I am going to be an aunt!!!!!

Friday night I got a phone call from my sister, Michelle, wondering if I was home and if she and my brother-in-law could stop in. I always welcome visits from my family, and I knew everyone was heading east for my grandparents' farm equipment auction the next day. I had NO IDEA that she was going to tell me they are going to be parents!!!!!! They have been married just about as long as Mike and I, so my parents have been getting extremely restless for grandbabies and my sister, Brittany, has been aching to be an aunt, so our whole family is quite excited for the arrival of this baby in early Sept. Thanks, Mike & Michelle, for taking the pressure off of the rest of us! :)

So, with this news, and after a conversation with a friend I have had forever (literally, I've known her my whole life), I have decided.......

*drum roll, please....

I am going to give in and join the Facebook ranks, BUT not until April 14. On that date, I will have had this blog for a year (hard to believe), but more importantly, I will be completely finished with my graduate work. Until then, I cannot allow myself to get sucked in! :) I will want to see pictures of my new nephew (or niece, but we all think it's a boy), and since we do not live close to each other, I know that will be the best way to keep in contact.

However, I hope that I will still feel motivated to continue here as well, but we shall see: my shutterfly page has grown cobwebs since I started this blog!

Well, to end I have some pictures from the sale. It was a great day for a sale as the weather was great - and wonderful for taking pictures! I usually am quite annoyed by people who take pictures of the Amish, but I had to be hypocritical yesterday because there were just too many perfect picture opportunities. None of my generation ever knew of this, but supposedly, the Amish and conservative Mennonites play this game called "mush ball" or "corner ball" at farm sales. We couldn't quite figure out the rules, but basically there is a guy in each corner and he throws the ball across the space to a guy in another corner while trying to hit 1 of 2 guys in the middle (supposedly, my great-grandpa was quite good at this game). The only downside of the day? My Mike couldn't be there: he has been sick since Thursday evening. :(

Anyway, enjoy the pics! Until next time...

I couldn't help myself!

Again, thanks to Courtney, I have something to write about today.

(from an e-mail)

Homework: Draw a picture of what you want to be when you grow up


(Here's what the teacher received the next day)

Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith


(I decided that since I have spent over 6 hours working today on my research question - yes, just the question - I deserved the 5 minutes it took to make you smile today!)

SNOW DAY!!!!!!

After being baited how many times by weather forecasters, we finally got enough of something to cancel school. Although, I think all of the schools cancelled just because we wanted a snow day - it really wasn't that bad outside at 10:30 (when we would've started if we had a 2 hr. delay) - of course, that is elementary school, so I don't know what it was like an hour or so earlier.

Either way, I don't care. There is nothing like being jolted awake at 5:30am by your phone ringing to tell you that there is a delay or a cancellation. Even better yet, is calling the next person and hearing their groggy voice on the phone. It is quite amusing the conversations that happen during these calls! Of course, I was anticipating the phone call, so I think that figured into all of my dreams until the call actually came - and when it did, I wasn't sure if it was for real or not! :)

Thanks to the delay yesterday and the cancellation today, well, I have most of next week's plans written already - and it's only a 3 day week (P/T conferences - yippee.)!

Okay, no more distractions. Time to get back to work. I have narrowed my thoughts to 3 different research questions and am now waiting feedback from my professor. Next, I want to tackle some of the work for the ESL classes at church. Oh, and I was going to cut Mike's hair since we are going to Phila. tomorrow night for dinner (Restaurant Week) and he's starting to look a bit shaggy. So, all-in-all, I think it has been a productive day.

Of course, I would've rather sat and watched "BBC America" shows all day and/or read books...

Here's a smile-maker for you (courtesy of "useless knowledge"):

Some things never change: Cutouts of a moon and a star were used in colonial times on outhouse doors to designate the gender of the intended user. Originally, the moon cutout was for women, and the star was for the men. But men’s outhouses were such a mess that men preferred using the women’s outhouses. So, eventually the use of stars were phased out.

AND for even more smiles - and laughter - check out this blog: cakewrecks.blogspot.com

Until next time...

a little bit of everything...

I was lying in bed, trying to sleep, with a million thoughts running through my head. So, instead of getting frustrated that sleep was eluding me, I decided to get on the computer.

