Have I ever told you how wonderful my mom is? Well, you all should know she is the best. She was the oldest of four children. Her mother stayed at home and her father worked as a banker. Being a Catholic family, all four children went to private Catholic school. With real nuns. As you can imagine, with only the single income of a banker, they were not rolling in money. Their idea of "Friday Fish" was frozen fish sticks. My mom won't go near sea food to this day.
Well you might be thinking, "But her mother stayed home, so she must have some wonderful family memories with a stay-at-home-mom." Nope. She recalls her mom laying on the couch reading romance novels. I cannot picture my rosary-carrying grandma reading that trash, but apparently she did. A lot.
To make up for all of this, my mom set out to be everything she always wanted. She played with my sister and I all the time (stopping, of course, to clean and re-organize everything because she LOVES organization). She made sure all of our holidays were really special. She decorated the house for every holiday and season and created wonderful family memories for me. She even MADE our Halloween costumes. Who does that other than Martha Stewart? (I am the cute little blond in the following pictures. My sister, Kim, is the other kid in each shot.)
You might be wondering about wonderful memories for my sister. My sister has no memory. It is true. She didn't have an accident and loose her memory or anything. She just doesn't have one. She has all of her memories tucked away into about 5 boxes in her guest room closet. She cannot remember diddly-squat. Apparently she is getting better though because she is in law school and doing VERY well in all of her classes. (Go Kim!)
Anyway, my mom has always gone above and beyond the call of duty and she has struck again. She is great at buying gifts and surprising me with wonderfulness. Just this weekend she surprised me with some really cute shoes and some salsa from Harry and David. Yum. She is the best mom ever and I am glad she is mine. Muah. (That was a kiss, mom!)
So that has absolutely nothing to do with the blog title. I just went off on an "I love my mom" tangent and had to share.
The Doom's Day news is..... I got RIFed today. RIF stands for Reduction In Force. Strange, because the word "in" is not large enough to warrant its own letter in an acronym, hmmm.... This means that because of my school district being $3.someting MILLION in the hole I got laid off. When they start re-hiring teachers, they have to call me first and everything is based completely on the type of degree held by each individual and the number of years experience within the district.
A retirement incentive package was created and we just found out that at least 30 people signed up for it! I am really thankful and praising God right now, because that most likely means that I will be called back.
I was one of three classroom teachers (in addition to our Librarian, English as a Second Language teacher, two music teachers, and one PE teacher) who got this notice today in my building. The next person on the seniority list got hired a few days before one of the teachers in my building who got cut.
Meaning:
Person A was hired 7/5/07 and is still employed
Person B was hired 8/12/07 and was RIFed
Person C was hired 8/20/07 and was RIFed
and I was hired 8/21/07 and was RIFed
Of course I made up those exact dates because I am not the Rain Man and don't remember what they were, but I know they are within a couple days of being accurate.
Since Person A didn't get RIRed that means I was only about a month and 20 days or so from not getting cut. Because there were at least 30 people who are retiring, I SHOULD be hired back to fill one of their spots. Of course I won't know until it is time for school to start next August, so in the mean time, please pray for me. I would really appreciate it.
Please pray that I get hired back and that the financial crisis does not cut me again in the following school year. I am not sure what God is teaching me through this, but I know Sparky and I will make it. Even if we have to live on his $34,000, minus the $200 a month to add me to his benefits, a year teaching salary. He will provide.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5)
" I will instruct you and teach you in the way should go; I will guide you with My eye." (Psalm 32:8)
"For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death." (Psalm 48:14)
"The Lord will guide you continually ..." (Isaiah 58:11)
Oh! I thought I would leave you with a picture of my Mumsey. This was when we were leaving the hospital. I am the baby. I have started scanning in all of our old photographs, but I have only gotten to 1988 when I was four. Apparently my mom took most of the pictures instead of being in them.
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