Decision

Well, I had my interview this morning and was already notified I didn't get the position. Bummer, but I've been checking into some other leads. I want to be working full-time (or at least 30-35 hours) when school starts.  Actually, I'd like to be independently wealthy and do volunteer work but that isn't the case.

The day was still good. I had book club and took the kids swimming at the wave pool. We had Little Caesar's for supper. I actually referred to it as Little Murphy's when Aleah asked where we were getting pizza from tonight. I also made two rhubarb pies this morning. I need to try some new zucchini recipe tomorrow and possibly can some pickles on Friday. Sadie will also be going to the vet for a shot as well.

I know God has a plan for me and it wasn't this teaching position. I'm not sure what it is at this point, but there is one so that's all I need to know for now.

Sold!

Just wanted to add a picture to the blog-it's been a long time. This is my mom and the kids getting close to two years ago. It was in September 2010. She had sold her house-the one she and dad had bought in December 1973. It's weird to know that someone else is living there now and we don't have a place to go to in Williston, but we like having her near us.

The kids have grown a lot since then.  Gerrit is about a whole head taller than my mom and Aleah is also taller. Donovan isn't far behind either.

I'm ready

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon preparing for my interview. I was preparing yesterday too! I am so glad I met with a Kindergarten teacher I know so she could give me some pointers. The last three years of subbing I feel like I've become familiar with all the "new" teaching methods and I am ready to have my own classroom again.

I've been looking up lessons to do with my class and there are so many things I want  to do. Please pray that all goes well tomorrow and they love me or at the very least want to hire me for another position.

The week in review

Gerrit successfully finished his driving class-this doesn't mean he's ready to get his license.  He still needs to work on a few things, and I'm still scared to ride with him.

Wendy came for a couple days. We had a blast. We went to Summer Theater-The Sound of Music, had pedicures, went to the Olive Garden, saw a movie, and had a lot of good conversation.

I'm painting Aleah's closets doors white. When we moved in 12 years ago we took the closet doors off the kids closets (Aleah got her fingers squeezed in them when we were looking at the house to buy) and now Aleah wants hers back on-she's old enough not to squeeze her fingers anymore. We had painted her trim white years ago when we remodeled her room so I'm painting the doors white so they match.

I still have not heard either way about the job, but I got a phone call Wednesday morning that I have an interview for a Kindergarten job in one of the Bismarck elementary schools and I am so excited!!!!  That would be a dream come true for me to have my own classroom in the Bismarck Public Schools. The weird thing, I think, is that the principal was going to interview me even though she didn't think I had a Kindergarten endorsement. I actually am certified K-8. I hope that helps my chances. Please say some prayers for me.  My interview is on Wednesday morning. I'm meeting with a friend of mine that teaches Kindergarten to gets some pointers from her on Monday. I didn't sleep very good the first couple of days after I found out since I was so excited. Ideas just coming pouring in about things I could do in class and how I would set up my room. This is the first real interview I've had with the school district. I'll say it again-I am so excited!

We need to start planning and packing for our upcoming trip to Wisconsin. Can't wait to see how much my nephews have grown since Christmas. We may get in a side trip to Chicago. There's so much to do there, but Donovan's biggest wish is to see Soldier Field where the Bears play.

I read the book Courageous this week. Bruce and I saw the movie in theaters awhile ago. It was really a good movie-done by Christian director and actors.  I'll have to pick a new book tonight or tomorrow to start on next.

Driving School and more organizing

Gerrit is done with day two of driving school-one day left. He says it's going well. The instructor only had to use the brake once yesterday and not at all today. He even did parallel parking. Gerrit said the guy has been doing this since 1970-42 years-and has never had an accident with a student. I'm praying all goes well tomorrow so Gerrit wouldn't be his first. I wonder if I'll be ready to ride with Gerrit now after his driving lessons??

More organizing going on around here. The boys and Samantha each got another book case in their rooms-it looks much better!  Aleah and Samantha also got some shoe organizers for their rooms so that helps. Why do girls have so many more shoes than boys?? Between the two boys they maybe have 6-8 pair of shoes. Samantha has at least 20 pairs-she's got about five pairs of flip flops and a lot are hand me downs from Aleah but still. I admit I have a fair amount of shoes.  Each time I go through them I get rid of more. I only ever wear about five different pair on a regular basis. I'm no Imelda Marcos, but I think the 20+ pair I have I could get down to 12 or so.

Still no word on the teaching job-no rejection either. There's still jobs posted so I'm still looking. I really want to be teaching or employed full-time with a school this fall. I wish I just knew though. I would like some time to plan instead of getting hired a few days before school starts.

