A little catch up

I should provide a little info on my world as of now. We eventually sold our house in the Midwestern college town I loved. We planned on moving to Minneapolis, but alas, found no jobs. That was all sorts of fun, let me tell you. So, for about six weeks, we lived with my mother-in-law. Yes, my three children, husband and I lived with his mother who has lived alone for over 20 years, no stress there at all. Old Man was able to pick up a couple classes at the community college he'd taught at before and I subbed. It was a bit of a blow to the self esteem for both of us. I'd been quite confident, to the point of cocky, that I'D get a teaching job in MN, of course I would and it would pay so much better and be just wonderful! To walk back into my old school and get paid less to sub took a big swallow of the pride. But I did it and found subbing could be fun. Although subbing in a kindergarten room the second week of school was a lot of work! Those early elementary teacher work hard for their money! Give me 8th grade English any day!

A little more than a month into the school year, my brother called. He teaches adaptive pe in the largish city to the south. One of his middle school students was having a very hard time transitioning to the middle school. So hard the district was considering hiring a new teacher. Our sister, J.J., is an occupational therapist and she also knew the student. They both encouraged me to apply. I'd applied at his school district a couple times before, and had never even gotten an interview, but really had no other options, so I applied. And I got the job.

So, we moved in with J.J. and her family. Four adults and six kids ages 11 down to 1 in one house. An adventure of another sort! Although it went better than I'd have guessed. She knew someone who knew someone with a house to rent.

We are now renting a house about 8 blocks from her.  I'm teaching self-contained special education teacher with a 72% time contract so I am done (almost) every day by 2 and bringing home slightly more money a month than last year. Old Man is on his winter break, but starting January 15th he will be teaching three classes as well as tutoring writing. Still no benefits or security, but it's something. I started a seasonal job at Target(!) in November. In addition to a little extra cash, I get a 15% discount on all the crap I probably would have bought anyway. I told my kiddos, if you can't buy it at Target, don't bother asking for it for Christmas! They just asked me to stay on a couple days a week. I said yes, because who really wants to sleep anyway.

Kiddos have done really well with the transition. Me too, most the time. But I really miss my friends, especially those I could talk books with, and my job. I don't hate either of my current jobs, but I don't love them either. I really hope I can get back to an English classroom at some point!