Coffee and yarn

Wow.  Where did January go?  All of a sudden it’s over and my head is spinning.

Work seems to be a bit smoother this year though I feel like I’m so behind… on grading mostly.  And I am.  I’ve been not taking work home on the weekends and I’m paying for it.  I just know that I won’t do it so why bother?  But something needs to change. I start teaching an after-school program this week that will take up an hour after school so my weekends will need to pick up some slack.  Which is unfortunate because I like sleeping in with my husband, cooking for the week with my husband and doing all the regular errand-type chores on the weekends… with my husband.    Seems like we’ve been married forever (in a good way!) and it’s been just over a month since we said “I do.”  I’m working on touching up some of the photos from Christmas Eve.  We talked about having some professional photos taken in January but… whoops, there went January.

Speaking of days gone by… one of my birthday presents was a gift certificate and I finally used it the other day.  I ordered this.  There are smaller gift boxes to try out their coffees but since my brother and sister in law had talked up their coffees so much, I took the risk.  And let me tell you, it IS heaven!  I have only tried the Highlander Grogg so far and the entire house smells of this coffee all day long after I make a french press pot.  And it tastes as good as it smells.  I can’t wait to try the other two flavors in the box!

Knitting has been slow and slower these days.  I just don’t have a lot of time these days.  I am making an Ugly Hat for a friend of my husband’s at school.  I’m using 30-year-old acrylic if that helps to create a picture in your mind of what this hat might turn out to be.  When I’m done, I will definitely post a picture. 

We have two three-day-weekends coming up… this weekend and next.  Husband talked of going out of town for the Superbowl but secretly, I’m hoping we’ll stay home and not go anywhere.  I’m happiest at home with him.  When classes are in session, we don’t spend nearly as much time together as I would like.  I feel pretty blessed to have married a man I could willingly spend 24 hours a day with.  I’m looking forward to summer break.  Even though he’ll have football to coach, we’ll have more time together. 

Merry Christmas!

12.24.09 <3

Crunch Time

The few weeks between Thanksgiving an Christmas are almost always packed with people to see and things to do. My birthday falls after Thanksgiving with friends and family to celebrate the occasion. And then the race is on to finiah whatever Christmas knitting I have committed myself to.

In the last several years, I have relegated knitted gifts to birthdays only. Knitting gifts for Christmas is too stressful, not enjoyable and injury-producing. One year I decided to make four pairs of socks. I only made one sock per person due to time and still managed to knit 8 hours a day and ended up with numb hands on Christmas Day.

This year I only have one pair of socks to make and I am halfway doen with the second one. I measured Mr. M’s head the other day to make him a hat for our trip to WA after Christmas. And I made a Meathead hat for my nephew. I decided that my nephew is exempt from Christmas knitting while he’s still small enough to knit for. I also have one sewing/quilting gift I am a little stressed about but I’m hoping to finish that this week.

The holidays are upon us!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a year.  So much happened personally, it was good my professional life remained stagnant even when uncertain.  Where to begin with what I am most thankful for?

~My family and friends: without their love and support and encouragement, I would have thrown myself into a grand tizzy or threehundred this year. 

~My husband to be: his love and encouragement cements my certainty the he is “the one” for me. <3

~My job: although it wasn’t certain I would have a job after May, I am thankful that I do.  My kids this year make me proud, laugh and want to drink more wine than I should some days.  I wouldn’t change a minute of working with them.

~My zoo: my dogs know when I need to give them extra pets to make myself feel better and my cats know when my lap needs warming.  I don’t know what I would do without them.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow everyone!  Tell those you love that you love them.  And keep telling them.

Giving All Over

The week before school let out for Thanksgiving break, the annual school-wide competition to collect canned goods for the local food shelter took place.  Last year, my 1st period full of freshmen took 3rd place with 468 cans (I think that’s how many.)  This year, I have seniors in my 1st period and knowing they needed to beat freshmen was all the motivation they needed to collect 517 cans and take 2nd place!  I am so proud of them and doubly so because I was out sick two days and left to go do the 3 day walk on Friday (still sick btw.)  Our school also challenged our rival high school (in the same district and 2 miles down the road) to collect cans and our school won!  Very happy that so many canned goods were collected to benefit those that patron the food shelter.  Hopefully, they’ll have enough food to get through Thanksgiving, if not Christmas as well.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  If you’re traveling, be safe.  Enjoy the time with family and friends.  We’ll be headed to visit with family about an hour or so away and then traveling back down the hill to feast with more family here in town.  I have pies in the making and am hopeful I’ll get those done in time (medicine head makes for interesting grocery lists.)  Salud!

