Homesickness and my little hell raisers

Alright, I was expecting to get really homesick from Erika's letter, but I didn't...I did, but I didn't cry like I was thinking I would. It was an awesome way to end my night...with laughter.
Saturday night I spent most of my computer time talking to Erin and updating. It was hilarious actually...Erin told me I was turning into a pod person. I was telling her my new habits, and routines. She doesn't like the idea of me drinking coffee on the way to school. There's no way in hell I'm getting up before 10am and dealing with kids without caffeine, I'm sorry. Then there are my lunches I take to school. It usually consists of two bottles of water, a turkey sandwich on wheat, and a yogurt. I drink both bottles of water throughout the school day, and come home to have a glass of wine. And more healthy food. I hadn't had soda/pop since my first Sunday in town. I was going to keep it that way, but they got me a 12-pack of Mountain Dew when they went grocery shopping this weekend. Erin almost died, and had to keep asking if it was really me she was talking to when I was telling her all of this.

Sunday was an okay day. I woke up because of a phone call (thanks for that one Dan), talked on the phone for a bit, laid in bed and watched some TV, and finally got up to take a shower. I was going to go get my daily dosage of yogurt for breakfast when I was done with my shower, but decided I should really just sit down and grade my students' journals. I had to figure out how they were graded before, which was a task on it's own. The sub didn't really follow a standard way of grading these. Some were graded everyday, and some were graded whenever. Some were given full points, and students with the same were given lower scores...great...I had to come up with a grading system on my feet. I pretty much gave the kids all full credit, unless I could tell that there wasn't much effort into it. I knew something had to change when I walked in there this morning. I finished grading, went out, had my yogurt, and then went shopping...again. Mary had wanted to go to Mervyn's, which is just like Kohl's, to get some things for her granddaughter for Christmas. I wasn't going to give up shopping. It was either that, or knit while I watch football. I was up for a break from football. I came home from shopping, picked up my knitting, and watched some football. I eventually got sick of it, about 20 minutes into it, and went off exploring. I took the apartment guide Mary had gotten for me before I moved, and did a drive by of the places listed near my school, after I stopped at McDonald's for some lunch (not really a pod person). There were a bunch crossed off, and even a few "HELL NO"s in there. I got homesick again while doing this. This past spring while Dan and I were finding him apartments (it's a good thing we didn't get a two bedroom, huh Dan?), Dan kept saying how he'd help me find an apartment when I got a teaching job. It was kinda hard writing the notes down while driving 45mph, but I managed. I think I know where I'm going to look first, but I want to talk it over with Mary and Roger so that I can have them come with me to make sure it's a good place. After I came home from "exploring", we went off to church. As Adam put it, "When was the last time you were there? Was I with you?" Yeah, the last time I was there was for Harr and Joe's wedding. Mass was alright. It's ginormous church, and there were people everywhere. I wanted to correct the priest when he was giving the homily (he was saying incorrect things about How the Grinch Stole Christmas), but I didn't. Came home from mass, ate dinner, watched more sports, talked on the phone, and went to bed. I did, however, watch Family Guy before going to bed, and I will say right now, it's up there with my favorites! All I'll say is...NAAFP!

I woke up today and didn't want to get out of bed. It was freezing out, literally freezing. I couldn't believe how cold it got! I wore a dang turtleneck sweater to school today. Then there are the kids who were still wearing shorts and somehow complaining that they were cold. My response to them, "you shouldn't be wearing shorts when it's cold out." This kid kept asking me to turn on the heat, and was wondering why he was so cold. Again, I advised him to wear warmer clothing. The pompom thing seemed to work...for a bit. I had them all working so well this morning, I didn't have enough planned. I usually have to have them finish what we were working on before we leave for the day. I asked them a few times if they were truly my class. Granted, I only had 9 students with me today. They were truly my kids. After lunch everything went downhill. They had 6 in the bucket before lunch, and at the end of the day they were down to 3. Math did it to them. I was giving them examples on the board, and then they had to give me the answer on their white boards at their desks. They didn't mind it, but, they were drawing pictures and talking to their friends. Then we used different manipulatives to show different patterns...yeah, almost took them away from a group because all they wanted to do was play with them since they were animal shapes. They went off to P.E., I got called to the asst. principal's office ( I guess it was review time, and I had to sign a piece of paper saying I'll be probationary this year and next since I've only worked 4 days there), got a few things together for the kids, ate lunch, and finally had to go get my kids from P.E. After P.E., I knew that I wouldn't have their attention for long. I let them finish an activity from last week, while I putzed with my lesson planner. Eventually, they all finished, and I still had 10 minutes left with them. I decided to do a quick review of nouns. I wrote a few sentences on the board (my personal favorite was, "Miss Phipps wants her class to behave."), and had the students pick out the nouns. Yeah, easy...for now. The kids left, without forgetting to give me a high five (don't know what that's about, but they always have to give me a high five on the way out the door), and I was left alone. I knew that I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, but I realized that I had to photocopy some things for class tomorrow. I should be caught up with that now, and won't have to rush like I did this morning. I got out to my car, called about going to the orientation for my health benefits on Wednesday, called Dan (he wasn't around), then called home. I shouldn't call home and only expect to be on the phone for a little bit. I think mom could tell that I was getting annoyed, and she hung up before I got back home. That was okay with me since I had to make a stop at Target, you'd think I'd be done, wouldn't you, but I had to pick up a book that I forgot at home and some other stuff for the room. I came home, had a some good convos with Mary and Roger, and then came back here to update. I didn't get my daily dosage of sports, but I can handle that. Roger already told me I needed to rush home from school so I can watch the Badger game with him tomorrow night.

Alright, this old timer needs to head to bed...OH! But I hit another runaway tumbleweed this morning on my way to school! Just thought you all would want to know that...tumbleweeds have something against my car and I.