What I am up now-a-days...

I decided this year, I needed to start getting involved and so I got involved. I am still teaching at St. Paul on Tuesday nights for an hour and half. I keep trying to take my camera to start getting pictures up of what we have been working on, but I seem to always forget. So pictures and stories from those kids coming soon! I also joined G.R.O.W. Which stands for Generating, Responsibility, Opportunities, and Wisdom. Real Education For Real Life. This has been an awesome club so far. It's fairly new just started last year but it is an official club of I.U. We go to Bindford Elementary School on Fridays during their lunch and recess time and work with grades 1-6 and just eat lunch with them and talk. Afterward we'll do games or activities. I've only gone once, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. One kid I talked to was on the edge of his seat because after school his mom was taking him to get buy this new video game that came out. What kind of video game you ask? Why a giant hamster that kills people and destroys a city.....this is just a taste of what I experience on a daily bases. Haha. I also joined 21st Volunteer Corporation. This basically is a program that records different volunteer activities that I do around Bloomington. I have signed up for a candy cane workshop during December. I will be doing some Wonder Lab training then volunteering there. It's just a place for kids to play around with science. My psychics’ teacher I had last year, practically runs it, so I know the experiments there are going to be fun. I am also in Circles Initiative, which provides free childcare to Monroe County families. I will be trying that for the first time next Thursday, so updates on how that goes soon. There are a couple other random activities, but those are the main ones. I’m sure I’ll have stories from that coming soon. Then finally, through G.R.O.W. I asked to be paired up with a teacher who was looking for help during the day. So hopefully here soon I will be going to Binford on Tuesday mornings and during the day on Friday’s to work with her 3^rd grade classroom. I pretty excited because it’s looking like 3^rd or 4^th grade I like.

Along with all the volunteer work, I decided to try and land a few babysitting jobs. I found EXACTLY what I was looking for. On One Start, they have a classified section and so I posted a little ad about my experience. I had about 5 gigs offered and 2 that fit my schedule. Both families said they would love to keep me for the next two years, so you will hear these kids names repeated constantly. The first family has just a little 5 year old. Her name is Lilly and she enjoys riding bikes, coloring, doing arts and crafts, and playing school (oh yes). She is full of energy and when I asked her what her favorite color was she said lavender. What 5 year old knows about the color lavender? You already know I was thrilled with that answer and just gave her a high five. The other family has a 9 year old girl named Olivia, who is also an awesome kid. She loves to make bracelets, play games, get on her sweet little laptop, and watch movies. She is very down to earth and she and I have a good time together. Most of our entertainment comes from the little one. Her name is Ruby and she is 15 months old. Has as much personality as Jonas and the best laugh I have ever heard come out of child. She scrunches and I am mean scrunches her nose and just chuckles. She likes squishy things and balls. The first time I babysat her it took her awhile to warm up to me, but watching Jonas around new people, I knew I had to give her, her space. I tried some stunts I have done with Jonas in the past, like peak-a-boo, where’s Ruby?, and so on. Within 15 minutes she was bringing me her animal pieces such as her cow, pig, ducks, and so on. The second time I came back I rounded the corner and I heard her mom telling her look who’s here and she looked up and saw me and then just had the biggest smile on her face. No better feeling than that. But babysitting is a pretty sweet gig and I am very blessed to have the chance to babysit for such good kids.

Now try not to forget that I am still in school. I am taking 18 hours and for some reason I still don’t view myself as THAT busy. I have mastered time management to a T. Which is a very good thing especially with the profession I am going into. But if you are wondering what in the world have I been up to this is it. I am around kids more than I am around people my age, which is funny, but I have a good time and am thankful for all the opportunities.

First Post!

Testing this thing out to see how I do. Inspired by my sister Jean, I find myself constanstly having all these stories to tell people but then I forget about them. I want to start using this so (mainly) for the fam, so they see what I am up to but I am hoping to get my friends to starting blogging, but I am struggling to convince them. But I am getting more and more busier and it's not going to get any better. Instead of random updates, I figure when you wanna know what I am up to you can just hop on here. :) Enjoy!