One way ticket to…Alaska? March 22, 2009

Happy Sunday!  Well, it is a happy Sunday for me at least!

I had my first interview on Friday.  Obviously I have had other interviews in the past, but this was my first interview for a full-time teaching position.  It felt somewhat like an initiation into the real world. For anyone who hasn’t already been informed…The interview was for a position in the Bering Strait School District in Alaska.  Which is here:

The red box shows where the Bering Strait School District is.

So, basically what this job entails, is moving to a very remote area in Alaska (you can literally see Russia from some places).  There are villages scattered throughout the district that have schools, most of which are comprised of 250-700 people per village.  There are no Wal-Marts, or restaurants, or Barnes and Noble (God help me!).  Most villages have one small store that sells the necessities, and everything else is flown in on a plane.  The only way to get to these villages is to fly in on a small plane!

The interview was at UCF by video feed.  It was like using a webcam.  I interviewed with one of their recruiting personnel, which was an interesting experience.  I am the first person to use this form of interviewing on the UCF campus, EVER!  It’s kind of cool…I made UCF history in a small way.   Anyway…I felt that the interview went very well!  I felt prepared, and after getting my nerves under control, I felt very ready.  Not only did I feel ready, but I felt like this job is supposed to be mine.  At the end of the interview, the women said that she “appreciated my candor and honesty, would pass along the information, and give me a very good recommendation” to the higher ups.  I walked out of the room so flustered and anxious, but also excited.

An hour and a half after leaving from the interview, one of my old bosses called to tell me that they had already called her for a reference.  They told her that they were very impressed with me! Ahh! It was at that point that I started jumping up and down and doing my happy dance (yes, I have one, but you’ll never see it!).

Then this morning at C3 I saw Bryan (who is the director of Clinical Experiences for the College of Ed. at UCF) who informed me that he spoke to the woman who interviewed me, and she told him that she was very impressed by me and that my interview stood out!  My mom was with me, and started bawling and said, “You’re moving to Alaska!” *more bawling*.

I haven’t heard anything officially from the district, but it’s looking good!  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

A New Year January 8, 2009

So it is once again a new year.  A new year with new problems, new challenges, new joys, and hopefully new friends.  I feel like it was just the new year of 2008, and here we are already in 2009.  And I say GOOD RIDDENS 2008!!!!  Sure it was a good year in some aspects…I was incredibly blessed in many ways.  Unfortunately I also repeated some of the same old bad decisions that seem to bring me down each year.  For me 2008 was a year of finding independence, learning to trust new people, facing some of my fears, and experiencing an abundance of academic success.  All in all, 2008 was a year about learning about myself and “falling into” the person I am going to be.  After all of my experiences last year I have learned to stand up for myself, and that it’s ok to eliminate sources of drama.

So here’s to 2009, a year that I am certain will be filled with many new experiences…some good and some bad.

I am resolving to be the best me that I can be… to be successful in the rest of my academic career, as well as the start of a new career.

I resolve to do something adventurous that is completely out of my comfort zone.

I resolve to stand my ground, to not let myself be taken advantage of.  I will not be anyone’s doormat.  I will not place expectations on any situation or any person, so that I cannot be disappointed.

I resolve to be emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy.

I resolve to be optimistic.

I resolve to be me.

I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and completely wonderful new year!!

What the Crap?!?! November 7, 2008

I had to briefly write about my bizarro day…

First…I went to class this morning and my already strange teacher told me that she wanted to eat my necklace.  And then she walked away.  Not joking.

Then…I was on my way home going down Alafaya and saw a nun standing at a bus stop.  A fully decked out, head-to-toe black with white trim “dress” nun.  I’m really curious as to where she was going.

I have to go finish making my feather quill pen.

Happy Halloween!!! October 31, 2008

In lieu of getting off work early (aka…getting hours cut AGAIN) I have decided to blog.  The kids were crazy today! Must have been all the sugar their teachers let them eat all day.  That’s genius….let the kids eat a crap load of candy and then send them off to their extended day teachers. Even my normally well behaved kids were off their rockers.  Although my day did get better after I had my fortune told by a six year old.  According to Madam Karina, all of my dreams will come true.  Yes, she seriously said that.  She’s a little bit of a creeper…I almost believe her.

