Wow, for the first time since the wedding, I'M SO BUSY!
Today was my first day babysitting. The youth pastor's wife hired me to watch their baby girl, Abigail, during the day. Abigail is 10 months old and full of energy. She definitely keeps me on my feet when she's awake. Although very interested in exploring everything in my apartment, Abigail soon became bored and was not even interested in her lunch too much. Thankfully, I discovered she loves going on walks in her stroller and that keeps her very calm for a while. She also loves music and apparently dancing to Veggie Tales songs. :-)
One thing I don't think I've figured out, though, is how to effectively change babies' diapers. For some reason, kids always hate it when I try to do this activity. Not that I blame them, I would hate it too, but it has to be done. Making funny faces seems to work a little with Abigail, but she's still very squirmy. If anyone has any good tips on getting kids to sit still for a diaper change, I'm open to ideas. :-) Other than that, we get along fine. She seems to need a lot of sleep and is currently passed out in the other room in her little portable crib. I'm so glad for the company, but it's also nice that I get a little alone time too.
I also need to prepare for my upcoming trip up to State College. Thursday is when I have my two interviews. I'm leaving from the Norfolk bus terminal on Wednesday morning and will be gone until Friday night. Not only do I need to make sure I have everything in order to take with me, but I need to make sure Jon has everything he needs to survive the three days in my absence. I think he'll be fine, but I'm not sure how well he'll get through it emotionally. :-)
In addition to all that, our building is being sprayed tomorrow for roaches. That means that, tomorrow morning, I need to have all the kitchen cabinets completely cleared out. That was ok the last time we did this, but tomorrow, Abigail will be here, and I'm not sure where I'll put everything. It'll be a little bit of a zoo here tomorrow, but I'm sure it will all work out fine. I'm planning to take Abigail to the pool tomorrow too. That should be fun and get us out of the apartment. Well, I feel a little bit more like a responsible adult with all this stuff going on. Hopefully I can get things in order by tomorrow night so that my trip will go smoothly and Jon will be able to survive here on this end too.
~Rachel
Monday, July 7, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
July 4
Hey everyone!
I hope all of you had a great Independence Day holiday. We had a great day here, despite a small disappointment in the evening. Our plan was to spend some time on the beach here in Ocean View and then head downtown to the harbor to watch the fireworks. We had a great beach afternoon, watched a movie and then headed downtown. We got there in plenty of time and settled in on the Cruise ship pier. This pier is fairly isolated and I don't think many people know how to get there, so we had a great spot to sit by ourselves. The fireworks were scheduled to start at 9:30, but, as we sat in eager anticipation, the thunderstorm started rolling in. At about 9:40, we heard an amplified voice from out on the harbor saying that the fireworks were officially canceled. We couldn't believe that someone thought it was acceptable to cancel the 4th of July! But, we started the one-mile trip back to our car with the rest of the crowd, and then the rain started. Well, by the time we got back to our car, we were glad we had left when we did. We just missed a serious drenching. :-
) They rescheduled the fireworks for tonight, so we're planning a mall/fireworks trip again today.
As exciting as the trip to downtown Norfolk was, the highlights of our day turned out to come from other places. First, we had an incredible July 4th lunch. We decided to try making mini hamburgers and cooking them in a pan: something we'd never done before. They turned out great, and when they were paired with sauteed mushrooms/onions and garlic toasted French bread, they were truly the ideal sandwich. I added jalapenos to mine, but somehow Jon thought this was overkill.
T
he second highlight of the day was an unexpected visitor. This summer, we have sometimes felt as if we are running a hotel for bugs. The building has a cockroach problem, and we tend to get a lot of pill bugs (roly polys) from the nearby flower beds. The other day, Jon killed a very large cricket in the bathroom as well. However, we had never had a guest quite like the one we had yesterday. As we were watching a movie, we looked over and were startled to see a seven inch lizard on the floor. Not as startled as it was to see us coming over to see him, though. He ran out in a hurry as soon as we opened the door. We did get some great pictures, though.
Well, I guess I should end here. I hope you all are having wonderful summers. We will continue to run our petting zoo/bug hotel to the best of our ability until we write again.
