Living Life's Journey

Okay, so life lately has been pretty crazy.

School is officially out for summer and I couldn't be happier. I have needed this break. Over the course of this past school year, I have been feeling more and more prompted to leave my school. I love what I am doing and what I am teaching, but I have this strong sense that God is calling me to be elsewhere.

In April I interviewed at this school just about 15 minutes away from home. It was for a position where I would be teaching EXACTLY the same thing I am teaching now. Just a different school. The interview went very well; however, they decided to offer the position to another person. Darn. I was liking the idea of being there. Not so fast. They did say that I was one of the top contenders for that position and that they wanted to keep my information on file because another position may be opening up later. Well, nothing has happened yet, but it's only June.

Just last week I heard about a 5th grade teaching position at a school in Windsor. This is a school I had tried to get into in the past, but nothing had come of it. The thing that makes this story interesting is that this school is the same one I had dreamt about and blogged about here. I have had a few other dreams lately about this same school. I still don't know if God is calling me to this particular school, or if he is using this school as an example for the purpose of His message. My friend e-mailed me, and the next day I was at the school dropping off my application packet.

They called me in for an interview which I had today, and it seemed to go well. I think I was able to show a positive part of me that they seemed to like. It's just so hard when you have interviews. You never truly know what they think of you until you hear whether or not you got the job. The questions that really annoy me are the ones that say, "Describe your classroom management style." Ugh! That is such a vague question that requires such a specific response! I started bumbling over my words, but eventually came up with a reasonable response. I was feeling pretty good about things until they told me that they had already interviewed three other applicants and there will be three more on Thursday, and two more on Monday!!! Things aren't looking too great right now. I don't know. I hate dealing with this sense of uncertainty. I should be hearing something by next Tuesday. If I am one of the primary candidates, then I will go in and teach a mini-lesson to a random group of students. That I don't mind. It's just trying to shine enough and make myself stand out against so many others that are trying to do the same.

It doesn't stop there. I got a call about two hours after my interview from a principal from another school around here who wants to have me in for an interview at their school! Yipee! Yet another opportunity! This is also another Core Knowledge school which I had tried to get into about three years ago when I was pregnant with Audrey. That's another story. You say there isn't pregnancy discrimination, but it is alive and well! Three years later and another principal later, they give me a call. They are looking to fill both a 5th and a 6th grade position. I would love to do 6th grade again and teaching what I already am now, but I'll take what I can get! I have an interview with them on Friday morning. We'll see where that takes me.

I'm excited for the potential that there really is something out there for me and that those dreams I have been having aren't just sub-conscious makings of my own. I know the dreams are from God, but it's always nice when things come back around and I can see the confirmation of His promises. As for now, I'm just living life's journey. Wherever it takes me.

Outdoor Ed

Last week I took my class of 12 students to Outdoor Ed in Winter Park, Colorado.

This is something we had been waiting for all year. At the beginning of the year it seems so far away that we forget that it is happening. Being at a school as small as mine, we have to do some fundraising to earn money for the trip. Typically the trip costs a total of $2,000 to take a whole group of students.

This year I left the fundraising ideas to the class for the first semester, and after no money being raised, I decided that I was going to have to take a more active role. I hate that. I have enough to worry about and to add fundraising on top of that, it gets very stressful. What made this worse was that I had even asked for help from parents with no reply. I guess this is a perfect example of the saying, "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

After a brilliant suggestion, we decided to sell breakfast burritos every Tuesday morning starting in February. That was such a blessing! Not only did we raise enough money in three months, but we even had money left over!

We left for our trip last Wednesday, and we stayed until Friday after lunch. What a great time we had. The kids were great, the weather was beautiful, and we all had an awesome time. Thankfully I was able to take a school camera where I took TONS of pictures. Just yesterday I put all the pictures into a movie where I burned DVDs for all my students. Take a look at our trip here!

We took several classes about outdoor living skills, we hiked to an abandoned gold mine, visited a pioneer homestead, learned about beaver ecology, tackled the high ropes course 40-feet in the air, and so much more! I never had the opportunity to do a week-long trip like this when I was this age, but I have been privileged enough to be able to take a group of students every year.

The Curiousity Of A 4-Year-Old

A couple weeks ago we had quite an adventure.

