A Special Gift

Hey :) Just a little update from Wisco-Land. I just got a really sweet gift yesterday evening. My good girlfriends Gabrielle, Rylin, and Lindsey sent Mark and I a photo album in the mail. They put it together and dug up a lot of old photos from college and beyond. They also wrote great affirmations and words of love and wisdom to Mark and I. It was so special to get and made me feel so good, as I have been missing home and all of you. It really was one of the sweetest gifts I have ever received.

In other news, I started my training for substitute teaching at the Creative Learning Preschool. Just filling out a lot of paper work and watching videos on the High/Scope philosophy. I also observed one of the 2 year old rooms for an hour and a half yesterday. It was really fun actually. I got to play with the kids and observe the teachers with the students to see how to manage conflict and structure the day. Over all, I'm really happy to be working for the preschool, even if it is on a sub basis. It just seems like a great place to work and I hope to make friends with some of the teachers. Actually, yesterday when I went in for my second day of training I was asked by the director of the school if I would like a teachers assistant position for Tuesdays and Thursdays for the afternoons. It wasn't much, but I said yes, so that's good news. I am still sending in some applications and picking around Madison for education jobs. But it's coming along.

Tonight we are going here:
The Memorial Union Terrace. It's this bar on campus (yes, they have a bar on campus.) So Mark and I are meeting some of the new AOS students there tonight for drinks and hanging out. It should be fun and a nice way to meet some people.

And, I just applied for health insurance today. SOOO complicated and frustrating. I didn't have an agent, so I just had to shop for it myself and get a lot of advice from the companies websites and people over the phone. But, now it's done so lets hope I get approved!

This weekend I'm gonna relax and un-pack some more. Mark and I are gonna get a couch for the living room too.

Love,

Sarah

My Cat is Home

I'm so happy. I picked up my cat at the airport this morning and brought him to our new house and he is adjusting very well. He is up and about and exploring, sniffing every little corner and cranny. He is eating and has even purred for me a few times and it letting me pet him. It's amazing. I really thought he was going to be way more upset. I hope I'm not attaching too much human emotion to an animal, but I kinda thought he was going to be angry with me for putting him on a plane, but it turns out he's just happy to be home. He is doing very well and likes the new place. Sigh of relief. Here is a pic of him I just took near my bookshelf.

We Have Internet and Photos of Our Place

This is the latest comic from xkcd.com I love this strip and it's so appropriate.

OMG! We have Internet at our house now! I'm super excited about it, not that going to Internet cafes and buying a drink to get a password hasn't been fun, but it's really nice to have Internet access at your home. Now I blog all the time! Well, not all the time, I do have to work and such.

Speaking of work, the job market for teachers in Madison is very competitive, which is really surprising because teachers get paid crap here, and I mean crap. Like, way below a living wage. It's crazy. And employers expect you to have Early Childhood education certification, and years of teaching experience and still they pay you crap. Something is not right with that system. If your educated, certified, experienced and a specialist, then you should earn a livable wage. Well, I guess teachers really do get the short end of things. It's just a shame because we are the ones who teach your children. We enrich their lives and minds with knowledge. We take care of them and help them to become socialized.

Sorry about the rant, I'm just frustrated with getting a teaching job. The two teachers assistant jobs I was going for were given to other applicants. So I am currently still going on interviews and networking. However, the two schools whom I applied to work for, The Creative Learning Preschool and The Preschool of the Arts both offered me substitute teacher positions and I said yes to both, so as to keep involved with both schools and to have employment. I really enjoy both of the schools and still hope that another job opportune might come to fruition there. I also have an interview at another preschool this Wednesday, we will see how that goes. I'm also going to start taking some Early Childhood Ed classes to boost my academic knowledge of working with preschoolers, it couldn't hurt :) That starts soon too. And, I haven't ruled out the children's theaters and the children's museum. So I'm still going to network with them for employment.

Ba Kitty comes tomorrow morning!!! I'm really excited for him to get here. I have all of his necessary items and expect him to be very freaked out at first. But, I hope he is ok and that he adapts well to his new home. I think the first thing he will do is hide under my bed. I have it all set up so he can feel safe, other then that, there is not much else I can do.

Oh, and here are some pictures of our place. I know I told a few of you that I would put them up. We are still unpacking, so if ya see the boxes, well, you know.

