Friday, February 29, 2008

A confession

Ok I admit that the reason I've stopped updating is because I can tell how many people are viewing this blog and even though I'm writing it for me, it still depresses me to know that despite advertising my blog to my wonderful friends who I never get to talk to anymore so that they can stay on top of WHY I never get to talk to them anymore, no one is really that fascinated by my day-to-day.

I'm deciding at this moment to get over that. So here's to me: you're awesome, Jamie. You're working really hard and it shows. Keep up the good work. It will pay off in the end; and yes, this eternal road of insane busy-ness will indeed end: and there, you'll be a teacher, which is what you've always wanted and have always known would be.

Other than curling up in my bed with Fish and the pups to watch LOST on Thursdays, student teaching is the absolute highlight of my weeks. I always count the hours till I'm there doing it, and I always wish those same hours to slow down while I'm there. The children and just the whole school atmosphere infuse me with a giddiness that I miss so much when I'm away.

I think Heaven for me would be defined as having Gabby and my mom and my class all in my own classroom.

Umm, excuse me, Jamie, but did I tell you that I got to be in the CLASS PICTURE today??? SCORE!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Recent pics of the girls



My girls are so beautiful! Just wanted to share two very recent pictures of them :)


Wednesday, February 13, 2008

First Day of Kindergarten

I LOVE IT!!

i had the best day in my first day with my kindergarten class. they are the sweetest, smartest, most precious things i've ever seen in my life. and the best thing is they love me right back!

i could say so much but let me just wrap it up by saying it took away all my fears of teaching and just made me that much more excited and ready to do this. it was very hard to leave there at 11 knowing i would have to leave them to come and sit behind a desk for 8 hours (yes folks i am so dedicated to the cause here at the SC that i am working until 7 tonight. ugh).

see highlights below:
  • the first student introduced to me, preston, hugged me immediately and then proceeded to tell the teacher that i came to his house when he was one. then during sharing time later in the morning, he said he was wrong, i came to his house when he was two. after doing the math and making sure i couldn't have babysat for him 3 years ago, i told the class i was in maryland when they were two. then preston said "i was in maryland then too!" luckily the teacher saved me from losing my mind trying to remember this adorable child by saying she had known his mom before he was born and he had always lived here. how cute, though? :)
  • another little boy, cody, is a total ham and he was just funny and sweet and well-behaved. so i sat next to him for the last reading activity for the day, when he leaned over and said to me "miss cook, you really are a cutie" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i almost cried i was trying so hard not to laugh as i said "thank you cody".
  • the girls all wanted to sit next to me and read books to me and play teacher with me during free time. they are all so awesome! two of them are esol students: one is from laos and speaks limited english, the other is from puerto rico and speaks no english! but they are both so eager to learn and be a part of the classroom. it is so inspiring!
  • one little boy william was having a hard time behaving. he was bordering out of control with his bad behavior. the asst. principal happened to stop by and she took him on a walk. she determined he hadn't eaten breakfast so she brought it to him. i sat with him while he ate and he was just so sweet. so i made it my mission to be his friend for the day (and i will as much as i can!) and i helped him with his spelling worksheet and sat with him on the reading rug. he had been kicking everyone earlier but now he stayed cuddled next to my arm and apparently only felt comfortable pulling my hair into a ponytail and holding it with his hand :)

i love the spirit of diversity that is thriving in that classroom. all of these children want to do well and despite their setbacks, they are just so happy to be there and they press on. i'm so glad i'm working towards a career that will be so rewarding and will allow me to learn something new everyday!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

"We invent nothing, truly. We borrow and recreate. We uncover and discover. All has been given. We have only to open our eyes and hearts, to become one with that which is." ~Henry Miller

Monday, February 11, 2008

For the sake of an update

i wish i had more to say! i wish i could say that the bank came back and begged us to buy the house for a little less than we had offered (there's gotta be a weird bank reason this could happen!) and that i was moving in next week. i wish i could say that i finally got a much-needed raise and therefore was only doing pro bono babysitting henceforth. i wish it were true that the school i'm student-teaching at offered me a job at first glance, based solely on my cute face that only kindergarteners could love, so i didn't have to keep going to night classes. mostly i wish i could say that my visit to the orthopaedist's office this morning has resulted in answers and cures.

