Life goes on...

For the first time in I'm not sure how long...every room in my apartment is clean. It's an autumnal miracle! With Scott moving down here in a couple of weeks my mind has turned to organizing and purging. We'll be consolidating everything in just a matter of months and suddenly I feel the compulsive need to purge. I did a first pass with my clothes, but I think I'll take another go. I'm going through purses, shoes, scarves. If you're nearby and would like to take a gander at what I'm getting rid of before it's sent to DI, feel free. I've moved so often that sometimes things just get shoved into a box and they're moved from place to place and I may or may not ever use them. There's a possibility that we'll just stay in my current apartment after we're married. It's small - 500 square feet...we'll be cozy, for sure. But you just can't beat the rent, location (for me) and laundry is provided for free. So, we'll still look around, but we may stay here. And because it's such a small place, it's time to purge. I may even box up some of my books. My friend, Shannon, has graciously offered the use of some of her garage to store a few things.

In other, non-wedding(ish) news...I love teaching high school. It's a bit of a culture shock going from the amazingly supportive faculty to, what I imagine is, a normal high school faculty. It hasn't been the easiest adjustment, but luckily I've met some really nice people, and Steph is around to rant to. I love seeing my students from last year wandering the halls. I'm enjoying getting to know my new students. I think we have fun. We work hard, but we also have a lot of fun doing it. I had an interesting conversation with my admins yesterday about the next couple of years. I really feel like I can build a very solid, rewarding and successful career at OHS. I'm excited to see what the next five years bring.

It's definitely been a year of transitions and major life changes...and we still four months to go! It's been bumpy and I never really thought I'd be where I am at this point last year. It makes you think about the year to come. Hopefully there won't be quite as many changes as I've had this year, but I'm very excited to see what comes.

Ready or not...

The school year starts tomorrow...what??? I've had very little stress leading up to tomorrow. It was far easier to move into this classroom than any other classroom. My classes continue to fluctuate, but I know a good number of these students - I taught them two years ago in 9th grade. I'm sure some of them saw my name and had a few choice words. I wrapped up my plans for the week and couldn't think of anything more that I needed to do to be ready for tomorrow, so I went home at 4:00. I left with the feeling that I'd forgotten something but I have no idea what. Needless to say, I'm a little anxious about tomorrow. It's probably partially due to the unknown of teaching high school. I'm still not 100% sure on some things - as far as school procedures are concerned. I've asked about things that have popped up, but I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

In other news, Vlad had a phone interview on Friday for a job in Salt Lake...as in a mere 45 minutes from where I currently reside. That is a vaaaast improvement over the current 10-13 hours (depending on your route) that we currently "enjoy". He felt the interview went well and there are multiple openings. We're trying not to get too excited, but it's difficult not to. It's incredibly similar to what he is currently doing and would get him in the door with a great company. We're cautiously optimistic. He was told he should know by the end of this week. I seriously hope they don't keep us waiting that long. If he is offered the job, he'll put in his two weeks at his current job and be down here by mid September!! Gah! How crazy is that?! So, we're keeping our fingers crossed...and praying. If you're so inclined, we'd really appreciate your prayers and good thoughts! If he doesn't get this job, we know there are other jobs out there, but this would be so great!!

One smart cookie...

I just have to toot my own horn a bit (feel free to ignore this post). 

I will be as non-technical as I can in explaining all this...

There has been a lot of stress and anger at work in regards to our district mandated interim tests. I have no issue with testing students periodically throughout the year to see where they are and to make sure we're all making progress towards the CRT at the end of the year. Our district has purchased a testing software as well as a curriculum for both Math and Language Arts. It's been a huge headache to get these two aligned so the test is actually testing what has been taught. There's a lot more going on with all of this but I'll just leave it there.

