It's Comcastic!

Fear not, dear reader, I did not fall into some black hole or go flying into the Bermuda triangle...I wasn't abducted by any aliens (at least not that I can recall, but who knows with their advanced memory-wiping technology?) and I haven't taken deathly ill. Charissa and I have just been too poor until the last week or so to afford cable and internet in our apartment. The Internet Man came on Friday, so we're bangin' on all cylinders now!

So this post won't be too funny, but I thought I'd drop a quick note and let you all in on what's been going on in my life the last month or so...to start with, I found a Work-Study job at an elementary school in town and I am STOKED! I get to spend 12 hours a week in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade classrooms tutoring elementary kids in reading and math. This week is my first, so I'm a little anxious at the moment...but mostly just thrilled to FINALLY have a job that I'm going to love and that has anything to do with where I've been and where I want to go!

I also started school this semester, the dreaded "Block III" in my education program. I've got this year and next until graduation, and Block III is typically the semester where the rubber meets the road, the semester that breaks lesser students down and makes them go crying home to their mommies. I recently discovered that I'll be in a 2nd grade classroom for my TIP (Theory into Practice) placement, and I couldn't be more ecstatic about that...however, I also recently discovered that Block III was murder BUT feasible because of most students are partnered up in a classroom and can split the insane workload and I, of course, have ended up as one of the students sans partner. So that's a ton of work to look forward to. Add onto that Children's Literature (sure, it sounds harmless, but that's because you've never had Jill P. May as a tour guide through your journey) and a geometry-based math class, and you've got my academic semester in a nutshell. Add onto that the fact that I will be very distracted this semester by real-life events (those of you who know what I mean will understand, and the rest of you can just wait in suspense and make up all sorts of outlandish conjectures about what you think I might be saying until I feel like disclosing that classified information)...well, you get the picture. Busy, busy, busy.

But I am SO blessed to be so busy. It means I have health, strength, financial means, and stamina to accomplish all the things I want to accomplish. I feel very, very blessed.

Columbian Park with Caida Lee

Charissa, Paul, and I got to take my niece Caida to the park for a fun Monday afternoon. Here are a few of the pics:

Indiana Dunes!

So, on Saturday my mom took Charissa, Morgan, Paul, and me to the Indiana Dunes up on the shores of Lake Michigan, as a joint birthday extravaganza for Mom and Charissa. Unbeknownst to us all, they closed the lake because of a possible drowning. So while we weren't able to actually swim in the lake (and therefore many of us ended up with a sunburn like never before), we played in the sand and ate lots of great food and enjoyed our time on the dry parts of the beach anyway. Here are a few pics from the experience: