It's August!!!

At lot has happened in the last week.
First, I went to my school's meeting, met my team again, met other teachers-many of which I don't remember the names of, and realized that I have A LOT to do. This school is VERY big on doing things together as a school, doing things for the students, and try not to overwhelm the students the first two days of school but rather make them aware of everyone in the building including their peers. It's all strategy and scheduled. I honestly can say that if this year goes as the principal hopes, it will be a very successful year for those students attending this school. I'm very happy about that. I have to take the time and write up my course description with my classroom guidelines.

Then, I've been working A LOT and with that I'm taking most of this week off to go home and see my family because I miss them and I need some time with them before I begin my career. Greg will go home the week I start which is sad for me because I really wanted him around during my first week.

This weekend was tax free weekend which I had never heard about before. I tried to get out and go shopping but it didn't happen as much as I wanted. Two problems: I worked for most of the day on Friday and Saturday and then in the time that I went out I couldn't find anything that actually fit. I don't know what happened to me over the summer and that paired with the fact I'm short and petite, finding clothes that fit nicely is basically impossible. My friends say to just get them tailored but if I'm spending just as much or more on tailoring my clothes as that piece of clothing cost then thats way too much money for me to spend.

I've been trying to follow the presidential campaigns and this is what I've realized. All of McCain's followers are defensive. The way they begin speaking about McCain's campaign is by putting Obama down. Personally, I don't think that says very much about the republican character for this election. The commercials have the same aura to them, as well. Can't they just advertise the good in the republican campaign rather than working on putting Obama down. Obviously there are some avid McCain followers but after seeing this my vote thus far was confirmed. Sorry to all those republicans out there, but if putting other's down as a way to get yourself to look better is your tactic-its a bad one.

11 days until I have to start school. Crazy.
Should I go shopping right now?? I haven't decided yet but I need to very soon so I can be back before Greg gets back.

Later.

Tomorrow Will Be Long

Tomorrow will be a long day. I have The Big Game to attend as an orientation/professional development to the school I will be teaching at and then I have work right after that working the banquet. The professional development sounds like it should be really fun. At least they made it sound like it'll be fun because they are calling it "The Big Game!". I think the topics will be the most helpful to me, as well, especially because I'm a first year teacher and I seriously am lost. This lost feeling isn't getting any better either because everyone that said I could contact them anytime aren't around to answer any of my questions or concerns. I'm taking this all in very slowly and I have a feeling I took it a little too slowly because I start in TWO weeks!!!

I've been very lethargic this summer and I really am not happy about it. I had so much planned for me to do but I was easily consumed by my 13 inch television on a daily basis.
Honestly, I do work my best during the late hours of the night as I am a night crawler...which is funny because I remember when I filled out a roommate survey for Drake to find me a roommate I purposely wrote that I went to bed early so I could have a roommate that wasn't a total party girl and later...four years later, came to find out that Annelise had done the same! See how beautifully that turned out! We both lied to get a good roommate. I'm sure everyone does it.
This sort of makes me go on a side tangent, which is a notorious characteristic of good teachers, that freshmen year Annelise and I hated each other. We complained up the wazoo to everyone about each other and really wanted the other out but didn't want to be the one to say anything because then that person would have to be the one to find another living arrangement-all of which was way too complicated to figure out. We didn't room together our sophomore year because of that and then roomed junior and senior year together. She is one of my really good friends at Drake...good enough that I'm putting her on my teacher desk at school, but she doesn't know that. I guess Annelise and I never really tell each other how much we mean to each other but we do enjoy each other's company. I believe the thing that brings us together the most is our family life-being able to confide in each other, knowing that the other won't tell anyone else, but that the other will understand the emotion wrapped up around the situation.

Well, now somehow it has turned about to be a quarter till 11 pm and I need to fold the laundry and get my clothes ready for tomorrow...along with lunch, snacks, and supplies to take.

AHHHHH. I don't want to grow up. Life is tough being an adult. I tip my hat to all the adults that live it everyday.

Day Off!

I set my alarm clock on my phone last night hoping to wake up early enough to get some stuff done before work today. But, of course, after the Funny Bone last night I forgot to turn on the Alarms sound feature. I didn't wake up super late, but it was dark because it was raining and I definitely thought I had more time. I decided, whatever, I'll get my stuff done when I get it done. Well, it turns out that because of the rain I got the DAY OFF!!! I was scheduled for the beer cart today that made it all work out since no sane golfer was out there golfing in the rain. Because of that I got emails sent, phone calls made, and now I have to PLAN because I start in about two weeks!, and I need to finish up some crafts I've been putting off. I'm really excited for my day off. I need to go to my school as well to get some books and such, but I don't want to go alone and I need someone tall to help me get my posters up. So, I probably won't go today.

