I am staying home pretty much all weekend because a) the weather is “supposed” to be bad–we don’t want to venture over the passes for a hike; b) it’s the end of the month and there’s no extra cash; and c) I have a new semester starting Tuesday and I am ridiculously behind on grading (even though it’s been my life lately).

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I am working on this online bible reading plan to get through the bible in a year. Somehow I like reading it online, and then I thought about getting it emailed to me. However, the site charges $9 a year for the emails, so I guess I need to find another site.

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I finished the Miranda July book, and now I am working on 3 books: Holly Springs, Surprised by Joy, and Omnivore’s Dilemma. I want to get more seriously into reading, hiking, and knitting after my grades are due. Right now those are on hold, like just about everything else (house cleaning, hanging out with friends, etc.).

I am concerned about how stressed I am about work, especially since my visit to the ER last weekend with chest pain and trouble breathing. I still have a dull ache all around my left chest area, but I don’t know what to think about it. I had bloodwork done, and EKG, and a chest xray, but they didn’t find anything (they were worried about clotting). They suggested anxiety and internal bruising from soccer. I don’t know what it is, but it’s still bothering me and I’m worried about playing soccer this Thursday.
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My grad school application is due this Friday. I’m pretty much finished; I just need to print out all of my materials and take in my immunization records and transcripts. I will feel much better about life when all of that is done (as well as my grades).
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Paul, the guy who has lived with us in our garage for the last two years, is in a coma in the hospital. It’s not looking promising that he will get out of it this time. Please keep him, as well as his family and friends in your prayers.

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So that’s the news from around here! I know–it’s all rainbows and butterflies, right? I really am happy–I just have a lot on my mind. That seems to happen as I get older. I want to focus more on the beautiful, positive aspects of life. It’s hard to walk the line between being Eeyore and Pollyanna.

I should be doing so much right now…grading, cleaning, lesson planning, working on my application for grad school, enjoying the lovely sunny weather we are getting. However, the blog calls and it’s feeling rather neglected. I think my blog is jealous of twitter. This is how I’ve been keeping the world updated lately…one mini-post at a time. This post will be a BIG one about what’s going on in my life, and I think I will structure it based on the categories I have to the right here:

Books:
Currently reading Surprised by Joy (C.S. Lewis) and No One Belongs “Here More Than You (Miranda July)–both for book groups.

Music:
Just got DMB and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City and Grey’s Anatomy Season 3 Soundtrack for Christmas. In awe at Reynold’s guitar skillz.

Movies:
Depressed myself by watching A Crude Awakening about the upcoming oil shortage. Makes me want to live on a farm.

Trips I want to take in the near future:

I’d love to go to Portland for a long weekend trip to visit Powell’s. I also want to visit The Bridge church and stay at McMenamin’s Edgefield outside of Portland in Troutdale.
Quebec–just to feel like I’m in Old World Europe in the “New World”
New Zealand/Australia: it’s all about the wildlife and scenery….plus they speak English
Kenya or South Africa on adventurous days
New England/East Coast: we have lots of friends and family there
Idaho: visit J’s parents; ski or snowboard; play in snow; sit in hot springs in the cold weather

Knitting Projects:
Finished Anna’s Alpaca fuzzy black scarf. Still working on baby kimono. Might finish when baby is a teenager. Started making baby bib in purple and green jewel tones.

Seattle Weather:
Boring. Just boring. I prefer exciting weather, for instance snow and drastic changes in temperature. At least the past two days there has been some sun! I really should live further inland somewhere if I prefer such excitement.

Education:
I still have bitten off more than I can chew in my current teaching assignment: 3 preps in a high needs school is overwhelming, so I spend a lot of my “free” time working on school related work. Nevertheless, I am applying for a doctoral program called Leadership for Learning at the University of Washington (L4L at UW, shorthand). The program is mainly geared to people preparing for superintendent duties, but my focus would be on leadership for educators at the school-based level. My application is due February 1, and I still have so much to do on it. I have 2, 3-day weekends coming up.

TV:
Not much of this in my life, but I have enjoyed watching the Colbert Report and The/”A” Daily Show with John Stewart this week. I watch it online, though, which means it’s a day late.

Theater:
One of my new year’s resolutions is to actually get to the plays we have season tickets to. Seattle Rep won’t let you in late, and we inevitably get there 5-10 minutes late, at least the last few times. We have one coming up in February. Here’s to punctuality.