I went to pick up the girls at daycare the other day only to find Meghan in tears when I got there. Her teacher was quick to point out that Meghan's curiosity got the best of her when she ended up getting a little pebble stuck in her ear. Great. Just what I needed. Didn't she learn her lesson this summer when she stuck a bead up her nose??? Not only did she stick the bead up her nose, but we were on vacation at Lake Tahoe!!! Thankfully, with a few nose blows, she was able to get the bead out, but seriously! What is it about little kids and finding strange body openings to stick obscure objects in?

I look in Meghan's ear, and yup. There it was. A nicely shaped square rock that had wedged itself nicely right in Meghan's ear. I had always heard that it isn't always the best idea to stick anything in your ear. Not even a "Q-tip". I called the doctor's office, and just my luck; they just closed the office for the day. Jason was out donating plasma (a nice $30 twice a week), and he isn't able to answer his phone while donating. I call my mom to ask her what to do. I get her on the phone and explain the situation to her, and her response was somewhat surprising, yet quite predictable. "Just use the vacuum hose," she said. Oh my goodness!

This comes from her experience from over 20 years ago when my younger sister got a little people stuck in her forehead from a wipe out on the driveway. My sister would not let my mom use tweezers to get the pebble out, so after a few days of struggling and some beginnings of puss, my mom finally decided that it was time for that rock to come out and the vacuum hose was going to make that happen. Sure enough, the rock popped out with very little effort or pain, so obviously, my mom thought it was a simple answer to use the vacuum hose to get the rock out of Meghan's ear.

The only problem I had with this solution is that I had heard stories that you could even blow out someone's ear drum just by giving them a peck on the ear. Just a little amount of suction can cause some serious damage. I know not everyone loses hearing from a ruptured ear drum, but that is something I didn't exactly want to risk given my sister's profound hearing loss. I would blame myself forever if something like that happened because of some poor decision I had made.


I eventually decided to take Meghan to Urgent Care to get the pesky rock removed. After A LOT of tears and persistence (the rock was the one being persistent), the rock finally came out. The next question from the doctor shocked me almost just as much as what my mom said earlier. "Do you want to keep the rock?" the doctor said. What??? Why would I want to keep something like that? I want to keep any sort of temptation like that as far away from my girls as I can! I did end up taking the rock home, but only for the purpose of my blog. How crazy is that?
I think I'm going to go throw this rock away now.

Disney on Ice

Today Jason and I took the girls to see Disney on Ice with my parents. It was a blast. I love being able to share these moments with our kids. I forgot my camera, but at least I had my phone! These pictures aren't that bad for being taken from a phone.

It really made me want to go to Disneyland really bad. We will go sometime, but we want to wait until a time where the girls are old enough to really enjoy the rides without needing a nap. Here's some pictures of our day.















Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisey, Pluto, and Goofy joined in the parade too!Mr. Incredible plays the drums with Baloo the bear.Cinderella in her carriage in the parade."It's a small world, after all..." My brother Ted's not so favorite ride at Disneyland.Minnie is trapped in one of Syndrome's chambers before the "Incredibles" saved her and Mickey.Audrey was starting to lose patience. She dropped her gum and was VERY upset. The bummer is that this show was totally during nap time.Meghan and I pose for a picture during intermission.Meghan and my mom are having a great time at the show.Once the bad guy was defeated, they had an old school light parade Disneyland style.Audrey was so tired, she didn't make it to the end of the show. Poor baby. She was so tired.The end! What a great show! Both the girls were asking to go back again sometime. Maybe next time Audrey will be able to stay awake the entire time. We'll see.

The Best Practical Joke Ever!

This week I played the best practical joke on my students.

It all started when I was bored last weekend and started playing around on this website called "Face in Hole". You can check it out here. The idea of this website is for people to be able to place their faces into the bodies of athletes, models, celebrities, and various advertisements. When done well, it can be very fun.

While playing around, I made this:

I posted this photo on my Facebook account and one of my co-workers saw this picture and strongly encouraged me to use this picture as a joke. I will do my best to re-play what transpired this week as what I refer to as being one of my favorite weeks at school.

While having my 8th graders in class, we were sharing what things we had done over the weekend. I began to share with them that I had shared something very personal with one of the other teachers, and she encouraged me to share this information with the students. I continued to tell them that this is something I chose not to share with them because I didn't want it to come across as being arrogant or prideful. This was when I showed them this picture. (With the "Face in Hole" label cut off the bottom) "I am this year's Mrs. Colorado," I said.

