A New Chapter...

It's been a couple months now and once school starts I know I won't have much time to blog (although I still want to try to do so regularly).  I want to record my journey into my new career so that I can look back on it and see how hard I worked :)

Since May, I have accepted a position (8th grade language arts) and completed a couple different programs to ready myself for this new job: a summer seminar (two days of back to back to back methods and strategy sessions) and a fieldwork experience in summer school -- an interesting setting.  Teaching summer school will be an option to me... certainly not this summer (I'll be going to school myself), but maybe down the road.



I'm now in the process of accumulating classroom decorations, organizational supplies, and practicing deep breathing exercises everytime I realize that I'm turning my life upside down and starting a job I have no idea how to do.  That's not entirely true -- I have an idea... but not much of one.

Dory knows the struggle is real.

For the last several months, Jerry has been working out of state, only coming home every third weekend (except for our trip to Iowa in May and a week at the beginning of this month for jury duty) -- which, I'm not going to lie, has MAJORLY SUCKED!  He's still got a few more weeks, but then he should be at least within the state for, hopefully at least the next six to nine months.  It has not been easy to be essentially single parenting, but I tell myself I've done the best I could.  The girls are alive, somewhat happy, and I usually remember to feed them dinner.

A few major changes to the routine coming up:

I will need to get used to waking up early (and not snoozing the alarm -- my current job has me so spoiled).  I actually like it when I get up early, I feel accomplished the rest of the day.  But I tend to forget that feeling when the alarm goes off and I just want to hit snooze.  I think for the first couple months at least I will be so excited and nervous that I'll get up super early just to check over my lesson plans and triple check to make sure everything's ready.

For real

I will need to get REALLY SERIOUS about meal planning and meal prepping.  I did pretty well with this when Emily was in school -- washing/cutting fruit and veggies, making 5 PBJs and freezing them like Uncrustables, packing the entire lunch and putting it in the fridge the night before.
It ran pretty smoothly -- as long as I took the time to do all the prepwork on Sunday.  Mostly I just can't let myself get lazy.  I'm not only going to have to prep and pack all of Emily's lunches, but my own as well (no more lunch runs to Chipotle -- sad face).

After school and weekend activities... I will be teaching STEM magnet students, which means I will have the opportunity (not necessarily obligation but there is something to be said about being a team player) to participate in Saturday events (I get paid!!) and after school meetings.  I believe I will be asked to join a committee, so there will be meetings for that as well.  Luckily, the girls' daycare mom is now a great friend of mine (We Heart You Patti!!) and she is super flexible and always helps out.

Right now I'm just trying to take in all of the advice and information I can get.  I've been meeting with fellow teachers, getting all of my HR paperwork in order and starting to write my first few days of lesson plans (so scary).  I'm excited to jump in and get started.  The anticipation is what makes me nervous, so in that way I'm really glad that this happened so quickly.  I thought it might take me a couple years to realize this dream of becoming a teacher and it happened in about 6 months.

I still have a long road of classes, tests, and evaluations to go, but in a few short weeks I will be standing in front of a classroom of fresh-faced (maybe) 8th graders who are wondering why I'm sweating and my face is red.  Wish me luck!!

me after the first day of school

Dusting Off the Blog...

It's been a full year since I've posted anything in here.  That's not okay.  In my defense, 2015 (or at least the latter half of it) was a very stressful & trying time for me and my little family.  There wasn't much going on in Making Sure to Laugh because honestly, there wasn't much to laugh about during that time.  I'm not trying to be purposefully cryptic -- this is a not a cry for attention -- but I don't really want to disclose all the details of exactly why last year was less than awesome.  If you need to know more... email me, I might tell you.

MOVING ON... Here in the present, things are starting to look up and I have made some changes in my life -- one of which means a new job title starting in August.  For those of you who follow me on Pinterest, you may already know what I'm talking about.  I'm going to be a teacher.  I'm finally stepping onto the path I feel like I should have been on since I left high school.  I took the round about route -- and really I'm glad because I have a little bit more life experience to bring to the table.  

For those of you who don't know what I've been up to, I applied for an alternative teacher preparation program, since I already have a bachelor's degree (not in education) and I don't have the time or money right now to go through a whole Masters' program.  I've taken my first two classes and was accepted into a resident teacher program which, from my understanding is like the ultimate in on-the-job training.  I'll have my own classroom and basically be a full-fledged teacher except for the fact that I don't have my certificate yet.  I have two years to complete all of the requirements toward my teaching certification, but will be teaching and going to school at the same time.  

It's going to be quite a change... but I'm so excited.  I'm proud of myself for finally taking this step -- I was so afraid to do it because I thought it would be too hard and take too long and I really just thought it was too late to start this journey.  But it's never too late!  

If you're wondering... my certificate will be in secondary (grades 7-12) English language arts.  YES I am very excited about getting paid to correct grammar.  I can't wait to decorate bulletin boards and grade tons of essays (one of those is a lie).  

I plan to blog as much as I can through this experience.  Now that I'm in the program, I have several things to look forward to in the months to come, before I'm actually thrown into the deep end of a middle or high school classroom.  First, I'll be participating in mock interviews in preparation for a job fair, where I'll have the opportunity to interview with principals.  I'm terrified of this, actually... it's been about ten years since my last job interview!  Then there's a "summer seminar" at the community college where there will be panel discussions, role playing (not sure what exactly this means...?) and hopefully, learn a lot from current teachers.  There's also a fieldwork experience where we go into summer school classes to observe... Lots of exciting stuff to look forward to! (omg I just ended a sentence with a preposition -- FAIL)

So here goes nothing...wish me luck!

Who wants to buy me this?

Friday Favorites - 4.24.15

It's been a hot MINUTE since I did a Friday Favorites post...

My mom got on me yesterday about my lack of posting pictures of the girls.  And if mama ain't happy...

SO!  Just a few favorites today.

My two favorite girls:

Caroline is talking (hence the weird face), and Emily dressed herself (she's actually wearing two shirts and a dress...)

My new favorite TV show: 

Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners

I blew through LOST again so quickly that I'm in the final season and I don't want it to end so I refuse to watch it.  Does that make any sense?  Anyway, I found this Britain Channel 4 gem on YouTube and haven't looked back.  I love it because it's like a Brit version of Hoarders, but with the added element of a person with OCD and over-the-top cleaning habits come in and challenge themselves and the hoarder.. and sort of try to meet in the middle as far as cleaning habits go.

I also love to pick up little bits of British slang (did you know they call their dumpsters "skips"?  or that the cooktop in a British home is referred to as a "hob"? -- I didn't...)  I leave a Wikipedia tab open and ready for whenever I need to look up a new term.


My favorite day this week:

Administrative Professionals Day (week)

LOOK at my beautiful flowers!  -- Thank you Jerry for remembering ;)
I love my job!!


And, BONUS photo of my girls from Jerry's aunt Joni who is watching them for me today:

Emily's backwards hat and Caroline's skirt pulled up to her armpits... #dead.

Well, I'm off to go eat my Chinese leftovers -- ooh that was another favorite: spending time with my beautiful sister-in-law, Jenn, and the girls getting to play with their cousins for a while.  No pictures from that (we were too busy talking haha) but suffice to say... we didn't go to bed until 11 and I'm tired, so it was a great night :)


Happy FRIDAY everyone!!

Linking up with Momfessionals, et al for Friday Favorites.