Technology:
Not much new in this category. I am working off of Justin’s old Vaio so we can both have wireless in the same room. Since the addition of Lesley’s cat to the household, we have not been working in the office, as we’d have to keep the door closed, and that’s a rather confined space.

Science:
I’m teaching AP Bio this year, so this week I will be working with Sordaria in a mitosis/meiosis lab. Woohoo!

Grrr…
I have too many for this category. Let me first state that I began to dislike being asked how my break was, because overall, it was a pleasant experience with friends and family, but a series of unfortunate events seemed to befall us. Let me explain.

The first leg of our trip went fine, except that I got sick the day after Christmas with a cold, right after having a sinus infection earlier that month. Being sick again meant that flying, which we did 2 days after I got sick, became ridiculously painful on my ears….and we had to do it twice that day. I couldn’t hear normally out of one of my ears, and a few days later (New Year’s Eve) I went to the doctor in my hometown. I ended up having an ear infection and got put on antibiotics that I just finished. Justin got the same bug, but it wasn’t as bad.

The next Grrr….comes from our flying experience. We just made our connecting flight from Salt Lake to Cincinnati, but our luggage apparently didn’t make it. My sis picked us up from the airport (and we got pulled over for speeding on the way to my Papa’s), and we decided to make our return trip to the airport the next morning, since our next stop would put us through Little Rock anyway. No luggage. Flight didn’t make it. “We’ll deliver it,” they said, “between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m.” 3 a.m……still no luggage. We called them. “We’ll deliver sometime today.” 4:30 pm: we got our luggage…2 days late. All of the presents I had for family I wouldn’t see again that trip was in there. Thanks, airline and baggage delivery service, for your convenience.

The time had come for our trip home. I called the night before to confirm that we had a 7 a.m. flight, which meant getting up at 4 to leave for Little Rock. “Yes,” the live person at Expedia said, “that’s correct.” 5:30 a.m. at the airport: “Your flight has been changed to 2 p.m.” Justin discussed this with an agent for an hour; they both made many phone calls. 2 p.m. remained the departure time. The glorious byproduct of this situation is that my parents were able to take us to Cracker Barrel and we has a scrumptious country breakfast (I, of course, had biscuits and gravy).

More rants: Why does UPS try to do deliveries that require signature confirmation on M-F during normal working hours? If I wasn’t there today between 10-2, why would I be there tomorrow at that time? And then, why are you not open on Saturdays?

Running:
Can we skip this one? OK, so I haven’t done much of this since Aaron, my running buddy, left. Also, I don’t have a gym membership anymore, and it’s dark before I get home (any more excuses?), so this isn’t so much part of my life right now, although I’d like it to be.

Church
So since our group isn’t meeting on Sundays anymore, we’re trying to figure out what to do next. For some, it means individual spiritual time on Sunday mornings. For others, it is visiting churches. For yet others, it is a combination of the two, depending on the week. That’s where I fit in. We’re still doing our other activities, but we’re trying to figure out what Sundays should really look like.

Exercise
I’m getting this some days, thanks to exercise videos for abs, buns, arms, and cardio. Yay! I like being sore, as it means I am making progress and working hard.

Food
I like cooking, but I don’t like HAVING to cook. I like being creative and I like having a choice. I think sometimes getting the pioneer organics box stresses me out because it’s like the fruits and veggies are a ticking time bomb that need to be cooked…RIGHT NOW!! We postponed our order for the last month, and I’m a lot more relaxed, although I haven’t been eating as many fruits and veggies. This AM I made blueberry pancakes and meatless bacon. I want to eat more healthily, so I like planning my menu ahead of time.

Friends and Family
I love you all and I don’t see you enough!

