Out with the old...

Here's what our house looked like last Friday morning...

About $8,000 later, we had a new roof, flashing over our gutters, and a new flat roof over our entrance.

This was just the beginning of the madness.

Ray's been out of town the past few days as he is having meetings in Colorado. I've been subbing every single day in middle school. While I enjoy the age of the students (grades 5-8), I haven't enjoyed the lesson plans all that much. I haven't taught a single thing! I give tests, police as students work on presentations, show movies, and play silly games. I just crave the chance to actually teach a lesson; a real one. While I don't blame the teachers (lesson plans are way easier when tests/projects are involved and they don't know who they are getting to sub), I struggle to stay awake half the time. It's also nice having 2 free planning periods and lunch. However, I have nothing to do during this time of solitude. Perhaps I can bring a book-- but I feel as though I should be working while I'm being paid. I've never known a school to have no additional preparations, copies, or grading that needed to be done... except this one! Today I spent my FIVE free periods in the library sorting books and helping students with homework. I nearly grabbed a mop-- I was that bored. 

I also struggle with this issue of over qualification. I am continually humbled. I am a credentialed teacher in two states and I can teach K-9. I just passed both tests that Illinois required (with flying colors, yay!) to officially transfer my credential to permanent status, and I have experience. I have graduate school under my belt and I'm even teaching a graduate course in education! Needless to say, substitute teaching has been a bit of a struggle. The great part of this experience, however, is getting to meet all of these educators and create connections. I am a sub in 3 districts (though I have only actually worked for 2 despite having been called by all 3) and I have met lots of great people-- and some notsogreat. I have created a great relationship with the sub caller in one of the districts and she has kept me busy! The primary elementary school I sub at are incredibly welcoming and other teachers have even referred to me as "awesome" when finding out I'll be covering for them. So, that does feel good. But I tell you... nothing would feel better than to actually teach a whole, brand new lesson from start to finish. I sure miss that.

On another note... I went for a run this afternoon in the rain and saw a ton of animals! It appears that they come out when all the humans go inside from rain. I saw 7 bunnies, 2 Cardinals, and about 10 baby geese with their mom. It was really serene and beautiful. 

My final Pièce de résistance today was this:

Yes... it's from Taco Bell. I stopped in because I saw a sign. I was a sucker for their advertisement! Anyhow, it tastes like a refreshing virgin margarita. For about $1.50, I am a fan! While I was there, the man next to me proceeded to order about 10 menu items and followed his order with, "for here" as he paid the nearly $20 for his personal feast! Where could all that food possibly go? I have more inappropriate things to say... but I'll refrain. Perhaps I've been hanging around with too many "mature" middle schoolers lately. I'm jaded.

Random Suburbia

Here are our beautiful new flower hangings, complete with flowers. I have my husband to thank for 100% of the effort.

This tree has been out of control with flowers. It's gorgeous and "snows" onto our deck often.

I haven't seen a lawn decorated like this since we were flocked back in Redondo Beach. Isn't he a lucky 18-year old? Would any of you consider doing this to someone? It's a bit odd, no?

Check out this spectacle. This would be Ray's first official time ever mowing a lawn. And, we own the mower. We're big time. Haha.

Driving here is no different than in LA. People are impatient and crazy. This guy was quite fine being in the intersection repeatedly. I had about 3 photos from different lights. What a crazy.

Hm. Strange.

Here's a sneak peak at the big dining room reveal. I'll post photos after we get the table (Sunday) and the chairs (unknown). We still haven't chosen those. It's pretty exciting! This was at the 1st coat of oil-based primer stage.

On another note, I turned in 3 packets of substitute materials for 3 districts in the area. They aren't the closest ones to our house (7-10 miles away), but they're the only ones accepting new applicants at this time. I turned the packets in on Monday, had an interview for eligibility on Wednesday for one of the districts, and subbed for the first time on Thursday! I subbed in 4th grade for a school in Darien. It was a great day. Here are some observations:

- Indoor schools are awesome! Once the jacket comes off, it's off for the duration of the school day.
- Having 22 students in a regular 4th grade classroom is incredible. I went from 32-36 in California, depending on the time of day. Having 22 4th graders is a walk in the park.
- Reading levels are tested in 4th grade here in IL. I observed another teacher giving reading assessments in the hallway all day.
- They had an entire hour of art and 30 minutes of PE of which I had no responsibility other than dropping them off. During this time, I graded all the papers. I hope she was okay that I did. I simply had nothing else to do.
- None of the teachers in the teacher's lounge spoke to me. I talked with a one-on-one aide and another sub.
- I used my first walkie talkie on duty at lunch recess---the only recess they had! I guess when you have PE everyday, you don't need a lot of recesses. A snack time was designated between a class transition for 5 minutes.
- I loved being back in a classroom... even if it was just subbing and giving tests nearly the entire day. I gave 3 tests and was able to grade them all (multi pages) because there were so few kids and so much down time!
- The teacher had a mounted SmartBoard, tablet PC, and a laptop in her room. I didn't see any computers for student use, though (only in their computer lab).
- The Darien school district I subbed for only has 2 schools; one elementary and one middle. Weird, huh?
- The 3 districts I applied to for subbing have fewer schools than Torrance Unified, of which I worked for in California (total).