I'm going to try and use this internet as long as it lasts (because these last few days my internet has not been working) and try to see if I can locate the worksheets and powerpoints online for the Holt edition of math books. As for Geography, I have no idea what to do.

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Last night I went to the Funny Bone with Cammeo and Corie and the second comic was from Iowa. Both comics were very clean, very funny men and I really appreciated that.

Last night I think was the first conversation that didn't have to do with school but living in the real world.
Cammeo talked about how her work is SUPER stressful and how for the past month she's been trying to help this one group with interpreters and then found out that they had been shopping around. She was wound up!
Corie landed a job in Iowa City and is moving next weekend away from us :( She'll be doing video promotion for the local news channel, so that should be exciting.
Me: I'm trying to come to reality and realize that I need to get moving on plans since I'll have about 120 students to take care of.
AHHHH..

We played catchphrase and Corie and I dominated! Whoohoo..I love word games!

Here are pictures from yesterday.


My girls! Game night will never be the same without Corie. I'm sad she's leaving but really happy for her that she landed a job doing what she's good at.


Greg in his Best Buy clothes. He's driving to work and we're going GREEN so I'm carpooling with him so Corie can pick me up and drive down the street to the Funny Bone. Then, Greg will pick me up from Corie's because that's on the way home! We are SO good at saving gas :)
*Check out the hair on his head!!*

I'm being the snap-happy photography during the car ride.

Henry Doorly Zoo-in Omaha

I spent this last weekend in Omaha, Nebraska to see the famous Henry Doorly Zoo. Everyone I talked to said it was an amazing zoo, but I have to say it wasn't anything more special than Lincoln Park or Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. It was huge, but only because it was extremely spread out. The habitats weren't that big either, which was kind of sad for some of the birds. We saw mostly everything, except the aviary, but I crossed that off my list even before my trip began because I hate birds. I would have a panic attack if I went in and just didn't feel like dealing with that because I already had to deal with claustrophobia in some of the biospheres they had.

Anyway, I really liked how you could get close to some of the animals. There was an animal with horns, I don't know what it was because there weren't many signs allowing us to know what we were looking at, but anyway, it was super close to the fence that we could touch its horns. Unfortunately, we have some ignorant people and they would grab the horns and make the animal turn its head back and forth. Rather rude if you ask me. Would you like if someone grabbed your horns and made you sway your head side to side? I don't think so.

We also saw the new Batman movie: The Dark Knight. Good movie. I don't know if I'd call it the movie of the year, but it was good.

Here are some pictures from the zoo so you can experience it too!




This are a little out of order that happened while uploading, but pictures just the same.


Coy!
Thousands of them...everywhere! Here is just one small frame of them.


Elephant! One of my favorites along with the giraffe. Soon as I saw those two I was completely satisfied.

Gregory and I with rhinos in the background.


One of my favorites. Its funny because I always tell Greg he has monkey arms and here is proof that he does!


Gorilla glaring at us. I have others that show his massive arms, but I thought his face was priceless in this one.


Albino crocodile...this section of the zoo was called the night crawlers, but the sad part was that it was so dark you couldn't really see anything unless it was huge or white like this crocodile.


I don't know what these are called but they were GINORMOUS!!!


Parrots. Very beautiful...even for birds.


Giraffes!! My other favorite. Aren't they gorgeous???

These were the horned creatures that everyone was touching. I think they were just trying to stay cool in the shade and by the concrete but the pedestrians took advantage of that.



Emperor penguins! I took these pictures for Shelley. She LOVES these guys.

Shark!!


Jellyfish. Some are dead :(


I forgot what these guys are called, but they're super cute. (meerkats?)


The famous polar bear. He was certainly there to entertain the crowd by showing off his swimming skills.


Black bear! He was eye level to us in his habitat eating fruit. He looked like a cub.


The pacing white tiger. I think we got the most action out of this guy who just wanted to go in.


Puffin Penguin showing his power. Clearly a male trying to dominate.


I'm as big as an emperor penguin!!


But I'm bigger than these little guys!

