Day 57: 365 Project

It poured yesterday! Well, not all day, just when I was on my way to work. I was 15 minutes late to my first students house because people are annoying. First, it was raining so badly that I couldn't see out my windshield. It lets up before I get on the 41. I get on there and traffic is pretty much stopped. I had about 3 miles until I got to the off ramp I needed to take. I was worried because I figured there was an accident. I go about 2 miles in this bumper to bumper traffic to see that there was an accident... going the opposite direction. The people going south (the direction I was going) were just being rubberneckers and that's why I was running 10 minutes late. I was so mad. The accident wasn't even on our side! Then I finally turn off on McKinley. I always cross over train tracks, but there's never a train. This time though? Of course there's a train. And it had just started coming in my direction, so I was stopped for another 5 minutes. It was ridiculous. I felt horrible about being so late, but they completely understood which was nice of them. Nice family. I can't communicate much with the parents because they only speak spanish, but it's nice that their daughter (the one I tutor) can translate for me. Right when I walked in the door they're like, "The rain wouldn't let you come?!" Haha. Then I told them about the accident and the train. Crazy Friday.

I also tutor a set of first grade twins who are the girls of a million questions, but I still adore them. When I got there, it was like each home had their own little pond. It was completely flooded!

Happy weekend!

Day 56: 365 Project

Yay for the $1 section at Target, that's all I really have to say!

Earlier this week, Angelica and I decided that it had been far too long since we had done something, so we decided to change that. After work, I went over to Angelica's and we went to BJ's. Gooood food. We took a "it was my pleasure count" from our waitress. Total: 3. Yes, at BJ's, they must be told to say "it was my pleasure" because a good portion of the waiters/waitresses we've had have said this phrase. It's a little weird to use the word pleasure, I think. We're not there to pleasure you, ma'am!

Anyway, after dinner we went to Target so Angelica could cash in her rain check for season 3 of The Big Bang Theory. First, we had a blast looking through the goodies in the $1 section. We found this super awesome face masks! Mine is a froggie and Angelica is wearing a spider!

It's been a good Friday night!

Day 55: 365 Project

You'll want to click on the picture for a better view. The camera on my phone can't zoom. Anyway, this is the fish tank at one of my student's homes. There's this fish that always cracks me up because it's so fat. It's the one on the very bottom. It's seriously like bottom-heavy or something. It sometimes floats up to the surface from it's butt/back because that part of its body is so much larger. It's amusing to watch. I often watch this fish while Roberto reads or writes sentences.

I'm obviously easily amused.

Day 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 & 54: 365 Project

Wow. Well, I got WAY behind. That's what happens when you get super sick, I suppose. Been out of commission for the last couple weeks, but it's just been really bad lately. Almost done with the antibiotic the doctor gave me for my sinus infection. Can't wait to be done with it because it leaves a disgusting taste in my mouth! Anyway, I hope you enjoy my photo blog. 

There's these little berries that I enjoy stepping on, even though I shouldn't because they make a mess!

Friday night, I had Brinner from Jack & the Box. I love their breakfast!

More random berries.

After the rain clouds cleared on Saturday, Sam and I went for a walk and took some pictures.

The sky was so beautiful and I loved the white puffy clouds.

This is how many Kleenex boxes we went through last week. Pretty sure we threw away a box or two before taking this picture too!

We have cow chimes. And the way the sun was hitting them, thought it was cool that it was reflecting on the window like this!

Hopefully I can get back on track now that I'm feeling mostly better and have caught up!

Day 46 & 47: 365 Project

I decided to do today and tomorrow's pictures because I have two!

Just so you know, I got Sam's permission to post this first picture!  He's off work for the rest of the week with the flu. Keep him in your prayers! We went to the doctor this morning. Finally found somewhere we can go! Thank you, Krista for the suggestion! Anyway, I was given an antibiotic fr a sinus infection. I keep getting those little buggers! He also prescribed me a nasal spray and singulair (which should prevent future sinus infections)! I started coughing this morning and my throat hurts from clearing it all the time, at least I hope that's just what it's from. I really hope I'm not getting the flu. Prayers for me too, please. Thank you!

