*Sigh*

Hello all -
I finished the week of teacher workdays, and with a few exceptions, I think I am ready for school to start. This last week was exhausting - meetings and in-services. Full days spent in meetings while stressing over the lack of time to do all of the other million things I needed to do before school starts. But I think I got pretty much everything done. And if there's a glitch or two within the first few days, that's to be expected.

Last night was the Pep Band's first performance at a football game. We weren't going to play this game because school hasn't even started yet, but last Saturday I started making phone calls, by Wednesday we were having rehearsals, and on Friday we had 25-30 kids ready to play the game. (I use the term "ready" quite loosely) We played the national anthem, the school fight song, Seven Nation Army and Louie, Louie. Obviously we will have to have more in our repertoire as the season goes on, but that was enough for the first game. I think it went well. It certainly could have been worse. The athletic director and other staff I have had to talk to to get to this game seem very supportive of the Pep Band, so hopefully we can only go up from here. Our team won, by the way, so that was an exciting start to the season.

Once we get into the swing of things, I think my schedule will calm down a bit. Luckily, I can do most of my prep work at home (score study, etc.) and I shouldn't have a ton of grading to do, except for midterm and final when they'll have written tests.

In other news, Jermaine is headed for the hospital soon. (or maybe the morgue...) On Wednesday, Chad got him home from work with a little bit of a struggle, and then on Thursday (Chad's day off) he wouldn't start. Chad spent the morning doing what he could to fix him. This included replacing the fuel filter. But alas, he could not be started. Later that day, Chad came to pick me up for lunch, and he was driving Jermaine! He started up just fine, and was doing well ever since. We drove him downtown with no issues, yesterday Chad drove him to work with no issues, and then we drove him (packed with instruments and stands) over to the football stadium (our "home" stadium is at the other high school in our district - about 10 minutes away) where we unloaded him, parked him, loaded him back up again, and drove him back to the school after the game. Chad had him parked up on the sidewalk to be closer to the building, and when everything was out of the car, he started him up again to go home. Except Jermaine wouldn't start. He put it in neutral and rolled down the slanted sidewalk back into the parking lot. We had Leonard there because we originally had to take 2 cars to the stadium because Chad got off work after I had to be there to meet kids. So I got in Leonard, and we pushed Jermaine home. Luckily we live really close to the school and it was 11:00 at night, so there was hardly any traffic. It was a little scary, and bumpy, and Jermaine's back bumper has a few scratches from Leonard's license plate, but we got home okay. So, if we want him fixed, we have to call AAA to have us towed to the garage, and then replacing the fuel pump (which people seem to think is the problem) will cost us $400-500. Who knows what's actually wrong with him. We were hoping the cars would hold out for another year while I worked my new job and saved the money for a car. The Subaru is running just fine after we took it in earlier this summer and had the spark plugs/wiring (or something) replaced - but the check engine light is still on. I'm not too worried about it, since when we took it in, they couldn't find anything life-threatening to fix. He's probably just requesting a breathing tube or oxygen tank or something, but he gets on just fine without one. We're trying to decide where we draw the line between paying $3o0-$500 every few months to keep the cars running, and just buying a new car and putting that money into payments. (I really wanted to pay for a car in cash... )

But what with that, and the baby on the way for which they are calculating we will owe around $4000 (plus who knows how much), we are quickly watching our expected "extra" money disappear. And it looks like we won't be headed to UT next weekend for the baby blessing... We are blessed though, that Jermaine made our trip to California/Utah and back, and to Yellowstone with Mollie - instead of stranding us somewhere along the way. Besides dying in the driveway, it probably couldn't have died closer to home. We do have the extra income, we just didn't want to have it spent as soon as it came in every month. And Chad and Lady and I are in good health and the house isn't falling apart, so things could be much worse.

In less depressing news, the baby is moving a lot now! His little jerks make my whole belly jiggle and that's kind of weird to watch. I had to go buy some new maternity work clothes and got lucky with 3 pairs of pants from Ross for $40. They all look pretty much the same, but at least I will know I'm wearing clean pants, even if no one else does. I packed away all of my non-maternity work clothes to make some space in the closet - I accumulated most of them after Christmas last year with shopping money from mom. It was sad to know they only got worn for a few months and then I had to replace my whole work wardrobe again. Being pregnant and having babies is expensive business!

Lady and I are currently lounging on the couch like the good ol' days. My side has been hurting since I woke up this morning - kind of like when you get a cramp when you're running or something - but it won't go away. I'm hoping laying still for a bit will do the trick.

Next week is the Eastern Idaho State Fair. We will have to see if we can squeeze in a trip to replace my lack of the Big E.

Piano lesson to teach in a few minutes. What I really wanna do is take a nap...

Summer is... Over.

I am in mourning. Today is the first of a week of teacher work days/ in-service days. School starts next week. My summer is over.

