Thankfulness

It has been a long time since I wrote last, mostly because I don't really have that exciting of a life.  I work during the school week and on weekends I try to spend time with family and friends!  But I decided that it is probably time for an update.
I still love being a sub!  I am hoping that I get a part time long term sub position at one of the elementary schools in the valley.  Please pray about it!!  I thought the position was already taken and then something happened and I was requested for the position and the teacher wants me to do it, and she doesn't even know me!!  It's not a for sure thing yet though, because her partner is worried they will get a bad sub so she wants to take the sub position.  So, pray that she will be willing to give up the power and I will get the position!  I was so ecstatic when I left school that day!
Another thing that is super exciting, Caroline and I are going to be going to the east coast in February!! I cannot wait for this.  We are going to go and visit Michelle since she will be living there at that time.  We are planning on going to New York, Washington DC, and the places in Gilmore Girls!! I still can't believe that we are actually doing this.
The bad news that has happened, as I think most know about, is my car accident.  Coming back from Montana I was in a pretty bad car accident.  It was one of the scariest things in my life.  I was driving down Lookout Pass and I didn't like that my car was speeding up (because of going down hill) so I hit my brakes to slow down.  Of course, there was a sheet of ice right where I hit my brakes.  I lost control of my car.  I starting spinning around in the middle of the freeway, as a semi-truck was coming towards me, hitting the barrier walls on the side of the freeway.  Until finally, I came to a stop in the middle of one of the lanes, facing backwards on the freeway at the bottom of the pass.  Miraculously, I was  not hurt!! God was definitely watching over me.  No one hit me either during all of that time.  My car was in the middle of the freeway for about an hour and there were no emergency vehicles around to help direct traffic.  It caused lots of slow downs in the area.  Especially in the beginning when there was a semi-truck and many other cars pulled over on the side of the road to make sure that I was ok.  There was barely enough room for cars to squeeze between.  As I am standing there, waiting for emergency people to get there, there are winds about 30 mph, and my car thermostat stat said that it was 19 degrees out, I just watched fluids spill out of my car, and thinking how I just completely ruined my new car that I bought only 2 month prior.  I was a wreck!  I was freezing!  I was crying!  I was scared!  I had no idea what to do!  Finally crews showed up, towed my car to a near-by small town and the ambulance took me to the town as well to wait for my family to get there and pick me up.
The night when I got home, I discovered that I had bruising from my seatbelt (not bad!!) and my shoulders, back, neck, legs, and arms hurt!!  It hurt to walk up the stairs. It hurt to lie down. it hurt to stand. It even hurt to hold my phone up to my ear.  Then when I tried to go to sleep, I couldn't.  I just kept seeing the crash over and over in my head.  I saw the semi-truck coming towards me as I spun in the street with being bale to do nothing.  It was awful.    I got about a total of 3 hours of sleep that night.
 Even though this was so scary and I still cannot believe that it happened I cannot believe all of the good things that came out of this.  I came out of there with just some soreness and a little bruise.  That was it!  My car can be fixed!  It may cost my insurance $9000 and me $500, but it can be fixed!  I don't have to figure out how to get the remainder of it paid off and find a new car!!  I don't have a car for 3 weeks but luckily I live with amazing people, I have amazing friends, and an amazing family.  Everyone has helped me out so much.  People are very willing to pick me up to take me places or just hang out, and the Crosby's have been letting me borrow their car so that I can get to and from work!  I think this accident has made me appreciate all that I have!  Especially with it being right before Thanksgiving!  I am so thankful for my family and friends.  I am so lucky that I have so many people that love and care for me.  I am thankful that I have a job.  I am thankful that I get to see kids smile everyday.  I am thankful that I have things like a car......well I did!  I am thankful that in times of trouble I can always count of God.  This is something I need to remember.  God is going to make sure that I have everything I need as long as I trust in him and take time to have a good relationship with him.  He will protect me when I am in danger and he will provide me with the people I need to make it through tough times.  So thank you everyone for being there for me!  I love all of you and appreciate your kindness.

Life is Good

My life is great!  Sometimes I forget this, I forget to see all the blessings I have in my life.  My computer broke, most of my friends live a million and a half miles away from me, and I don't have a full time job.  All these things distract me from seeing all the good things.  So this post is to tell you about all the great things that are happening in my life right now!

First subbing, oh my goodness I LOVE it!!  The most important thing I have learned is that I love teaching!!  I know, you thought that I loved it before right??  Well, because of subbing I have found that I love it even more.  I always want to work.  It does not even matter what grade.  I have subbed for every grade, every subject (except second), including high school, and you know what...teaching is teaching!!  It doesn't matter if they are little kindergartners that can't write their name, or if they are high school students who I am trying to teach Trig to.  I have worked every single school day since I started, and the requests to have me as a sub just keep comin!  It's amazing!  I can't really explain the joy that I have when I step into a classroom but just know that I wake up every morning excited to meet the class I will have for the day!

