My big news is that in August I'll be starting school again! I've been accepted to the Secondary Education Post-Bac program at UVU, and will be working toward a teaching certificate with endorsements in English, Japanese, and possibly Health.

It will take me a year (two semesters) to complete the education pedagogy classes--I already have my English degree, and I'll have to take one or two Japanese classes to get up to speed. If I decide to do Health, I'll need about five classes and can finish them up after I finish my student teaching next fall.

With some luck, I'll get a job and start teaching high school or junior high full time in the fall of 2013. I had hoped to start teaching earlier than this--a couple of months ago I was accepted to USOE's Alternative Routes to Licensure program, but after applying for about 25 jobs and not getting a single interview, despite my amazing letters of reference and adequate experience history, I realized that jobs are scarce, and no one wants an uncertified teacher when certified ones are a dime a dozen. So I'll need to go the conventional route after all, but that's okay. Adding a couple of endorsements certainly won't hurt me.

My plan is to go to school a couple of days a week, and substitute teach a couple of days. So I should be pretty busy in a couple of months, but I'm excited. I've wanted to teach for a long time (sadly not since I was an undergraduate, or I would have gotten a certificate then), but I've needed to be home for the kids, and it's worked out well for me to do what I've been doing for the past ten years. Now it's almost time to move on--Lola will be a senior this fall, and after that I'll be off the hook for full-time parenting. All I have to accomplish is getting her through this summer with a few credits made up. If I can convince her that she doesn't need to go by "Lola, Esquire," I will have done more than I thought I could.