• Mom, Dad and Aaron arrived Wednesday
• My students presented their Green Mapping findings on Wednesday at City Hall (and my fam met us there!)
• Our last grad class was Wednesday night and we turned in one of our projects
• We went out to dinner at Bahama Breeze Wednesday night
• The last of my seniors presented their projects Thursday night
• I took off Friday and we (Fam, lesleymac, and I) went to the EMP, had a picnic, and I bought everyone some bubble tea–it was their first experience with them
• Saturday morning, Justin, Mom, Dad, Aaron, and I attended a graduation brunch at Seattle U–there were over 700 people there!
• Saturday was Joanna’s 22nd birthday and we had an afternoon “party” with roses, lavender, fruit salad, and bruschetta with cream cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.
• Justin’s parents and brother came into town on Saturday, so that evening we went out to Azteca for Mexican food with Lesley
• Sunday morning we had 14 people over for church and lunch–crazy!!
• We then spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out the “hoods” that go with our caps and gowns
• We left at 2 for graduation, lined up, sat in the sun and sweated, and did our walk-up-and-give-the-pres-a-handshake thang. Spoken like a woman with her Master’s, I know.
• After graduation, I was HUNGRY and THIRSTY. The Baeders and Grubbs went to Joanna’s restaurant and I shared a lobster-and-steak celebratory dinner with Mom.
• We then went for a walk by the lake for an hour or two
• Monday morning we bid adieu to Justin’s family at their Bellevue campground, then my fam came over. I then worked on my last grad project, went to the dentist, finished my project, and had dinner.
• I got a call that my good friend Andrea is back in town and so my fam, lesleymac, Justin, and I met up with her and her friend at Tutta Bella for espresso and desserts.

Picked up cap and gown today.

Finished portofolio check!

Passed comprehensive exams with flying colors!!

So 2 hours of sleep is apparently not enough for me. I should know because Justin and I got that much last night due to taking FOREVER on our grad school portfolio. In recent quarters, this process has taken 7-8 hours, but we spent about 12 hours on it this quarter (at least!). Today we show it to our professor to get it checked off, and tomorrow we present a book talk and our plans on assessment.

 The one thing I am thankful for with these projects is that they are not cognitively DIFFICULT. I would be tearing my hair out if I had to actually THINK too deeply about data collection or theorems or some other rubbish at 3 a.m. Now all I am thinking about is sleeping….

Left to do for grad school:

finish narrative literature review

finish annotated bibliography

pick up caps and gowns

pay library fine ($3)

finish action research project

The hardest part is over!!

• Grad School Curriculum Investigation due Wednesday
• Mid-Quarter Progress reports due Wednesday
• Portfolio due Thursday
• Presentation Friday night
• Half-Marathon Sunday morning of next week
• Senior Project make-up presentations the week of June 5-9
• Biology students presenting to council members at City Hall June 7
• Dentist on the 9th or 12th
• Action research project due by the 13th
• Graduation Rehearsal for my students June 19 (I am planning it…)
• Graduation for my students on the 20th….somewhat fun, but mostly stressful…

• Lesley moving in June 5
• Field Day at school June 2
• Family coming week of June 5
• Graduation June 11
• Last grad class June 7

That pretty much sums up my weekend. Justin and I vegged out to a couple of discs of ALIAS Friday night–I found a “new” show I like, apparently. Saturday morning, Dawn and I went out for crepes at 611 Supreme. YUM. We had a great time, despite our snotty waitress who thought she was French. Afterward we went to the neighborhood nail shop–newly renovated–and treated ourselves! I got a much-needed pedicure and Dawn got a manicure. I felt self-conscious about my feet because of my running–I have some blisters and a bruised toenail–so I felt like apologizing to the lady doing my feet. I added some new blisters to them today, as Aaron and I ran 9 miles and walked home to cool down (another mile). Next weekend we’l either do 12 or 13 miles….

Speaking of grueling work, after planting some black-eyed susans *thanks BKW!* and getting a little housework done, Justin and I went to Zoka–a great coffeehouse Justin mentions on his blog–for 5 hours or so to get some schoolwork done. This is a crazy week, and I should have worked more today, but I just needed a break from paper.

Well. I just registered for the 1/2 marathon (and the pasta dinner). I think my week is going to be a lot like the race itself–2nd car repairs, 2 nights of classes, a musical, and prom–that’s all before Saturday!

We are finished with our comprehensive exams. I am exhausted, as I have never been forced to focus for 3 1/2 hours straight since finals in undergrad. We got up at 6 this morning and went to IHOP for breakfast, somewhat reminiscent of finals-morning Bobby’s visits. Time to go relax.

We take our comprehensive exams tomorrow for graduate school. Think of us 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Pacific Time! 4 essays in four hours…

This week has been full of grad school work. Justin and I worked on our curriculum design Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night, and we did the WHOLE portfolio for another class on Friday. We have finally completed one of our classes, and next week we’l wrap up the curriculum design class. Granted, I think my work could have been much better if I had been working on it all quarter, but these days, that’s not how I operate.

Next quarter, I have to wrap up my independent action research project and my professional certification portfolio. The last “real” class I have is curricular issues, and it will be the 9th or 10th class I’ve had with the same teacher. So….the countdown is on! Graduation is exactly three months away today!