Rewind and Recap

Where should I begin??? I guess I'll start with a simple Table of Contents:

Business -
My business is a little slow because of the summer, but it's picking up. I have a home show this week and one the following week. I have a big event coming up at the end of September (24-26) in Greenwood. The Seattle Community is having their yearly festival with food, music, activities and vendors. The event direct invited/requests Usborne be one of the vendors. I hope to get some amazing sales and leads for home shows. My teaching friend lives in the community and she says all of her neighbors love Usborne books, so I'm really excited. I also have another event coming up in October at the Everett Home and Gift Show (Oct 22-24). These events should really help my business grow and hopefully I can significantly increasing my income. I workedthe aUsborne Booth at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe and got some great leads. I have a few people who may sign up to become Independent Consultants. It would be fun to have someone new to work with!!! Fall is a really big time for this business because schools and preschools do fundraisers and events. I hope to have good news soon.

Over the summer, I took a short break from my business http://www.buybonniesbooks.com/. I wanted to focus on applying for jobs and really focus my effort on getting a job. After 8-10 applications (or more - it started getting depressing to keep track) and ZERO interviews, I unhappily report that I do not have a full/part time teaching job this year. I was, however, able to get on the exclusive/competitive Northshore School District Substitute list. Add that to the Edmonds sub list and I might actually keep pretty busy this year. School has just started and at the beginning of the year there are virtually NO sub calls because teachers need to be in their classrooms setting up routines. I expect that the 5:00AM calls will start sometime in the next 3-4 weeks. There are always plenty of calls during homecoming week because teachers don't want to deal with the super short periods and super rowdy students. Oh boy!

Nathan and School

Nathan has been doing great in his classes! He even made the Dean's List for his grades. I'm very proud of him. I'm also very jealous because he's getting better grades than I did. Which wouldn't make me that jealous except I know he's working full time and getting better grades than I did, and I only worked part time. And even that wouldn't be so upsetting except I know that he watches TV while he does his homework!!! He likes to try to play it off and say that his classes aren't that difficult or say that he's just faking it. Oh yeah, Faking a 4.0 is so easy - other people are just to lazy to fake it - Sheeesh! Ya make the rest of us look bad. He recently took a Spanish placement test to find out how much Spanish he has to take. As a result, this fall he will be taking: International Media Images, Criminology, and Comparative Courts and Law. His classes don't start until September 29th so we are enjoying spending time together in the evening and catching up with friends. He'll be quite the CSI when he's done. Hahaha! Next June he'll be graduating and then applying for the FBI academy.

Summer School

While I wasn't able to get a job for the fall I did stay busy over the summer. I was able to get hired at a tutoring center: Mill Creek Education http://www.millcreekedu.com/. I got a part time job teaching summer camp for new freshmen. I also had classes of SAT prep students for writing and critical reading. In the freshmen camp I taught Romeo and Juliet. Most 9th graders in WA learn about Romeo and Juliet, so they got a short unit (boot camp) that will help them this coming year. It was a lot of work, and since I was hourly it ended up being a lot of unpaid work. But the experience was great and I wouldn't take it back. The SAT work was less fun. I discovered that while I do feel it is important for students to be critical readers, I don't feel a strong sense of urgency when it comes to being able to do it quickly on a timed, standardized test. Teaching the SAT stuff maybe isn't the best fit for me. The director of the tutor center really likes me so she'll keep me as busy as possible.

Weddings and More Weddings

Weddings kept us busy this summer. Here and there. In June we had weddings two weekends in a row. First, in Spokane, Nathan's sister got married. It was a perfect day (not too hot) and the location was beautiful. The ceremony and reception were casual and very fun. It was great to see the family and spend some time catching up with those we haven't seen in a year. The whether forecast called for afternoon rain, but the storm held off until after 10pm. The sky lit up with lightning. It was quite the show. I love storms! Nathan, Nick and I were able to help Dennis get the four younger kids into one bed, quiet and asleep. The next weekend it was Amber's wedding. The location was lovely. Simply beautiful. Although it was pretty warm there was the occasional breeze that made it very nice. The rest of the weddings were for my friends, and there is another one coming at the end of September for one of Nathan's old co-workers. After that I think we will be done for a while.

In Other News

We applied for our passports. On the application it asks when your travel dates are. Because we don't have specific travel plans we just left it blank. When the woman at the application office was reviewing our paper work she noticed we didn't write anything. She asked "no specific travel plans?" I laughed a little and said, "No, just dreams." She laughed a little. Anyway, passports are good for 10 years so we'll use them before they expire. Hopefully.