Off to School We Go . . .

Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.

--R. Buckminster Fuller

Yes, school is becoming less and less obvious.
No one's killed me, yet. In fact, I'm enjoying myself. Drowning in paperwork, but hey, I'm having fun, and I'm getting caught up.

The kids all seem to love class, and, even more amazing, some of them seem to love me. One little girl threw her arms around my waist, yesterday, and exclaimed "I LOVE YOU, MRS. BOCCHINO!" Melt my heart? Just a little bit.

We've been reading The Phantom Tollbooth during snacktime in class, and, even though they only get some of the humor, the kids adore it. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't read it before this, but had heard so many high recommendations that I picked it up for class, and I'm falling in love with it. Adorable, brilliant, hysterical, and, actually, pleasantly educational. People don't write books like this anymore. It takes someone really special and gifted to weave a story like this together; Lemony Snickett is the only one I think of who comes close (and I love me some Lemony Snickett ^-^).

Parent e-mails are diminishing. Not vanished completely, but fading as time goes on. I'm also slightly less terrified of them, which may be an even greater accomplishment.

I really do love the new job, I adore the kids, and I have fun helping people learn. Yesterday, we read a book about King Alfred of the Saxons vs the North Men. Guess who got her history nerd on? Yup.

I'm not the only one with homework . . . The mood of the Bocchino household shoots down several degrees when dear Christopher has homework for his online classes. I am so proud of him for working on that degree, but, bless his heart, he just hates hates HATES it.

And that's all that's going on here.
So this is the Bocchinos, over and out.

Taking a moment . . .

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.--Wernher von Braun

I don't know whether to scream, pass out, or just start working . . . or a combination of all three. I'm having flashbacks of college all-nighters. Mom, you may stop reading now. You know . . . the ones with filled with panic, Vault energy drink, highlighters, notebooks, and a blank computer screen? So many nights, a paper would be due in my 9 AM class, my clock said 3 AM, and of the 12 required pages of a detailed analysis were at zero. Once I didn't start a paper until the day it was due. I just couldn't get my brain to work. I had the ideas, I had the theme, I had the quotes . . . but I couldn't vomit anything intelligible onto that Word document. I wrote it in three hours and dropped it off in the office at midnight. Mom, you did not just read this paragraph . . . I got an A on that paper though. Whew. So yes, the panic, the sweat, the shortness of breath, the wandering mind, the headache . . . it's all coming back to me.

Parent orientation is this Wednesday. Meaning I have three hours to sit down with women who could probably be my mothers and tell them everything I will pour into their precious child's mind and how I'm going to do it. Oh my. Mothers are terrifying creatures. Beautiful, wonderful, but absolutely terrifying. Next tuesday, they dump their little angels into my arms and hope I don't drop them. I'm only hoping the kids don't run away kicking and screaming.
On top of that, I have had three full days of information being stuffed into my brain like an overcooked overstuffed mushroom. Delicious, lovely, but oh so overstuffed. Teacher orientation kills. It's great stuff, but it's loooooooong and it's a lot.

I'm really beginning to realize that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.
I've trained, I've prepped, I've thought out, I've imagined . . . but I really have no clue. If parenthood is anything at all like this, I don't know if I will ever be cut out for the job.

People keep telling me I'll do fine, so I'm trying to believe them. Trying really, really hard. Let's hope they're right.
God put me in this position for a reason; it could just be for humbling ;)

When I get worked up like this, I tend to have nightmares. I can feel them coming on. Mutant mothers with first grade math homework . . . oi vey . . .

Oh How Time Flies . . .

Currently Reading: Lilith by George MacDonald

Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.

--Max Frisch

A lot and nothing has happened here at the Bocchinos. Life seems to form a continual blur of exist. We wake, we work, we eat, we clean, we play, we find cat puke in odd corners, we sleep, we begin again. I have funny little stories to tell, but I may save those for a later post. I find I talk too much, and I write even more, so I'm trying to shut up, abbreviate, and simplify. We're all about simple and natural, now aren't we, in this modern world? Trying to catch up with that. Seems I'm always behind.