instead, i'm still not a homeowner. i'm still broke and babysitting. and i'm still spending all my otherwise-free nights in class.

oh, and the knee. i DID spend the morning at the doctor. and she still can't find anything wrong. she has the two worst combos for a doctor: she seems kind of like she doesn't know what she is doing AND she has a bad bedside manner. just my luck! anyway she finally ordered an MRI, only at the insistence of my fabulous mother. the doc sort of presented it as "there's nothing left to do......... i mean, unless you want an MRI". and it's like.... ummm... i'm still in pain after almost three months.... so how about we exhaust all efforts......idiot. so if they find nothing in the MRI, at least i will know that all options have been officially exhausted. my next options are a second opinion or physical therapy.

the doctor did say that since it's almost felt better a couple of times only to start hurting again, this might mean that since i'm favoring the knee, it's just weak from non-use and when it starts to feel better, it's not used to the weight i start to reapply to it. so my plan is, since there's obviously no severe injury to worsen, i'll just start trying to walk as normally on it as possible and hope that building strength makes it go away. i'm also going to attempt to wear only sneakers until it gets better. i never wear sneakers besides on the walks with the dogs, which i haven't done in over a month. so hopefully these changes will make a difference fo me.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Photo Survey

*** I just noticed that if you hover over each picture, most of them tell you exactly what I searched for :)***
Love it Shea :)
1)Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com/)
3) Take any picture from the first page of results and post. (click on the picture and copy the HTML code) Don't explain, it's funnier that way!

1. The age you will be on your next birthday
;]
2. A place you’d like to travel
Giants\' Causeway
3. Your favorite place
Charleston
4. Your favorite object
Who but Carbon Leaf can make a tinwhistle rock so hard?
5. Your favorite food
Mexican
6. Your favorite animal
white boxer
7. Your favorite color
Sage green texture
8. The town in which you were born
3 Bedroom apts AVAILABLE NOW! in Plainfield, NJ
9. The town in which you live
Tampa Bay
10. The name of your pet
Îå²ÊçÍ·×µÄÓã

Gabby Jay


Ava, May 2006
11. Your name
.
12. Your middle name
Priscilla
13. Your last name
cook
(**How funny that it's two animes in a row)

14. A bad habit of yours
Content Picking Scabs
(**Hint: look at the reflection :))

15. Your first job
Beanie
16. Current Car
honda fit
17. Favorite sport
gymnastics
18. Favorite kind of music
Traditional Irish Music Pub Crawl
19. Your crush
Josh Groban
20. Favorite thing to do
sing, sing, sing

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

one step closer

sooo the sellers accepted my offer on the house! this isn't as great as it sounds -- all it means is that we're now officially in contract (which is good) and that it's now the bank's the next move to either accept the offer or make a counter-offer. the world is my oyster at this very moment!

my mom and i were talking today about the laws of attraction and how they apply at this very moment. basically i need to be completely visualizing myself in this house because i really feel like it's where i am meant to be. i have to erase (or at least bury) all doubt. i could really use anyone else's help with this so i am going to go ahead and post the link to the house listing. please picture me in this house, with my own furniture and, most importantly, a brand new paint job on EVERY interior wall!

http://www.realtor.com/realestate/tampa-fl-33604-1086240496/

in other news, my boss informed me that i need to buy some "sweater sets" for kindergarten. i hate it when she is so unfashionably right. so in order to offset the pain of having to spend money on sweater sets, i am going to treat myself to some new throw pillows for my bedroom.

thanks to some delightful serendipity, i have managed to find so many awesome antique pieces in my favorite colors: sage green and dusty blue. unfortunately, as a result, my room is very boring. i'm taking some advice from HGTV, which i watch at every cable-watching moment (thank god for late night babysitting duty). i want some pillows that mix the duller colors with some really bright ones. i also have this amazing amelie poster from japan. amelie is sitting in her bed: her walls are red, her bedspread is orange, and she has two small sage green pillows. i bought a plain wood frame from ikea and painted it sage green. you wouldn't believe how much it ties the huge red/orange poster in with the room, because the frame really brings out those two little pillows. so these new pillows on MY bed are going to have reds and oranges in them to complete the look.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

i forgot!

