Meet Toby

Toby is a one- to one and a half- (the shelter wasn't sure) year-old Lhasa Apso mix.  We got him from a shelter here and he was a stray and had only been there for about 2 weeks.  Tim had a Lhasa when he was younger and said it was the best dog, so he immediately fell in love with him.  I have to admit, when I first saw his picture, I wasn't impressed, but when we saw him in person at the shelter, he was so cute and lovable I couldn't resist.  He has long hair so he doesn't shed, but will need to be brushed and groomed.  He really needs a bath, but he was just "fixed" on Friday so we'll have to wait until he heals.  Tim and I were both worried about how he was going to get along with Evil Cat Max.  At the shelter when one of the employees asked if we had any other pets, and we told her we had a cat, she took Toby (then "Richard") through the cat room, and he was fine, wasn't really interested in the cats, although they all were behind bars, so we still weren't sure what would happen once we got home.  We both agreed that we wouldn't force them to meet but let Max do his own thing and interact as he felt comfortable.  Of course, Max was not happy with him, but he didn't run and hide either.  Toby wanted to play a few times, but once he saw Max getting upset, he left him alone, so it's been really good.  Max still is unsure about him, but is actually trying to get closer, without Toby noticing.  But once Toby sees him and tries to make contact, Max runs away.  And if we pick Max up anywhere near Toby, Max gets really upset and starts hissing and growling.  I think the key is to not let Max feel trapped and just let him adjust in his own way.  He'll get comfortable with his new little brother eventually and maybe one day even LIKE him! :-)  And for those who have never hear of the Lhasa Apso breed before (I hadn't, when we found him), here are a couple of pictures of pure bred Lhasas and what they can look like.  I kind of want to grow his hair out and see what it looks like.  We don't know what breed he is mixed with.

In other news, I got a job!  I will be a teacher's assistant for Autistic support, one-on-one.  I don't even remember what school the lady said on the phone, so I'll have to figure that out, but I think it's an elementary school.  I had to get a drug test, physical, and TB test.  Everything's done except I have to go back tomorrow to get my TB test read, and then take the paperwork to the school district, and then I can start.  I'm very excited!  It sounds like something I will enjoy.  And it's full-time with benefits which is what I needed.  And on top of that, the church is going to pay for the cost for Tim to be covered by the school district on my plan!  We were not expecting that at all, so we are very thankful for that!  God has really provided for us since we've moved here.  We'll just randomly get money in the mail, or someone will just say, "Hey I want to give you money," and every time it reminds us how good God is, and if you just live for Him, he will provide everything you need! :-)

Interview Went Well!

I had my interview with Reading School District today and it went really well.  They were not specific about what position is actually available, but made a note that I would enjoy Emotional Support or Austism Support (since that is the kind of work I did in Anchorage).  There are full-time and part-time positions available, and I told her I would prefer full-time, so hopefully that's what happens.  I will have to get my CPR and First Aid certification if I get the job, which the school district offers.
I should hear back from them in a week or two, so I'll let everyone know what happens.
Well, not too much to say besides that.  I knew people were wanting to hear about the interview, so I thought I'd do a post for it.  :-)

