I am no longer unemployed!!

Having recently finished my teacher certification, finding out we were pregnant, and it being the middle of the school year my hopes of finding full time employment were none too high. Right before the new year, Aunt Ki-Ki sent me a Yahoo job notification that she received in her email in-box. I jumped on the chance to get employed at a school with just half the school year remaining. I jumped through all the necessary hoops like submitting a resume and a letter of intent. I also followed up with several phone calls to find out if the employer needed anything further from me. This lead to an interview. I really think I shined during the interview. I knew many of the 'buzz' words in education these days and was somewhat familiar with the direction that Special Education is headed these days. I immediately followed up the interview with a letter thanking the employer for granting me an interview and for taking me on a tour of the facilities. Finally, I had to ask several people for their references and if they would be willing to talk to this future employer on the telephone, they all agreed.

The last and final step was the most difficult, the WAIT. Waiting for the confirmation to come back via email that the future employer received the reference list, waiting for the phone call about whether or not I actually got the job. Waiting is really the hardest part. During this waiting part came the weekend, and of course no one is going to call you about a job over the weekend. So I waited and I waited. Yesterday while I was looking for a snake, I was waiting. Yesterday while I was getting the bird out of the house that flew down the flue, I was waiting. I waited all day yesterday. By this morning, I was tired of waiting. So tired in fact that I forgot to carry my phone with me from room to room, so I missed the call when it came. I saw I missed a call and IMMEDIATELY called them back. And yes after all this WAITING, I have a job!!! I will be a primary resource teacher in a very affluent school district just 15 miles north of here!! I will start as soon as I fill out the necessary paper work and get finger-printed! I waited and my patience paid off!

Escape Artist

Recently we acquired two more reptiles for our collection. The Anti Hippie recently went to a reptile show in St. Louis where he bought a Kenyan Sand Boa and won a Ball Python in a raffle. (I believe he was the only SUCKER that bought a raffle ticket) The Kenyan Sand Boa will only grow to be about one foot long and the Ball Python can grow to be four or five feet long. I am not apprehensive about reptiles as Eddy has been an Avid Herpetologist since he was able to walk. I am however apprehensive about the said reptile escaping which is what happened over the weekend.

The Anti Hippie was working all weekend and Aunt KiKi came over for a visit on Friday Night to eat hot-dogs and play the Wii. That was the last time we saw the Kenyan Sand Boa. Sunday afternoon when the Anti-Hippie returned from work and was going to feed and water the reptiles, he came trundling down stairs only to announce that the Kenyan Sand Boa had escaped. I was very upset as I had been assured that this would not ever happen. Toddler Gnat is in to everything, and what I did not need was for her to come in carrying a snake, alive or dead! So the search was on, Eddy and his friend Austin looked all over the upstairs, as efficiently as 10 year olds look for missing items (not very thorough). The snake was no where to be found, which led Eddy to believe that Abby, our dog known for eating just about anything, ate the snake. He looked at me and said with tears in his eyes, "her breath smells like snake." Well I think it smells like ass, but whatever.

I went to bed that night full of anxiety that a.) when I got up to pee numerous times in the night I would step on the snake and b.) I would not find the snake until much later when the aroma of dead snake filled my house!

Well my fears were alleviated yesterday morning when the Anti-Hippie and I found the snake, after a very thorough search of his office and my office/craft room. I am happy to report that at 9:37 a.m. on January 12, 2009 I found the snake and put him back in to his cage with the new reinforced lid. We are going to call him Blo-Go, for the newly impeached Illinois Governor who tends to get himself out of tight situations!

I have an announcement

As my two readers know I spent the past 5 months completing my student teaching. I was very busy and it was kind of stressful. There was the new baby-sitter, there was the before and after-school Eddy child-care fiasco, and then there was the actual student-teaching part; the part which I enjoyed the most!
In the beginning, the Anti-Hippie and I were faithfully taking my temperature every morning when the alarm went off. See, my BFF had given me her The Art of Natural Family Planning book and up until one weekend at the beginning of October I was successfully following the 'plan'. That is until I got, lazy, careless, fill in any number of words here, and I just stopped taking my temperature and keeping track of my monthly cycle. Around Halloween the local coffee-shop had a party where they had a fortune-teller. When I saw the fortune-teller she told me I was pregnant, I laughed my ass off because I thought it to be absurd, I think I had recently had my period and The Anti-Hippie and I were not planning on trying for another baby until August of 2009 or 2010 depending on my job situation. Well folks, I am pregnant! I go to the Doctor on Tuesday where they will do a sonagram to determine how far along I am and we shall see. My neighbor seems to think I am farther along than I think and I think I am only about 10 weeks. So if you are the gambling type we can start taking bets on when it is due and when it will actually arrive.
Oh yeah about the job situation, hopefully I will have an interview next week for a resource room position that is available, I will keep you posted on this as well as the other happenings in my life.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Eddy climbs on everything! He just turned 10 it is not like he little anymore, so WTF? I catch him standing on our couch, bouncing off my furniture like he is a ninja, standing on my stools at my breakfast bar, swinging on the stairs from the landing, and climbing down the spiral stair-case that leads to the kitchen. Did he become a monkey?
I am only concerned because Gnat, is WATCHING everything he does, she likes to imitate him and I am worried about what primate she may become!

