A Day in my Life

I wrote this May 17 but never had time to edit or publish.

6:00 Alarm goes off. Up. Read some scriptures for my lesson. Start cover letter for Resume to ELL director.

6:40 Shower

6:55 Wake Ryan, dress, make up, etc,

7:20 leave the house, drop off Ry, drive to school.

7:50 Pick up students (all 29), handle problems, work out lunch issues, finish 3 fluency tests

8:45 Morning meeting

9:10 - 11:00 Space unit with students

11 pick up sack lunches, take back to room and monitor kids while eating and recess. Show Spanish speakers new English games on computer and how to play.

12 Drop off kids at Super kids day. Run home to get dvds, laptop, portable dvd player, and Japan box.

12:25 pick up McDonald's lunch for Mrs. Brinson (another teacher) and myself - eat most of mine in the car.

1:00 unload everything ( 2 trips) set up "Tangled" movie (because Super Kids Fun day is cut short because of weather), help Meg (another teacher) with her dvd, open Japan box, set up Estella (part-time aide) with corrections, clean off desk.

1:30 Pick up kids early from super kids day. Bring back and handled problems, soaking wet kids, bathroom for everyone, move desks and set up for movie with popcorn. Review rules and necessary items for zoo tomorrow.

2:00 Start movie. I work on Zoo folder, groups, etc. at desk. Actually sit for first time all day. Monitor kids.

3:15 Movie is over. Parents picking up because of huge thunderstorm outside.

3:30 - 4 get kids out the door. People everywhere with parents trying to pick up kids. CHAOS!

4:30 Go to the bank and exchange Ryan's mangled $20. He ran over it with the mower on Friday.

5:00 Home. Cleaned up the kitchen and started the dishes soaking. Start a load of laundry

5:30 Set up the printer to the laptop and look up scout merit badges stuff. Print and staple packets of the current merit badges Ry is working on - Reading, Cooking, Personal Management, Personal Fitness, & Citizenship in community. Remind Ry to get uniform.

6:20 leave for Scouts

6:30 - 7:10 teach scouts Citizenship in the Community.

7:20 - 7:40 drive to North Edmond. Talk to friend Shara on the way and see how things are going with daughter difficulties.

7:40 - 8: 20 pick up Japan stuff from Garretts. Brenda shows me how to have the kids make a Samauri soldier hat. Go through stuff and she tells me what most of it is.Can barely get huge box into my car.

8:30 - 9:00 drive back to church. Talk to Cindy on the way. Oil light comes on 1/2 a block from the church.

9:00 - 9:30 Ryan and I clean the church - garbages, bathrooms, fountains, and general pick-up.

9:30 walk to nearest gas station and buy 2 qts. of oil. Return and put in car.

10 drive home. Ry grabs some food in front of an old episode of MacGyver. I wash the dishes, switch the laundry and sweep the floor. Make brownies.

11 get Ryan in bed. Finally sit down to check email. Respond to 2-3 emails. Read some of the SS lesson for Sunday.

11:30 get brownies out of oven. Go to bed. Actually lay in bed exhausted but unable shut off my brain for 30+ mins.

Crossroads Dreams #3

I have already established that I love to travel & experience new places. I spent some time looking into jobs with the American Schools in foreign countries but I discovered that I need to have a min. of 3 years teaching experience. So, undaunted, I have spent a few hours tonight looking into the Peace Corp. Oh, I love the idea. I am sure there are a million things that will go wrong but for the moment, it is so exciting to consider the possibilities. How cool would it be to live in Bolivia for two years? Or go back to Chile? Or to go to Africa? Can you even imagine???? I think that I will get our passports updated - you never know what adventure might be around the next corner.

I really can't believe I am doing this...

I just registered for a 5k race for next Sat. It is the "Race for the Cure" annual fund raising race for breast cancer. Why did I pick that race, you ask. Because it is the next race and if I don't do this now, I never will. I was shaking as I was typing in my info. I am so out of shape. I haven't been working out, or running or even walking long distances. But I desperately want to live the life I dream of. I don't want to come to the end of my life with a mountain of regrets and a puddle of accomplishments. Those who know me well, know I have an almost unreasonable fear of running. It is not fun in anyway, shape or form and my memories are filled with unpleasant associations with PE class. So for me, this truly is a personal Goliath.

And just to be clear on my goals here-
1. register (check)
2. show up
3. finish the race (and I do plan on walking most of it. If I want to run, I will.)

Afterward, I am going to come home & pass out in front of the computer and listen to conference.

Crossroad Dreams part II

It's a Small World-
I have always dreamed of traveling. I love the countries that I have visited- the adventures, the people, the traditions, the languages, the food, the history, the beauty. I spent hours one day reading this LDS family's blog who have spent the last year traveling the world. Their experiences were incredible and each post fanned the flame in my heart to travel. It is amazing to me, but a family of six traveled 6 continents for an entire year on less than $15,000 each. What an experience! Every time I read about their family's adventures, my heart skips a beat. I have followed another friend who has spent the last year + living in Morocco (her hubby is military) and they just adopted twin baby girls while they were there.

My dream has always been to take a year and live somewhere. At times I have wanted to sell everything, buy a motor home and travel the US & Canada. Other times, I have wanted to tour the world like the Sixintheworld. Either way, I really want to serve other people whether that is volunteering in an orphanage in India, building a house in Africa, helping at a school in Bolivia, or reading to elderly in a nursing home in Nebraska. To me traveling has always equated living life to the fullest, of appreciating every drop of life, of living without regrets. I have always wanted that & wanted that kind of experience for my kids.

