New Adventure

Most of you know already the exciting news...Dereck and I will be teaching in Cairo, Egypt next year. We are ecstatic.

I'm already impressed with how the staff have been so involved in addressing our questions, concerns, and all the knitty gritty details about this transition. They perform like pros in the process. My favorite thing is they created a Facebook group for us to post any question.

The most common questions asked by our family and friends:

What is the school like?
It is a private international school for K-12 grades.

What will you be teaching?
Dereck - high school math; me - 5th grade math

What will your housing situation be like?
Housing is paid for by the school (Seriously? That is incredible.) and they help us find a furnished apartment within the first few days.

What about your pets? You LOVE your pets!
I made the most difficult decision ever yet. I'm leaving them in the care of trustworthy people as they do NOT travel well. After all, our cat is considered a Senior and it is ideal to keep her and the dogs in Phoenix. I'll miss them like crazy but this is my only drawback to teaching abroad.

Are you crazy?? You're going to Egypt?? It's in the news with all the bad stuff.
Well, no place in the world truly is "safe" and I don't think the level of safety will be any different then the "hood" I live in. As long as I'm careful of the parts of town/country I travel to, we should be just fine. Life is worth living and exploring the world. I don't need to live my life in fear.

Wait a minute...didn't you just finish remodeling a whole house?
Yes we did, and yes we have renter(s). Read the next paragraph.

For the last few years, Dereck and I have been talking about teaching abroad and how much we want to do it. There just never seemed to be the right "time." Then we realized there never will be a "right" time...just do it.

Rewind 11 years ago, I planned on doing a study abroad in college. I was saving up for it. The plans changed when I met Dereck. Instead of doing a study abroad, we got married (the best decision I made). Now I get to teach abroad with my husband, even better.

My love of travel began as a teenager. Traveling to Australia with my parents, Mexico with my Grandma, Mexico for my honeymoon. In High School, I even was an exchange student in Germany. LOVED IT!

Now it's time for our new adventure...the countdown is on: 16 days left.

Almost one year later

Some highlights of the past year (since I've been a slacker in updating this blog):

October - January

Tool & Storage shed was built and stuccoed

January

Superbowl came to town, so did the Seattle Seahawks (my hometown) and their weather

February

 A car side swiped me and took off, requiring me to remove the mirror. You can see the new gash above the door handle.

I eventually got the mirror fixed: purchased a used car part from a car part wholesaler $40, spray paint to match the car $8 and installed by me.

March

My mom and oldest sister came into town. We went to the Renaissance Festival, Japanese Friendship Garden, Fractured Prune Donuts, and explored downtown.

April

Participated in my first Bubble Run ever - I would totally do this again

June
Spent time in Utah visiting family

My sister's girls (except for her oldest)

Taught my grandparents what a selfie is

Spent time with Dereck's brother and cousins playing card games

July

Spent time out in the pool

Attended the Meldrum Reunion in Lincoln City, OR

Ate S'mores on the beach

Jogging on the beach

Life Goes On

Although the house renovation projects came to a stumbling halt once summer hit and our income became severely limited to only covering the bills, we have been hard at work in other ways.

Summer School was a blast!

My two TFA (Teach For America) teachers that I observed and mentored.

She may not quite be on task but putting the tape on her bun....funny.

Worked on Dereck's mom's bathroom after their plumbing had flooding issues. Too bad I didn't take an after picture. New shower pan installed, new sink installed, new plumbing in the bathroom. Bathroom is now functional!

Earlier in the summer, Dereck installed the mailbox. The old one literally had fallen off its post.

Willy and Janie love their yard space. This is how we find them when we get home. 

We also returned to work for a new school year. Coaching is back in session.

I'm incredibly proud of these students. They all tested above grade level on the beginning of the year STAR Math test (a product our school uses on the computers that tells us what grade level that student's abilities are at). Only 4 of these students are current 4th graders. All the rest of the students in this picture are current 5th graders. Last year, most of those kiddos were barely on grade level. Also pictured is our school Principal and Assistant Principal.

On my birthday, I walked into our staff meeting to find my grade level had worked with the students on putting theses together. It made my heart melt. I got to leave the meeting early to head to a bowling alley downtown with Dereck and attended a Stand Up Comedy Show next door to the bowling alley.  I had a splendid birthday!

Plus I had a double white headed zit on my chin for my 30th birthday. See it?

Then the next day, Dereck broke two of his toes. One toe has 4 total breaks in it while the other toe has 2 breaks. He has to wear a medical boot for the next few weeks.

Today, I was extremely amazed with this class for working so hard. I literally saw EVERY student on task or helping their neighbor. This class usually has a hard time staying on task. Plus, I had 3 eighth grade helpers during this time. I had them assisting students one-on-one.

Look at the above "ST Math" wall (I need to change it to say STAR Math). Each colored section represents the 4 fourth grade homerooms. The cards represent each student. The names below the red line are all the students in that class that are behind grade level in Math. The names between the green and red line are on grade level. The names above the green line are above grade level. This is what I'm working with this year. Here is to hard work to get these kiddos on grade level!!!

Settling In

Now that we're moved in, here's proof that we put up pictures within the first week (instead of waiting 2-3 years like we've been known to do in the past).

Guest Room/My office - Dereck and I decided with such small rooms, and because I sometimes drive him crazy if I'm doing work at home on my computer, that I would have my "office" in the guest room. Therefore, I'm paying tribute to my Seattle homage.