The teachers had been saying (rightly so) that the test wasn't aligned to the curriculum. It was frustrating to teachers and students alike. The district couldn't figure out why the test wasn't aligned as they were working with the information from our curriculum. On Friday I was able to figure out the missing puzzle piece about why the test we thought was aligned wasn't aligned to the test. I'm just that smart...

...actually, I figured it out completely on accident. It was just as likely someone else would have figured it out or no one would have figured out. Still...I felt pretty good about it.

Good Golly, Ms. Molly!

This may be a record for me on this old blog. It's a bit dusty, yes? Well, gentleman #3 and I did date for a brief little while. Things got pretty serious fairly quickly. And, as many things do when they develop quickly, once I was able to catch up to what was really happening around me, I realized this was not the relationship for me. I hope he finds what he wants, unfortunately, that was not me. So, I am still on the hunt for my Betty (as in Betty Crocker Brownie - you can credit Lisa with that one!)

School started almost four weeks ago and it's so crazy to think that! We're slowly coming out of the honeymoon phase and starting to show our true colors to each other. My 8th period somehow managed to get me to teach for almost 45 minutes using a ridiculous southern accent. Okay, let's be honest, it didn't take too much convincing. I'm surprised by how well they actually listened. My 3rd and 7th periods are a trial. I am doing my best to be kind yet firm. It's hard when you just want to knock their heads together.

Creative writing has been fun, but I think the novelty is wearing off for some of them and they're ready to be done with it. Unfortunately for them, they still have half a year of the class before they're done with me. It's a mixed grade class, so it's given me a chance to get to know students that aren't in 9th grade. I've been with the 9th graders since I started and they were in 7th grade. Each year I've changed what grade I teach. I think, I hope, I've settled on 9th grade. I'm really enjoying it. For the most part, I love my students and haven't had any serious dust-ups.

I've gotten some wonderful feedback from admins and district level folks that have popped into our school for various reasons. It balances out how horrible I feel after I leave my ESL class. The class itself isn't the most interesting or engaging but it covers a myriad of strategies for English Language Learners in my classroom. Considering how the vast majority of my students fall into this category on some level, these are strategies I should be using. Suffice to say, I need to do better.

In other random tidbits...

• One of my students insists I look like UFC Fighter Miesha Tate. If you're like me and had no idea who she is, here's a visual. Other than the fact that we're both women and have long hair, I don't see it. (And yes, that is super red carpet in my classroom)

• Lisa came for a quick weekend visit. Yay! I love it when Lisa comes. We saw Austenland and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Both were a lot of fun in completely different ways. I read Austenland after I had my surgery in 2007-ish (?). I don't remember it being as funny. It also doesn't hurt that this manly hunk of beauty plays one of the heroes. Go see it!
  
• I'm so happy that it's finally cooling down a bit! No A/C 90+ weather and no windows/outside doors, makes for a very hot, hot, hot classroom!

My world...

Here's what's been happening in my world:

1. It all really started to get funky with this.

2. Which lead to this situation.

3. This one didn't even get a vote and all it required was a grant signature.

4. And this one happened on Friday.

In a conversation with my fellow teachers someone said something along the lines of "The district is being run like a business and you cannot run public education like a business. You can't QC the end result. You can't just throw out a bad batch".

There's been so many other, smaller issues that have popped up. Needless to say, we're all a little on edge. It seems like every time I look at the Standard Examiner there is another story about my school district and the Superintendent has done something else.

I had a dream last night that I was fired from my job....let's just say I didn't take it well.

Week one of the rest of my life...

Last week was the first full week of the new year. It's been so great to start from the beginning and set up my expectations from the get-go. I also have had time to set up my classroom, physically, the way I want it. I have no illusions that this upcoming year isn't going to be difficult, however, I am really going to enjoy it.

I've spent the week getting to know my students and we started our first unit by the end of the week. I'm teaching 8th and 9th grade this year. It's been a challenge to plan two different curriculums (what's the plural of curriculum? Curriculi? Curriculea??) and transition between 8th and 9th grade students. I have found that I can't be quite as laid back with my 8th graders. They need a bit more structure than I need with my 9th graders.

