Sunday, August 27, 2006
There is never a dull moment...
Sorry we haven't posted in a while but life has been crazy!!! There are at least 6 major happenings since we last posted!
On August 18th we celebrated our 5th anniversary! It seems crazy that as of next year exactly 1/2 of our relationship will be married. We talked about celebrating it later b/c Jennifer's school has started and we have no open weekends but Jennifer can't follow her own rules and she got me 5 cards (for 5 years... I'd better get stock in Hallmark) and a BBQ grill. I love grilling on it! It's a big gas grill that takes up most of our deck but I like it!
Also on that weekend Rob, Christina, and Jesi came down and were supposed to pick up our truck on the way down but it wasn't ready so Rob and I drove up to Ashland and back on the 19th. It was such a surreal experiance. First off they were $500 over the amount they told me about and the owner was "at lunch" when we got there so they couldn't do anything about it. Rob and I decided to go and drive around Ashland and find him so we could get on the road. We found him and interrupted his lunch. I was not happy b/c he was taking advantage of the fact that I would probably never see him again and he knew I would have to pay whatever he wanted. After much debate and arguing I got him back down to the amount we talked about and we were on our way. It was so wierd...
On Monday morning I had some training for the school district and I found out that I had been told that school started on the wrong day. I thought school started on the 30th and I had a week to get my classroom ready but in actuality it started on the 23rd and I had less then 48 hours to get my classroom in order and plan for the students to show up! I started freaking out!! On Monday we worked for 10 hours and on Tuesday we worked for 14 and I was ready for the students when they came Wednesday morning. It was insane, but we made it!
So as I mentioned above school has started and I'm officially teaching 5th grade in the inner-city school of San Jose Unified that has one of the lowest test scores in CA. With all the graffiti I saw on the school I worried that the students were going to be all "thugged out" and violence was really going to be an issue. As it turns out the students are great and so far I've really got them under control. Routines and expectations are really important b/c any down time and they will start to get into trouble. My planning needs to be really purposeful and organized. So far I'm doing well and I thank God for my experiance in Bremerton. Those kids were much harder then these ones (so far)!
Well we found a church and we have made our first friend in San Jose. Our church is a little church that is supported by this big church in San Jose. You can check out the big church's site at www.svcc.com. The church is awesome and really what I see our home church, Manette Community Church, becoming in the future. It has no programs of it's own now and I really am excited to get in and start leading stuff right away! I am totally viewing this as a mission trip! Our new friend is someone I met in one of my trainings who is my age and is a first year teacher. She is teaching 5th grade and has lived in San Jose most of her life. Her name is Rula and Jennifer and her get along really great! She is pretty heavy into the local music and arts scene here in SJ so she's always got something fun for us to do that doesn't cost much! Last Thursday we went to see that 90's band, Soul Asylum, play in the park. One of the people who came with us had a 5 year old boy whose dad hasn't been home in a long time b/c he's in the Navy. That kid latched onto me and we wrestled and I threw him around the whole time. Playing with that kid and always looking in on Sarah and Andy's blog and watching what they are going through has really got us looking forward to having kids...
We knew that in a few years it was going to happen but as it turns out it is going to happen sooner than we thought. Shane is moving in with us next weekend. As it turns out he is only a few classes away from completing his prereqs for Palmer and all of the classes he needs he can take here in a shortened form. If he comes here he can be ready to start Palmer in the fall of next year. I am really looking forward to him living with us b/c since he joined the Coast Guard I've only seen him a week or two a year. It'll be cool to just hang out with him again.
Life just seems to keep going and going but we're glad b/c hopefully we can get through these next few years quickly and be back up in WA in no time! We miss our friends, our family and our church up there but we really look forward to seeing everyong again around Christmas. We'll try and post some pictures of our church, my classroom and our house (maybe my grill!) later but I wanted to get something on here now b/c I have time.
God Bless,
CJ
Sorry we haven't posted in a while but life has been crazy!!! There are at least 6 major happenings since we last posted!
