So tonight on a whim I donated my hair to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a non-profit organization that provides hair pieces to financially disadvantaged children with long term medical hair loss. Jack and I were both going to get our hair cut last night anyway and when the guy saw how long my hair was and how much I was planning to cut off he told me that if I wanted to do just a couple more inches I could donate my hair to Locks of Love. So I just decided to do it. It's a little shorter than what I was planning on but I like it, and I got to do something good for someone else too. Although it's kind of weird thinking that some where out there some child will be wearing my hair. ;) I also found out after I agreed that I would get a free haircut because I was donating. I would have done it anyway, but that was a nice little bonus.

In other news... Ophelia is doing alright. She absolutely hates taking her medicine, and it is absolute torture for both her and us when it comes time to give medicine. She's also finally starting to eat a little bit on her own. I think what was worrying me more than anything right now is that she hadn't eaten for days. Last weekend Jack and I went with my parents to Columbus Scottish Festival. It was a lot of fun. We got to hear my dad's band play, go to a ceildh, and listen to a lot of other great bands. I was also able to buy up some veggie haggis which is oh so delicious. My mom bought me some wool from the sheep farmers and a drop spindle and one of these days when I have some free time I'm going to learn how to spin my wool. Jack and I got some contacts with the sheep farmers too. I have some pics too from the past couple of weeks but I just haven't had time to get them ready to post yet. Work is going well. I really like it there, but it's taking me a lot of time to figure out all the new ways of doing things. Which of course is to be expected, but its still a little stressful. I don't like not knowing what I am doing, but I'm getting there. I'm sure glad it's Friday though.

Well today was my last day at my old job. I taught there for six years. All week I've been really excited about the new job, but trying not to show it too much at work especially around P--, my assisstant. She has been very upset since I told her I was going to leave. I've felt horribly guilty all week, because while I care very much for P--, and am sad to not be working with her I'm still very excited about the new job. I hadn't really been sad at all to leave my old school. Last year was so stressful, and there are a lot of little things I didn't like about the way things were done down there. Then there is the fact that I have never felt like I really fit in down there. It is a pretty conservative environment. Everybody goes to church several times a week, voted for Bush, listens to country music, and watches reality tv shows. That's just not me. Aside from P--, J--, and a couple of other people I never really formed any real close friendships with my co-workers. So I was surprised to find myself so sad today. Today was much harder than I expected. Mainly, it's because there are a handful of really great people that I am going to miss, and I am really going to miss seeing P-- everyday. P-- and I cried off and on all day today. I just didn't expect it to be so hard. P-- and I took an extra long lunch today and went out for Chinese like we always do whenever we get the chance to go out together. The staff threw a going away party for me. That was kind of a surprise. We had cookies and punch and they bought me a gift. It's a stained glass dolphin sun catcher. Oh if only they knew how much I just love dolphin stuff. *note sarcasm* But it was a sweet gesture nonetheless, and while it's not particularly my style for the house it might be nice to have in my new classroom. After work I had to go in to the new school and pick up my keys. The principal took me around and introduced me to a few more teachers. Everyone seems really nice. I'm sure I'm going to really like it, it's just going to be a bit of an adjustment, but that is to be expected with any change. Boy talk about the week of changes...I graduated grad school and got a new job all in one week. I'll be glad when things settle down a bit.

it's pretty much a done deal. I turned in my letter of resignation today, and it looks like my last day will be Friday. I've felt a very strange mix of emotions today. I feel excited, scared,guilty, and sad all at the same time. It's really draining. The first thing I did this morning was tell my assistant. Boy did that make me feel like shit. She tried to tell me she was happy for me, but she cried off and on all morning and I just feel terrible about it. I am really going to miss working with her. Later I sent out an email to everyone so now everyone knows. Everyone said that they'd really miss me but that they understood why I would want to move and wished me lots of luck. I started packing up my things today, and brought a load home so hopefully I won't have too much to do this weekend. I'll be glad once things finally get at least a little settled.

