is tonight. I will probably meet some parents of students. Now the strange thing about how they do it, is that the students and parents go around to each class and the teacher has six minutes to give some sort of speech or whatever. It isn't a meet individual parents one by one sort of things.
and so, i'll be gone all day.....over 12 hours....while my pot roast cooks ever so slowly, and will probably be done before I get home to enjoy it. But that is the beauty of a crockpot.
yesterday was an inservice day. it was oh so fun. training to learn to use a website where we access test data for our students and than "study island" training. an online program for extra help for students with questions and games and stuff. It seems like it's a good program that is starting out although there were a few things that displeased me. hehe, we seemed to be frustrating the trainer from Dallas with our questions.
anyways. and it was a lovely weekend with a Saturday of the quiet rain and Sunday of cleaning bathroom and writing thank-yous and directing Josh to reorganize our office. and WoW inbetween.
Well, first on the Houston family:
They went to Lubbock. I'm not sure if they've headed back yet or not. They live in Southwest Houston so they should be allowed back. I'll let you know what I hear.
My older brother, who lived in an area close to where the center of Rita went from a Hurricane to a tropical storm, lost electricity for at least a whole day and a tree fell down in his yard...thankfully towards the woods. Happy birthday for him!
I have finished the first six weeks of 6. I'll be entering some final grades today during the break from training as today is inservice day--teachers go to school. students do not. I don't have a great number of students who are failing, but only because I dropped the lowest test grade of 4. (We're only required to have 3. I did not want to drop a test grade...but, well, I heard from some wiser teachers that students failing because they didn't do their project was not a good answer to those in administration)....grrrr. and we decided not to face the bullet altogether and thus we are all dropping the lowest test grade. Hence, this next six weeks, the students have been informed that I'm not going to make it possible to drop a low test grade some how--if it means reducing project to quiz grade status and not giving as many quizzes.
But yes. I enjoyed my break from grading and school for this weekend and cleaned my bathrooms and had the hubby rearrange the office and played some WoW. and slept. and enjoyed good food.
All those leaving the Houston area right now...
I have two uncles and a grandfather down there and I know a lot of friends who also have family.
One uncles is going to try and ride it out....
The other uncle and his family and Grandpa are going to Cypress (I think that's near Katy), and if that isn't far enough, they have reservations in Amarillo (where I have an aunt). My sister-in-law's parents and siblings are on their way to spend another weekend with she and my brother. Happy birthday to my brother! (Let's just hope that the baby doesn't decide to make a birthday present of babyself....hehehe.)
Anyways. This is the last of the first six weeks for me so I've been busy in grading and trying to start the averaging process--well, the computer does most of it but I have to customize some of it. I can't express certain frustrations I have about this upcoming grading period here...let's just say it has to do with feeling the need not to fail half a class for not turning in a project...
Umm. hmm. So five weeks of teaching are over. Entertaining moments in the week were the chalkboard eraser fight and one girl's mistake of confusing staph and yeast infection..... more on that in a bit. Course, there was also the lovely fact that not fifty percent of my students turned in their projects on time--simple projects of plotting points that had been assigned two weeks before...
and hearing the news of Hands on a Hardbody and the next day, N.O. student evacuee problems at Longview H.S. and the County Fair.
So there's apparently a staph infection going around at PTHS and since I have students who take classes there, they've all become aware so as supposedly to be more cautious and wash hands and such. Well, this girl is telling me how the day before another student had been using my stapler on his arm and she goes "he shouldn't do that! he could get a yeast infection." Needless to say, I had to stop comments from being said that were inappropriate and not back to math oriented.
I couldn't help laughing.
Today I drove down to a baby shower for my next future niece of nephew. It was mostly a lovely two hour drive each way and I was glad I went. and other than becoming rather angry at a slower driver or two (really, 55-60 in a 70?, red light running? swerving over two lanes?), it was nice and it was good to see my very pregnant sister-in-law. My brother went fishing with the husbands of the ladies who hosted the shower.
Last night we saw "Lord of War" and I ended up thinking it was good. A bit intense in spots. and it was nice to sit back and enjoy a movie after doing laundry, shopping for groceries, and baking chocolate chip cookies.
Enough said for now.
