do a lot of planning to work out together, then stuffing our faces and insisting on dessert instead. It's an excellent friendship. We drove to her new school to see her classroom, where we felt like robbers as we unlocked the doors to the school and shut off the alarm. Her new classroom is great, with a smart board and lots of storage space and a big window. I'm a teensy bit jealous since I'd like to be in that phase of teaching, but I'm so glad she got a good job, and my time will come for that soon (in about 5 months, to be exact). After that, we drove out to Goldsby to eat at a place called Libby's Cafe, which was really good. Filled my belly with some delicious catfish and peach cobbler-- yum! As a goodbye present, Marisa framed a picture from our POPS night, as well as made me some very tasty cake balls (are you sensing that Marisa and I like to eat?)... I'd love for her to come visit in Florida so we can check out all the sights (and menus) together.

Day after tomorrow, I get to head out on my adventure! I'm really ready to see Tracy, especially since it has been 6 or 7 weeks since we last saw each other. Another exciting part about me finally getting there is that his parents are visiting, so I'll get to spend more time with his family for the first week that I live there. It will be fun to explore my new home with Tracy (when he's not working) and his parentals. Yay!

An Interesting Day

3 days till the move.

I wished for something interesting yesterday, and today I got it. I happened to look at my credit card transactions for the past few weeks-- oddly, there were two charges from a tech support company in New York that I've never heard of. I called my credit card company, who then put me through to the tech support company. After an hour of talking/arguing/waiting on hold, the company still denied charging my card, and they didn't fix the error. My credit card company is disputing the charges, but I haven't found out for sure if or when the charges will be removed. Even though the charges didn't put me over my credit limit or add up to a ridiculous amount, I didn't make the purchases listed, and this is something I'd rather not deal with in the middle of trying to move everything I own 1500 miles. Moral of the story: be careful when you wish that something interesting would happen. Interesting is not always better.

In other news, I am completely packed and ready for my long drive on Friday. Tomorrow I have to do a few last-minute things, including but not limited to a Wal-Mart run, an oil change, and one last dinner with Marisa. I also get to see her new classroom, which I'm really excited about. It feels weird to be winding down my last days living in Norman for probably a very long time. Leaving Norman began to feel even more final today as I finally enrolled in my last semester of classes for OU (the graduate classes necessary to complete student teaching). I hope in the next few days to get news about my final student teaching placement, as well as when I start and end my student teaching. Also, I've applied for a part-time job with a tutoring company in Florida, and they're going through the process of doing a background check on me right now, so hopefully I'll be hearing back from them soon as well. Lots of things to get accomplished in the next few days.

Time with Family

4 days till the move.

Tonight is my last evening in my hometown with my family. It has been a really relaxing day. I got my driver's license renewed (very important since it expires the day I get to Gainesville), watched a little TV, and went out to dinner with my parents. Tomorrow morning, I head back to Norman until I leave on my 20+ hour drive. While I don't spend a ridiculous amount of time back home during the school year, it's crazy to think that I won't see Enid till November sometime.

Hopefully I'll be posting more soon when there's actually something interesting to update!

Girls' Night!

Me, Cassie, Cynthia, Mary Rachel, and Marisa

6 days till the move.

Tonight was a really great evening with some of my friends with whom I went to college... We were/are all special ed majors, and even though a few close friends couldn't be here tonight (we missed you!), we had a great time. Because it's my last weekend in Norman, we planned a get-together to hang out one last time. After some deliberation, the group decided to make the trek out to POPS in Arcadia, which is about an hour away. POPS is a place with hundreds of different flavors of (you guessed it) pop, as well as food and a giant neon soda bottle. I've wanted to go there for quite awhile and had never been, so I was excited to go. We had an absolutely fantastic time together, even though the wait for a table was an hour long. During our wait, my friends and I sampled such delicacies as mango soda, apple beer, peach soda, and.... IBC root beer. So Cassie didn't branch out much, but IBC root beer is good, so I guess I can't blame her :).

We also took some really fun pictures, which I'm sure I'll be looking at especially often in those first few lonely months while trying to meet people in another state. I just love pictures of friends, and what better location to take pics than in front of a giant glowing bottle? Exactly...

On the way back to Norman, we dropped Cynthia off in Moore and passed Van's Pig Stand; however, some of the lights were burned out, so the sign said Van's Pig STD. For some reason, this was hilarious to everyone. Overall, I had a really great night with some girls whom I have grown very close to in the past few years. I've been so grateful to be able to call these girls my friends and classmates, and I'm so glad we got to have one more night of silly memories.

Beginning to Blog

7 days till the move.

At this time next week, I'll be halfway to Florida. This is a place in which I know a total of one person within a 5-hour drive from where I'll be living. Because of this, I thought it would be fun to create a blog to keep everyone back in Oklahoma updated on what's going on, as boring as those happenings may be. So here's an explanation on exactly why/how I came to be in the process of moving halfway across the country...

Several months ago, I began a relationship with a boy. This boy's name is Tracy, and we hit it off immediately. We bonded over boxers (the dogs, not the underwear), Lady Gaga, kids, and eating spinach dip at 3 in the morning while watching bad infomercials. I knew from early on that this was a relationship I wanted to continue, although I was also aware that he would probably be moving to begin his residency in anesthesia within a fairly short period of time. When Tracy found out in late March that he matched a residency program in Florida, I was more excited than nervous. For several years, I have wanted to move out of Oklahoma at least temporarily. Florida was in my top 3 places that I'd like to move. We began to plan that I would move to Florida in December, after I finished my student teaching, so that we could continue our relationship. I was under the impression that student teaching for OU must be completed in Oklahoma, so I accepted that I would be in the state for several more months. However, one of my professors casually mentioned during the last week of school that they have placed students in Texas, Kansas, and even California. After this conversation, the ball was rolling-- professors made phone calls and sent emails, and before I knew it, I had confirmation that I would be able to complete my student teaching in Gainesville, through the University of Florida. While this is a significantly faster route to my original plan, I feel that it's the right thing for me right now. I want to move, my foot will be in the door for a teaching job in Gainesville, and I want to continue my relationship (preferably not long-distance). I've been asked by several people if I am becoming more nervous about my move as the day grows closer. The answer for me is no. I honestly feel nothing but excitement and a tremendous sense of opportunity with this giant move out of my comfort zone. I will miss family and friends a lot, but I feel comfort knowing I'm a short (ish) plane ride away. I hope to stay up-to-date with my fellow special education girls as we all begin post-college lives. More soon!