I went yesterday to the school district office and picked up the packet for being licensed as a substitute teacher. I'm sort of excited, to tell the truth. I can work less, if I want to, because it's my choice whether or not to take an assignment. I won't have as much responsibility, since I'll only be there for a day. I'll get to mix it up and work at all four schools in my district.
Also, if it comes down to it, I'll be able to home school Nick next year. And I'm afraid it might come down to it. The high school is so innovative when it comes to 99 percent of the students. But for the one percent who have special needs they really drop the ball. There is no teacher. They've hired a long-time aide to be the teacher, but come on. There's a reason that getting a special education endorsement requires a full year of education. This woman has a degree. In sociology. And the scariest thing is that I seem to be the only person who has a problem with this. None of the other aides are the tiniest bit concerned. I guess because they're kids aren't going to be taught without a real teacher.
The school has this weird policy of making the special needs kids stop work at the end of the second hour to help set up the lunch room. Who are they helping? The kids who are on in-school suspension. Which ties the job to a punishment. I actually feel a little sick every day when I take the kids out there to do the work. It's just so WRONG. They don't disrupt any other class to make the kids do physical labor. When I've mentioned it, I've been told that the resource kids need to learn responsibility. Because, you know, all the other 500-plus kids at the school are shining examples of responsibility.
Yeah, I think I need the option of homeschooling Nick. Hopefully next year they'll have a teacher. Definitely next year I'll be making a stink about the lunch room thing. But just in case, if I'm working as a substitute, my (and Nick's) options will be open.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Casey Junior
One of Ely's MANY (tongue firmly in cheek) claims to fame is the Ghost Train. At the tail end of the summer we took the kids in the summer youth program I was the director of to ride the train and my kids got to come along (Adrienne and Nick were too old to join the program and Ruby was too young.)
The train is a really awesome part of living out here. Twice a day you can hear the whistles blowing and the train making it's way slowly (SLOWLY) down the track. The steam engine goes from Ely to Ruth and the diesel engine goes from Ely to McGill. We saw a little herd of Antelope in one the bottoms that you can't see from the highway, that was real cool.
Every Christmas the steam engine gets dressed up like the Polar Express. I can hardly wait!
The train is a really awesome part of living out here. Twice a day you can hear the whistles blowing and the train making it's way slowly (SLOWLY) down the track. The steam engine goes from Ely to Ruth and the diesel engine goes from Ely to McGill. We saw a little herd of Antelope in one the bottoms that you can't see from the highway, that was real cool.
Every Christmas the steam engine gets dressed up like the Polar Express. I can hardly wait!
Have you missed me?
It's been a really long time since I've posted a blog. I decided to just have this blog and give up my previous blog for good. That blog was so focused on my weight that I didn't feel right posting about anything else.
My life is crazy, but in a good way. I'm going to school full-time, studying Social Work. I love it. I'm working full-time, too, at the local high school. I don't love that quite as much. The work is good, but I would rather do less of it. I found out last week that my student is moving to Phoenix, so it might not be much of a problem for much longer.
Adrienne has jumped headfirst into the high school experience. Drama club, playing drums in the Jazz Band, singing in the choir, learning French, writing, learning, boys. It's practically a full-time job just getting her around to her bazillion things.
Nick has been totally integrated at school this year (regular classes instead of spending all day in a self-contained classroom.) I didn't expect it to work, and I've been incredibly pleasantly surprised. He's passing all his classes, doing the same work as everyone else, and he's holding it together emotionally and behaviorally for the most part.
Ruby will be three in six weeks. Amazing. She's talking up a storm, as opinionated as her mama, and absolutely fearless.
Kevin is still Kevin--working hard. Still would like things to always stay the same, forcing us to find a balance between my need for change and his need to never ever ever change ever.
That should catch you up on us all!
Here's somethings I'm sure I'll be writing about in the next few weeks:
I'm advising the school Writer's Club, which I'm totally in love with. I have half-a-dozen kids all jazzed up about Nanowrimo. They've made their goals and we meet every week to discuss their stories. They have so many great ideas, I'm feeling inspired. I've mapped out my own Nano story. Because, you know, I don't have enough on my plate. Luckily we have a lot of time off of school in November...a whole week for Thanksgiving, plus an in service day in there.
I submitted a story to Amazon's Breakthrough Novel contest. It's the novel I wrote for Nanowrimo in 2005. Keep your fingers crossed for me, eh? And send me some good publishing mojo.
I also submitted a short story to Ellora's Cave. It made it past the first editor, and now I'm waiting to hear from the acquisitions editor. More mojo, please?