Our House (and a strangers car)

The Living room (This was the pink room)

The Dinning Room

Another picture of the dinning room, this time you can see my desk on the left

These two photos are of the kitchen

Mark playing guitar in the office off the kitchen

In the office, this room was pink too

Bathroom

Bedroom

The driveway and the garage with the mini

Cleaning, Painting, Moving In, "Ohhhh the basement is flooded"

Hi Everyone!

I'm in a coffee shop down the street from Mark and I's new place. We don't have Internet there yet, it should be installed sometime this weekend, but we are not quite sure of the day. It's amazing how much of a pain it is not to have Internet. Ha! I have grown soooo use to constant access.

Anyway... whew! This month has been a doozy! So much has happened since we left Seattle I can't possibly fit it all into this blog post :) But I can tell you that we got to Madison in one piece on Friday the 15th at about 6:00pm. We were so tired from being on the road that we just vegged the rest of the evening. I think we went to the local food co-op and got some soup, then laid in bed and watched a movie on my computer. Since then we have been going non-stop it feels like. Here is a list of some of the stuff we have been doing since we got here a week ago: (yeah, I like lists :)

1. Cleaned our new house top to bottom (it was very dirty and is 100 years old this year! Happy birthday house! To bad you haven't held up very well in your old age. You need about 100 face lifts) So, needless to say, is a run down and needs way more work then we can do. But it's home and it's much better after the deep clean.

2. We spackled and painted the living room and the half bedroom in the back. It is now a very soothing gray blue color, very light and calming. MUCH better then the Coral/Vermilion/Dark Pink/Mauve color there was before. You could say the rooms were this color:

YEAH!!! I know! not only is it pink but it's a dark gray sort of pink, sorry if any of you like it and decide you are now going to paint your rooms this color, I just don't care for it, it's waaaaay too dark.

3. We got all of our stuff on the 19th and have been unpacking since then. We were so tired from cleaning and painting that we haven't made too much progress in the un-packing process yet, but, we will.

4. Home Depot. Yeah, we went there 3 days in a row. 3 times total. It became funny after a while, I would wake up in the morning and be like "Ok, what are we gonna get from THD today?" We needed all sorts of things: cleaning supplies, paint, hornet nest spray, light bulbs, trash cans, shower curtain, CLR (they have hard water here and the faucets are totally calcified) and more.

5. I had two job interviews this week. The first with The Creative Learning Preschool and the second with The Preschool of the Arts. They both went very well and I loved the preschools. They are both very well established in the community and have a diverse student and teacher population. You can tell they really care about the arts and it's place in early childhood development and the classroom. I got a great feeling from both of them and they seem well organized and caring places to work.
One of the preschools made me a substitute teacher offer today. It's a good offer, even though it's not a full time position, but it can lead to a position in the future and it will be a good way for me to try out the school. Plus, the director told me that they need subs every day and it can vary from 2 hours to 8 hours of work a day. So I think that's good. Then, the other school asked me to come back for a second interview for tomorrow morning. They want me to spend two hours in the classroom with the kids and do a little creative drama. I really hope I get that teachers Assistant job there. It would be from Monday- Friday from 1:30-5:30. So I would still have time to do some subbing. They also said that there might be a possibility that I could do some creative drama with the other classrooms in the school, which would be great. So, wish me luck :)

6. We have been to some good restaurant's this week too. There is a great Mediterranean place called Bunky's Cafe near our house. Really cozy and welcoming and they have great food! We also went to a good Thai food place in the Willy St. Neighborhood. A colorful place with lots of plants. We had an amazing duck curry and a curried fried rice dish with shrimp. We also went to a Taco Bell because it was like midnight and we were starved after painting all day. We also went to a gas station quickie mart at 11:30 one night to try and find a meal. It was a super sketchy place, the man behind the counter even had 2 inch thick bullet proof glass between him and the customer. We got some water and packets of ramen noddle soup. When we approached the counter to buy our dinner I asked the man how often he has been in the situation where the bullet proof glass was necessary and he said all the time. People come in here and fight all the time. He said that he tells people that if they don't mess up the store he wont call the cops, they can beat each other up as much as they want just don't mess up the chips and candy bars.

Well, I will update more when I get Internet at our house and I will take pictures of our place and post um :) Much love!

Sarah

Ohhh yeah, and our landlord taught us how to use the boiler for the radiator heat. And he left on the water valve that fills the boiler and forgot he had. Then he went down in our basement to get something and said to us: "Want to see what happens when you leave the water on?" So we went down to take a look and there was water flooding the basement. We were like "Ok, note to self, don't leave the water on for the radiator." But the water all drained out and he turned off the water.

