-In case anybody hasn't heard... I got the job in Japan! They offered for me to come up either in September or February. The school year starts in February so if I went September it would be as their substitute until February. I'm VERY excited!! I've decided to go in February because my current principal has asked me to remain as the secretary.

-In other news I start summer school tomorrow. I had originally not signed up for it because I wanted my free summer. However, since I'm not going to be making the same salary as last year I need something to help my income a little. It's only three weeks and 3 hours a day so it shouldn't be bad.

-On Friday night I came up to my room at 12:30 and realized the power was out in my room! I didn't want to deal with it at 12:30 and so I just went to bed and decided I would just wake up when I woke up since I didn't have my clock alarm. I really never do this so I was afraid I would end up sleeping the entire morning away. Sure enough I woke up at 6:30 a.m. I just can't get out of my work schedule. During the school year I wake up at 5:30 and every Saturday and Sunday this year I have woken up promptly at 6:30. I can usually force myself back to sleep only to wake up every 30 minutes until I just give up and get out of bed at 8:30. So Saturday morning I went down to the garage to check the breakers, which were all flipped to on. I decided to just flip each one, then run up to the third floor (where my room is) and see if the lights came on. So after I ran up two flights and down two flights 20 times it was finally the very last breaker. I was sweating and so tired haha. I figured that was good enough exercise for the day though. Anyways that's the only story I have for now.

Summer Time!

Well I've had a busy last week which has kept me from updating!

Last weekend I went to Seattle with my friend Blair. We got there Saturday morning and stayed until Tuesday. We had such a great time! The weather was perfect... not a cloud in sight once! We loved the Pike Place Market and everything about Downtown. On Monday evening we went to go see this big folk festival called Folk Life. We were both looking forward to hearing some good Seattle folk music but it was not what we thought it would be. The main group was screaming instead of singing. There were a lot of local singers on the side and we heard some pretty nasty lyrics. It was great people watching though.
On Tuesday we had our interviews for Japan! Blair had hers early morning and I had mine in the afternoon. I think it went really well. She told Blair that she would contact her in 2 weeks. She told me very soon. So I guess 2 weeks is very soon to her. I'm anxiously waiting to hear back!

When I got back it was a whirl wind of a last week of school. The kids were super hyper but we had a lot of fun activities planned. On Thursday it was field day. One of my students challenged me to the 50 yard dash even though I was wearing flip flops. He beat me... barely :). So I challenged him to a rematch. He beat me again. I also got to play in the baton race, ping pong blow, javelin through, 3 legged race, and water balloon toss. I think the kids thought it was hilarious that I played so many of the games with them.

Friday was our last day of school! It was kind of bittersweet. Excitement for summer but also sad that I won't be teaching there next year most likely. We did get to go to the after school swim party which was awesome and then Kyla and I went out with our coworker Chaz for one last hurrah.

Update on summer: I will now be teaching summer school! I taught last year and it was pretty fun. Other than the fact that I now don't get to sleep in for the next month it is easy and they pay you well plus it's only from 9-12. I will be co-teaching with one of my teacher friends and I'm pretty excited about that. So now I'm just looking for a job after that. If you have any leads let me know!

A Post in Pictures

Today I told my kids I was going to take some pictures of them at recess for their scrapbooks. I specifically asked them not to pose and just to go on playing. Of course most of them didn't listen. Here is what I got:

This is them playing Star Wars. Hunter caught me taking their picture and put bunny ears on Grant. A kid after my own heart.

This is Ryan. He likes to throw out Star Wars poses.

Here's Hunter again. He got stuck. I took a picture of it.

This is Grant. He likes to throw up the peace sign.

This is Will. He really likes to pose and paid no attention to my request of no posing.

See what I mean? So hilarious!

This weekend my parents and I went to Houston for Jenny and Chris' baby shower. We had a great time and Jenny got tons of cute stuff! Here is a picture of me with the future parents at dinner one night.

"The Swine"

I'm sure everybody has been hearing tons about the swine flu. None of the teachers are too worried about it at my school. However, we have had to remind the students to wash their hands often and use hand sanitizer after sneezing or coughing.