Thankful for home

Home again. The last few days have been spent pounding pavement in San Diego. My mom and I started the Susan G. Komen 3 Day 60 mile walk in Del Mar, CA and finished on Sunday in downtown San Diego. My muscles don’t ache as bad as I thought they would. I was moved emotionally more than I thought I would be. I saw so many survivors of breast cancer and more pictures of those that didn’t survive. It was a humbling experience.

Ladies, write your congressman or write the President. Too many women under the age of 40 are being diagnosed with breast cancer. BUT if mammograms are being recommended after the age of 50, too many of those young women will have their picture on someone’s backpack as they are walked in honor of rather than doing the walking themselves.

It’s You Not Me

At the beginning of the school year, I received an email from a 2009 graduate that had been in one of my English 1 classes as a senior last year.  He asked if I remembered him and I wrote back and said, “Of course, how are you?” He wrote back and told me what he was doing and asked for my phone number.  Long story short, I told him no, email was fine but he kept asking for it so he could text me.  Right when I sent the emails to my department chair for help, he sent one more email begging to know why he couldn’t have my cell phone number, he missed me (something he’d mentioned before) and said he wanted me to be “a real close friend.” Ding! I’m done.

My department chair immediately went to the principal with the issue and I met with him that day.  He had the tech department block the kid’s email and I suddenly felt scared.  Not for what the issue was at the moment but what it could be (the kid lives in the same town, knows where I work and attends the community college down the street.)  My principal told me to let him know if any further contact occurred because law enforcement would be brought in.  I did not believe it would come to that and figured my last, “Stop emailing me” and the email blocking would do it.

But I was wrong.

I have a Twitter account strictly for student access to missed assignments.  I post (almost) daily the assignments for all my students.  The account is not locked so students do not necessarily have to “follow” me in order to see the assignments I list.  However, I do have a few students that do “follow” me and this morning I noticed I had another follower.  Hmmm, strange because I usually receive an email stating as much.  I clicked on the link to see my followers and sure enough, my stalker was the new follower.  I was sick to my stomach.  He didn’t get the clue that I thought was so obvious.

I copied and pasted the page and emailed it to my principal, department chair and vice-principal.  I had assumed my vp knew what was happening but he emailed me after to find out the details.  I saw him this afternoon after our meetings and filled him.  He suggested I not stay too late at school and I agreed.  So much for staying late to grade and not bringing anything home.  With sundown coming so fast, I don’t want to be at school any later than I have to be.  I’ll just take everything home from now on until the situation is resolved.

At first, I thought I had blown things out of proportion but I can see that I haven’t and I’m completely creeped out by this.  The kid was not someone I would have suspected at all of doing something like this.  He’s fixated and I am afraid of escalation.  It’s always the quiet ones…

Five Dollars

I’m not a saver. I usually don’t have much left at the end of each month to save anyway. But I saw this anecdote about a savings plan in a magazine. A man said he tucks away every $5 bill he gets in change and that money goes toward his family’s vacations. So I talked it over with Mr. M and we decided to give this a shot. In a week, we’ve collected 21 $5 bills toward our Seattle trip this winter. It’s super easy and kind of fun. I wonder how much we’ll save by then…

Signs

When the signs are pointing in one direction, it’s hard to ignore. 

All I can say is that I’ve become increasingly frustrated with a situation and there’s not much I can do about it right now except pray for change. 

It’s either pray or develop an ulcer.  So let’s pray, shall we?

Chilly

The air is biting today. At least it was a few hours ago when I woke up. I thought I had woken up outside but no. Turns out my heater doesn’t want to work properly. I turned it on yesterday to work its way to 70 degrees (we were at 66) and realized this morning the heat never came on. I only know this because the temp should have gone UP not down like it did… to 61 degrees. Brrrr! I know that’s probably not the chilliest in the world but it is to me when I have a recovering-from-surgery patient wrapped up in quilts. I plugged in a space heater and called in for reinforcements. The tech should be arriving in a few hours to figure out the problem with my 30 year old heat/ac unit (strange that the unit is so old and yet the house is only half that old… hmmm…)