In madison. Will get internet in two days. Love, sarah

Spokane, Idaho, and Montana

Stuart the Buffalo looking out the car window

Hey :) we are at some Motel in Bozeman, MT. It's called The Royal 7 Budget Inn. Pretty nice for a motel actually. The man who checked us in was in a super bad mood and messed up our booking so he gave us an upgrade (a suite with two beds) for 55.00 dollars, which was nice of him. But one cool thing is that we have wireless Internet, for free, and I thought we would be away from any sort of technology, haha.

We had a nice morning at Shannon and Georges. Shannon took us to this place called The Spot for breakfast. It's actually an old garage that was converted into a coffee shop. We had some amazing bagels and sun dried tomato and pesto cream cheese. mmmm sooooo good. Then we went back to the house and packed up the car. We said goodbye to Shan and started on our way. I'm really happy that they had us stay with them, it was so good to spend the first night of our trip with good friends of mine, really helped the transition out of Washington state.

Mark packing up the car in Spokane

So, we passed into Idaho and then out of Idaho and realized that I was driving my car on empty. I remember looking down at the gas gage and checking to see how much further I could go and my car gage said that I could drive 4 more miles. I started to freak out because we were in the mountains, the middle of nowhere, but we sound a tourist station so we exited the highway and turned off the car and went in to ask where the nearest gas station was. I said that I was on empty. She told us to go back into Idaho to the nearest gas station. It was six miles to get back to the station. I was wondering if we could make it, but we said thanks for the directions and drove off to the gas station, it really was our only option. We made it, thankfully! I was super happy that we weren't stranded on the road with all the big rigs whizzing by. But the funniest part of the entire story is Mark had a CD that he burned playing in the stereo. And just as we pulled off at our exit for the gas station, and we are talking in the middle of the mountains in a totally run down mill town with no name, "Dulling Banjos" came on the stereo, I said that the song was very appropriate and we both cracked up. So we got our gas and payed the toothless guy at the counter.

Montana, big sky country

Then we drove back into Montana. We stopped for dinner at the Old Post Pub in Missoula. Great food and a chill atmosphere. Then drove on to Bozeman.

So that gets ya up to date :) Tomorrow: Yellowstone.

I miss you all and thanks for the texts and phone calls today :)

Spokane with Shannon and George!

We are here! The first day of the road trip is almost complete (it's not done till I fall asleep) It's about 9:40 at night and we are both relaxing at Shannon and George's house in Spokane. We've had a really great visit with them so far. We arrived in town at 5:08 and come over to their place which is a beautiful old house (they are remodeling it) Then we went out to dinner at a local Pub and got some ice cream after that. Now we are back at their place chatting and getting ready for bed. We've had a nice trip so far, pretty light driving for the first day of the trip, which is kind of nice because you get to build up your stamina for those loooonnnggg days in the car. We actually have a few audio books to listen to tomorrow. Artemis Fowl and Coast to Coast (radio show) That should help us with the journey.

We ran around in Seattle this morning, doing some last minute errands. We slept in a bit longer then we expected, but we really needed it because we have been totally pooped these past few days. At least I have, I think I'm gonna crash hard tonight. Anyways, we had to pack the car this morning and get gas, then go to my parents place to print our maps out and the flight information for my cats flight. Then to the video store and Starbucks. Then we got on the road at about 12:45. It was a very emotional day for me actually. Leaving Seattle knowing that I wont be coming back for a while was tough. Leaving my apartment was hard too. I will really miss that place. It's been a great home over these past 3 years, so close to the lake and to work. I was very comfortable there and always felt secure and safe. Also, I loved having Heidi and Rylin as housemates. I will miss living with them both, good girlfriends are priceless.

I think the hardest part was leaving the key inside and then locking the front door, knowing that I had no way of getting back in. It was very surreal because I still feel like it's my apartment and I live there, but I was leaving the key.

Tomorrow we go to Bozeman Montana! It's about a 6 and 1/2 hour drive from Spokane. Then tomorrow night we will stay in some random hotel :) Who knows... if they have Internet I might do another blog and include some pictures :)

Sleep well blogheads :)

Farewell Seattle

We leave Seattle tomorrow morning for our road trip across the country. Tomorrow night we will be in Spokane staying with our friends Shannon and George. We will try our best to update along the way (at least once) and will also try to put a few pictures up as we go. Wish us luck on our new journey! Here we go!

