Hola Amigos

Hello once again Beatty family. I hope everyone is doing well! I can't wait to hear about London Kyla and Dara!! And I'd love to hear what everyone else is up to as well!

Time for another update on the life of Paige. Work is going relatively well right now, things are looking optimistic (I'm afraid to go into too much detail what with working for the federal government and a big article in the paper today about people getting fired for writing about work in their blogs) but catch me offline and I'll fill you in. In addition to my regular job, this coming Sunday I will be starting a job as Nursery Supervisor at a church near my house. I'm excited about the position because it's similar to a director, but with the nursery only being open on sundays during services, so I feel like it's a good stepping stone to getting more leadership experience without totally going in over my head. The people who I've met from the church seem very nice, and I am looking forward to all the things I can do with this new opportunity. I'm also getting ready for my presentation at the VAECE conference (next week). My presentation is all done, and I gave a practice one yesterday for a few friends, and it went very well. Dad and Jill are planning to sneak in to my second session so you'll have to rely on them to tell you how it goes for real. I'm very excited, and the only things I'm a bit nervous about are technical problems with projector/computer etc., having a nice wall in the room to project onto, and making my voice loud enough to be heard by 200 people. Did I tell you about the issue with the projectors? I decided I definitely needed one to be able to present effectively to 200 people, but the organization doesn't provide them for you, and to rent one from the hotel costs $700 plus $100 for the screen. I was like uh no way. Fortunately one of the tech guys from work has arranged for me to use a projector, and I am crossing my fingers that there will be a suitable wall to function as a screen. If not I have no idea what I'll do! But I'd rather not think about it :)

On the grad school front, I had my interview last week, by phone, and the woman sounded very impressed with me and with my application, but extremely hesitant about the fact that I've only been teaching for two years, whereas most people in the program are, as she told me "mature women." As we went through the interview it sounded like she was trying to decide for herself whether or not she wanted to take a chance on me. I'm feeling optimistic, but also think that if that's the only reason that I don't get in, then it's probably not the right program for me right now, and I would just look for something else, be it school or possibly a different teaching position. One graduate program that I've been thinking a lot about lately, either for a phd after this program or possibly for a masters if I don't get into this one is the department of child and family studies at university of tennessee.

Other than that not too much going on. Been looking half-heartedly at new places to live, been having some roommate issues, but the price and location that I've got are pretty hard to beat. Wishing that I had more opportunities to make friends/meet people (it's hard outside of school--especially when there's no one really to make friends with at work). Thinking about taking an american sign language course at the local community college (I took 2 semesters at penn but i already have forgotten most of it but would love to pick it back up). Been reading a lot to unwind. Babysitting, going to various trainings and workshops as I can. And that's about it.

Love to you all and hope to hear from you soon!
Paige