I'm a teacher...part2

As spring is coming upon us soon, I have taken to checking all of the school district websites in Northwest Indiana.  You know, just to see what (if any) positions have opened up.  I have even made a point of looking at the state education website because they list all open positions in the state.  It was there that I saw an open social studies position for the School City of Whiting.

Whiting is what I like to think of the forgotten town of Northwest Indiana.  It is a small little town in the midst of bigger cities like Hammond, and Gary.  It is nestled right up against Lake Michigan and the Illinois border.  Like I said, it is a town not a city.  The school district consists of one elementary, one middle, and one high school.  And they need a social studies teacher.

For sure it is not ideal. It is at least a 45 minute drive from where my parents live.  It is in Lake County, which is a bit of an armpit. 

But no matter what, you would think I would be excited by this prospect.  Yet I am more terrified by it.  It opens up this whole big thing of what it?  What if I apply and don't get it?  I'd be devastated.  What if I take that job and a better one opens up?  I'd be devastated. 

Those scenarios freak me out.  Then there is the whole I have to update my resume and actually apply for the job.  Do I put that I live in Canada?  Or do I put my parents address?  Do I even tell them in my letter of introduction that I live in Canada and have been out of education for the past year?  Will the whole Canada factor hurt my chances??

I don't know what to do.  I am freaking out, and nervous, unsure of myself and my capabilities, doubting weather I am good enough.  Sure could use some bucking up.

ohio and i hate my brother in law

Mark and I went to Ohio for the weekend to visit his brother and help them work on their house.  My poor sister in law has lived in a major fixer upper for almost 2 years with no kitchen!!  So we along with Mark's parents went to help them get their  kitchen in.  It was a success, and they had a brand new fully functioning kitchen when we left yesterday.

Plus I got to catch up with all of my friends in Ohio and my sister in law who I love.  We always manage to have a good conversation about our Cooper boy husbands and future plans.

My brother in law Tim was pretty useless for the entire weekend since he got sick on friday night.  On Sunday morning Mark and I were fotunate enough to wake up to the sound of Tim barfing.
When I woke up today I knew I was not quite right.  Sadly I picked up his disease and feel like crap.  Hence the reason why I hate my brother in law right now.  Fever, chills, weakness, bad cold with a nasty cough that hurts my chest.

Anyway, this isn't a very exciting update.........hope you guys are all feeling well.

I'm a teacher...

I knew it for my entire life.  Most elementary students have no idea what they want to be when they grow up.  Or if they do, it often doesn't pan out by the time that they are older.  When I was in elementary school I knew that I wanted to be a teacher.  By the time that I was in middle school my plan to be a teacher still hadn't changed.  By the time I hit high school I was still convinced that I would be a teacher.  In my junior  year I had a US history teacher who changed my life.  Mrs. Dobson.  Sitting in her US history class, I realized that I wanted to be her.  I wanted to teach history.  That desire never changed from then on.  I got my degree and that's what I did.

Without a full time job last year substitute teaching still got me close enough to classrooms that I didn't have to opportunity to miss teaching.  I didn't have a chance to miss having my own classroom.  I was far too preoccupied to think about it.

This year I lay down in bed at night and pray to God to get me back to Indiana and a teaching job.  Since that is something that I pray for literally every single night, I often find myself drifting off to sleep while lesson planning.  I know the word DORK is flashing through your brain.  When I was teaching full time, I was throwing lesson plans together when I walked through the door in the morning.  But now it is what I dream about.  I think about what I would do if I were a high school US history teacher.  Or what would my lesson plan be if I were teaching psychology.  On and on and on until I finally fall asleep.

I miss it.  I miss it a lot.  I am terrified that I will never teach again. 

nothing interesting

Mark and I had a nice night in yesterday for Valentines day.  He dropped a lot of money on me for my birthday so we decided to keep Valentines day low key.  I made a delicious dinner and an equally amazing dessert.  Chocolate mousse cherry pie.  Sooo good.  I knew that when Mark didn't come home from work on time that he was probably stopping somewhere to get me flowers or something....I was right.  He came in sporting a single rose.  "What does that remind you of?" He asked when he handed it to me.  I knew exactly where his head was...

The first time I visited him in Canada he gave me a single rose.  It was very cute, and the fact that he wanted to remind me of that yesterday was very cute as well.
The rest of the night was spent watching tv together.  At one point I decided to stop watching tv and found it funny that he started watching How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.  He informed me that it was his favorite girly movie which only made me laugh more. 

He is good at making me laugh.  All in all it was a great day.  Today however was a blah day.  One of those I don't care about anything kind of days.

MORE odd Canadian things...