Next to my computer is my Bachelor's Degree and my new distinguished award: Teacher of the Year award

Up close on my award

In singing fashion to the popular song...."I Feel Happy"

In the hallway (Dereck didn't like where I had it at the Townhouse since it was the only spot left at the time this was received, above the Toilet. He wasn't keen on peeing and seeing a picture of us. Neither did our male friends. I don't blame them.) Thus, it takes center stage in the Hallway here.

Due to having no closet in our Master Bedroom, this is our wardrobe closet from IKEA

(Yes, it really is true. We don't make our bed and Whisper loves to sleep on my side of the bed. Probably because she doesn't get accidentally whacked on my side of the bed.)

My side

Our socks, underclothing and the like drawers

His side

Whisper is queen of the bed

Last week, it was back to work for me with Summer School. Our program partners up with Teach for America and I become sort of the "mentor teacher" to two "student teachers." I only had to lesson plan and teach the first two days until the student teachers took over for the remainder of the program. I sit in the corner, observing, taking notes, giving guidance, and have fun watching "fresh" ideas come into play into the classroom. Here is a prime example with a fun game called "Captain's Coming." This rendition reminds me of the Fruit Basket game we played growing up.

"Captain's Coming" game - Mermaid was the phrase called so each student has to wave and say "Howdy Sailors." Yes, it's hilarious watching the students but the fact that the male student teachers doing this is beyond hysterical. 

With that, we've started taking it easy at the house. Almost too easy since we're barely getting any projects done. We did create the shelves for our linen/bathroom closet but I was in no mood to prime and paint the shelves yet. That will come in time as well as putting up the door for the closet.

Tired is the name of the Game

It has been over a week since I have last posted...I'm still tired but we're getting super close to the finish line.

First off, it started with a trip to the car shop. Our car had been overheating when in idle so we've had to be extremely careful with it. Not only that, the A/C would stop working if you weren't moving. Traffic lights and slow drivers became my enemy until we could get our paycheck to take the car into the shop. While in the shop, the mechanic took me to the car and showed me what was going on and this is what I saw:

The Mechanic using a Fluke Meter (for those who don't know, before my dad passed away, he worked for Fluke for over 30 years helping design the software for these devices)

In addition to getting the car fixed, we had to get ourselves moved out of our Townhome. Here's to continuing our moving trek with amazing friends, Diego and Aaron helping us out.

In the house we've completed the following:

Textured and Painted the Guest Room

 The Guest Room shown above is the same location as the above photo taken before any clean up began. Quite a drastic change.

I'm tired and hot...keep in mind, we still don't have A/C installed yet at this point and it has reached 108-113 degrees outside. That meant it would be around 100 degrees inside the house.

 Insert photo here of how ugly my feet have become. Oh wait, I'm sure you don't want that mental image. I'm still trying to get my feet to recover from being so callused.

The guest room got the ceiling fan installed

Dereck working on the flooring in the hallway and Office

1 of 2 boxes of China we've had packed for the last 9 years with no place to put them except for the Garage.

Oh look, we finally have cupboard space in the Kitchen to put some of the China.

Dereck and I finally went out for an Anniversary dinner 3 days after our Anniversary to celebrate. This was also the Friday night after everything had been moved out of our Townhome. All that was left to do was the final cleaning and submit our keys. We were thoroughly excited and yes, this food was so delicious.

Whisper did NOT like being put into a moving box for the move at all. Yet, she blossomed amazingly well after an hour at our new pad. Here she is trying to stay cool despite being in a hot house with no A/C.

Here's Willy and Janie looking through the screen door. Although they want to follow us around the house, they LOVE the yard space.

Dereck continuing the hallway flooring and our temporary shoe space to avoid walking on the clean floor with filthy shoes.

Part of keeping the pets cool, I would give them a partial bath in the bathtub. None of them like baths but I knew it was needed to help keep their bodies from overheating. Here's Whisper with wet fur.

Whisper chilling in the window, loving the new pad too.

Willy plopping himself anywhere near where we were working

The flooring got completed in the Guest room too!

Another one of Whisper's favorite places: sitting at the back screen door (this was prior to A/C/ being installed)

Dereck laying out the Bamboo for the Living Room floor

We worked late until Tuesday night to get the flooring done in the Living Room. I was too tired to help with the Dining Room, plus I had to get up early the next morning to return to work for Summer School.

This is what I went to bed seeing in the Dining Room

This is what I woke up to Wednesday morning.
I felt like it was Christmas.

Setting up our entertainment area

With so many boxes from the Bamboo flooring and everything, we truly had a messy yard. Most of it got loaded into the truck and went down our alley emptying the truck contents into the trash cans through our alley.

Entertainment area still being organized

Living Room is starting to form

Here's a guessing game: Can you guess what is happening?

Finally, drum roll please......our A/C was installed yesterday. I slept AMAZINGLY well last night. I even needed a blanket after a week of sleeping in a room that was in the 90-95 degree temperature range. I don't care that the A/C is set to 80 degrees (previously our normal would have been around 75 degrees). It feels like Antarctica compared to what I had gotten used too. Plus, Whisper is much more active now that the house is cooler. She acts like she owns the place. Meanwhile, Willy and Janie are over at the in-laws house. They had been since Monday as they weren't doing so good with the heat. Today, we'll be bringing them to a "cool" house!