Shaine Mata Blog

My wife and I took the opportunity to visit the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN on Sunday. She has been wanting to go to a Ren Faire for ages, but something or other comes up, or we're broke. We've known about the festival in Minnesota all month. Given that we will be leaving the region to go back to Texas next week, we decided to go to the festival. It was a three hour drive to get there and, obviously another three hours to come back; except, we got lost to and fro due, so it took a few minutes longer both ways. The festival was great! It was definitely much better than we both expected. We thought there would be more tents. We were suprised to see that the festival has permanent structures and covers a very large area. In addition, the parking area alone was monstrous. The only thing that comes to mind to compare is the parking at Fiesta Texas . The big difference is that the parking area is unpaved; it's all grass. What is even better about the whole f...

We were informed that the federal team sent to review our Head Start center would not come today. Our center is roughly 3 hours away from the nearest center and about 4 hours away from our regional office in Oshkosh. The distance made it too inconvenient to have the team visit us in person. They conducted phone interviews instead.   There are mixed emotions amongst the staff. On the one hand, there is relief that we are not going to be closely scrutinized. On the other hand, we've put a lot of work into the center and were prepared to show it off.   Well, this week is practically over. After this, there will be two weeks of work and then we will shut down the center. In October, we all head back home to the Rio Grande Valley.   We have a couple weeks to finish up all paperwork. That's all of our focus from this point on. Ignoring that sentence ending in a preposition, we have our work cut out for us in our remaining time. But it won't be quite as stressfu...

If you recall, I returned to work at UMOS Head Start about 3 weeks ago. I was rehired as a teacher. I have not officially worked as a teacher since then. I've been what is called a "floater". Please, no potty jokes. My job has been going from class to class and help out the teachers by giving them breaks. That's what I've been doing all of this time, filling in while teachers take breaks. It's alright; I still get paid at the teacher rate without the paperwork. I've had the opportunity to work with infants, toddlers, and preschool children. I am surprised that I actually enjoy being with infants more than being with toddlers and preschool. I thought it would be the other way around. Toddlers and preschool have their good points as well.   This is going to change now. Everything we need is now nearly in order for my classroom to open up. I have a few days to prepare my classroom. I'll be with the older toddlers. These will already be ab...

I took the family to watch Miami Vice today. After outdoing the Ant Bully, I figured it would be a good movie. I was really disappointed. The story was too involved and took too long. Nobody in the family liked it. Miami Vice is better as a one-hour show than as a feature-length movie. During the movie, we just wanted it to end. The cinematography and feel of the movie was very much like it was on the TV series. I just wish they had got to the point sooner.

There really isn't much to report. I'm still working at Seneca. Still working 12 hour shifts. My wife is worried that I am wearing myself out and wants me to take a day off. I've agreed to take Saturday off, although the thought of all that lost overtime is painful. I figure I'll have another couple weeks before she asks me to get a day off again.   One important piece of news for me is that the Mrs.. has decided to stay up here in Wisconsin until October, when the season ends. This means that she will lose her job at the Hidalgo County Head Start and that our daughter will start school here in Rice Lake. Our son currently attends the Migrant Head Start, where he will stay until October.   For once in our lives, we are earning enough money to have a little surplus. It feels nice not to be struggling. Soon, however, we'll be going back to the RGV. One hopes that the job market will be improved in South Texas.