Ten on Tuesday

1. What do you do for a living?
In reality I have 3 jobs.  Teacher, artist and mom.  I love all three dearly.  At my teaching job I teach adults with mental retardation or traumatic brain injury.  My class focuses on basic skills and life skills. It's under 30 hours a week so I also still have a few days home being mom too.  And on top of that I have an Etsy shop.  Business has been good lately and has been taking up more of my time.  But that's great news.  In fact I want more so go by and check it out here.

2. What’s your favorite thing about your job?
I love my students.  They are a fun group and some times a challenge.  Of course I love my kids so being home a few days with them is awesome.  I love the creativity outlet of my Etsy shop and lately I have LOVED being part of the process of decorating a new baby's room through custom mobiles I make for customers.

3. What’s your least favorite thing about your job?
It's a job for money and it's a big college so there is paperwork and some politics that aren't a lot of fun to deal with. And it takes me away from my kids and is making me deal with child care issues.  My Etsy shop is a challenge in the fact that I have to self promote and I am slowly learning about that.  Oh and then there's the whole book keeping part... yuck.

4. If you weren’t a teacher, what would you be?
My other love in college was psychology.  So I might have gone that route.  But if all pressures were off and I could have chosen what I really wanted to do and not been practical I would have been an art major.

5. What is something that you would love to get paid for that you think no one would every pay you for?
I am actually doing it right now! I still can not believe that people love my mobiles and ornaments and frames and actually buy them to put in their homes.  It still blows me away.  I am honored when people choose my mobiles for their new babies rooms.

6. If you could have any job for exactly one day, what would it be?
I would love to be a back up singer in a big band like No Doubt for a night at a huge sold out concert.  That would awesome! 

7. If you had to do manual labor, what would you do?
Wow... I have no clue.  I suck at cleaning, yard work and measuring.  So that throws a lot of things out for me.  I'm a decent painter when I take my time but I don't like to do it at all.  I will have to give this one some more thought.

8. What is something you were forced to learn in high school that was supposed to be super important, but you never actually use?
Geometry, algebra, pretty much any math higher than addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Even though I actually liked chemistry (thanks to an awesome teacher Mr. Rucker at CHHS) I never use any of that either.

9. Who was your favorite boss?  Why?
I've had the good fortune to have had a few great bosses in my time.  But my most favorite is a guy named Michael who was my boss when I worked at Barnes & Noble in the Cafe as a barista.  I worked with him for almost 3 1/2 years in college and then went back for a Christmas season (and a little longer) after my son Noa was born to make a little extra cash.  He was always fun to work with and never abused his power but was a genuine nice guy who cared and worked with my crazy vacation schedules (but I always brought him back a key chain).  I just liked him and working for him.  He never asked us to do anything he wouldn't and again his sense of humor made working an insane job more tolerable.

10. Where would you rather work: Dunder Mifflin Paper Company (The Office), Wernham Hogg Paper Company (The Office, UK), or Initech (Office Space)?
Hmmmm good question.  I am going to have to go with Initech just because I love that movie so much!  

Joining the Ranks of the Employed (again)

Don't pass out or anything but I am actually doing a post and it's not a Ten on Tuesday either!!  I know I totally missed last weeks but I've had a lot going on and frankly blogging is taking a back seat.  But here I am getting ready to fill you in.

I am now employed!! To catch any of you up who don't know I have been a stay at home mom for over seven years now.  Back in August I headed back to work (part time) at a major portrait studio.  I liked it and wanted to eventually go on full time.  But that was just not in the cards for me.  I was laid off/let go in February.  So I hit the pavement trying to find something else.  Now I went to school for special education and taught in the public schools before my son was born.  I liked teaching but special education requires so much extra meeting time after school and paper work that I just didn't want to go back to that (I love staying home raising my kids but financially I have to work now) and my state teaching licence expired and in this economy I would have to get it renewed to even think about getting hired in the public school system again (money and time I don't have).  I have an Etsy business that I LOVE but working up a client base and marketing takes time.   One day my dream is become a full time Etsy seller but for now I just don't make enough.  About a month ago my husband called me up from work to tell me about a position opening at his college (he works for a local community college).  The position was for a part time compensatory education instructor.  Really just a fancy term for a basic skills teacher for adults with mental retardation and traumatic brain injury.  I thought it sounded perfect since it was in my field  but not in the public schools and part time.  So long story short I interviewed two weeks ago and was offered the position last Monday.  I have since been in to train and fill out paperwork and observe another class (to get my bearings).  The class is during school hours and only 3 days a week!  I am so excited about it.  I am nervous too since it's been a long time since I taught but I am excited to get back to it. 