I am so excited that today is Halloween, because that means Thanksgiving is less than a month away, and Christmas is less than two months away! I can’t wait to decorate!!

We just had the cutest little trick-or-treaters come to the door! They were skeletons, and the smallest boy was like, “skeleton (while pointing to his brother), skeleton (pointing to his other brother), skeleton (pointing to himself). SOOOOO adorable.  I was about to pull a Nanny Carrie.  I love having my own house where kids can trick-or-treat.  In the midst of my morbid Halloween happiness, however, is bitterness.  I never got to go trick-or-treating when I was little

Well, I’m off to go answer the door and watch Corpse Bride! Happy Halloween!!!!

I need some $$$$!!!!!!!!!! October 10, 2008

So I have definitely been thinking about blogging all week…obviously I never got around to it. It has been a busy couple of weeks. I feel like I’ve been sick a lot lately; even more than usual. It may have something to do with my eating habits lately, which have pretty much been NOT eating. I have no money!! I cannot wait until next Wednesday, which is when I get paid. Woo hoo! Life is so much easier with money.

I really don’t have anything to say, I guess I’m just bored. Not for a lack of productive things to do, because I have quite a long list. I think since it’s Friday night I have justification for not being productive. I’m almost halfway through the semester, which is exciting because then I will be done classes forever! But it’s also scary because I have a ton of really big projects still to do. I really should be at Barnes and Nobles doing research for my history unit plan, but I would feel like such a creeper sitting alone in the children’s section lol. Plus I’m afraid that I will walk out having read a random novel instead of doing work for school. It wouldn’t be the first time!

I am really excited that it’s the weekend. I really do live for the weekends. I miss seeing everyone I was sick last Sunday and stayed home and slept all day. I needed the rest, but I really hated not being at C3. I think that we have community group at our house this week too. It’s so weird! We just split like a month ago and already our group is up to the size of the original group. I should probably read the catalyst book tonight, cause tomorrow I’ll be memorizing my script It just wouldn’t be any fun if I learned it before Saturday night.

I just realized that I say “really” way too much. So I’m going to go find a new word to say in it’s place.

Wednesday gone weird… September 24, 2008

What a day! Let me preface by saying that I usually like Wednesdays, but today was just odd. The first reason was that Taco kept me up all night!! She is such a stinker! She thought it would be fun to bat at my eye lashes until I opened my eyes to look at her. I finally put her out in the hallway so I could get a little sleep. I ended up sleeping until 12:30 and got nothing done.

Then I went to work…it was early dismissal day and the kids were effin crazy!!! Yesterday they were all so well behaved, so maybe they felt they had to make up for that by not listening. The only time in four hours they were quiet was when we had a coloring contest with Hannah Montana and Power Rangers coloring sheets.

I came home and chilled with Christy for a few minutes before heading over to the gym. I haven’t been in months!! I’m always really glad I went once I get there…no exception today. I guess I’m more motivated when there are 10 other people more in shape than me running next to, well…in front of me I did pretty well though. I may just be a runner after all! Afterwards I met up with someone on campus and chatted for a while before I went home. That was definitely the highlight of my day.

I had a phone conversation that was interesting. It wasn’t bad or what I thought it might be about, but it was just unexpected. I think my part of the conversation was far more awkward, but I felt like it was important that I inform them of my current situation. Ugh.

Now I’m sitting in the dining room taking a break from homework. I hate my online class I feel like everything we are doing is busy work because our teacher got knocked up and can’t handle teaching the course. That was really harsh. It’s awesome that she is having a baby, but I don’t like that the quality of my education is lacking because of it.

That is enough ranting for tonight. I am sure that tomorrow is going to be a terrific Thursday! I’m just glad the week is half way over…I LOVE my weekends!

Taco!! September 21, 2008

I am proud to announce a new addition to the KCKC house…*drum roll*…TACO!

She is such a sweetheart and is so playful! I pretty much spent all of my free time today playing with her I <3 her!

