Cookies, Celebrity, Crazies

In South Bend, I used to host an annual Christmas cookie exchange.  Now that I am settled here in Georgia, I attempted to start up the tradition again.  I invited about 12 people, but only 2 could come.  So I changed the date and we'll see if I have any more takers.  If not, I get the hint.

On another note, I feel like Paris Hilton walking down the hallway.  No joke, kindergarteners think I walk on water.  If they had cameras, I can assure you they'd be paparazzi.  I literally cannot walk down the hallway without, "Hi Mrs. Traeger, hi Mrs. Traeger, hi Mrs. Traeger, hi Mrs. Traeger. hi Mrs. Traeger...," 18 waves, and 6 hugs.  I need to build in an extra 5 minutes to arrive where ever I need to go.  It is actually really nice!  Most middle schoolers wouldn't say a word to me unless I tripped over one of them.

On a not so positive note, there was a 7 year old girl who went missing on Friday in Canton (Canton is the city my school is in).  She was found severely beaten and sexually abused and thrown in a dumpster on Monday.  Although she didn't go to my school, we are on high alert for a crazy killer.

BUMPY

Ok, my pants do not fit any longer.  Up until this week I had been able to at least zip them up, even if I couldn't button them.  This week - no longer!  I need to go by some maternity work pants!  Here is my 16 week photo:

TDay 2011

Ryan and I drove to Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night to stay with his cousin Justin.  It was just the three of us for Thanksgiving and it was really nice.  We had a pre-cooked turkey, mac and cheese, corn souffle, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, apple pie, pecan pie, and whipped cream.

On Thanksgiving Day, Charlotte hosts the 4th largest parade in the nation.  Of course I made the boys go!

Zits and Data

My biggest complaint so far about being pregnant is my acne.  It is out of control!!!  Not to gross you out, but I feel like I'm a teenager again.  My face HURTS it's so bad.  I am getting zits in places I have never gotten them before - in my eye brows, in between my eyelids and eye brows, and all around my hairline.  I have figured out how to get rid of my headaches though....take an allergy pill!

On a different note, some of you may wonder what I actually do at my job.  Here is one project I took up:

This is our school data wall.  It has every single students' name on it, twice.  The left column contains students who fall below standards in both reading (on the left) and math (on the right) by grade level.  The middle column is all students who meet standards in both subjects, by grade level, and the right hand column consists of all the students who exceed standards in both subjects, by grade level.

Clearly, teachers want to focus on helping the students in the left hand column catch up to their peers.  Teachers - do you know which of your students fall below standards?  Amazingly, the left hand column contains the fewest amount of students, which makes it really manageable for our teachers to really target those students.

There are several things we do to help these students that I haven't seen in any school I've ever worked at before.  First of all, we offer them free after school tutoring in reading and math twice a week.  Secondly, we require teachers to look at their classes' data and determine the skills they are the weakest in.  Teachers have to create an intervention calendar and focus on one of the skills per week.  They have to carve out 10 minutes a day to do mini lessons on the subject Mon-Thurs, and then give a short assessment on Friday.  They then have to input that data into their intervention calendar weekly, proving:

1. They are aware of the standards their students are the weakest in
2. They are actually targeting those skills daily in addition to continuing on with the regular curriculum
3. They are proving with data from their weekly assessments, whether their students are experiencing learning gains in that area

The things we require of our teachers are amazingly overwhelming, but no one could argue that it's not what a phenomenal teacher would do.   It is awe inspiring to see true education reform in action!  And I thank the lucky stars that I don't have to do it!  =)

I found this on the PostSecret App today and liked it so much I thought I'd share:

Baby Bump?

4 weeks pregnant

8 weeks pregnant

12 weeks pregnant

So am I showing yet?  I don't know...I don't really see any difference in the pictures.  In fact, I think they look somewhat out of order, but I know they are not.  I started this pregnancy about 10 lbs heavier than I normally am, and I think I look pretty consistent in all three pictures.  

First trimester was really easy... second trimester is not starting off well.  I am having headaches and lower back pain on a regular basis.  Stretching doesn't seem to help my back.  At times, I am also having burning muscle pain below my left shoulder blade.  That is very painful!!!

I have one more week of school and then I have the entire week of Thanksgiving off!

CRT, tennis, week off school

So, I love my job.  We've been in school for an entire month now, and we still don't have any textbooks for 2nd grade, nor a single math textbook for K-5.  Since I last blogged we have fired our financial bookkeeper, a secretary, and just yesterday we fired a special ed teacher.  Apparently, we're not playing around!  If we don't get more 7th graders enrolled, we might have to start letting middle school teachers go.  The thought has crossed my mind that they might need to let the middle school CRT (me!) go as well.

Our principal, Vanessa, kind of rules with fear.  I don't know if that's her intention, but I can tell you that all staff members are intimated by her.  Which, on the one hand is AWESOME because people actually respect her, and it is clearly established that what she says goes.  Compared to my former principal who had no spine, no one respected him, and no one felt supported by him, this woman is a welcomed change.  She is Hispanic and at times the ghetto in her comes out, which makes me smile, and feel like I'm home =)

I am being sent to Florida Wednesday night for Curriculum Cadre.  Just me - I'm going alone.  All the schools who are a part of Charter Schools USA are sending 1-3 people but since I have to fly there, we only get to send one.  I'm excited about the opportunity though!

