Almost a month ago, I was sitting up at night trying to rack my brain to find a way to build my voice studio again. I wasn't sure I was 100% ready with an 8 week old at home
I missed teaching.
But more than that, since moving back to Utah, I had really been struggling to find students. I would find a few here and there, but they wouldn't stay long because they were either too busy to make the commitment they felt they needed to make, or they couldn't afford it and I couldn't afford to lower my prices much more than I already have...
I needed to find a pool of students that was going to be more dedicated.
I decided to peruse the Utah State website to see if I could find a contact at the university and stumbled upon their list of teachers they endorse within the community with an email address to contact in order to get more information or to get onto the list.
I quickly typed an email.
To be honest, I didn't think much would come of it, but I knew that the university would be a good place to find students who were a little more dedicated and serious about lessons.
Well, about a week later, I got a surprise call from the head of the voice department at the university.
She interviewed me over the phone briefly, but when she found out that I had previously taught at the collegiate level and had my Masters, her interest began to pique. She asked if I could come in for a more formal interview and audition. I agreed...somewhat confused. I didn't see why she would need an audition for me to be on the list- I could see an interview to ask about methods and pedagogical points of view, but I went with it.
I dressed for success (red lips are SO not optional in these cases), kissed my littles goodbye, thanked my mother in law for babysitting, and made my way to the university on the appointed day.
I sang, we sat down and she said, "Okay, I'm just going to lay it out for you. I had a full time staff member decide she only wanted to work 8 hours, and I need to hire someone to teach the load she won't. Do you want to come work for the university?"
I sat, dumbfounded. I'd had an inkling as I'd thought about it before the interview and audition that, perhaps, the reason she wanted me to come in was to talk about an adjunct position, but I also thought, with it being less than a week before school started, that it was too late for them to hire anyone else so I put the thought out of my mind.
Jeff and I had discussed what I should do if she did offer a job. So, I knew that if she did offer and the parameters were what we believed we could handle as a family, I would say yes.
Well...I said yes.
The diva is now a professor...an adjunct professor, but a professor nonetheless.
Initially, I was hired to teach Voice Techniques (a lecture class...think of it like group voice lessons with reading involved so you can learn and practice some techniques on your own) and 4-5 hours of voice lessons...
It has turned into Voice Techniques and 10 hours of voice lessons a week... so I'm working about 12 hours... however, I knew that would be a possible risk of becoming an adjunct (you kind of sign your life away when you sign the contract...) but I have also been fortunate. The majority of my voice students have been willing to come to my home for lessons. This has made it possible for me to only be on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays until about 12:30 in the afternoon.
I am also fortunate that a good friend of mine from my undergrad days lives in town here and offered to take my kids while I'm on campus. This has helped quite a bit because, with only a few days before I started teaching, I knew there wasn't time to find a daycare facility that had room and would be able to handle an Autistic child.
Since then, everything has been a blur of awesome...
I won't lie. I never pictured myself going back to work with three young kids at home. However, with my husband gone as much as he is, it has been a nice way to unwind. I have found myself much less stressed and more relaxed with my kids.
The beauty of this job is that I can drop everything if I have to in order to take care of them. As long as all my students get their 12 lessons for the semester and my Voice Techniques class gets through the required literature, if life happens, I have the freedom of revamping the schedule.
Next week...life is happening.
Last week, Faith had cognitive and speech communication testing for the special needs preschool. They said if they called back to schedule behavioral observation that it was likely that we were in.
Well, Tuesday morning, as I rushed out the door to get the kids to the sitter's house and my fancy butt to work the phone rang.
Wednesday and Thursday I have to drop Faith off at the special needs preschool. She will stay for the whole class BY HERSELF and then I will pick her up. We will know after these two days whether she is officially in or not.
I have already met the woman that I will call her teacher if she gets in, Miss Joy. She is so sweet and wonderful. She was very patient with Faith during the cognitive testing and is a singer herself. She got SO EXCITED when she found out I had a Masters in music and was teaching at the university...let's just say I plan on offering my services to come in and do a music day with her classes. It will be SO STINKING FUN to set up a music lesson for small children.
And...while we're on the subject of small children and life happening...
Phillie turned 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is so crazy that I have two 2 year olds now. Next month it will be 3, 2, and 4 months... but this month it is 2, 2, and almost 3 months...
Phillie has been SUPER into horses and being a cowgirl lately. She constantly points at the television asking , "Horsey? Horsey?" because she wants to watch a horse movie like Flicka or a show like Heartland where horses are front and center. She also looks over my shoulder while I'm on my computer and points at the screen asking "Horsey?" because she wants to look at pictures of horses on the internet.
We knew that it would make her day to give her a plush rocking horse and possibly some cowgirl dress up stuff...
With the help of Facebook and friends, we were able to do both!
I got a super cute plush rocking horse off of the Facebook classifieds for $10 and managed to score a cowboy hat and bandana for $5 at Walmart, and a friend sent an old cowprint vest that her little boy used to wear and had grown out of to complete the look...
I think its safe to say she was SUPER happy.
And...she was SO GOOD about sharing with her big sister. They still are. They happily trade off and take turns with her new horsey and take turns wearing the cowgirl dress up stuff.
In other news,,,, How adorable is my gummy bear???
It is so crazy that she is almost 3 months old.
It goes too fast.
So, in short, things are changing, but so far the changes have been good,,,stressful, but good.
and that is life right now in a nutshell...
Hugs and loves until next time, darlings.
