Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Busy is an understatement

To say Andrew and I have been busy is an understatement. Since we have been together we have been on a roller coaster of life.....(the fast part)...
ME: In 2006 I started working at a housing community. I started out as a leasing manager and quickly moved into the property manager position (long before I had the title)... This meant working 60-80hr weeks during the busy season and 50-60 during the off season.... After I left there I went to work at a Private school raising money BUT I was also planning my own wedding and making everything that went along with that. After we got married I decided to go back to graduate school full time and work full time... I graduated last May and worked at a preschool during the day to help pay some bills... Then the biggie this past year I did my first year of teaching.... and then on top of it all I got mono the end of March..... Getting mono I think was Gods way of telling me to SSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW down!!! (The sad part is that I didn't even know I had mono... I blamed being tired on being a first year teacher in march... I got this pesky rash that sent me to the Dr and he told me I had mono.) Now its Summer Vacation and I have a vacation planned and a few workshops but other than that, NOTHING!

Andrew: In the spring of 2007 he started working on his MBA. He worked his way through school and went to school full time.... Then his last semester of Grad school he decided to sit for his CFA (Chartered Financial Analysis). This certification is a series of 3 exams that are 1 year apart from each other. Most financial people will not get their CFA because it is so hard. They will opt for a lesser exam. The books above is his study material for level 1.... level 2 and level 3 have the same amount of books AND all the tests are comprehensive.... So in the Spring of 2009, Andrew, graduated from  Tech with his MBA on May 8th, We got married on May 16th, and he sat for his first CFA exam on June 4th.... It was very busy... For the past 3 years he has been studying for the other CFA exams and he just took level 3 last weekend. This year was harder for him than normal because not only does he have normal burn out but usually he takes off from June-October and will not pick up a book to study, but this year he sat for his Series 65 exam in September, which meant he started studying in July.... But now.... if it is Gods will... hopefully he will pass and he will not have to study for his CFA anymore!!!

So when people ask me... well when are you going to have kids..... Andrew and I haven't had a life yet, we have been stuck in textbooks.... let us have some time to be married, then I'll let you know when that time comes!!! :)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Giant National Geographic Map of South America


This semester is my last semester of school (for the second time haha) and I have a unique opportunity to be apart of the leadership team for the National Geographic Giant Map of South America. This means I will travel to rural schools in the West Texas Eastern New Mexico Region and bring this Giant Interactive map to them. We have several lesson that we can do on the map and it is an interactive way to teach geography. This week was the first week for me to be able to work on the map and it was so much fun. It arrive on Monday, After work I went up to Tech to practice my lessons on the 21' x 36' Map. The whole time I thought as an adult I am having so much fun, I can only imagine as a child how this would take learning into another perspective!  Tuesday was a snow day and I was able to work with it on Thursday too. Showing mainly adults this week how the tributaries of the Amazon River flow to the Atlantic ocean and not the pacific ocean because of the Andes Mountains and how because of the panama canal you can "swim" all the way around South America with out touching land. Another cool lesson is using Lego's to represent a million people and using those to chart how many people live in the major cities in the country, then where are most of the people living. It is so unique and I am so very blessed to be apart of it. :) I'll keep you up to date on the travels of the Giant Map of South America! :)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Student Teaching

Student Teaching begins Monday! I am so very excited to be in a great school district with i know what will be a great class and coop teacher! Hopefully I will get to blog but realisticly i wont........ so.......I am restricting my blogging guidelines and you will have to get an email from me to visit them. Please comment back to me the email you would like the blog to come to and Ill put you on the list......
Love,
Megan

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

I can relate

This wasn't a story for class just one I wanted to write.


Some people may ask me, “Megan why be a teacher?” Why go back to school, spend all that money in tuition to get paid not great money and deal with a lot of not so great parents and deal with children that have more attitude than Chihuahua. And the only thing I can think of is that I can relate. So maybe I can’t relate to the big schools and graduating with 1,000 people and having people in your class that you didn’t know even existed, but I can relate to the hardships and the divorced parents. I can relate to a parent not being there because she chooses the bottle over her own children. I can relate to being raised by a single parent, and having 3 homes, (Daddy’s, Grandma’s, and my aunts.) not vacation homes but different people’s homes to live with. I can relate to not knowing your biological parent. I can relate to spending long hours crying because you don’t understand why your life isn’t normal like everyone else’s. I can relate to not being able to understand things because you learn different. Who know using highlighters could help you read. I can relate to people telling you to quit, just because it’s hard. I can relate to being told, I don’t know how you’re going to go to college your parents don’t have the money. I can relate to hating English class because I have to spell correctly and have correct grammar. I can relate to those children that might need that extra push, that people have given up on, the cast outs, the ones that no one feels like they care, the ones that who knows where they will sleep at night or who will pick them up from school, those that need a little extra help with homework because they just don’t understand. I want to be a teacher let them know that they aren’t alone and on welfare doesn’t have to be their career choice. That they can make their own destiny if they just put their mind to it. Tommy Lasorda once said “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination.”

Monday, July 19, 2010

Story for class-- When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman.