Then, a week from today we get an entire week off of school.  Cherokee County has this amazing calendar that gives everyone a week off in September, November, February, and April, in addition to the two weeks off for Christmas.  I will be volunteering at Papa's that week Monday-Wednesday (they still haven't found anyone to replace me!), and then Ryan will be getting his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday so I will play nurse Traeger for the rest of the week.

I joined a tennis team!  It's basically all the wives/girlfriends of the Ryan's crew.  Today is our first match?  game?  meet?  Whatever... QUESTIONS:
"Ryan, who was your last girlfriend prior to Courtney?"  "Heather Froy"
"Courtney, who is your tennis partner for the match this weekend?"   "Heather Froy"
So that's a little strange and uncomfortable but oh well.  Tis better to make friends than enemies =)

That's all for now...

I make a lousy tour guide

Back in April, when we had the green light to open, more children signed up to be a part of Cherokee Charter Academy than we had spots for.  We initially were going to accept 700.  After seeing how many students wanted to be a part of this, we upped enrollment to 975.  We still had more students than space available so we did a lottery system. 

When the local school boards took the charter schools to the Supreme Court and won, we got the red light to open. 

On July 15, 2011, we got the green light to open as one of 7 "special charter schools" chartered by the state of GA, but were given only half the funding needed.  Gov. Deal reallocated 2.9 million dollars of funds in order to help us open.

Cherokee County schools opened two weeks before us, and many parents sent their children there with the uncertainty of whether we would open or not.  As a results, we now do not have a full capacity of enrollment, and various staff members have been calling parents on the waiting list to invite them to join us.  As a result, numerous parents are coming into the building, at all hours, wanting questions answered, and wanting tours. 

A few people from corporate, Charter Schools USA, were here earlier in the week helping give these tours, and in addition, they pulled Lorelei and I to do them too.  The past two days they have been gone, and Lorelei and I have been giving them.  From the time the day starts until well after the day ends we have been doing this.  This is not in my job description.

I do not know how our curriculum compares to Cherokee County's curriculum (I'm from IN).
I do not know how often Kindergartners have art.
I do not know how much uniforms cost (I don't have children).
I do not know what company we outsource our food service through, or what the nutritional content of our meals consist of (I bring my own lunch).
I do not know where we will get funding for next year.
I do not know why the walls in the building are "un-cheery", and need new paint.
I do not know if we will eventually get a middle school library separate form the younger grades.
I do not know if we are going to have a "gifted" program.
I do not know what sports or clubs we will offer.
I do not know how long our lease is for the building we're in.
I do not know if we will eventually add high school.

And don't get me wrong, these are GREAT questions.  And as an educator, I am impressed that we have parents who want to know the answers to these questions.  But after saying "I don't know" in every single way I know possible, I don't know how much of a service I'm being to these parents.  So I have stopped giving the tours, which means Lorelei has to do them all since she actually does know the answers, and has been with Charter Schools USA for 3 years.

Here's what I do know

(AKA top 5 reasons to send your child to CCA):

1.  The child's grade is strictly based on academic content knowledge.  Not on participation, attendance, behavior, whether he come with supplies or not, nor whether he turns in his homework or not.
2.  EVERY person in the building is an at-will employee, meaning they can be fired at any time.  There is no tenure, there is no veteran teacher who hasn't changed their lesson plans in 25 years with his feet up on the desk, and there are not even teacher contracts.  If we don't perform, we are gone.  Our livelihoods are 100% dependent on whether your child is learning or not.  What a novel concept! [PS - we hired and fired the middle school Spanish teacher in the same week]
3.  We teach character education in every class, every day, every year.
4.  We start all kids in Spanish in Kindergarten.
5.  We differentiate education.  We are not teaching to the average child - we are meeting the needs of advanced learners, struggling learners, and the average learner, all day, every day in every subject.  It is mandatory! (This is why I have a job - it's my job to help teachers do this!)

Cherokee Charter dismissal procedure -1; staff - 0

Things went smooth all day.  Really, they did!  The drop off procedure in the morning went flawlessly,  Everyone was where they were supposed to be, directing students and parents.  It was so fun to be in an elementary school.  Parents walk their kids in, take pictures, some kids are nervous and terrified and others are confident and friendly.  One first grade student brought his teacher flowers!  Watching the Kindergarten parents was the best...some had tears in their eyes. 

This one little kid was pretty frustrated though because he couldn't find his teacher's classroom.  He looked like Will Smith's kid with the most gorgeous curly hair ever.  All he knew was he is in the 2nd grade, and his teacher's name starts with a P.  Considering I don't even know all the staff members names yet, this information was not helpful.  Then, he remembered, "she has white hair, like you!"

Later in the day I was assigned to do "walk-throughs" of the 1st and 7th grade classes.  Basically we were told to go observe what was happening, and leave a positive sticky note to the teacher upon leaving.  My most exciting observation was in the 7th grade science lab.  No joke, I heard a duck quacking.  Me and this little guy both looked at each other with our mouths open.  I asked the teacher if she had a duck in there and she looked at me like I was crazy.  So we all sat in silence, and listened to this duck quack.  We determined it was in the vent, and of course by the time I had someone go take care of it, the quacking had stopped.  They never found anything.  I emailed the principal about it, her response was "lol that has to be the funniest thing yet".

