Speaking of friends, amazingly enough I seem to have quite a group in Cali already.  Two different friends have lived here for some time, two sets of college friends have moved here in the last couple years, a former work friend lives in San Diego, as does one of the sons of a family who are friends in Arizona, friends of friends and cousins of my parents evidently live not too far away, and recently a couple of SCA friends moved to the area!  On top of that I am making a few friends through my program at school, and plan to continue to make more friends through school, local SCA, and a local church congregation (once I find an ELCA church I like in the area - hopefully one with both a good adult choir and a singles group.)

OK, enough fun, now back to work.  I started Fall quarter in late September and also completed a 7-week observation at an area middle school.  I was required to observe 45 hours but ended up observing for over 80.  I was matched to a pair of teachers who were splitting a contract, which was kind of a unique experience.  Each of them had two little ones at home, so they alternated days of one working and the other babysitting for all 4 kids.  I was observing mostly 6th graders, but since part of the purpose was to observe a variety of classes and teachers I also observed some 7th and 8th grade classes.  This experience pretty much solidified that I think I want to teach at high school, but until I complete the high school observation I won't know that for sure.

Later in October/November I completed a 6-week observation at an area high school, again with 45 hours required but I ended up with over 50.  (By observing a few complete teacher days I was able to get a clearer picture of the life of a teacher and the requirements for full time teaching.)  This observation was good but much harder as now my credential program classes were in full swing and there was a great deal of work involved.  Unfortunately much of it felt like busy work and I did not enjoy this set of classes nearly as much as the MAT classes from the summer before, but I did still learn a great deal.  I am particularly enjoying my Math methods class, perhaps in part because there are only 13 of us (14 including the prof) and perhaps because my classmates are all as excited as I am about the various topics in the field of Math.

We managed to put on a similarly decent spread (with slightly fewer sides and deserts, but not by much) in Arizona for Christmas.  My brother Don works retail and wasn't able to get off for the holidays, so he spent Christmas with the family there in Nebraska, but Greg managed to get time off and made it down from Washington so with Dad and me and Mom and Greg we had a decent group for dinner and games.   (Especially Bridge, which I love to play but rarely get to play with anyone outside my family and some of their friends and Bridge groups in Arizona.)  Greg and I got the tree decorated, and we all helped fill the stockings (including one for Don.)  Christmas Day we had more packages than expected considering most of us had already exchanged or mailed packages separately.

Before traveling to AZ I flew up to WA and spent a week (including my birthday) visiting with folks up there.  It was great to see my Godkids, and I was amazed at how much they've grown in the last 6 months!  Part of my holiday gift to their family was a web cam (and one for myself) so we can have video calls to keep in touch over the months when we don't see each other.  I had a great trip, got to see a good many friends, went shopping with Greg for the hats I bought Don and he bought Mom, and spent my birthday playing games, talking, shopping, and eating pink cupcakes with pink frosting with my Godkids et al, followed by dinner with friends, followed by ladies night out relaxing at a spa with a detoxifying body wrap and a wonderful foot massage.

Back to late December, I spent one afternoon out with Mom "just looking" for a newer larger RV, and after 3 hours of successfull shopping we found "the one" and proceeded to take a test drive, haggle on price (my Mom drives a wicked hard bargain!) and sign final paperwork for her new home on wheels.  [I'll probably meet up with her in February to keep her company while she takes it from Arizona back east to wherever her current RV is at that time...]

I'm still working on getting my boxes all unpacked and preparing a guest room (though I do have one futon in the living room that's worked OK for guests so far) but I hope to be seeing many of you in the coming year, either through my travels or yours.

Take care one and all and God Bless!
Mickie