Fun Foto Friday

Jayden LOVES riding on Patsy's big green tractor!!!

Working on my Room

I have been back and forth to Jackson lately trying to find an apartment and trying to get my room set up. Jenn and Livi went up there with me on Monday to help me tackle the storage closet in my room.

As you can see from the picture it is slam packed ...

As I said the plan was to tackle this closet to see what I have to work with in there. In my room I also have one of those storage closets on wheels. Before working on the big closet, I decided to look inside. Oh boy was that a mistake! Now the closet is about 6 feet tall and about 4 feet wide. Upon opening it I discovered it too was slammed full, mostly of construction paper. However, it was shoved in there in a huge disarray. In other words it was a HOT MESS of paper! Once this new mess was discovered the big closet project went out the window and all attention was turned to organizing all the construction paper. I was so focused on getting it organized that I forgot to take a before picture. It took the 3 of us almost 2 hours but everything is nice, neat and organized. We had two huge black garbage bags full of paper that we threw away. I wasn't keeping anything that was bent, folded, torn, or had any marks on it. In this hot mess, we found a dozen or so never used packs of construction paper. I have a 2 foot tall cabinet full to the top of 2 foot by 3 foot paper of every color of the rainbow. I now know I have finger paint paper, packs of manila colored paper, poster board, writing tablets and notebooks. I pretty much can now open my own paper store, if I wanted.

Here is picture of the cabinet when we started putting paper back in it...please note that this is just some of the paper I decided to put back in here, I moved a bunch to my built in cabinets.

Can you picture this slammed full of paper all jumbled up????

Here are some more shots of my room...it is pretty bland right now. Oh you can also see the paper that is spread out EVERYWHERE as we were putting like sizes and colors together.

FYI

I am giving yall a warning that my blogging skill are being put on the back burner for the next couple of weeks. Sorry. I will try to keep yall posted as I apartment hunt, set up my classroom, move, and prepare for the first day of school (which is Aug 10th). But I will take pictures and bombard yall when I get settled into my new home!

Exciting News...

Well yall, after months and months, job application after job application, job fairs and more job fairs, my search is FINALLY OVER!!!!

WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Last week I was talking to my oh so wise friend (which is why she is my bestie) and she told me she had faith that I would hear something about a job. Well, she was right, I did get an email from a principal telling me all positions in his school had been filled, but thanks for applying, blah blah blah. I guess, I was hoping for a call about a job. I was beginning to get a wee bit depressed by the end of the week. The weekend came and went and a new week was beginning. Little did I know what this week would hold.

Picture it, Monday afternoon and my phone rings. I didn't know the number so I was going to send it to voicemail (I don't like to answer numbers I don't know - I'm weird like that). However, I just got a new phone and instead of sending it to voicemail, I answered it. Realizing it, I quickly said hello. This southern accented woman, quickly speaking may I add, started talking. All I got was "principal" "position" "do you have a job" "do you still want a job". Then I said... No I don't have a job yet, yes I would like a job...Oh I am sorry I didn't catch your name or the school. Dr. W asked when I wanted to interview, I answered Wednesday and gave her a time that was good for me when she asked. When I hung up the phone it took me a few minutes to realize I HAD A JOB INTERVIEW....sweet! Wait!??!! Am I ready for this.. .I mean this is the first real interview, besides the few I have done at job fairs. GULP!

Last night I drove up to Hattiesburg and stayed the night with Leanne and Branson, since they are half way to Jackson. I drove to my interview this morning and everything went well. Actually, Dr. W told me she had basically made up her mind to hire me after speaking with my references! Oh goodness, I need to call them and find out what all they said so I will know what I have to live up to!!! :) So I signed my employment agreement, went to central office handed in some paperwork, next week I will get my fingerprinting done and start setting up my classroom and find an apartment! YIKES! Oh did I mention school starts in 2 1/2 weeks??? DOUBLE YIKES!!!

So, now I am a McWillie Bulldog!

I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone for their prayers and support!

I really do have the BEST family and friends!

Love yall!

Fun Foto Friday

Who knew I had my own fort?? Pretty rockin awesome though! Fort Mason is located in beautiful San Francisco. It served as an Army post for more than 100 years. It was built during the Civil War, but was used during WW II and Korean War. Today, some of the housing here is still used by the Army, some is rented to the public (how cool to say you live in a fort??) and one of its buildings has been converted into a youth hostel.