Well this has been a pretty good week.  I got all my clearances I need to be employed by the school district, applied to Reading School District for their education assistant positions on Wednesday and they called me to schedule an interview on Friday.  It should be full-time, according to the ones that are listed on their website, which is awesome because I had called the district before I applied and I was told that the full-time assistants do get benefits.  And talking to a teacher from church who teaches in this district, she said that their benefits are really good.  This is pretty much an urban district, and I have been warned that it's not the easiest district to teach in, but if you stay with it a year or two, you become very employable by other districts if you want to leave.  So, my interview is on Wednesday at 11:40 Eastern Time.  It won't be much money, but it will be enough for now, and depending on what kind of students I will be working with, I think I will enjoy it because I loved being the teacher assistant in Anchorage.  I am still working toward my certification though.  I even bought a book yesterday (after spending almost 5 hours at Barnes and Noble) called "Your First Year as a High School Teacher" because it has a lot of good information, and reminders for me about how to set up your classroom, organization ideas, how to set up rules, and lessons, etc.  All of these things will be helpful for me if/whenever I go back to teaching.  It also is helping me get excited about teaching again.  I have really learned from my first two experiences in middle school and high school and feel like I'm ready and in a better place that I could succeed if I tried again. (Third time's a charm, right?)  I have much more realistic expectations of my student's behavior, and I know now how important it is to be firm and consistent from the beginning because you easily lose control if you make empty threats and don't have any consequences to go with them.
Today we had our first rehearsal with the youth/adult contemporary praise band.  With the exception of the drummers not always keeping the tempo steady and not knowing how to end the songs, it went pretty well! :-)  Tonight is our big "kick off" night for youth group at someone's house and Tim's going to just have the kids fill out info cards and we're going to eat and play games.  Hopefully the play-off game won't keep kids from showing up.  The Eagles play two hours before it starts.
We also went to the young adult Bible study on Friday night.  The leader, Dan, was telling us about a leap of faith he's making this coming week.  He's quitting his job for another job that pays half as much as he's making now.  He said that they guys he works with now are not Christians and not good influences, and the guy he's going to work for is a good Christian man, and it's just a better environment.  And what struck me most is that he said he was inspired by Tim and me to do it!  Because of the sacrifice we've made to come here, it helped him to make this decision.  Wow!  I inspired someone??  Who'da thunk it!  :-)  I'm just glad God can work like that.  Use a decision we made as an encouragement to someone else.  I know it was a leap of faith for us to come here, take the pay cut, and trust that we would survive, but it didn't feel too difficult because I wanted to come, and the people have made us feel so welcome, it's been a blessing!!
I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011!  I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve.  Tim and I went over to Shelley's house (the preacher at Hillside) and ate some really good enchiladas and played Hand and Foot, Speed Scrabble (which I very much prefer over regular Scrabble), and Win, Lose, or Draw.  It was a lot of fun.
Yesterday afternoon Tim and I went exploring.  We were told of a market called Green Dragon that is open every Friday, so we went to check it out yesterday.  It is a huge flea market with all kinds of things for sale, including food made by the Amish.  It was pretty neat.  Definitely somewhere we'll want to go back to when we actually have money to spend. 

I don't particularly like to make official new year resolutions because I typically don't fulfill them.  A few years ago I made the resolution to become ambidextrous, and I actually worked at it for several weeks, trying to do things with my left hand, but eventually gave up.  I do have one goal (besides of course losing weight and reading my Bible) of growing out my hair and donating it to Locks of Love.  I would like to be more generous and not so focused on myself but make a better effort to give to others.  I think it's good to reflect on your life and think about what you need to change.  We are told by God to examine ourselves, but we need to remember that we should be doing that on a regular basis, not just on the first day of each year.
So, happy new year, and I hope everyone takes time to think about how you can improve yourself, and maybe help others.  God bless!

A Smorgasboard of Info :-)