The astonishment, amazement, and disbelief was almost more than I could handle. For those of you who know me well enough know that I am a HORRIBLE liar. It has always been very difficult for me to keep a straight face whenever playing a joke on someone. Thankfully, I was able to be very serious when speaking about this. Because all my students know that I am a horrible liar, I was quickly met with a lot of "Are you serious?" and "What was your talent?" I couldn't believe I actually pulled it off. We talked for a little longer about some of the questions they had (I was amazed at my ability to make stuff up and it still be believable).

I was so excited about my ability to pull this off, so I decided to share this with my 6th graders too. I used the same approach as before. I thought I did a good job with the humility approach. They were just as easy to fool. Most of their questions were regarding whether or not I have used my power for good. In my opinion, most of their suggestions were for blackmail and totally illogical reasons, but it was pretty entertaining to hear what sorts of things I should be granted just because I have a nice, shiny, crown. (With a sash too, of course).

My 7th graders were a lot less gullible. I think part of that has to do with the group of students in that class, or maybe because they couldn't imagine someone like me could win something like a Mrs. Colorado pageant. After leaving their classroom, I quickly went into the 8th grade class and said, "I am so upset at those 7th graders! I tried to share with them something so personal and they don't even want to believe me! This is exactly why I didn't want to share something like this with you guys!" I was soon met with many sympathetic, "We believe you, Mrs. Gordon!" Way to milk it, Leslie.

The next day I was met by one of my 7th grade students who had actually gone home and researched the current Mrs. Colorado and found me out to be a liar. I got really defensive and upset at him (all an act) and told him that he got the wrong person. He later approached me and apologized about being a jerk about things. That is when I shared with him my secret. He was now going to be one of the people who had to make sure students kept believing my lie.

Later that same day one of my 8th graders told me that he saw the picture that the other student printed off about the real Mrs. Colorado. He said that he didn't believe the other student because I told them with a straight face about me being Mrs. Colorado. "That's how I know you weren't joking," he said. It's funny how even my students know that I am a horrible liar. It was at this point that I knew that I had just successfully pulled off the best practical joke...ever.

The rest of the week continued with everyone believing my story. I was frequently met with comments such as, "Mrs. Gordon...I mean, Mrs. Colorado..." I soon discovered that I needed to tell the truth about the whole thing when one of my students came up to me and said, "Mrs. Gordon, I was at volleyball practice last night. I told my coach and teammates about you being Mrs. Colorado, and they all thought it was so cool!" Uh, oh. Now it's gone a little too far.

I decided that I needed to share the truth, but I was going to do it in a fun way. I put together a bunch of pictures together into a slide show and here's how it went.

"You guys rocked my world this week. You believed in me when I was in the band, "Evanescence."

"When I was in The Bee Movie. "

"When I was Taylor Swift."

"When I was Shakira."

"And when you believed that I was Mrs. Colorado."

It was priceless. I did hear a lot of comments like, "I knew all along. I knew you couldn't be Mrs. Colorado!" Considering how well they had been duped, I think it was all just a cover to act like they weren't hurt that I had actually pulled a good one on them. It was awesome.

Valentine's Day Surprise

Yesterday Jason and I traded in my car for a minivan.

We totally weren't planning on doing that this soon, but the opportunity presented itself and we jumped at the opportunity. My mom called yesterday morning to tell me that one of the car dealerships here in town was offering some special incentives due to the holiday weekend. I was hesitant at first because Jason and I had hurt our credit a little in the past while I was still in school living off of student loans and having to pay for daycare on top of that.

There was a time soon after Audrey was born that we had only one car. Looking back to those days, I sometimes wonder how we were able to make it work. We managed to survive with one car for almost a whole year until I got my current teaching job. That is when we knew that we needed to find a way to get another car without being slammed with an insane interest rate due to our bad credit.