So after the glorious Labor Day Off, the week went and pulled me down so that I am drowning in papers to grade and papers to organize, and what not. Tuesday, I attended a workshop in Kilgore all day. It was mildy fun at first....but than it just dragged as we did more of the same thing..... It's always interesting to be in a room of math teachers though. So I left Kilgore and went back to the school to collect the work my students were supposed to do and make sure the math/science team was doing okay for our normal meeting Tuesday after school. Than I went to pick Josh up, and realized I really didn't feel up to cooking at that point. The workshop, while I sat down all day, wore me out. So, we headed to the store. I should have let him drive. I should have gone home and cooked, because I was not in the right frame of mind to be speeding along one of my favorite little shortcuts. Alas, there was a motorcycle cop and I wasn't paying attention to him or to my speed. That and I didn't realize the speed limit was only 30. I thought it was higher. Hence, my first ticket was issued.
Wednesday was catch up after a sub day and figure out the rest of the week. Oh yeah, I found out on Tuesday when I checked my school email that I was supposed to be at a meeting the coming Friday morning at 10:00 in Nacogdoches. That hadn't been in my plans for the week....
Thursday was the first pep rally day. Ughhhhh. Even my normally good classes were a bit hard to handle and keep settled down with minds semi-focused on working. And of course, we teachers must attend the pep rallies and keep an eye on students. Blahhhhh. I liked pep rallies until they became too repetitive and material. and I was always peeved that we only had them for football games and never supported any of the other sports teams--some of which would win.
Today, I drove to Nacogdoches, sat through a semi-stressful 2-hour UIL meeting, and drove back, taught my fourth period class, and than went drop off paperwork and make my declaration that I would take a driver-safety course to have my ticket dismissed. It'll all cost the same as the ticket in the end but save me the insurance increase. It was a nice fall-is-coming drive, but Nac is the pits. Seriously. the big university there didn't even seem all that impressive, from I did see. But, I'll be down there again next semester for more of the same, so maybe I'll have a different view since I'll be in a different part of town.
So with a completely messed up weekly schedule from the last three weeks and this being Josh's first week of work and all the little things I've had to worry about.....I'm glad that the week is finally coming to a close. Although we're planning on going to Fort Worth tomorrow for Caleb & Morgan's post-wedding reception. whew.
time to kill some smugglers and traitors.
Because a few minutes ago I'm fairly certain I saw a mouse flit across the kitchen. I was reading through blogs when I saw something black fly across the kitchen floor. Thinking it was a forgotten piece of plastic wrap torn off something or another I looked up. All I saw was a long skinny black thing. I still thought it might be trash, but than it disappeared altogether. I have gotten up and crouched down to see where it might have disappeared into and my verdict is the under the dishwasher.... *adds mouse traps to grocery list*
It's not that I'm scared of mice. I just don't like them and I really don't want to be bit by one.
I'm enjoying my day off though. I got up and made Josh breakfast and lunch for his first day of work, like he did for me a month ago. Than I came back and cleaned the dishes. (Really glad that mice didn't scramble out when I was doing that!) I had breakfast on the porch because it is so nice outside. Except for the smell of beer from somewhere upstairs. Than right at 10:00 I drove to Sam's because our car was in desperate need of new tires. We were going to wait a couple of weeks and than thought about and decided to do it today. It was a bit pricier than I thought, but with free flat tire repair, tire checks, and free rotation and balancing every 7500 miles, I'm glad we went with Sam's. I also got Michelin's because that is what I have been taught as the best tires by father and brother mechanics.
It has been a good weekend. Saturday I went shopping with Mollie for some gifts and things while the boys played D&D. I had to get two wedding gifts, one baby gift, and one birthday gift. While shopping around we hit up Old Navy and found the deal of the year on bikinis--tops and bottoms at forty-seven cents apiece. I also decided to pick up WoW at Best Buy while I was there and went up to the register thinking to pay $50. But apparently there was a mysterious sale because it rang up as $37. That was a pleasant surprise.
Yesterday Ashley, known as "Stretch" to some of you came over and we made chocolate chip cookies and Reverse German Chocolate Cake. These were a hit at College and Career night at the Litterskis. :-D Still working on making my cookies chewier though. We had a good time talking to college friends that we don't see as often and meeting a couple of evacuees that the Litterskis took in.
Thank you Lord, Josh finally got a job, and one which is looking forward to and thinks he'll enjoy.
Now for all the debts to start dwindling....
We still have some stuff to work out--still have to find health insurance for Josh and figure out the transportation. It's looking like he'll be riding a bike. The job is about a mile from our apartment. So all you Longview people, go visit Plug'N'Play for all your computer needs!