Anyway, This has been Sam for the last 4 days!! He's going nuts.

And even though we were unable to do anything for Valentine's Day because we were sick, he still got me TWO bouquets!!! :) He brought me home a dozen roses on Sunday. Yes, red roses are my favorite. Cliche, I know, but I really don't care. They're my favorite! And then he had hidden some flowers he bought at Trader Joes at Sharon's house, apparently. They're beautiful too! Some of them had died, so I kept the pretty ones and combined them with my roses! I love flowers.

 

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Day 45: 365 Project

 

Well, I had hoped to have a Valentine-related picture for today, but Sam and I spent today sick so any plans have been postponed. What a bummer. Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day.

Day 42, 43 & 44: 365 Project

Well, this week, along with everyone else, I've been sickly on and off. Most head/sinus stuff. Just that time of year! And being in coughing kids homes isn't helping at all. So I'm trying to get into the habit of using hand sanitizer after I leave each students home. Not working too well, hopefully next week will be better. I guess that's a long way of saying, I've been dipping into my 'extra' folder for the 365 project. I really need to get my creative juices flowing again and take some pictures every day. I was doing so well there for a while!

Here are some more daisy pictures!

I really like this picture because it looks like the daisy is trying to protect the other from the rain.

This one is about to bloom any moment!!

This one was so beautiful and perky! Love it!

So these three pictures are for yesterday, today and tomorrow. Figured I would put my last three daisy pictures together in one bunch. Hope you like!

Day 41: 365 Project

I really like clouds like this! So beautiful!

Day 40: 365 Project

"The Bright Fog"

Told you there were a lot of pictures from my foggy day photo shoot. Enjoy!

Day 39: 365 Project

"Ground Fog"

This was taken at church a few weeks ago when I did my foggy morning shoot. I like setting my camera on the ground and seeing what I can capture. :) This is one of those shots. Hope you're enjoying my pictures! I sure enjoy posting them!

Day 37 & 38: Project 365

On Thursday, I went with Angelica and Camille to The Cellar Door in Visalia. I really like that venue. It's small, but it's a cool place. We went and saw The Wood Brothers. It started like 45 minutes late! Didn't even get home until after 1am. It was a great show though. A ton of fun. The crowd was a little weird though. These couple of girls and one guy were pretty much having some sort of religious experience. It was really awkward. The Wood Brothers were amazing!

The first band up was Carsie Blanton. She was adorable and she has a gorgeous voice! At the end, the two bands got together and she sang a Billie Holiday song. It was wonderful! Her lyrics were cute and fun, but I found myself getting a little bored during her set.

I took this picture for Angelica and Camille. Angelica totally dug his mustache. I'm actually really proud of this picture. I took it around other people's heads and from a distance. As you can see in the first picture, the drumset was far from where we were sitting. Thought the picture turned out pretty well!

If you're into folk, check out The Wood Brothers!!

Adventures In Tutoring: Top 10 Style

10. The Interview Process.  I'm all for short interviews, but I found it a little odd that they only asked me one question and then gave me the job. I filled out the application after they gave me the job. And I also filled out all the other paperwork immediately following the interview. I was then told to go get a TB test and fingerprints done (not so odd, though.). 

9. Everything is last minute.  I didn't hear from them for two months after I had my interview and they said I would start in December (interview was in November). I hear from them in the middle of January and they give me less than 24 hours notice to attend 12 hours of training over the next three days. Not sure what was going on there. I couldn't attend those times because I was already planning to go to a wedding that same weekend. Once I completed training, a week or two went by and then I heard from my coordinator. I was then given a day and a half to contact all five of my students to set up schedules for the next week. It was increasingly difficult because some of the phone numbers didn't work, which required me to go to their homes and try to contact them. This took me the entire weekend to figure out. I generally don't do well with last minute, unplanned things. I need at least 24 hours notice, well, unless it's something fun. Ask Sam. I'm a little nutty about this.

