Officially Official!

This week has been pretty crazy... Zach started back to school *FULL TIME!* and he seems to be really enjoying it and is shooting for a 4.0. I know he can do it! :) He spent last night at the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game, tonight he's going to a hockey event, and tomorrow will be another game. Having those season tickets means less time I get with him, but more fun he has out with his guy friends! I think he is enjoying being home just as much as I am!

Anyway, I started working last Tuesday as an ELP Tutor. I'm enjoying it and staying busy with seeing 30 kids or so a day. I've worked every weeek day since then for 6 1/2 hours (meaning I've worked for a total of 33 hours or so). It usually takes 2 days after the interview to get paperwork/fingerprints done to work for the county (I interviewed in Dec!), but by yesterday morning I hadn't received any news yet. By mid-afternoon the data processor called down and told me that my application was denied and that I'd need to refill it out. The only application they had on file was one that I filled out about 3 years ago for a totally different position so they didn't have that I was a certified teacher yet. I quickly left her office and went to fill out another application online with my license number and degree info. A little after that the principal called me into his office and told me there was a pretty big chance my Oklahoma certification wouldn't be enough to be hired for this position and if that's the case there would be no way he could pay me for the past week... My heart sunk and I got SUPER nervous. What was I going to do if this fell through!? The assistant principal joined in on the conversation soon after and said her and the principal would do everything they could and more to get me all figured out, but there was a chance it just wouldn't work out right now and I'd have to take some tests/classes to be certified in FL.

At this point the thought of paying rent in February was crossing my mind. We would be able to pay it, but the deposits we'd need to pay for everything else like electric/internet/etc would be hard to pay along with our regular bills... I knew Z would kill me! Soooo anyway I came home at 2:30 and after about 3 minutes of relaxing my mom called me and told me I needed to go back up to the school and to bring my new application number, my teaching certificate, and my letters of reccomendation. I hurried back up there and the AP faxed them right then and there and told me I'd know by tomorrow (which is now today). I got there this morning and nothing had happened yet... by 11 I was called into the principal's secretary's office and she told me it still wasn't approved and she suggested I stop working after today if we didn't hear anything because she does payroll and she knew she wouldn't be allowed to pay me if I wasn't in the system as hired. While I was down there she got my SSN and made a bunch of phone calls on behalf of my principal. The head honcho down at HR said she'd deal with my file personally and she'd call us back by the end of the day. Well, the end of the day came and I hadn't heard anything. I walked out of the building with my mom to do her end of the day duty and that's when the AP casually walked up and said "so, did you hear you're good to go?" I freaked out, gave her a big hug, and my mom hugged her too! lol. It was such a relief... She said I could take some days off and get paid, or they would add on hours to each day I work until they pay me back those hours I've worked so far.

I'm sooooo happy everything worked out and I'm SO thankful the principal and AP did what they did for me. The AP said the principal made a ton of calls for me. He's been working for this school system for years and knows a lot of people so I can't thank him enough for bending over backwards for me! :) Yay!

-Ashley