And everything was all fun and games until the dismissal time came.  We don't have buses, and since we have little kids, they have to be escorted to the correct car.  We had a plan in place and had practiced it well.  About an hour before dismissal though, the Dean of Students changed the plan, and all ____ broke loose.  Each child and each car has a number.  People at the beginning of the parking lot have walkie talkies and call out the number of the cars coming up the drive.  We, on the other end, are supposed to call those numbers to dismiss.  The Dean thought we should all be in the gym for this procedure, but she didn't realize getting 600 kids from K-7 to be quiet all at once is impossible.  No one could hear the numbers being called; not the walkie talkie people, and certainly not the kids.  It was a stand still disaster.  Traffic was backed up out on the main road that leads into the school.  One woman yelled at me, "What the hell is going on?  I've been waiting an hour and 45 minutes!" and I can assure you, she had. 

Open House is Tomorrow

Open House is tomorrow morning.  School starts Monday.  Here's what the school looks like today:

This is a 3rd grade teacher's room, aka textbook storage.  Meaning = teachers don't even have their textbooks yet.  Math, across all grade levels, hasn't even shown up yet.  No textbooks what so ever have shown up yet for 2nd grade.

Here is the front hallway:

These workers seem to be doing something, yet we still don't have internet or working phones.

BUT the parents threw us a wonderful lunch today, complete with cake!  That is our logo that will be on all of our shirts.

MASS CHAOS!!!!!!

First Day on the New Job

Today was my first day on the new job.  The building we are in was a former Christian school.  It went bankrupt, and they left everything inside it.  Apparently last week teachers were told to put "Room 136" on anything they didn't want in their room.  Parent volunteers came in over the weekend and moved everything into room 136.  Room 136 is our office!

Lorelei reassured me that teachers would be coming by throughout the day to "shop" these supplies, but there were so many jammed into such a tiny space you couldn't even see what was available.  So we spent the whole morning taking things out one by one, and sorted it in the hallway by subjects:  games, math, language arts, arts and crafts, science, etc.  Here is a picture of the hallway:

Do you love the lime green  walls?  I do!  That's a new addition since I was in the building last week.  This photo may not appear  to have a lot of stuff in it, but here is a picture of the space where all this stuff was before we moved it:

Things were waist high in that entire area.

I had a little time to start to decorate my office.  My desk was originally up against the window with the seat facing the window.  But I wanted to face out of my office, and not have my back to someone who comes in.  The desk is so big it is about the only thing that can fit in the office.

View of the window:

 View from the window:

My friend Iris, who also got a position at the Charter School, called me when she got home from work at 5:45pm.  I left at the appointed time - 4:00pm.  Apparently around 4:00 the principal sent out an all-call for staff to come to the office.  When they arrived she gave them each a portion of 600 parents to call.  We are planning on having 995 students on Monday.  Only 300 have all necessary paperwork turned in.  The principal, Vanessa, said everyone's job is on the line if only 300 kids enroll!  Should be interesting...

I was enjoying my Saturday morning when...

I kind of have this ritual... on the weekends I get up and go outside on the front porch to check my phone, scan the internet, and drink my coffee to start the day.  Whatever I slept in is what I'm wearing.  We live on top of a hill with a long driveway so cars can't really see me (or so I like to think).  This morning was no exception.

Then I noticed a truck pulled very slowly into the driveway.  "Surely it's just turning around" I thought.  But it continued very slowly up the driveway, and a little boy in the front seat waved at me.  I JUMPED up, ran inside and threw some pants on (as I was pant-less), however did not have time to throw a bra on.  When I returned to the porch the little guy was standing right there.

He was a boyscout selling popcorn.  Really?  Of course I bought some, but now I may need to re-think my weekend morning rituals...

My new job!

So on Monday I will start my new job.  It will be at Cherokee Charter Academy, and I will be a Curriculum Resource Teacher.  This charter school just got the green light to start, so they hired an entire staff last week.  I interviewed on Thursday, got hired Friday night, and they told me to start on Monday.

I told them there was no way I could.  They agreed that I could have a week left at Papa's, and then begin the following week.  Kids come starting August 15th.  I am going to be one of two CRT's.  The other lady's name is Lorelei and she has been teaching at one of these charter schools down in Florida for the past three years. We have offices!  She has the bigger one, I have the smaller one, which is fine.  We both have windows!  She said, "We drew straws yesterday and you got the short one."  Very funny. 

Saturday, I did the unthinkable.  I spent the ENTIRE afternoon at the mall.  I knew I needed an updated wardrobe for this new position, and even though I hate shopping, I tredged through it.  I actually found some really great stuff and was really excited about it.  Until I got the following email titled "Employee Dress Code": 

Logo shirts are to be worn at all times. Shirts must be a solid color, collared polo type shirt or button down dress shirt. A cardigan type of sweater with a logo may also be worn over a solid color shirt. Bottoms can be pants, skirts or Capri’s but must come down below the knee. Pants should be black, brown, gray, navy or khaki. No jean materials are allowed. Shoes must be closed toe and closed back, and you may wear tennis shoes. All clothing and shoes should be clean and neat in appearance with no tears or holes. You will receive one shirt from CCA but any others will need to be purchased.  The shirt that is purchased for you should be worn for the open house and the 1^st day of school. Logoed shirts can be purchased from All Uniform Wear. You will also have the option of buying a shirt from any store and then bringing it in to the school store .  The cost to add our logo is $5 until August 12.     You may also purchase the student shirts at the school store.  