Basically, this will probably be the last post for a little while (unless I squeeze in a real quick one now and then). I am feeling slightly overwhelmed with the load ahead of me, which is probably the main reason why I can't sleep! My very last trimester of grad class has begun, and my research proposal is due April 10. On April 13, I will present said proposal to Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA! Then, barring any catastrophes, graduation will be on Mother's Day! Now, I still have not figured out what my research question will be, so that is causing some angst.

At the same time, I am getting into the nitty-gritty of preparing for the ESL classes at my church that we will start offering on June 2. Thankfully, I have another person helping me to get these started, but it is still a lot of time spent planning and preparing. I am really excited about them and the opportunity to finally put into practice what I have been studying for the past 6 years! (yes, it has taken that long...)

Then there are the continued pressures with my job. January is always a stressful time - end of the semester, our largest assessment load (that is done individually, very time-consuming tasks), etc. Having random walk-thrus like the one I had today do not help. They were coming to see my intervention time (don't even ask as to what that means, especially in kindergarten - sore subject) which I have cancelled for the week for many different reasons, the least of which was that my schedule today was HECTIC and barely normal. I do not feel guilty for not doing what I was "supposed" to be doing, because I feel that I have legitimate reasons; it's more knowing that I will have to hear about it and dialogue about it in the future that is frustrating.

And, I wanted to post some pictures from today, but that isn't going to happen. Basically, I decided that my students also deserved the opportunity to watch the inauguration today, even if plans had not been made to include them (or anyone from k-2, for that matter) in the large viewing areas. So, we hoped for the best in the streaming video (THANK YOU, I.T. DEPT!), and it went well. The kids were very excited and it was quite interesting to listen to their comments -they even discussed the class election we had in Oct! The ceremony took place over our recess/lunch time. I turned it on, told the kids they could play the indoor recess games or watch, and over half of them chose to watch! They especially liked watching for shots of the Obama girls; "the big one and the little one" as one student put it. Then, we brought up their lunches from the cafeteria, ate on the carpet, and watched Barack Obama become our 44th President. It was impressive that they sat so quietly, like they understood the solemnity of the event, without any reminders from me. Granted, they did start to lose interest towards the end of Obama's speech, but overall, I thought they did very well. Even if you didn't vote for Obama, you have to admit that history was made today!

Some final tidbits:

1. My nose: still a bit painful to touch/move, but definitely much better. I can now safely blow my nose which is very helpful and I can feel a definite improvement in the way I breathe. Still too soon to say if it was successful in limiting the sinus infections, though. I had my final post-op visit on Mon. and all is good. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! Mike is now scheduled to have the same surgery on Feb. 20, so you can pray for both of us then, too! :)
2. Selling of second-hand items: My previous post dealt with the legislation that will affect second-hand and thrift stores. Courtney has sent me an update, so go here to find out more details.
3. 50 Book Challenge Update: Knowing that I probably won't read a book for enjoyment for quite some time, I decided to read what I could the past couple of weeks. Of course, knowing that I wanted to make the best use of my time, I read my favorite genre, chick lit. This past weekend, my sister and I had another heated discussion about the inclusion of these books and we were unable to come to a clear consensus. Basically, it's my list, I will put on it what I want. Maybe next year (after there is NO MORE GRAD WORK!!) I will read what she deems as "real" books where I "learn something." :)
   

Here they are:

34. Reconstructing Brigid - Lee Nichols
35. Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies) - Justina Chen Headley; not chick lit, but YA. Very good book about a high school girl who is coming to terms with being half-White, half-Taiwanese
36. Do Not Disturb - Tilly Bagshawe
37. Stupid and Contagious - Caprice Crane; HILARIOUS and it made me think of my sisters the entire time I was reading it. Speaking of which, I let the aforementioned chick-lit bashing sister borrow it because she was laughing at the excerpts I read to her (I hope you don't mind, Courtney)
38. Every Boy's Got One - Meg Cabot
39. Bachelor Boys - Kate Saunders; not really chick lit, but definitely a tear-jerker and a good read.

Oh dear, 11 more to go. I wonder if I can make it!!!!

I think that this post is long enough. Now maybe I can go to sleep!!!

Until next time...