I finished reading Dreams of Joy. I really liked it! I just finished reading Come Home by Lisa Scottoline for   my one book club this morning. I had never read anything by her before and am not sure if I will again or at least for awhile. It was just okay. It kept me interested, but seemed a bit far fetched.

Wendy, my roommate and close friend from college, is coming for a visit tomorrow for a couple days!  I did see her in April when we met in Minot for lunch and to see our friends houses that were remodeling after the flood. We've got a lot planned.

Remembering

July 15th can never pass without me remembering what happened on this day in 1988. It was a very sad day. It was a hot summer day and a few weeks before my senior year. I was riding around with some friends  that evening when another friend told us to pull over. I didn't know this other person very well so she was probably surprised by my reaction to the news she told us. She started saying she heard some bad news and was really bummed. She then told us that Renee Rodahl, Renee's mom, and Renee's sister had been killed in a car accident. She said the whole family was in the car when it happened. She didn't know that my family was good friends with the Rodahl family.

It was such a shock for me to hear. I couldn't take it all in and I started hyperventilating. My friends drove me home very fast. It was close to midnight so my parents were sleeping. I woke my mom up and told her. She and Kathy had been friends for a long time. They got married the same year-Kathy and Gerry in February and my mom and dad in December. Kathy had Renee a week before my parents got married so Renee was a year old than me. She had just graduated from high school when she died.

We didn't know when we got to sleep that night which of the other girl had been killed or how the rest of the family was.  By morning, it was on the news that there had been an accident near Jamestown (the Rodahl's were going to Fargo for the weekend-they loved taking vacations) that had claimed six lives. We found out Kathy, 44, Renee, 18, and Peggy, 13 had died. Gerry was still in critical conditon. Heidi, 15, Corey, 10, and Jamie, 8, were injured, but would be okay. The accident happened around two in the afternoon and the three drunks in the other car were also killed.

Gerry never fully recovered. He was paralyzed from the waist down and had severe brain injuries. He had to be in the nursing home for the next eight years until he passed away. That left three children without parents and two of their siblings. Heidi lived with Kathy's parents but they were older and couldn't handle two younger boys. The boys had live in help until they graduated from high school. I always felt so bad for them. There lives changed in a split second.

I've always been totally against drinking and driving-nothing good comes from it. Lives and families are torn apart. The three drunks that died had prior drunk driving arrests, but it didn't seem to stop them. It still happens all the time. Just last week a family in North Dakota was killed by a drunk driver. Senseless!

It's hard to believe it's been so long ago that it's happened. I'm now only three years from the age Kathy was when she died.. She was young. We missed out on a lot of years with our friends.

Waiting

I'm still waiting to hear if I got the job I interviewed for a month ago. The school board met last night and since I haven't gotten a phone call today so it's not looking likely. Bummer! I feel like emailing the business manager again so I just know. What to do?

It took me two days to finish Aleah's room, but it looks fantastic!! It's so refreshing. It feels tropical and youthful to me. She did a good job of helping.

Today I had to take Donovan to get a new nosepad on his glasses. He got scratched bad on the trampoline last night from the one that was missing-I didn't know it was missing.  The kids all had their dental checkups too. No cavities-four kids and not one has ever had a cavity. Three out of four of them are not regular brushers either so they are lucky.  Samantha had to have sealants put on her molars. I didn't think anything of it since they've all had it done and there's never been any problems. Samantha was the exception. She really got anxious and they just couldn't get her to calm down. She didn't like them drying her mouth out or the cotton they put in so they had to give her some nitrous oxide to calm her down. It was really hard watching her. She was fighting that too, but they managed to get it done.

We also got a trip in to the library and to the swimming pool. What a nice day to cool off in the pool. We picked up the Weaver kids and they came too. Barb is busy getting her house in order for her dad's visit next week.

What to do tomorrow besides laundry?  A bit more job searching and I have a bunch of phone calls to make. Maybe I'll clean the living room carpets. Donovan is having a friend over and wants scotcharoos so I'll make those in the morning. Samantha is also going to see if a classmate from school can come over. Gerrit works and is going to stay over at my mom's tomorrow night.

I started reading Dreams of Joy by Lisa See. It's a sequel to Shanghai Girls that I've read a couple of years ago. I'm liking it so far. I know when I finished Shanghai Girls I wasn't happy with the ending so I'm glad she wrote another book.

A mixed up busy week!

This past week was a bit mixed up. Independence Day was on a Wednesday so all that day it seemed more like Saturday or Sunday so I was confused what day it was half the time. We had a nice July 4th. We had a bunch of people over in the evening. We had Bruce's parents, my mom, Bruce's brothers Harvey and Doug, and we had the Weaver Family over. We had a great time!  I think it's been almost ten years that we've started having the Weavers come. It was before Sydney and Samantha were in the picture.

