TEXAS It Is

For those of you following my student teaching situation that will begin in Mid March the verdict is in.  I found out on Tuesday that I will be going to Austin, Texas to student teach at the Texas School for the Deaf.  I will start sometime around March 23rd and should finish around the 10-15th of May.  I will be teaching in a first grade classroom with deaf students.  I will also be implementing my own curriculum that I developed as part of my master's thesis.  I'm very excited to get a chance to come back to my old stompin' grounds and work and play in a city I love.  

I can't wait to be in Austin, closer to my friends and family for a few months.  Unfortunately, Jahon will be staying behind and continuing to work in California.  It's not really feasible for him to take a LOA or quit his job to come with me for 2.5 months to Austin, so we will be separated for a while, but I am not worried at all.  J may be a little worried that a 2nd grader might pick up on me while I stay at the dorms on campus.  I mean if you consider going to school basketball games or field trips dating.  J said that he may pick up a Cougar though in San Diego while I'm gone.  I wish him luck, if he meets a nice older woman who wants to take care of him that's fine, because we all know teacher's don't make any money. ;) j/k.  He does have the other girl in his life, Trixie, to keep him company though.  If anyone wants to come visit him too, you are always welcome at Casa de Jabali!

Tissues blow!

Ok, here is my beef with tissues.  Clearly, I'm sick and today I had a very runny nose.  From the time I left my house this morning to drive my commute to babysitting, 30 minutes (from Carlsbad to UTC), I went through 4 tissues.  My nose would not stop running.  So what is it about tissues never being big enough to hold everything when you blow your nose?  It takes two tissues, to collect one nose blow.  They make them so thin, that you might as well just blow it in your hand.  Then, if you fold it in half to be extra thick, you run out of space yet again.  The skin under my nose is practically non existent at this point in the evening.  My poor upper-lip skin, is all chapped and red and burning from the hard paper that has rubbed up against it all day.  Even the tissues with extra aloe or lotion, or the extra soft ones don't cut it.  Being sick with a runny nose has caused me even more pain and discomfort now that my nose is dry and chapped.  

What do you do?  I probably went through a box of Kleenex today.  Yes, a box I bought for $1.09 at Target, not on sale, has now caused me even more pain.  Is there any way around this unfortunate miss hap?  How many people all over the world are in pain this cold and flu season due to insufficient Kleenex?  No matter how much lotion or aloe you put in your tissues, Kleenex, they just don't cut it.  Now not only am I still using the tissues, because if I don't my nose will run everywhere, but my lower nose is bleeding and I have to use lotion and Neopsporin to care for that.  Is there any hope out there for nose blowers?  Will a tissue ever be good enough?

Shower Caddy

Last night, in the shower of all places, I had an epiphany. This wasn't something to solve the economic problem or end the world of starvation, but to truly understand the shower caddy. This is a piece of metal in some cases, encased by a white rubbery, plastic substance. It sole job is to hold bottles, razors, loufa's, etc.. Yet somehow it fails. No matter how many times you adjust the bottles, the whole caddy never seems stable. The suction cups fail to suck and just when you think they are stable, the fail and a nice swinging caddy is what you have. So I move a bottle from this side to the other, no dice. I try and position the bottle dead center to distribute the weight evenly, fail again. I stand back and look at my creation and there is nothing symmetric about it. Dangling there from the shower head, lopsided and unstable. The thing just doesnt look safe. For a split second I thought about getting Bob Vila on this thing and break out the E6000 super glue. Then I thought, do I really want a suction cup glued to a specific piece of tile forever. Hey, I could replace the tile or try and pry the suction cup with a flat head screw driver, knife and a whole lot of patience's.

Seriously, its not worth it. I will just live with the balancing act for the time being.

Daily Routine

- On to the day. Both of us had a tough time sleeping. Jess, mainly because she is sick and for some reason last night I was snoring instead of talking in my sleep. I couldn't sleep because all of the commotion. The morning began as it always does (daily routine), alarm sounds off..."Well it seemed like yesterday, When the world was looking....." snooze, snooze, snooze an additional 30 minutes of sleep please. Then it doesnt even seem like 2 minutes pass, "Well it seemed like yesterday..." OFF. Jess doesnt even seem to be phased as the song echoes through our bedroom. Me, dragging myself out of bed, off to be Trixie's' slave for a good 15 minutes. She does her morning routine..stretch, check the house out, stiff the perimeter of the house, uses the restroom and then runs back inside to wait for her food to be served. Two scoops and a nugget later, she is stuffed and ready to take my place in bed next to Jess. Shower, shave, brush teeth, dressed, kisses good bye and out the door to work.

