It's crazy that I haven't updated since two weeks into second semester; okay, so I'm realizing how much time really HAS passed at this point. I'll try to go through quickly... *trumpets sound* I survived my first year of teaching! There were times that I thought I would lose my mind, which was saying something since I've made the little bit I can claim to have left pretty hardy, but the relationships I built with students, coworkers, staff helped me make it through. I had new struggles as well as new blessings. First big announcement is that I signed my contract at the high school for next year. For some of you, this may be a surprise and I completely understand why; my last blog expressed sentiments of "get me the heck out of here"... but my views of life, growth and plan have changed a little bit. I pursued other opportunities, went to the Washington State Educators Job Fair, even had an interview at my "dream" district Sumner SD, but it's been pretty obvious to me that God still needs me at White River. I look forward to the fact that I'll be a tad bit more seasoned in experience, lessons and the ways of the school and that the administration will be a huge support (in ways that most teachers don't have). Also, my biology team for next year is changing a little bit and the power is being shifted into the hands of student-centered educators; one of the more frustrating points of this past year for me is the "we need to look good" and "teaching to the state test" mentalities, all of which we had to play into, but that is on the mend! By the way, completely focusing the entire year of study on the Biology End of Course exam was one of the most infuriating parts of my year. We didn't even have time to teach animals! What the heck?! Off my soapbox (it's usually a pulpit so count yourselves lucky, you got off easy), another cool part of next year is that I have three honors classes; this will drastically change my day (not sure if for better or worse, this past year they were my squirrelliest!) and I have a first period prep. The beautiful part of that is time to collect myself and prep for labs in the morning. This way, I won't have to stay at school until 7pm all the time! I'm going to miss my midday break, but I'm really thinking it will be a nice change. Anyway, I truly think this next year will be easier and better in many ways, and I will keep my eyes open as to any changes that He sees fit. I do want to wrap up this schooly paragraph, however, with a fun tale; I've had hundreds of funny moments that you may or may not have seen posted to Facebook (I'll try and be better next year about posting them here) but one I am especially proud of was begging administration for $200 in budget to buy some fetal pigs for dissection (sadly, $200 buys you about 16 piggies) and making them all last the entire day! First three periods used 8 pigs with various stages of dissection for each period (first period does preliminary cuts, second, removed specific organs, third period massacred/removed everything including the eyes and brain) and the last two periods used the rest. Needless to say, I was kind of a hero around the staff for the day. Thriftyness at it's finest! Oh, and the picture up there is Rich and I at Senior Prom in Seattle... chaperoning was actually really fun, especially scoping out all the camoflauge suits and hats and dancing to Cotton-Eyed Joe. It really was quite a year, so full of lessons and life that it's hard to look back on. But man am I thankful :)Once the students were gone, the staff spent alone time in their rooms preparing for the upcoming year (yeah right, more like finally organizing from the past year) and we then had some team time/staff meetings with some great discussions. After that, summer commenced! I got a lot of house and craft stuff done while relaxing up until this point, but it has also been pretty busy! Between traveling around, making wedding jam with Grandma Casebolt and McKenna, singing at Bible Camp in Olympia for a week with my church worship group and other frivolities (seen below), I've been loving the hectic summer so far. Below are some pictures of my crazy times up until this point; hopefully it'll make this post go faster :)
Three days after the last day of school was my best friend Chelsea Trotter's wedding! It was quite the busy weekend with the bachelorette party, rehearsal, set-up, decorating, and taking care of her beautiful daughter. Thankfully, the weather cleared up and it was a wonderful (somewhat windy!) day in the groom's parents' backyard! I snapped this photo of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson :) best of luck to the happy couple!
Okay so this isn't quite in chronological order, but we went to the Crab Pot for my birthday this year and OMG! So amazing.
I've visited where our wedding is going to be next year, here's one of the pictures I took :) YAY!
The next few pictures all happened within the span of a week (this past week to be precise!):
Did King Tut in Seattle...
Visited Jenna down in Albany for some fun times and some engagement pictures; for the sake of avoiding redundancy, I'm just posting this one picture! The rest are on Jenna's blog if you want to see them but I'm pretty sure I have the same clientel :) She did a phenomenal job, we are SO happy with them and thankful for her willingness to do it! That and we were extremely comfortable and able to be dorks the whole time since we knew our photographer... in other words, thank you Jenna for a most amazing gift. We love you and are so so thankful for you in more than just photo ways :)
Grandpa Casebolt, my dad, Richard and I went hiking to High Rock Lookout and had some phenomenal times and views! I don't think I've ever been able to see St. Helens, Adams and Rainier all in the same skyline before... hopefully it's just the beginning of many hikes around Rainier in the future! Richard loves hiking and I can't wait to show him more of Sunrise and Paradise; sadly, and unexpectedly, we couldn't hik any of those trails because of snow still...
Ahh the lake... good stuff
And we capped off Richard's vacation with a day trip to Ocean Shores! He'd never been and we had an excellent time, especially practicing our First Dance in the tide :)
So this is kind of a weird post with little to no direction, I know, but I do have two big things I want to add to it. First off, I am EXTREMELY proud to announce that Richard took his big computer certification exam (termed the CompTIA A+ certification) this past week, the one he's been studying for for months, and PASSED on the first try! I am so happy for him! Just goes to show what hard work gets you :) a lot of people take it multiple times so it's quite the accomplishment to have only had to take it once... so, with this certification in his toolbelt, he is going to continue applying for computer jobs but will hopefully be more marketable with his certification; it's basically an award that says he knows pretty much everything about computer hardware, software and network repair, and most computer places value that over a degree! A degree is still on his mind, but he may be waiting to find out exactly which degree would be more beneficial for his career. In other words, HUZZAH for my honey :)
Second thing is that Richard and I have started the house hunting process! We've decided we love the area, the commute would be easy for most anywhere in the Puget Sound area, and the interest rates would make a mortgage the same approximately as our rent is where we are now. We've viewed around ten houses or so up until this point and found one we absolutely loved but it's not going to work out and should be closing to another buyer this week... must not have been the perfect house for us in His plan! It's kind of a scary big kid jump, but I'm excited to own a home and begin dumping money into it :)
I know this has been quite the haphazard post, but it must get weirder... Aunt Tanya has requested Lily pictures and I must oblige, so enjoy! Hopefully I'll see you guys at the Relay this Friday; please let me know if you have any questions! Love you guys so much...
This was from when we "dogsat" in May... obviously, she wins the pen.
See the toy under Lily's head? It's actually her favorite, it's a squeeky dog toy but she treats it like her child. She sleeps with it, tears it up, and carries it around the house by the neck. Sweet, I guess?
Told ya.
XOXO Chels
Nice job carrying on with life! You've had a good year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Lily pictures. Now you are a crazy cat person like I am.