http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird recent pleonast.com entries by user cbaird en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=546446 The family and I are heading out tomorrow to fly to California to see my family. :o) TJ and Holly (and their boys) will be joining us Saturday morning from Texas. Then we will all drive up to San Jose to visit with my grandmother, aunt and uncle where we will meet up with Jenny and her family. Sunday evening we will drive back to LA and do some fun vacation type stuff (you know... Disneyland, Legoland, etc...). We'll be there a week and then return home. What plans do you all have for this summer? 2008-07-03 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=541218 You'd think that by being off work for the summer would give me more free time, but that rarely is ever the case. For those of you wondering about the job I applied for, I got a call the other day to say that I was not selected for the job. I feel good about it though. It was a 12 month position and while having more additional income is good, spending less time with family isn't. As I mentioned, things have been very busy around here. We had a little birthday party for Kaitlyn Saturday morning. I put together a little slide show with some pictures from Katie's party. She got 2 Littlest Pet Shop stuffed animals (a bunny and a lizard) which have not left her side since the party. :o) We also had Hannah's End-of-the-Season soccer banquet Saturday night. Hannah got her first trophy, which she was really excited about. She also won one of the games they played... the doughnut eating contest. Sunday afternoon we spent with some friends from church. Since we live so far away, we ... 2008-06-19 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=537915 I just wanted to post a quick update about my interview today. It was a little like sitting in front of a firing squad but I survived. ;o) The interview committee consisted of all the assistant superintendents (4 of them) and the mathematics dept.... basically every high up person except the superintendent himself. The interview was held in this huge conference room where they all sat on one side and I sat opposite them on the other side. Most of their questions were things that I could easily answer except one. They said something about the position being K-12 and how would I support teachers at all the different levels. I had to be honest about not having any high school experience, which could be a negative. Although, if this job needs someone with high school experience, then I'm not the right person for the job anyway. On the positive side, the head of Title I was on the committee so maybe she'll hire me for something if this position doesn't work out. :o) 2008-06-10 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=536932 So our youngest daughter Kaitlyn is turning 4, one week from today. She is crazy about Littlest Pet Shop toys, so she wants a Littlest Pet Shop birthday party. We're going to do a small party for her here at home and we've invited a couple of kids from church. If there are any creative ideas out there for games/activities to do with 2 year olds, I'm open to any and all suggestions! :o) In other news, I got an interview for that job I applied for. (Apparently, not everyone who applied got offered an interview). My interview is Tuesday afternoon so say a little prayer for me so I don't mess up this opportunity. :o) 2008-06-07 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=532991 For those who were wondering, I officially applied for that job last week. I have no idea if I'll get it or not... sometimes these jobs are filled politically but if they're looking for "most qualified" ..... :o) So now, I just have to get my portfolio ready and wait for the interview. I'll keep you all posted if anything comes up. Hannah's soccer season is almost finished. They have 2 more games to play this week and it will be all over. They've only won 2 of their games so far and the last 2 teams they'll be playing are top ranked teams. They're coach isn't your typical yelling coach which has been good for Hannah since this is her first introduction to organized sports. My only concern is that she hasn't learned much about the game and how to play. Even now, he'll tell her to go play a certain position and she'll say "I don't know where am I supposed to go." (That's never a good sign). At least she's having fun. ;o) Katie's birthday is coming up in a... 2008-05-28 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=527574 I think most of you know that I'm an elementary math specialist and that I've been waiting for a position to open up in the math department for my school division for the last 3 years. Well... on Thursday, they finally posted the position I've been waiting for only now, I'm really nervous about it! Crazy right? Everything about this job sounds like it was made just for me... because I already do everything they expect this new person to do (except for the part where I work in more than one school and where my office would be downtown in the admin building). The person I'd be working with is a really good friend (in fact we went to high school together) and we get along great. The only downsides I can see with this new job is that I'll be moving from a 10 month position to a 12 month position... but as my husband keeps reminding me, I never have a summer off anyway. The upside to being 12 months is that I can plan my vacation time whenever I want... where now I don't get vacation ... 2008-05-12 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=525726 I'd like to start by saying that we have always given our kids birthday parties. Nothing over the top or extravagant... but some sort of birthday party. I heard several opinions about birthday parties recently which makes me wonder if we're going over board by giving our kids a party every year. One family I talked to gives their kids a birthday party once every 3 years. Another family I talked to gives their kids parties once every other year. To be fair to my kids... I have to mention that they LOVE birthday parties. They love going to them and they love having them. In fact, I'm convinced that my oldest daughter should become an event planner when she grows up. She thinks about and plans her next birthday party as soon as the current one is over! I just wonder sometimes if we're being excessive by doing a party each year. What are your thoughts? 2008-05-07 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=518728 It's been a while since my last update... but things have been a little busy around here. :o) For starters, last week was my conference trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. My friend Laura and I had a lot of fun going to workshops together. The first day we were there, we went to this one workshop where some lady briefly mentioned something about origami frogs.... which got me thinking. Origami could be a lot of fun for the kids and we could do some really cool things with them like having jumping contests and then graphing the results. So... I convinced Laura to make frogs with me. We spent about an hour Thurs day night making several different origami frog... none of which worked. :o( They jumped but not quite in the way they were supposed to. I haven't given up thought... I'm sure there HAS to be a way to make them work. Apparently, when Laura and I get together, we must have a death wish because we ALWAYS seem to get ourselves into dangerous situations. Some of you may remembe... 2008-04-19 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=513176 Create your own Friend Test here 2008-04-04 http://www.pleonast.com/user/cbaird?l=5&entryID=511839 I only have a few minutes... but I wanted to post some pictures from our weekend. :o) I have some time this morning, so I thought I'd update this entry. We had a good time camping this weekend. I'm not big on the whole "camping" experience but like Rob mentioned on his blog... he was the only one who actually stayed in a tent. The camp grounds were nice. I got my first experience learning to play racquetball while we were there and we were able to go bowling. (Definitely not your normal camping trip). It was very cold, so many of us didn't stay too far from the camp fire. All in all, it was nice time. :o) In other news... I'll be heading out to Salt Lake City next week. I'll be attending a math conference which should be a lot of fun. I've never been to Utah before, so this should be an interesting experience. Hannah will have her first official soccer game when I get back... which we are all excited about. She seems to be catching on quickly and has reall... 2008-04-02