working hard for the money...

Today was my first day at my new job. So far, so good--although I deal with kids from all over the spectrum. It should be a good experience, though. The frustrating part is that I can't remember people's names. I'm usually really good at names, especially if I've met them more than one time. This time, however, all the teachers I've met are Japanese women, so I can't remember their last names!! I feel bad for calling them by their first names (I remember their first names!) but I can't call them by their first names in front of the children. Oh, well. I will learn. It's also a totally different experience for me as ALL of the teachers are asian. And 85% of the students are asian. All new to me. It should be fun!

To top it off, it's been raining ALL DAY. You teachers out there know what that means: rainy day schedule. Rain also equals craaaaaazy kiddies. But I guess they're so used to it here that it doesn't phase the kiddies at all.

So Thanksgiving is all the talk now and I can't wait for turkey. Jerome and I had several invitations for dinner this year, but of course, it's all for naught because he has to work. Yep, you heard me folks, Jerome has to work on Thanksgiving!! It's all ok, though. It actually works out well because now I get to have dinner with Jerome at his work. In his sub! At least I think it's in his sub....whereever it is, I get to see where he's working. I'm sure it's in the sub because I have to get cleared through security. Should be interesting--and the food is catered, so no cooking for meeeeeee. Yay turkey!

Jerome, however, gets Black Friday off and we're trying to decide if we want to brave the crowds. I secretly want to, but Jerome hates shopping, so Black Friday is probably amplified times 100 for him. hahaa...we will see.

This past weekend, I had to take a test to receive my Hawaii Teaching Certification. I didn't really prepare for it and I was really NOT happy that I had to take it. I mean, c'mon....I've been teaching for 4 years and I have 2 freakin' masters in the Education field. AND I also happen to be employed by ETS (Educational Testing Services) to GRADE THE SAME TEST THAT I HAVE TO TAKE. Yup...how ironic is that? What if I come across my own essay when I grade the tests online??? Well, the test was from 2:30 - 4:30pm on Saturday...so it basically ruined my day. Then on Sunday, Jerome had to work--but came home early unexpectedly!! So we went to the Aloha Tower Marketplace (not that interesting...) and tried to explore Chinatown. I say "tried" because apparently Chinatown here shuts down on Sunday afternoons. It was dead. Too bad because I was craving some yummy Chinese food.

I was telling Crystal about these "cup signs" that the Navy wives put up to welcome home boats/subs. It's located right outside of the side gate and it's on a 20-ish foot fence....so you can see it when you leave the base. It's initially made with cups...you stick the ends on the cup through the fence and you write a message. It's really neat and I love it when I see a new one. But they're getting super fancy as now the cups aren't cutting it. There's a new product out there that is especially for the fence signs...they're plastic diamond shape things that fit perfectly into the fence...so it can get really fancy. (with regular Solo cups, there's only so many colors, you know? Well, here is the most recent sign, and the best one I've seen since we moved here.

And just for fun, because I love to torture Bella with new outfits....she says, "ALOHA!!" and, "Kiss meee!!!"