Chris and Kara

It feels like this week was actually 5. I had stuff to do EVERY day. Well, except Monday. There was no school on Monday, which was nice. So Chris and I had a little 24 marathon:

That Jack Bauer…his day is like 24 weeks. I don’t know how he does it! Tuesday I had school. I don’t have a TV in my brand new classroom, and our internet connection isn’t that great. So while everyone else on the planet was watching the Inauguration, I was teaching Chemistry. But there was plenty to read about on the internet when I finally got home (after going to a union meeting and the girl’s basketball game).

Wednesday was another crazy busy day. In fact, I don’t really remember what all I had to do. I just remember that I couldn’t have survived without my Coke. I’m a bit of an addict.

Thursday I went to a meeting getting my National Board Certification for teaching. I think that now is the perfect time to work on that, because it requires at least 200 hours (and she said that no one she has worked with has worked less than 600 hours), and since I don’t have kids yet, it’d be good to do now. Plus, if we DO end up moving to Kansas, it will make it easier to get certified, as they give you a 10 year professional license if you have your National Certification. It seems like its actually a good program that is more concerned with good teaching than anything else, so I’m excited about it. Anyway, after the meeting, I went to the wrestling meet…and then I finally got to go home and relax with the puppy.

Friday didn’t get any better. It was the BIG GAME. The one the kids have been talking about for weeks. The game against our huge rivals. So of course I had to go. I didn’t take my camera, I just had too much other stuff to deal with. But it was certainly exciting. We almost won…but I think next time we’ll do better. When I got home, I found a familiar site:

It looks like Chris is just sitting there. What you can’t see is that on his other ear, there’s a Bluetooth headset, and he’s gabbing away with my uncle. One reason I don’t want to move to Kansas is this relationship. I mean, c’mon…if we move I’ll NEVER see my husband!!! *lol* Okay, I’m just kidding…but they do enjoy each other’s company. Its a good thing my husband gets along with my family!

Rory Porridge used to not want to be anywhere away from us. However, we’d been noticing that she would disappear on us for awhile. In the past, that usually means she’s getting into something she shouldn’t. However, when I went to investigate, this is what I would find:

Yep, she’d bunch up the covers and curl up on our bed. Who knows why she’s decided to curl up there…but its pretty cute!

Today I had science olympiad/science bowl practice, and decided to take a picture from my classroom as I was leaving.

I thought it was kind of a pretty sky.

Anyway, I don’t think I have quite as busy of a week this week. I hope to update a bit more frequently again. It took awhile to do this one!

One thing we do on Thursday nights is watch TV. There are a lot of good shows on Thursday nights, but the funniest is definitely The Office. There is always something to talk about the next day. My students also watch it, so I get plenty of “That’s what she said…” jokes. I definitely have to watch what I say around them! I decided that a snapshot of Thursday’s episode would be my photo of the day, and the inspiration for this post’s title.

Friday was a busy day. I had school all day, after school tutorial, and then the boys basketball game. Seriously, I get asked on Monday if I’m going to the game on Friday night. In fact, I already got questioned about whether I am going to go to the game this NEXT Friday…its against our big league rivals. It’s really important to them that I’m there, so I go. Doesn’t hurt that I like sports anyway. So Friday’s photo:

Saturday was a lazy day. I didn’t go out and do anything. So I decided to try taking a photo of my laptop from a different angle.

As you know by my previous Sunday pictures, Sunday afternoons are reserved for science. Its kind of ironic isn’t it? Church and Science all in one day. Yes, they do go together…but that’s a debate for another forum. Anyway. So remember 2 weeks ago when I showed you a glimpse of the clean up job I have ahead of me? Despite the fact that I’ve had to teach full time, grade Senior Projects, go to School Board meetings, and everything else…I did manage to make a little progress.

If you look at the previous photo, you can’t even see those carts because boxes are piled so high in front of them. In this photo, you can’t see that there’s nothing on the other side of those carts…and there was before. So while it still looks like there’s a long way to go, I’ve actually done most of it. That’s how bad it originally was. Maybe in another two weeks it will all be done.

And that’s it for now…I haven’t taken today’s picture yet.

Wait…did I say “free time”? Hmmm. I ought to change that, we all know there is no such thing. In fact, I didn’t get to post yesterday because I was at a school board meeting until nearly 11:30 pm! Yeah, I’m a little tired today! However, I did manage to get a photo…I decided to take one that represents my hobby:

Yep, I spend what little free time I have either scrapping or talking about scrapping. It is my creative outlet.

Tonight, I went to the information meeting about a Bible study that I will be embarking on for 6 weeks. It is called “Apples of Gold” and apparently, it is a mentorship program for women. Basically, older women bless the socks off of younger women. It involves cooking, study, and of course, fellowship. I think it will be a huge blessing for me…3 of the women who are serving as mentors played very important roles in my life during my pregnancy and the passing of Joey. Even though we left that church, I still miss them and it certainly felt like home tonight when I was able to talk with them again. I’m definitely looking forward to what the next 6 weeks bring.

As always, thanks for checking in!

Today was the first of two minimum days for reading senior project papers. Basically, it means the kids go home at lunch time, and the teachers are stuck on campus reading papers. But it also meant I got to go home early, because I left when I was done reading at 2:30. The weather was so nice that I went for a run. When I got back, the puppy wanted to play (of course) and Chris wanted to take pictures. So here is one from him:

Of course, I had to get in my photo. I found this in the back yard:

Until next time…

It’s Chris’s fault. He put the microdrive in the camera, instead of the compact flash. Which meant that I couldn’t just pop the card out and put it in my card reader. I had to actually dig the cord out…so I didn’t until today. However, I do have photos for Friday, Saturday, and today.