I GOT THE JOB!!!!! I ended up with the job at Marlin Elementary and I'm very excited. I talked to the people at Templeton early on in the day, but unfortunately they decided to give the job to someone else. The principal explained to me that it had been very close, and that they really had a hard time deciding between me and one other applicant. She told me that I had an impressive resume and that they had also been very impressed with my interview, but in the end they went with the other applicant. Later I found out that they had not even called my main reference and I really feel that, that might have made a difference, but oh well. She went on to tell me that she would keep my resume in hopes of having a position for me later on but in the meantime she had recommended me to the principal at Marlin because she felt it would be a real shame not to have me in the corporation somewhere. So after talking to her I called up Marlin and the principal wanted me to come in for an interview right away. So I agreed to meet with him just as soon as I could get back into Bloomington after work. By lunch time he had already called my references. The interview went really well. He was also impressed with my resume and said that I had the most variety of experiences than any of the other applicants he had interviewed. I felt pretty good about that. He took me on a tour of the school and even introduced me to a couple of the teachers that were still in the building. He told me that he would let me know one way or another by this evening or tomorrow. After all of that I headed home for a few minutes and then I needed to head back out. Tonight was meet the teacher night at my current school, and since I didn 't know for sure if I would be getting the position or not I thought I better go. Finally late this evening I got a call from the principal and they are offering me the job! I'm very excited. Marlin is a tiny school, and seems to be a pretty laid back working environment. I think I'm really going to like it. The school building itself is nothing too special but the school grounds are gorgeous. They just got a grant recently to develop walking trails around the grounds and an arboretum, which is really awesome. The school mascot is a dragon! How cool is that? Hee hee. So anyway I'm very happy, but I'm really dreading the next couple of days. I have to go into work tomorrow and tell my assistant which I am totally dreading like nothing else. She's not going to be happy about this. Then I've got to work out all the logistics with work. If possible though I might be starting at the new school on Monday. School starts for the kids in B-town next Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday are teacher meeting days so it would be nice if I could be there for those days. Anyway, I guess the next few days are going to pretty crazy around here.

So this evening I saw that I had a message from the school I interviewed with. Unfortunately it was too late to call back and the principal didn't state whether or not I got the position or not. She just asked me to call at my convenience and to leave a message if she was no longer in. Hmmm... now I have to wait all night to find out and it's going to drive me crazy! I wasn't supposed to hear from them until Wednesday so I'm hoping that might be a good sign, but she also didn't say on the message that they wanted to offer me the job so I hope that's not a bad sign. Ugh I'm driving myself crazy with all of this. THEN I was sitting here chatting with my mom online and I got a phone call from a principal at another Bloomington school. This one being Marlin. He said he had heard about me from Templeton, and wanted to know if I had heard from them yet. He said he didn't know what they had decided, but wanted to know if I would be interested in interviewing with them if I didn't get the job. He seemed almost desperate and asked me to call right away tomorrow after I hear from Templeton. He said he had heard good things about me and would really like to get me in for an interview. He then preceded to try and sell me on the school. Surely one of the two schools will work out. I'm never going to sleep tonight. Ugh !

So I went in for my interview today. It's hard to tell how it went. I think it went alright though. They did give me a call before I even got home with more questions, and to ask if it was alright to go ahead and call my references. I figure that is a good sign right? They wouldn't bother calling my references if they weren't interested. Anyway, I had to go ahead and let my department know that I had interviewed for another job because I didn't want them to be surprised when they got a call about a reference. That was ever so pleasant, let me tell you. I haven't gotten a chance to let my building principal know yet though because she is out of town until Monday. The job down here sounds really nice. I would be working mainly with 3rd and 4th grade students as opposed to the whole range like I'm doing now, and there are roughly 45 students at this school receiving special ed services but there are three inclusion teachers so my case load would be around 12 to 15 depending on how the numbers turn out. They also are a full inclusion school. I would not be doing any sole providing, but rather going into the classrooms and team teaching. It sounds like heaven compared to what I'm doing now. Although I still say there are pros and cons to each situation and whatever happens I will be fine with it. I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I should know either way by Wednesday so until then it is back to the normal schedule. Tomorrow is my first day back at my current school. It's hard to believe. Where did the summer go? It's going to be hard to be around P-- my assistant at work knowing that I might be leaving. She's going to be really upset if I leave. Of all the people I will have to tell if I get this job I dread telling her the most. *sigh* Well whatever happens it will all be for the best and I'm just going to go with it.

I've been feeling really stressed lately. My multimedia project was not nearly as easy as I had hoped. I ran into a lot of technical difficulties. I worked on it from the minute I got back from taking Jack to class at 8:30 am to about 1am the following morning on Monday, and started about the same time on Tueday and didn't get finished till around 5pm. The presentation is tonight. Now that the project is finished I have work to worry about. I go back to work on Friday and I have SO much to do. With everything going on this past couple of weeks I have had absolutely no time to go into work and get prepared. Then on top of all of this I finally get a call from a Bloomington school. Earlier this summer I had sent my resume in to MCCSC in hopes of getting a job closer to home. Monday I got a call from a nearby school wanting me to come in for an interview. Great! Except for the fact that I go back to work the day after the interview and if I find out that I get the job it will most likely be after school has started in the district I'm currently working in. I really want a job here in town, but I know it is going to be very stressful going into work and explaining to them that I am going to up and leave after school has already started. It's kind of a shitty situation. I don't know if I should hope for the job or not! I really want to be down here, I just wish I would have gotten the interview earlier on. So all I can do is go to the interview tomorrow and see what happens. I know they are interviewing several candidates so I may not get it anyway. So, wish me luck, or not... I don't know what to ask for.

