What's Happened in 2005

      At the end of January I began my student teaching experience at Corporate Landing Elementary.  I taught a group of 4th grade students Language Arts and Social Studies. It was an exciting time and a true eye opener.  Right after I began my student teaching I received a call for a job interview for another Long Term Substitute Teaching position as Computer Resource Specialist. This job would run through the end of the school year, a total of 15 weeks at Pembroke Elementary as their Computer Resource Teacher.  Their network was in really bad shape. I hope I made a positive difference. This school was unique in that one third of the school were children with special needs. There were children with autism, downs syndrome, many were wheel chair ridden. It was rewarding to see children with such special needs succeed in the small steps that they had to take.

     I completed my teacher licensure program and Kris continues to look for work. Raechel did very well in the 7th grade. She made all city band, (7th chair clarinet) and for a time, first chair at her school. Her report card came in for her last nine weeks.  It was impressive, four As and two Bs.  She on the other hand was disappointed because her goal was straight As. 

     For the summer I took a job working in the Virginia Beach Public School Department of Technology Team.  They put me on the team completing migrations at the high schools. We have to go into each school, access their network, prep all their machines and then reinstall all of the software on every machine to convert it over to a windows based network with Windows XP Professional for the operating system. 

    It hasn't all been about school and work. Raechel went to Bush Gardens again this summer with her Band. Earlier in the year we also went to see River Dance at Chrysler Hall. There have also been many trips to the movies and a few now to the beach. Raechel anxiously awaits the release of Harry Potter book 6.

     Kris has begun to try her hand at writing childrens' books.

    June has proven so interesting here in the first 2 weeks. Raechel came home Friday having volunteered to house her science teacher's three Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Probably one of the more bazaar house guests we've had.

      Then Saturday Raechel went to Bush Gardens and that old adage while the children are away the parents will play kicked in. We went to leave around 11 for the beach only to find an injured Mockingbird flopping around in our yard. We weren't sure what was wrong but we couldn't get close. We came back from the beach and he was still there and still full of fight. I told Kris to make some calls and I'd see if I could corner it. This all ended up in Kris and I performing surgery in our kitchen to get the string out of the bird's tongue and feet. We released the bird the next day full of energy and fight.

Then Monday, the neighbor's daughter came over, they weren't having any luck with their fish tank and wanted to know if we'd take them. There were three sick fish still alive and they are doing well and Raechel found a new home for one of them.

This morning I went out in the back yard to water my plants before work and nearly stepped on an Eastern Garter Snake. I caught him and woke Raechel and we took him and released him down by the creek. He tried to bite Raechel twice but she handled it like a champ.

Oh, I almost forgot George, we could never forget George.  George is the toad that has live outside our front door for the last three years. He stayed out too late on a couple nights when the temperatures dropped to the point he was a lump in front of our garage door. We took him in both times and let him warm up and fed him. We released him when the temperatures warmed and we still see him out on most nights in front of our garage door.

Any odds on what the next animal visitor will be..