The Alburger family is attempting to get a little greener, a little simpler, a little less consumption-driven. I'm certain that I'll feel moved to post about my thoughts on this topic. Sometimes they are the only thoughts I have.
And pictures. My goal is to post a bunch of them.
One more thing...have some cake today. It's my birthday! I'm officially closer to 40 than to 35.
My life is crazy, but in a good way. I'm going to school full-time, studying Social Work. I love it. I'm working full-time, too, at the local high school. I don't love that quite as much. The work is good, but I would rather do less of it. I found out last week that my student is moving to Phoenix, so it might not be much of a problem for much longer.
Adrienne has jumped headfirst into the high school experience. Drama club, playing drums in the Jazz Band, singing in the choir, learning French, writing, learning, boys. It's practically a full-time job just getting her around to her bazillion things.
Nick has been totally integrated at school this year (regular classes instead of spending all day in a self-contained classroom.) I didn't expect it to work, and I've been incredibly pleasantly surprised. He's passing all his classes, doing the same work as everyone else, and he's holding it together emotionally and behaviorally for the most part.
Ruby will be three in six weeks. Amazing. She's talking up a storm, as opinionated as her mama, and absolutely fearless.
Kevin is still Kevin--working hard. Still would like things to always stay the same, forcing us to find a balance between my need for change and his need to never ever ever change ever.
That should catch you up on us all!
Here's somethings I'm sure I'll be writing about in the next few weeks:
I'm advising the school Writer's Club, which I'm totally in love with. I have half-a-dozen kids all jazzed up about Nanowrimo. They've made their goals and we meet every week to discuss their stories. They have so many great ideas, I'm feeling inspired. I've mapped out my own Nano story. Because, you know, I don't have enough on my plate. Luckily we have a lot of time off of school in November...a whole week for Thanksgiving, plus an in service day in there.
I submitted a story to Amazon's Breakthrough Novel contest. It's the novel I wrote for Nanowrimo in 2005. Keep your fingers crossed for me, eh? And send me some good publishing mojo.
I also submitted a short story to Ellora's Cave. It made it past the first editor, and now I'm waiting to hear from the acquisitions editor. More mojo, please?
The Alburger family is attempting to get a little greener, a little simpler, a little less consumption-driven. I'm certain that I'll feel moved to post about my thoughts on this topic. Sometimes they are the only thoughts I have.
And pictures. My goal is to post a bunch of them.
One more thing...have some cake today. It's my birthday! I'm officially closer to 40 than to 35.
Monday, July 2, 2007
A Miracle
We finally FINALLY found a suitable place to rent. Twenty-four people applied for it, and the owner picked us. It felt like winning the lottery. Seriously.
It's a duplex in McGill with about 1000 square feet. Maybe that doesn't sound big enough for five people, two cats and a dog. Believe me, after living for three months in 400 square feet of hell, 1000 lovely, shady square feet with a nice big yard feels like heaven. It's furnished, with two bedrooms (but the living room is huge and we can fit the baby in there.) And the rent is almost exactly half what we were paying in Vegas, which is nice since that's why we moved.
I'm on a bit of a rampage right now about getting out of debt. We have to just buckle down and do it, or we'll never be able to buy a house. So we'll do that while we sit back in our little duplex and wait out the market. It feels like total freedom to not feel pressured into buying something--ANYTHING.
It's a duplex in McGill with about 1000 square feet. Maybe that doesn't sound big enough for five people, two cats and a dog. Believe me, after living for three months in 400 square feet of hell, 1000 lovely, shady square feet with a nice big yard feels like heaven. It's furnished, with two bedrooms (but the living room is huge and we can fit the baby in there.) And the rent is almost exactly half what we were paying in Vegas, which is nice since that's why we moved.
I'm on a bit of a rampage right now about getting out of debt. We have to just buckle down and do it, or we'll never be able to buy a house. So we'll do that while we sit back in our little duplex and wait out the market. It feels like total freedom to not feel pressured into buying something--ANYTHING.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sad--and then happy
We didn't get the house after all.
I'm sad, and a little angry. Mostly at the world at large, and mostly because we missed the boat when it comes to housing. Even two years ago we could have bought a great house with land in our little rural town for less than $100,000. Now we're going end up paying significantly more, and we can't even afford the land at all.
I'm also a little relieved, because deep down I think we were getting in over our heads. I love that house. Really love it. But a $1300 month house payment would have been a struggle.