8. Unorganization/Clerical Errors. Everything just seems everywhere. Like I said above, a lot of the addresses and phone numbers aren't correct. People have already been in these homes before I get there because they do assessments to see what level the students are at. The contact information should be correct! Tonight, I met with my coordinator (she's the person I contact first about any questions). First of all, I wasn't able to contact one of my students last week because the phone number and address were wrong. I go over there tonight and I find out that my coordinator just wrote down the address wrong. Then I find out that one girl who I squeezed in to tutor this week, I shouldn't have been tutoring in the first place. She was assigned to two tutors and the other one hadn't started yet. Both things that my coordinator made a mistake on and she says, "Hm. Don't know how that happened." I am sure that it's very hard to organize and run this company, but when they've been doing it for almost 10 years, I feel like they should have a handle on how to keep things organized.

7. Switcheroos. I started off with five students. I now only have two of the original with three newbies.  I need to call, all but one family, tomorrow to set up schedules for this week. Granted, this seems to have worked out a little in my favor. I tutored these siblings. I was having a lot of issues with the younger one because she hardly spoke any English. I would explain things over and over and over again and she just wasn't getting it. I would point to a picture in the book and say, "this is a worm, this is a pole, this is a hook." I would then immediately following ask her where each of them was and she said she didn't know. I didn't know if she wasn't understand me, had some sort of learning disability or just didn't care. I think a large part of learning is consistency with kids. I don't like that I'm going into and coming out of their academic lives. Even though every tutor has the same material, I'm sure that every tutor still teaches differently and I think switching the tutors will end up hurting the kid intellectually in the end.

6. I don't speak Spanish. This doesn't seem to be a big deal with the kids (except for the one above), it's just a big deal because I have yet to speak with a parent who was fairly fluent in English. It's hard to connect with the parents if we don't speak the same language.

5. No time off. Like I said before, I think consistency is very important so I do understand this. Doesn't mean I have to like it though.

4. Late Nights/No Dinner. Last week, some nights I was tutoring until 9pm. None of my students got out of school until 5:30. Luckily, since I am switching my siblings with another set of siblings who are available around 3 or so, I hopefully won't be working as late. Since I haven't spoken with all my students yet, I can't know for sure. The late nights thing wouldn't be a big deal if it was only a couple nights a week, but it seems to be every night, which is just a lot. This means that I don't get to have dinner with Sam, which is something that I look forward to, but I don't even get to eat dinner at all because I'm tutoring kids right through dinnertime.

3. The Material. I tutor one on one and it really bothers me that the material I am given is for a classroom setting. They really need to update it because I really feel like this is hindering the student. I tutor each student for three hours a week, each session an hour long. On Day 3, the leaders manual asks us to do a group reading, a partner reading, then an individual reading of the book we are going through for that week. How am I supposed to do this when I only have one kid? Impossible. Also, we go through the same book for the entire week. For the older kids, it's fine because they have different stories in that one book. For the younger kids though, it's difficult because the book isn't very long and I know they get tired of reading it like 5 times a day. Their statistics show that it works, but I've learned not to fully trust and rely on statistics.

2. Not seeing Sam during the week. I hated it when Sam and I were dating and he had to work the night shift. I never got to see him then. It's an even bigger deal now because I leave for work right as he gets home and don't get home until late. I rarely get to see him. We just got married and I'm not ready to give up that much time with him.

1. Gut Feelings from me, Sam and my mom/Emotional Breakdowns. Ever since the beginning, I wasn't sure about this job but due to desperately needing some income, and with nothing else on the horizon, I took it. Also, from the beginning, Sam has felt uneasy about this company. And after a while my mom was even saying to be careful. This was mostly because it's easy to get sick from being in other peoples homes, especially those with kids. I already have terrible (THE WORST) sinuses, now I have another way that I can get sickly. About a week ago, I had an emotional breakdown about it all. This is not something I do often, well, ever actually. I don't cry, I don't freak out. It was completely out of character for me. I was even genuinely scaring Sam. It's so hard to be home alone all day and then when Sam finally gets home, I have to leave. It's so hard to be by myself. Everyone I know works during the day, so I'm at home until I have to leave. And with tutoring, I'm giving up my nights, the chance I get to go out and do something with friends. It's just a horrible, horrible feeling that overtook me last week. 

____

So What Do I Do? 

