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.

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!

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.

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…

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…

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?

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…)

Overnight, the wind shifted greatly and fall arrived.  Yesterday, it was 81 degrees while today may only be 64.  Leaves litter lawns and disturb pool ornaments.  Time to put away the floaties and bring out the sweaters and socks. 

Ringing in fall means to me baking, dark mornings and knitting.  Baking is the number one challenge as I have taken on the task of finding a flour that is low in carbohydrates.  My search led me to a site that allows for recipe input and gives back the nutritional data, including carbohydrates.  I LOVE this.  I discovered that rice flour is incredibly high in carbs while a whole wheat white enriched (or unenriched) is relatively low.  Peanut flour sounds interesting but seems limited in scope.  I may seek out a whole wheat white flour to do my baking this fall.  My next hunt will be for a sugar substitute.  An experiement with Splenda yesterday did not yield the results I wanted (I had hoped that nasty Splenda aftertaste would bake off but no.  It’s still there.  I hate fake sugars for this very reason.)  Truvia/Stevia might be the next ingredient to tackle.

With the time change coming soon, the mornings have grown darker.  Waking up in the mornings has become increasingly more difficult as I seem to wake up best with the sun.  Wouldn’t that be a great schedule?  The sunrise determines your work day?  Well, unfortunately, the school day does not shift with the time change.  Speaking of the school day, I wonder how my students are doing this week?

I am at home for the week, caring for my fiance as he recovers from foot surgery.  Exhaustion has set in and I think a nap is in order for today.  Even though the circumstances are not ideal, I do enjoy being with him and learning more about him and us together.  I’ve been doing much cooking and haven’t fared too badly yet.  Cooking for him has generated several conversations that have led us to discover our continual agreement on many, many things, cementing and deepening my love and admiration for him.  I cannot wait to be his wife.  While I am waiting, I am knitting, some.  I have several projects at hand.  I switch to a large needle blanket in between socks.  My thumb joints are aching these days.  Not sure if it’s the weather change or just a lot of knitting.

Oooo… I just discovered (finally) that WordPress has an app for blogging on Blackberry. I own a Blackberry Curve so of course I had to try it out.

Maybe I’ll be blogging a bit more now.

After all the horror stories I had heard about the delivery times on passports (a bride having to go to LA the week before her wedding because her original application from 6 weeks prior had not been processed and in fact probably lost and similar stories), I was pleasantly surprised by this email I received this morning:

We have finished processing your passport, and it has been mailed to you.

I applied on Oct. 1 and it has not been 3 weeks since I applied yet my passport and passport card are on their way to me.    I’m thrilled!  Mr. M and I are planning to head up to northern Washington after Christmas for a little getaway during winter break.  We’ll be staying at his dad’s house (while he’s wintering in Yuma, AZ) and since we’ll be so close to the border are planning to jaunt over to Canada for a day or two as well.  I can’t wait!  I haven’t been to Victoria, BC since I was 8.