So  I spent HOURS at the mall, totally out of my element, and I get to go return everything I just bought.  AWESOME!  Not.

My last day at Papa's is tomorrow.  To make matters worse, there still is no replacement for me.  I haven't even gotten to train anyone this week.  Not for a lacking of trying; Lynne offered the job to THREE different people this week, and they each turned it down.  Who applies, interviews, gets the position, and then turns it down?  Three people in one week!

I will be sad to leave Papa's, but this way I will be able to still volunteer there during the summer.  [insert shameless plug] Papa's Pantry is turning 13 on August 13th!  If you would like to make a MUCH NEEDED donation to Papa's in honor of this, please go to www.papaspantry.org and pay by PayPal or get the physical address to send in a check.  Thanks!!!!  While you're on the website, check out the section titled "Food Donations"  and "Community Thank Yous" - I was in charge of always updating those!

My house on the market BUY BUY BUY!

18400 Crownhill Drive, South Bend, IN | Powered by Postlets

The Wedding

Kelly almost didn’t make it…

Kelly, Haley, and Christy Z were supposed to arrive in St. Augustine, FL at 9:30am on Saturday morning.  Saturday morning I woke up to two texts.  One was at 5 something am from Kelly, stating that she had some weird illness, Christy didn’t have a seat on the flight, and they weren’t going to let them board the plane.  Around 6 something am I had a text from Haley saying “We are seriously off schedule and don’t know when we’ll be there.”  

When I woke up around 9am I called Kelly’s cell phone.  She answered, and said she was somewhere in Indianapolis at a hospital, by herself.  Kelly said she started feeling dizzy at the airport, was seeing black spots, got really hot, and felt better when she went to the bathroom.  I told her that sounds like when I’m having anxiety.  She said she wasn’t diagnosed yet but the doctors had run a million tests and all came back with nothing.  The last test they were waiting on was a urinary tract infection.

Kelly was apparently down an all fours at the terminal when they finally called the paramedics.  The paramedics said they would not let Kelly board the plane until she saw a doctor, so she left by ambulance to a hospital.  At this time, they had found Christy a seat on the plane, but they all missed the flight due to Kelly and her condition.  

Haley stayed at the airport because she was my violinist for the wedding.  She said she felt like she had to go.  Christy and Haley got assigned new flights from Indy to North Carolina to Jacksonville.  At this time, none of them knew if Kelly would even be making the wedding.  

THE BEST PART ABOUT THIS STORY:  Kelly arrived in Florida before Haley and Christy!!!!!  The doctors diagnosed her with a caffeine induced panic attack, a nurse drove her back to the airport, and she flew from Indy to Washington DC to Jacksonville and arrived before the other two did! Hahahahahahahah

Food…

The entire bottom tier of my cake was not cut into.  Luckily I had a full size fridge in my room so we took it back there.  I had planned on taking it on the pirate ship, but I forgot to do so.  So Monday morning I still had a huge, untouched cake in my fridge that I needed to do something with.  After working at Papa’s Pantry, I did NOT want any good food to go to waste!!!  Ryan’s uncle Marshall only had a 2 hour drive back to his house so I asked him if he wanted to take it into his office the next day.  He said he would.  He later decided, unbeknownst to me, that it would melt before he got it home.  So he and his daughter took it to a nearby homeless shelter and gave it to them.  They were so excited to receive it!  It was Memorial Day and they have lots of Vets staying with them and they said this would be a great way to celebrate!  That made me feel really good.

After the pirate ship, we had even more food left over.  There were a ridiculous amount of huge trays of everything from veggies, fruit, cold cuts, and cheese, to finger sandwiches and shrimp!  Again, I did not want anything to go to waste.  I tried pawning off trays too all our guests, but no one had full size fridges like we did.  A few people took trays but we still had 5-7 left.  We kept them in our fridge overnight, and then I insisted Ryan and DJ Jason walk them around down town until they found homeless people to give them to, which they did.  This made me very happy again.

The Wedding…  

The wedding was perfect – no problems, no hiccups, no nothing.  I couldn’t have asked for anything to have gone differently =)

Papa's Pantry

I know you were hoping I would probably blog about the wedding or the honeymoon, and I will, but that will be a long blog.  I only have time for a short blog this evening.

It has been an interesting week at Papa's pantry...  I got sent home from work on Tuesday for being dressed inappropriately.  I was wearing a dress.  Lynne said it was too casual and "summery".  She did not politely ask me to never wear it again.  No, she sent me home on the spot to change.  How embarrassing!  It was very similar to this picture, except it tied around the neck and it had some fancy chunky beading on the neck ties. 

Ryan was home when I came to change my outfit and I told him what happened.  He laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.  In my face.  I had to cry about it later that night.  I'm better now though, although now I'm constantly worried when I go to work if I'm "dressy" enough to make $10/hour.

Then today, I had a lady that I was helping shop in the pantry, tell me not to drink Lipton Iced Tea.  Why, you might ask?  "Because it gives women yeast infections down there.  I was having some issues and I heard it on the news, so I switched my iced tea and it cleared right up!"  We have our own Dr. Oz right here in Woodstock it seems.  So not only do I make $10/hour, I get free medical advice.  *priceless*

Last Weekend

Haley and Kelly flew into Atlanta at midnight on Thursday.  It was supposed to be a surprise for me.  Ryan was going to go pick them up while I was asleep.  I ended up finding out ahead of time, and instead, I had to go to the airport at midnight while Ryan got to sleep!