This morning was great! I love C3!! I got to play Kit Windswept in Powerhouse with Adam, which was interesting! Neither of us really knew our lines very well, so it was ALOT of improv! It’s so funny when the kids come up to me later asking me questions about my character after I’ve already changed out of my costume. I tell them that I am Chrissy, not Kit…and that Kit is my cousin…who is British. I of course am German and do not have a British accent. They get so frustrated! This one little girl argued with me for 10 minutes that I HAD TO BE Kit! Priceless. Service was great too. Byron talked about loving your enemy and forgiveness, which is one of those things that I struggle with. I love that the series is “I wish Jesus hadn’t said…”. I know hearing that I need to forgive the people who have hurt me is not exactly what I want to hear. I thought the playing cards were way cool!

I am finally working at Avalon Elementary, which is awesome!! I am in the first grade group with one other teacher. We have 32 kids, so it’s a little stressful at times, but for the most part they are really sweet kids! I would love to say that I don’t have favorites, but I definitely do. There is a little boy and a little girl who literally attach themselves to my side all afternoon. It’s so sweet, but makes moving around a little bit awkward They all make me smile.

I would love to type more, but Sundays wear me out! So I’m gonna hit the hay early tonight!

Characters September 8, 2008

So I am working on an assignment for school, one which I am actually quite excited about. I have to create a “learning center” on something to do with story writing for my language arts class. When I was assigned to the story writing group, I immediately decided I would do my center on creating characters. I love to write fiction short stories (although I haven’t done anything recently), and making up characters and developing their personalities, appearance, and lifestyles is my favorite part.

It got me thinking about my own traits. Sometimes I wish I could create my own “me” character. I am in no way dissing my creator, but how nice would it be to modify the things about yourself that seem to always get you into trouble throughout your story. For me, it’s always the same traits and quirks that seem to work against me. If my life were a story, I would be the type of character that keeps getting herself into the same sort of trouble again and again and again, but can never get out of that cycle. Yet the whole time the reader is yelling at the book saying, “What are you doing! Stop doing that already!” It’s comical yet sad. I feel like that character, trapped in the cycle of behavior, not able to escape the irony of the situation. I am desperately waiting for the climax of the plot, where everything finally falls into place. The light bulb moment. I’m waiting…..waiting….any time now…

Crazy Funny Video August 25, 2008

I had to post a link to a youtube video that my brother showed me this weekend…I about died laughing and came pretty close to peeing my pants (not really, but whatev) There are more videos of this kid, you should definitely watch them! Apparently he is on commercials now, but I haven’t seen them yet…

Birthday Recap (for lack of a creative title!) July 31, 2008

I just finished another cake! I was supposed to go to class, but I just didn’t get everything baked and ready to go in time. So I decorated it in the comfort of my own kitchen instead. It took a good 2 hours by the time I perfected the “Wilton Rose” and got 6 of them onto the cake. It was quite the adventure!! I would post a picture, but my computer thinks it’s funny to not let me upload any pictures!!! Gay. As pretty as it is, I really can’t wait to eat it! I’m really quite caked out, but I did an angel food cake, which isn’t exactly “cakey”. I did a strawberry-banana filling (only because it’s all I had to use, lol). FYI…icing an angel food cake is not a pleasant experience. Most people don’t even put icing on that type of cake, but I was feeling like being a pioneer of the cake world. You’re probably wondering how long I could talk about cake for. The answer is…I could keep going for a while, but I’ll be nice

I really want to go to bed, but I need to get a little bit more work done on my final that’s due tomorrow. As soon as I submit that in the morning, my day should be awesome! I have to do a little yard work :/ and then wait around until my Mom gets into town! I’m excited!

I miss all of my C3 friends who are away at camp this week! Thank God they are coming back tomorrow!

So yesterday was my 21st birthday!! It was probably one of the best birthdays I’ve had in several years. It started off sitting on my delightful porch swing at midnight with my boyfriend When I woke up in the morning I went and picked up Creme Brulee french toast from Morning Glories. So yummy! Then I went back to sleep for several hours. Later in the evening me, Christy, and Karen took forever getting ready, just to go out to eat, which annoyed the boys. Ha ha. We went to Carrabas! I love that place! It was a really great day! Thank you Nate, Karen, Christy, and Jon for making it such an enjoyable day! I’m still enjoying a beautiful bunch of roses I can’t wait till Sunday to celebrate with everyone who couldn’t be here!

Before I go, I have to throw in a video of a dance from SYTYCD yesterday…It is my absolute favorite dance of the season. It’s sick. And they did it on my birthday, which was cool. I also love the song; it’s The Garden by Mirah. Amazingness!