Today was the last day of school for students. We teachers have to go back on Monday and wrap things up for the year, but after that I'll be done. Yesterday, we had our big end of the year party. Jack came for the afternoon and joined in all the fun. The kids really got a kick out of getting to meet him, and the fifth graders bragged on "his famous cookies" (as they call them) that he'd been making for them all year long. It got pretty wild in our room for a while, but Jack handled it like a real trooper. Today was much quieter. We had our honor day program in the morning, and after that most of the kids went home with their parents. There were a few left in each class but they were kept busy watching movies, and playing outside so all the teachers could start working on their rooms. It wasn't until after the buses had left, and my aides had said their goodbyes and headed home that it really hit me that the school year was over. I thought I'd be jumping for joy because this year has been so rough, but instead I found myself near tears. It hit me that my fifth graders were gone, and some of them I may never see again. I cried most of the way home thinking about it. I don't think I have ever had this bad of a reaction to the end of the school year before. I guess I'm just really going to miss those guys. :( I knew I'd be a little sad, but I guess I just hadn't realized how attached I'd gotten to some of them. Many of them I have had for three years now (since I became the resource teacher), and things just won't be the same next year without them. I took some really great pictures yesterday and I wish I could share some of them here, but that would be a big no no, so I won't. *sigh*

Basically, I just wanted an excuse to use my new icon that rosemerry made for me.  I had kind of gotten out of my MOBY phase, but recently I heard he had a new album coming out and I love the single that I've heard from the album.  So I'm looking forward to getting the new album next month.  I hope this means he will be touring this summer.  I would love to take jakothewoods to a MOBY concert.  Believe it or not he has never been to a concert (can you imagine that!).  MOBY would be an awesome first concert experience. 

In other news I finally finished up all of my acr's last week.  All the IEP's have been written, and all the meetings have been held.  I'm so relieved.  With that done it feels like the school year is over.  Before you know it Spring Break will be here, then after spring break Special Olympics will be here befor you know it, and after that there are only a couple more weeks before summer break.  Yay!!!  I can't wait.  I'm taking a class this summer but not till second session so I'll have a little bit of a break.

Speaking of taking classes... I ended up dropping my adolescent literature course.  I didn't need it to graduate.  I just took it because I thought I needed it for financial aide purposes and I thought it would be fun class to take. I kinda feel bad dropping it because I did really enjoy the reading and the course content but it was a lot of work that I didn't need to do on top of everything else that has been going on, and after the hell that was last semester I really needed a break.  So once I realized I'd still get the aide without taking it I decided to drop it.  It has been so nice having only one class to deal with these past couple of weeks.  My stress levels are considerably lower now.  So overall, things are going pretty good at the moment, and are a lot less stressful than they a have been for a few months now..... well since August really. 

Oh, and just for the hell of it here is a little quiz:


I did it in 14</big></b> seconds.
I deserved an A!!
Take the How Dexterous Are You? Quiz!!

So I took a personal day today. I had originally planned to take one on Wednesday for my birthday but I had a meeting I had to go to after school that day so I chose to give myself a long weekend instead. The funny or annoying thing is the person who was conducting our meeting that afternoon never showed up, but I'm kinda glad things turned out the way they did. All of my students were being very sweet about my birthday, making birthday cards for me and singing happy birthday to me. The student council came in and sang to me as well, and the principal gave me a cupcake while we were waiting for the person to show for our meeting and the other meeting participants sang happy birthday to me as well. I came away from work that day feeling pretty special that day, which is really a rarity. Anway I have ACR's coming up so I brought a lot of work home with me this weekend and had planned to work on IEP's today while Jack is in class. When Pam, my assistant, and good friend at work found out what I was planning she told me that she didn't care if I took a day next week to work on them during the day and that I should just leave them at school and just enjoy my day off. She actually got rather insistant about it saying repeatedly that I should leave them at school and enjoy my weekend. I told her I had to atleast take them home to maybe work on some of them Sunday evening, and that if I didn't take take them home I'd just end up fretting about it all weekend and feeling guilty. She made me promise her though that I wouldn't work on them today. You know what? I think I'm actually going to keep true to that promise. I need the time off.