Snowed Under

Every time I think I’ve got a handle on my to do list, everything piles up again at once. So I have this constant feeling of being behind. No matter how many things I mark off my list, twice as many get added it seems from helping a friend trade in a rental and get a new tuxedo to simple things like reorganizing the movie shelf, it just seems to go on and on, but I’ve decided that I’m going to spend at least 2 hours each day of Thanksgiving break (Wednesday – Sunday for me) online blogging, catching up in my favorite forums, and trying to do most of my online Christmas shopping. So bear with me for a few more days, and then I’ll try to get back in the swing of things.

Busy Start to The Year

The school year is officially back in session and life is officially busy.  Yep, things are crazy (that’s why you don’t see too many posts lately).  I’m teaching new classes this year so I don’t have everything memorized – I’m constantly working on ideas and curriculum.  On the positive side, there are a lot less papers to grade now that I’m not teaching English – well, maybe not less, but less intensive.

On top of that, my car that I paid off not too long ago (remember?) is damaged AGAIN!  I ran over a dog last Monday and now am looking at car grills since mine is sitting on my porch instead of my car. D$m$ dog!

But I think we are going better  with routines…hopefully this next week I won’t be ready to crash the moment I walk in the door each afternoon. *cross your fingers*

Completed!

I have had this week off from bailing hay between weather, family illness, and tractor equipment failure.  But it’s been a nice week because I’ve gotten a good bit done, and Cameron has finished up 2 of her summer activities which will give us time to visit family and friends now hopefully.

Today was the last day of the Summer Reading Program hosted by our public library each year and today was the last day of her swimming class.  That frees up two days a week completely.  I usually don’t mind, and I’m happy to have her involved in all of these activities in the summer, but since I am working this summer, I’ve hated having to completely depend on grandparents to run her around the country.

This week we also got yearly vet trips taken care of. The dogs are vaccinated and we’ve bought our yearly supply of Frontline to keep them flea free.

The house is pretty clean. The pool chemicals are bought for the summer and the pool is in great shape.

Speaking of shape, I haven’t lost any more weight.  But I am continuing at least 4 days a week in the gym and I’m able to do more on all of the machines than I was at the beginning of the month.  so irregardless to me is the weight right now. At least I know I am getting healthier which was probably the #1 goal.  But to help with the weight loss. I’ve just bought EA Sports Active for the Wii, and I plan to start their 30 day challenge today.  Wish me luck and trying to keep up.  I’ve had it a few days and hesitated starting it because I’m so tired some days and if we travel/vacation I’m not home to do the 30 days, but realistically, that’s my life all the time so I figured I might as well start today.

That’s our life right now.  Busy? Of course….but still good.  Keep us updated on your lives. We miss everyone.

Closer, Closer

One of those days….day after day…but every time I am getting frustrated and ready to scream, I remember that we’re now down to only about 20 days of school left…so close.  This may be the most ready for summer I’ve ever been.  I am so ready.  It seems like when life should be slowing down right now, it just isn’t.  I keep thinking that something big is off the list for the year, but I don’t see the slow down.  

We’re testing this week, a term life insurance company wants to talk to us even though I know I’m not adding any more life insurance right now.  It’s just one thing after the other.

We were looking so forward to the weekend because it’s my niece’s birthday party and today i find out that we have to makeup a softball game this weekend that was rained out earlier.  This is horrible, but I’m actually hoping it will get rained out again so that we can still go to Dallas.  There are two times a year we always go to my sister’s – my nephew’s party and my niece’s party.  I really hate when something happens, and we miss one of these occasions.

Where Does The Time Go?

It seems like if I put off one day of blogging, it leads to more and more.  But since this blog is going to focus more on my personal life, I thought I’d check in today and tell you about life at our house right now.

Softball Season – That’s one of our big Spring events. Becka plays with the high school (who only have 2 or 3 games left), and Cameron plays in a community league that has only played their first 3 games with 10 or so left to go.  

Academic Competition – This is big in mine and Becka’s life as I coach several events, and she competes in several events.  We’ve finished our competitions at the district level and now all students who placed in the top 3 at district will compete at the next level of competition during the end of this month at the Regional level.  In some ways this is less stressful as I’m now working with 5 students versus about 15, but this level of competition is also stiffer so those 5 are working even harder than before.  On top of that, I’m trying to secure us rooms for this competition and looking for good business hotels that are suitable for this situation can be time consuming – especially when they send you out to the middle of nowhere for competition.  :)

Easter - Yep, can’t leave that out today can I?  Well, we had storms all day so after the church celebration Easter was sort of a flop this year.  Eggs had to be hid in the house (and personally I find hiding real eggs in the house kind of creepy – what if we didn’t find them all?), and so really it was more like a typical Sunday with household chores to be done.

Standardized Testing – Our state has standardized testing at each grade level from 3 to 11.  This year Cameron is taking her first set of the TAKS tests (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), and Becka is taking her last. Both HAD to pass this year as 3rd graders must pass the Reading test to move to 4th grade (This test was taken in early March and we already know Cameron passed) and 11th graders have to pass all 4 sections (English Language Arts, Math, History, and Science) to graduate high school. As an ELA teacher, my test was the first week of March, but the other 3 are the last week of this month (as well as Cameron’s math test) so with just two weeks to go everyone is in major test cramming.

End of the School Year – Last week we finished up the 5th Six Weeks which means we have only 6 weeks to go.  With 1 week being dedicated to the TAKS test and one to Semester exams at the high school level, we are actually down to 4 weeks of instruction! We’d be crazy to not admit that we are all tired and counting down!

The End of a Friendship – This has been a sort of emotional/stressful weekend and thus while I thought I’d be posting on each of my blogs throughout the weekend, I’ve actually kind of moped around this weekend. This weekend I had a friendship end.  I think this is the first time I’ve ever had a friendship just end at a moment’s notice. I’ve grown apart from friends of course, but never just had a conversation of “This friendship is over. Goodbye!”  It’s been tough and awkward.  I’m not sure how to react.  I am for sure not happy about the situation even though because of the details involved, I can acknowledge that maybe it was best – best for everyone else involved but me.  

So in a short less than 500 word recap – that’s life at our house right now.  Keep watching as I move this blog into more and more personal, stay up with Kimberly, Becka, and Cameron posts!  :)