I had to work the next day, so Haley and Kelly had to go pick up my dad and his girlfriend Teri at noon.  The funny part is, neither of the 4 of them have ever met!  As a result, the girls went prepared to the airport with signs:

They stopped by Papa's Pantry on the way home and I gave them all a tour.

The next day was our co-ed bridal shower.  Haley and Kelly were so bored they left at one point to go spray tanning.  They missed the presents being opened, and the cake cutting!  By the time they got back, the party was over.

It was a good thing we didn't have any plans on Sunday, because we woke up to the water heater exploding.  Ryan and my dad had the pleasure of working on that from 9am to 3pm-ish.  Three trips to Home Depot later, it was fixed.

After I took the girls back to teh airport for thie flight out Sunday night, I came back and we grilled out.  We got to use a new platter we receieved as a wedding gift.  When we first got it, Ryan said, "That's HUGE!  What are we going to put on  that?"  But, I think we filled it nicely =)

Senior Vice President of Papa's Pantry

Well, that's what I like to refer to myself as anyhow.

First week on the job was really great! 

My very first day I worked 11 hours.  We had our first ever Advisory Board meeting that night and we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off to prepare for it.  We were providing a donated dinner for everyone (about 20 people) and when the lady went to pick up the food at 4:30 from a local Mexican restaurant, they said they had no idea what she was talking about and had no food prepared for us.  The meeting was supposed to start at 5:30.  We immediately bust out in prayer, talking about "Father please continue to provide for us like You've always done..."  And of course, He did.

In fact, we bust out in prayer often.  The last day I was there training with Tina, me, Lynne, Tina, and Sandi all sat around at the end of the day and prayed.  They took turns going around the circle and each spoke for several minutes.  When it came to my turn, I said, "Uh, I pass =)"  And I know I should've just jumped in like I knew what I was doing, but I didn't.  However I also know I will have many opportunities in the future to join in.  Each one of them spoke of their conviction that my timing and me taking the job was all in God's plan for me, for Papa's Pantry, and for Tina.  And I believe them!

I have made a few mistakes... for example I deleted a message off of Lynne's voice mail, instead of re-playing it.  I only got the first 6 digits of the guy's phone number.   Ooops.  I forgot to give this lady her ID back after I made a copy of it and she left with it still in my copy machine.  Ooops.  Then I thought for sure the phone's weren't working.  I tried dialing from my office and it would ring a few times, and then make this weird noise.  I went to Lynne's office to try in there, but I got the same result.  I told Sandi I didn't think the phone lines were working and asked her for assistance.  Any way, to make a long story short, she concluded, "You're in Atlanta honey.  You gotta dial the area code."  Ooops.

In this week alone, I've vacuumed, dusted, placed, canceled, and re-placed an order to Office Depot, greeted clients, complied 187 pounds of food for a children's home, was the photographer at the Advisory Board meeting, made copies, learned how to use Microsoft Access, and gotten friendly with a Google calendar, Google Docs, and a Go Daddy email account.  I've made coffee, put out sign-in sheets, accepted donations, made client appointments, learned how to use Windows Live, rearranged tables in the Master's Training Center, gotten the mail, mailed things out, signed and accepted things from UPS, learned how to search and shop on the Atlanta Food Bank website, stocked free breads and desserts from Publix, inventoried t-shirts, and on and on and on and on..... 

You get the idea. I am constantly busy and it feels like I am juggling 32 balls at once.  Which I like, because it keeps me busy, it is not monotonous, and the people around me are great.  Not to mention, I have a 90 second commute to and from my house to Papa's Pantry.  Who can say that in Atlanta?  AND I have the most supportive fiance in the world who allows me to feed my soul with this job, instead of padding our bank account with something like teaching would pay.  I AM BLESSED!

Easter

     Ryan and I have been talking about attending a church for some time now.  He sporadically attended a Catholic church growing up, and I was raised in a Presbyterian church.  We are both very open to attending any kind of different church.  Being that it was Easter weekend, Ryan had two separate co-workers invite him to attend their church on Easter.  We went with the first invitation, which was a non-denominational church up in Canton.  It was called Revolution.  I tried to prepare Ryan for what he was about to experience, since I have been to these kinds of churches a few times in South Bend.  So we met Ryan's co-worker Matt, his wife Carrie, and their two kids.  We both enjoyed the service, but I think we will church hop until we decide where we should belong.

     Grant is back in town after being gone for 2 months.  We invited him over for dinner Easter evening and we had a fun time.  And since I miss our roommate arts and crafts nights, I had another one all prepared.  So after dinner we made tie-dye Easter eggs:

It was a great Easter Sunday!!!

Papa's Pantry

I was able to train last Wednesday morning from 9:30am - noon.  From those two and a half hours I typed up three complete pages of notes. 

You know how your mom always took a picture of you on your first day of school each year?  Well here is a photo of me on my first day at work:

Do I look like a secretary???

I also trained all day yesterday from 9:30am - 4:30pm.  I have not converted those notes onto my computer yet but I took a ton!  I will be doing everything from making coffee, answering phones, ordering office supplies, greeting clients, doing mailings, to fixing the copy machine.   My most important job, however, might be to let Lynne's dog out as needed to use the restroom, and then give her, Sophie, a treat when she comes back in.