God blessed us with some unexpected inheritance money which Jason's mom was generous to surprise us with. Jason's aunt Karen was also visiting us from California at that time, and she was also very generous to help us with a down payment for our car. We weren't looking for much at the time. We just wanted something to get me to work each day, but something reliable. We ended up with a little Chevrolet Aveo. It looked just like this:

It was a pretty small car, but it did the job. It was a great little car that suited me just fine. That was a great little car. It kinda reminded me of my first car: a 1985 Toyota Corolla hatchback. Our main problem with this car was that we found we were often needing more space than we had, and Jason's little Saturn wasn't offering much more space either. Our funniest experience was when we bought an over-the-stove microwave for our kitchen. In order to get it in my car, the microwave was in the front seat with the seat pushed as far back as it would go (I still don't know how I was able to shift with that box in the way), and Jason was practically sitting on the laps of our girls while they were cramped in their car seats!

Getting a bigger car has been something we had been talking about for quite some time, and I still don't think we aren't done having kids. I couldn't tell you when #3 might be coming, but we definitely didn't want to be putting one of the kids in the trunk just so the baby could have space in the back seat!

Our car buying experience yesterday was almost surreal. We were unsure of how things would go as we had the girls with us, and we didn't know how long they would be okay looking at cars. We were soon greeted by a salesperson who was the most laid-back, no-hassle kind of guy who listened to us so intently it was almost like he already knew EXACTLY what we wanted and needed. If you ask me, God had a hand in this one!

We drove one minivan which was along the lines of what we were looking for, but our salesperson told us to drive the car to one of their other lots because he thought we would like this other one better. He was so right! I drove up to the other car and immediately thought, "This is it!" After only a few seconds in that car, we knew it was the one for us. The girls were even excited too. I think they like being able to see more out their windows.

We like how the back seats fold down and the middle row comes out if we need all the space. We like that it feels safer and that the girls' car seats lock in there MUCH more tightly than they ever did before. Hopefully we won't be needing another car for quite some time. I know that I wasn't originally thrilled about the idea of being a minivan driving soccer mom, but it's not the car that defines me. What other options do I have if I end up having more kids? None. I'm happy with my new car. When does soccer practice start?

Adventure At 6 O'Clock In The Morning

I look forward to Mondays these days.

Part of the reason why I like teaching at my school so much is because I am off on Mondays. I take that time for myself. These days are mostly consumed with piles of papers to grade and planning for the next week's lessons. I also like Mondays because I can sleep in past 4:30 which is my usual wake up time during the week.

This morning started like any other. Jason woke up early (before his alarm clock) and started getting ready for work. He is also known for taking long walks in the mornings before he leaves for work.

I was woken up around 6:15 this morning because the phone was ringing. You know how it is, you are woken from a deep sleep because of a somewhat familiar sound. I was definitely disoriented, and was unable to get to the phone before it stopped ringing. I looked at the Caller ID and was puzzled as to why there would be an 800 number calling me this early in the morning. How strange. I proceeded to go back to bed.

Laying in bed and unable to go back to sleep, I started to think about what my day was going to be like. Suddenly, I heard my front door slam open, and I heard, "POLICE!" WHAT??? Is this really happening? In MY house? Did I really hear what I thought I heard? I raced down the stairs to find a flashlight beaming up my stairs and a police officer standing in the doorway.

"We're here ma'am because we got a call from your alarm company that your front door has been breached, so we came right away."

"Oh my goodness!" I explained to them that it must have been Jason who was leaving to go on his morning walk. Just then I see Jason running down the street towards us. The concern on his face was very evident as he caught the sight of three police cars sitting in front of our house.

We explain to the officers that Jason must have set off the alarm when he went through the front door this morning for his walk. We don't really set the alarm every night, but mainly when we remember. I didn't hear the alarm from all the way upstairs, and I didn't get the phone, so the next step was for the alarm company to call the police.

I felt so bad that the police had to be called so early in the morning for a stupid mistake, but I am thankful that it worked. Since we got our alarm system put in a couple years ago, I have been thankful for that added sense of security, but have always been wondering if it actually works. Well, now I know.

I thanked them as they left and definitely appologized for their waste of time. As they were leaving, one of the officers looked at Jason and said, "We need you to come with us so we can settle things. Why don't you sit in the back of my car, and we can give you some nice silver bracelets too!" He joked. It's funny how they can be so serious one moment, and the next minute they start joking around! We laughed and were very thankful that this was all just a silly mistake.

What makes this even funnier is that the girls slept through this whole incident! They had no idea that just moments before they woke up, there were three police squad cars sitting outside our house with officers prepared to deal with an unwanted intruder!

Whew! What a morning! I appreciate the time the officers took to make sure we were safe, but I hope I won't need their help like that again!