Sorry I Didn't Get to This Yesterday...

Ok, we'll start off with the gross picture so the post can only get better... This is my pinky toe. That white part is a GIGANTIC blister. I can't even walk right. :(


I am so tired, so all I'm just going to post pictures of my classroom. The first (and second) day was great! The kids seem pretty cool and willing to please if you show them you care.

And finally, a walking-out-the-door-at-6:30pm-picture taken my by new friend Christina (pictured somewhere above) to prove that I actually made it through my first day of school...swollen feet and all.


This post (after the toe picture) is dedicated to my parents. I wouldn't be where I am today with you guys. (Or should I say "y'all"...) I love you!

~Hooks

First Day of School!

August 22, 2011. The first official day of my first official teaching job. Everything was pretty much amazing…except for my shoes. OUCH! I bought them yesterday because all of my shoes were not up to the dress code (we can’t wear anything between the toes), so off to Payless we went. Sure, they were ok in the store for 3 minutes, but by the end of second period today, my feet were in so much pain that I was literally shuffling around, barely lifting my feet. I tried to take the shoes off during fourth period, because I couldn’t stand it anymore. But it was even MORE painful to have the shoes off, if you can imagine that. Those shoes are going back to the store…as soon as I can walk again. Will you give me a foot massage, Lee? :)

My classes seem cool, and I think we will really work well together. They seemed to love the “Homework Club” idea—where they basically get rewarded for doing their homework. And despite the “beads-in-a-jar” being an idea used mainly at the elementary level, the students got excited about the possibility of a pizza party. (Yes, they are easily amused, and I love it!) The cool thing about that idea is that they start to correct each other's behavior, doing part of my job for me! For instance, they will pressure each other to get to class on time because if no one is tardy, they get 3 colored beads. Each class is a different color, too, so they can see where they are in relation to other classes to see who's "winning."

Well, I have a new teacher meeting at 3, so I have to get to that, but I just wanted to blog a little. I'll post pics of the classroom later tonight...after I've soaked my feet. ;)

~Hooks

It's Official

An A- and two A's. Do we rock or what?! We are forever done with graduate classes! (Minus the thesis, but does that really count? I submit that it does not.)

I am avoiding doing work right now, as usual. I should be writing my classroom rules/introductory letter thingie to hand out to students, but I just can't bring myself to be that creative right now. I'm thinking of having broad rules and then letting the students in each class write things on posterboard that should go under each heading, so they have "ownership." Example: "Rule: Be ready." (Class, what does that look like?) (Students: Be on time, have materials needed, bring your notebook, etc.) What do you think? Other suggestions for what I should do on the first day?

Any cool ice breakers you know of? Seriously, I have about .2 creative bones in my body. I need help!

~Hooks

AC is Cool

Get it? AC...cool?! Ok, I chose the title because at the moment, our apartment is slowly getting hotter and hotter. Our moving company is FINALLY delivering our stuff, and we have the air off because the door is open. Yeah, it's getting hot, but not having to carry all those boxes up 3 floors is a pretty good trade off. The guys' shirts were soaked through by the third trip up. After about 20 minutes, they brought our couch cushions up, and one of them was soaked just from leaning against the guy. GROSS. At least it was the part that you don't sit on towards the back. One of the guys has changed his shirt 3 times. I feel kind of bad for them... Not too bad though, since they're a week and a half late. Now we just have a ton of unpacking to do this weekend. But no other emotions can compete with the euphoria I feel about being able to SLEEP IN MY OWN BED TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!

Since I have no pictures of the guys moving our stuff because, quite frankly, I'm way too hot to even move, here are some old ones I just never had to time blog about. Here's our kitchen, close up and clean (but empty still):


Here's Lee making our first homemade meal in Texas... Pizza sandwiches! You put pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni between two pieces of bread and cook it like grilled cheese. Yum. (That's extra pizza sauce on the side.)


I'm so glad I will be able to eat at a table, on real plates. Here's the set-up we had for a while in our dining room, before we had to move it to the office for the desktop. Thanks again, Gramma and Grampa, for letting us borrow it!


And the office/guest bedroom.... This is how Lee did almost all of his grad work, before we moved the table in there. (Oh by the way, I got an A and A- already...just waiting to see about the third class. Heck yes!)


While I'm SO happy to have our stuff, I have to say that I learned a lot about how to get by. First and foremost, the many uses of this pan... To make grilled cheese and pizza sandwiches, boil spaghetti, toast a bagel, and even....


...to mix brownies! I guess that's what happens when you plan for 2 days and end of having to make it work for 2 weeks.