• Library job ends this Friday. CAN I GET A WHOOP WHOOP!!?? *crowd breaks into wild applause* Yes, thank you. It's not that I hate my job--I don't. I enjoy it. I love my coworkers, I love being around books, I do not love the fear that my car will either be missing or in multiple pieces when I walk into the parking lot. The new teaching job is a great opportunity to move up, gain new knowledge and experiences, and try my hand at something. We've done secretary work, telemarketing work, retail work, and now a form of public service. I'm still looking for my passion. Maybe it's teaching, maybe it's writing, maybe it's feeding babies, don't know yet :)
• Mom came home last week from India in mostly one piece -- she had broken a finger and stubbed her toe pretty nastily after a case of the dreaded "Delhi Belly." So glad to have her home. You can read all about her adventures here.
• Chris has officially suckered me into World of Warcraft. We are not level 61 out of 80, an excellent team featuring an oversized attack crab named Citizen Snips. It's something to do after work for for fun, and believe it or not, some bonding. Chris loves it when I play with him. I love it when he helps clean the kitchen. We do both. Life is good.
• Last Wednesday, my awesome friends from Mississippi/London Semester, Jonathan and Kailen Reves came over for dinner. They just moved to Fort Lauderdale, and were spending the week at the Universal Parks. Awesome couple. Miss them lots :(
• We continue to really enjoy our time at Grace Fellowship Church. Now if we could just find a way to meet more people . . . hmmmm . . .
• Spent an awesome evening with Chris's good friend Alyssa and her three little ones. Alyssa's husband, Adam, was away for Naval training in Mississippi, so hopefully we'll get to see all five of them, soon. Love this family.
• Against all odds, we have a new cat.

This is a bad picture of Pipkin after her first bath because . . . well . . . she sort of smelled like poop. Two baths later, she smells better . . . but she's a love bug so we look past her odors. Navi tries to help by grooming and chasing her around the apartment (it took them two days to figure out that they love each other). It was one of those moments, looking in the adoption kitty section of PetsMart, where, against all odds, a tiny kitten wins you over and you can't leave without her. So yes . . . new cat . . .

As I type this, Chris is eagerly awaiting WoW playtime. We're night owls. G'nite!

Life Stops For No Man . . .

Currently Reading: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
--Professor Irwin Corey

First off, I have slept, finally, so I should be able to do this with complete and total coherence (after finding my potato chips in the fridge . . . oi vey . . . ). Still, the last few weeks have been a total blur.
Secondly, I highly recommend anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald (most famous for The Great Gatsby, one of my favorites). I'm not really that found of American authors, but Fitzgerald is delightful.


Thirdly, here's the update:

• My brother, Matt, left the country to spend a month in Okinawa, Japan recruiting students for a Christian Home-stay program in Florida. We're all so excited for him. Japan is one of my favorite places--the country, people, culture, and food are all so amazing and endearing. I'm so happy that God has allowed my brother a chance to experience such a magical place and to be used to further the kingdom.


• Celebrating two mothers in a day is both lovely and exhausting. I helped Dad prepare lunch for my wonderful mother, then headed to the in-laws to help my sister-in-law create dinner for Chris's mother. It was a long, tiring, but very rewarding and precious day. Chris and I have really been so blessed when it comes to the in-law department. We love being with our families. Plus, we were able to watch four-year-old Ellie perform the new musical classic, "I love my Mommy/ I don't know why but I do/ Pretty woman! Yeah!" Oh my goodness. Dad got it all on film :)


• The reason I had been missing sleep is because I was substituting/volunteering at a private school. It's weird . . . because my siblings used to attend the elementary and middle school there, and I graduated from its high school. Now, I'm returning in a completely different role. It's strange, but very fun.
• Chris completed two more online college courses with good grades. I'm so proud of him! Only seven more classes until he has that four-year degree for good. :)


• Back to the ICS thing . . . I subbed a second grade all by myself. Wow. The little bit of subbing I had performed before had been office or assistant roles, not actually teaching. At the last minute, the second grade teacher had to go out of town, and the school had to find a substitute for twelve children in less than 24 hours. Dun-dun-da-DUN! I was so nervous I had nightmares about mobs of angry parents chasing me, but the whole day seemed to actually be a success. I realyl enjoyed myself, the kids, and I actually seemed to have control in the classroom. It was really affirming to realize, hey, I can do this!
• Navi is still an insane ninja. We gave her a second flea treatment, and we're hoping that the flea problem vanishes completely. Chris and I still don't see them, and still aren't finding bites on ourselves, but as the month-long treatment wears off, she starts itching again, poor thing :(.
  
  And now, on to the bigger news . . .
• About a month ago, Chris's boss came to him and offered him a raise. Chris's pay will increase by a certain amount each quarter for the rest of the year. We were not at all expecting a raise this soon, even though we were hoping for it. It's such a huge blessing because it allows us not only to start bulking our savings account but it gave me the opportunity to look for another job, one that maybe didn't pay as well, but was in a better location, with better hours, and would be great for a resume and life experiences. So . . .
• . . . I got a new job! Haha. I will actually be teaching one of the first grade classes at ICS. I was so surprised and excited. The annual salary is really not that much less than my library salary, and Chris's first raise makes up more than the difference. We feel so very blessed and excited. The school is only fifteen minutes away from the apartment, and the faculty there is so sweet and encouraging. I know it will be a wonderful place for me to grow. I will be leaving the library in late July to begin my teacher orientations. WOW.

So that's life with the Bocchinos.
Wish I had some funny stories to tell. Eventually I will compose a list of my funniest library stories. There are some doosies. Wow.