Losing Steam.

I tell you what, this teaching thing is tough stuff. I'm enjoying it but we have reached that point in the year where we are all just ready for summer. I know I've only been here for two months so it doesn't seem like I should be feeling that as much as the teachers who've been working all year but there's this whole different feel and mentality about school at this time of year. The kids are distracted and uninterested and I'm too tired to keep reeling them back in. This whole week (yes, all three days that I've been at work this week) has been a constant battle. It doesn't help that my kids are acting more and more like typical middle schoolers with each passing day -- not my favorite. As you may or may not know one of the biggest reasons that I prefer teaching younger grades is because I like to stay away from all of this obnoxious pre-teen stuff. They're getting super sarcastic and sometimes almost mean with one another, and every time any of them says anything the other four follow with a chorus of "Oh my gosh! That's so wrong!" Really?? REALLY? At 11 and 12 years old they really think everything is a sexual innuendo? Is that actually what's going on here? Seriously, it is beyond irritating. I really don't remember it being like that when I was in 5th and 6th grade. And I went to public school...

We have a lot of fun stuff going on at school so as long as they're busy with work and projects, they're pretty okay to be around. In fact, they get really excited about some of the lessons I teach and activities I come up with and that always makes me feel really good. They really are sweet kids...

We're still studying Ancient China and loving it! Today we learned about paper and printing and we made our own stamps. I'm hoping we'll use the stamps to decorate our poetry books but as we just started poetry yesterday, I can't guarantee that there will actually be a poetry book. We only have two weeks left in school. We're also planning a China themed party for our last full day of school. We're going to make decorations and dress up and make all of the food together and everything. It should be a blast!

I picked up a 5 pound bag of fortune cookies while Steven and I were in Chinatown a couple of weeks ago. The kids loved them! Steven and I did too. They are completely gone.
School is keeping me very busy and this last week and a half I spent most of my free time filling out applications. I don't currently have a job lined up for next year so I've been working really hard on that. I have completed 6 applications and there are another two on my list. After I've finished those, I'll look back through all of the websites again and probably try to find some other schools with job openings that I might not even know about yet. Not sure what I'll do if I don't get a teaching job but we'll deal with that when (if?) we get there. I'm choosing not to worry -- or at least that's what I tell myself :)

Steven and I spent Memorial Day weekend out and about. Saturday morning we drove down to Vancouver to spend some time with Scott and Kristen. Unfortunately, we left the sun in Seattle and completely missed the beautiful weather. On the plus side -- we did have a ton of fun in Vancouver. We met up with Scott and Kristen and a few of their friends at a park along the Columbia River. The boys took off for an afternoon of rock climbing and the girls spend the rest of the day on the boat. We travelled along the Columbia River and then up the Willamette into Downtown Portland. At some point we found a little pocket of sunshine and stopped to soak it up and enjoy some snacks. Around 7pm a crazy storm rolled in. We got off the boat and into the cars just in time. It was pouring down (does it count as down if it's sideways?) rain and crazy windy and then there was thunder and lightening and hail. The streets were so full of water and it happened very quickly. Is this the kind of weather I can expect any every time I leave Seattle from now on? It's happened the last 3 times I've left town! We spent the evening making dinner (eggplant zucchini tomato mushroom feta casserole -- loving this recipe!) in Scott and Kristen's beautiful kitchen -- always a treat to cook in a real kitchen :)

After a morning of french toast, games, and an estate sale (S&K found a new dining table with 3 leaves and 10 chairs, I got a super cute little sugar shaker - NBD), Steven and I made the drive back home just in time for family dinner. We celebrated Grammi's birthday over Northlake Tavern pizza at Uncle Scott's house and then crashed at Mom's for the night. We don't like to make the drive home if we don't have to. We spent most of Monday on the couch watching the last few episodes in Season 2 of The Voice. I love that show. What an incredible opportunity that would be! I would definitely choose Adam as my coach. Well, actually, after watching the entire season, I wonder if maybe I would choose Blake. Hard to say I guess. Most definitely NOT Cee Lo or Christina. Congratulations to Jermaine Paul! Definitely a well deserved win. I can't believe Steven and I didn't accidentally hear who the winner was before we had a chance to finish watching the season -- so thankful for my mom's DVR!

On a not so happy note... It has been a bummer of a week (month?) in Seattle. Seven people have been killed in as many days. It's really pretty frightening how many shootings there have been and all of them totally random. The news is somewhat horrifying these days. I would suggest steering clear of it. And it seems like it isn't just Seattle either. There's scary stuff like that happening all over the country. It's just really sad and I felt like it needed to be acknowledged. So there's that.

Not much else to report... we made homemade pizza tonight (pepperoni, mushrooms, ground beef, jalapenos, and cheese on whole wheat crust -- yum!) and watched a movie called Everybody's Fine. It was very good but also very very sad. Too sad maybe. Robert De Niro plays a character whose wife has passed away and as she was his only link to his children, he's trying his best to get to know them for himself. Meanwhile they're all trying their best not to disappoint him with their imperfect lives so they only tell him what they think he wants to hear and their dishonesty continues to widen the void between them. I don't do well with movies about people who are old and alone and have lost their spouse and have kids who don't want to have a relationship with them. I kept the tears in until the very end and then totally lost it. Because I am way overtired all the time these days I couldn't stop crying. We had to get out some chocolate and turn on Seinfeld until I fell asleep on Steven. I know. I'm ridiculous.