And we're becoming pros at how to deal with this:


We now know when it's "worth it" to turn the AC on in the car, or if it's too short of a drive to even get cool before we arrive at our destination. Putting down the windows is always the first thing you do, in a [somewhat vain] attempt at getting out the hot air trapped inside the car. Sometimes it works. Oh, and I finally went to the pool! It was warm - probably 90 degrees or more - but it felt refreshing compared to the outside temperature.

Lee and I went to work this week to meet our mentors, work on our classrooms, go to a new teacher induction, and start staff development. The new teacher thing was held at the M.O.C. Center, which is where our district hosts tournaments, or sometimes games played against two in-district schools. We got free books, office supplies, and other goodies, and Lee and I both won door prizes on top of that. This is the Center, with pictures of the basketball arena and football stadium.


Since we didn't have our work clothes yet, we had to go to Kohl's the night before to get outfits. I hate it when I'm forced to go to Kohl's! Oh wait...NOT.


Staff development was kind of "duh" stuff, but good to hear, and we are each building relationships with our colleagues already! Everyone is so nice and supportive here. Collaboration is key, and you know you are never on your own. One of Lee's fellow teachers even invited us over for dinner already. I think we're going sometime this week (?).

Finally, some random things that don't really fit anywhere... First, we set up our Skype and talked to Ben this morning. What a treat! Miss him so much. :(

Second, a sign in the window at WHATABURGER....


*Sigh* I love Texas. The head honchos in the district also prayed before we started the new teacher program! Craziness!

And last, we were trying to be like the locals here, since the dumpster is all the way down at the other end of the complex...


It fell off after the first speed bump. So we went back to our "safe in the back seat" version.

Well, they're done bringing the stuff in, so I think we are going to get to unpacking pretty soon. We love and miss you all. More pictures will come when we have everything set up!

~Hooks

Concerning Graduate Work...

DONE!

Bumcheeks Dipped in Blue Juice

So we are officially done with 2 graduate classes, and we just have one more to go. I know that we were supposed to be done last night, but the one professor extended the due dates until Wednesday. I'm sure we could have pushed ourselves, but honestly? I'm glad for the extension. Yeah, it drags it out more, but each day my tolerance for grad work was getting shorter and shorter. We went from working from sun up to sun down to taking little breaks to quitting at 9 pm because we just couldn't take it anymore. (You know the promise you make yourself: I'll get up early and do it...) How we managed to get that massive amount of work done, I may never know. I just hope we at least got B's.

We have one big project left, and even though you may point out the "one," all I'm seeing is "big." It seems like a massive mountain standing between me and freedom. And I can't go around it because I will fail the class. Oh yes, believe me, I considered just not doing it. ("Ok, so it's worth how much of our grade? So if I got a 100 on this, and 80 on this...") But even I can't do that. Stupid internal drive.

So after this blog, the project. After the project? Well, if I get done a second before 10:00, I'm going to the pool. I haven't been once yet, and I keep hoping that every night I will be able to go, but we always finish our "goal for the day" after it closes. I don't care if I have to go by myself (thanks a lot Lee) and I don't care if I will get kicked out a minute after I get there...I am going.

In other news, the latest estimate from the moving company is that our stuff will get here on Thursday or Friday, but I'm past hoping. They've told us so many things that I don't expect much from this estimate either. At least now we've been able to get a hold of them so we know they're alive. You should hear Lee on the phone with them now. He's becoming a pro - and that's saying a lot given the fact that he HATES talking on the phone and I'm usually the one that has to do all that kind of stuff. He's straightforward, direct, no-nonsense, and asking questions that keep them accountable like, "So when can I expect you to call me back about that?" It's kind of sexy, but pretend you didn't read that.

We are official Aldine employees now! We signed our contracts and did all the other paperwork today. That was probably the highlight of my day. After that, we went to get our cars registered and get new license plates only to be turned away because our insurance from NY is no good here. So that was a waste of about an hour. No biggie. And it's $200 per car. Money we really don't have right now. And we can't pay with a credit card. Not good.

Our anniversary is tomorrow, but there probably won't be a romantic story to tell afterwards because we are so preoccupied and broke. Actually, I totally forgot about it until I had to sign 8/8 on a billion papers today.

On the positive side, we have been able to get together with Becca and Pete a few times already. We've had so much fun! We've played MadLibs a lot...hence the title. :) And we taught them Euchre last night. (YES!) I'm so happy to have another couple to play Euchre with, since I'm addicted to that game.

We're eating dinner tomorrow night at my grandparents house. I invited myself over because we want to see them...and because we're poor. But mostly so that we can see them. :) *Thanks, Gramma!*

Well I hate to say it, but I have to get to the project. I have more pictures but they'll have to wait...