So, now I find that I may be able to make this dream happen. It will take this next year (or possibly two) to get my final teaching certificate, but I am already investigating opportunities to teach for a year in different countries. There are American Schools & military bases around the world. There are countries who are always looking for American teachers to teach English in their country for 6 months or a year. And I think that Ry is catching the vision. We have been watching the touristy shows on PBS the last few months and he has made more frequent comments about wanting to travel. :)

Who knows what will happen. Obviously, the farm dream and the travel dream are polar opposites. I wouldn't really want a farm without a husband & large family to share it with anyway. But now I find that the travel dream may be opening up for me. I would LOVE to teach at the American School in London for a year or the Liahona Academy in Mexico. I would love to travel to Africa, Japan, China, France, Germany, Holland, Chile, Brazil. I would even love to teach in a remote town in Canada or Alaska for a year. I don't know if I have the guts to follow through with it, but I looooovvvve to think about it...

Crossroad Dreams - part 1

I have so many ideas about my life - dreams in vivid color & detail yet they all go in completely different directions. I would truly be happy with any of them - I am equally passionate about all of them and I feel that any of them could come to pass. But the question now - which should I pursue? So, I decided that I would take a few posts to write them out so that each would come to life, if only on this blog.

Country Farm-
My dream house is not very large because I am lazy and do not want to clean it. More than anything I want it to be as self-sufficient as possible. I am so sick of being a slave to electricity bills/outages.

I would like a modified A-frame with passive solar framing so that it will cool the house in the summer & warm it in the winter and passive solar houses don't look like an A-frame in the mountains. I would like to have radiant floor heating in a stained concrete floor - it is cheaper & if I don't like it, I can always put a hardwood floor over it. I want the ends of the house to be made from strawbales & rock as it is much cheaper & has an outstanding insulation factor.

I would like it to have a rainwater cistern that collects all the rainwater that is then used to flush the toilets or water my lawn & garden. I would like a windmill in the backyard that powers my house & sells electricity to the city! How cool would it be to finally get a check from the power company!!!!

I would also like a little cubby with a drain at the bottom built into the wall next to every toilet - it would be the plunger cubby. You need a plunger close by when there is an emergency, but where in the world are you suppose to put the nasty thing? Drives me crazy. Mine is currently sitting in an old dishpan under my bathroom sink. It has the whole space to itself because, what else do I store next to it? Anyway, in my dream home it has its own space in the world.

I would have tons of built-in's. Bookcases would line the hallways and because I hate the wasted space in A-frames, I would build bookcases, shelves, closets & dressers into the lower portions of the exterior walls. That way it doesn't feel so much like an A-frame too.

I would like a sky light in my room so that I could sleep under the stars every night. The night sky is amazing in the country & I miss it so much. I would love to watch the stars every night. If it turns out to not be practical to have a sky light, I would like a balcony off my bedroom so I could drag a mattress out on a spring or fall (or winter or summer!) night and watch them all pass by. I would also like a deck or a patio with a pergola where I could grow vines. And a campfire pit where we can roast marshmellows & s'mores over hot coals & read Patrick McMannis books and laugh until we cry.

I would have a wood stove in the living room with a wood cookstove on the kitchen side of the chimney and a brick bread oven. I would never have to worry about another power outage again! The kitchen stove would be mostly decorative (I would use a regular gas stove most of the time), but it would be so reassuring to have one when the power goes out. (And yes, I have used one for days at a time before, so I know full well the work involved)

I would also have a sewing/craft or office area at the top of the stairs. The top of the stairs is a cool place - it is one of the crossroads of a house. You can hear upstairs & downstairs & everyone passes you. I want my passions to keep me in my families path, not tucked away in a room elsewhere. I would have lights in every closet that come on when the door opens and possibly a universal vacuum (I haven't decided on that yet.)

I would have a large herb & flower garden outside my kitchen because I love flowers & herbs are a joy. I would have a large veggie garden where I could relax in the early morning weeding & then find joy sharing the harvest a few months later. I would grow green beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, spinach, broccoli & asparagus (other things too, but I love these!) I would also build a small greehouse so that I could have fresh salad whenever I want. I would have fruit trees on one side - especially the Sappington Apple tree that my grandpa Sappington developed. I would have a huge Elderberry tree as there is nothing so good in this world as homemade Elderberry syrup on pancakes.

I would have a root cellar to keep all the good stuff we grew & if we lived here in tornado alley, it would be a storm cellar as well. I would have a clothesline in the backyard. I would have chickens, rabbits, bees, & maybe a goat (Dad, can you believe I said that!) or a cow, as well as a couple of barn cats & a dog or two. I would have an outdoor kitchen where I could can food & not heat up the house.

I would not have tv but I would have a built-in projector screen in the ceiling above the fireplace so that we could watch movies. I want it above the fireplace so that I don't have to decide where the furniture should be pointing. :) Or maybe a flat screen - maybe by that time they will have developed a way to have the screen be one of those digital picture frames when the t.v./movie is not on. Maybe they already have!

I would not have a dishwasher. Shocking huh? I washed dishes by hand most of my life and I love the camaraderie & discussions you have when someone washes & another dries. The job is done when you leave the kitchen - there is no coming back later to unload or half done dishes in the sink because the dishwasher was too full.

My kids (this is my dream so I would have ton of them) would share bedrooms. I have a good friend who has 5 boys in one bedroom. Space is obviously at a premium, but she has a rocking chair in their room where she sits and reads to them every night. I love that! I remember sharing a room with my 3 sisters - there are a lot of close bonds that develop when you share a small space. Plus, it encourages de-cluttering & organization - love that!

So, that is dream number one. I know that it is crazy, but aren't all dreams? If nothing else, it gets to breathe a for minute on this page.