Some People Count Days, I Count Bananas!

Ok, by the title you know this has to do with counting days vs. bananas. What does that mean? Well, if you know me, then you know I am NOT a morning person in the least. I hate waking up and getting out of bed before noon. I am a night owl in nature. By now you're probably wondering how I ended up as a teacher. As long as I wake up and can take my good ol' time getting ready in the morning and go through my routine without being rushed then I am ready to talk to people by 7:30 am when I get to work. If I wake up late or am rushed, it throws off the whole day. I also love to wait until the last minute to wake up and crawl out of bed. That means I eat breakfast in my car every morning. I was eating Pop Tarts on my way to work...until I realized that I was consuming 400 calories on essentially sugar every day and my pants weren't fitting anymore. So about two weeks ago I switched to eating a banana in my car. It leaves me with another fun problem - what to do with the peel. I now have a "banana bag" as I'm dubbing it, to collect the banana peels. I was excited this evening to see that there are only 3 bananas left on the counter for this week=three days of work left. I only but enough bananas for the week and I have to choose some that are ripe and a few that are very green. If I don't get a mixture then my bananas at the end of the week are a little overripe. So anyhow that was my long explanation as to why I count bananas and other people count days.

Random Thing That Irks Me: Why are churches in the business of "selling" their church on their darn message board outside? The churches here in J-ville end up with some stellar sayings, and by stellar I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible. One church in particular actually ticks me off instead of making me want to visit their church. Latest example "Cell phones useful, Jesus' words priceless" What? I get it, but it is a bit of a stretch here people. However, there are sometimes sayings that make me laugh. One of the latest that was posted was "If Jesus had a fridge, would your picture be on it?" My charming husband's reply was "if Jesus had a fridge, my beer would be in it." I had to laugh. When I mentioned this to my mother another phrase I came up with in response to the ones that irk me..."don't smother me with your Jesus."

Good News: My husband was able to sell my 22" rims to someone. I now have extra cash and no longer have the rims that make my car look like I should sell drugs instead of teach.

Illogical Marine Corps: Dave has a little over a month until he gets out of the Marine Corps. They have decided they are moving him to another unit tomorrow. What? Are y'all aware he has only xx amount of days left? Marines can find their way out of the middle of the woods in the dark and take over a village, but they sure don't make sense sometimes. He's moving to 3/9 if anyone cares.

Freedom & Relief

Today was a day of freedom and relief. There are a few reasons I felt this way today. The first reason for freedom is that I signed my letter of intent that says I "do not plan on working in Onslow County for the 2008-2009 school year." It was freeing knowing that I will be moving on to another place for the next school year. (Hopefully I'll still be teaching, just somewhere new.) I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that there is one less thing on my list of things to do before the end of the school year. And there is only one more school day left to survive before Spring Break begins (when I can hopefully cross a few more things off the list).

Another reason for relief is that I had my "summative evaluation" for the 2008-2009 school year and I was marked "at standard" in all of the areas listed on the evaluation form. It was exciting to know that I am doing a good job so far. I received a nice compliment from the Principal as well about how much progress I have made since last school year. For my second year in the business, I feel good.

I'm also looking forward to a new beginning. A new beginning at a completely new school district in a completely new state where I can have a fresh start. My reputation and record starts over in the new school and I can stand on my own without the mistakes of my first year of teaching ever looming over my shoulder each time someone evaluates me or my classroom. I've made a lot of gains this year. I feel a lot more confident in my abilities. Granted, I still have a lot of learning and several more years of experience to gain, but I feel good where I am right now. I'm looking forward to working in a school where I can invest myself whole-heartedly in my lessons, my students, and the community. A place where I may feel disconnected at first, but will gradually create my very own niche in the school and the community. A place where I can see siblings pass through and get to know the families of the students I teach. In a perfect world, they would be families that are involved and encourage their students to do their very best in order to be successful in life. We don't live in a perfect world. Unfortunately, there will still be students struggling to overcome their background, their homelife, their role in the community, and a myriad of other issues in order to be successful. My job will be to help them in any way I can, within reason and the limitations of my job.

Cheers to the beginning of the resolution to this particular chapter of life. Cheers to the introduction of a new chapter!