Don't Move with Continental VanLines...EVER

So I'm trying to do graduate work (story of my life right now), but the stupid Brockport site that I need - Angel, where all our online learning classes are hosted - is choosing not to load. I thought I'd click on a different link, just to see if my internet connection was the problem, so of course I picked blogger. :) It worked, so here I am. Just to vent and then try to get back on that darn site.

I actually have enough to blog about now, but no time. Poo. So here's the "quick" version:

• Graduate work is annoying and pointless, but you already know my feelings about that (see previous post). Still on the to-do list: 2 papers, 1 case study project, 1 chapter assignment, 1 IRB proposal, 50-ish math problems to solve, and 200 math problems to scan/pdf-erize/email. You wouldn't know it, but we've actually been working for about 4 days straight on stuff, and we have actually accomplished a TON. Why do summer professors always try to jam so much stuff into so few weeks? Like that's the only thing we have to do. It's called "hit the main topics and forget the rest"! Ughh... Can you tell I'm overwhelmed?
• Our moving company, Continental VanLines, has probably lied to us and stolen all of our stuff by now. That's right...we still don't have our things yet. And it wouldn't have even been so bad if we had at least heard from them, but they haven't talked to us once since they picked up our stuff last Tuesday. We've been trying to call them for four days, about twice a day. Out of the the three people we've been in contact with since the beginning, two go straight to voicemail and the other rings and rings...then goes to voicemail. I'm beginning to get suspicious. And let me tell you this, having an air mattress as your only thing to sit/lie on is not ideal. Yeah, it was cool to "camp out" for the first 2 nights. Now all I've got is a stiff back and Lee's pillow in my face all night... Queen air mattress = double bed. Not cool - literally and figuratively. But thank God for air conditioning! And for Gramma's and Grampa's who lend you their bistro table set so you can at least have a work surface. It has been seen in 3 of our 5 rooms - the dining room, living room, and office...wherever we need it at the time. :)
• It's hot. I mean HOT. We got in the car today on our way to babysit my cousin's kids for half an hour, and the thermometer read 113 degrees. I don't think you heard me. 113 degrees! Still, it quickly dropped to 106 after about 5 minutes of AC. Yeah, nice, cool 106. We sweat when we're just standing outside. And what's worse? I haven't even been able to use my beautiful pool yet because of...well you know the drill... (If you don't know the drill, see the first bullet.) I could get a tan in like a second, but no. I'm stuck inside. Grrr.
• Someone hit our car in the WalMart parking lot. Not hit-hit, but they dented in the hood a little bit and scraped up the front. Awesome. And speaking of WalMart, milk is $5/gallon. What's with that?!!

Ok, I think that's enough complaining for now. I feel a little better. Here are some positives (really quickly because I desperately need to get back to work)...

• Blogging helps me blow off some steam. Yay for that. Now I won't take [as much of] it out on Lee. :)
• I've been praying a lot more...haha. *Lord, get me through this!*
• As my mom wisely said, if our belongings had come already, we probably would have been tempted to unpack and not focus as much on grad work, which would have been bad.
• I love living within 5 minutes of both my grandparents and my cousin Becca (and fam). They are such a blessing. Becca brings me so much peace and joy, and my grandparents are always there if we need anything...like a table and chairs or a coffeemaker. Becca's 5-year-old daughter wrote us a note that we got in the mail today: "I love you giys. You are the beste. I love you Bathne and Lee!" (cue the backwords L ...so cute)
• Air conditioning. Nuff said.
  
• Roman soaking tubs. Nuff said.
  
• We might honestly be done with one of our three classes tonight! It depends how fast our scanner works and how late we can keep our eyelids open.
• After Sunday, one way or another we will have NO MORE GRADUATE WORK!
  
• Lee is wonderful. And a stud.

That's all for now. I love you one and all, and I miss you terribly, Mom and Dad. October will be here before we know it! Now it's back to work for me. (Thanks to Lee, for letting me do this. It's really for your own good, Honey. :)

~Hooks

We're Stupid Sometimes...

Why did we take three graduate classes this summer? That is crazy by itself, let alone adding a move across the country. The moral of the story: I HATE GRAD SCHOOL! (Jeremy, you are not allowed to comment on this. ;) I need to get at least B's though, so I guess I should stop complaining and procrastinating now. One week and I'm done. One week and I'm done. One week and I'm done...forever. Besides my thesis. But that doesn't count, and there's no way in heck I'm thinking about that now anyway.

Alright grad work... Bring it on.

~Hooks