Lets try this again

I have decided to join EHarmony again. I wasn't sure - I was feeling like it hasn't worked for me since I'm still single.
The Austin guy was not very interested in me. At first I wasn’t going to get back on the site. My odds were pretty good. I met three guys and two of them where interested in me. If you ask me 2 out of 3 is pretty good, especially in Vegas, and I’m a gambling type of girl. Wish me luck! ;-)

I'm in High School

One more thing. On Friday I went with some friends to see House Bunny. That movie is so awesome and very funny! Although I was sitting in the theater with all of those teenagers it really felt like I was back in high school in the auditorium.

Speaking of High School....

Last week I was being funny with the kids when I was taking them to P.E. I told them something about how tall I was that day (I'm almost 5'2 with no shoes on - and these shoes made me about 5'5 - 5'6). One girl told me that it was okay, I'm still growing.
After telling her several times that I'm done growing she still didn't believe me.
Another one told me I was in High School... If your ever feeling old just come visit my class - they will set you straight. ;-)

Whose going to protect us?

Saturday my sister and I (along with the two dogs) went camping. It was fun to go up north in the cooler weather. Dad got some nice camping stuff a few months back and let us take it. Now my whole life I never remember Dad going camping. So it's kind of weird that he had to spend money to buy things like a huge tent, three cots (we are a family of 5 - why 3?) and then some cool sleeping bags with memory foam. It sure made camping a lot easier. It was a nice drive since he let us take moms car. He was actually really cool about everything. At 11 o'clock or so a car drove by and Deuce started barking thirty seconds after it past by. I started getting a little paranoid and was thinking to myself what the hell are two girls doing in the woods. It didn't feel very safe. It's never a good feeling to go to sleep and wonder if you will see the morning without anything happening. Maybe these feelings are why I do not like scary movies....?

What Twlight character are you?

You're Alice Cullen - You are vivacious and full of energy! Your childlike way of looking at life makes you both amusing and special to your friends. You make an excellent friend, although you do have a tendency to get uppity if you're not immediately given your way- people often give into you for your charm.

Almost there

Sometimes I do not give myself enough credit. I am usually pretty hard on myself. I have some great traits but it’s those bad ones that I like to focus on and improve. Not because I have “the glass is half-full” kind of attitude but because I am always trying to better myself. Sometimes I don’t take time to realize what my recent accomplishments are.

I keep finding myself dwelling on the fact that I am now bringing home $400 a paycheck. It’s hard not to compare that to other people who are the same age. Often what I forget to realize is how far I have come in the educational aspect of my life. I have almost done a 360-degree turn in my career goals (office worker to teacher). There have been a lot of baby steps on this path and so often the small accomplishments are overlooked. I have less than 4-months to go. That in it’s self is amazing since I’ve been on this quest to be a teacher since the fall of 2004. And the best part is I’ve been so happy these past 4-weeks. It’s been amazing!

I think this deserves a reward!!!! ;-)

Student Teaching 101

We have a class pet. It's a Guinea pig and she is lots of fun. The best class job is taking care of her. I put some thought each week into who i want to do which job. Some kids cannot handle certain tasks - there are all sorts of jobs. Right now since school is still new

• I will not have a shy kid be the pledge leader
• A bossy girl is not going to have jobs where she can be mean to the other kids

Each week the kids want to know who gets to take care of the class pet. It's a big deal! What they don't know is that I pick the shy kid or the ones that have low self esteem. It really makes them feel good. It makes me feel great seeing them with their big smiles taking care of our cute little pig.

All the little things in the classroom take a lot of thought. One of the many things we don't learn in college.

~~~~~~
Q: What is the most stressful time in the classroom?
A: So, far it's art or cleaning up the room at the end of day! Who knew!

~~~~~~
One of the boys told me yesterday, "tomorrow is my birthday". Since i do not remember any other Birthdays for the month of August, I looked up on the sheet with the D.O.B. from the office. His Birthday was listed in April. Today he comes to class and tells us it's his Birthday. Come to find out it's a thing he is "celebrating" at home. He doesn't "want to wait" until April for his real Birthday. That's too far away! (why didn't i try that one when i was a kid?)

3rd grade is hilarious. I laugh every day. :-)

So close but yet so far

Sometimes to land a teaching job you have to be in the right place at the right time.

At the school I’m student teaching at – which I love. The principal decided to take the 2-1st grade classes and split them up to 3-1st grade classrooms. This means the principle has to hire another teacher. Had he decided to do this in 3 months AND he likes me I could totally have had my own little job. He did ask me a week or so ago what grade level I was interested in teaching…dang why didn’t say, “I love them all it would be too hard to choose”. ;-)

I’m kind of sad but not really. 1st grade would be hard for me. Still there would have been some familiarity and A JOB!!!

My Mr. Right

I want someone that... (in no paticular order)
truly understands me.
makes me laughs
knows that my friends, family, and dog are all important to me
likes what they do professionally
keeps swear words to a minimum
likes to travel
motivates me to workout
sees the good in everyone
allows me to grow
appreciates my differences
loves me unconditionally
successful
happy
not too many bags
prefer if they never have lived with a girl
prefer no kids
never married
prefer not to have been previously engaged
doesn’t smoke
isn’t vengeful
someone with a backbone (I do not want to be the dominating one)
thinks I’m as amazing
that I just adore and have to be with
wants kids or to adopt
encourages me to work on my flaws while believing that I’m amazing
someone who loves nature
someone who likes movies
someone who loves animals
a guy who gets me to try new things and breaks me out of my shell
doesn’t take it personally when I just want to be left alone
likes to learn and better themselves
a good hearted person
needs to be more outgoing than me
likes to plan things (bbq’s, trips, etc.)
nice eyes or smile
good teeth are very important

Where is August going?