did i mention that the class where i will be student teaching is a KINDERGARTEN class?! so exciting :) i start next week!

step one and counting

so... i put an offer in on the house today. you wouldn't believe how low it was. i'm not going to disclose any specifics until after i see what is going to happen, but i'll say that in this market, nothing is too ridiculous. i could have offered the asking price and they still could have rejected it. the reason is that this is a short sale. this is a new term in many markets since the real estate avalanche, so if you don't know what this is here is the long story short of a short sale (bwahaha):

the house is in pre-foreclosure. neither the sellers nor their lender want it to go to the f-land. the seller wants to save their credit and the lender wants to avoid any extra liability in a decreasingly poor market. so a short sale is a deal between the two of them: the seller gets as much as they can for the house, below the amount they owe, and pray that the lender takes pity and also accepts the offer, then just writes off the remaining debt. this is still not great for the seller's credit report but it's better than a foreclosure.

so firstly, the seller has to accept my offer. they probably will because they are so desperate to get the property off their hands. then the bank decides if they'll take it. this is where it's a crap shoot, and it's a 60-day long one at that. the bank could take up to TWO MONTHS to decide if they will take it or leave it. so this is a long wait, but please keep your fingers crossed for me. if each blog reader takes a portion of the 60 days to cross their fingers, the less painful it will be. i'll take days 1-5 and days 55-60. please volunteer for the time in between!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Please watch this, it is such an inspiration.

Warning: If you're voting for Romney, this may not be your cuppa tea.


This is a video made by the Black Eyed Peas based on Obama's incredible speech given in New Hampshire. It is so beautiful and had me with goosebumps and in tears. Pass it on to anyone you know who is ready to change.


http://www.dipdive.com

Saturday, February 2, 2008

home sweet home?

what a successful day! i had so much fun running around looking at houses with dad and jessica, and spending quality girlfriend time -- how i've missed that! -- at got tea.

and what's the best part at the end of the day? i think we found THE house! please keep your fingers crossed over the next week/month/who knows as we go through the process of contracting.

attention non-gmailers!

for those of you who have been held back from commenting by the faschist-style formatting, i found out how to open my blog up to "anonymous" posters. just make sure you sign your name :)

night #1 of my do-nothing weekend extravanganza went down without a hitch! i ordered a pizza, drank some wine, and ended it all with some key lime pie -- this is a huge deal because this is more food than i've eaten all week! the pups and i watched "stranger than fiction" and then i passed out nice and early. i'm headed to joffrey's for coffee before doing some morning cleaning. FASCINATING!!

Friday, February 1, 2008

"those of you who are scattered, simplify your worrying lives. there is one righteousness; water the fruit trees, and don't water the thorns. ~rumi

work-free weekend!

i'll stress about the lack of funds later -- this is the first weekend in months when i haven't had to babysit and/or work overtime! i'm looking forward to only fulfilling fun commitments.

tonight will be spent with the pups, a good movie, my big comfy couch, and a little wine. glorious.

tomorrow morning, my parents and my dearest new school friend will be going to seminole heights to look at, yet another, ridiculously cheap house. based on the location, lot size, and square footage of the house (not to mention it has been on and off the market for over a year), this foreclosure is likely to be what my agent calls "junk". but let's say it's not! if that happens to be true, it is the most adorable house i've ever seen. and seriously: riDICulously cheap. i'm not getting my hopes up.

the lovely day will be continued at Got Tea where jessica and i will hopefully get some schoolwork done and i will introduce her to the glory of bubble tea! can't wait.

saturday night is up for grabs but i'm thinking more relaxation only interrupted by a trip to marshall's or the yankee candle store (only to sniff not buy).

sunday i will go to church at 11, which i am very excited about because i've got the script for my kids all typed up and printed on bright orange paper. fun stuff!

sunday night is superbowl, but i'm hoping that doesn't mean cancellation of the session at four green fields! i am ready to play some music.

now all i have to do is grin and bear it until 5pm. no prob.