Travel Dreams

My Travel Dreams

I've said many times that I would travel anywhere in the world where it is safe to travel (no war, American hatred, etc). Below are some of the places that come to mind. When any of you win the lottery & are thinking about how to use your winnings, please keep my list in mind.

• Maine/New England: I've been to NYC, but most places I've been on the East coast are Virginia & south. I've seen advertised in magazines New England/Maine riverboat cruises. They look adorable and I imagine that there would be lots of delicious lobster. Scott doesn't like lobster, so I'd have to bring along some Goodcents in a cooler.
• Brazil (specifically Rio de Janeiro): my grandma Worswick had a charm bracelet & as her and my grandpa traveled the world, they would collect charms for it. Growing up, I always loved her charm of Christ the Redeemer that they bought in Brazil. Since then, I've always wanted to see the statue in person.
• Santorini, Greece: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants...that is all.
• Prince Edward Island: My parents get to go here this year and I really want to hide in their luggage! Plus, I'm sure I would find a bosom friend in Avonlea.
• Italy: Sigh. Our church choir is planning a group trip around Italy for summer 2011. If I get a full-time teaching job this fall, we might be able to go. I know they have a payment plan which is really nice. I sort of feel like if we didn't go to Italy now, we probably wouldn't be able to go until we have kids who are old enough to really appreciate it (high school/college aged), and that would be pretty expensive, since we plan to have 43 children. For those of you reading this who have been to Italy, here is info on the trip including a link to the PowerPoint the woman at our church put together who is planning the trip. What do you think? If you had to guess, how much do you think this trip would cost for 2 people to do on their own?
  
• Egypt: safety issues aside, I would love to go to Egypt. In college, I had a wonderful Sunday school teacher who did a unit on Egyptian culture, specifically their views on afterlife. Additionally, I took 3 art history classes at KU and one of them was a general survey of the topic so we did get to talk a lot about Egyptian art. When we went to the Louvre, I spent waaay too much time in the Egyptian art exhibit - I just love it!
• England...or anywhere in the UK: I love hearing my husband talk in a pseudo-British accent, and he loves British culture/Harry Potter, so I'd love to see him visit a place he's always wanted to see.
  

Places I've been but would love to go back:

• Paris (France in general)
• Australia
• Jamaica, specifically the Jamaica Inn in Ochos Rios (www.jamaicainn.com)
  
• New Zealand
• Vancouver
• Nicaragua

Again...I really would go anywhere! When I'm a rich & famous teacher, we'll finally be able to afford all these trips. :o)

XOXO,
Michelle

Job Hunt 2010

2010: The Year of Finding a Teaching Job
As most of you know, I recently completed my student teaching in a high school business department here in Kansas City...and loved it! Unfortunately, from what I hear from current teachers as well as Avila University staff, it is going to be very difficult to find a high school business teaching job for the 2010-2011 school year. I began to research different options as far as what I should do for the next school year. I'm a para right now in a high school and really enjoy working with the kids...but our mortgage doesn't really enjoy the paycheck. :)

According to one of my favorite Avila staff members, various district recruiters, & current teachers, I need to make myself "more marketable", meaning I need to get certified in another area. Now that I have my certification in one area, I just have to take a content area test for a new subject and I can be certified in that area. Well, after reviewing the possible certification areas, I've decided to try to also get my middle school math certification - weird! I was in advanced math classes starting in 6th grade...but my parents remind me that I cried about it so much because I didn't think I could handle it. Hopefully this additional certification will open up many more employment opportunities for me so I can really begin my teaching career. I bought all the Praxis math study stuff today and I'm going to have to re-teach myself quite a bit and I hope it goes smoothly. I'll obviously still be looking for HS business jobs out there, but I just want to be as employable as possible, and math would definitely help. Here we goooo!!

My new mini!

Bonjour Mini!

Meet my new Dell Inspiron Mini...with a bird pattern! My HP laptop had served me well for 4+ years but has started to have a few problems lately (i.e. it typically only works when I press down on a specific spot with my elbow...which makes it very difficult to type). Maybe with my new mini will come new blogging, if anyone even reads this!

Hello? Are you out there?

Student Teaching has Begun!

Well my peeps, I have been at student teaching for a little over a week now, and it's going well! I haven't really taught anything yet (except for starting a lesson when my teacher had to step out). Next week I do my first full-blown lesson...freshmen want to learn about supply & demand, right?

I'm also helping with cheerleading, which I hope will be really fun! There are 12 girls on varsity and 11 yell leaders on varsity - what?! The two head coaches are really sweet and make me feel welcome.

This might sound weird, but knowing that my girl Corinne (your my girl, Corinne [Forrest Gump voice]) went to this school makes it feel more like home. I haven't gotten lost yet, which is awesome. Also, I have a sweet school lanyard and name badge that make me feel official.

I apologize for the boring-ness of my post this time around. Hopefully I'll have funny stories for you soon. But now, I will leave you with a picture of my new "teacher tote"!