This story is a Mentor Text... We take the writing style of an author and make it our own. This story is based on the story "When I was young in the Mountains"


When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember spending many days and nights with my grandma and grandpa. Grandma would be busily working in the kitchen or around the house. And grandpa would be sitting in his recliner watching price is right. I remember climbing up into grandpas lap as he watched his favorite show as the aroma of grandma’s home cooked chicken strips teased my tummy as saying “come eat me.”

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember spending the days cooking with my grandma in the kitchen. We would can peaches and make homemade pickles. She even trusted me with her oatmeal cookie recipe. All of my family and friends loved when grandma Sommerfeld made homemade oatmeal cookies. She would even put fresh pecans in them just for me, because they were my favorite.

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember spending my days working on projects with my grandpa in the chicken house. He loved to build things and he was always had a project that he was working on in the chicken house aka, “his shop”. I remember going into the back of the chicken house and it was full of old tools and crafts my grandpa had made.

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman I remember walking up the lane as we called it but it was really just a road and visiting Mr. and Mrs. Herriot. I loved going and visiting them Mrs. Herriot would always have cookies waiting for me. She also tried to teach me how to croshee. My grandmother always wanted to me learn how to croshea because she lever learned and wish she would have, so I would spend time with Mrs. Herriot who was great at it, but never learned how to do more than just a chain.

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember once a year all of my uncles would gather at my grandparents’ house and they would slaughter a hog and make sausage from the deer they had killed that year. I will never forget them explain to me how to make head sausage. Now that’s just gross! But they would make regular sausage too, thankfully!

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember my grandmother having the BEST gardens. She would have rows and rows of fresh vegetables. Every day during the summer we would go out to the garden and pick fresh vegetables for lunch. She would then, stew, fry, bake, or boil whatever we had chosen. Who knew a kid would learn to LOVE spinach.

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember I had a pretend school house set up in the middle bed room. This is where I would play both student and teacher. In the mornings, Grandma would make me do spelling, reading and writing worksheets. So in the afternoon I would pretend that I was the teacher and those are the papers that I had to grade setting at my desk. I had a chalkboard and everything!


When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember how much my grandma and grandpa loved me! I always thought (and still do) that I was their favorite. I was the youngest of thirteen grandchildren and spent many hour and days at grandma and grandpas. I would cook, clean and sew with grandma, and I would watch TV, and play with grandpa. I loved my grandma and grandpa very very much!

When I was young, I would visit the town of Aleman, I remember I never wanted to go to the ocean. I never wanted to go to the desert. I never wanted to go anywhere else in the world, for I was in Aleman and that was always enough.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Story for class-- And I Slid Out….

And I Slid Out….
Jessi jumps out of the truck screaming “OHMYOHMYOHMY OH MY GOSH, ARE YOU OK? WHAT DO I DO?!?” Jessi comes around to the side of the truck to find my leg trapped under the wheel of her 1989 Dodge ¾ ton Dooley truck. I, in a state of disbelief but still somewhat calm says “Back up the truck.” I can’t believe this is happening to me, I thought to myself. Jessi and I were only going to make a quick trip up to school to get Alyssa and then back to my house to finish our Spanish project. The only detour we had planned on making was the one by the football field to see the guys practicing. This is not in my plans AT ALL. Jessi backed the truck enough to get it off my leg and comes back to where I am, “Megan are you ok, I am so sorry.” Jessi said panicked. “Yeah I’m fine I think but I think need to go to the hospital” I said Just then I hear a very familiar voice its Brandon, my brother. “HOLY CRUD! Megan are you ok?!” “Yeah Im fine but there is a big hole in my leg.” By this time Alyssa had ran into the gym to call for help and to let the coaches know there had been an accident. My brother was at the gym working out and was the first one out the door when he heard that I had been hurt. Having my brother there with me made it much better but by now the pain was starting to set in that my right leg looked like hamburger meat and there was a quarter size hole above my ankle. “Ok Megan, we have to get you the hospital, Jessi get in with Jessica, I’m going to take your truck and get Megan to the ER.” Brandon said as he picked me up off the grown and placed me into the passenger side of the truck (again.) On the way to the hospital I noticed that my favorite watch had broken in the fall, and my new Nike socks, well half of the sock wasn’t there anymore, and my new Nike running shoes… well they are intacted but has several scrapes on the side. “Oh man” I said “My socks are ruined and my shoes are scraped and my watch broke.” Brandon looked at me with this scared look on his eyes and said, “Megan, you have a hole in your leg and you are worried about your socks. I’ll buy you a new pair of socks!” We arrive to the hospital and I am starting to feel a horrible pain in my leg every time I moved. Brandon picked me up and carried me into the hospital. He was met by a nurse in a wheel chair and they wheeled me into the ER where I was their only patient. They place me into the room and start hooking me up to all these gadgets. The IV was the WORST but I knew I needed that so that they could start me on some “happy medicine.”’ Just then my Doctor walks in. “Hi, Dr Tan,” I said with a smile. “Megan what’d you do?”he said “Oh, Jessi ran over me.” I said “and my leg is messed up” by this time the “happy medicine must be really kicking in because I am in a very good mood. They start to work on my leg cleaning it up and getting me ready for x-ray. Meanwhile the nurse finally reached my dad on the phone, “Mr. Sommerfeld, this is the nurse from the Hamilton Hospital Emergency Room, Megan has been in a car accident” now listening to any parent you never want to hear this sentence and my dad’s reaction wasn’t much different than any other parent. From across the room I could hear “WHAT, IS SHE OK?” When I heard that I asked the nurse if I could talk. She then proply told my dad, hold on she wants to talk to you. “Hello, daddy.” I said “Megan what happened? Are you ok?” my dad asked by now he had calmed down a little bit because he knew I was ok enough to talk on the phone. “Well, Jessi and I went up to school to pick up Alyssa from Volleyball practice and after we picked her up we all got back into the truck to come back to the house to work on our Spanish project. When she turned the corner, the door came open by itself and I slid out. The seat belt wasn’t completely latched and it came undone and flung me under the truck then the truck parked on my leg. I’m sorry Daddy that I got hurt.” “Oh Megan, I am just glad you’re ok accidents happen. I am getting in the truck and I’ll be there shortly.” We hung up the phone and I started to cry. The pain of the injury didn’t hurt nearly as much as the pain I could hear in my dad’s voice that he was worried about his baby girl….. time passes and my dad arrives. He comes in gives me a hug and a kiss and then says “you sure have a lot of people here to see you” I looked at him puzzled. Just then I look at the door, and I see A LOT of people filling the halls. “I think the whole football and volleyball teams are here along with your coaches, and your friends from school.” They had filled the halls and the lobby coming to check on me. It made me feel good to know that so many people cared, that or they wanted to know the latest gossip. Just then Dr Tan walks back into the room. “Well Megan, you somehow didn’t break anything. You have second degree friction burns from the top of your calf to the ankle and third degree friction burns on your ankle where the skin tore away but besides that you’ll be ok. So we will stitch you up and get you on your way home.” Said Dr. Tan….. I was very thankful that I didn’t have any broken bones. Tons of people came to the hospital to check on me and even some went to my house and made sure everything was out of the way so that I could get in on crutches. I returned to school two days later to find out that all kind of rumors were flying around. But the good news was that I was ok and Jessi got her door fixed so that it doesn’t come open by itself and we are still friends.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Classwork- Maci saves the Day

