sigh

I was sad when I realized my last post was about an interview... sigh... I did not get that job - or any of those jobs. I am not teaching. I accepted a position with the public schools child care facility (daycare). I am still waitressing at Colton's, since I do not make enough at the daycare to quit Colton's. I hate working at the daycare about as much as I always thought I would hate working at a daycare. I am considering quitting and trying to sub, but I am also considering trying to get a job with wal-mart corporate or proctor&gamble or another vendor. I just don't know if I want to do this instable, completely draining, 2-job schedule for a year. I have a lot of decisions to make, I am just not excited about making any of them... We have considered moving - as much as I LOVE my house, if I can't teach here, it would make more sense for us to move to Fayetteville (to an apartment) :-( and I could try to find a job down there. I just don't know. I will update when we have made some of these life decisions.

interview update

Well - I have had a couple of interviews. With school starting a week from Monday, you can imagine how intensely anxious I am. I have only had one job offer, and it was for an instructional assistant (the only position she had available) which means less than half of a teacher salary. We could not live on that, so I had to turn it down, as gutwrenching as that was. I could make more money substituting. I have another interview TODAY (Thursday) at 4:00. I am so nervous I am sick from nerves. If anyone reads this today, please say a prayer for me. It is a fourth grade position, which I would LOVE, but there are over a thousand applicants and only a few positions (only one left in the district at this time). I'll update soon!!!

I am currently working as a waitress at Colton's Steakhouse (very similar to Roadhouse). I don't know that I am very gifted at this, and it definitely is far from what I imagined doing after five years of college, but it is getting us through the summer... if you are curious, the site is www.coltonssteakhouse.com I make $2.13 an hour, plus tips - I doubt most customers realize this, I always assumed servers made minimum wage - until I became one. It's okay, but I am looking forward to a job with some stability, daytime hours, insurance and benefits... Still no news on a teaching job. Apparently it's a very competitive market here and you have to know somebody - which I don't. I'm looking into substituting, as well as Wal-Mart corporate, and other unrelated jobs. I'll post when something exciting happens in this area.  

Thomas's summer work

Thomas is working on research in the Physics department. You can see him at this link: http://www.uark.edu/misc/mbestm/people.html

And you can see more about what he is doing (kind of - he hasn't gotten very deep into it yet) at this address: http://www.uark.edu/depts/physics/research/facultyLabs/thibado.php

One of the things we do for fun once in a while now is go bowling - Jace loves it! These are when we went for his third birthday. After birthday lunch at Red Robin, we went bowling and then went to a family fun center where we played miniature golf, bumper boats (HUGE hit with Jace) and go-karts (on which he got very motion sick). He had a fun birthday - until the sick part... :-)  

Pretty good stance, huh? 

Our first game that we played here, Thomas bet me that he could beat mine and Jace's scores combined - we even wagered on it - turns out, Jace beat us both by himself. :-)  

Celebrating victory after victory! :-) 

Phew! This bowling stuff is hard work! I've got to take a break! 

We went to Red Robin for Jace's birthday dinner, where they sang to him and everything!  

Birthday Boy! Jace is THREE! 

Precious. 

Jace's ice cream sundae. 

We went to Fayetteville for the 4th of July. Here are Jace and Thomas waiting outside for fireworks (which didn't start until after 9:00, but they were pretty cool!).  

For those of you wondering about Rusty (a dog who found us wandering the streets and we took in for a while), it turns out that he lived right across the street and got out while the neighbors were out of town. So - he was happily returned to his home and happily out of ours. :-)  

Polly want a hot dog bun? We visited the Wild Wilderness Safari again.  

Open wide - like this!