Summer Plans

With today being 90 degrees and sunny, it definitely has me thinking about summer. A week from today is the last day of school where I work, so then it'll officially be summer for me. This summer, it seems like we have a lot of family events going on between graduation parties and birthday parties which will be a lot of fun. Tim and I started making a list of things we want to do, or already have planned, for the summer on the fridge. He is going to a concert this weekend and I'm going to Country Thunder in July. We are going to the Rockford Airfest this Sunday. We used to go to Starved Rock a lot, but we haven't been there in a while, so we'll definitely be making a trip or two there over the summer....hopefully. I added St. Louis to the list for wishful thinking. Tim's sister lives close to St. Louis and we'd love to go down and visit her, but since she recently found out she's pregnant and her husband will be returning from overseas (finally!), we think it might be hard to find some time that works for us, so again...wishful thinking. And the other day, Tim added a cook out to the list. Since we finally are in a house with a yard, it would be really fun to get all of our friends over sometime this summer to grill out and hang out at our house.
On top of all of these wonderful plans and ideas, we'll both be working. Tim will be working full time and hopefully not on weekends (more wishful thinking). I'll be working as a teaching assistant for summer school for the first half of the summer. It's only Monday-Friday from eight to noon for about 4 weeks. This will still give me afternoons, evenings and all weekends off, so I'd really like to find something else to do. I would like to find a part-time job or something that can bring in income, but I honestly have no clue what I could do (suggestions welcomed!).
One of my plans to fill up some of that time is to start exercising. This is where I really need some ideas and suggestions. I am not a runner, so I am planning on riding my bike around the neighborhood maybe a few times a week, or even everyday would be nice. I would really like to do something that I enjoy. I'm not doing it to lose weight or anything, but a person with CF really should exercise to keep their lungs healthy. Raising my heart rate makes me breathe heavier, which in turn, makes me cough (which is a good thing) to get everything out. I also just want to get my body in better shape and to just be healthier overall. I'm looking for any suggestions for fun things that I can do indoors and/or outdoors - maybe mix it up a little bit. I'm all about listening to music while I do it too, because I think that will give it more enjoyment. I don't have much endurance, so whatever I do will have to start off pretty light and easy and hopefully I'll be able to lengthen whatever I'm doing throughout the summer. I'd really love for this summer to be productive for me health-wise since I'm really wanting to get my lung function in tip-top shape. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. It really seems like we're going to have an eventful summer, and I'm very excited to start! :-)

News

Well, the suspense is over. In the mail on Thursday I got a letter from the middle school I interviewed at saying that they chose someone else for the job. Honestly, I wasn't too upset because I wasn't really getting my hopes up for that position. Then yesterday, I got another letter in the mail from the first place I interviewed at, also saying no. I was pretty annoyed that it took her over two weeks to mail me a letter saying no. She could have at least called like she said she was going to, but hey, there's nothing I can do about it now. I really was hoping to get a position there, considering there were three in the school, but oh well. I am still waiting to hear from the district of my third interview I had this past Tuesday. I am going to keep applying for jobs as much as I can; a few positions were posted in my current district and local districts, so I keep applying for those. If I give up now, I'm definitely not going to get anything, so I just have to keep my head up and try to stay positive. I got some good experience with those interviews, so I am more prepared for future ones.

In other, more exciting news, Tim and I adopted a cat last Monday. His name is Archie and he's almost two years old. We went to the Humane Society, Tails, on Sunday to look with a friend because he wanted a cat, and we ended up finding Archie and loving him! On Monday, Tim bought the litter box, food and water containers and anything else we needed for him before he went to work. After work on Monday, I went back to Tails and picked him up. He's been making himself right at home this week. He loves to look out windows and follow us around everywhere. The first couple days, we were practically stepping on him because he always wanted to go where we were. He's starting to explore on his own and be a little more independent. He's very loving and loves to roll around and be petted. I've never had a cat before, and actually Tim and I are both allergic, but we've been doing fine with him. I think we've built up some immunity being around cats in Tim's family. Here are a couple pictures from the first few nights he was home:

The first few nights we kept him in the bathroom to make sure he used his litter box.
This is where he decided he would sleep - on a shelf above the toilet. He knocked
everything off and made himself comfy!