I had to leave the puppy to come to work, and I felt so bad. I will miss the days of lazing around the house with her, watching TV, doing laundry, napping, and other such summertime activities. I always just let her in and out of the house on her tie-out leash - she'd mostly sleep on the porch all day. She won't be used to being stuck inside at home by herself for hours at a time... She's a good buddy.

I know, I know - leaving a baby is going to be 100 million times harder - but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Working Woman

Hello all!
Since you last heard from me, we spent a lovely week in California visiting Chad's family. I think I have a total of 1 picture to document our time. We played games, ate good food, went to the mall, visited Wal-Mart and got many baby-related items. On our way home, we stopped in Provo to see Erin and my mom for a few days.

I interviewed for the job at Hillcrest on Friday morning, August 5th, before we got in the car and drove all day to get to California. On Thursday, August 11th, they called to offer me the job! I am officially a part-time band director at Hillcrest High School in Ammon, Idaho. This was bittersweet for us, because we had a trip planned for the second week of September to go back to Connecticut and see my family, visit the Big E and do other fall, New Englandy type things. Now I have to be teaching school. :o( No chocolate eclair for me. I was excited to go to Cape Cod, Lyman Orchards, Friendly's, XPect, the Goodspeed, and in general, enjoying the season of autumn which is nearly non-existent here, but as they say, life gets in the way.

The job at the high school is only part-time, which is good for me with a baby on the way. I will still have time to go to appointments, go shopping, etc during the second half of the day during which I will not be teaching. I will also be doing pep band which earns me an extra stipend. I am excited to be back at the school working with a lot of kids that I already know. I will be teaching Band, Jazz Band, Beginning Guitar and Percussion Ensemble. It is a lot less intimidating than a full-time teaching load. It is gratifying to finally be using my education and doing what I wanted to do since middle school. It's just weird that I'm going to be actually doing it. Being a band director was something I was going to do when I was all grown up. Wait a minute...

My life has become busy almost overnight.

I had new teacher orientation this morning, and then I went over to Hillcrest to see if I could get some keys and get into the building. The head custodian knows me from my student teaching (and happens to be the brother of a guy in my ward) so he set me up, and took me down to see the room. Holy cow, is there a lot of work to be done. Not that I'm surprised. So I will be spending most of my free time this week at the school. Next week begins teacher work days/in-service days, and then school starts on the 29th! I am excited to have a job, but I wish I had more time!! So between now and then I have to clean up the room, create syllabuses (syllabi?) for each class, pick music, decide how I'm going to grade each class, and decide classroom procedures. In addition to that, if you'll remember, I'm in the midst of choosing music for the children's choir and attending "open registration" days for that.

So, here I am, having been sitting at home all summer, with little to do and now I will be working 2 jobs. I have to say, I will miss the days of lazing around the house with the puppy. I was getting pretty good at it! And it will be hard to leave a new baby with a babysitter, if even only for 4 hours a day, 3 or 4 times a week. But at least I'm not driving to and from Rexburg to do it all. It will be nice to be able to come home and be somewhere close enough that I can run back over to the school if I need to.

Anyways, I am enjoying my last few moments of freedom where I can get them. And currently Judge Judy is on, so I bid you adieu. And perhaps I will enjoy what may be my last nap of the summer.

You GUYS!!!

We will miss this this year, as we will be on our way home from California.
:o(

Oh, Idaho...

A couple of months ago, I received a letter from our power company stating that they are soon going to raise our rates. Of course, they were inviting public input on this process. However, I am sure that this will go about how our public meeting went before they raised our water rates. Everyone came to this huge town meeting, expressed how we were mad that because the city kept putting off it's payments, now we had to have a $10/mo. increase. The board listened to ideas to pro-rate or otherwise makeup the funding, said they would "take these into consideration" and then, obviously, the next month (and every month since) we all saw a $10/mo. increase on our bills. So - I know that when they say they will "do everything we can" to prevent rate increases, I know they're full of crap. So anyways, I wrote my letter explaining that the increase would not be financially easy for us (it's not huge, and we will be able to pay it, but I think it is beyond annoying to open bill after bill only to find that everyone's increasing their rates and we are not getting paid any more than we were before) and sent it off to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. I got an automated response letter along the lines of "Thank you for your input. We take all comments seriously. We provide you such awesome above-and-beyond service, I'm sure you will understand why we have to raise our rates for providing it." Pretty much what I expected.

Then today I got a more personalized letter from the "Executive Assistant" (uh... secretary?) at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission that tells me "We know what these increases due to families such as yours." DUE you?! If you're going to send me a consolation letter, at least use proper grammar. Now I REALLY don't want to give you my money.

*sigh* It is Idaho, after all.

Somebody's Sleepy...

It is a rainy day here today - perfect day for a nap.