I'm tough and I expect a lot from all my students. At first, I'm not sure they knew what to do with me, but I'm pretty certain that by the end of the week, they realized that we'd all help each other and they'd be fine.

By the end of the week I was absolutely exhausted and was ready to sleep the weekend away. But, I did come away from it so excited and thrilled that I have a job that I love!

My classroom!

Holy Hannah!

I've been on the two year plan for my graduate program. I have been working on a dual masters in Secondary Education (Master of Arts in Teaching - MAT) and Special Education (Master of Education - M.Ed.). I started this all last summer (2010) and I planned to student teach and graduate fall 2012 with both degrees. I met with my advisor this morning on something completely unrelated to graduation. The result of that meeting was me turning in my application for graduation in MAT for this upcoming spring (2012)!

Apparently the Utah Department of Ed changed some regulations and it is more beneficial for me, long term, if I don't do concurrent licensing in both Secondary and Special Ed. I finish up my methods placement this semester (Cypress High in Magna...quite the commute, I know) and I'll do my student teaching in the spring. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I'll graduate in the spring. It's crazy!

I'm still going to finish up the special education requirements but will be able to do that while I teach. It will take me a little longer but I'll be teaching! In my own classroom! At a real school! I will have an actual profession!

I'm just a little excited, if you didn't notice...

I blame Amelia*

Amelia isn't really her name but we're going to call her Amelia. In my job I deal with my fair share of upset students. It's understandable, really. This is their future. I take my education seriously, it is only right that I should take theirs seriously as well when they call in. I've been cussed at, yelled at, hung up on and had people threaten to go to my boss. But I have never, in my almost five years of working with students, been so incredibly outraged as I was this morning.

After nearly 20 minutes of being berated and yelled at I was ready to hang up on her. I finally stopped talking and just let her go. I knew that if I opened my mouth I'd probably call her a not so nice name and slam the phone down. That type of behavior is not looked upon kindly where I work. When I got off the phone my body was actually shaking I was so furious.

Interestingly enough, she didn't swear at me once. She didn't call me any bad names other than lazy and incompetent and yet she was able to reduce me to a quivering mass of rage. I think I may have frightened my coworker, who has never seen me be anything other than professional and polite.

If anything else goes wrong today...I'm blaming Amelia.

Roses and Thorns

Roses
Spent the morning taking photos of my shoes with my sister. She's making me a shoe calender. I know, she's pretty cool.

Got to see Audra McDonald in 110 in the Shade...pretty sweet.

New shoes really do fix most problems.

I am a matter of weeks away from being done with my first term of grad school.

I get to go to Bear Lake next weekend.

Went to Lagoon last night.

I absolutely love my Curriculum Design class.

I may buy new bedding tonight...I love bedding, books, and shoes. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

Thorns
My right eye has been twitching since Thursday
No more boy.

I've had the same headache since Monday.

I've got a two big curriculum projects due on Monday.

I've had Bad Romance by Lady Gaga stuck in my head since last night.

It was a good day

We're going to ignore the fact that I am breaking out like a 16 year old and declare today a good day for the following reasons:

1) BOTH my state and federal tax refunds hit my account today - I can finally pay off my medical bills. Let's all say it together...YAY!

2) At our department meeting today I was declared the "Records Rockstar". This meant that me putting in insane hours lately has not gone unnoticed and unappreciated, $10 gift card to Harmon's (I get lunch there frequently) and - the best part - a pretty rockin' sign to hang in my cube.

3) Went to Hatch's Chocolate and had Hot chocolate instead of dinner...and it was worth every single calorie.

4) Finished cataloging all DVDs in the apartment - 354...to be exact, including TV shows (at least they aren't all mine).

