Louisiana: Week 1

We made it to Lake Charles pretty late Tuesday night and crashed as soon as we got here. Our day Tuesday was a long one...at each of our stops we let Addie out to play for a few minutes. It didn't matter where. We played at Chick-fil-A in Montgomery, and a few grass patches at gas stations along the way.

Wednesday we spent the day being kind of lazy. Amongst the laziness, I did find time to go apply for a World History position at Hamilton Christian Academy. I spoke with one of the people doing the hiring and he said that he would speak with the others doing the hiring and let me know either way. This would be an awesome job. It would be like teaching at Westfield. The school will not tolerate any trouble makers, they have corporal punishment, and the class sizes are around 13 per classroom.

Jarrod started work on Thursday. He didn't do much of anything except for in-processing. He did meet a guy named Dan whose wife will keep Addie with her own children for $75 a week. We went over there tonight so that I could meet Dan and so that the both of his could meet the rest of his family. His wife, Tracy, and I hit it off pretty well. They have three children; Rachael, 7, Giana, 5, and Dex, 9 months. Addie played well with them and I now have someone that I can hang out with on Monday while the men are at work! That's so exciting!

I guess this is the point where I mention that we are still living at the Days Inn in our new town. Our house won't be closing until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. On top of that, our belongings won't be here until Friday. This means that we will be living in the hotel until the end of next work week. We'll already have the keys and be able to go paint and change things to our liking while coming back and sleeping in a real bed. We did get a room with a king size bed and a fold out couch though. Addie sleeps on the fold out and we put it up during the day for a play place.

Addie and I got out of the hotel yesterday morning and went to the water park at the Rec. Department. Addie had a blast. There is a smaller kid section that is attached to the "big kid" section. It might be two feet deep at its deepest--this means that Addie can freely move about without me really worrying about her drowning unless she just falls over. She enjoyed going down the water slide and playing with some other kids that were there and there were many of them there.

Overall, our first week is going okay. I would love to be out of this hotel and be in our house but it could be worse. I could be the person that is literally living downstairs from us. And, tomorrow we're getting out of town and heading to the Acadian Zoo in Lafayette.

I will do my best to keep you all in touch since we're kind of getting settled in again! I love you all!!

Lake Charles

Many of you already know that we got our orders last Tuesday. We will be moving to the Lake Charles, LA area sometime in June or July. I'm not excited about being 600 miles away for the next four years but I am excited about venturing out. We will be about two hours from Houston, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge. Where I only had Atlanta to visit as a child, Addie can have three major cities to play in the museums of.

I have been looking at requirements to become a teacher out there and have run into a wall in Louisiana. To be able to teach in Louisiana this year, I would have to take and pass my Praxis II in one try. I'm not saying that I couldn't do it but it would be extremely difficult to do. Not only do I have to pass it but I also have to get accepted to a program and report for 7 weeks of training in June. Since we won't be there yet in June, this is very difficult.

My other option is to try to teach in Texas. I would have to be accepted to a program and go find a job. On top of that, I will have to attend many seminars throughout the school year. This still seems like the easier way to do it. Then, I won't have to try to find a place in June and I won't have to hustle to pass the Praxis. Before the school year starts I will have to take and pass the TexES test. I think the TexES is similar to the Praxis II and will test me only over my subject area but it's just a state standards test.

I have a final presentation and am taking my final today in Spanish. Wish me luck!