Enjoying the Vikes...

We all have been enjoying the many Viking wins this year. Last weekend was exciting with the huge win over the Cowboys. However, there is a history of our team letting us down when it really counts so we are being a little cautious this year! At least I am - not sure about Ray!

And back to work I go...

This morning I made a trip to the local post office to send my certified letter to the school district stating that I intend to come back to a fulltime teaching position this fall. The letter was due by Feb. 1st, but since there is no doubt that I am going back, I decided to send it early.

Where I end up is up in the air. The district is currently trying to cut millions of dollars due to reduced funding from the state. This budget trimming will surely affect personnel and so it might require some moving around of other tenured teachers thus affecting where a position is left for me. At any rate, I am guaranteed a fulltime position in one of my licensed areas (Spanish or French) and so I really need not worry except that the job may consist of traveling between schools during the day and/or being a lot farther from our home than I might like. But I am simply excited to be going back to a job in this economy (and who would have predicted this poor economy when I first left back in 2004?!??!)

Happy New Year!

The boys are back into their school routine and we are dealing with more snow and frigid temps. The cold doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I have yet to drive to the bus stop in the morning -- except for a day a few months ago when it was raining and I had an errand to run immediately afterwards. Otherwise I get some good energy for the day walking the block or so with Connell and Liam -- it ends up being about 10-15 minutes outside which is quite manageable.

We have already had to replace our Highlander's front windshield this week after a rock hit it over the break. I also locked my keys in the car while shopping downtown Apple Valley and needed my neighbor Cyndi to venture into our house, find the spare key and drive it down to me. I also "tapped" a car while backing out of the church parking lot -- there was no real damage -- perhaps a scratch or so on ours and she couldn't really tell where I even bumped her bumper so that turned out ok. Given the terribly snowy and windy conditions today, I don't know if I should venture out!

I am preparing my first mailing for the French contest. This is the final year I will coordinate it no matter what. I am anxious to find out my teaching placement for next year although that won't be until April at the earliest. The district will be going through lots of budget cuts due to lack of state funding and so that might affect where my job ends up.

Hope you all are having a nice start to 2010...