5) Received a phone call from my recruiter from Westminster and she let me know that all my application materials had arrived and my application was being reviewed by the committee. Turns out they actually call you when a decision has been made. Yikes! I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm used to the impersonal, somewhat less humiliating anonymity of a letter. I'm not sure how I'll react with a rejection from a live person. That's a conversation to look forward to. But the good news it I should know soon. She said the next couple of days but seeing as how we're going into a long weekend, I imagine it should be next week sometime. Now I just have to not think about it for the next week...

Doctor's Orders

Anyone that knows me knows about the love/hate relationship I have with my job. Over all, it's a pretty good job. It helps me pay the bills, put gas in my car, buy food and sometimes a little extra to have fun with. I have complete medical and dental coverage and a pretty good deal with eye exams and such. I have paid vacation time/sick leave, 403b with an employer matching program. All in all, it's pretty good. I've been there 3 years and I've proved myself and I have a healthy respect from my coworkers and managers/supervisors.

BUT and there is a but...I tend to work crazy hours every once in a while. WGU is a fully online, nationally accredited university. Obviously, we go about our education model a little differently. Part of that difference is, we start new terms every month. Which means, we have students starting new terms, changing programs, taking breaks, enrolling in classes, in mass, at the beginning of every month. What does that mean for me? Data entry....lots of data entry. It's not uncommon for me to put in 50 or possibly 60 hour work weeks around the first of the month. I come in early and work late at home. Most of the time I don't mind. It's part of the job. My job is to help student's succeed and progress through their program. They can't do that if their program change hasn't been processed, right?

Anyway...it's the first of the month and it's been a rough go around this time. Lots of questions, errors, missing information, IT glitches AND we have a three day weekend and the bi annual mentor meetings next week. Which means, mentors won't be readily available to set up their student's AAPS (courses for the next term) for the next week. Naturally everyone is panicking. I have been particularly stressed because I am the unofficial lead program changer person. I worked late last night and tonight as well.

So why am I telling you all this, seemingly boring and unimportant information? Because without it, you wouldn't understand the amazingness of my roommate. I mean, really...amazing. She went out this evening with a mutual friend (Hi Megan!). From what Lisa told me i thought they'd be home in an hour or so with my dinner. They don't get back for a couple of hours and then Lisa is all shifty when i ask her where they went/what they did and then she gets this sneaky smile on her face. The smile that says, she has something up her sleeve. Both she and Megan start giggling and talking very conspiratorially.

Again, for those that know me, know that i am a very impatient person. Lisa knows this and she started taunting me while on her computer doing something but she won't tell me what and then she prints something and goes into her room and I hear tape and scissors cutting paper. At one point she gets something from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. And behold....

It's a prescription for "Employment Relief 800 MG Tablets"

The instructions say:
Take 3 Red tablets for Idiotic Questions
Take 4 Green tablets for Program Changes
Take 2 Yellow tablets for Mentor Issues
Take 5 Brown & 3 Orange tablets for positively no reason at all Repeat as necessary

Use Before Insanity Strikes
Refills are absolutely allowed - Dr. Auth Not Required




And she filled it with M&M's.

Seriously...best roommate ever. And wouldn't you know it? they totally work!

The Horrible, no good, very bad day...

Just a quick disclaimer...this is going to be a long post, so for the weak at heart beware...(that means you, damien)

