craaaazy week

sorry about the lack of posts again! this has been an insane week at school. we have a wonderful chorus parents organization, and apparently every year they host a K-7 variety show and a 8-12 variety show to raise money. i guess in the past it has brought in thousands of dollars for us. this is great except that it requires a lot of outside-school commitment. there is an audition night, a dress rehearsal night, and a show night for each variety show (6 nights total). we had the two audition nights last week, and this week was the two dress rehearsals and the K-7 show last night.

i left my house at 6:45 yesterday, and didn't get home 'til after 10 p.m.

so yes, i was a little tired after a week like that!

however, i slept in this morning, and i've been relaxing on the couch for the last couple of hours with my decaf tea.

i heart saturdays.

I Got a Job!!!

It has been two years and three months since I graduated from school (wow, exactly three months), but yes, I FINALLY HAVE A CONTRACTED JOB!!!!! God is faithful!!!

I got the call this morning!!!!!!!! I finally get to do this! :) Even though I've taught music in a public school before, that was always a long-term sub position. It was mine, but not really. This is my classroom(s), my kids, my program, from the beginning of the school year 'til the end!

I am just...giddy with excitement. As my mom said, "This has been a long time coming!"

Praise the Lord!!

The high-school music teacher (who is super sweet) left me with her number the other day, so I called her back. She is going to take me on a tour of the campus (K-12 is on the same campus) and show me my classrooms and introduce me to the principals and let me ask her questions. :) Then on the 19th I go in with the other "new hires" and sign my contract and learn about the district, and then on the 26th, THE KIDS COME!! I can't wait!!!!

Thanks for praying! :)

Craaaaazy Times

Well, this is shaping up to be quite the week! On Thursday (our home phone had conveniently bit the dust Thursday morning) I received a call message from the superintendent of the school district that interviewed me two months ago. He said that there had been a job opening with two applicants, and I was one of the applicants (I didn't understand at first, either) and could I please call him back at the office or at home? Well, we hung out with one of our best friends from college on Thursday (and saw Get Smart, which was hilarious), and bought a new phone on the way home (late that night) and plugged it in when we got home.

Early the next morning, our new phone rings while I'm eating breakfast. It's the superintendent, asking if I got the message! I explained about the phone dying, and he proceeded to tell me that the position I had previously applied for was now open and that he wanted me to come in and have a second interview. He mentioned salary and how he could make me "very happy."

So, I went in for my intereview today. Of course I was terrified! :) My head knows that God is totally in control of this whole thing (after all, I had already put it out of my mind), but that didn't help the butterflies in my stomach. I think the interview went well, and he told me that the board members had all given me excellent ratings on my past interview and that he really liked me. He also told me the salary, which is lovely. At least in my opinion. For a teacher. :)


Unfortunately, my competition (lol) is interviewing again tomorrow, so I won't know their decision until sometime after that. So if you feel led to pray that she oversleeps her interview or decides not to show up or something, feel free. hahaha

But seriously, if you want to pray that God leads this man to give me the job, that would be much appreciated!!!

Oh, the other news: At 2:00 today, Chris is signing the new contract for the house we've been looking at. He's bringing it home, and I'll sign it tonight, and our realtor thinks Fannie Mae will be willing to close by August 19th!!!! I could be a homeowner in two weeks or less! Which would really be amazing, because I haven't shared a fraction of all the troubles we've had with the search for a house.

So, by the end of this week, I could have a brand-new house coming and a brand-new job to start!!!!!

(Or I could potentially have neither. Which would be a real mood-killer. lol)

I'll keep you "posted"!! (Aren't I hilarious?!)

Update on the Ants

Well, the ants aren't gone. Yesterday I did kill about 45 (literally) within about 3-4 hours.

It. was. not. a. good. day.

My husband may or may not have gotten some desperate voicemails.

Anyway, I sealed, I killed, I sprayed, I doused papertowels in rubbing alcohol where there was a big gap between the carpet and wall (hard to describe). I bought some ant spikes and put them outside. I killed more ants. I started to feel like I was going nutso.

Chris came home and poured gasoline over the line of hundreds (literally - no exaggeration) of icky black ants walking in a line across the driveway into the corner of our bedroom wall.

That made me smile.

Has my landlord done ANYTHING yet?

Nope.

God bless my friend Lindsay, who offered to let me come over tomorrow, since I don't have class, to watch Friends and escape my house. Friends and a place of escape. Now that's true friendship. ;)

(By the way, Mary, I'm taking a 3-credit math class for the entire month of June to satisfy the 6-credits of math required by PA for me to be a music teacher and/or subsitute teacher next year. You don't even want to get me started on their logic for that!)

Thanks for sharing your stories, you guys! It really makes me feel better to know you guys have dealt with this, too. I keep telling myself it could be worse.



It could be spiders.

Thank you soooooo very much

Well, it really went pretty well over all! I was interviewed by two board members, the superintendent, the high school music teacher, and the elementary music teacher (whose job I would be taking).  They all sat on one side of the 20-foot long board room table, and little old me all by myself on the other.  Talk about a scare tactic! lol The superintendent told me I was enthusiastic and sure of myself, and that he liked that in a person.  Bombshell of the evening: I had to sing and play the piano for them!!!! Can you believe it?! I mean, I see their point, but I was NOT expecting that at ALL.  Thankfully, the song they picked for me was quite easy, and then the el. teacher accompanied me as I sang "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music (she picked it out for me, since I totally blanked when they asked me what song I wanted to sing  - I mean, really!) .  They clapped afterwards.  It was really quite cute, although totally nerve-wracking.  