Well work is work, not much I can say about it. I designed a lot of stuff, wrote some emails and had couple of meetings. Oh yeah, lunch fits in there somewhere. Now depending on what day it is, I could be off to school or heading home. If it is school, then I am stuck there most the evening, taking notes and trying to focus. Since I am more driven this time around, the focus and determination part comes kind of easy. I am getting up there in the age bracket, so I need to knock this school stuff out has fast as I can. If I head home, its Jess and Trixie time. A walk/run is needed and reserved for that time, just about everyday. Trixie averages around 5 poo's a day, so the morning and the afternoon walks/runs are muy importante or this kid may explode. Even though most would despise this time of the day, I actually don't. You see, I get to spend that time chatting with Jess the whole walk/run (the reason I keep putting walk/run is because the hills here are killer, I feel like crawling up them sometimes). We spend this time to catch up and talk about everything, I look forward to that time with her.

When we get back its dinner time. If I am cooking, look forward to a strange concoction. If Jess is cooking, look forward to plenty of veggies and light on the meat. Trixie, is served yet again. Only this time she tries to enjoy her food all over the house, following us with dinner still in her mouth. After all of us have dinner and enjoy whatever was on the menu, it is either time to relax or homework. Soon the bed starts to call our name and we share kisses goodnight. Sleep and cuddles are so nice..."Well it seemed like yesterday, When the world was looking....." SNOOZE.

Time flies when you're having fun

Today is our 6 month wedding anniversary.  I can't believe that 6 months have gone by already as Mr. and Mrs.  Well, actually I can. They have been the best 6 months of my life, our wedding being my all time most amazing day in my life to date. We have been so busy with life and enjoying our newly wed time together that the months just flew by, almost as fast as the holidays come and go.

A recap...J and I tied the knot in La Jolla on Saturday, July 26, 2008.  From there we enjoyed 10 days in Fiji for our honeymoon, then started back to work when we returned.  We went to Kingman, Arizona to visit my brother for Thanksgiving.  We went wine tasting in Temecula with friends at one of the vineyards, Ponte Winery and apple picking in Julian (Trixie came too for the fall harvest). We drove to Las Vegas to celebrate Christmas with Jahon's mom and dad and some family friends and for New Years we drove to Burbank/LA to see our newly wed friends, The Hartford's.  On top of all that, J's dad, Tony came and stayed with us for a week in November, and my brother spent many weekends visiting us in San Diego last fall.  J and I also spent every weekend playing soccer on Sundays at the Water Tower where we are on a co-ed indoor soccer team.

2009 holds a lot in store for us too.  J is currently going back to school to pursue a degree in nursing.  He is taking some pre-reqs at the community college by our house.  I am in study mode as well, as I finish working on my curriculum (part of my Master's thesis) that I will implement at my student teaching this Spring at a residential deaf school internship.  I will be living in Freemont, CA  (NorCal) or Texas or Washington for 2.5 months while I finish my last student teaching requirement.  We are currently waiting to hear back from Freemont, to see if I got accepted to teach there.  I'm not looking forward to being apart from J for those 8-10 weeks, but we can do it. After all, we dated long distance in college, while I was in Austin and J was in Houston.  We can make it through anything!

In closing, thanks to our family and friends who have shared the past wonderful 6 months of marriage with us.  We have enjoyed spending time with each and everyone of you, and look forward to when we meet again.  Thank you J for being my best friend, lover, husband, and companion.  Not to mention we are like peas and carrots, I could never imagine finding anyone else as dorky as I am!  Thanks for making me laugh, it makes everyday awesome!

Game On!

This is our first entry on our blog.  I say "our" because J and myself will be putting up posts and pictures to keep you updated about The Jabali's, otherwise know as JJ.Jab!  We began our lives together as husband and wife last July 26, 2008 and this is our story as newly weds in Southern California.

Today, we began a hike with our dog Trix in the Calavera Hills, which soon turned into a dreaded bootcamp.   It was pretty intense.  In fact, we had to stop a few times to catch our breath as we trekked up the 90 degree incline.  We eventually made it to the dog park, to where we were greeted with "Why are you wearing shorts? Aren't you cold?".  We replied, we are kind of warm from our hike.  "Kind of" was an understatement.

We are now off to go play in our soccer game at the Water Tower.  We are 1-2 this season, which is pretty embarrassing, because last season we were the champions.  We won the coveted "championship t-shirt". We haven't been playing like champs the past two weeks though, because Chargers football playoffs decided to schedule their games at the exact time as our indoor games.  Maybe today will be better.  We will let you know the score next time.  

Umm...yea, we lost our soccer game.  Of course we played the best team today, and of course the weather at the Water Tower was frigid below zero temperatures.  It's weird how the weather at the Tower is either  "my feet are on fire" hot or "my nipples can cut glass" freezing.  There is no medium.  A high note from the game, J almost had as many saves with his legs and butt this game than Matt the goalie had all game.  J was quite the defensive player.  Meanwhile, I was hacking up a lung on the sidelines because I'm getting over being sick.