My Life As a Novel

Introduction

Be forewarned. I haven't posted in a re-heally long time. And lots has been going on in the (sometimes) interesting life of Giordi Yunge. Since this is the case, I've decided that instead of writing a bunch of little blogs, I'd write one big kahuna. I apologize in advance for the teacher/political talk and the general mundane-ness of my life. Enjoy anyway.

Chapter One: The Home Front

First things first: Jack has two teeth. And he rolls around as if his clothes are on fire. And we haven't even taught him the whole "stop, drop, and roll" thing. Must be a genius. He's also getting to be a lot more fun. Not that I didn't really like him before, he's just way fun now. He laughs and spits, and makes these funny little conversation noises as if he's got something important to say. I love it!

With the economy slowing down, now is not a great time to be in the construction industry. Unfortunately, Nate is an electrician. Things are getting really slow around here and his company is starting to lay-off some people. I'm not too worried about Nate yet because he's a great employee and his bosses love him. But it's still a little scary. 

Since everything is slowing down, they've decided to move Nate to Bellingham to work. Previously, he had been working down south, sometimes as far south as Bothell or as far east as Duvall. Which meant that he was late getting home some nights. Not fun. When Cheryl (Nate's mom) watches Jack on Mondays and Tuesdays, it's particularly hard for me because I don't get to see Jack from 6:00 in the morning until almost 6:00 at night. Torture! But now that they're moving him to Bellingham, Nate can't take Jack to his parents. We thought we'd have to send Jack to the babysitter five days a week but since Cheryl's so wonderful and she likes Jack so much, she agreed to come up to our house on Mondays and Tuesdays to watch him. This is a huge blessing. It means that Jack will get to be home more and I'll get to see him earlier on those days, Nate will get to be home earlier since Bellingham is closer to our house, we won't have to pay for as much gas because Nate will be driving the company vehicle again instead of his truck, and Cheryl still gets to spend time with him. Wonderful! God's pretty great, huh?

Chapter Two: Silly School Story

I teach third grade this year. Have I told you that? It's way different than fourth grade (really, it is!) but I'll get to that later. Every year the third graders go on a field trip to the local newspaper and the grocery store. The second week of school. Oh, and it's a walking field trip. So yeah, we take about 60 eight-year-olds walking on city streets the second week of school. Are we crazy, you ask? Yep, pretty much

So the basic field trip went pretty well. Kids were well-behaved and interested. It was a beautiful day. We didn't lose anyone. The problem came as we were walking back and were a little bit late. It was a warm day (not hot, mind you), many kids forgot water, and we were trying to hurry them along so that we made it back to school in time for lunch. And I had this conversation with one kid. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Or not-so-innocent. Whatever).

Me: Come on, Francisco! We need to hurry so we make it back in time.

Francisco: It's so hot! I'm going to die!

Me doing a mental eye-roll: You're not going to die. We'll all make it.

Francisco very adamantly: Yes I am! And when I do, it's going to be all your fault!

I wanted to say, "Y'know? I'm willing to risk it." But I didn't. I didn't even laugh in his face.

Chapter Three: School Crap (I thought about using another word, purely for the great alliteration, but I refrained)

As I said before, I teach third grade this year. I've always taught fourth grade and I like it that way. At the end of last year, the powers that be decided that there were only going to be two fourth grade classes this year and since I'm the low one on the figurative totem pole, I had to move. One of our third grade teachers was taking a year leave so I decided I could do that for a year. The idea is that I'll loop with this same class next year back up to fourth grade.

I have a few friends who teach third grade and love it so I was getting excited about it. And then the little darlings walked in the door. They're so little. And they don't listen the first time. Or sit still. And as soon as I start talking, they raise their hands with a question. Don't they think that I might answer it if they just wait and listen? No, they don't. So I'm kind of having a hard time with the adjustment. It doesn't help that I'd rather be home with Jack. I never thought I'd be that mom. I always thought I'd want to work. I was wrong. I miss him.