SO, that was my story, in a nutshell.  The whole thing only took about 30 minutes, and of course I came home early from visiting my family in CT to rush around, updating my portfolio, and do you think they even asked to see it?  Of course not.  

Well, at least it's ready for next time.  haha

Thanks for praying! You guys are the best! 

Butterflies in my stomach....

Tonight at 6 I have my first-ever public school music job interview. I am terrified. I fully realize that if this job isn't meant to be, it isn't meant to be, and I have peace with that part of it. I'm just more terrified about the interview itself. I mean, all I know is that it's in the board room. Does that mean the whole school board interviews me? Or just the superintendent? What kinds of questions will they ask? Will my portfolio be up to par with others'? Ahhhhhhhh! :)


So, if you think of me today or tonight, will you please pray? I already feel kinda sick to my stomach, and I'm hoping that when I go to work (last day at CB today!) my mind will at least be occupied with something else.

I'll keep you posted!

How Ironic

Yesterday I got a call from a superintendent in our area saying that I will be receiving a letter in the near future that details the times I can come in to interview for the music teacher position I applied for. (!)

I would very much like this job - we could definitely use the money, and it would probably be my last hurrah of teaching for oh, a few decades or so. ;)

Would you pray that I get it, if God wants me to? Thanks.





P.S. In my post yesterday, I was in no way implying that I would look down on anyone who works full-time and has kids (hopefully all of you know me well enough to know that!) I was merely commenting about how my own views had changed about the way my life was going to be. I certainly don't have all of this stuff figured out yet. :)

It's official! I have strep. First time in my life, in fact.

So now I can literally say that subbing is going to kill me.

Ha. Ha.

A little sick-bed humor.

I am now on amoxicillin for the second time in less than 30 days.

That's right, folks.

I am a pharmacist's dream.

Funny how I have been a Christian for nearly four-fifths of my life, and yet sometimes I am hit with the simplest of all ideas about my faith.

As I have written on here before, I substitute now, and it is usually no picnic. I consider myself to normally have very good classroom control, but when you are in a room full of adolescents who know that you're not 100% sure of what you're doing (even though you're acting your darnest, and can usually fool them!), it gets a little exasperating day after day. The boredom, the not knowing anyone's name, etc.

And so usually, I offer up tiny little snippets of prayer throughout the day. "Oh Lord, let me get through this. Let me have a good day. Please! "

On Monday morning, it dawned on me.....um, hi! Praying for myself all this time? What is wrong with me?!

On Monday, I prayed this: "Lord, please let me just bless at least one child today. Amen."

The day becomes an adventure. How many kids can I smile at? How many can I be extra-kind to? How many can I offer a compassionate word to?

It wasn't that I didn't do all of those things already. In fact, I think most teachers do, too. After all, you don't go into teaching because you hate children. It's just that they weren't intentional. I know what you're thinking: "Isn't intentional worse? Doesn't that mean that somehow you're faking?"

No. It means that rather than "be myself" and pray that I have a "good" day, the Lord and I are going to make a good day, rather than having the good day make me.

Today I Almost Poked My Eyeballs Out For Fun

.... or, "My Day as a Substitute High School Band Teacher."

Let me tell you, I think substitute teaching is actually under-rated. That's right.

I'm so tired of people with MORE college degrees than me, with a contract and yearly raises and great benefits, being CRAPPY teachers.

You cannot give high-schoolers 15 minutes of workbook assignments for an 82-minute block period. And I don't care if this isn't elementary school, it IS a good idea to have a seating chart so that the poor clueless sub can have the name of the bad kid to use when she needs to tell him to stop-talking-when-i-am-talking-and-get-off-your-desk-and-i-will-be-taking-your-i-pod-and-cell-phone-now-that-you-are-inappropriately-using-in-school.

And you'd better believe that when you leave "students may study" as your "sub plans" for your guitar class, that the students (God bless music students, the most responsible in the high school) are going to tell the sub, when asked, that those are in fact the everyday plans.

I'm tired of horrible teachers being paid to do a job that others would love to do - and do it well.

On the other hand, I DID get to observe the chorus teacher last period. And when I heard those 50 high-schoolers singing tight harmony for "Yesterday" and basically caressing the notes of a gorgeous medley of American folk songs, then I remember why I endure endlessly boring and stressful days of substituting.

For the chance to teach those kids some beautiful music again someday.

This blog has been so boring lately - sorry! I have been so busy this past week, and then for the past few days I've had a head cold. My head could explode into little bits at any moment. Did you catch the hyperbole? As in, "an exaggeration for effect?" Haha...I finally got to sub today (first time in a public school since May - hooray!) and that was what I taught 5 rotations of fourth graders. I was in a special education classroom, and for part of the morning, my job was to teach 4 fourth graders who struggle in reading. FOUR. As in 1, 2, 3, FOUR. Last year I had 744 students. This woman has it made, I tell you. I had a good time!