This and that and some BIG NEWS

When was the last time I blogged?  I ask you?  I will tell you what the problem is.  I need a new laptop.  I informed David mere moments ago, so I am sure he will get on that post haste.

SO MUCH IS HAPPENING EVERYDAY and I don’t even know where to start.  But here we go.

Little Dude’s Birthday

He is six now, if you can believe it.  He has been talking about going camping for his birthday since about January, so we made all of his dreams come true.  He is a very precious, albeit exasperating, boy.

We were headed to play basketball and this is how he prepared himself:

I made him take it off.  I figured it was the least I could do.  You know.  To attempt to ward off peer-based mocking and the like.

He was displeased with me.

Taylor’s Birthday

I turned 33.  This is old.  I don’t want to talk about it.

Road Trip!

My cousin was getting married so my parents and I, along with Sister Meagan, took the kids on a road trip.

Remember Sister Meagan?

David stayed home.  Because he is a party pooper and had to be all responsible and work.

Sister Meagan always THINKS she wants to see my kids, but she is just fooling herself.  I think she forgets about ALL THE NOISE and the fighting and the tattling and the GERMS (ahem, Little Dude) and about 5 minutes after seeing them, she is 100% done.

She was in a car with Handsome Dude and would share with me the strange, random things he would say.

Things such as:

“My dad smells like Justin Bieber.”

He is presh.

He missed his dad very much.  He wrote this note in the hotel room:

“My dad is gone.  I miss him.”

Later, he had a meltdown and told me that:

“I just want Mom and Dad to always be married and be with me for always.”

David and I are still, and always have been, married.  Just keeping you abreast of that situation.  I believe Handsome Dude was trying to express the fact that he would just like us to not be apart for any period of time.

Here are some random pics from the weekend:

Sweet Pea and I.  She is looking quite grown up these days.

Daisy Mae, Handsome Dude, and Little Dude.

Handsome Dude:  Mom.  I am only “smiling” like Dad now in pictures.

Well, son.  You nailed it.

And, yes.  Little Dude DOES have blue M and M goo all over his face.

And in a complete turn of events, here is a shot of Handsome Dude, apparently “putting out the vibe.”

Or something like that.

This wedding was gorgeous and outdoors, but THE WIND!  My hair looked all decent and presentable, but then THE WIND happened and, well,

I ended up with camping hair.  Which is a fine look for any formal occasion.

The BIG News

As some of you might recall, I graduated from college with my teaching degree about 11 years ago.  I never did teach because I started birthing babies directly after.  And the babies kept coming!  It was out of control!

We decided it would be best for me to stay home with them at least until everyone was in Kindergarten.  Well, when THE BABIES KEEP COMING, this seems like an eternity.

The children?  All in Kindergarten?  Will never happen.

About 4 years ago, we moved and I was a bit nervous to put my girls in school there so I decided to homeschool.  I have a love/hate relationship with homeschooling.  There are so many wonderful things about it, but it is SO HARD in so many ways.

Every 5 years, I needed to renew my teaching certificate.  This was always a hard decision for me, because it always cost me a lot of money and time, and I was sure I would never get the opportunity to teach.

Who would want to hire someone with zero teaching experience who had graduated 11 years ago?

Teaching was a goal I let go of.  I remember checking the website of the school nearby to see if they were hiring and wishing I was brave enough to try and apply.  But I could not imagine anyone ever thinking I was relevant.

As you might remember, I sort of hit rock bottom with homeschooling last September.  I think God had to get me to that place to get me to actually try the schoo.  So, in October, I enrolled all of my kids and signed up to be a substitute teacher.  This past year was incredibly difficult for me.  It was very scary to let go of homeschooling.  It was terrifying to start subbing.  It was difficult to see my kids struggle to adjust to public school.

But there was also a lot of good moments.

Seeing my kids make friends and enjoy their time at school.

Seeing my kids get excited about events at the school.

Learning that I COULD substitute teach!

I enjoyed going to the school everyday and I just LOVED all the other teachers and staff members.

I took a long term sixth grade sub position.  Apparently, it went well, or at least that is what the other staff members told me.  I have some suspicions that they were just telling me that because no one else WANTED TO GO DOWN THERE AND FACE 29 6TH GRADERS.  I was encouraged by many to apply for a full time position if one became available.

So, I did.

And last week, I had my very first grown-up-big-girl-adult-career-type-job interview.

It was horrific and terrifying.  I remember the room spinning and people writing down my answers to really hard questions.

Questions like:

“If we were to talk into your room during reading time, what would we see?”

My gut reply was: “Well, I hope you would see some kids reading?”

I am not even sure what my answer was.  The room was spinning, after all.  But I said something and tried to throw in fancy schmancy words like:

differentiate

collaborate

high-engagement strategies

Sounds impressive, right?

I did not think the interview went well at all.  I was very embarrassed afterwards and sort of wished I could crawl in a hole and die.

They said they would let me know in about a week.  Which was awful because that meant I would have to stay in my hole dying a thousand deaths for a WHOLE ENTIRE WEEK until someone finally called me to tell me I failed the interview and didn’t use the super-impressive word “differentiate” correctly in the sentence and I needed to stay home for all eternity.

But the principal called me the very next day.  I missed his call, as luck would have it, because I was rototilling my ridiculous garden that I don’t have time for.

I was sure he was going to tell me it was a big fat NO.  I actually wrote out what I was going to graciously say when he told me no.

I understand.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to apply.

But, instead, he offered me A JOB!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Me?!

I will most likely be teaching Kindergarten next year.  There is a chance I will teach 1st, but 99% sure it will be Kindergarten.

I seriously cannot believe it.  I feel very blessed.  I was able to get my degree, have my children, stay home with my children until they were all in kindergarten, and now I am able to use my degree.  I am very excited!

David is STILL all that is redneck-hillbilly

This is the view out my window right now:

 

Random soda cans hanging from branches for to shoot at.

*sigh*