4th of July Weekend

Paul and I went down to Aiken for the weekend. The pictures below are of the 4th of July at Pa's house. I have some biking photos from a biking trip to the Augusta Canal which I will post later (maybe tomorrow).

Here is John in a tree.





John took the following photos. I had to re-do this front flip 8 times to get all of these shots, but some how they all look like one front flip all together.









Michael and Sharon were able to come over for fireworks.








Here is me dropping a roman candle from my hand because it caught fire. It's not suppose to do that. I figured I'd rather not risk losing my hand.



You can see Sharon running in the distance.



Here are some of the mortars we got. I look like I'm fixing a wedgie in this picture. haha!





The fireworks were a lot of fun! :) Thankfully, no one got hurt!


This was a picture John took of me through binoculars. He insisted that I put it on my blog.
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A Job and... biking! :)

So.. a few days ago I got a call from the school I interviewed with about the 6th grade math position, and they asked me if I wouldn't mind teaching 8th grade math because they had filled the 6th grade position. A few days later... I was offered the job by the principal.:) All the paperwork is still processing, so it's just a tentative offer right now, but after all the paperwork is in hopefully it will be a true offer. Nothing is written in stone yet.

I prefer 6th grade, but I will give 8th grade a try. I really like the math topics in 8th grade compared to 6th grade. I'll be teaching at a rural public middle school with over a 1000 students, so there will be at least 30 student in each of my classes. I'm excited and nervous about it at the same time! The best part about it is that it's not in Charlotte-Meck schools, but it is in Union County (an hour away from my house, but I can manage. I need to experience). I just have a lot of lesson planning and brainstorming to do before I start. If anyone has some good 8th grade lessons or suggestions, please let me know! :)

Paul had the day off of work, so we got up early and took a long bike ride to the US Olympic Whitewater Center: See http://usnwc.org/ . We biked all the way there and went around their so called "easy" trail. The easy trail was much easier this time around. :) So was the bike ride there.

If you'd like to see what the trails are like, click the link below. These guys had a camera in their helmet and they went a lot faster than Paul and me. ;) (These guys rode some of the easier trial, but also took on the harder ones of which Paul and I aren't ready for)

http://www.sirbikesalot.com/includes/popup_media.php?fid=uploads_video/2008/USNWC-CatawbaRiverfront_3.mov&subj=&w=492&h=276

Here are some pictures of our adventure:

This is where we stopped for lunch.

That's the Catawba River.








Not the steepest hill there, but you can see all the fun roots waiting on your trip down.

This is the sloped trail where if you lean the wrong way.. you will fall into the river. I look really scary in this photo.

Paul making it up a steep hill, note the roots.


After biking, we headed back home. It was a lot of fun, and I wasn't as scared the second time around the trail. We aren't ready for the intermediate, hard, or advanced trail just yet.

Here are some random photos of the kitty cats helping me put some filters in the air vents.

Summer Flowers

My plants are doing pretty good. They enjoyed the miracle grow I gave them yesterday. :) However, the tree nearest to the road has died. I'm not sure what type of tree it is, but all of our neighbors' trees like this has died as well. The subdivision gave each house 2 different trees for their front yards to start out with. I've noticed them cut down the ones that are dead, so hopefully they will take care of ours. That way we don't have too.. We are hoping they will replace it as well, but we'll see!:)

Here are some flowers from the front and back yard:

For another hobby this summer, I've started crochet. Yeah, I started. The book I got to teach me how to do crochet was really confusing. I was able to get the chain stitch and the single stitch, but the other ones... not so much! My mom said she'd help me next weekend.

Jobwise, I'm still working for the private tutoring company. I've applied to some Christian schools as well, but I haven't heard anything yet. I did have an interview last week at very rural public school which was an hour away from our house. The interview went well, but the Principal said she'd call back in a week. She hasn't.. so I'm assuming I didn't get it. It's ok though. :)

I've heard that schools really start searching out teachers in August when they realize they have openings. I also know about 10 people who majored in education and they can't get jobs, so I don't feel so bad about it. Plus, I'd get paid about the same as I'm making now at least for a year. However, it would be much steadier work and I wouldn't have to drive quite so much. I calculated my mileage from January to June (It helps out with taxes because I'm a private contractor) and I've driven 2,300 miles so far for this tutoring job! So, we'll see where the Lord leads me. It's all in His hands.