Sayonara :)

Chelan, Packing, and Photos

The view from Blueberry Hill
Mark and I on a Jet Ski
I drove it too
Dan and Yill rockin out :)
Mark and I rockin out (Mark: "I can see my throat") Dan, Yill, Bill, Mark, and I at the Chelan Winery. Carolyn was talking the picture, thanks Carolyn!

Ok, I apologize. It's been a while since my last blog entry. It's just because I have been soooo busy! and so much has been happening, I haven't had the time to blog. You all understand :) So, with that said, I will give you an update and some pictures for Lake Chelan too. (ooooooo)

We are back from Chelan. I had a great vacation with Mark's dad Bill and his girlfriend Carolyn (sp) and Mark's brother Dan and his girlfriend Yill (I got it right :). We stayed at Wapato Point in his families condo. It was so nice to get out of town for a few days and be in the sun. We actually were quite busy and did a ton of stuff. We went to lake Chelan Winery for a BBQ dinner in the outdoors, went to a farm called Blueberry Hill for an amazing breakfast, I think I had the best Eggs Benedict EVER. We also took the boat out on the water quite a bit and I tried jet skiing for the first time, which was super fun. At one point Mark and I were on the Jet Ski (he was driving) and he decided to do a really fast doughnut (it felt fast, I guess it could have been like 15 mph) but anyway I totally screamed like a banshee and when we got back to the shore Bill was waiting for us so we could turn in the Jet Ski and the keys. He said: "I heard screaming out there, was that you?" I was like, yeah. I didn't know that sound tralved that well over the water and we were pretty far out. ahaha! what can I say? I thought I was gonna fall off the damn thing! But, it was a good adventure. Later that night we went to the casino which is just down the street from the resort road. I have never gambled in a casino before and thought it would be fun to do. So, Mark, Dan, Yill, and I drove over and walked in. It was kind of a strange place with lots of smoke, crazy carpets, dings and rings from the slot machines, and a good mix of locals and vacationers. I mostly plaid the slots and lost 20.00. That's as far as I was willing to go. Non of us did too well that night. Mark was doing well at Rulet for a while, but then the table got cold and he went under with the rest of us. Gambling is only really fun when your winning, and usually the casino has a higher chance of winning then you.

On the last day, Mark and I rented two bikes and road around out to the point and along a residential orchard road, it was a beautiful ride and very hot that day. We found a nice spot out on the point to wade into the lake and see the water and mountains. Then we continued our ride, I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. I'm not use to riding a bike, maybe I will get one soon so I can practice more. I hear Madison is a great bike riding town, in fact when we went to go visit in the spring we saw a bunch of bike shops everywhere, I have no doubt I could find a good bike. Ya know, you don't need to drive as much when you live in a small town.

All in all it was a great trip and I'm very thankful that I was able to go.

Now that the containers are packed and picked up and probably some where in middle America right now, it feels like a big amount of the hard work is done. Packing the containers was totally the hardest part. It's like a puzzle trying to figure out how everything will fit together, safely. And your body just gets recked from all the heavy lifting and extension. After it was all done (which was 12:00 at night on Sunday all we could do is just lay on the bed and catch our breath) But we packed um up in three days and now we just have our stuff that we are bring on the road trip. Yeah, the mini will be packed to its mini gills. If it all doesn't fit we'll just have to ship a few things we can live without.

I will post more later. Tell you all a little about the road trip coming up. :)

Yes.... Packing..... Still

OK! I packed the kitchen, my office, my books, and cleaned out my storage unit. I only have to pack up my room now. Haha, not a small job, but I have help :) Mark, Will, and Lindsey are coming over today to help me move furniture into the pod and maybe help pack one or two more boxes too! weeeee! That's great because I can't move all my furniture myself. I'm so lucky to have great friends who are there for me :)

So, Sunday is the last packing day. Yup, the entire pod will be packed and ready to go. Then Mark and I are going to Lake Chelane for a few days to hang out with his family. It will be a much needed trip. We will play in the sun, eat, do outdoor stuff and enjoy. The we get back to Seattle on Wednesday, our pods will already be picked up and on the road. We will be here for 5 more days till we leave for our road trip to Madison. I think we are leaving Seattle on August 11th.

WOW! let's get this show on the rizode.