Bum-mer weekend

Sophomore comments are due on Tuesday at 9 am.... This means that I have to write one comment for each of my 80 students (or rather their parents) about either how wonderful they are or some recommendations for areas of improvement in the second semester. In years past, due to the volume of comments I've had to write, I try to get a jump start. However, this year, I made a conscious choice to not let the fact of how far along I was (or was not as is the case) bother me on a daily basis. Rather I chose to just hunker down and have a weekend in my hoodie on the couch.

I started to get bored as I was writing some version of the same sentence repetitiously so I came up with an idea to see how many words from O'Reilly's vocabulary list I could insert in my comments. But words like "dunderhead," "jobbernowl," "puzzelwit," or "harridan," didn't exactly have meanings that I could use to communicate with the parents of my students. Truthfully, I wasn't too surprised by that.

So now I'm taking a break. Cleaning still needs to happen this weekend, along with grocery shopping. Adam's taking a nap and I'm about to pound out a few more of these things. I really hope they'll end up coherent.

Parenting

Some days I wonder what type of parent I'll be. I imagine that I'll be rather protective and not too far away when my child goes to make their next move, worried that he/she may fall or get hurt. And although I've seen with my own eyes that kids who fall often turn out okay, I imagine that when it comes to my own kid I'll have a hard time letting him/her go too far on their own. Part of me thinks that being concerned for your child's well-being is a good thing.....then I have days like today.

I pray that I will not lose perspective when it comes to my child's development. I hope that I can guide my kid to be well-balanced and let others participate in that process who also want my child to do well (but let's be honest, who's going to care about my kid more than me?) All well...time will tell.

In other news....how cute are these two? It was so much fun visiting them over Christmas, and I miss quite a bit.

Turkey Day 09

Life is rather simple. We wake up; we go to school; we come home only to do more work; then we go to sleep, only to rinse and repeat the next day. So it's nice to have a holiday once in a while to break up that routine.

Once again we had Thanksgiving dinner with our Californian family: the Kochars.

Adam's job is to carve the turkey. In this picture, it looks as though Gurgit and Kanwal are questioning his ability to be able to do it. When Adam was in the middle of the turkey carving, Kanwal's dad came over and told Adam he could have had it carved in half the time! Kanwal's dad was getting a kick out of picking on Adam the whole evening.

Gurgit and Sarab pushed Adam aside once a carving knife wasn't required to get to the meat. Adam looks thrilled, doesn't he?

Dinner was good, the company was great, and we're thankful for your friendship, Kochars!

(A tribute to the golfing buddies......)

Whirlwind Wonders

With AJ constantly occupied with homework, and my absorbtion in work, we are staying very busy.....just not with a whole lot of new adventures. However, last weekend, I was able to fly home for Ryan's homecoming. I loved having all 8 of us under one roof. We tried to get family pictures taken, but the girls were uncooperative for the most part, so we'll have to see how they turn out. Ryan did a fantastic job with his talk. He's an amazing young man, and I look forward to witnessing all of his future accomplishments.

This week I'll be flying out to DC for a conference on character education. I'll also get to go to dinner with my dad and Clint on one night, and then with some friends from Budapest another.

Speaking of old friends, the one featured in the article linked to below was my "twin in the city." We met in grad school in NY. We have the same birthday and are both about 5'3'' and blonde. Anyways, soon we'll both be in LA, married and have husbands with the last name "Johnson." Check out the short article!

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/she_turned_blog_into_prince_gYSOBOnXqx6KMEpqoIX3aI

Three days until......

this guy comes home!!!

I miss.....

Fall. Mostly, the crisp, cold air on sunny days; the leaves as they change colors; the stiff, dying grass as the world around me prepares for snow; craving soups and freshly-baked cookies (okay, I still crave the cookies); and the list goes on.

Butterflies...anticipation....most likely little sleep

T'was the night before school starts,
and all through L.A.,
teachers and students are squirming,
for tomorrow's the big day.

No, it's not new,
and we've done it before,
yet we are nervous,
are we ready for more?

There's homework and grading,
then quizzes and tests,
admixt texting and facebook,
oh, when will we rest?!?

Yet we've pondered and prepared,
and goals have been set,
once again we will strive,
hopefully each will be met.

So, despite all the jitters,
it's time to just chill,
and get some sleep already,
if you need it, take the pills!

I was surprised at how long I managed to drag out my preparation for tomorrow. I began preparing a few weeks ago, and yet I sit here, still uncertain that I'm even ready. I mean, I've done this before; it's not as if it's new. However, the constant rehersing tomorrow's lessons in my head is making me exhausted. Hopefully this means that I will sleep; but if previous years are any indication, chances are that it will probably not be the case. All well, here goes nothing!