You know the saying, "when it rains, it pours"? I have felt the full force of that obnoxious cliche this week. So....here we go. I flew to San Fransisco on Sunday afternoon for my interview with Google on Monday morning. My flight got in at noon so I had the entire afternoon and evening to bum around and a rental car to do it in. After stopping by my hotel to check in and being told by the snotty front desk person that check in time wasn't until 3pm (how was i supposed to know that? I didn't book my room, the nice people at Google did that for me) I decided to go into the city and see some of the sights. Little did I know that "going into the city" meant driving at least an hour. After driving an hour and taking a slight detour to a target i finally get into "the city". It was a 20 degree temperature change from my hotel in Mountain View and it was foggy and slightly misting. I'm driving around trying to find the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. No matter how many times I consult my mapquest directions or the map the rental car place gave me, it's no use. I basically drove an hour to drive my SFU. I give up and drive back to Mountain View and reach my hotel, tired, hot and hungry. I check into my hotel and order a pizza because i am far too tired to put forth the effort to go out and find a restaurant and i have a feeling the person at the front desk isn't going to be too helpful. So I spent the evening in my hotel room eating mediocre pizza and reading Harry Potter. Could have been worse.

Monday morning. I'm supposed to meet Camille Hart at 9:30 in the lobby of 1400 Crittenden at the Google complex. I present myself to the receptionist at 9:15.

"Hi. My name is Kelly Buie. I have a 9:30 appointment with Camille Hart." The receptionist types away at her computer and says to me,

"Camille isn't in today."

"......"

The next 40 minutes are spent trying to find out who i'm supposed to met with. Turns out it's a guy named Tom. Tom is in a different building. Tom has a meeting he needs to be at at 10:00. It's 9:50. He gets my cell number and tells me he'll call me later and we'll meet some time this afternoon...noonish. My flight back to Utah doesn't leave until 5:00, no biggie. I am to now wait for Jason. Jason shows up at 10:10. We have our little interview and after he asks me where I'm going next. I tell him, I'm supposed to meet Sheela to take the Admin test. Not sure which building or who Sheela is because no one ever tells me their last name. After figuring out what building Sheela is in i get back in my car and make the 5 minute drive to the other side of the Google complex to Sheela. Walking to my car, my heel catches on the steps and i almost do a face plant on the sidewalk. I settle for slightly tweaking my ankle. It doesn't hurt too bad so i ignore it and move on.

I present myself to the receptionist in the lobby. "My name is Kelly Buie. I'm supposed to meet Sheela to take the Admin test." (sounding familiar???) The receptionist looks at me
and says,

"Sheela who?"

Again..."I don't know." Because no one ever thinks it would be a good idea to tell me their last name and I, in all my smartness, forget to ask.

So the receptionist spends about 15 minutes trying to find Sheela and i'm sitting in the lobby watching people come and go. He finally finds sheela and she's only passed me about 4 or 5 times already. So i go in and take the Admin Test. It's two LSAT type logic games. But these aren't your typical LSAT logic games...i've done those. I can do those. They're hard but i can do them. The Google Logic games are like LSAT questions on acid. They make no sense. I do the best I can, which wasn't very good, and go to find Sheela. She's not in her office where she said she would be. Turns our she's gone to lunch and didn't bother to tell anyone that I was in there.

She shows up and asks if Tom has called me yet. Nope. She goes in to call him. Turns out he's in a meeting for the rest of the afternoon and won't be able to meet with me. I'll have to come back tomorrow. I politely tell her, "I'm flying back to Utah this evening." She gives me a blank look and goes back to call Tom. "He'll call you later this week for a phone interview. Thanks for coming in. Bye." doesn't even bother to walk me out.

It's about 1:30 at this point and i've got some time to kill before I need to return the rental car. I drive back in the direction of my hotel so i can get back to the airport. I get lost...again...thanks mapquest. I get some lunch at Togos (probably the highlight of my trip, sad yes?). I fill up the rental car and head to the airport...again, getting lost. (Mapquest, i hate you). I finally make it to the airport and i'm thinking...."thank goodness! nothing else can really go wrong at this point." I walk into the bathroom to change out of my interview clothes and they had just finished mopping the floor but didn't put up a "slippery when wet" sign and i'm wearing heals. Needless to say i go down...hard....on all fours. I'm embarrassed and in pain but i shrug it off. I change and go to my gate. My knee is throbbing and my ankle still hurts. As i'm sitting there waiting for my plain, my knee is getting larger and it's harder to walk. Awesome. I get on the plane and get home. I get a phone call from Google telling my that I didn't pass the Admin test (duh) and that they would not be pursuing my application.