First…I’ve told you about Rory’s favorite toy. Well, she’s obsessed enough that no matter what time we get home, its play time. Friday night, we didn’t get home until after 9:30. Yes, it was well after dark…but did that matter to the Porridge? Of course not. She made it clear that she wanted to play. What puppy princess wants, puppy princess gets.

Yes, Rory Porridge knows how to get her way. If you try to ignore her? Well, she’ll just patiently wait…in your face. It’s really kinda cute how she “forces” you to kiss her head. She’ll put her ears back and her head against your face until you make the “smack” sound. She really is very spoiled, but thank goodness she’s not bad about it! Here she is trying to get Chris’s attention. I was experimenting with camera angles.

Today’s photo is not of Puppy Princess. I spend my Sunday afternoons coaching Science Olympiad and Science bowl. Today my kids were playing with fire. I was playing with my camera.

I was going to take a photo of Costco this afternoon, but Chris forgot to bring the Rebel (he picked me up from school). I used to have a point and shoot in my purse, but it got put elsewhere for the move and I haven’t found it yet. It’s somewhere anyway. On the way home, I realized that while I have used Puppy Princess two days already, I have not used Christopher at all. So here he is…all mine!

Sometimes its great to be married to a computer geek. I know my family appreciates it. Chris spent much of our vacation working on computers or wiring up my grandparents new house (lucky we were there 2 years ago to run the wire before all of the walls went in). He’s the go-to guy at work, though he is very vocally anti-Mac. And on the few PCs around the district? He is the undisputed King. As a result of his computer-genius ways, he gets access to a lot of computer-related items before most people. Yesterday, he installed the current milestone of Windows 7 on his computer. It looks pretty sweet! So far he says its more stable than Vista, and Vista is pretty darn stable (don’t believe the hype…most problems people have are driver issues). In fact, the only negative he’s encountered so far is the fact that he can’t seem to keep more than one windows explorer window open at a time. He’s already submitted the issue to Microsoft though, and this isn’t even a beta yet, so there’s time to fix it.

So as my photo of the day….you get a sneak peak…

Sorry, I’m not allowed to give you more than that.

Today the girls basketball team played our cross-town rivals. All day long I had kids asking if I was going to go to the game. They were even starting to ask about the guys game on Friday night! They love it when I go watch them play, and it takes care of my classroom discipline. I always tell new teachers to make sure they appear at a few extra curricular activities, and they won’t have any problems in the classroom. I haven’t sent a kid to the office in a couple of years (knock on wood). I didn’t have a good spot/lens/flash to get any decent action shots (though a couple were close), but here’s one of a time out. Maybe I’ll get a good action shot or two on Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rory Porridge. We’ve had her since she was a wee pup. We had to teach her the basics of dog-hood…like how to play tug, and how to fetch. For the longest time she was quite convinced that she was a person. Then just before Christmas, Chris bought the toy to end all toys.

Yes, Rory loved tennis balls as much as the next dog (okay, maybe not as much as her friend Kahuna loves them), but eventually she would tire and we could go back inside and relax. We even had a little “chuck it” type toy to grab the tennis balls, so we didn’t have to touch them. But as I said…Chris bought the toy to end all toys. The Chuck-It Ultra. All of the sudden, our sweet-natured, people-like puppy became a ravenous beast. She LOVES this toy. The whole thing…the chuck-it and the accompanying ball. And it has to be the ultra ball (it’s completely rubber), not the chuck-it tennis ball (she has one, its no longer good enough). We come home in the afternoons, and the first thing she does is go to the side door, tail wagging ferociously. If you even look at the door, her whole body starts to wag. Walk in its general direction? She can barely contain herself. And should you happen to open the door? She leaps into the air as high as she can, and bounds out the door. Walking around to the back, she makes about 100 times as many trips as you do…running between where the Chuck-It is kept and where you have made progress. Keep in mind, its not like we have a huge house. She’s just that energized. Chris keeps it up on the table saw, in a crate. The old “chuck-it” type toy is there as well as a few other things. So you grab something and show it to her…she doesn’t even stop jumping to give it the time of day. Grab the old “chuck-it” type toy…she pauses briefly, but notices right away that it is not the correct one. Grab the “real” Chuck-It, and she’s off to the far side of the yard, ready to play. And play. And play. And play. And play. And play. And play. And play. Okay, you get the idea. While I don’t want to get into TMI, I will say that she doesn’t even stop to “do her business.” Even when she brings the ball back and drops to the ground…as soon as the Chuck-It touches the ball, she’s off to the other side of the yard again. In fact, we’ve learned that we have to actually tell her to stop…if you try and put it away without telling her, she keeps trying to get it, even though she’s about to fall over from exhaustion.

And so I bring you today’s photos:

Remember a couple of posts ago (you know…from last June), when Chris was talking about us moving, and me having to deal with a short summer due to mold issues at school? Well, they finally got our new building done…in October. Yep, I had to deal with inadequate lab facilities for an extra quarter. It would’ve been nice if they had allowed us to move in during the two week break that month. Unfortunately they made us wait until the week AFTER…then we had to clear everything out in a day. Needless to say, we didn’t get to move in correctly at all. They wouldn’t even let us have the staff development day to set up our new rooms. So we’ve had to manage teaching and decluttering all at the same time. 35 years of trash and treasures to go through. It’s not done yet, we haven’t been given any time to finish…but now the inspectors are coming. Argh! How am I ever going to get it done?

PS…I just noticed the wrong date. For some reason, I keep thinking I’m a day ahead. I’m too tired to fix it atm…but eventually I will.