We looked at a different house on Friday. It has almost zero land (5000 square feet), but the house itself is perfect for us. It's also two doors down from our towns community garden. We can get a 10X12 plot, and if we go for this house I'm going to ask my parents to get one too and let me plant on it. 20 X 24 can house a ton of veggies. This little garden is new, and I've noticed that some people have planted fruit trees near their plots.
There is also a city corrals about two miles away. For $50 a year I can lease a corral for chickens, goats, whatever. The trick is that they're all leased already, and improved upon. You have to buy the improvements from someone who is ready to sell their corral. And at only $50 a year maintance, people hold on to them with the idea that they might want to get a horse or something someday. There are some empty ones though, so I'm thinking maybe a newspaper ad once we know where we're going to land.
What really gets to me is that even fixer uppers are priced so freaking high. The owners want to get the price for the potential of the house, without getting it up to that potential. That sucks.
On a more positive note: I got an email from a publisher today about a short story I submitted--it's being passed on to the second level of aquisition. Woo!
I'm sad, and a little angry. Mostly at the world at large, and mostly because we missed the boat when it comes to housing. Even two years ago we could have bought a great house with land in our little rural town for less than $100,000. Now we're going end up paying significantly more, and we can't even afford the land at all.
I'm also a little relieved, because deep down I think we were getting in over our heads. I love that house. Really love it. But a $1300 month house payment would have been a struggle.
We looked at a different house on Friday. It has almost zero land (5000 square feet), but the house itself is perfect for us. It's also two doors down from our towns community garden. We can get a 10X12 plot, and if we go for this house I'm going to ask my parents to get one too and let me plant on it. 20 X 24 can house a ton of veggies. This little garden is new, and I've noticed that some people have planted fruit trees near their plots.
There is also a city corrals about two miles away. For $50 a year I can lease a corral for chickens, goats, whatever. The trick is that they're all leased already, and improved upon. You have to buy the improvements from someone who is ready to sell their corral. And at only $50 a year maintance, people hold on to them with the idea that they might want to get a horse or something someday. There are some empty ones though, so I'm thinking maybe a newspaper ad once we know where we're going to land.
What really gets to me is that even fixer uppers are priced so freaking high. The owners want to get the price for the potential of the house, without getting it up to that potential. That sucks.
On a more positive note: I got an email from a publisher today about a short story I submitted--it's being passed on to the second level of aquisition. Woo!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Gas Worries
Over at www.casaubonsbook.blogspot.com, there's a lot of discussion about cutting back on consumption by 90 percent. I'm too tired tonight to write about the rules and the whys, but if you go look at her blog, you'll find it.
I've thought a lot about participating. I'm gone through every excuse from "my husband won't like it" to "my kids will hate it" to "but I live 100 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart, I can't only use 50 gallons of a gas a YEAR!" But in the end, I've realized that I can't let my life be ruled by excuses.
I don't know if I'll be perfect. I don't know if I'll even come close to succeeding. But I want to be able to relax when I'm an old woman, knowing that I didn't add to the problem of how my grandchildren will eat and breathe. And that I did what I could to make it better.
I'm too tired, like I said, to go into my plans right now. Tomorrow.
I do know that according to the rules, we get 50 gallons of gas per person per year...or 250 gallons for my family of five. That's 20 gallons, or roughly one monthly tank in our minivan or one and a half in our Saturn that we can't all fit in.
Our mini-van gets about 20 miles to the gallon, and can go about 400 miles before running out of gas (don't ask how I know that!) My job requires me to drive 11 miles one way twice a week during the summer, and everyday during the school year. Twenty gallons of gas a month means that we'll be cutting it super close. Driving 22 miles a day, five days a week is 110 miles a week--or forty over our total monthly allowance, even without going to the grocery store or anything else.
Kevin can walk to work, once we move. The kids walk to school. No buses or other forms of public transportation. The grocery store is two miles away, walkable--although the two miles are on Highway 6, fifty miles per hour and no shoulder.
I don't go to school for two weeks in December, one week in the spring, all federal holidays (I'm pretty sure there are eight) and all summer. I have 180 days of school, I think...so that's 3960 miles just going back and forth to work. Or 198 of our 250.
I'm afraid that the answer is to try to get transfered to a school near my house, instead of driving 22 miles a day to work at the school that I love. And to give up the three hour drives every month to the bigger city with it's plentiful shopping.
My brain hurts now! I'll think about this some more tomorrow.
