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

Add caption

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

 

What it's like living in Vegas

We can go to pool parties at the hotels (PS.  I cannot believe I put a picture up of me in a swim suit)

We can take gondola rides on the strip

We go to casinos for the 4th

When I go running, I can see the strip 

I was out at the school district today and drove by the strip.

It's hot... I took this picture at 7pm.

The Journey to Vegas

The movers came on Tuesday, June 26th.  That morning we shuttled the dog and cats off to Jason's parents house in Lincoln (we're going to miss having them close by).  The movers came at around 11am and it took them a few hours to load the truck.  After the truck was loaded, we headed back to Lincoln and stayed the night there.  I had dinner with some of my best friends at BJ's in Roseville.  I'm really going to miss you guys!!!

Ob Wednesday, we headed back to our house to do some cleaning.  The property management woman was coming over to inspect the house and when she came, she told us that they had found a renter.  We were so incredibly happy.

After we were done cleaning, we got our oil changed in our cars and then headed back to Lincoln to try to rest up before the big drive.  Unfortunately neither of us could take a nap... We went out to dinner with Jason's parents, gassed up the cars and then came back to the house to relax.  We left Lincoln at around midnight.  We wanted to make it to Las Vegas before the property management group left for the day.

It was a difficult drive but thanks to 5 hour energy shots, I stayed awake.  Thankfully we were in separate cars because I was singing the entire drive.  I began to get excited when I was about an hour from our house.  I pulled into the driveway at around 10am.

Master bathtub

Main room

Kitchen

Our bed for the first 9 nights

Prince liked sleeping on my clothes

YES!!!!! 

We have our stuff!!!!!

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Walk-in closet.  Yes, my clothes are color coordinated and arranged by long sleeved, short sleeved and tank tops.  I also got Jason's clothes on plastic hangers.

Loving room... why do we have two TV's?  Well, the big one is for just regular TV and the small one is for video games.  Evidently when it's football season, we can watch two games at the same time.  I can't wait (insert sarcasm).

Moving to Vegas picture journey

Jason didn't think that my books would fit in my car!  They sure did.

The packing begins

Boxes upon boxes

My Safeway co-workers got me a cake!

We're really moving

The car is packed.  We stayed Tuesday night at Jason's parents house.

The elementary school I went to in Fresno

I look pretty good for being up for over 24 hours

Home sweet home

T-5 Days until Departure

I cannot believe that we are leaving in 5 days.  There is so much to do between now and Wednesday night before we leave.  The movers are coming on Tuesday in the morning and then the carpet cleaners are coming on Wednesday and we're leaving Wednesday at around 10pm.  Yes, 10pm.  We want to make sure to make it to Vegas before the Property Management Company closes for the day.

We'll be passing by Stockton, Fresno and Bakersfield.  I went to college and grad school in Stockton from 2001-2006.  I lived in Fresno from 1986-1989 and Bakersfield from 1984-1986.  We won't be passing by Colorado Springs, which is where I was born but we'll be closer than we were before.

I am getting anxious to leave Sacramento.  I've been here for the majority of my life and I truly dislike change.  My mom told me that when I was a child that I threw a tantrum when I found out that we were going to Sunrise Mall instead of Arden Fair.  Thankfully, I'm a lot better now.  I do know that if we don't like Vegas, that we can always come home to Sacramento.  I will always be a California girl at heart.  I still consider myself a California girl even though I was born in Colorado.

My last day at Safeway in Sacramento is on Monday.  I am sad to be leaving because I have met some amazing people that I do not think I would have met otherwise.  As much as I hate retail and working in the deli, I truly appreciate the friendships that have come out of working at Safeway.  I start at Von's (Safeway is the umbrella company and Von's is one of their stores) on July 2nd.  I also need to set up my interview with the Clark County School District for Substitute Teaching.  If I cannot secure a full time teaching job for the school year, then I would be more than happy to work at Von's and substitute 4-5 days a week.

The next few days are going to be complete chaos.  Jason's boss here in Sacramento is taking us out to dinner tonight and then I'm going to be packing all day tomorrow.  Jason will be in Chico for a fraternity reunion so I can blast my music (pop hits from the 80's, 90's and today and Broadway musical soundtracks).

The marathon

The marathon was a flop.  I wrote a review on active.com

For my 7th marathon, I decided to do the California Run Festival. I was very excited to do a trail run and was hoping for a PR.

The race started off fine but the chaos began when we got to the first turn. The volunteers didn't know what direction the course headed. There were two options and a bunch of us picked the wrong direction and ran past a whole flock of sheep. I think we added on 2 miles to our trek. It began to feel like "pick your own adventure."Once we got back to the "course", there was a sign for 5K/10K but in direction of where the marathon was supposed to be headed.

The rest of the course was pretty easy to navigate and I finished the first loop... or so I thought. I embarked on the second loop of my journey and when I finished, someone asked me if I had done the other part of the course. I was incredibly confused. Evidently there was another part of the course that I had missed the first time around. At that point, I was on the verge of just calling it a day.

The next time around, I navigated the other part of the course, which was a maze. I'm not even sure if I ran it correctly. At that point, I began to put the idea of a PR out the window and I decided to just enjoy the views.It was a very pretty race and it was nice for my boyfriend to be able to bring the dogs out during the race.

My suggestions for next year would be to have better signage. The color coding system was good but not good enough. From the runners standpoint, it is necessary to see big gaudy signs telling us which direction we should be heading in. The arrows were helpful but they weren't big enough and sometimes they were pointed in the wrong direction. I truly think mile markers would help out tremendously. Additionally, the volunteers need to know the course.

Overall, I had a good time out there. I'm not sure how many miles I did but it was a very scenic journey.For my 7th marathon, I decided to do the California Run Festival. I was very excited to do a trail run and was hoping for a PR.

The race started off fine but the chaos began when we got to the first turn. The volunteers didn't know what direction the course headed. There were two options and a bunch of us picked the wrong direction and ran past a whole flock of sheep. I think we added on 2 miles to our trek. It began to feel like "pick your own adventure."Once we got back to the "course", there was a sign for 5K/10K but in direction of where the marathon was supposed to be headed.

The rest of the course was pretty easy to navigate and I finished the first loop... or so I thought. I embarked on the second loop of my journey and when I finished, someone asked me if I had done the other part of the course. I was incredibly confused. Evidently there was another part of the course that I had missed the first time around. At that point, I was on the verge of just calling it a day.

The next time around, I navigated the other part of the course, which was a maze. I'm not even sure if I ran it correctly. At that point, I began to put the idea of a PR out the window and I decided to just enjoy the views.It was a very pretty race and it was nice for my boyfriend to be able to bring the dogs out during the race.

My suggestions for next year would be to have better signage. The color coding system was good but not good enough. From the runners standpoint, it is necessary to see big gaudy signs telling us which direction we should be heading in. The arrows were helpful but they weren't big enough and sometimes they were pointed in the wrong direction. I truly think mile markers would help out tremendously. Additionally, the volunteers need to know the course.

Overall, I had a good time out there. I'm not sure how many miles I did but it was a very scenic journey.

 Happy before the race

The signs telling us where to go

 I will admit... it was beautiful

 There were not runners as far as the eye can see

 Self portrait

 The dust bowl... as I called it