Walls and Grounds for Power Naps and Shortened Assessments...

Wow...so much was going on this week! The house's construction progress has been awesome. The beginning of the week there were no walls in the top level (outer walls) and by today, the entire top level outer walls, including the garage, is up! 

View of Laundry Room and door going into Garage March 22, 2015

Front Door 3/22/15

Garage  3/22/15

View of house, looking south from the street.  3/22/15

Family room looking into kitchen... 3/22/15

View looking north/northeast from a Master Bedroom window 3/22/15

Mom and X-man from Garage Window.... 3/22/15

Mom and X-man from Garage Window.... 3/22/15

X-man in family room walking toward front door... 3/22/15

X-man in Family Room 3/22/15

This may feel like I'm going back in time (and progress), but earlier this week was so much cooler and cloudy, so I liked the lighting and clouds in those house pictures:

Garage floor slab and kitchen/laundry room wall 3/29/15

View of house, looking south from the street....slabs of front turrets  3/19/15

Meanwhile, yesterday was a Girls Camp fundraiser car wash and Christian's birthday party at the park happening at the same time. Then following the party was the Pinewood Derby 30 miles away. Whew! No wonder Chris and I crashed and had an epic power nap following all that.   

Mmmmmm.....power naps.... Although, power naps are supposed to be short naps. Well, that wasn't the case! But the nap was powerful. It was one of those naps that when I awoke, I was a little confused and I didn't know it was morning or night!

Christian and his Herobrine Pinewood Derby Car....March 21, 2015

 

Wait, where was I? Oh yes. I am also finishing up my 3-credit SEI requirement. There's a reason that's a big deal. I was supposed to do it back when I was teaching before (2007-2011), but then when I resigned after having Alexander, I knew I technically didn't have to do it as soon because my teaching certification didn't expire until April 2015. Back then April 2015 seemed so far off.                                                                              Well, it's March 2015! So last month, I signed up for the course and I've been going going going trying to finish it.  I'll turn in the last assignment (which is a big write-up and analysis) later tonight!  Besides the valuable tools and training in this requirement, there is another reason this is a big deal. I don't know when it started exactly, but for years, I've been having reoccurring dreams that surround around a theme of "just almost" finishing something, but it doesn't get finished due to one last class or even one last project/assignment. And in these multiple scenarios, I keep falling short of obtaining that last class or requirement. 

Some of these dream scenarios have been as followed:

-I'm in high school, and all I need to graduate is a tough science related class. I fail the class over and over again. Then I sign up for it again, and keep missing class. Or I'm in class, but I need a huge assignment to finish, and I don't have it. Hence, I don't graduate due to that one class. 

- I have everything I need to graduate with my Masters in Fine Arts (Masters? Oh, I wish...) The only thing left is some sort of Studio Art Class. I keep screwing it up. In one scenario, I never show up for this class. In another, I think I have completed what I need in that Studio Art Class, but two days before the last day, I realize I never did the final project and it takes over a week to complete. Therefore, I still don't get that class and I don't graduate.

- I'm the teacher for a college class. It's not art or geography related. It looks to be some really boring data entry with schematic class. I don't know. But in the dream, I don't show up. I even try to change locations of the class and I still don't show up. 

As I said, there are multiple scenarios and more than those three. But they all seem to revolve around those three themes in different variations. I really hope the closure that comes from finishing this SEI requirement is a big part of putting those highly anxious dreams to an end. 

But I know I'm not out of the woods yet. 

I have approximately 9 more credit-hours after this SEI requirement in order to renew my certification.  Thankfully, I have a year after the expiration to renew. But if I'm offered the middle school art position in which I'm interviewing for tomorrow, I need to have those 9 credit hours all finished before the end of July. 

But finishing the SEI requirement is a huge pebble in my shoe that I am so relieved to finally shake out!

Anyway, the pictures I did not upload yet are from Christian's birthday party yesterday. I hope to update with those in the next entry. But let me end this post on a true story that happened while I was subsituting at the middle school on Friday. It is from the "you can't make this stuff up" and "crap that only seems to happen to me" files.

It's a 6th grade class and I already have the forces of nature against me because it's a Friday, a half-day, and I'm a sub. But the class was actually pretty good considering those factors. I was writing Digestive Assessment on the whiteboard. Just as I'm writing it, the desk phone rings, so I stop in the middle of writing it to grab phone. After I take care of the phone call, I take a brief second to remember what I was doing. It's a good thing the room of 12 year-olds were in "Friday mode" and not paying attention to what I was writing (except for a couple who were pointing and giggling) because I had stopped writing at Digestive Ass. 

 Seriously.  

Despite losing my already "just a sub on a Friday half-day" credibility with such an error, I didn't want to lose more of it. Therefore, without missing a beat, I said, "Yep, there's your entertainment for today," and I finished the word and we got on with class. 

Until next time.