Happy Fun Foto Friday!

Fun Foto Friday

Cafe du Monde...need I say more?

Seriously, if you have never been to New Orelans and make it down here one day (I recommend the early spring...like end of Feburary or March... or fall ... any time from the end of Sepetember on) this is a must stop. Nothing is better than these yummy powered sugar covered beignet goodness. I like it with chocolate milk or hot chocolate (depending on the time of the year - wait, sometimes it is 85 degrees at Christmas here- so I should say depending on the weather of the day I visit)

This picture makes me want some beignets now... ok, I think I will go get so... so bye yall I am off to New Orleans for the day!

The Happenings...

Well yall, I am sorry it has been awhile since I have posted.

Things have been nuts! Last week my aunt Carol died (my dad's youngest sister). My mom and I jumped in the truck and drove up to Oklahoma City for the funeral. My aunt Carol was the only one of my dad's siblings that I was close to. We stayed at my cousin Dotties house. It was a lot of fun. Her little girl Emily is now 3 and is my new best friend ... YAY!! Now, the interesting thing about going to this funeral is I was going to meet some of my cousins for the first time ever. I met 3 of Dottie's brothers and her sister. I know it is strange that I could be close to Dottie and not know her siblings, but they are all way older than me...some of them have kids that are my age. So now I can say I have met my cousins and they have met me. And now when they look at a picture of me, they can say "hey I met her and she is rockin awesome", well at least that is what I hope they will say.

Do 45+ year olds say 'rockin awesome'??

Now Oklahoma City is not a place that I would say let's go for kicks and giggles, but maybe during football season it would be fun to go to an OU football game....Boomer Sooner!

Oh and they do have the Cowboy Hall of Fame there-not that I went this time, well my mom said I went there when I was younger, but I don't remember, I guess I was too young or it really wasn't that great. I may go next time I am in town.

The highlights of this trip were....

Braum's

seriously the best ice cream ever

its a fast food/ice cream parlor/grocery store

Braum's bacon is stinkin delicious and smells so yummy cooking

their cottage cheese is better than any I have ever eaten

IKEA

this was my mom's first trip to IKEA and she LOVED it!

I drooled over the yellow linen cabinet I will be buying soon

LOVE LOVE LOVE the sweedish meatballs with lingonberry jelly

I found some new glasses I want to buy

did I mention how fabulous the 'AS IS' section can be

the GREATEST/MOST FUN fabric is at IKEA

Welcome Centers

why does Louisiana have a welcome center in the MIDDLE of the state?

we discovered about 50 festivals in Louisiana that my mom and I are going to go to...can I saw Swine Fest and greasy pig contest here we come?!?!?

Texas welcome center on Interstate 20 is not as great as the one on Intersate 10 (I-10 has a swamp at it with alligators...I meant you can't get much better than that)

who would have thought you could get a seed catalog at a welcome center, well in Texas you can!

I love brochures of all the great things a state has to offer

Lafayette

pronounced 'Laugh-e-yette'

Genuine Cajun. Uniquely Creole.

Kai's mom's house is decorated in funky art

Prejeans for brunch -

Seafood Skillet Fondeaux, Shrimp Sassafras, Crawfish Boudin Balls, Mardi Gras Oyster Bake, Eggplant Abbeville....yum!

cute little town with that Louisiana way of life

Bonding time with my mom

this is always the best!

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Now as for a job for the fall...negative.

I know it's kinda depressing.

I have been applying EVERYWHERE...seriously.

I have great friends, who have found teaching jobs, that are passing on information about jobs they hear about

I have a job offer to go to Bahrain...but the pay isn't a great as I would like, but it is a thought on the back burner as a last option possible

My friend Jon's mom in law works on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and let me know they have job openings and is getting me all the information... I think it could be cool to teach the Navajo children and maybe I could learn to speak Navajo

I sorta kinda want a job offer from one of the district I applied to in Utah

A school I in Texas I had an interview with now has job openings (they principal did interviews before she had openings so she could fill openings when they came available) my interview went really well, so I am hoping she didn't forget about me :)

Well, that is all that is happening right now. HOPEFULLY I will have good news about a job for yall soon! I hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC summer!!