On Sunday Mark was complaining that I never buy enough milk. He wanted cereal and we had about a drop of milk left.  I only ever bought a liter carton of milk, cuz I never drink milk, and Mark never seemed to want milk except on random Sundays when he wanted cereal.  But he insisted that if I bought a big BAG of milk he would drink it.  So the next time I was at the grocery store I bought a BAG of milk for the first time.  Yes when I say BAG, I mean BAG.  It is by far one of the strangest Canadian things I have run into.  So allow me to give you a lesson in the BAG of milk experience.

STEP 1: Buy bag of milk.

STEP 2: Buy special pitcher just for BAGS of milk

STEP 3: Open BAG of milk to find 3 one liter bags of milk

STEP 4: Put BAG of milk in the milk pitcher, milk stays in the bag. The milk does not get dumped out of the bag into the pitcher. It always stays in the bag.

STEP 5: Cut the corner of the bag as an opening through which the milk pours out.  Cut a small hole in the other corner of the bag to allow for air flow and easy pouring.

STEP 6: Enjoy your milk in a bag.

-THE END









Girls night out....

I had a girls night out last night. 
An odd statement seeing as I wasn't in LA with my girls, or even in Indiana where I still have a few girls (mostly family) to go out with.  I had a girls night out in Canada.  It was weird.

It all started with my sister-in-law Jenn saying how fun it would be to have a girls night out for my upcoming birthday.  The plan was to go to this nice restaurant for drinks and appetizers.  Sounds great right?

So the girls consisted of my two sisters-in-law, and 2 other girls from meeting.  They are all older than me, and they have all known each other for ever pretty much.  So we got drinks, we got appetizers and they talked.  I guess it was naive of me to think that since we went out for my birthday they would try to get to know me a little more.  But I was wrong.  They spent the whole night chatting away about a bunch of people that I don't know, while I sat there feeling very out of the loop and out of place.  Don't get me wrong, they are all very nice...but they aren't my girls.  The whole night just left me feeling depressed and missing my real friends.

I absolutely love my sister-in-law Jenn, and love that she wanted to do something special for my birthday.  I love her kids to death, and love spending time with her and talking to her.  But her girls aren't my girls. 

So that's the story.  Looking forward to when I can have a girls night with MY girls.

In other news, I don't think I have mentioned, but BOTH of my sisters are pregnant!!!!!!!!  They are a month and a half apart!! It will be a busy summer for my family!  Ann is due the end of June and Sarah is due mid August!  I am sooo sooo happy and excited about it!  I absolutely can't wait to be and Aunt again!

today...

today was a wonderful day.
Today was a day where I was utterly happy.
Today I had 100% appreciation for my husband.
He could do no wrong in my eyes today.
Over the weekend we helped my brother and sister -in-law move.  The more time you spend around other married couples(especially family) it gives you perspective on your own marriage.  So because of the events of the weekend I realized that while yes, Mark and I have our issues, we still have a great marriage.  That gave me a very happy day today.  I've found that it is easy to get wrapped up in the little things, the little annoyances of living with another person.  But when I looked at the big picture, there's nothing but blue skys for me and Mark.  It made me happy. 
Today I set those silly little annoyances aside and I appreciated my husband for everything that he is to me.   A provider, a partner, a friend, and comedian, and fellow sports fan, everything.  He is absolutely everything to me. Today I was perfectly happy to be living in Canada, and perfectly happy altogether.

Today was a great day.  I am going to sleep happy.

Epic Fail

I don't know why one little coffee cake could make me so incredibly irritated.  But it did.  It is a delicious piece of food kinda like a danish but in a pan.  It has a cake/danish kind of bottom, topped with apple pie filling, topped with more batter.  So yummy, but like I said in the title, epic fail.

This wasn't the first time that I have messed up a recipe. It was all good until I burned the top of it to a crisp.  So at first I thought it was salvageable. I picked off the burnt pieces.  Only to find that ironically the burnt pieces weren't cooked through, so there was still uncooked batter on top of the apples.  I decided to end it there, let it cool down and throw it out.

Then Mark says so can I have some of this cake? As I explain that it is no good I would have to cook it more to prevent eating raw batter, he says why can't you just put it in the oven again?  He said it seemed silly to waste this whole thing that I made.  That only irritated me more.  If I put in back in the oven then the bottom part of it would certainly be burnt through.  What was the point?  I think Mark finally got the hint that the cake convo was more than irritating me.  So here I am on the computer trying to figure out why a stupid burnt cake had made me so upset.

Probably because that stupid burnt cake was my only accomplishment for the day.  So when I account for everything that happened today the one thing that I actually did was a fail.  Stupid, I know. But irritating none the less.

And if I am being honest with myself, whenever something stupid like this happens it gets placed in the 'Reasons I hate Canada file'.  Not fair, I know.  I could really go for some ice cream or something right now.  But it's snowing out, so I think I will just have to settle for a beer and pretzels.

EDIT:then mark does something funny and I am in a completely different mood.