At the end of the day Thursday we threw Tina, who's job I'm taking, a going away party.  Many tears were shed between Tina and Lynne.  I just happily ate cake.  Everyone loves Tina and she did such a great job there...I have BIG shoes to fill!

I start on my own Tuesday!

I got a job!!!!

I am so excited to be the new administrative assistant at Papa's Pantry!

I knew that my schedule being so unstructured was not a good thing for me, so I re-contacted Papa's to see if they needed any volunteer help.  I was hoping to get my pantry shift back, but unfortunately, someone was already doing my shift.  I asked Tina, the administrative assistant there, if she could just keep me in mind if any slots needed filled in.  She called me back two hours later and invited me to do the Wednesday shift this week, since the regular person couldn't make it.

I arrived early for my shift so I could catch up with Tina about everything that had been going on for the past 3 months or so.  She asked how my subbing went, and, since we all know how I feel about that, I told her I'm really struggling with what to do with my life and that I do not want to go back to being a teacher!  She told me she was leaving Papa's, for a job that provided benefits, and her last day would be next Friday.  We agreed to keep in touch.

At the end of my shift she asked me if I was interested in having her job.  I said "yes!" and she told me to send Lynne, the founder, my resume.  I went home and immediately sent Lynne my resume and Lynne wrote back saying she wanted to interview asap.  Since I am leaving for Indiana tomorrow for a week, she asked if I could comeback in right then.  So I did.  Low and behold she offered me the job on the spot!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to be moving into the non-profit sector of America!  Papa's Pantry is also a very Christain based organization and I think it's a good thing to be surrounded by people who believe that deeply.

Here is a link to their facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Papas-Pantry/155026458571

If you scroll about half way down the page, they have an 11 minute video posted about what we do there.  Feel free to check it out!  I think it gives a real accurate picture of the all around services we offer =)

It's Official

I hired Reverend John Mashall today!  Which means, the wedding can actually take place now =)

And, don't judge a book by its cover ;)

CAKE

I ordered my cake today:  4 tiers, vanilla cake with lemon filling...

Only to find out Ryan hates lemon filling!

Ooops

Under Construction

Ryan and I have been busily trying to get this house re-organized with the addtion of all my things from Indiana.

We took Grant's room and repainted the whole thing.  I worked on the cut for about 3 hours one day, painting it in Killim flat with the leftovers from when that room was originally painted.  When we ran out of that, we went to the store and bought Killim glossy, unbeknownst to us, and we got to re-do all the work from the previous day I had done.  We repainted that bathroom too, after a major cleaning of it.  I would like to publicly apologize to my mother, who had the unfortunate pleasure of staying in that room pre-makeover.  That room was smelly, disgustingly filthy, and all around gross.  I didn't know how bad it was until I was in charge of cleaning it all up and repainting it!  We also had new carpet installed this week in that room, and bought a headboard off of Craig's List that we will eventually paint whiteish.

Here is the finished product:

Then I went to Ikea and bought two things: a white bookshelf (identical to one I already own but gave to Kelly), and a black dresser for the master bedroom.  I prided myself on putting it all together.  Here is the finished product:

On a roll, I went to construct the bedroom dresser.  It took me two days to do, and it came out GREAT...except for one part....

Notice the bottom piece of wood is just wood - not black?  Ooops....  I think it adds character but Ryan insists we paint it black. 

My dad and Michael came to stay with us last night, and my dad's birthday is later this week so of course I made him a cake.  This was the first time I made cream cheese frosting and the best part about it is you don't have to smooth it all out like with regular frosting.

Garage Sale

We learned a very important lesson over the past couple weeks:  CRAIG'S LIST ROCKS!  For example, before Grant moved out, he had me post a washer and dryer on-line for sale.  We had FOUR calls within about a half hour of posting the item!  And so began our relationship with Craig's List.

We had a garage sale on Sunday, March 20.  But before the big day, we took our big ticket items and listed them on Craig's List.  That way, we could post a higher number and see if anyone bites at it.  If not, we could sell it at the garage sale for less. 

I was the advertising campaign manager:

So ahead of time, we were able to sell a queen size sleigh bed, a telescope, an entire queen size bedroom set, and a pool table.  We still had plenty left to sell though...

 

As you can see from the picture, we had two sets of patio furniture, a kitchen table set, and a futon.  The futon sold easily and quickly at the garage sale.  The remaining three tables did not receive ANY interest though. So I quickly listed all 3 on Craig's List, during the garage sale, and ended up selling two of them via that method.

We donated the remaining items to Veterans who are suffering from Spinal Cord injury.

The BIG Move

I had a very relaxing week in Northern Indiana.  I stayed at Kelly's house from Sunday night to Thursday morning.  Throughout that time I went out with Haley and Kelly, had lunch with my cousin Katie, had dinner with Galea, and went to bingo with Katie and Kelly.

On Tuesday, after hours, I went and cleaned out my classroom.  I took a couple boxes of personal belongings and left everything else behind.  I wanted to take all the sheets and lessons I made over the years, but a) did not have sufficient boxes for everything and b) I guess I was just lazy about it.

Wednesday I went to get the U-Haul I ordered.  I ordered a 10 footer and upon seeing it realized it was no where near as big as I would need.  So instead I ended up getting a 17 footer and had to go to Elkhart to pick it up.

The "team" I had assembled was supposed to meet at 8:00am on Thursday at my house in South Bend.  Let me tell you, I was THE ONLY ONE there at 8am!  I woke my renter up.  His name is Michael and he was very nice!  I told him the house would be going on the market at some point and planted the seed for him to think about buying it. 