Anyway, a new first grade teacher was also hired which means that there are five first grade classes and they have about 15 or 16 kids. Glorious! It's so nice for them to have small classes. However, the fourth grade classes have over 30 kids each. Not so glorious. Anyone could have called that at the end of last year (and many did). So the fourth grade classes are at trigger, which basically means that they have more kids than they should and the teachers have to be compensated. Most teachers would just rather have a smaller class.

So to fix the fourth grade problem, the administration has decided to move the new first grade teacher to fourth grade three weeks into the school year. This means that her current first graders will be divided between two of the other first grade classes (the other two are dual language and can't take any more kids) and will have to learn a new teacher, classroom, routines and meet new friends. This is a big deal for first graders. They're only six years old, for heaven's sake! It also means that the new first grade teacher who has been preparing for first grade has to suddenly switch gears, learn fourth grade curriculum,  and get to know new kids all after starting a new school just three weeks ago. Of course this also means that 10 kids from each of the fourth grade classes will be up-rooted and put in a new fourth grade class. So stupid.

 And it gets worse. I shouldn't have had to move to third grade. I want to teach fourth grade. And now this poor girl who doesn't want to move to fourth grade has to. There'd be no point in moving me to fourth grade now because it would just disturb more kids. But I shouldn't have had to move in the first  place.

Laurie, one of the fourth grade teachers, came up with an idea that I thought was great. She suggested just leaving the first grade alone and hiring a half-time fourth grade teacher for the afternoon. The new teacher could have taught science, social studies, and writing. We level school-wide for reading so we wouldn't need a new reading teacher and they could have just stayed in the original classes for math. I would have loved this job! It would be fourth grade and part time. I already know the curriculum and it might have been hard to find someone else who would be willing to work part time. But they said no. Budget issues or some stupid excuse. So now I'm stuck at third grade and the first and fourth grades are going to be turned upside down. Poor kids.

Epilogue

So there it is, my friends. My life. If you stuck it out this far, you must be really interested in my life. Or really bored. Either way, thanks for reading.

Driving Lessons

We need a new car. I've been looking for one for a while now, much to Nate's chagrin. The other day I found one online that looked promising. And it was in town.

So we decided to go look at it. Nate was less than enthusiastic about it, but because he's such a great guy and loves me so much, he came along.

We got there and talked to the dealer a little. It was new to the lot and hadn't even been cleaned yet. He showed it to us anyway. It was just what we've, I mean I've, been looking for. Low miles, one owner, a wagon (I heart wagons!), and at a great price. 

Only one problem: it's a stick shift.

I don't drive stick shifts.

Obviously, I was feeling less than enthusiastic about it after I found out about the unfortunate transmission. Nate was way excited. He loved the price and that it was so clean. I think he was expecting to pay a lot more for the kind of car we want. He was ready to buy the car on the spot. I was more reluctant. Didn't think this was how the day would go. Turns out this is one more way Nate is like my dad: bring him car shopping and he buys a car. Any one who knows my dad knows that he's notorious for getting a little "car crazy." He likes to buy cars. 

Anyway, we decided to go home, look over our finances, pray about it, and decide later. Needless to say, I'm feeling much more nervous about the whole thing than Nate is. He can drive a stick.

So to make me feel better and to see if this is even a possibility for me, Nate and I had a driving lesson tonight. We had the neighbor girl come sit in our house while Jack slept and we went for a drive in Nate's truck.

Yep, I'm 26 years old, 10 years older than most people learning how to drive and there I was, practicing taking off and stopping in the old grocery store parking lot. To make it even worse, there was a dad with is teenage daughter in the same parking lot also having driving lessons. Awesome. I'm hoping I still look young enough that it looked like a 16 year old girl and her brother. Yeah, I'm probably hallucinating.

We'll see if this car thing even happens any time soon. If so, you might want to stay off the roads in the greater Mount Vernon area, just in case I'm practicing.