Oreos and Other Stuff

It has definitely been too long since I've updated the blog, and I actually have quite a bit to write about. The first thing I should fill everyone in on is my employment status. I was hired to work the first semester with a possibility of extending into a full year. Well, December rolled around and I hadn't heard anything. I started making inquiries, but no one seemed to know much. The week before break, I explained the situation to my students and told them that this might be goodbye. Over the break, I was asked if I could come back but that it might only be temporary. My principal still hadn't heard from the district about my contract, and with everyone on Christmas Break it was unlikely she would until January. So she asked me to return until their either extended my contract or until the grades were reconfigured to accommodate my absence (meaning combo classes between grade levels). I told her I would, and that is where things stand now.

I am having very mixed feelings about this. This school has the best students I have ever taught, but there are other things going on that make it difficult to work there. In addition, we were told the Monday before break the grade-level schedules are changing to incorporate a new curriculum for English Language Development and that it would begin immediately upon coming back. It's a little difficult to explain without going into great detail, but this change in schedule means I have to teach more of the language arts. (The first semester I taught science, social studies, and grammar due to the fact we didn't know what would be happening second semester and we wanted to provide the students some stability in language arts and math.)

This means I have to figure out the curriculum for language arts and ELD and lesson plan for them, grammar, and social studies all in one day before the students come back on Tuesday. I left all the teacher materials at school and turned in my key since I didn't know if I was coming back, so I couldn't even try to get a jump start on it. Not that that mattered really since we just got back on Saturday and I'm back at school tomorrow (Monday). I haven't even had enough time to finish unpacking and get reorganized after our trip, so I'm just a little stressed tonight.

It's actually so bad that I found myself praying in church today that they don't extend my contract and I won't be there very much longer even though we could use the money. Our home is so disorganized--the second bedroom has really just taken on a life of its own, the storage closest needs help, Christmas decorations need to be taken down, I need time to focus on looking for my wedding ring (!!!), our dresser needs to be fixed...it just goes on and on. I'm not claustrophobic, but I certainly feel like I am tonight as I think about all of this! As crazy as it may sound, I think I could keep perfectly busy between now and March with all the to-dos around here without adding a full-time job to the list. I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully I hear some news soon. Part of the stress is definitely not knowing what is going on with my contract.

On a lighter note, here's a picture from an adventure in the kitchen (the aforementioned Oreos):
The picture really doesn't do it justice, but I did learn that crushing up Christmas Oreos is not the best idea in the world. The result looks like something you'd see on Bones or CSI!

Finally, Nathan and I had a WONDERFUL Christmas vacation this year. We spent a week with both families in Houston and Dallas and really enjoyed ourselves. More on that will be coming!