In a few short weeks school will be starting up again for children and teachers everywhere. By the time that happens I hope to be employed with the school district in either a full time or substitute capacity. I have been thinking a lot about my career options lately and it seems that what I am best at and what I usually enjoy is teaching. So the next logical step to me would be to get hired on with the school district in some type of aide capacity while I seriously think about getting my teaching license.
This career change would be the third this year, and the fourth job I have had in a year. Not that my job right now is all that great, I am a customer service representative for TMobile. Yep, I am one of those voices on the other end whom you will end up loving or hating depending whether or not you get what you want. And no I don't take sadistic pleasure in telling people they really do owe 500$ on their telephone bill... well maybe sometimes.
The job at TMobile was really the last resort after getting laid off from the job I landed after graduating from college, the job that got us to Oregon in a somewhat podunk town with not a lot of career opportunities. So I told Jay last week that I had applied for a job with the school district. What he said was that I was somewhat flighty about my career. What I am sure he wanted to say was probably something like "Will you just try and keep a job already?"
I can agree that when it comes to careers and jobs (which are not necessarily the same thing) I do change my mind frequently. To be perfectly honest, I don't believe I have ever held a job for more than a year. I get bored, grass is greener, school schedules change, I move, whatever the reason, I go through jobs pretty fast.
Here is a sampling of some of the more interesting jobs I have held: grounds keeper (aka garbage truck driver) at Bryce Canyon National Park, caretaker for two elderly mentally handicapped gentlemen who liked to run around naked and set things on fire, cow milker (3 am, five days a week, about 200 hundred head of cattle), middle school substitute teacher, pizza deliverer, dishwasher, janitor, and preschool teacher more than once.
My goal now has been to find and keep an at least sort of enjoyable job long enough to establish some kind of tenure. I really do want to find a job that I enjoy enough to stay at longer than a year. It would be kind of fun to break my record. I think the chances are better if I could have summer vacation again.

I just finished reading Solstice Wood, by Patricia McKillip, who btw is undoubtedly one of my favorite authors. I absolutely love how she mixes the everyday with fantasy and enchantment in a very poetic prose. There was a lot of food mentioned in this book, specifically chocolate cherry cookies, sooo after finishing the last few pages, I immediately thought of the wonderful Martha Stewart cookbook I received for my birthday which had a very similar recipe in it. About thirty dollars (haha Jay did you know how much I spent on ingredients???) , two hours, and one big freaking mess later (I am one messy cook) I had the most heavenly batch of double chocolate cherry cookies I had every seen. The tops were perfectly cracked, the inside was completely chocolately and gooey with just the right amount of sour cherry flavor. Wow. James helped of course, he cleaned off the beaters for me, and even squished his very own stick of butter between his hot little fingers for a good minute before I caught him.
I have gotten into the trend of making and freezing cookie dough lately so I can enjoy cookies at a moments notice (or maybe just get a quick dough fix). Since my parents are gracing me with a visit next week, I thought I would thaw out the dough and share. If any other family members would like to come down and visit us, the cookies are on me;)

Thank Heaven For Little Boys

James and I had a very serious talk at the breakfast table this morning. At least it was as serious as a talk with a toddler can be. Lately I have been starting to let him eat snacks at the table with the big guys. He thinks he is the bee's knees when he gets to sit in a chair and eat food at the table. This morning however he began to sweep all of his cereal onto our newly vacuumed floor. So I very nicely told him that if he wanted to eat breakfast at the table with me instead of in his highchair he had to leave his food on the table, otherwise I would put him back in his highchair. Oddly enough he was actually listening to me during all of this and when I was finished he very slowly got down, picked up all the cereal on the floor and put it back on the table. YEA!!!!! I must have done something right.
James is now at the age where he likes to imitate EVERYTHING he sees us doing. It's kind of a telling moment to see how a little child perceives you. He very expressively plays the piano and sings like he sees Daddy do, and he opens my books and stares at them and then finds kleenex and blows his nose. Anyone who has lived with me knows how accurate that impression is.