Routine Update

Todd and I are still dealing with Cox Communications and that whole fiasco. After I submitted the "Grrrr" letter, I received this response:

Dear Mr. Hoffmann:

Thank you for your recent e-mail to Cox Communications regarding the recent misapplied payments. We apologize for the delay in our response.

We regret any inconvenience that this may be causing. In order to further investigate the misapplied payments and be able to properly place the payments on your account, we will need a transmittal report from your bank for the payments.

You can fax the transmittal report to the attention of the Misapplied Payments department at (623)322-7500. Once we receive the transmittal report, we will be able to further assist you with the misapplied payments.

Regretfully, we are not able to locate the payments using your bank statements.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience that this may be causing.

Thank you again for contacting us via e-mail. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

James

E-Care Specialist

Cox Communications - Arizona

It's patently obvious that James didn't really read through my letter. Otherwise, he would have been aware of the fact that the bank did fax our transmittal reports to Cox on July 20, 2010. Eleven days later...no update. But, rather than bore you with a bit more ranting on that topic, I thought I would provide some insight into what's happening here now that our summer routine has come to an end.

As many of you know, I've returned to work. This is my second, and final, year of teaching. I'm feeling so much better this year than I did last year. I understand the paperwork, the agency, the expectations, and the classroom. I have regular interactions with some of the incoming Early Childhood Education TFA teachers and honestly, I don't know if I could go through a first year again. Mine wasn't very difficult, but it certainly was a lot of work. There's so much that you're expected to learn and assimilate in such a short amount of time. On top of that, you attend so many trainings that your mind sometimes feel like it's about to explode. So if any of my transition team members are reading this - Just hang on! It will get better, I promise.

I have a new CDA (Child Development Assistant) this year. My CDA from last year was promoted and, while I'm sad that we're not together this year, I'm very happy for her! Congratulations Fari!

My new CDA is great. I have to admit that I was nervous at first when I found out that I wouldn't be working with Fari. But that worry was completely unfounded. My new CDA's name is Araceli (isn't that a pretty name?). We have a good working relationship and I am so blessed to have such wonderful people to work with. Celeste and I are planning out our classroom and I'm excited for this upcoming year. I feel like the foundation I have is strong and that great things will be happening in my classroom. Araceli and I have done almost all of our home-visits, so I've had the chance to meet my incoming students. It will be a challenging year, but I'm looking forward to it. And, to top it all off, we're keeping our paperwork organized this year!

Since starting work again, Todd and I have returned to our normal routine. The summer was great because I had free time, but the routine is nice too. Today we cleaned the house and the pool and rearranged some furniture. We're about to sit down to some chicken enchiladas and enjoy our evening. Todd is still doing research for his PhD at ASU. Right now, our biggest complaint is the humidity - it's getting into monsoon season, so the rain is coming. Humidity + Phoenix heat = Ugh. But I still love it here!