Phone Interview Today!!

45 minutes until my phone interview with a middle school in Denver. Since we are officially in the process of signing a lease on the house pictured below, I am really hoping this one goes well and I get an offer. Lucky Erik is all set - he got word yesterday the he is now board-approved and will be receiving his HR documents in the mail soon. Things are moving along nicely...

Home Sweet Home

We may have found our future home today!! We spent nearly eight hours criss-crossing the city, and we THINK we have decided on this house. We are still going to view a couple more properties, but judging by what we saw today, we don't think we can beat this one. It is a 3 bedroom house with a great yard for the dogs and an awesome patio. There's plenty of space for visitors, so start planning your trips to Denver!!! The house is a bit further south than we originally planned to look, but it's in a great neighborhood - close to University of Denver, Cherry Creek and Washington Park.

Back to Denver

We are in Denver... again... checking out rentals. We have found a few promising places and some great little neighborhoods. Hopefully we will find our future dwelling soon so we can begin to plan the rest of our summer! We plan to head through Texas to New Orleans, down to Florida to see Erik's family, up to South Carolina to see my Dad, then back up to Michigan to spend some time with our peeps before the official move.

Wild Rivers Hike

Erik and I made our way down into the high desert to hike to the confluence of the Red and Rio Grande Rivers. This is a hike we have done before and we LOVE this area. The morning of the hike was overcast and cool (perfect for strenuous exercise), but toward the end, the sky opened up and drenched us. We still had an awesome time and plan to go back soon because they have had some mountain lion sightings recently. We know the chances of seeing one are slim, but we have to try...

Red River Wildlife

Every Memorial day, Red River becomes biker central. They hold a rally here for a few days before heading off to pay tribute at a nearby Vietnam Vets Memorial. The weather was terrible this year, but the bikes still came out in force. We were told by a local that there are typically about 35,000 bikes lined up along the main drag in town - it was definitely an interesting sight in this sleepy little mountain town. We made the trip into town for turkey legs, corn dogs and great people watching.

And that crew in leather at the top... they are Bandidos, an outlaw motorcycle gang with the slogan "We are the people our parents warned us about."

Santa Fe

Went down to Santa Fe for a night to celebrate Erik's birthday - enjoyed a relaxing day walking around the central square and checking out all the funky shops and galleries. The pictures can not do this great little town justice, but posted a couple anyway.

Our New Home

It's official! Erik got a job offer last Friday and he accepted. We are moving to Denver!! I am still job-hunting, but it's a little easier now that the search area has narrowed considerably. We are really excited about Denver and will be making a few trips up there over the next couple weeks to look at rental houses, check out the school districts, etc. As always, we'll keep everyone posted.

Erik's parents are arriving in red River today and will be dog-sitting for us while we make a short overnight trip down to Santa Fe for Erik's birthday. We can't wait to get away from the dogs for a night and do whatever we want! I will post pictures of our adventure later this week.

Corey, Get Yer Gun!

Finally, a shot of the herd {thanks, mom!} of elk that visit us in the valley. I just learned that they shed their antlers in late winter, so I can't tell if there are any males in the group.

For Mom

I can't eat one of these without thinking of you. You don't find these everywhere...

The Real McCoy

Here's a few shots of the actual snake that we spotted yesterday in Pueblo. We were hoping we were going to get an opportunity to watch him eat. As Erik crept up to get a few photos of the thing, he scared a rabbit out from under a car. The idiot ran directly over the snake, then just sat there waiting to be lunch. Unfortunately, I think both animals were too freaked out to act on instinct.

Panic in Pueblo

I just took the dogs outside - by myself! - and ran into a HUGE snake sunning itself in the middle of the grass where the dogs do their business. Since Erik loves the slithery creatures, I ran back to the room to get him. When we got back outside, we momentarily thought it was gone since he had moved on to another location. However - we found him just moving into some rocks on the edge of the grass. He (she?) was probably about 3 1/2 feet long, and quite thick. I am still fighting off a panic attack, but Erik is quite pleased as it was the largest snake he has ever come across in the wild. We think it was a gopher snake, non-poisonous, but still intimidating as hell to a ophidiophobe!

Update: As I was writing this post, the snake emerged from the rocks and we spotted him out the window (from the 3rd floor!) ... Erik went down to snap some photos. Since I don't have the USB cables with me, I can't share the actual photos, but I found a good one online. I will follow up with the real thing soon.

Pueblo

We have arrived in Pueblo, CO and are preparing for our interviews tomorrow morning. I can't believe we'll be in front of a class - we're both a little nervous, but it should be a good experience no matter what happens. We are hoping to have some time later this afternoon to check out the city and see what it has to offer.

Some photos to come soon... promise!

More Interviews...

Erik and I both had phone interviews yesterday with a charter school in Pueblo, CO. They have 2 social studies positions open, and they have invited us both to come up and meet with them on Friday. However, part of this second round of interviews is to prepare a lesson and teach it to a class. Needless to say, we are quite nervous. Erik will be teaching a US History lesson to 11th graders, while I will be preparing a Civics lesson for 9th graders. I have been forewarned that my 9th grade class can be "difficult" in terms of behavior - nothing like throwing you into the fire, huh? The administration has dodged all of our questions as to what we should cover, what types of technology we will have access to etc., so we are truly on our own for this one. Wish us luck!!

Erik also got called for another interview with a really great school north of Denver. He will be interviewing with them on Thursday. He'll do great, as usual. :)

Last night at the cabin, we had our first real night-time visitors (that we know of)- a huge pack of elk congregated just off the porch, but were scared away when Erik went to take the dogs out. I missed the entire thing, but am looking forward to catching a glimpse of the pack the next time they come around.

Rejection in Aurora

Erik and I traveled up to Aurora (about 15 minutes East of Denver) for an interview I had at a middle school. The interview went well, but I learned just a few hours after I met with them that I was not in contention for the job. Apparently, they wanted someone with experience with English Language Learners as they have a nearly 70% Latino population. Overall, it was a good interview - I got some great experience with challenging questions, and some valuable feedback from the principal as to how to better prepare myself for the language issue the next time I encounter it (and I will).

So - it's back to the drawing board. We both have phone interviews on Monday with a school in Pueblo, CO and we're holding out hope that New Mexico passes a budget soon so we can start interviewing in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Adios for now!

The Slow Life

Today we got a cord (?) of wood delivered to the cabin - it's looking like a good amount of manual labor is in the cards for us today as we work to replenish the wood pile. The guy who delivered the wood was originally from Monroe, MI, and he attended MSU, so we had a good time exchanging friendly insults.

We will be heading up to the Denver area later this week for an interview in Aurora - hopefully it goes well!

Check out the Delorian we spotted before we left Albuquerque... how many of those are still running these days?? Awesome.

Wildlife

There's not much going on at the cabin - lots of reading, walking, bubble baths, staring out the window waiting for wildlife to appear in the meadow, etc. Thought I would post a couple of photos of things we have observed thus far. Careful of the falling cattle.