Finally a new post!!!!

I haven't updated this blog in two years but now it seems like the perfect opportunity.  Jason and I got married 8 months ago in Sacramento.  It was a beautiful wedding and we had our honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas.  It's amazing that the wedding is already over.

I'm still teaching but this year I am teaching 2nd grade.  I love it!  It's hard work but the kids are amazing.

Fast forward to December..... Jason and I found out right before Christmas that we were expecting our first baby.  We are so excited.

I am due on August 21st.  We should find out the gender at the end of March.

New job... new piece of jewelry!!!!

Long time no blog....  it's been a few months.

A LOT has happened in the past few months.  Let me do a quick recap....

I got my first contracted teaching position!  It has been an amazing yet stressful past few months.  I am teaching kindergarten at Ann T. Lynch-Edison Elementary.  I am struggling with classroom management, which is also something I struggled with during student teaching.  Thankfully, I have a group of supportive teachers and staff at the school.

Classroom has changed dramatically since then....

Happy Halloween!

We spent Thanksgiving here in Vegas and then I finally made it to winter break.  Now the big news....
Jason proposed to me at the top of the Eiffel Tower on Christmas Eve!!!!!!

And I did say yes!!!!! The wedding will be back in Sacramento in the summer of 2014!

Happy New Year!

Just Another Manic Monday

So, you can only swim here?

Lake Mead

Hoover Dam

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And we're in Arizona

Teaching

If you know me, you know that I have wanted to be a teacher since early elementary school.  I never really considered any other career unless you count tether-ball teacher, ballerina, and artist.  I cannot imagine myself doing any other career.  I am pretty miserable now in my current position in the deli at Safeway (Von's).  I am not challenged in the slightest, I make minimum wage, the hours are weird, etc...

I got my B.A. and M.Ed. in 2005 and 2006 from the University of the Pacific.  After graduation, I moved back home and applied for hundreds of teaching jobs within the Sacramento area.  You would think that it would be easy to get a teaching job.  I applied to be a sub in San Juan and Sac City Unified.  I ended up getting a long term position at a school in Citrus Heights (2nd grade).  It could have lasted most of the school to but I ended up having to leave after 5 weeks because I ended up having to go to treatment for my eating disorder.

I got another long term position that spring and two more the following school year.  Day to day subbing was challenging but I loved the long term positions.  I was not going to give up hope.  In the summer of 2008, I decided to apply for a nanny job.  I ended up getting a nanny job watching an adorable 10 month old.  I was in heaven.  I ended up watching her (and later on her sister) for almost 3 years.  I wasn't thinking and forgot to resign for my sub position.  Unfortunately that meant that the position was no longer available due to budget cuts.

Fast forward to April of 2011.  The family that I nannied for told me that they were moving so that meant that I needed a new job.  I ended up getting a job at both Safeway and Michaels.  In the back of my head, I knew I wanted to be a teacher but I had accepted the fact that I wasn't going to be a teacher anymore.

After Jason urging me to get back into teaching, I finally made the leap.  I started looking back into education jobs and I began to gain more hope.  When we made the decision to move to Vegas, I applied for the school district.  I knew that teaching is the career for me.  I cannot imagine myself in a desk job.  I absolutely love working with kids and watching them blossom is such a joy.

About two weeks ago, I got an email saying that I had gotten a substitute position within Clark County School District.  I was practically jumping up and down.  It was a dream come true.  I heard on the news that the district had rescinded all of the pink slips and that there were going to be more vacancies.  I did a little happy dance!!!

Yesterday I turned in all the final paperwork and got my temporary Teaching License in the state of Nevada.  Now the waiting game begins.  I am waiting for my background check to clear and for my application to be processed.  I cannot wait to be back in the classroom.

My thoughts on Colorado

I was born in Colorado Springs in 1983 and my grandparents still live in Watkins, which is about 20 miles outside of Denver.    I remember hearing about the fires and my first thought was, "how close are my grandparents?"  Thankfully, they are safe.  My grandma said she could see the smoke from their house. 

Aurora is about 12 miles from my grandparents house and when I visit them, we often go to Aurora as it is the closest city.  It is such a tragedy that this shooting has happened.

I am proud to say that I was born in Colorado.  Despite the fact that there have been two major shootings in the past 13 years.   Colorado will always be in my thoughts.

It feels like home

We've been in Vegas for about 4 weeks now and it's finally beginning to feel like home.  I am learning my way around and for the most part, I don't need to use the GPS on my phone.  I only use it when I go to a place where I've never been and I did that in Sacramento as well.

In Sacramento, the freeways run through the city.

The freeways are confusing here.  It's not like Sacramento at all.   They call it the spaghetti bowl.  If you look at the map, you can kind of see why they nicknamed it that.

In Vegas, however, they run around the city and don't often take you to where you want to go.  It's weird.

I am attempting to find a teaching job here in town.  I am in the process of filling out my paperwork to get my Nevada License.  They don't call it a credential here... but it's basically the same thing.  Thankfully the tests that I took in California will transfer over.  They only have the Praxis test in Nevada whereas we had to take the CBEST, CSET and the RICA.  Eventually I'll have to take a test on Nevada history.

Lesson's Learned

I learned today that I should never go to the strip alone with cash in my wallet.  I easily blew off $100 at Planet Hollywood.  You live and learn....

I did some research today about how they design casinos.  Did you know that there are no clocks in casinos?  They don't want you to know the time.  There are also no windows so you don't know the time of day or how much time has passed.

Vegas Interesting Facts
- There is one operating slot machine in Las Vegas for every 8 residents. 
- The strip is the brightest place on earth when looked at from space
- On average each visitor spends 4 hours each day gambling
- 89% of all visitors gamble with an average gambling budget of $500
-  Casinos are essentially giant mazes that are intentionally set up for you to literally get lost in. A sea of machines and tables create obstacles and barriers that keep the player from leaving.
- The four hotels at the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Tropicana (MGM Grand, Tropicana, New York-New York and the Excalibur) have more hotel rooms than off of San Francisco. 
- It is against the law to pawn your dentures in Vegas