A couple of my students this week have been really worried about it. Not only do they think it's called "The Swine"... which only makes it more dramatic... they also are very scared they will get it. To make matters worse I was feeling sick on Thursday and Friday this week. I didn't feel horrible and it definitely didn't keep me from work. I was a little bit less patient though and told the kids it was because I wasn't feeling well. This practically created hysteria in my classroom. The kids would lean away from me if I talked to them and kept asking me if I had The Swine. They were very concerned! I told them no of course not, but I couldn't help but play a few jokes on them.

It started out as a, "Oh I think I should sit down I feel really dizzy. I think I'm going to faint... it must be the swine" Then it turned into, "Quick get the trash can I think I'm going to throw up". They were taking it so seriously and then I would yell gotcha. I even would pretend like I couldn't understand what they were saying and all I could hear was buzzing. So I would make them repeat their questions like 5 times before I "heard" it. This went on till about 2:30 when they started catching on and it wasn't as funny after that. Needless to say, I think they realized they were being a little silly about The Swine.

I love playing jokes on my kids because they think it is so dorky. And the best part is that I can play the same joke on them over and over and they still think it's funny. They also try to play tricks on me and think their really hilarious when they do it. On Thursday they didn't realize that I was walking behind them when they were coming back from recess. They were all hiding behind the door ready to jump out and scare me when I walked in. Instead I jumped in and scared them. They still can't figure out how I knew what they were doing when I wasn't even in the classroom.

Say No to Smoking!

Ok! I'm trying to get rid of a few pieces of furniture.

I have a green leather couch that is currently in my classroom. It used to be in parent's house and then when I was a junior I took it to college. It is in pretty good condition as you can see by the picture. If you need or know anyone who needs a couch I would be willing to sell this one!! Please please let me know! I need to get rid of it by mid-June.

Second item up for sale is my desk and chair. These are both still in great condition. The chair can easily be recovered. My mom has probably popped this one out and recovered five times. All you need is a hammer and staple gun and you got it made. Here are a few pictures of both items. The desk has a tv on it right now so you can't really see the top of it. Trust me it is in good condition. If you or someone you know wants a picture of the top just let me know and I'll do that.

Update on life!

My lack of blogging has no excuses. So I will not try to explain myself.

I feel like an update is needed and I would like to make my third attempt in getting back into the blogger world.

First of all, I'm not sure how many people know this but I'm currently in the interviewing process of trying to go to Japan. I'm sure everybody has heard me talk about wanting to teach overseas since I've wanted to for 8 years. I've also been applying and attempting for 2 years now. I met with the recruiter two Sundays ago and it went great! The school is called MeySen Academy. It is located in the suburb of Sendai, Japan. The school is a program for kindergarten Japanese students. They learn English through immersion. They also have an after school program for grades 1-6 and Ally Ferrell is applying for that position. My official interview is May 26th in Seattle. I will be flown up there to interview with 4 representatives from the school! Wish me luck! The bad part is this: If I am offered a job I will have to accept sooner rather than later. Ally will not be able to interview until October because of the position she is applying for. In other words, there is the possibility that I would be going all alone. I have come to terms with that but I REALLY want Ally to get it too.

The school year starts in February and ends in March. That means starting in June I'm jobless! I will still be getting pay checks through August though so really starting in September I'm jobless. I've applied at Anthropologie but haven't heard back. I really want the discount! I will also be moving to my parent's house until I leave.

Anyways, that's the update on my life. I would say there is a 98.7% chance I won't be in Texas next year. I say that because as I'm sure most of you have heard me talk about, I have about a million back up plans. These currently or have included the following: Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Colorado, Washington D.C., Tennessee, etc. Australia being the main one. So if I don't get hired to go to Japan then I still won't be in Dallas.

Update on my current teaching gig: It is going great! We have a countdown till the end of the year. All my students have started getting in summer mode and are super hyper. Not that they weren't always hyper but it is out of control. Sometimes I just want to sit down and not do anything. Testing is in 2 weeks so I'm prepping for that. My kids are still hilarious and weird.