I hope everyone had a good Christmas!  Ours was pretty good.  We spent the afternoon with a family from church and ate lunch with them and played pool and card games.  Then that night we went to see the movie The Tourist with Johnny Depp, and it was pretty good.  Tim said it was predictable but I didn't figure out the twist until the very end.
Last week Fox was premiering a new show that starts in January called Million Dollar Money Drop.  It was really interesting!  They had a couple on and gave them 1 million dollars in cash, in $20,000 bundles.  It's literally sitting in a pile right in front of them.  All they have to do is answer 7 multiple choice questions to keep it, and they have to risk all of the money on each question.  Once they are given the question, they have a certain amount of time to place the money on the platform of the answer they think is correct, and they can spread out the money and place it on more than one answer if they're not sure but they have to leave one answer choice blank.  Then the platforms of the wrong answers drop and they lose whatever money they put on those platforms.  Tim thinks we would do well on that show, so we looked up how to be cast for it, and we emailed our info.  They are finished casting for the first season, but if they get picked up for a second season, then they'll look at the entries.  The website said you have to live within driving distance of Los Angeles, but Tim told them how we drove cross-continent to move, and that we would be willing to drive to L.A. if necessary to be on the show! :-)  Maybe if the show is popular, by the second season they'll allow people from all over the country. :-)
Today was a very productive day.  I got my fingerprints and clearances for the school district.  I saw on the website for the Reading School District (which is different from the district I had an interview with a couple of weeks ago) they are looking for part time and full time instructional assistants.  After winter break I'm going to call and ask if their assistants get benefits and apply if they do.  We shall see.
Tim met with Shelley this morning and was told his official installation Sunday will be January 23rd, and Tim will be preaching.  A while ago Tim was ordained as a Christian minister by a general company he found on the Internet, but he told Shelley he would really like to be ordained by an actual church, so I think they are going to ordain him on that day as well.
I'm excited about New Year's Eve this year because we are in the Eastern Time Zone, so I get to see the big ball in New York drop LIVE!!!  One year I missed it completely because I was confused about the time change. 
I have registered and will be taking the 7 - 12 Math Content Knowledge test for the Praxis II on March 12.  I will really need to study hard for this one because it has Calculus, Trig, Discrete Math, and Matrix Algebra on it, all of which I have not seen or used in a really long time.  Tim says he can help me...hopefully I'll pass!  And then I can get my teacher certification in Pennsylvania and maybe getting a teaching job for next year.
Well, time to start dinner...yes, I'm cooking dinner!!!  Just spaghetti and meatballs...nothing special. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Well, lots has been happening, including both Tim and I getting some sort of stomach bug/flu thing last weekend, which was a blast! ;-)  Our place is slowly getting closer to looking like a livable space.  I took pictures of the decorations I put up but won't take pictures again until everything is done and presentable!
Tim has been going to lots of meetings and is getting started to plan things for the church.  The two of us met with Angie, who is working with the youth group right now, to discuss the future of the youth group.  She is really good at coming up with creative ways to make application points to the lessons, so she and Tim are going to work together with Tim giving the lesson and Angie coming up with a fun way for the kids to apply and discuss the lesson.  Youth group will be every Sunday night from 6:30 to 8:30 and we're also going to have youth praise band practice twice a month with them possibly performing for a monthly youth worship night.
I am still looking for a job.  One of the ladies of the church said she needs someone to take care of her elderly parents from 5pm to 1am Wednesday through Saturday, and I let her know today that I could do that except on Fridays because of a young adult small group that happens on Friday nights.  At least it would be something for now.  I also applied to Petco today, which I think could be fun.  So we'll see what happens.
I LOVE this website, JibJab, and the videos you can make, so I've made a couple and here are the links.  You'll have to copy and paste the first one into the URL bar, and you can just click on the second one:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/zQnvLMkGxggzBxw8
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/rc7YLh1mGptwojAd

Home Sweet Home

Well, Tim and I finally made it to Sinking Spring!  Our trailer of stuff should arrive this morning, which is a day earlier than we were expecting which is great!  (It will be nice to have a bed and something to sit on!!)  We've been busy using our Christmas money to get things for our new place, including paint!  We painted our kitchen and bathroom yesterday and still have the bedroom and living room to do.  Pictures will be up on Facebook soon.  Max is adjusting well, I think.  Once we get all his stuff here and set up, hopefully he'll feel more at home. 
Yesterday morning Tim met with the preacher, Shelley, to discuss his job description, which still isn't set in stone yet because they want him to get a feel of what goes on at the church at first before he really jumps in.  Eventually he will be teaching and preaching probably about once every 6 weeks.  It's nice that he is giving Tim this opportunity to just be an observer right now, but at the same time Tim feels weird that they're paying him to not really do much right now.  He will be meeting with different people in the next few weeks to talk to them about what their vision is for the future and how to get things going.  He's also going to become involved in worship.
We have a busy several days ahead of us for this week: move our stuff in this morning, youth group tonight, young adult Bible study on Friday night, and I have a job interview on Friday afternoon!  They just called me this morning, it's for a special education aide at a high school.
So everything is going really well.  Moving is very overwhelming at first with all the things you have to do but we are very excited to be here and to get to know everyone at the church.