Sunday, June 27, 2010

Decisions, Clarifications, and Other Miscellaneous Fluff

AFter much consideration, I decicded to apply for the Master's Degree program at the University of Wyoming. I feel that the benefits for this far outway the work invovled compared to the alternative.

I will also be able to ride the bus with the students to get to work. Just a side note here though. If I had decided to get an apartment in the town where I will be working, the school provides help. The town is so small, that there is very little housing there, so they have several houses kept just for school teachers, and they subsidize those as one of the perks for working in this school. The cost to me would have been minimal, or nothing.

We have also been working on house renovations. We have almost finished laying laminate flooring (Tacoma Oak) in our kitchen, living room, and hallway. We still have a little ways to go laying the floor, and then the trim work needed to finish it up. It is looking very nice, and we are looking forward to having it done.

Included in all of this remodel, is the repainting of trim work {and in some cases, the entire room--got the wrong can of paint for the touch-up work :o(}, and the replacment of some tile edges removed to make room for the new floor. We can't wait to be a construction free zone again.

We took our kids to a local amusement park (is 180 mile trip one way local?) on Friday. We spent the entire day there, and got home VERY tired at 1:30 am. We all had fun, the kids more so I think.

Yesterday, I spent part of the day cooking pulled pork roasts for an outing for our older men's church group, and their families. (High Priests Social) It turned out really well, and we had a good turnout. We had the dinner at a little park located about 10 miles out of town in a little subdivision. Very pretty little park. If any of you have seen pictures of my 2nd and 3rd daughters posted on their facebook, they took pictures at this park. It must be a popular place for pictures, because there was a wedding party there taking pictures when we got there. Great time, great place, good food, and good company. What more can you ask?

Hope all is well with you. Stick

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Patience for the Job

I have been looking for a new full-time teaching position for about a year now. After seeing how many Special Education jobs were open, and nothing else, and after a lot of prayer, I decided to apply for those jobs with the understanding that I would have to go back to school and certify in order to teach. I GOT THE JOB!

I will be teaching 6th through 12th grade Resource at a school in our district. We don't have to move, but I do have to commute about 40 miles. I have been told that I can ride the school bus up and back each day, but have not confirmed that yet. If I cannot ride the bus (will it be a SHORT bus?), I will look into an apartment there, and will come home weekends. I really don't want to do that, but the cost of driving 80+ miles a day would take away the benefit of the better paying job.

I am also currently enrolling at the state University here to take online courses to complete the certification that I need for this position. I have two choices here as well, and I am seeking advice. I can either take 30 credit hours and just certify, or I can take 36-39 credit hours and get a Masters. The pay difference is minimal, but the workload might be higher to be able to finish in the three years I have to certify. As it is, it will be 6 hours a semester to certify, or 7-9 hours a semester for the masters. I think I can finish the Masters later.

Any Thoughts? Stick.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Renovation Station

While I was at work Saturday, my wife had our boys start to rip the tile off of our dining room floor. We have been intending to do this, so that we can replace it with laminate floor. I didn't know they were going to start it, and would have waited. We are hosting some youth this Thursday night for our Stake Youth Conference. Now we are trying to finish the floor before them. Lots of work in a short amount of time. Wish us luck.

Take Care. Stick.