Updates

Our family lost another great matriarch last week. My great grandmother, Faye Louk, passed away at 89 years of age. Services were held Tuesday in Sumner. Ted and I both took the day off to support my grandparents in the loss of a mother.

At the end of the day, we went to the park. Toby was climbing the big toy all by himself! And very keen to see what all that running water business was about in the creek. (Pics to come)

Today at Jenn's house Toby said "cheese" as he got his cheesy snack!!! It's all going so fast! I know, I sound like a broken record by now.

And I've got news on the job front... I got the maternity leave position in Northshore SD to start Mid-April and possibly continue to the end of the year!!! I'm very excited about the opportunity.

Today I subbed at SAS, the alternative secondary school in NSD. It was a great day! I got to play my fair share of 4-square (which I haven't done since elementary school, myself). The kids were working on a program called Garage Band, where they make songs by mixing tracks, writing music, and recording vocals (this was science class, mind you). It was also really great to catch up with a couple of my colleagues from UW's teaching program. I would love to spend more time there.

Grandma Jones

Grandma Elmoline Jones passed away Sunday night at 11:40 pm at 81 years of age. It has been a long and hard year for her battling bleeding ulcers, blood transfusions, dimentia, and the dialysis ceasing to work for her. She is in a better place now, but the world will not be the same without her. Funeral is Friday, February 22nd at 1pm at Evergreen Baptist Church in Renton.

Losing a matriarch

My mom called me tonight on the way home from work to tell my that my Grandma Jones will probably pass away before this weekend. She's been heading down hill for a year now, but has had a really rough couple months. She hasn't had dialysis for 3 days now so her body is shutting down. We went down to Renton immediately to say our goodbyes and console family members. It was a long night (I say at 2am) and I'm sure these events will last into the weekend or next week. The world is losing a wonderful woman...

Considering Hillary for '08?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq8aopATYyw

Interesting day

So today was an odd one. I took a full day subbing in a Special Ed contained learning classroom. I only took it because the teacher and 4 helpers were going to be there. It was at a Jr High way the heck out in ...I'm not even sure where! It took me at least 90 minutes to get there! I called to let them know that I was going to be late, but I figured Mill Creek - Woodinville ~15 minutes. Nope, another hour! So they called the sub office on me and I'm in hot water now. The office manager reamed me when I got there. Now I would never, ever suggest that it is okay to show up an hour late to work, but the teacher was there. I had figured I'd be a little late, but jeez!

The Special Ed kids were - well, special. At first, I was unsure how to act toward them and felt pretty out of place. But they melted my heart long before the end of the day. I did sustain a brief attack! But we quickly isolated the student in time out and he was fine about 10 minutes later.

Then a job interview for a long term job in Mukilteo SD (right by my house) for a 6th grade science position. I think it went well. They asked all the tough questions and I answered them all. I actually enjoyed the interview and felt like I had 3 new colleagues when I left. They should call me by Friday to let me know what they decide.

The cool/tough thing is I met another teacher going on leave this week in Northshore SD. She graduated from UW also and teaches Jr High life science. She is talking to someone else too, but would like to have me. If only I had run into her a week ago! So 2 possible long term jobs. So excited!!! But also dreading the decision making...

New words

So Toby walking is now old news. The new news is him saying a new word every couple days. He's got Mama and Dada, of course. But recent additions include: blue, hello, and Bella (the little girl at his daycare). Yesterday he said "hello" clear as day. I was surprised so I repeated it back to him. He looked at me and said "hello" again, then walked away!

Today at the sitters, Bella started fussing while her mommy was in the kitchen making a bottle. Jenn usually soothes her by saying her name until she can get to her. Today when she started fussing, Toby jumped right in and said "Bella" before Jenn did!

And last Friday he held up the picture of the banana to the actual banana. Could be a fluke?

As for me, I've been subbing pretty much every day and loving it. I had a brief interview for Mukilteo SD today (very close to my house). It went well, so I'll start subbing there in March. They've asked me to interview this Wednesday for a long term sub job teaching Middle school science from mid March to mid May!!!!! I'm so excited, you don't even know. Of course, I'll be more excited if I get in.

Toby's new friend

Toby is really enjoying playing with Jenn's 5 week old daughter, Bella. Or...trying to play anyways... Apparently he brings her toys to play with and pushes her in the swing all the time now. What a sweetie!

Superbowl Sunday and substitute teaching

So how about those GIANTS??? We enjoyed the game in the company of friends complements of Renate's family! Awesome food and a big hi-def TV. That was a really fun superbowl game, crazy catches, lots of sacks and scoring in the last 2 minutes! The commercials were somewhat lackluster. I did enjoy Will Ferrell, Shaq, and the Budweiser Clydesdales, but there were some seriously dumb commercials in there.

Back to subbing today! Another great day of substitute teaching under my belt, and I've got requests to return to the same school on Tuesday and Friday as well! I am so excited. I'm really enjoying being around the kids again. I did write 3 kids up for excessive screwing around (I gave them each 2 warnings first!) stuff like attacking eachother with scissors, throwing glue sticks across the class...these are 8th graders for Pete's sake!

I also got to help out in the class of one of my fellow UW TEP teachers today! It was so cool to see how she's doing and know a face in the building.

And Toby, oh Toby got to hang out with his new sitter Jennifer. He's in love with her 7 year old daughter and he did great today. Jennifer wrote a list of what he ate/drank/bm's and activities they did together. I'm so glad I found her. I've never gotten a warmer reception from Toby or seen him so willing to jump in his carseat. Is it wrong that I like it?

1st horse show this year (and other updates)

There is a training show on Feb 24 at Gold Creek Equestrian Center in Woodinville. I'm going to start Willow off early thi year! It means a lot of work on staying on rails, inside flexion, and relaxing at the canter. I think I might just enter a walk/trot class for this first one, and start the canter classes in March. There are 2 wonderful 17 year old girls who are going to start riding Willow once a week in exchange for stall cleaning. (Possible leases?) And that's exciting because it should help her gain experience, and we can also get her started jumping small jumps this year.

On the job front - I subbed last Friday at Northshore Jr High and went silky smooth. I was out of town last week, but I got 19 calls to sub! So I think I should have pretty steady work. And I found a wonderful nanny! She's been in early childhood education for 10 years, mostly working with 2-3 year olds. She's taking some time off work to spend at home with her 1 month old daughter and wants to watch a kiddo at her house. She also has a 7 year old daughter in school, so she's been through parenting as well. I'm really excited about her.

On the Toby front - he's now pretty much running laps! He stands up without using furniture, and he can bend down and pick objects up without falling. He's starting to explore climbing out of his walker and onto the coffee table...yes, it all starts now!