This really shows his color. He didn't like the camera flash so the rest of the pictures are
kind of dark. He looks fat here, but he's really not. He loves to roll around like this on the floor!

Archie, up close and personal.

Smiling for the camera

Sleeping with Tim on the couch. He loves to sleep on the couch and recliner.

The boys bonding.

Still Waiting

I just wanted to give a quick update on my interview that took place a couple weeks ago because I've been asked about it a lot. The interview was on May 5th and I was supposed to hear something by May 11th, but I didn't get a phone call, email or letter indicating whether or not I got a job. On the 11th though, I was contacted by my current principal who was called by the interviewing principal because she is one of my references. Since then, I have not heard anything from the principal, but I know that I am/was one of eight people considered for the three positions. I have no idea what is going on right now and don't really know what to do. I don't want to contact the principal because I don't know what I would say. I know that she has a tough decision to make, so I don't want to feel like I'm bugging her -- I feel like she'll contact me when she's ready, I know how crazy busy principals can get.

In the meantime, I have had two other interviews, so that's kept me busy. Last Friday, the 13th, I had an interview in the same school district as the first one, but at the junior high school for a sixth grade math and science position. I actually answered the same scripted questions as my other interview, so I wasn't really caught off guard by any weird questions. I am supposed to hear something, either way, by the end of this week.

The third interview I had was just this afternoon. It was again, two hours away, but for a different school district, and surprisingly, the SAME questions. I am really getting to be a pro at these questions....I think! I was a little mad that I drove down two hours to answer the same questions because every time I've interviewed they have been recorded. I wish they would actually share them with each other! Oh well...not much I can do about that. This interview was with two principals from different elementary schools in the district and it was just a screening interview (which just means they're interviewing a bunch of people to see who they are actually interested in and who they are going to weed out). I was told to call the district office in a couple of days to see if I made it into the pool of candidates. If I did, then all administrators in the district will be able to view my interview and can call me in to interview with them.

So again, it's just a matter of waiting for that call. Hoping I answered the questions the way they wanted, that I impressed them enough in that 20-30 minutes of awkward questioning that they'll ask me back for another interview, or if I get really lucky, offer me a job. I will definitely keep you posted as soon as I hear something! Thanks to everyone who's been sending their positive thoughts and well wishes my way! :-)

Life

Recently, I've been noticing how different my life is from people my age. I am twenty-two, graduated from college, looking for a permanent full-time job, married and thinking about having kids in the near future. Not many people my age, some even in their late twenties, are at this place in their life. We are the first married couple out of all of our friends and I can think of only one other couple that we hang out with that's engaged. We're all at such different points in our lives right now, it's a little weird sometimes. Tim and I are starting to think about where we're going to live and settle down, and our friends are just graduating college and maybe going back to live with their parents. Sometimes when I hang out with my friends, all we talk about is our jobs because pretty much all of my friends are in education. :) I don't mind talking about work with them, because I love my job, but at the same time I don't feel like we have much else in common at this time in our lives. Some of my friends are maybe just beginning new relationships or not even thinking about getting married right now, so I don't think anyone can really relate to us being married and thinking about having kids.

When I say all of this, I don't mean it as a bad thing, it's just something I've noticed over the past couple months. I don't want to change anything in my life right now, I absolutely love being married and where we are in our life. We also have great friends who support us and still want to hang out with an 'old married couple'! It'll just be interesting to see how things go over the next couple years if we have to move for a job, or we start having kids, how our lives and friendships are going to change. I'm excited because I think the next few years of our life are going to have some major changes and can't wait to see where life takes us. :-)