4 is Fabulous

Earth Muffin tagged me to do this one and I am finally child-free at the moment!

Four places I go over and over again:

1) To my not so super sitter's house. She is nice and all but I use cloth diapers and she said she would not have a problem with using them, except she sends home poop in the diapers, yeah she does not even rinse or wipe them out.
2) To my MIL's they live right down the street and are very handy when I need a sitter, plus they have office supplies that I might need. And Aunt KiKi lives there too!
3) Cherry's IGA, because it is the closest grocery store within a 5 mile radius
4) Target, because I too hate Wal-Mart and I never go to K-Mart

Four people who mail me regularly:

1) My friend Billie in Alaska, it is always forwards though
2) The Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen, loads of great recipes
3) Free Cycle.org
4) My BIL with the Mia Royer Newsletter

Four of my favorite places to eat, (apart from home):

1) IMO's Pizza, not another Pizza like it around here. It is a true St. Louis style pizza with thin crust and provel cheese
2) Taste of Thai, my favorite place to eat Thai
3) Darcy's Pint, great home-made chips and cold beer
4) Red Lobster, I know cheesy answer but I am craving it right now!

Four places I'd rather be now:

1) at a job interview?? I need a job so having an interview would be great
2) out with the Anti-Hippie ALONE!!
3) at the movies
4) out with my Girlie Girls!

Four favorite TV shows:

1) ER, I've watched this since the very first episode. I am with Earth Muffin on this one, I love ER and I am already sad it is almost over.
2) LOST, it starts in three weeks cannot wait
3) Criminal Minds, because I love Mathew Gubler's character and some of the shows just creep me out!
4) Arrested Development, very smart but it got canceled :(

Four movies I could watch over and over again:

1) Princess Bride, what a great movie and book
2) Almost Famous, Earth Muffin turned me on to this movie!!
3) Office Space, because everyone's had a job they hate as much as Peter hates that job. The Anti Hippie can recite this movie verbatim.
4) Gone With the Wind, because I sit down every year and spend hours watching this movie!!
and if I could get a #5 up there it would be Ferris Bueller's Day Off just because it was one of my favorites for a long time
Four people I'm tagging:

1. ?????
2. ?????
3. Help me out here!
4. Anyone, anyone??

Christmas Predicament

My eldest son Eddy, is at that age where I think he has a sneaking suspicion that there is not really a Santa Claus. You know, the one who brings the gifts? Where upon lies my predicament. Do I tell him or not? Do I let him become Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and help us put out the presents? Do I really want to open that can of worms with my tell-all-to-anyone-number-one-son'?
He has a big mouth and his very opinionated. I never actually ever remember being told there was not a Santa Claus, up into my late-late teens my parents still went to great lengths to make it seem like there was really a Santa Claus. I think I figured it out when I was Eddy's age, but part of me wanted to believe, part of me still wants to believe. If I do not put out the gifts will there magically be some gifts there in the morning?
I want my children to stay children for as long as possible, because as you readers know it is a cruel-cruel world out there, and reality really does SUCK. I know he will not stay young forever, but I still want Christmas to be magical for Eddy.
I was thinking that this year because we actually have a fire place, that I would even leave ashy foot prints around the fire place. Those of you who know Eddy know what a blabber mouth he is, I think I will try and keep this one under wraps for one more year.

December Ramblings

I cannot believe that Christmas is in less than one week! Where did 2008 go? Oh yeah I forgot, we had our house on the market and then it sold, I was working on my Master's degree, I had just had a baby, anything else?
Well, I have not been blogging much lately because I have been a hell-uv-alot busy these days. Even though I am not currently employed BES has called me to sub 5 out of the past 10 school days, I repainted the dinning room, I finished painting Gnat's room, I baked some cookies, I went shopping for Santa, and I am trying to keep this house in order. So, those things do not allow me much time for blogging.
I just want to rant for a moment about how I hate the Holidays, no not all of it just some of it. I, unlike my BFF, love Christmas music, I know all the classic carols and sing along when they come on the radio, I love decorating for Christmas, and if you all check your mail soon you'll see the hand-made card just from our family to yours. The things I hate are obvious, I hate spending money on 'stuff', I hate shopping in general so to actually go out and purchase unnecessary 'stuff' for other people just ticks me off, I hate crowds they make me crabby, and did I mention that I really hate shopping?
Anyway check your mail, I really do wish all three of my readers a very happy and healthy holiday season. Please stop by if you are in the neighborhood and have a beer with us, we would love to show off my new paint jobs!!