I've started getting ready to paint Aleah's room. I've got it almost all taped and stuff is pretty much out of there that will get in the way. It's going from pink to cool lagoon. We'll post pictures. I hope to get it all done tomorrow. I'm priming it first to cover all the pink!

Yesterday we took a long drive-like a 500+ mile drive up to the oil patch and back. We wanted to check things out. It was just Bruce, my mom, Samantha and me. We took mom's Edge. The others didn't want to be gone that long-it's kind of boring. They had a nice quiet day at home-I think they mostly kept to themselves. Samantha was so good. We took a picture of mom, Sam, and me in front of dad's first well.

I did finish Under the Twisted Cross this week. If I had to choose between being a Japanese or German POW I would have picked the German POW. They both had it really bad, but the Japanese were a little worse.  I also started Still Missing by Chevy Stevens yesterday and finished today. It was so good. Now to pick another book.

Good and Bad

Here's a link to an interesting news story that was on CBS the other night.  Northwestern North Dakota's oil boom is both good and bad. I for one wouldn't want to still live in Williston, but it's sure helping solve the unemployment problem.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57465653/n.d-oil-boom-highlights-price-of-prosperity/

Preparation

The day went so fast!  I took Gerrit to Penneys to buy him a much needed new shirt and shorts for work. I then took all the kids to Sam's Club to get some food for our Independence Day celebration. After unpacking our goods, I drove Gerrit to work and Aleah and Donovan to the library.  The rest of the afternoon and early evening I did laundry, baking, cooking, and a bit of cleaning.

I've now spent a little time looking for teaching jobs. Just for fun I was looking at some of the school websites in the oil patch.  There are tons of elementary jobs open! Unbelievable!  I am rarely ever in the right place at the right time or so it sometimes seems. When I graduated from college-oh, so many years ago-there were absolutely no openings for elementary teachers in Williston, Dickinson, Crosby, Ray, Tioga, Stanley, Powers Lake, etc. NONE!!! I'm not kidding, Once a teacher got in they stayed for 20-40 years and when the population rarely changes there's no need to hire new teachers.

I wish some of the people who want into the school systems around here, that are able to move, would go up there so I someday might get a job around here. I do know that God has a perfect plan for me. I'm not sure what it is, but there is one. It's just strange how things are now. I hope that the western part of the state can find the teachers they need to accommodate all the new students.

On that note about all the jobs in the oil patch, there's a news article out there that listed the top 15 Hottest American Cities of the Future-Williston made the list at #15-some of the other cities were Portland, Seattle, Raleigh, etc.

Half gone

The summer is not quite half gone but the year is!  It's July and the temperatures we've been having lately make it feel like it. I'm not a fan of cold weather, but hot weather isn't my thing either. When it starts creeping into the 90's I feel like melting, especially if it's humid. I'm thankful for air conditioning.

In addition to all the activities last week, I had a rummage sale too. Lesson learned-do not have one near the Fourth of July holiday. The rummage sale was kind of a bust, but I am happy that I got rid of some stuff from my house and it looks much better around here. I won't be having another rummage sale for a long time. Aleah and I took all the stuff and donated what was left to a thrift store.

The church service was really nice this morning-very patriotic. There were a couple of special musical numbers and a good sermon.

The kids and I didn't make it to the river last week, but I did take them to the wave pool. They had a good time. I wish we had our own pool. It would be perfect on a day like today. The neighbors across the street got one this year, and their kids are all moved out of the house. There's one person in our house that is opposed to the pool.

The summer is going too fast! I want it to slow down. I did end up emailing the contact person for the school in which I had the interview.  They won't be deciding until the next board meeting which is July 10th. If I don't hear something by July 11th that would mean I probably didn't get the job. I hope I get it. I thought I did great at both interviews. In addition to the school board, I also had to interview with the county superintendent.

Since the rummage sale was slow and I'm a fast reader, I managed to read a lot this week. I finished The Amber Room. I also finished Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls for one book club. She also wrote The Glass Castle which we had read before. They were both good. I read The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson. It was very interesting and I happened to just pick it up from the library when I was helping Donovan find some books on Egyptian mythology. I just started Under the Twisted Cross by Margaret Barnhart. She's a North Dakota author and my friend Wendy read it for her book club. I love summer since there's more time to read. My other book club picked Come Home by Lisa Scottoline. I'm on a waiting list for that at the library. It's a newer book so hopefully I won't have to wait too long for that.

The first part of the week I'll be getting ready for our Independence Day activities. After that I believe I'll start getting ready to paint Aleah's room. She has officially outgrown her pink room. Samantha had wanted a pink room too, but we said only one pink room in the house. Samantha's room is yellow. I suppose she'll want a pink room next. I think Aleah is going with some kind of turquoise blue-a more subtle hue though.