Work

Past jobs I've had: waitress, sacker at grocery store,. Drug-free Schools Elementary Coordinator, high school teacher (English, Yearbook), Yearbook Sales Rep, middle school teacher (6th and 8th, English), bookkeeper, photographer, high school English teacher (9th grade all-girls school)

I remember my first job working at a restaurant as a waitress in my hometown of Gonzales at Kloesel's Restaurant. It was a family-owned steak and seafood house owned by the Kloesels. Ronnie, the husband, was the head chef, and Claire, his wife, managed the wait-staff. The food was so good and the restaurant was very popular. It was rather expensive, considering the other options in town. I was 16-17 years old. I remember Claire and Ronnie yelled at each other in front of all of us. Several of the cooks were also in high school:  Martin and Mark Yackel (twins a year younger than me) and Brian Wells (aka "Yankee" who was around my age). Julie Kloesel, their daughter who was about a year younger than me, also waited tables along with some other waitresses than came and went. The restaurant is long gone, but the original one is still in operation in Moulton, Texas, about 20 minutes east of Gonzales.

When I was a sophomore in college, I got a job across the street from my apartment complex at Kroger as a sacker/carry-out. My roommate and best friend Lori was a cashier there, a step up from my position. I desperately needed some extra cash, so I reluctantly took the job. It lasted a few months and then I got a job at a new college bar in town called Mirage. That was the beginning of my college "hey days." I met a lot of people working at Mirage, those who became good friends and those I quickly avoided at all costs. It was my first extended experience dealing with all different kinds of people. Waiting tables does that. I met so many characters. I remember Scott Gutting, the bouncer, who would yell at the end of the night when the bar was getting ready to close, "If you don't work here or if you don't sleep with someone who works here, get the f*** out!" Scott was a riot, such a gentle soul. I recently found out he has cancer and got married in the hospital. He's suffered from alcoholism most of his life. 

After graduating college, I got a job in my hometown as a Drug-free Schools Elementary Coordinator. I taught lessons to kindergarten-5th grade about the dangers of drugs. It was not really my cup of tea, but at least I had a job. I lived at home with my parents for about 6 months and then moved to Austin where I got a high school English teaching job and also taught the yearbook class at Crockett High School. I learned a lot about what not to do as a teacher. From voicing my frustrations in writing and giving it to students to teaching multiple texts I've never read, it was a very humbling year. In fact, I quit because I thought the profession wasn't for me.

Next, I took a job as a yearbook representative for Herff Jones. I gained an already established territory in Central Texas from a guy named Andy Schultz. It was a big under-taking. He had more than 50 schools he serviced and it took weeks to ride with him to all of them and introduce myself. I drove to places in Texas I'd never heard of or been to before:  Mexia, China Spring, Comanche, Taylor, Milam, Rockdale, Thorndale, Lago Vista, Fairfield, Palestine. I got up at the crack of dawn to drive 300 miles away for one school. I crashed my car in an ice storm on the way home from Stephenville. I cried in the parking lot at Georgetown High School when the yearbook adviser told me she was going with another company the fallowing year. I took it personal and wondered what I did wrong. I was so young (only 24) and so inexperienced. I tried to manage it all, but it was such an enormous task and required so many organizational skills I did not have, so when I met David at a Herff Jones convention and we started dating, then later got engaged, I was happy to leave it all behind and move to Houston. But what would I do in this big city I knew nothing about? I fell back on teaching. 

In Houston, I got a teaching job at Grady Middle School near the Tanglewood neighborhood in the Galleria area. I taught 8th grade English for 8 years there. This school set the foundation for my teaching career. I learned so many valuable teaching skills and embraced the reading/writing workshop approach. I was still an uncompromising hard ass. I wasn't a mom, so I had no concept of what it was like for these kids at home. I just wanted them to fully invest in my class and love writing. It was step one in a long line of teaching revelations. It was a good start. Even though I wasn't a mother at the time, I did take some students under my wing. I was drawn to the ones that were problematic or seeking attention and made them my projects. The 2003-04 school year was my last one at Grady. I had my first daughter in August 2004 and quit. 

After being home with Arden for 2 years, I decided I wanted to go back into the classroom and reached out to my teacher friend Toni to find out if there were any teaching positions at Presbyterian School where she taught 7th grade English. Lo and behold, there was an 8th grade English position open and I got it! I taught during the 2006-07 school year at PS then quit to have my 2nd daughter and stayed home with her...but not for long.

Tess was a lot more difficult to take care of at home. She was very colicky, so we hired a part-time babysitter who came 2 days a week so I could get out of the house and mingle with civilization. I started helping David at the office and keeping the books since they needed extra help. Eventually, I was given more responsibility and took over all the invoicing and bookkeeping. I liked it because I could come and go as I pleased, work out when I wanted to, help at the girls' school events, take them and pick them up from school. Basically, I was able to make a tiny paycheck yet still be involved as a parent. It was fine, but after a while, I started feeling like I needed to do something more fulfilling. In the midst of working part-time and being a mom, I also started a photography business. I never devoted all my time to developing it, so it never really took off. I don't think I had a clear vision for it. I knew I just liked taking pictures. It was the business side of it that bored me. I enjoyed photography but it still wasn't enough. In April 2013, a sudden urge came over me to go back into the classroom again. I called Toni.

She was back in Houston after being in Louisiana for about 10 years. She was also back at PS as an administrator. I was hired as the 6th grade English teacher and stayed at PS for 5 years, teaching 4 years in 6th and 1 year in 8th grade. I taught Arden in 6th and 8th grades. When she left for high school, I left, too, and came to Duchesne Academy, where I currently teach 9th grade English to girls. I'm also still taking pictures, mostly of high school senior girls. In fact, I'm taking more photos now than I ever did before!