Reuben showed up at 8:15am, Brian and his friend Tony showed up at 9am, and we were completely done loading my U-Haul when my dad arrived at 11am.  The next three hours we were spent loading the 7 things my dad was going to take back.  High maintenance!

I drove my U-Haul to my mom's house in Michigan City to load all the remaining boxes and stuff I had there.  We stayed the night, and then Brian and I hit road around 7:45am.  I drove for the first three hours just fine and then my stomach got upset.  I swear it seemed like every two hours we had to pull over so I could use the facilities.  Or, the way Brian likes to put it, "Courtney pooped in four different states today!"  Additional words of wisdom from Brian, "Man Courtney, if you average 20 poops a week, something is wrong!"  Thank you, Brian, for stating the obvious!

We hit Nashville, TN right at 5:00pm rush hour.  We are in bumper to bumper traffic and I tell Brian we need to exit so I can go to the bathroom.   When we exited, we passed by a couple hotels and things but really no place to use the bathroom until much further down the road.  We went to a Kroger.  I tell Brian that I CAN NOT sit in rush hour traffic, feeling this way.  I have convinced him that we need to get a hotel room so I can lay down, be close to a bathroom, and get out of rush hour traffic.  "We don't even have to spend the night," I plead, "we just have to wait out the bumper to bumper traffic and then we can fly the rest of the way to GA!"

As we are leaving the Kroger I point out the Days Inn I want Brian to pull into.  He acts like he is going to pull into the Days Inn, and then promptly drives right past it and gets on the highway again!  I could have killed him.  Luckily I fell asleep and awoke up a few hours later.

At some point on the drive down, Kelly calls me and says that she and both her daughters have head lice.  Lice!  I have been staying at Kelly's for the past 4 nights, sleeping in her daughter's bed, using her daughters pillow, using the family brush, hairdryer and flat iron.  This did not help alleviate the illness I was feeling.

I texted Ryan and asked him to go buy me a lice kit so I could use it right when I got there.  Brian and I got to the house at 9:45pm, and Ryan wasn't home.  Certainly, he must've been out getting my lice kit that I asked him to get for me HOURS ago, right?  NO!  He's at the gym, working out, and totally forgot about the lice shampoo!  Thanks, Love!  In fact, we are locked out of the house because I left all my keys behind here in GA!

20 minutes later, I used the shampoo and the little comb thing and I didn't find anything.  Ryan and Brian both swore that their heads were itching and they had lice.  But I assure you, they do not.

No longer 29

Ryan redeemed himself as fiance of the year.  At 5:00pm on Saturday we got in the car and went to an unknown destination for my birthday.  It turns out he got us tickets for Mid-evil Times.  I had never been before and was super exited about it.  He even bought some kind of package that got me "knighted" before the show, had us sitting in the front row, we got cake for dessert, and a couple commemorative pictures. 

We almost missed the show though.  About an hour after being on the road, I started to feel very ill.  I didn't feel real well at school Friday, but it kind of came and went throughout the day.  Friday night we went to Chili's for dinner, and while we were waiting for a table I got really hot and nauseous and we ended up leaving before being seated.  The same thing happened again Saturday night.  I got REALLY hot, started sweating profusely, my heart was pounding, I felt nauseous (was even dry heaving), and was very weak.

But then, my hands and feet went numb and started tingling as if they were falling asleep.  At times my hands we almost paralyzed, as I was having major trouble moving them.  It was the strangest thing.  I have never experienced that before, and it freaked me out.  All I kept thinking was I needed to go to the hospital - I'm having a stroke!  Except that I thought I knew that strokes only affected one side of your body going numb.

Ryan was VERY helpful, VERY supportive, and VERY calm under pressure.  He re-assured me everything was going to be ok, offered to help me to the bathroom, cranked on the AC in 40 degree weather, and then turned on the heat when I was shivering from being so cold.  He went inside a sub shop and got me something to eat.  And he constantly re-assured me that at any time we could turn around and go back home. 

After about 20-30 minutes, I felt MUCH better.  So we ended up going to the Mid-evil Times and everything was relatively fine.  I was seated on an aisle, so I knew I could get up and leave at any time.  And remarkably, the food was amazing!  We had tomato basil soup, garlic bread, and then chicken and a rib so moist it fell right off the bone!

***

I got on a plane Sunday evening and flew into Indy.  It was very last minute....I booked my flight the day before.  We are going to empty out all the belongings that are still in my house in South Bend.  My dad is coming, and since half of the stuff is his, he will be driving a u-Haul back to Springfield where he lives.  I will also be loading a u-Haul and my brother Brian and I will drive it down to GA.

I was nervous about flying out yesterday, since I still wasn't feeling well, had that strange episode the day before, and this time I would be by myself.  Everything went smoothly though, and Haley and Kelly picked me up from the airport.  So I'm at Kelly's house now, hiding out; seeking refuge.  I slept all day.  I know I have to recuperate before Thursday, when we load up the u-Hauls and take off.

Anyone feel sorry for me and want to help move Thursday morning?

Happy Birthday

I woke up this morning, and Ryan comes up to me, gives me a big hug, and says "Happy Birthday!"  I thought he was kidding, but I mentioned it anyway, that it's not my birthday today.  He says, "No?  Well when is it?"

He had even bought a raspberry coffee cake, stuck a candle in it, and was ready to sing!