I've thought a lot about participating. I'm gone through every excuse from "my husband won't like it" to "my kids will hate it" to "but I live 100 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart, I can't only use 50 gallons of a gas a YEAR!" But in the end, I've realized that I can't let my life be ruled by excuses.
I don't know if I'll be perfect. I don't know if I'll even come close to succeeding. But I want to be able to relax when I'm an old woman, knowing that I didn't add to the problem of how my grandchildren will eat and breathe. And that I did what I could to make it better.
I'm too tired, like I said, to go into my plans right now. Tomorrow.
I do know that according to the rules, we get 50 gallons of gas per person per year...or 250 gallons for my family of five. That's 20 gallons, or roughly one monthly tank in our minivan or one and a half in our Saturn that we can't all fit in.
Our mini-van gets about 20 miles to the gallon, and can go about 400 miles before running out of gas (don't ask how I know that!) My job requires me to drive 11 miles one way twice a week during the summer, and everyday during the school year. Twenty gallons of gas a month means that we'll be cutting it super close. Driving 22 miles a day, five days a week is 110 miles a week--or forty over our total monthly allowance, even without going to the grocery store or anything else.
Kevin can walk to work, once we move. The kids walk to school. No buses or other forms of public transportation. The grocery store is two miles away, walkable--although the two miles are on Highway 6, fifty miles per hour and no shoulder.
I don't go to school for two weeks in December, one week in the spring, all federal holidays (I'm pretty sure there are eight) and all summer. I have 180 days of school, I think...so that's 3960 miles just going back and forth to work. Or 198 of our 250.
I'm afraid that the answer is to try to get transfered to a school near my house, instead of driving 22 miles a day to work at the school that I love. And to give up the three hour drives every month to the bigger city with it's plentiful shopping.
My brain hurts now! I'll think about this some more tomorrow.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Night Drive
It was about 85 degrees last night, and probably ten degrees hotter and STUFFY in our tiny apartment. So after dinner, Kevin and Ruby and I (the big kids are in Vegas with their dad this week) went on a drive.
There is a scenic loop here that goes through the Humbolt National forest. We'd never been on it before, so it seemed like a good idea. And it was. Absolutely stunning. There is a big stand of White Pines that you drive through, and I swear it's like a fairy tale. Huge, tall white trunks. Some of you are probably from a place that has more than sagebrush as the local vegetation, but seeing big tall trees is rare for us out here.
At one point we came around a corner and saw a SUV parked at the start of a sideroad leading up to a campground. Next to it, maybe two feet away from it, was the most perfect, huge buck. Seriously, like Bambi's daddy. It was just standing there and for a minute I thought it must be a statue marking the entrance to the campground. Then it moved a few feet from us, and just stopped and stared. It had gigantic antlers and I am sick that I didn't bring my camera. Just sick.
We also saw a baby deer and some rabbits and chipmunks. I saw a hawk, too. And many, many cows. Right on the side of the road, like a cow-country safari. Two baby cows ran along side us for a little bit.
I really do love living in Nevada. I was born a California girl, but I love the mountains and the wide sky. I love the fresh air and the cool breeze as soon as the sun goes down. I love that there are unadulterated places here. I imagined last night what it would be like to be a pioneer coming over a pass and finding those mountains and valleys. The road we drove was a dirt road with grooves, like a wagon train might make. Amazing.
There is a scenic loop here that goes through the Humbolt National forest. We'd never been on it before, so it seemed like a good idea. And it was. Absolutely stunning. There is a big stand of White Pines that you drive through, and I swear it's like a fairy tale. Huge, tall white trunks. Some of you are probably from a place that has more than sagebrush as the local vegetation, but seeing big tall trees is rare for us out here.
At one point we came around a corner and saw a SUV parked at the start of a sideroad leading up to a campground. Next to it, maybe two feet away from it, was the most perfect, huge buck. Seriously, like Bambi's daddy. It was just standing there and for a minute I thought it must be a statue marking the entrance to the campground. Then it moved a few feet from us, and just stopped and stared. It had gigantic antlers and I am sick that I didn't bring my camera. Just sick.
We also saw a baby deer and some rabbits and chipmunks. I saw a hawk, too. And many, many cows. Right on the side of the road, like a cow-country safari. Two baby cows ran along side us for a little bit.
I really do love living in Nevada. I was born a California girl, but I love the mountains and the wide sky. I love the fresh air and the cool breeze as soon as the sun goes down. I love that there are unadulterated places here. I imagined last night what it would be like to be a pioneer coming over a pass and finding those mountains and valleys. The road we drove was a dirt road with grooves, like a wagon train might make. Amazing.
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