XOXO,
Michelle

Anticipated E-Mail

Hi friends!

Never have I anticipated an e-mail so much. I was supposed to receive my student teaching placement this week! I have been checking my Avila e-mail once every other hour this week - no joke. I don't get many emails to this account and so far this week I've had two. Here are the subject lines from those two e-mails:

• You have a bill from Avila University
• Swine Flu Information

Sigh.

I did finally receive an email from Avila saying that they're still waiting on final confirmations from some districts on placements. I have a feeling I wasn't the only anxious students and that the Avila staff was getting a variety of e-mails and phone calls about it.

I hope by the end of next week, I'll have some more details!

The Perfect Recipe Box

I have been looking for quite some time now for "the perfect recipe box." First, I started at antique shops thinking I wanted a tin one with a lot of history. After looking around, I realized that I wanted a new one....I wanted to be the one to get it dirty, to get sauce on the bottom, and burn one of the edges (which we all know is inevitable).

I bought a new one online a few months ago and it looked a lot different in person when it arrived. I recently sold it on eBay and I think I might have turned a small profit!

But tonigiht, I think I find "the perfect recipe box." Here....ladies and gentlemen (but mostly ladies)....is my soon-to-arrive recipe box & matching cards!

Love it! There is a bird, a pitcher, and two cake stands involved.

Hip hip, hooray!

XOXO,
Michelle

A Snowy Sunday

Bonjour everyone!

So, I'm sitting on our couch doing homework....and am loving what I'm doing! I guess that's a good sign! One of my assignments for my Business Education course is to bring a list of online teaching resources that we have research. I find myself unusually interested in classroom templates, classroom lists, and new teacher blogs. AAAHHHH!!! I'm just so excited to be a teacher. I find out at the end of April where my student teaching placement will be and I can't wait.

On a different note, on Friday, Scott discovered CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture). He was really interested and explained the concept to me a bit. On Saturday, we went to a local/organic food expo in Shawnee and signed up for a CSA! Every Thursday for 22 weeks, we'll go to a pick up point and get a box of the farm's freshest stuff! The weekly cost is very similar to the cost of produce at HyVee, but is local and all organic. Additionally, the farm we're part of also makes body products like soaps and creams, so we get a new body product every week! The owner said if tomatoes are ripe, we'll get tomato basil soap, etc. How freakin' cute!

We're both hoping that this will "force" us to try different fruits and veggies that we might not normally try (which for me....would be every vegetable). Oh, and our pick up point is about 8 minutes from our house - how perfect!

Love you all....

I'm not very good at this blog thing. However, here are some things I am good at:

• Eating
• Watching Jon & Kate + 8
• Organizing
• Snuggling
• Making farting noises
• Buying tote bags

What are YOU good at?

XOXO,
Michelle

Fall Day!

Last weekend, I spent a delightful fall day with my mom and pops! We drove up to Weston but first made a "quick" side-trip to J.Jill where my mom got some super cute new clothes, including this adorable jacket. I'm putting a picture of the back up...because I love it!

We got to Weston's Red Barn Farm where we proceeded to take lots of pumpkin pictures and were amazed by the mass amounts of people there! After the farm, we headed across the street to Vaughn's Apple Orchard where we enjoyed apple cider slushes. I also had an apple fritter (i.e. donut). Delicious!

Umm...also, my mom is pretty much amazing. We both love fall so much and have started a variety of traditions to celebrate it (Cider Days in Topeka, mom's homemade pumpkin bread) but this year, when I was in Topeka, Mom surprised me with a Happy Fall gift! She gave me 3 fall colored tea towels, the fall issue of a tea magazine, and a Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin air freshner for my car. What the awesome?!

Also, mad props to Kim for finishing the KC 1/2 Marathon....she even did it faster than she had planned! Way to go Sis!!

Why I Don't Cook

Here's a little story about why I don't cook. I really like to...and I know I'll get better with time. But, in the mean time, I'm usually a crazy mess in the kitchen. The other night, I decided to make a recipe for mac & cheese I had found in Cooking Light. Yummy!There were some normal Michelle mistakes along the way. Let's just say a tend to make a mess when I cook....like dropping an oven mitt and whisk at the same time, letting melted cheese splatter on the floor. Somehow I also got cheese on the window frame above our kitchen sink. After I put the mac into a baking pan, I realized I forgot to spray it with Pam. So....then, I decided that maybe I could shift the mac around the pan and then spray it....? Oh wait, Michelle, be smart. Get out a new baking pan! Geesh. I'm a domestic genius.


Well THEN, I put twice as many bread crumbs on top as I was supposed to, so I tried to get rid of some of them....



But while I was making a mess, I decided that my dinner was actually starting to smell really good! Mac & cheese, fall was in the air, in fact, I could even smell a campfire in my imagination. Well, that imaginary smell of a crisp fall campfire....was my wood turner burning. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I don't cook.