Tired, Drake Renovation, and Happy Birthday Julie

I'm exhausted. I babysat for almost four hours today and then went straight to the country club to do almost 5 hours of the beverage cart. During my drive on the cart I started having sharp pains in my stomach. I don't know what it is. It's just about gone now, but I'm thinking that maybe it was because I was hungry. The funny thing is that I actually had breakfast and lunch today, and I still got those pains. I wasn't very happy and neither were the golfers. It was mens' night and they men were pretty grumpy as well. After talking to some of the girls working there, they said it seems as if everyone was just in a bad mood today. That's unfortunate. I wasn't on my game of reloading the cart like I usually do. I let my beverage cart get empty. I usually always keep it completely filled, but I didn't.
When I got to work the girl before said the cart was all stocked. I looked at it and it wasn't very stocked at all, but everyone kept saying it was stocked so I left it and went on route. The beverages disappeared very quickly and the men were not happy. Oh well, what can you do? I can't have a good day everyday.

I found out that I can still teach in China after a couple of years. Well... at least according to one of my friends that is leaving for China very soon. My goal in life is to travel and I think after I get my two years of mentoring done, I will go to China to teach there for a year with the program that Drake provides! How exciting. I was told that I won't really make any money while working there, but my living will be paid for, along with a stipend. Personally, I think as long as I'm smart the next two years with my spending habits I can do it!
The only part that bothers me about not making money while I'm there is that yesterday I received a phone call from Iowa Student Loans and they told me how much I owe them, which doesn't include my Perkins loans either. My goal is to pay it all off within 7 years. I picked seven because that amount seems more realistic considering my salary.

Speaking of salary, I googled my name and it came up with my salary! Talk about privacy while being a teacher-It doesn't exist!!

Greg and I went on campus yesterday and I saw SO many of my friends that I thought I wouldn't see much anymore. We also saw the demolition that is happening on campus. They are taking out the street lies between Cowles Library and Morehouse Hall and replacing it with grass and pathways for walking. During Street Painting one year Linda, Corie and I painted our initials onto the sidewalk outside Jewett Hall and now its going to be taken out! They put orange fencing around everything that is to be kept and it seems as though the Arthur Anderson Time Element will not survive the renovation. It was put in four years ago-it was supposed to tell us events, time, and temperature. I think the only that really worked on it was time...and only sometimes. Our past presidents platform was to fix the time element and during his speech at graduation he announced that it was not fixed. What a way to stick to his platform, right? I'm just kidding. I hope they replace it with something that works.

Tomorrow is Julie's birthday!! I'll be calling her at midnight to wish her a wonderful birthday :)
Here is my best friend who is turning 22 tomorrow!!

This is from a couple years ago at Spring break at my mom's house!

Who's More Successful?

I read this article a couple days ago. It was posted on msn.com by careerbuilder.com and its about how high school groups affect who you become in the future. I think its worth the read, along with a few, "oh really?!" I guess you can be the judge on how correct it is. What group were you in during high school??

Who's More Successful: High School Geek, Jock, or Class Clown? by Rachel Zupek


Enjoy!

Oh my brother

My mom was supposed to come visit me this weekend and I was SO excited because I am very much homesick right now, but of course, something happened and she did not come. I could just say that my brother is a brat and leave it at that, but I think that is unfair. Here is the brief back story. Since I am not home this summer, my day enrolled my brother in day camp. My brother has already missed a total of 10 days of camp because he didn't want to go-so my dad was not happy because he pays for my brother to go every week. In order for my mom to be able to come she would have to bring my brother too, because my dad works and my brother isn't old enough to stay home alone..BUT my brother said he can't miss his day camp because my dad would get mad (which never concerned him before)...but the real reason why he didn't want to come was because he finally passed his swimming test so he could go in the deep end of the pool at Seascape!!! This is a water park about 5 minutes away from our house that he could go to any day, really. He convinced my mom to stay home because of this. THEN, to make matters worse, the Seascape trip was canceled because it was raining! SO they could have come anyway and didn't. The reason this upsets me so much was because my mom said she would only come if I had the day off. Well, I had all of Thursday off, and I didn't have to report back to work until 6 pm on Friday, so I would have had almost 2 whole days with my mom..but no-they didn't come. I am bitter. Done deal.

Anyway, yesterday at work I had to work the banquet. There were supposed to be 80 people there...I don't know if there actually were, but all they did was stand around and talk over music and drink the entire night. I made good tips, so that made me happy. I decided to save my tips for my Omaha trip next weekend! I'm really excited to go but I need to get my car fixed first.
Last night driving home from work, my right signal blinker was blinking crazy fast every time I used it-so now I'm afraid on how much all my repairs will cost. EWWWW. Having a car is great, but costs too much. I need to call my dad today, because I keep forgetting to in time. Right now he's taking his nap, so I have to wait until 3ish to call him.

I have work tonight too. The party is only 41 people. I have no idea what kind of party it is, but it is a sit-down. I hope it doesn't last too long.