Whoop-di-flippin'-do! After getting lost three times (thanks again, mapquest!), falling twice, hurting my ankle, banging up my knee and my hip...i really don't care that i didn't get the job working for the completely unorganized company that basically had no idea that i was coming.

I wake up on Tuesday and basically spend the entire day recovering from Monday. If i'm honest with myself, I'm disappointed that I didn't get the job. BUT thankfully i don't really have the time to linger on it too long before life forces something else for me to fixate on. Yes, it doesn't stop there.

I went to the doctor Wednesday morning. Turns out, no, I don't have PCOS. I have Hypo-thyroidism and Pituitary Cushings disease. What's that you ask? well...I'll tell you. After having an MRI (now that's a fun one) they found two "spots" on my Pituitary gland that will need to be surgically removed. The pituitary gland is located on the very front of your brain in between your eyes. yeah. my thoughts exactly. I have to do one more "test" to determine which of these spots, if not both of them, are causing the problem. To do this, they have to sedate me and stick something up my nose and take a blood sample from each of these spots. Sounds pleasant, no? After they've confirmed the source of the problem i then will be referred to a Neurosurgeon who will actually perform the surgery. It's a 2-3 day hospital stay and then recovery time at home afterwards. And because your hormone levels are normalizing you feel like crap for a while afterwards. Maybe i'll get lucky and i'll get my own personal McDreamy.

But wait...it doesn't stop there!!!! Trying to schedule this last "test". My doctor said to have it done at LDS hospital...LDS hospital doesn't accept my insurance. University of Utah Hospital does so we call them up. No one knows what this procedure is. They've never heard of it. It takes my doctor's office to call them and faxing over the doctor's order for it for them to find someone that does the procedure. Comforting...yes? So no one is all that familiar with this procedure and they're going to stick a needle up my nose, towards my brain....right.

This coupled with my general distrust and dislike of medical personnel in general, does not bode well.

I guess i rule

So we finally hired someone at work and I am so happy but at the same time my work load hasn't decreased any and I haven't been putting in fewer hours either. She started on Monday and I've been training her and it's been a bit of a process. I guess I never realized how complicated the process is. When I started there wasn't really a procedure in place and I had to use my best judgement to solve a lot of problems and issues that came up. Well, now trying to train someone on that it's hard. She wants to know exactly how I do everything and I don't really have an exactly. It just varies depending on the student situation. Somewhere along the way my "best judgement" became policy and procedure. It's a little strange actually. I almost lost my patience with her yesterday evening and I sort of snapped a little at her. I just told her to rename a file and she wasn't sure what to rename it and it really didn't matter what she renamed it and i sort of snapped at her to just do it. I immediately felt bad and was super nice to her after that but it's a lot harder to train someone than i thought it would be. Especially when there isn't really a set protocol for a lot of what I do. It's just me sort of making it up as I go along. and the process is always adapting and changing and I don't think she's quite ready for that. It's also hard to let go. Didn't think it would be but it is. I know how the process works, i know i will get it done and it will be done right...i don't actually want to do it, but it's hard to let someone else take over.

In other news...my cousin, Erika went into the hospital on Sunday night because she had pre-eclampsia. She delivered the baby early this morning. She was about 3 months early and they named her Eleanor and she is 2 lbs 5 oz. They delivered her c-section but both baby and mother are doing well. so YAY!

Random thoughts...

I hate pants today....just thought I'd throw that one out there.

<----------I think this picture is hilarious. I think he was singing Yellow Submarine. He did however, get the high score of the evening!

A wee bit on the blurry side but I still like this picture. -------------------------------->

One hour before I can go home...wow, unprecendented levels of unproductivity today. I'm impressed with myself.