On August 18th we celebrated our 5th anniversary! It seems crazy that as of next year exactly 1/2 of our relationship will be married. We talked about celebrating it later b/c Jennifer's school has started and we have no open weekends but Jennifer can't follow her own rules and she got me 5 cards (for 5 years... I'd better get stock in Hallmark) and a BBQ grill. I love grilling on it! It's a big gas grill that takes up most of our deck but I like it!
Also on that weekend Rob, Christina, and Jesi came down and were supposed to pick up our truck on the way down but it wasn't ready so Rob and I drove up to Ashland and back on the 19th. It was such a surreal experiance. First off they were $500 over the amount they told me about and the owner was "at lunch" when we got there so they couldn't do anything about it. Rob and I decided to go and drive around Ashland and find him so we could get on the road. We found him and interrupted his lunch. I was not happy b/c he was taking advantage of the fact that I would probably never see him again and he knew I would have to pay whatever he wanted. After much debate and arguing I got him back down to the amount we talked about and we were on our way. It was so wierd...
On Monday morning I had some training for the school district and I found out that I had been told that school started on the wrong day. I thought school started on the 30th and I had a week to get my classroom ready but in actuality it started on the 23rd and I had less then 48 hours to get my classroom in order and plan for the students to show up! I started freaking out!! On Monday we worked for 10 hours and on Tuesday we worked for 14 and I was ready for the students when they came Wednesday morning. It was insane, but we made it!
So as I mentioned above school has started and I'm officially teaching 5th grade in the inner-city school of San Jose Unified that has one of the lowest test scores in CA. With all the graffiti I saw on the school I worried that the students were going to be all "thugged out" and violence was really going to be an issue. As it turns out the students are great and so far I've really got them under control. Routines and expectations are really important b/c any down time and they will start to get into trouble. My planning needs to be really purposeful and organized. So far I'm doing well and I thank God for my experiance in Bremerton. Those kids were much harder then these ones (so far)!
Well we found a church and we have made our first friend in San Jose. Our church is a little church that is supported by this big church in San Jose. You can check out the big church's site at www.svcc.com. The church is awesome and really what I see our home church, Manette Community Church, becoming in the future. It has no programs of it's own now and I really am excited to get in and start leading stuff right away! I am totally viewing this as a mission trip! Our new friend is someone I met in one of my trainings who is my age and is a first year teacher. She is teaching 5th grade and has lived in San Jose most of her life. Her name is Rula and Jennifer and her get along really great! She is pretty heavy into the local music and arts scene here in SJ so she's always got something fun for us to do that doesn't cost much! Last Thursday we went to see that 90's band, Soul Asylum, play in the park. One of the people who came with us had a 5 year old boy whose dad hasn't been home in a long time b/c he's in the Navy. That kid latched onto me and we wrestled and I threw him around the whole time. Playing with that kid and always looking in on Sarah and Andy's blog and watching what they are going through has really got us looking forward to having kids...
We knew that in a few years it was going to happen but as it turns out it is going to happen sooner than we thought. Shane is moving in with us next weekend. As it turns out he is only a few classes away from completing his prereqs for Palmer and all of the classes he needs he can take here in a shortened form. If he comes here he can be ready to start Palmer in the fall of next year. I am really looking forward to him living with us b/c since he joined the Coast Guard I've only seen him a week or two a year. It'll be cool to just hang out with him again.
Life just seems to keep going and going but we're glad b/c hopefully we can get through these next few years quickly and be back up in WA in no time! We miss our friends, our family and our church up there but we really look forward to seeing everyong again around Christmas. We'll try and post some pictures of our church, my classroom and our house (maybe my grill!) later but I wanted to get something on here now b/c I have time.
God Bless,
CJ
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Here's a few more pics of the apt. As you can see we're just rattling around in this thing so there is plenty of room if'n you wanna come down and see us!
God Bless.
What a long, strange trip it's been...
Where do I start this post? Let's just say that we've been moving in since we got here and we're still a long ways from it! Two days after we got down here my mom and dad were supposed to drive my truck down and it was doing great... until it saw California in the distance. Six miles from the state line it decided to overheat and the transmission decided that it was done. My truck is still in Ashland, Oregon. I guess moving down here wasn't expensive enough so now I had to pay almost $1,500 more to get this truck fixed. Thank God I don't have to go up there and bring it down. Rob, Christina, and Jesi Law are going to come down and visit us next weekend and they are going to pick up my truck and drive it down. God has blessed us with so many awesome people in our lives... we just can't complain about anything. He is totally working for us being down here!
