Back to shool

Wayne started this blog almost a year ago and has not touched it since. Since I am once again unemployed, I am going to try my hand at blogging. I enjoy reading all the blogs of children and nieces and nephews and I have decided that this is a wonderful way to journal. We have had an interesting and fun year since Wayne's attempt at blogging but I will not go back and cover it all. I do want to highlight my major activity of the year though. We went on a Carribbean cruise in April of 2007with a group of friends. They decided that they were going to do another cruise this year, this time to Northern Europe. Since Wayne and I are going to China for 21days in October he did not want to spend the money on the cruise. He also did not want to take two weeks of vacation time from work since he is getting ready to retire Oct 3rd.

I have a friend who is a widow and I knew she would not go on the cruise with all the other couples. I decided that if I could find a job to pay my way I would ask her if she would like to go with me on the cruise. I did get a job and we went to the Baltic countries on a Princess cruise in June. It was great but the thing I wanted to highlight was the job I got. I spent the school year as an Instructional Aide to 7 beautiful 1st through 3rd graders who have Autism.





The picture is of "my kids". It was a very challenging year. I have learned a lot about autism and suffered a bit of physical abuse while working with the kids but I really enjoyed the experience. I am going to miss the kids next year. I have so many trips planned the end of summer and this fall that I have told them to put me on the Sub list for this next school year. I hope that I will be able to still work with them now and then.

As for the cruise, we had a wonderful time. There were ten of us and we saw some amazing things. The picture was taken in Russia where we had two full days with a Russian guide who ran us ragged. We saw a wealth of cultural and hisorical things in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Sweden and Poland.



Shortly after I returned home from the cruise Wayne and I went to Oregon with my parents to visit my niece, Lorrie, and her family. We also visited my brother, Ron, on the way to Medford. We had a wonderful time and it was great to see where they both live and the beauty around their homes. Lorrie had lots of chickens, ducks and goats along with the Macaw, parrots, dogs and cats. We had a great time watching 9 year old Lauryn take care of all the pets. We spent a great day on a jet boat going down the Rogue river and hated to have to return to the 112 degree weather at home.

This week Wayne is backpacking in the Sierras with Jason and a couple of friends. When he returns I am sure that he will have a hundred pictures or more that we could post.