I'm enjoying the flexibility with the tutoring job right now. I'm only working about 8 hours a week during the summer, but I'll be at 35 to 40 this fall with school starting back. I'm also enrolled in 2 accounting classes at a community college for the fall. The classes there are much cheaper than UNC-Charlotte. :) Who knows? I may like it. If not, I'll get certified in school aged children and teach Pre-K somewhere. Or just take some cooking classes for fun! I am starting to miss school alittle bit, but it is nice having more free time! :)

Well, Paul and I are going to go for a bike ride this afternoon after he finishes building my dad's computer.

Dear Ivy,

You are a great MOM! Because of this, you deserve to be blog about.

A) Because it's true

B) Because I love reading about all of your adventures with Oliva and Iza

C) Because you can't erase this (haha!)

D) Because mom, dad, John, me, Iza, Pa, Jojo, Iza, and Olivia love you very much and someone needs to tell you this!

E) Because when I have kids mom and you will be who I bother 24 hours a day 7 days a week for advice, no on else.

F) Because it's TRUE!

G) All of the above to infinity


Correct Answer is G!

Love,

Your Sister, Holly

Father's Day Weekend

I hope my dad had a good Father's day yesterday. He had a very good sermon Sunday morning.



This weekend:

Mom brought back some yummy treats from Poland, including some mint vodka.




At Paul's parents, we worked on an 1000 piece puzzle. This was when we had just finished it. It was a very difficult puzzle. Everyone helped out. Micheal and Grandma Laing helped out as well, but I forgot to get them in this picture.




Can you find the two pieces that Sophie (the dog) ate?

This morning:

After getting out of bed this morning, I did my usual ritual of checking my e-mail, facebook, foxnews, etc.... Right when I sit down, I hear a cat running up the stairs at full speed, claws digging into the carpet, and the sound of a plastic bag being blown by high speed winds behind it. Now, this wasn't that big of a surprise because I've heard this sound before. It was when Friskie got a bag stuck around his waist. Cats just freak out whenever this happens. Usually, it's the handle that causes so much trouble and that was the case with Honey this morning. She was flying at full speed with the handle of a plastic Walmart bag around her waist (It wasn't even on her that tightly. She was just making it worse running with it on). This makes a lot of noise! After seeing a quick flash of white plastic bag and a blur of orange fur, I see that she's in the guest bedroom. She runs over the bed, around the night table, then under the bed. I quickly go into the room and shut the door behind me, so that I can catch her and get the bag off. All I see is this white plastic bag shooting out one side of the bed and then to the other... popping in and out of the bed shirt. I also see a very fluffed orange tail from time to time! Finally, Honey runs out heading for the door and I grab her. She's totally freaked out! I then tell her "Calm Down". She begins to settle and I take the bag off noticing that the bag is covered in urine! She had peed all over the place while she ran around the guest bedroom.

For about 30 minutes, I went around the entire room with Oxyclean scrubbing up time little yellow spots all over the carpet. Thankfully, she didn't get it on the bed! However, she was one wet cat. I wiped her down with a wet paper towel to get the urine off, but it took her about an hour to calm down enough to lick herself clean. After rescuing her from the plastic bag, she's been around me all day so far. She won't leave my side, but she constantly stares into the guest bedroom as if that's where the evil thing still resides.

My Garden, a great place to shed dead skin

Since it's been so hot, I figured my plants would enjoy some miracle grow.



This is a really neat miracle grow sprayer I got a few weeks ago, so I've had some experience with it. The switch to go from water to miracle grow is annoying, but it works well once you get it started.



Anyways, I had just finished spraying the front yard, so I walked around the back. The hose was tugging a little because I was pulling it a long ways. Now, if you've ever had experience shooting a gun, you know that the handle (the grip) is shorter part and the barrel is the longer part of which you aim with and never point at anyone or yourself! I grabbed the grip and aimed with the long end (big mistake) turned the sprayer on (with miracle grow) and I soaked myself... My face and shirt was soaked. I quickly turned it off and looked around making sure none of my neighbors happened to see because that would be very embarrassing (why am I sharing this?).

After that, I figured I might as well finish spraying the yard, so I walked over to my azaleas and low and behold... There was a snake's skin wrapped around one of my azaleas. Ugh! I guess the snake thought they needed something organic!

I quickly threw it over the fence.



John wanted me to go get it and wrap it around my bushes for a better blog, but i didn't want to go down into the swamp behind the fence to retrieve it. I figured the snake was still there.




Here's Paul coming out to see the snake skin. The kitties are watching.


Maybe gardening is not right for me? I don't know.

I'm glad I drive a stick shift

This is to my dad. Thanks for making me learn to drive a stick shift because this skill is not known by that many, including carjackers! haha! Read the following story:

http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/667817.html