So the last two weeks have been mostly focused on my new job but I have also been working full stem on my Etsy shop and trying to come up with new products but also just trying to get my work out to more people.  So here is a picture of my latest Flower Mobile.  It's a new color scheme (Black and White) but I also played around with different flower sizes and  paper material.  This one was made with some beautiful handmade paper, scrapbook paper and even some really fun clear plastic scrapbook paper.

 My Newest Flower Mobile

I also participated in a big yard sale (which also had other home based businesses attending) the weekend before last.  I didn't sell much but I got a lot of feedback on my work.  It also got my name out there which is huge.  I had my husband take a picture of the booth just because I thought it would be fun.

My Craft Booth Set up

Last week was also teacher appreciation week at my son's school (they sure didn't have that when I was teaching).  Anyway each day had a different theme.  We (the parents) provided lunch every day for the teachers and then I sent in something each day for the theme.  For example Wednesday was restocking day so I sent in glue sticks (which was on the list of things his teacher needed).  Thursday was send your teacher a flower day.  I love getting fresh flowers but I figured she and the assistant would be getting quite a few already so I decided to make some origami flowers for them and make them into bouquets.  It came out better than I expected!  So I just had to share.

The Teacher's Origami Flower Bouquet

The Assistant's Origami Flower Bouquet

The Origami Flower Bouquet with handmade tag from the side

Ten on Tuesday

1. How do you take your coffee on an average day? How do you like your coffee if you’re splurging?
I don't drink coffee everyday.  When I do drink it I get fancy smancy stuff from Starbucks or a local coffee house call Port City Java.  I usually go with a skim Caramel Macchiato or a carmello leche, they are basically the same drink just a different name at each place.  If I am desperate I will drink regular drip coffee with cream and sugar.  My splurge would be to get the drink with whole milk or 2% instead of skim.

2. What is your genre of books to read?
I read stuff all over the map.  I used to read mainly best selling fiction and science fiction but the last few years have been all about what ever catches my eye.  I have read best sellers (The Help), science fiction (The Host, The Sookie Stackhouse books, Twilight), autobiographies (Scar Tissue - autobiography of Anthony Kiedis lead singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers and sTori Telling- Tori Spelling autobiography), Historical fiction (Centennial by James Michener), and true crime/story type books (Under the Banner of Heaven and Into Thin Air).


3. Where do you want to retire, if you could go anywhere?
I have no idea.  I am thinking where ever my grandchildren are and hopefully that will be here near the beach.  And of course this is if I ever work long enough to make the money to retire.

4. The 17-year-old you is told to write a 10-minute speech. What topic would you have picked?
Ummmm.. well I have no clue.  I would have been petrified that I had to get up and give a speech in front of  people, I was really shy.  I most likely would have picked something to do with music or maybe my favorite artist Henri Matisse.

5. What word describes you best?
Eclectic

6. What is the next “event” that you are looking forward to? (ex.: vacation, moving, date, job change, etc)
My family reunion/vacation next week.  I will get to see a lot of my family, who I only get to see once a year.  Plus it's a vacation so it's all good.

7. Do you like to discuss controversial topics or do you prefer to avoid those types of conversations?
I love to discuss controversial topics!!  I like to see how people react and what their take on them is.

8. Would you rather add 4 free hours to each day, or add 1 extra day to the week?
I think 1 extra day but one that I didn't have to go work on.  So it would be like a 3 day weekend.

9. If you created a sports team; what would your colors and mascot be?
Blue and silver and the mascot would be a kangaroo.  Random I know.

10. If you had to be a teacher, what subject would you teach?
Ha ha!  I was a teacher and I was a special education teacher.   I taught both elementary and high school.  I like both and would teach both again if I had to (long hours and waaaayyy too much paperwork has made me want to find something else).  But I think being an art teacher would be fun too.

Confessions of the Day 9

I told my 5 year old to go into his sisters' room this morning when she was crying to get out of her crib and entertain her so I could sleep for 5 more minutes.

My son lost TV for a week because of some really BAD behavior last week but I was having such a bad day that I broke down and let him watch a movie.

My van wouldn't start this afternoon (I left the door open and drained the battery) when I was headed out to pick up my son from school. No one was around the neighborhood to help me jump start it and my hubby was at work giving an exam so I had no way to get him. I luckily got in touch with my neighbor who could get him but because I was running so late to pick him up in the first place, by the time I had everything arranged it was way late and it made his teacher have to stay late. During teacher appreciation week no less.

Oh and I had no clue it was teacher appreciation week until today and still have not gotten my son's teachers anything or done anything for them period yet.