As we sold our furniture in Washington (my old bachelor pad, futon furniture) we had to go out and buy new stuff and after telling us it would take two weeks to get it delivered it was delivered 4 days after ordering it- we even ordered it with custom colors! Jennifer loves it and I got to barter with the person who was selling it so I'm happy. We also bought a bed down here because of the bedroom set Jim (Jenn's dad) made for us but little did we know that in California a REGULAR king size mattress is special order. They don't even have them in stock so we're staying in the guest room until this weekend when it is supposed to show up. It has been very wierd spending money with no real money coming it yet (I'm still getting paid from my district in Bremerton but that's coming to a close soon).
We're getting pretty savvy with the roads here. We're going out and trying to find someplace new everyday in another part of the city. Unlike your cities in Washington it is really spread out. California cities seem to be that way. We're intentionally getting lost often and trying to meander our way around and find our way home... "it's for fun."
Luna seems to be taking this pretty hard. She's okay with the heat and all but she just seems wierd, like we're going to leave her or something. She freaks out when we leave the house and when she's with us she seems all nervous. Last night we took her to a movie in the park and she just sat on our laps the whole time, she wasn't interested in all the people running around or anything. It wasn't like her at all. Hopefully she'll get better as we're here longer. Today we went to Petsmart and brought her and she got to meet some local puppies so she was pretty happy today.
My school is under this major remodel and I can't set up my classroom yet. IF the contractors finish on Monday like they are supposed to the movers will be in to move my stuff on Tuesday and maybe I'll be able to start setting up Wednesday... night after my 8 hours of training that I have to go to each day next week. Jennifer's school starts this weekend and I'm going to try to start planning my curriculum (though I was told if I teach nothing at all but keep the kids from killing each other I'll do better than the teacher in my place last year). I'm excited about starting school but though the SJUSD was voted the 5th best district to work in I think it is because of all the money it gets. Last year my principal said she got over $250,000 in Title 1 funds and she seemed like she couldn't spend it fast enough. I've got 3 new Mac's in my classroom as well as my own ibook (mine and renewable every two years). I've got my own boxlight and a bunch of other stuff I'll have to learn how to use with it! The issue is going to be the lives of the students. This is an inner-city school. 76% of the students speak Spanish at home and half of my class is reading 2 whole grade levels behind before they start school this fall. I hope I am up to the task of being the type of teacher these students need to succeed. Lord knows I'll give it all I've got.
All in all we're settling in down here. We're off to find a home church this weekend and we're really hoping to get involved right away. It's hard when we so loved the church we were at when we were in Bremerton, but we're viewing this as a mission trip and one we'll hopefully return home with a lot of knowledge and some real experiances to help make us better Christians and better able to serve our church there (We miss you MCC!).
I've posted a picture and will post more after a fine dinner of steak fajitas that my loving wife has prepared for me. God Bless and know that we are praying for you often!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Over 800 miles in 24 hours... we're tired! We're finally at our apartment and have just begun carrying the stuff from our packed-full 14 foot trailer up to our 3rd floor apartment (no elevator!) in 95 degree heat. The floorplan is awesome but we ran into some issues with the apartment right off of the bat. The carpets were awful and we told them that they needed to be really cleaned or replaced or we'll be moving somewhere else. They quickly set up an appointment to get it cleaned. It was kind of disappointing to us as we had high expectations for the place and to find it so poorly maintained. It sounds like they are willing and ready to fix everything but we'll see how that pans out. We've got 30 days to try this place out and if we decide to leave we get 100% of our $ back so we'll get everything done w/in that time period. CJ's supposed to get fingerprinted tomorrow for school and other then that we have a week to get our house ready. Thank goodness Mom, Dad, Shane and his girlfriend (also named Jennifer) are coming down Thursday to help us for the weekend! It's sort of sinking in that we're really down here and... *sniff, sniff* don't know anyone... Write often!!!