So for class I have to write all these stories. The whole purpose of the class is to write about something. So I decided Since I am writing it I might as well share it with people...... So here is my story about Maci saves the Day.

Maci’s Saves the Day

“Are you excited to go to the lake?” Megan asked Maci. Maci wagged her tail in excitement. She had every right to be excited because she was going to spend the weekend with Meme and Dado while her owners, Megan and Andrew, went out of town. Meme and Dado lived about 15 minutes outside of Lubbock in a little community called Ransom Canyon. Andrew grabbed his keys and while Megan picked up Maci’s pink “Going to Grandma’s” suitcase, and then they all loaded up in the truck on their way. Upon arriving to Ransom Canyon Megan rolls down the window for Maci to stick her head out of the truck to smell the clean fresh air of country living. Maci was very excited to see the lake, geese and when they turned into Meme and Dados drive she couldn’t wait to tell them she has arrived. Megan and Andrew got Maci all settled then said their goodbyes. “We will be back on Sunday, and be good for Meme and Dado” Megan told Maci as she hugged her good bye. Maci then figured out that Megan and Andrew were going on a trip without her and this made her very sad. Meme picked her up while the red truck left the driveway. “Do you want to go for a ride on the boat? Meme asked, This made Maci very happy she ran to the back door to let her know that the answer is YES! Meme then brought her lifejacket and put it on so that they could go on the boat with dado. It was the beginning of summer and dado had worked on the boat ALL DAY and was going to take it for a test drive and invited the girls to go with him. “All aboard” said dado. Maci promptly prissed onto the boat ready for the wind to blow thru her long white and blonde hair, she didn’t really like the lifejacket Meme put on her but if it meant she could ride on the boat then it was ok. They were riding on the boat and then all of a sudden it stopped. “Ugh oh” said Dado, Maci stopped what she was doing to see Dado looking at the gas gage. “Did we run out of gas?” Meme asked, Dado didn’t say a word. Just then Maci turns around and sees a little red can under a towel, she walks over to the towel and barks. “Oh thank you Maci, I forgot that I left this on the boat!” said Mike. Earlier in the day Mike had placed a can of gas on the boat to fill up the gas tank and had forgotten that it was there. “I am sure glad we had Maci along because if not you would have been swimming the boat back home.” Meme said to dado then she turned to Maci and said “Maybe we shouldn’t let your Mom and Dad know that Dado nearly got us stranded on the lake.” Maci wagged her tail and enjoyed that she was being helpful. When Sunday arrived she couldn’t believe how fast the weekend went. She had a lot of fun with Meme and Dado. Maci was so excited to see Megan and Andrew when they walked into the house. “Did you have any problems?” Megan asked Meme “No, everything was just fine” Meme said to Megan then looked at Maci and winked. Their secret was safe with her.