Then, there are those of use who take a less direct path. Like me.

I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I was seven. But then I writing sidetracked me and I ended up with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and several years experience as a newspaper reporter.

And that’s not all.

After giving birth to two wonderful children and spending 10 years helping work at home moms like myself start and manage their businesses, I realized I really enjoy teaching.

So I considered my options.

The first option: Go back to school and earn a teaching degree, either a second bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree. Problem? College degrees cost lots of money and I’m still paying for the first one.

The second option: Parlay  my bachelor’s degree and subsequent newspaper experience into a alternative certification. This option provided to be much less expensive, though it required some commitment and a bit of cash.

If you’re interested in becoming an alternatively certified teacher, you’ll need to meet certain qualifications:

1. You must have earned a bachelor’s degree with a minimum GPA of 2.5 from a college or university accredited by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
2. You will need to have majored in a field of study that corresponds to an area of Oklahoma certification for a Secondary Certificate, elementary/Secondary Certificate, or a Career and Technology Education Certificate. You can see the list on the application itself.
3. You must have at least two years of work experience related to the subject area of specialization if you have only a bachelor’s degree with no graduate work in a related area.

Does this sound like you? If so, I recommend you start the process by heading to the Oklahoma Alternative Certification website.

1. Fill out the Alternative Placement Program application.
2. In your packet that includes the application, include an official transcript from each college or university you have attended.
3. Include a current resume indicated your related work experience and the date resume prepared.
4. Include a $50 check payable to the Oklahoma Alternative Placement Program.

You will receive written notification stating whether or not you’re been accepted into the certification program within about six weeks. Do nothing until then.

Once you’ve received your notification, you can sign up for the Oklahoma General Education Competency Examination (OGET). This is a four-hour text that includes multiple choice and constructed response sections.

After you’ve passed the OGET, you can take the Oklahoma Subject Area Competency Examination(s) related to your field of study and work experience.

Passed the tests? Congrats! But you’re not done yet.

You must now complete an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation background check and a Federal Bureau  of Investigation fingerprint-based criminal history check. You’ll receive a fingerprint card that you can take to your local sheriff’s department for completion or to the State Department of Education offices near the State Capitol. You’ll need to mail in the card, along with the application for the Teacher Competency Review Panel, your current resume (again), a written explanation of why you want to be a teacher and a $100 application fee.

Yes, you read that right.

You’ll need to go before the review panel for an interview. But, as a former painfully shy person, I can tell you it’s not that bad. The panel consists of one person and the interview is short and friendly. At least, that was my experience.

Once you’ve been approved by the review panel, you’ll receive your license. Viola!

And my! How she has grown!

That is, until yesterday.

Wednesday started out like any other.

I lounged around in the morning, then prepared to go to the bank in the afternoon to pick up a new check card.

I opened the front door of my house around 2 p.m. to see this:

I dragged my husband out of bed (he works nights, so sleeps during the day), rounded up  my cellphone, purse, novel-writing bag, two dogs, and loaded everyone and everything into the Suburban so we could evacuate.

By the time I left the house, it looked like this:

The dogs and I headed out of the neighborhood, but stopped to shoot a few more pictures:

I contacted friends from church, and they let me house the dogs in their kennels. I don’t know what I’d done without them!

When I came back, the police weren’t letting anyone in the neighborhood, so I waited at the top the road to find out where the bus would drop of the kids. This was around 3:30 p.m.

We saw several fire trucks from surrounding communities, including Slaughterville, Little Axe and Purcell. Steve said he saw even more firefighters out, including Dibble and Pink. Thank the Lord for these men and women who risk their lives to save our neighborhoods!

For the record, on a normal day, seeing more than one or two cars on the road is considered high traffic. This amount of traffic was nuts!

Anyway, while I waited anxiously at the top of the road, my husband remained at the house, watering the yard and getting a couple other items at the house ready to bug out, if necessary. While he was there, he had the once in a life-time experience of having a Chinook helicopter drop a load of water on his head. Er, nearby…

You can see the blade of the helicopter to the right of the sun. And that’s the water falling out of the basket carried by the helicopter.

I believe that basket of water put out this lovely little blaze right across the street from our house:

Sometime after this, I picked up the kids at a nearby gas station. One of our neighbors called us to let them know where the kids were. Thank the Lord!

We finally returned home around 9 p.m. — just in time to put the kids in bed!

I took a few pictures today of the areas that burned:

You can see more grass fire photographs in my Flickr account.

I’ve decided to be brave and started my new painting. It’s the one of the beautiful tree with a hidden surprise. My art instructor suggested I use ultramarine blue at the top and cerulean blue at the bottom for the sky — both mixed with white, of course.

Yes. The canvas is upside down.

I started painting the sky in class. I mixed together one of the blues with a generous helping of white, then added a dab of Acrylic Glazing Liquid to increase the open time (in other words, make the paint dry slower, so I could blend). But it just wasn’t working.

So, I brought the canvas home and tried again. I added a bit more AGL and some water. This just made a mess.

Ugh!

Then I decided to read the bottle. I’m sure you can tell where I’m headed.

Apparently, if you’re wanting to increase the blendability of your acrylics, you need to use a 1:1 ratio of AGL to paint. Oooooo! Guess it helps if I use enough, huh?

So, once I figured that out, the colors blended together beautifully. Now, time to draw the tree…