I am really excited for this month!!  In less then  week I get to go see my bestest friend in California, in three weeks I get to see one of my best friends from college (maybe 2 if I can do enough convincing to get the other to come!)  Like 10 minutes ago I found out that one of my housemates from last year is coming to Spokane, so hopefully I get to see her as well!!  I cannot wait to see all of them!!  I have missed them so much and have not seen them in months so it will be awesome!!  I have been spending lots of time with Tiff, which has been so good to have someone to talk to and have her just listen and provide me with advice, which has helped me straighten out my life.  We spent a couple hours at Greenbluff yesterday and it was just great to be out there in the beautiful weather with a wonderful person.  It really made me appreciate the life that I have.  I have also been able to hang out with Danielle, who just makes me smile when I'm with her.  She is such a great person and is so fun to be around!  I'm pretty sure I have the best friends that anyone could ask for!

Then, probably the best news of my recent life, I have started going to church again (I didn't go all summer.)  This has made me so much happier.  I am working on building my relationship with God again and at times this is tough.  I go to church by myself, which is fine most of the time, but I miss having Michelle to talk about the service with and I miss having Bible studies with Caroline and Michelle, and so I have had to learn to discipline myself in this area of my life.  It was much easier when I had a houseful of roommates who keep me on track, but having to do this on my own has been work.  Which, honestly, is probably good.  I need to learn to have discipline in this area and not depend on others to help me.  Slowly, but surely I have been working on my spiritual self, which has also helped me work on my physical and emotional self as well, so everyday I feel better about the person I am.  

I do NOT MISS High School

After spending one day subbing for a high school class, I have decided that I am soooooo glad that I am no longer in high school. I actually did enjoy subbing for the class and I will continue to do it, but man, there were a couple kids that drove me insane. One in particular was such a punk. He flat out told me "no" many times today. "No, I don't want to play!" "No, I'm not getting down off the wall!" "No, I'm just going to stand here!" Does he not know that I am the teacher and he is the student?? How do you motivate high school students? I just don't know!!

The other thing that I do not miss about high school is high pitch, squealing, flirty, laughing girls! I am pretty sure that they do not know how irritating they are! It kind of makes me laugh how annoying they really are! Secondary teachers, I don't know how you do it! You are amazing!!

The good news about this is that I may get to work more than just these three days, which would be awesome. They are not sure how long the actual teacher will be gone so please pray that they want me to stay if the teacher is out longer! Well, wish me luck, at least two more days of high school!

I Want a First Day of School!

All I want it a job. I want more than anything to be a full time teacher. I want my own class. I want my own classroom. I want to make lesson plans. I want to have collaboration meetings with my grade level team. It is so frustrating to see many of my classmates getting jobs and I am almost 100% positive that I won't get a job this year. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy for my classmates and I want them to have jobs but I just want a job with them!! I read all of their facebook comments about how their first days went and I wish I could join in these conversations. I know that it is very hard to find a job in Spokane and that new teachers in general have a very hard time finding a job, but if my classmates can do it, why can't I? I know I can be a sub, and that will be fine, just not my dream. My dream is to have a full time job in Spokane. I'm not even picky about the grade; I will do anything K-6! I know it sounds like I am just whining, and yes, I am but I don't care! I will be a sub and that will be fine, and maybe on top of that I will be a nanny (which I interview for today) but it won't be my dream. And I can't decide if I want this nanny position or not.  The problem is, what if a long term sub position opens up?  I would want it just so that I could have the experience, but I wouldn't be able to take it if I get this job.  Is it worth taking this nanny job??  I just don't know! Ok, I am done whining now.  I will keep you updated on my job situation....mainly, if I get this nanny position or not!

Am I a cool kid yet??

Well I gave in....I decided to do what all the cool kids are doing and start my own blog. I always feel like there is a lot happening in my life and I always want to tell people but I am too lazy to try and get a hold of people. Like the name of my blog Caroline???  Good thing you came up with the name Relish for me!  It's perf for this!!  Cassie actually named my blog for me!! 

So let’s start with what I am doing with my life right now. Well, the real truth is...I have no idea. I am currently unemployed and living with the family that I was a nanny for this past summer. Which honestly, I am perfectly ok with. This family is amazing and they treat me better than I ever expected! I am looking for a job right now in Spokane...which, I'm not gonna lie, is nearly impossible!!!! What was I thinking!!!

Well actually I do have good reason to stay. I was offered a job in Memphis but I turned it down, as many of you know. I decided to turn in down because they took like ten million years to respond to my e-mails and normally that would be fine but they already started school and I wanted them to speed things up!! I feel that having the teacher start a month late would just lead to a very unstable school year. And plus, my life in Spokane is amazing right now....why change it?! I think that was the best decision that I could have made right now. It saves me a lot of stress and keeps me from going insane from not knowing what I am doing with my life. So basically, I am looking for job here in Spokane, and if I do not find one then I will be a sub, which will be fine for a year.

So since I had been saving up money so that I could afford to move cross country and I'm not I decided to reward myself with....a new car!! I love love love my new car. It is a red 2007 Toyota Prius!! It get's amazing gas mileage and is probably about a million times more reliable then by old car!! Well, that is about all of the exciting things that are happening in my life right now. I'm glad I started this blog thingy so that I could just tell everyone about my life in one easy blog and not a million calls and e-mails!! I think I will like this!!