Sad to say but he just lost his fiance of the year award!  =)

Teaching

I have enjoyed having this week off of school.  In Cobb County, they have one week off after every 6 weeks in.  The school year goes from August 1- May 31 and they get an entire week off in September, in November for Thanksgiving, Christmas, February, and then Spring Break in April.  This is the first year they have used this schedule, and it has already been overturned for next year by the School Board (although I'm not sure why because the teachers and kids LOVE it!)  At the beginning of the week I had thoughts of "uh-oh...I need to be working.  Being on that consistent schedule has really been good for me."  By Friday now, though, I'm back to thinking not working isn't all that bad!  I mean I was able to hit FIVE gym classes this week!

It's also been a good week because Ryan is transitioning into a new job.  He has known for a while that the LandCare side of TruGreen is being sold.  Instead of waiting around to see what his fate would be when that happened, he has been job searching since early December.  Although he got many job interviews and they all went well and left him feeling very confident, none of them panned out.  We were facing the realistic situation of both of us being possibly unemployed. I mean there was even discussion of having to move back to Indiana since I actually still do have a job there.  I told him I can eat ramen noodles, but under no circumstances will I eat pork and beans!!!!  So we are very grateful for Ryan's new career that starts March 1st with HighGrove, another landscaping business.  Ryan didn't go into the office much this week since he knows he's leaving TruGreen, although he hasn't officially resigned yet.  So we got to spend some more time together than usual.

Getting back to the teaching gig... I have a lot to say about it.  I have both positive things to say, negative things to say, and indifferent things that I have observed that are neither positive nor negative, but rather just different than how things are done within the system I come from.

Let's talk about the neutral differences first:  kids can wear flip flops, kids can wear coats (which makes me nervous because weapons could be concealed in there), kids can bring bags to class (which also makes me nervous because weapons could be concealed in there), kids can chew gum, and kids can bring water bottles/juice bottles/Gatorade bottles to class and drink them at will.  These are things I have to catch myself about not reprimanding, because none of that was allowed at John Young.  Quite frankly, because these things are the norm, there really aren't any issues surrounding them.  All of the students walk on the right hand side of the hallway.  There are actually tiles down the middle of the hallways that are a different color than the rest of the tiles, and for the most part, all the kids stay on the right hand side of those tiles!  I almost feel like I'm breaking the rules if I'm walking on the left hand side of the hallway during my prep periods. 

That's all I'll say for now.  More to come!

Intruder?

Last night at 12:45am, I awoke to the sound of glass shattering.  All of the doors into this house have small glass window panes with hard wood floors underneath them.  So immediately I assume someone has smashed one of the panes in, unlocked the door, and entered the residence. 

I shake Ryan and tell him that I just heard glass SHATTER.  He says ok and appears to get ready to go check it out.  After 10 seconds, he still hasn't moved so I say "Ryan, did you  hear me?"  He assures me he did hear me, and then promptly pulls up the covers to go back to sleep.  So I say, "Ryan, aren't you supposed to protect me?"  He asks me to repeat that.  So again, I say, "Ryan, aren't you going to protect me?"

He responds with, "Courtney, I don't have time for the 10 question game.  Good God it's gotta be 3am.  Look, I am trying to SAVE this business, and maybe even GROW it.  I don't know what you want from me."  Clearly Ryan has no idea what I'm talking about, and is obviously in some state of sleep still.  I found that amusing, but none the less, it left me alone to deal with the intruder. 

So I get up, and start walking to the kitchen and as I'm walking I say, "Is everything ok?"  Grant responds from the kitchen, "What?"  So I repeat, "Is everything ok?"  Then Grant comes around the corner, slightly intoxicated, with a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other, and explains that he dropped a glass and he's sorry for waking me up.    WHEW!

Speaking of Grant, Ryan's cousin, he got a new job and left today to hit the road.  He's going to be traveling to MO and working there for 2 months and then to New Orleans for 3 months doing some type of construction.  Essentially, he is no longer our roommate.  He said the next time we see him will be at the wedding.  It was a little sad to see him go... but at least now if I hear glass shatter, I know it's not Grant!

Man to Man

On Saturday night Ryan and I went over to Stephanie and Jason's.  They cooked us dinner, we provided dessert, and then we played Phase 10 for the rest of the evening.  Believe it or not, this was the first time Jason and Ryan had ever met.  Here is how their conversation went:

Ryan said to Jason, "Man to man, do you think there's anything I need to know about Courtney?" 
J:  Well you know she doesn't cook. 
Ryan nods. 
J:  And you know she doesn't clean...
R:  Well, we're working on that.
J:  And she sleeps ALL THE TIME!
R:  Yeah... we're working on that too.
J:  And she has really bad gas.
R:  I know!
J:  Well as long as you know all of that and you're clear about what you're getting yourself into, that's pretty much it.

Case closed - they approve of each other =)

SNOW in GA!

Here is a picture of how much snow we had a few weeks ago.  This amount caused school to be closed for ONE WHOLE WEEK!

This is how much snow/sleet/hail that we are getting right now.  Everybody all together now, cross your fingers for NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!!!

Ryan turned 34!

One week ago, on Tuesday, January 25, Ryan turned 34.  For 6 weeks, he is FIVE years older than me =)

Here are cupcakes I made for his tennis match on Sunday:

Here is the cake I made him:  Count 'em - 34 candles!