- School year is going amazing for me. A little rough at the beginning--just getting back into the swing of teaching/speaking German but the kids are super patient with me and for the most part, I don't have many complaints about the type of student I have in my classes. :)
- I still have a job next year to my knowledge. I will be traveling a bit (starting at Capital HS for 4th period--about 23 minutes away from Timberline HS where I will finish out with 5th and 6th period). I will travel through my lunch and word on the street is that I will get my lunch paid out, as well as, mileage so I will get a little more pay than I am now. This is a lot better than what I originally thought I was going to get which was a pay cut--Timberline is cutting one period of German so I would've only had 2 periods instead of the 3 that I had this year. So this new deal is much better...other than the traveling...during lunch. But at least it's paid!!
- Since the current German teacher of German at Capital will be on leave of absence, I will get to takeover her position as group leader for the 2013 Spring trip to Germany...which means that I get to go to Germany FOR FREE!!! Kyle gets to go with me for a very large discount--almost paid for but not quite but since we have 11 people signed up for the trip altogether with my school and Capital, the cost for him to go is greatly defrayed. It will be a spring break to remember next year!!
- Kyle is working (not quite tirelessly) on his Master's and his Master's defense presentation is on the 11th of May. He's been under a lot of stress trying to get it edited and cleaned up. He will then submit his entire paper for approval to the grad office after the final edits are made and we wait until about August until he can finally graduate as a MS in Electrical Engineering.
- Tiger is doing well. He's the same lovable kitty! Social as ever and we have fully accepted him as a child. haha!! We love him so much! Kyle has even come close to considering letting him sleep with us at night. ;)
- Summer vacation is approaching and we are definitely toying with the idea of taking a nice, relaxing vacation somewhere that has a beach and tropical atmosphere in order to escape the stresses of the past 2 years+ of Kyle's Master's work and now that it's almost finished, we're in desperate need of escape. Now, only to find the perfect location...
- Zumba® has DEFINITELY kept my extra time filled with teaching classes, subbing for other people's classes and going to the extracurricular events that it all encompasses such as many a Zumbathon®, choreography learning/practice sessions and specialty trainings... I am now officially licensed in regular Zumba® and Zumba® Toning (Zumba workout involving light weights). The Toning classes will start this summer, although I've already introduced my students to it by doing a 50/50 mix of Toning and regular Zumba®. We do the first half of class with the weights (warm-up not including weights) and then finish out the 2nd half without and just do the regular dance fitness. This summer I will add Fridays to my schedule by doing a full hour Toning class at my Nampa studio that I teach at. I'm already seeing the results in my arms and shoulders just by adding the resistance to my workouts. Of course, Zumba® Toning is a whole different animal than that of the regular workout. Since we incorporate weights in the dance fitness workout, our upper body motions have to be more controlled to avoid injury from holding the weights. We only work with 1-3 lb weights because this is not a class where we will build SIZE in our muscles but we will build TONE (hence the name) and we will build muscle endurance. It's really been fun trying to practice for this class and I've got at least a half hour built up in choreo but I need the other half before I can start my whole hour class in the 2nd week of June. My students are loving it so far! My schedule is so jam-packed each week, Kyle can't hardly keep up with me but that's okay because he's busying himself with his thesis...
Well, hopefully that was a big enough of an update so far. I'm sorry that I've been so terrible with keeping this thing up lately. Just a hugely busy schedule has kept me away but I will try at least to update each month with all of our goings-on. The summer should prove to be a little more laid back....maybe. ;)
