Another Boring Post

So there still isn’t too much going on in my life. I am continuing to do my student teaching at SFC.  Over the past four weeks I have observed, graded papers, taught Spelling & Handwriting, and subbed in the Staff Day Care (the nursery) for two days.

During my two day stint in the nursery I discovered that I chose the right major.  The children in the nursery were not horrible, but they did lack the skills necessary for intellectual conversation.  I was very excited when I was able to return to my third and fourth graders.

As I stated I have taught spelling and handwriting.  Next week I will begin teaching third grade reading.  I am looking forward to teaching; however I am not looking forward to my first two stories.  It is just my luck that the first two stories I have to read are about snakes.  If anyone knows me, they are aware that I have a phobia of snakes.  Needless to say I am not looking forward to those first few lessons.

Tomorrow there will be no school because the teachers are having a staff development day.  SFC is working on getting out WASC accreditation.  Our development day will be focusing on things that we need to work on for WASC.

Today third and fourth grade are celebrating Valentines Day.  We will be walking to McDonalds for our party.  :)

Student Teaching

This week commenced my student teaching at SFCS.  Currently I am observing the third and fourth grade class which is taught by Mrs. Becky Wilson.

There was no school on Monday because of MLK Jr Day therefore my first day of work was Tuesday.  My first order of business was attending the teacher’s meeting then I had a meeting with Mr. Asire (my boss).  I was then introduced to my class and began observing.  I really didn’t do anything my first day other than sit in the back of the class and watch.

SFCS uses traditional curriculum as opposed to an ACE-style.  The because of the number of students they have combined third and fourth grade.  For half of the day the third grade class is in another room with another teacher, during the other half Mrs. Wilson is having to balance two classes in one room.  As of two weeks the class of 24 was meeting in another smaller room, but after gaining 2 students and a student teacher the administration decided to move the class into another room.

This was the setting that I entered on Tuesday morning.  The classroom still had not been put together, their teacher wasn’t feeling well, not to mention we had stormy weather outside.  All things considered Tuesday was a good day.  Wednesday was very similar. Thursday, today, I have spent most of the day doing odd jobs: decorating the class, copying papers, etc.

Overall, it is nice to be home but I am still adjusting to this new stage in my life.

Piece of Cake

As you may already know, I am on Christmas Break.  My family and I didn’t have much planned for today and so I decided to bake a cake.  It wasn’t just any cake that I planned on making, I was going to make a Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cake.  Some of my readers may be aware that “gluten-free” food often has a unique taste to it.  For some individuals “gluten-free” is synonymous with s gross or “tastes like cardboard.”  I’ll admit that many gluten-free products have an interesting flavor that requires the eater to become accustomed to it.  Despite these factors against my cake I opted to make one anyways.

A couple hours later my cake had cooled and I tried a piece of it before making the frosting.  Well, my GF cake didn’t disappoint… or maybe I should say that it did.  Apparently it is too dry  I’m not really sure what went wrong.  I followed the directions, but maybe that was the problem.  Now I’m stuck with a gluten free red velvet cake that no one will want to eat… except for me.

The moral of the story is this:  I don’t know.

I suppose that the next time I attempt to make a GF red velvet cake I should use a different recipe.

Christmas Break Begins!

I have so much to write about that I don’t really know where to begin.

My last day of work at Subway was on Thursday.  I am no longer a sandwich artist.  I am very thankful that God allowed me to work there over the past three years.  When I first got hired, I did not expect to be there that long, in fact, if you remember I quit the summer of ‘08.  At that point I had no intention of ever returning to work there.  I was sick and tired of Subway!  Well, God had a different plan.  That fall when I returned to school Subway asked me to return and work for them, after a week I told them yes.  My second year stint at Subway was a whole lot more enjoyable for me.

My last final as on Friday.  After class worked on packing my car… which by the way I am a tetris master.  To celebrate I had lunch with Kyle and Annie.  After lunch I headed to the airport to pick up Caitlin who would be driving home with me.

I decided to drive home on Saturday so that I could be coherent, consequently a safer diver.  However, by leaving later I was gambling with the weather.  I had planned to leave Costa Mesa about 8am Saturday but ended up not leaving until 20 minutes after.  It was raining so I was being extra cautions… within the first hour Caitlin and I saw 2 single car accidents.  The first accident took place in front of me in the carpool lane, it probably occurred about 2 minutes before we passed it.  Thankfully  there was a wide shoulder next to the carpool and the vehical happened to be on the shoulder.  The second accident we saw also took place maybe a minute before we passed it.  The carpool lane had just ended and I was back in the flow of traffic.  A van in lane #2  I guess spun out or something because the van was kind of faceing sideways and one of the tires wasn’t aligned with any of the other ones.

Rain was off and on the entire day and we were able to see a total of 5 rainbows, of those 4 of them were double rainbows.  It was truly amazing. I want to thank all of you who were praying for our safety and for the weather.  We were able to make it through the Grapevine without any problems.  I made it home in 7 1/2 hours!

So what have I been doing since I got home?  too much!

I have decided to make the guest bedroom my bedroom which means I have been moving around furniture, building furniture, and moving around stuff for the past 3 to 4 days.  By today I am sore and tired of moving stuff, but my room is coming together.  I haven’t decided yet if I will paint my room.  If I do decided to do it, I probably won’t attack it until the summer.

Tomorrow is SFCS High School Christmas Program.  Daniel gets home on Thursday.  I still need to do Christmas shopping… don’t know what to get my parents…. any suggestions?  I’m not sure what else to tell you.  If you of anything leave a comment.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Okay, so this blog is going to seem a little paradoxical because  I love the rain.  When I realized it was raining on Monday I opened all the blinds so that I could watch it pour. However, the weather predicted for this weekend is rain…. lots and lots of rain.  Normally this would make me really excited, except I have to drive home this weekend.

I am picking up Caitlin from the airport on Friday afternoon and will be driving home to SF on Saturday.  It sounds like there will be lots of rain and lots of wind.   Not only this, but the Grapevine might be closed.  So maybe I’m blowing this all out of proportion, but I really am praying that the Grapevine doesn’t get closed.  I don’t want to drive PCH in all the rain, and all my other options would take me REALLY out of the way.  Anyways, so honestly I don’t care if it rains too much, I just don’t want them to close the Grapevine… at least until after I get through it.

Please keep me in your prayers as I drive home on Saturday.