~Rachel
I hope all of you had a great Independence Day holiday. We had a great day here, despite a small disappointment in the evening. Our plan was to spend some time on the beach here in Ocean View and then head downtown to the harbor to watch the fireworks. We had a great beach afternoon, watched a movie and then headed downtown. We got there in plenty of time and settled in on the Cruise ship pier. This pier is fairly isolated and I don't think many people know how to get there, so we had a great spot to sit by ourselves. The fireworks were scheduled to start at 9:30, but, as we sat in eager anticipation, the thunderstorm started rolling in. At about 9:40, we heard an amplified voice from out on the harbor saying that the fireworks were officially canceled. We couldn't believe that someone thought it was acceptable to cancel the 4th of July! But, we started the one-mile trip back to our car with the rest of the crowd, and then the rain started. Well, by the time we got back to our car, we were glad we had left when we did. We just missed a serious drenching. :-
) They rescheduled the fireworks for tonight, so we're planning a mall/fireworks trip again today.As exciting as the trip to downtown Norfolk was, the highlights of our day turned out to come from other places. First, we had an incredible July 4th lunch. We decided to try making mini hamburgers and cooking them in a pan: something we'd never done before. They turned out great, and when they were paired with sauteed mushrooms/onions and garlic toasted French bread, they were truly the ideal sandwich. I added jalapenos to mine, but somehow Jon thought this was overkill.
T
he second highlight of the day was an unexpected visitor. This summer, we have sometimes felt as if we are running a hotel for bugs. The building has a cockroach problem, and we tend to get a lot of pill bugs (roly polys) from the nearby flower beds. The other day, Jon killed a very large cricket in the bathroom as well. However, we had never had a guest quite like the one we had yesterday. As we were watching a movie, we looked over and were startled to see a seven inch lizard on the floor. Not as startled as it was to see us coming over to see him, though. He ran out in a hurry as soon as we opened the door. We did get some great pictures, though.Well, I guess I should end here. I hope you all are having wonderful summers. We will continue to run our petting zoo/bug hotel to the best of our ability until we write again.
~Rachel
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Exciting new developments
Hi!
So, a lot's happened since my last post, and the next few weeks are going to be a lot busier. I'm really happy to have more things going on!
We'll start with what I'll be doing down here. I've gotten a regular babysitting job for the month of July. I'll be babysitting four days a week for a family from our church. Their babysitter recently moved and so I'll be watching their 10-month-old for them. I'm so excited! I'll have someone to keep me company here. :-) I'm planning to go to the library this weekend to find some kids stuff for Abigail.
So, I'll start babysitting on Monday of next week, but then I have another new development. I'm on my way up to State College on Wednesday to go to some interviews on Thursday! I'm interviewing at the Grier School for girls in Tyrone and with a program led by my adviser at Penn State. I'm really excited about the possibilities at either of these places. At Grier, I'd be teaching middle school general science. It's a boarding school that is about 50% international students. It would be a really unique experience and I would love working with them. They also have a really big arts program, especially in music. At PSU, I would have a research job working mainly on the same educational project that I did my thesis on. I would be helping to implement an educational outreach program at Harrisburg High School, one of the lowest performing schools in the state. I'm really looking forward to the opportunities at either place.
I got to get out today a little bit too. A friend from church asked me to go to the mall with her and her little boy today. We went to a big mall in Virginia Beach and just sort of did some window-shopping. It's been great getting to know her and some other church people more. It felt so luxurious to go to a high end mall and eating at a food court. :-) Here I mainly just walk to the grocery store or the library.
Well, Jon and I are off to figure out a way to cash some checks so we can have some money. Have a great July 4 vacation!
~Rachel
So, a lot's happened since my last post, and the next few weeks are going to be a lot busier. I'm really happy to have more things going on!
We'll start with what I'll be doing down here. I've gotten a regular babysitting job for the month of July. I'll be babysitting four days a week for a family from our church. Their babysitter recently moved and so I'll be watching their 10-month-old for them. I'm so excited! I'll have someone to keep me company here. :-) I'm planning to go to the library this weekend to find some kids stuff for Abigail.
So, I'll start babysitting on Monday of next week, but then I have another new development. I'm on my way up to State College on Wednesday to go to some interviews on Thursday! I'm interviewing at the Grier School for girls in Tyrone and with a program led by my adviser at Penn State. I'm really excited about the possibilities at either of these places. At Grier, I'd be teaching middle school general science. It's a boarding school that is about 50% international students. It would be a really unique experience and I would love working with them. They also have a really big arts program, especially in music. At PSU, I would have a research job working mainly on the same educational project that I did my thesis on. I would be helping to implement an educational outreach program at Harrisburg High School, one of the lowest performing schools in the state. I'm really looking forward to the opportunities at either place.
I got to get out today a little bit too. A friend from church asked me to go to the mall with her and her little boy today. We went to a big mall in Virginia Beach and just sort of did some window-shopping. It's been great getting to know her and some other church people more. It felt so luxurious to go to a high end mall and eating at a food court. :-) Here I mainly just walk to the grocery store or the library.
Well, Jon and I are off to figure out a way to cash some checks so we can have some money. Have a great July 4 vacation!
~Rachel
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