New Things...

1.) A new job...I accepted a job teaching 6th grade Social Studies at Conway Middle School this week. (Not Conway, Arkansas...I know some of y'all were getting excited thinking we were moving back to Arkansas! Conway is the name of the middle school. It's in the Jefferson County Public School District.) I'm excited about it and believe this is the place I need to be. I don't think I ever shared about the interview at the Christian School...while I am very thankful I had the opportunity to interview, I never had a peace about the job for many reasons...longer day, longer drive, dual prep, etc. I actually was offered the job, but turned it down. For whatever reason, I'm learning to truly believe that God has called me to work with impoverished students at this point in my life. (I often ask Him if that will be my calling forever. My teacher friends that read this can understand why I ask God this a lot.!!! Working with this population of students is NOT an easy task!) My new school seems to be a lot like KMS, minus the Hispanic/Marshallese population, so the language barrier issue is not one I will have to worry about much.

I have told several people this week, and even emailed my former principal, that I don't think I will ever have a problem getting a teaching job for the rest of my life. I'm not saying that out of vanity or thinking that "I'm an awesome teacher" because I often feel VERY inadequate to do my job. I say that because of the experience I had working at J.O. Kelly for 5 years. I wish you could have seen the faces on the interview panel when I told them I worked at a school that was about 60% Hispanic. Most of their eyes about bugged out of their heads! When I told the ones interviewing me about the high Marshallese population in Springdale, they had never even heard of the Marshall Islands. I felt such honor being able to share about the Marshallese culture and my experience teaching these students. Now, more than ever, am I grateful that I was hired by Ms. Ford six years ago. I learned so much and grew so much professionally during my experience at J.O. Kelly and I know all of what I learned will come in handy in the near future!

One of the questions I asked the panel was "How would you describe the relationship among the staff at your school?" They all said that everyone got along really well and even spent time together outside of school. One of the guys went on to say that "Out of all the schools he's taught at in the United States and a couple overseas, that by-far Conway's staff was the best staff to work with." I had to bite my tongue because I just wanted to answer with, "Oh, yeah? Well, you've never worked at J.O. Kelly Middle School. Nobody can hold a candle to the staff there!"

Oh...6th grade Social Studies is geography, which is what I taught when I was 7th grade at KMS. However, I think I gave away my notebook with all my resources!! (Carol...I may be getting you to fax me some stuff again!!!) :)

2.) Kendall discovered herself in the mirror this week. This is somewhat new. We have a little video of it that I'll have to get Evan to put on here later. So funny. She would get as close as she could to the mirror and then would crawl over to the side to see if she could see someone behind it. She played with "her friend" in the mirror forever!

3.) Kendall also is REALLY trying to pull up. She can get on her knees, but can't seem to figure out how to get all the way to her feet. One afternoon, I put her down for a nap and could hear something in her room. I poked my head in the door to see, and she was up on her knees banging on the rail of the crib. Now it seems like she's pulling up on her knees with everything. The pictures that follow are her pulling up on her car seat. (We have a video of this, too, but again, I don't know how to download those on blogger to make them play.) Today, I looked over and she had actually crawled into the car seat!!! Evan and I were sitting on the couch just a few minutes ago, and Kendall pulled up (on her knees) on the coffee table. Look out!!! She's becoming more mobile by the minute!!!

4.) A new sickness...Kendall has been sick with something since last Wednesday. She started running a low-grade fever Wednesday afternoon and had a runny nose, but I really didn't think too much about it. Evan and I have terrible allergies and it seems like every time we come back from a trip, Kendall gets allergy sick. She's never had fever before, but I really just thought it was probably her teeth. Then, on Thursday, the runny nose turned into a yucky, snotty nose and she still ran a little temp. We debated about taking her to the doctor on Friday, and talked ourselves out of it because it said to only call if the fever was higher than 101 degrees. She was running about 99 most of the time. (I think once we took it and it was 100.) Anyway, I'm really wishing we would have taken her to the doctor, because I'm a little afraid she might have an ear infection. She is still sleeping through the night, eating and playing fine, and hasn't really been tugging on her ears, but I'm still a little concerned, being that TODAY is the first day she hasn't had fever. I stayed home from church with her this morning and it seems as though her snotty nose is clearing up some, but it's still kind-of gross. Plus, she has this bump on the back of her head like a pimple that we aren't sure what it is. Evan was thinking an ingrown hair, but it has progressively become larger. I'd kind-of like to get that checked out as well, so I'm thinking I'll probably make an appointment tomorrow. It's just so difficult to know what to do!!!

5.) A new accountability partner...(I'm putting this out there in hopes that some of my N&O friends are in the same boat I am) I NEED ONE!!!! My quiet time is all out-of-whack since the Thursday Morning Bible Study came to an end. (Not to mention traveling twice in one month!!!!) My friend Miranda and I met weekly in AR to pray, talk about what God was doing in our lives, memorize scripture, etc.and I am DESPERATE to have this again!!! I'm praying God will provide this person for me!

6.) A new pool...I am missing my pool/sun time this summer. I have yet to step my foot into any kind of water! In the summer, I am not an "inside the house" kind of girl! I am TOTALLY having withdrawls from the FCC pool, Scottie and Allyce's pool, and the PG Aquatic Park. The seminary has an indoor pool with a little fountain area outside to sit in the sun, but I haven't been yet. (I'm also a little afraid to take Kendall swimming by myself, and I also don't think a swimming pool is the best place for her to be while she is sick!) All the other pools nearby are indoor, too. Plus, we haven't taken Kendall to the pool yet, so I don't know how she will do. She's so little and doesn't need tons of sun exposure, so I don't really want to pay an arm and a leg to only be able to stay somewhere for 30-45 minutes, you know? Evan has offered to stay with Kendall so I can go sit in the sun somewhere for an afternoon, but I feel gulity leaving Kendall, knowing that I'm about to go back to work full time this fall. Anyway...such a dillema, huh??? Do I need to just get over the fact that I'm going to be pasty white this summer?!?!?! HA!!!

7.) A new rule...I'm debating on having a "no-edit" rule when I blog. I just re-read this post and I see about a million errors I need to fix, but it will take way too long and Kendall is waking up from her nap. It's killing the grammar teacher in me...