Today my friend Shaunna told me she is rounding up a group for the ½ Marathon this January for the P.F. Changs Marathon and ½ Marathon (walk/run) this January. Apparently if you have a big enough team you get ten bucks off the admission. Do I have the guts to sign up? Last month at the gym I did 5 miles on the tread climber and it took me a little over an hour. It was really pretty easy (minus the 10-20 incline intervals). I have been gaining weight so it could serve as motivation. Guess I have a month to think about it.

Earlier this week I got to hang out with my friend that I’ve known the longest, Stella. We went swimming and then to In and Out Burger with my sister and parents. It was so great to see her and her kids. They are adorable, funny, and entertaining. Stella you make me want to hurry up and have my own kids. Oh wait, one problem…no man. :-(

Today I learned that PMS and student teaching are not a good mix. At least the day goes by so fast.

I'm so busy

Last night the family, minus Heather (since she is in another country), went to Red Lobster (yuck) to celebrate my parents’ 33rd wedding anniversary. Mom was twenty and dad was thirty when they got married. Maybe I can imagine being married at thirty but I could not imagine being married when I was twenty. Of course I was pretty immature back then and still am a bit. That makes life fun, right?

I am loving student teaching. I now teach a portion of Language Arts (the grammar – my worst subject area!!!). Luckily the book tells you everything you need to know. And this week I am going to start adding a reading group. I’m a little ahead of what ASU recommends as far as teaching but I need all the practice that I can get. My host teacher, who is amazing, is giving me lots of control.
I cannot believe that someday they are going to pay me to do this. I don’t want to only blog about student teaching and kids but that’s almost all that I’ve been up to these past few weeks. I cannot believe I’ve already been there for three-weeks. On Friday when I went to the lunch room the cafeteria manager told me, “Connie, (the cashier) just loves you and thinks you’re so cute!” Okay, outside of school life that doesn't sound too good but at school – well, it's totally acceptable. Apparently I’m just so sweet! :-)

Deuce is not really enjoying this new schedule. It feels like I am still away from the house the same amount of time even though I'm gone a lot more. And now have somewhere to go every day of the week - making him not a happy camper. When I get home he HAS to be wherever I am at. This morning (well I should say afternoon) when we got up he didn’t want to leave me and wanted to be in our room. I guess he thought we should hang out all day together in there (normally he only wants to be in our room to sleep or to play with his gigantic bunny - i should post a picture of him trying to carry that giant thing around...it's hilarious). Hopefully he gets use to our new schedule soon.

Tonight my online class ends or well the final and then 3 chapter summaries are do. That sounds like exactly how I want to spend my Saturday night. I am looking forward to not having any more classes.

I'm dying to see my friend Stella who is in Town. She is only like 20-25 minutes away from where I live. She wants to hang out when she is over on the east side of town. Sure does suck too have to wait. What is that saying, good things come to those who wait? ;-)

3.14159

Some of my friends are going camping this weekend. I was invited but I have to work Friday and Saturday night so I can't go. Which makes me sad. It would be great to get out of this 100+ degree weather and go up to the pines.

I started thinking about the last time I went with them and how some of their friends asked me if i wanted some pie. I remember there was two flavors - how fancy! Pie sounded perfect, at the time and I was really looking forward to it.

They brought me over my pie. I couldn't believe what I saw - pie filling in-between two pieces of white bread that was put in the sandwich grill. Well, looks aren't always everything so i tried it. It was so nasty I had to throw it out and then I couldn't stop laughing about how nasty it was and that they thought it was good stuff. So much for thinking they were gourmet campers.


Over the weekend I went out and some guy told me:

• you're pretty
• you seem cool
• you're intelligent
• you're young your only 29 years old
• What are you doing with a 43 year old?

Very true (well i don't mean that in a vain way - but like wow, that was a good point kinda of way). I'm over it. Maybe I was in but in denial from the gecko.

Monday is coming too quickly

It's been rather boring at home with Kim being gone on the cruise for the past week. I am so glad that she got back home a few hours ago. Thanks for the shot glasses!

I had a great weekend.

Michelle (I miss you - when r u going to visit / or when can i come visit?) sent me a text on Saturday telling me that Costco had the Breaking Dawn book for $12 - so of course I had to go and buy it. I haven't had time to read much of it. I am sure I'll be done very soon. Two of my friends each went to separate release parties on Friday. They sure had some funny people watching stories to tell me about (people wearing prom dresses or mom's screaming when the books showed up).

Last night Shaunna and I went to a piano bar and had so much fun. I guess you could say I drank a bit too much - oops! I was messing with the parking lot attendant when we were getting ready to leave. We ended up saving 5-bucks because I asked him if there was a 'Saturday night special', guess it pays to be a girl.

Today I didn't get up until 1 in the afternoon - holy cow!