Pray about it. See where I'm supposed to be. I tutor each student for seven weeks. After that, I don't have to pick up another set of students. At this point, I don't think I will. Right after the seven weeks are up, there's a job fair at the Fresno Fairgrounds. I'm hoping that at least someone will be interested in hiring me there. Right now, I just feel God telling me to stick it out for these next seven weeks and then he has something else in mind for me. Hopefully something full time and during the day!

I don't want to be the type of person who gives up when things get hard, and I don't want people thinking that's what I do because it's not. I'm not even sure I would classify this as hard though, it's annoying, frustrating and emotionally draining. I can only take so much and I'm running thin.

I think the worst (and best) part is that I actually enjoy tutoring and getting to know these kids. The best feeling is seeing a kid who actually learned and understood something. A light comes to their face that can't be explained. And the fact that I helped is the best feeling. I think education is one of the most important things, and it's truly great to be able to help out.

So for now, I stick with this job for the next seven weeks. On Tuesday mornings, I'm going to babysit at church for the mommys in the Bible Study. It pays too! And it looks like I might start helping out with the Good News Club on Wednesdays. It's an on-campus Christian Club. These are both exciting opportunities.

Please just keep me in your prayers right now. Thank you for reading... if you got this far!

Day 36: 365 Project

"Tree Reflections"

 

Not that you've noticed, but I am behind in my picture-posting. This last week has been crazy hectic. Tomorrow I plan to post two pictures. I really like this picture though. The first two windows on the right is my apartment. The first window has a Compassion sticker on it. That's my old room. Now it's a storage/extra bedroom. 

 Happy Super Bowl Day! Sam and I went to see True Grit. It was awesome. Even if we wanted to watch the Super Bowl though, we couldn't because we don't get Fox. Stupid Digital TV. Conspiracy! I noticed a popular mistake this week on Facebook was "Super Bowel." Hahaha. Amusing.

Day 35: 365 Project

"Favorite Shoes!"

 

I love love love these use. I love the colors and I love how comfortable they are. I just think they're really cute. I've had them for a couple years now. I bought them from Gottschalks when they were going out of business. Anyway, they've recently started getting holes in the sides. Makes me so sad. I guess that's what happens when you wear one pair of shoes all the time.

Day 34: 365 Project

"Disney on Ice Awesomeness"

On Wednesday night, I went with Christina and Angelica to Disney On Ice. Christina was going with her preschool class. The show was a ton of fun. As you can see in the top right picture, Angelica was so happy she was crying. Well, not really. That's a posed picture. Of course, my favorite part were the Disney princesses. I'm still a little girl at heart... my favorites being The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast. 

Toward the end, they even lit the ice on fire. Pretty awesome. At the beginning, Jack Skeleton even took the ice. It was actually pretty creepy. And of course, the best part was when they brought the ice tractor out. You'll notice in the bottom left-hand corner. Okay, that wasn't the best part, I still liked the princesses. At the end, the characters from Toy Story came out. It was awesome. How people can skate in those huge costumes, I'll never know. The most impressive had to be the pig. It was on all fours a lot, and even skated toward the crowd. The troll was definitely the most adorable though. She just scooted along. It was adorable.

Great show! Pretty sure I enjoyed it more than the kids.

Day 33: 365 Project

"Mustachio Madness"

 

Soooo... Christina was in town today because of Disney on Ice. We had lunch with Angelica at BJs then we went to the mall, sans Angelica. We tried to convince Angelica not to go back to work, but it didn't really work. Anyway, we were in Hot Topic and came across these mustache necklaces and decided that we needed to take a picture for Angelica. This is what we did! And I took this photo so it totally counts!

Tomorrow, I plan to put together a Disney On Ice picture collage. It'll be fun so look for it! 

Day 32: 365 Project

"Wilted Beauty"

Happy February! 

Well, I was out and about around the apartment complex and I was taking pictures of these bushes of daisies. Among all these beautiful and perky ones, there was this wilted one. And then I felt bad for a flower... I felt bad for a flower?! I know, sounds crazy. But I was thinking about how normally, this little wilted guy would be the last flower I would take a picture of. This time, it's the first flower I took a picture of!

Enjoy this month. I know I will. :)