I'd be subbing today as well, but I assumed that the call I received was from a roofer and not a district. Bummer. I didn't listen to the message until it was too late. They also asked if I was interested in subbing 4th grade for the same school, though different teacher (I met her) next Friday. I sure hope it isn't too late since I'm sure she's called others since last night. Even if I only sub a few more times before summer, I still enjoy spending time in the classroom. It doesn't hurt actually getting paid a little as well!

After subbing yesterday, I got home and immediately started cooking for our dinner guests. I was making enchilada casserole (belated Cinco de Mayo?), sweet corn cakes, Spanish rice, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. I also whipped up some homemade guacamole for an appetizer. We were treating a woman from Ray's work who has been incredibly welcoming to us. She and her husband are just wonderful and we wanted to have them over for a nice dinner to thank them for their hospitality. Plus, they're a lot of fun to chat with. The casseroles turned out great, the Spanish rice was normal, and the sweet corn cakes were amazing! We love the El Torito packets you can buy in California (at Ralph's only), but since we moved to the Midwest, there are no Ralph's. The packet is basically cornmeal and sugar anyhow... so I thought to search for a comparable recipe. I've never been to Chi Chi's... and actually... the only time I've ever seen one of these restaurants, we were in Belgium! Apparently they make a corn cake that's similar to El Torito's. I found this recipe online and it worked perfectly! It could've used more butter for moisture... but at that point, it's just way too fatty. I'll definitely be making that again. The strawberry shortcake was per usual: angel food cake (baked, cooled, tore apart), sliced strawberries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream all mixed in a bowl and chilled for another 20 minutes. We enjoyed having them over. They even brought us a flower arrangement basket from Phillip's! They are a Chicagoland florist that are all over the place. We've never been to one, but now we have some experience. 

Tonight Ray is supposed to play Ultimate Frisbee with some of our new friends from church. We also have dinner plans with a couple, The Allens,  next Wednesday. Tapas! It's nice to finally be meeting people and being social... even if my husband has to drag me half the time. :)

Is a post still a post without a picture?

I've been getting a little pressure from friends (ehm, you know who you are) to keep blogging since I've apparently been lazy in the past week. It's not that our lives aren't exciting... but it's just that we've actually been living our lives and haven't been so concerned with this side of things. But... I'm not quitting. Have no fear.

Within the last few weeks, we've been up to our knees in housework. Between the abundance of yardwork (have I mentioned my intense hatred for dandelions?) and the wallpaper massacre that has been taking place in our dining room, we've been busy. After about 3 weeks of wallpaper stripping, glue scraping, sanding and patching, 2 coats of oil-based primer, and 2 coats of paint, we're happy to say that we're nearly complete with that project. Ray has been touching up the last of the paint scraping from our beloved molding and it's nearly ready for a table...

Which means we're making a big purchase! We are hoping to buy our table this week and order some chairs to go with it! The elk antler chandelier is going to wait a bit longer since we haven't found the perfect one (or the funds) to go intense on purchases at this moment. Alas, the gold chandelier will have to stay a smidge longer.

On the personal side of things, we're meeting friends. We started attending a church about a month ago in our area and were immediately connected to a few people in our stage of life. We started volunteering at the various opportunities and community enriching Saturdays they engage in and that has helped even more. We met 3 married couples about our age that we've connected well with. We even had lunch with one of them and have started attending a weekly Bible study with some of the couples to get further connected. We're hosting a dinner for a couple from Ray's work this week who has been incredibly welcoming and gracious to us since we've stepped foot in the Midwest and we've already had dinner with Mike & Toni.

We've been keeping busy and the spring has been great so far! It's not quite California weather, but we love where we live and the people have been nothing but welcoming to us.

As for some Chicago favorites... we just tried Garrett's popcorn. Words cannot express the mix of deliciousness that goes into every bag!

A Month Later... Reflection

We've officially been home for a month. I meant to blog on Friday, the official month anniversary, but I was busy... and now I've finally found some time.

Here is what I wrote for the final reflection on the last day of our Germany --> USA travel:

Montag 15.03.2010 (day 182)

