AHHHH!

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The first day of school is in just over a week, and I feel completely unprepared.  The school I'm teaching at is an alternative high school, so pretty much every thing that the district says the rest of the schools have to do goes nearly out the window for us.  I was hoping that there would be some sort of curriculum set up for 10th grade English, but when I asked about what texts they use in the classroom, the response I received blew my mind: "We don't really use texts."  How the H E Double Hockey Sticks am I supposed to teach English without texts?  But then I'm told that I can pretty much do what ever I want to do within professional reason, but since these students have already failed English once, I'll need to find another way to get them to reach their fullest potential.  I asked if I could take a look at the text book, and I'm told "We don't really use the text book, but you can use it if you want." 

So now I have two huge Holt books with a ton of information, but I'm wavering as to whether or not I should use it, least I be looked at strangely by my colleagues.  Fortunately, workshop starts on Monday, so I should be able to have an opportunity to talk with the teacher who taught 10th grade last year, and see how she went about teaching, and what she would have changed.  I'm used to the regular school setting where there is an outline of what I need to teach and the desired outcomes, and I'm just in charge of getting the students there in my own way.  I like structure, and all of this freedom is nearly killing me with stress!

Please keep your fingers crossed for me as I try to survive my first few months before I really get the hang of it...

I got it!

I got the other job I was waiting on!  So I am now officially an English teacher and I'm super excited since the location of the job is basically at my dream school!  Yayayayayayayay!

On the job front

I finally have gotten a minor very PT teaching job offer!  I went to the interview on Monday, and got the call this afternoon informing me that a local school district wants me to teach their Tuesday night Adult Basic Education English class for their diploma program.  It's only .10 FTE, but it's most definitely a resume builder and a way for me to get my foot in the door with this district.

Now, all I need is a positive response from the .67 job I interviewed for last week and I'll be ecstatic (though I'm not holding out too much hope, because I don't want to be super disappointed when I get the rejection phone call...)!

My latest obsession

Mr Freezies/Otter pops/Pop Ice/Tubes of frozen goodness

And yes, I'm not ashamed to say that I purchased a giant box of these from Menards yesterday, but I will not confirm how many I've downed in the last 24 hours...

Crafty Update

Yesterday was a productive day:

First, I finally sold the 64 cylindrical vases from our wedding for my asking price.  They had been sitting in my parents' basement for over a year, and am glad that they have a new home with an enthusiastic, soon-to-be bride.  Now to just write up an ad for the winter tires L has sitting in the garage and we'll have a little more fun money to play around with.

Next, J and I took an adventure to a thrift store, craft store, and a hardware store to gather up the supplies we needed to create our craft.  We went to the Uptown Art Fair last weekend and were inspired by one of the booths to use vintage silverware to create functional pieces of art.  We saw the utensil wall hooks and decided to give those a try (despite us not having the recommended torch to help flatten and bend the silverware).  At the thrift store, we each found two larger silver spoons with ornate patterns on the hand piece for between $.69-.99 each.  Then at Michael's, we found small unfinished wooden blocks with beveled edges for less than $1 each, so we each picked up 2 of them.  Finally, we stopped in at Home Depot to pick up some small nails to use to attach the spoons to the wood blocks. 

This project went a lot more smoothly than we had originally anticipated it to go.  The hardest part was waiting for the paint on the wood blocks to dry between layers.  We used a hammer to pound the heads of the spoons flat, and a rubber mallet to shape the spoon into a hook.  Then, we used a 1/16 bit on an electric drill to make two small holes in each of the spoons to make sure that the nails would go through easily.  The final step was to place the spoon on the block and hammer in the nails to keep the hook in place.  Here are the final results:

The plan is to hang these in the kitchen, as the white paint contrasts well with the red on our walls.  Now all we need to do is either drill a small hole in the back or add on mounting hardware to finish them up.

Overall, this was a very easy and fun craft to make and am thinking of making these for family and friends, so if you would like to request one, let me know and I can customize the colors :-)

What I'm Reading

As of right now, I'm out of coffee, so my ability to critically think and write has gone out the window and I'll try to update with a review on Percy Jackson and the Olympians- The Lightening Thief asap.

Our Best Friends' Wedding

We had quite the whirlwind of a weekend and are proud to say that our best friends were hitched this past Saturday and couldn't be happier for them!  The wedding took place at the gorgeous and historic Saint Paul College Club with an outdoors ceremony and a rocking reception with amazing food.  M and B had hired the same photographers that we used at our wedding last summer, so it was fun to reconnect with Bryan (and second shooter Joey) at Studio Blue Photography.  Anyways, I'm still surprised that it's over already and that we're trucking our way through August!

And now for the pictures:

3/5 bridesmaids at the Groom's Dinner

My bridesmaid gift- pretty necklace in an antique box

Groomsmen gifts- personalized wooden baseball bats

M with her flowergirls/nieces

Wedding day!  M looks beautiful :-)

Just chilling in the bathtub, no biggie.

M&B were out taking their couple's photos, and we were able to see them out the window, and since we were watching The Lion King while waiting for them to be done, it seemed only fitting to blast "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" at them.

These next photos were all taken by my sister in law since I didn't have my camera on me for the rest of the evening.  Eventually, I'll have a link to the professional photos once those are done!

The 'maids

The 'men

The 'girls

M and her Dad walking down the aisle

Vows

Chilling in the 90 degree heat with humidity with L's sister

L with his brother-in-law

M dancing with her new niece at the reception.