Time on my hands

Day #3 of not having a whole lot to do. I'm done with student teaching (except for 40 short stories to read and grade) and don't start my summer job yet. I love the time to relax, read, exercise, cook (well, I don't love to cook yet, but I think I'll get closer now that I have more time), hang out with friends, etc, but I find myself, just on day #3, already getting antsy.

It's not that I have nothing to do. This list of things can be lengthy:

• put together photo albums (from Ecuador in 1999, Peru in 2004, Ireland in 2006, wedding, honeymoon...yeah, I'm a bit behind)
• yard work (tear out brush in back, fertilize, plant grass, plant flowers)
• sand/paint in the bathroom (can I just say how I cannot wait until this project is done. I'm quickly tiring of the thin layer of white grout/drywall dust all over everything in the general vicinity of the bathroom...gotta love home improvements)
• organize my desk (you know, sort through files, throw stuff out, exciting stuff like that)
• blog more
• spend time with God
• read books just because I want to

The problem is I don't feel like doing any of those things, at least not by myself. Who'd have thought that I'd want someone around to do little menial things like that. I suprise myself sometimes, I guess.

It's ironic because I have more time than I know what to do with right now, while Scott doesn't have enough time to do everything he'd like. I look forward to the day, perhaps, when we can both get a little closer to that happy middle ground of time.

Moments that make it worth it.

Last night I went for a walk around my neighborhood. Actually the ritzy neighborhood just a few blocks away, but if I can walk there in less than 10 minutes, can I call it my neighborhood...kind of?

I was walking up a street just a few blocks northeast of the community playhouse...maybe you know it: the street where the lanes are divided by a large green grassy strip with trees, so it's one way on either side of the grassy strip. A black car passes me, stops a little ways up (looking at the house numbers was my guess), then goes up to the end of the block, turns down the other side, and up my side again, so they are now behind me again, which is where they just came from.

Now, I'm usually not one to get freaked out about my surroundings (blissful ignorance, I think, but some may call it sheer stupidity) but this made me start to wonder. "Grip your keys, look at your surroundings," I told myself. I hear the car coming up behind me and suddenly someone yells, "Mrs. Mac!" As the car drives by, coming to a stop, I see Michelle (one of the seniors in my sleepy first block class at Bryan) stick her head out the window.
She jumps out of the car. "I wanted to say goodbye," as she gives me a hug. I ask her how class was today. "Lame," as she rolls her eyes. She quickly introduces me to her boyfriend, whom I've peusdo-met via her class journal, and says, "We have to go, we're late to family dinner." She hops back into the car and waves as they drive off.

A one-minute moment that made my day. Michelle is a good student. She could easily be an "A" honors type if she put her mind to it. Somedays she would sleep in class, somedays she would be alert and piping in quite often. At first I thought she disliked me, but as the semester passed, I realized that life has handed her a lot of crap, and she uses wit and sarcasm to make-up for it (at least that's my guess). I was suprised how encouraged I was by that small encounter. She could have easily just kept driving. I would've never known it was her.

Thank you, God, for giving me that small moment to realize that this will be worth it.

Interviews

Today was the first of three interviews this week for my permanent fall position. I interviewed at Papillion-LaVista South High School and loved it! The people I interviewed with seemed very positive about my "performance," which is encouraging. They are going to let the four interviewees know, either way, by Monday at the latest. I love places that don't leave a girl hangin'.
On Thursday I have a 2:30 interview at Beadle Middle School and 3:30 at Millard West High School. I'm super excited about Millard West, who said that I came "highly recommended" to their interview committee...woohoo!!
Also on the news front...Bryan High filled the English position. Stan, my cooperating teacher was a bit upset by it regarding the fact that I didn't even get an interview for it even though I'm student teaching there. I'm not even upset about that, though, because I'm taking it as a sign from God that I need to not take a job just because it's "comfortable" (ie. I know the people, the
building, the system, etc) if it's not what I really want.
So there's the update. I'm feeling positive about my fall employment...praise God!

Home Improvement

(sorry for the sideways photo...the computer is smarter than me today)

I will have owned our house for five years in May, but I've never done any major home improvements (indoors, that is. I would definately consider the new deck a home improvement).

I've been wanting a new bathroom for a long time. I was tired of the icky caulking around the sink, the worn pea green anti-slip appliques on the bottom of the tub, the "rocking chair" special feature of our toilet. We've been talking about redoing the bathroom for quite some time, and this weekend it's finally happening!

As you can see, our bathroom is unusable at the moment, so I'm a nomad for the next few days (Scott has the fortune of being out of town on a biking trip). The small setback of the day is that the supply company sent the wrong tub valve, and Jonathon won't be able to get the new one put in until Monday after work, so the project is going to get behing by a couple of days, but if that's the worst thing that happens, I'll consider this whole thing a grand success. So, come visit us soon (I'm thinking I'll get the painting done in two weeks when I'm done teaching) and enjoy the new comfort height toilet with an elogated bowl, the shower valves that allow us to find that perfect temperature of water, and the complete matching whiteness of it all. I must say that I'm like a little kid the week before Christmas...I can't wait to see it all done!