His Hands

I was thinking last night, and I realized something.

Heavenly Father has been with me through everything. His hands have been very active in shaping my life.

Now, you may ask why I say that.

Let me give some context. For those of you that don't know, teaching is a hard career to get into. Not because the courses are hard, but there are so many teachers and so many jobs, and there are fewer jobs than teachers. With the budget cuts that have been going on, many teachers don't have jobs, and it's hard to find jobs that do exist.

Now, as to how I know Heavenly Father has been with me:

I student taught, like every other teaching candidate. I didn't try particularly hard to get a job. I didn't put in my application at 10 different districts. I didn't sub every day at a different school during my time as a sub. I did, I'll be honest, the bare minimum and didn't really put myself out there. And even through that, I was able to get a job. Not only is it just a job, it's at the school I wanted and I had only 2 interviews (most people have 4 or 5 before they get hired).

I don't know what I've done to earn this help. I slack on so many important things throughout my life. I just want to publicly acknowledge my gratitude to my Father in Heaven. I've trusted in Him, and He has blessed me. He is truly good and I know that He's helping me, not only get some of the things I want, but He's helping me learn the lessons I need.

I know He blesses us how we need, and not necessarily how we want. I pray for all those who are searching for jobs, especially my teacher friends!

Emotional roller coaster

For a while, I was pretty good about not breaking down. Yeah, I had bad days, but they weren't very often, and I bounced back pretty quick.

I don't know what's up this week, but I was fine Monday, sick feeling Tuesday, Wednesday felt off but okay and about the same Thursday. Today I feel okay mostly (physically at least) but all I want to do is cry and not do anything, although physically I feel a little weird. Well not all I want to do is cry. I do want to do something, because I want to make my husband happy, but I just feel too blah to come up with anything, let alone anything that could be considered fun.

I just want to get out of the house but I have nowhere to go. No date night ideas to put into action.

Anyone have suggestions? Or any of the like 3 people that read this blog?

Here it is!!

It's official now!

I am a full-time teacher! :D I have the STAFF badge to prove it! :D

I will start this fall in a 2nd grade classroom. I'm a little nervous, but very excited! It will be such a good experience for me! :D

So excited!!!!!!!! :D

ATTENTION!!!

Big announcement coming soon! :D

(No, I'm not pregnant.)

Busy life

So, I've decided I suck at taking pictures. Maybe I just need to get a phone this summer that has excellent picture capabilities. (Going to be comparing phones to see what I want. lol)

I only use my phone for pictures instead of a camera, because my camera is bulky and I don't want to carry it everywhere. Anyways,.... just ignore the crappy quality of the images. XD

Biggest things happening lately:

-I am an aunt to this cute little boy! :D Spencer Lee Funkhouser is stinking cute, and Alana needs to start a blog!

-Growing veggies in our garden! :D We have a cantaloupe, some cucumber, a few zucchinis and lots more!!! :D

-I finished subbing for the spring term (no pictures, sorry).

-I have another little nephew in Jason's sister's family and he is stinking cute! Dark, thick hair! (no pictures. D:)

-Being interviewed on Tuesday to get a teaching job! :O More about that to come later! (Like, after it's over. lol)

-Found out my friend is NOT going on her mission. She found a boy! lol < 3 you, Kara!

-Letting summer begin with a jam-packed Memorial Day weekend (More after it happens.)

So that's probably why I suck at blogging. lol I'll try to get better, but I can't promise much. :)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! :D

Interviews and subbing

So, I've had several sub jobs, and it's getting to the point where I really can't tell everything about every job. So, in short, I've been in 2nd grade twice, 5 grade several times, and 4th grade twice. And I'll be in 5th grade again on Friday! (Yay for seeing my fifth graders again! :D)

Now, I'll go ahead and get to the important stuff!!

I had an interview on Monday (9th) to finish off my portfolio/file with the district so that I can be hired for the next school year. It was the last thing I needed to finish the process! (Now I'm onto the waiting game!)

It was supposed to be in the morning, but the principal asked to change it to noon, which worked out fine. I got there about 5 minutes early, and spent the time I waited just trying to relax and breathe.

Why? You may ask.....

Because it was my first job interview EVER. Any of the jobs I've had I really haven't been interviewed for. And no jobs that have been what I went to school for! So, it was really a big deal!

Anyways, I was waiting. The principal came in and invited me into her office. We chatted for a minute and then she told me that she would become a robot when she asked the questions. (She was a very friendly-looking robot!) I didn't know what to say to that other than "Okay". lol

Then began the questions.... One after another, I answered the best I could and to how I would teach in my own classroom. Do I remember the questions? No. Do I remember my answers? Not really.

Before eternity felt like it was ending.... Okay, it really didn't seem very long.... The questions were over. I relaxed a little bit. She said I did "great", but I knew she could tell I was nervous. She also said that she could tell I had the knowledge, I just needed the confidence in myself to be able to share it verbally. So, I breathed a sigh of relief. She asked if I had any questions and then explained the process after the interview........

Basically, it really is a waiting game. New hires won't even start being interviewed until mid to late June. That's fine with me.

I did breathe several sighs of relief while driving home, and then to help burn it off even more, I went for a 3 mile bike ride.... at 1PM..... when the sun is very hot and bright..... and yes, I did turn pink. lol But I had fun, and I think I'm going to do it again, so that I can really get in shape! I love riding my bike! I just don't have much time/opportunity to ride it.

And those are the tales for this post.

Now I wait and keep doing what I did before. Working and subbing and spending time with my husband.

Saturday

So, I know I have sub jobs to write about (I think I'm up to 3 or 4 to write about), but I want to talk about yesterday.

I've been emotional lately and it sucks.

Anyways, yesterday was my nephew Zander's baptism. I was so excited! I love watching the 8 year olds get baptized. They're so excited. Well, we got up and got ready and were driving out to Surprise, where it was being held. Yeah...... we didn't even leave Mesa. When we were on the freeway, the car started sounding funny and the oil light came on. Yep, Eduardo (who was once Diablo) has once again become a pain in the butt. We got off the freeway, checked it out, and called to let them know we wouldn't make it. :( I was sad. Jason didn't get a chance to give his wonderful prepared talk on the Holy Ghost.

Since the car "broke down", we couldn't drive out to Surprise without ruining something and we were already running a little late, so we couldn't have switched vehicles and made it in time, so we headed over to my parents' which we were close to and I helped set up for Alana's baby shower while Jason, my dad, and my grandpa took the car down to the Toyota dealership for them to take a look at. I got to watch Alana open all her gifts and see many of the people that came. When they got back from the dealership, Jason said that the dealership said that we'd been swindled by the mechanic. (I dislike mechanics in general, although my brother-in-law is an exception to that.)

Now, I'm not sure that I believe that entirely, but this whole car thing has been a pain. Maybe I should get a little Vespa scooter thing and drive that around instead. Maybe I'd have better luck with something like that. lol I don't know. But I certainly hope things get better, because I'm really frustrated.

I'm really grateful for my family, though. As we've been dealing with this problem, my parents have let me time and time again use their truck, and for that, I am truly grateful! And my brother-in-law has taken the time to look at the car and to help when we've asked him, too. I am so blessed to have the families I do!