This is our last consecutive blog entry in this whirlwind of an adventure. I can’t imagine if we would’ve stayed an entire year! The journal I’ve been keeping would’ve been 208 pages instead! We woke up at our Frankfurt hotel at 6:15 (It was a mere 12:15 a.m. Chicago time) and loaded into the shuttle that took us to the terminal. Our hotel was supposed to be less than 4 km to the airport, but honestly, it felt like 15 km instead. We arrived and got to work weighing our bags on an open machine and displacing items. We were definitely overweight in a couple of our bags and we managed to check 4 bags at 23 km each (exact allowance). We threw nothing away and had the maximum for carry-ons as well. We got in line for Lufthansa and we noticed a bag unattended as we were proceeding in the line. About 5 minutes later, we saw our entire line of people in front of us rushing to another area and evacuating our entire line! We quickly followed suit assuming the people knew more than we did. The German security officers immediately taped off the entire region and refused to let anyone else by. We assumed one of two things: some diplomat was coming through, or there was an unattended bag that could present a health risk to others (i.e. in the form of a bomb). We joked because when we walked by, Ray put his ear to the bag to see if it were ticking. No ticking. We watched our line grow enormously long, the bomb squad officer come in and x-ray, then a sniffing dog, and finally… the terminal area was reopened. We checked our baggage with no problems and went through security. It wouldn’t be a Wilson experience if one of us didn’t have something searched in the process! Ray had two ballpoint pens we got in Switzerland (well made, fully metal) and apparently they collectively looked suspicious. We carried on and sat in the Lufthansa terminal for our Swiss Air flight that was delayed. We were nervous that the delay would mean we’d miss our flight in Zurich to Chicago. Until our flight, we enjoyed the free hot beverage service in this particular terminal. After hot chocolates a tea and a mocha, we were well hydrated before our first flight. We got on the plane and were positioned nicely next to a fat guy. Luckily, that flight was only 30 minutes. In Zurich, they dropped us off in the complete opposite terminal and we had to bolt to the shuttle train to our terminal and arrived with a line that checked each passport. We also had to go through security again (though we went from gate to gate) and this time, I was checked. I have a small pair of scissors in my toiletries and they made sure to measure that. We walked on the plane as we heard them making a final call for the Chicago flight. Another Swiss Air flight and this one was a new Airbus with really nice entertainment on the flight. Of course, I sat in the middle next to fat guy #2. I hate to be too stereotypical, but I am personally a small person paying the same amount for the flight of another person who takes up more than their share. I especially didn’t appreciate nearly getting elbowed in the face (I had to duck at times—it was that bad) or the guy complaining a lot to the flight attendants about the food choices, then getting another dish after eating the first one! For what it’s worth, the few words we did speak were good. He seemed intelligent and friendly. Though, I sure wish he would’ve been sitting somewhere other than right next to me. I’d say I win brownie points for sitting for 9 hours next to a guy who I had to lean away from in order to avoid arm hair contact. Ew. I’m pretty sure I saw him pick his nose and wipe his boogers on the tray table. Let this be a lesson to us all: sanitize! The flight food was good, but there just wasn’t enough of it! We’ve always eaten well on Swiss Air. I watched 3 movies on the flight. Ray watched two of them with me. We saw Up in the Air, Couples Retreat, and Amelia (based on the Amelia story). I watched Amelia solo and was disappointed to learn that she cheated on her husband. Unfortunately, all 3 of the movies addressed that issue in some form. Couples Retreat was the best of all and there were some legitimately hilarious parts where I was crying and couldn’t control my laughter. Movies sure make a very long flight go by much quicker. Oh, and perhaps one of the highlights of the plane ride: a Jewish kid in front of us had a Yakima that was embroidered with “Red Hot Chili Peppers” in bold and this yellow threading. Is that sacrilegious? Maybe not, but either way, it was unique. We went through customs, waited for our baggage at baggage claim, and called our limo service at O’Hare after our arrival at about 5pm CST (11 pm Germany). We had a really nice driver who took us a better way than any of our previous drivers had done before. We arrived at Mike’s condo, popped a frozen pizza in the oven and talked on the phone with family and friends for much of the evening. We threw on a little American television, opened the mail that was in the mailbox waiting for us, and answered our emails—still in shock that we’re actually here to stay. This isn’t a visit. This is real life and it’s our new home. We’re Midwesterners. Our future kids will be from the Midwest and that’s totally weird to say! We only have 3 days left until we’re homeowners and we couldn’t be more excited to start that life together in our new home state. This experience of living in another country has taught us an enormous amount. Perhaps I should make a list of all the differences that stick out in my head, but considering it’s nearly 4 a.m. (Germany time) and not quite 10 p.m. here in Chicago, my brain is out! It’s almost been 24 hours since I’ve had any sleep and I can barely make out coherent sentences. As far as final words are concerned, we are so thankful to have experienced all that we did in this 6-months and there is no doubt we have grown so much as people through this experience. I no longer live in my bubble of existence because I’ve seen the way others live around the globe and was able to relate certain experiences to their lifestyles. This was such an eye-opener and one that has shaped our lives forever… not to mention the quality of coffee we’ve experienced overseas vs. what is available here. I am forever spoiled.

I needed to include a photo or two from this week... always an adventure... I went for an 18-mile bike ride with Toni in downtown on Thursday and we had a great time!

Other than having a generally great time in our new home... we've also been...

• peeling wallpaper in our dining room... and refuse to buy our dining room table from Crate & Barrel until it's done
• gardening... picking dandelions, wild onions, branches, and all other items that don't belong
• working hard (well, mostly my dear husband at his new, wonderful job)
• working hard (me too! I started teaching an online course for Greenville College MA of Teaching program and I'm loving it. I just spent the last few hours writing my notes for this week's teaching.

Billy Goat

We've been considering this for our foyer art piece...

{courtesy of art.com ... where we spend plenty of money}

It's totally us-- not to mention we actually hiked this short 3-mile trail and saw these guys on the rocks at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, our favorite of the U.S. parks.

What do you think? Cool, or scary?