CJ and Jenn in Jose Olé

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