Celebrations!

Last weekend we celebrated three family birthdays at my Mom and Dad's house. Pictured above are my brother, Scott; my son, Mitchell; and me.

TODAY is Mitchell's actual birthday. Scott's was on the 14th of September and mine was August 26th. Since they are all so close together, we decided to celebrate the birthdays in triplicate. It was a fun day and I was totally spoiled by my family members.

Not that I wanted to mention my even-numbered birthday again, but I wanted to acknowledge Mitchell today and wish him a great day. He turned 9 years old today and before he went to sleep tonight he told me this was his best birthday ever. I'm not sure why . . . but I'm happy he's happy. I tried to make his day special. I made him French toast for breakfast; I baked chocolate cupcakes and decorated them like dominoes for him to share with his classmates today; I sent him a special birthday note in his lunch kit; He got one more gift; He spent the entire afternoon after school working in his dad's machine shop, building a ramp for his bike and/or quad; I made him all of his favorites for supper--meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli with cheese sauce, garlic toast and coleslaw. We didn't even have dessert because he was so full. And before stories and family devotions, he and I had a riveting game of Payday.

Mitchell, I love you so much and I could not imagine my life without the blessing of you!

Boring or Bored?

I've come to the realization that my blogging days may be coming to an end in the very near future.

My traffic and comments are down considerably, so I feel like there's no one really reading this thing anymore . . . so either they don't come anymore because this blog is boring, or they only come when they're bored. "They" refers to you--the unfortunate individual who may actually be reading this right now.

My life is so busy with so much other stuff. I enjoy writing, but I feel like I've been in a serious writer's block for the past three months, and I'm not sure that I've got a whole lot of topical insight anymore. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that I currently am suffering from a horrible head cold and my congestion level hit an all-time high today. The cold began to emerge last Tuesday and doesn't appear to be leaving anytime soon.

I know many people blog and Facebook. I like both. Both have their pros and cons. And it's not that I want to "choose" Facebook over blogging . . . I actually prefer the blogging world over Facebook-ing, but really, who am I kidding? I can barely find time to run my household right now, let alone writing blog posts and connecting on Facebook.

Maybe we should just get rid of the computer.

I Am Blessed

My interview was horrible. For some reason, I was way more nervous than I thought I'd be. You'd think that by now I'd be a pro at job interviews; after all, the questions were ALL.THE.SAME as they always have been the three interviews prior. I felt so scared and shakey and just . . . well . . . blah. And I felt like my answers were blah too. The only thing I was happy about was my outfit. It rocked.

However, after all of my self-torture and following a very restless sleep, I am thrilled to report that I have my old job back. The contract is being drawn up at this very moment.

I can now breathe a sigh of relief and get into the meat of my work tomorrow upon returning to school; to my job. I can't believe I just said (typed) that!

God is blessing me big time through this job appointment!!! Thanks for your prayers!

Nerves of Steel?

Contrary to the title of this post, my nerves currently are not made of steel. Today at 1:00 p.m. I have a job interview at the school for what was/is my current job. I've apparently been subbing for myself since the first day of school, but honestly, I won't believe it until I receive confirmation from the Principal, Vice Principal or school board administration that I've been officially hired back for my position.

The resource teacher at our school, who, by the way is essentially one of my bosses, assures me that my job is in tact and that this interview is simply a formality.

But the un-trusting, negative, doom-and-gloom part of me says otherwise. There are many people after this job. And despite the fact that I previously held the position, the fact remains that I have no formal training for my position. Life experience, yes. A recognized, certified education, no. And that's the part that's bothering me.

This will be my fourth interview with this school division. My previous interview landed me a job. The first and second interviews resulted in my being added to the substitute list, and following that, a big, fat, "No, you didn't get the job because you have no formal education in this area."

Having said that, you may understand why I may be concerned about my job security.
Off the record, my personal opinion on this matter is that there are some E.A.'s in this world that, while they have the formal education and book knowledge for their jobs, they do not possess the people skills required to fulfill their duties properly.

That's not to say I am perfect at my job. I'm not. But for what duties I've performed over the past 2 years as a sub or an E.A. with an authentic position, I have not lacked any skills that the position has required.

So anyways, I'm a nervous wreck right now and I wish it were already 3:00 p.m. because then I'd know what the next ten months of my life were going to look like.

I'll keep you posted.