Welcome Bridget!

I'm a bad woman.
I bought a chinchilla.

I went to the pet store looking for something warm and fuzzy to hold in my lap in the evening time. I was told that "mini rex" rabbits would be great. This seemed perfect, as I had bought a rabbit hutch at a garage sale a few weeks ago for $2. I first went to the local pet store. they had only one rabbit, not a mini rex, who was quite set in his ways. Mistake number one... I went to Pet Smart in Wentzville. The salewomans noticed me looking for the rabbits, told me they didn't have any, and then quickly got out a chinchilla for me to hold. SOOOO SOFT! This was what I was looking for-smart, intelligent and litter-trainable.

RESEARCH AFTER THE SALE
However, Pet Smart only sells female chinchillas-- they have a sweeter temperament. Remember how the coat is very soft? Well...males who aren't studs are killed for their fur to be made into fur coats!

Plus, wild chinchillas are almost extinct.

Bridget is amazing...and she can't help who she is...but man, do I feel guilty!

The name says it all...

mennomeet.com

Where single Mennonites me each other with the barrier of cyberspace protecting their...ahm...uh... "integrity".

sign me up!

Truman

I take a Saturday class at Truman. This means I spent Friday night driving up from St.L to campus, crashing at another Master's degree students house and going to class at 8:30am. (Isn't it pathetic when you think that getting up at 7:30 is sleeping in?) We then whine, vent and discuss the problem with out internship.
It is therapeutic, but the best part is going back Truman's campus. It is a place where I feel completely comfortable. I know the best place for naps in the library. i have access to at least three buildings on campus because I "forgot" ;) to turn my keys in. It is familiar, and safe and beautiful in the fall. Also it is not associated with stress for me any more.
When I'm at Troy, I know that I should really be working on my classwork instead of surfing the net. There is associated stress with my apartment, the town, and the school. But when I went to K-Ville I remembered all the great times there.

(Which is actually an achievement, I tend to dwell on bad memories, and there are plenty of those there too.)

I also got to go teacher clothes shopping which is fun. I now have this Irish sweater that feels amazing,soft and warm! (Apparently hoodies arn't a part of the dress code when you are a teacher!)

Little Turds.

We are in block scheduling in the high school that I teach at. for the most part, I like it. Other days...WORST NIGHTMARE! Today was one of those days. My Purple days have the highest percentage of special ed kids and behavior problems. they can't be quiet and they can't pay attention. Students complain that I repeat things several times but it takes about seven times for it to sink in. If I have to repeat one more time "there are 100 centimeters in a meter" I'm going to scream! Sigh.

My weekends would be a lot longer if...

I didn't take three hour long naps on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It is slightly annoying. My kids are going to take their first test on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm really nervous for them. What if they all fail? What if I'm a horrible teacher? GAH!

I love September

The weather is absolutely beautiful! Slight brisk in the mornings, nice and cool and relaxed in the afternoons. It is finally comfortable walking outside. I love fall! Great memories of cross country, and debate. I'm probably the happiest in Septemeber. There is just something about this month. May be it is the old memories of cross country and debate. The smell of leaves, or the immediate "ah...Life is good!" feeling when I walk out of the high school. Tomorrow is the first home football game and I am so excited! I really enjoy marching bands, concession stands and the atmosphere of it all. In high school, sitting with Amanda the oboe player watching the NHS Railers get squashed were some of the greatest times of my life.

Is it bad when...

you are a pacifist, and your greatest joy in life is watching a frog murgatroy crickets?

Welcome Hector!

I got tired of being the only living thing in my apartment, so I bought a tree frog. His name is Hector, and he has already munched on three crickets!

Teaching school is hard. I feel like I''ve been swimming the breast stroke. Difficult work followed by a gasp of breath, followed by difficult work followed by a gasp of breath, etc. The past couple of friday I've eaten out, passed out at 7:00pm from a calorie coma, wake up at 9:30pm watch a Movie from Blockbuster, go to bed, wake up at noon the next day. Then I watch show on the internet that I don't have time for, an get some reading done. Sunday is church, an afternoon of relaxation, and then more school work-grading, etc. For those of you who read this that were/are in forensics: It feels like three Creighton double ups, back to back, with a brief breather each evening. I like what I'm doing, but there isn't his intense joy. When I come home, I'm pooped. It would be nice if I had a regular job, so that I could just leave everything at work. And not have to do anything/ worry about he kids.

I'm starting to get the hang of this

I came home today at a decent time, and I am not overwhelmed with things to do. A month or two and i will be pretty much acclimated to my new job, if underpaid. The lesson plans went well today. I think I just need to realize that freshmen need to talk to each other, and provide breaks for that. Lab went well, and I got alot of engaged learners. The way I teach is to get students ready for upper level courses--and that is really hard for some students.

Is it bad....

That I don't want to go back to school?! I went to my room today at 2:30 and stayed until 8:00 and got very little done. It seems that I spend about 5-10% of my time making to-do lists, and then freaking out about them. My rough day is A where I have two preps and my plan period is in the morning. So I have no break during the day. I'm starting my online class that require me to do research. I don't want to get out of class at five just to start home work for my online class at 7:00. This weekend was wonderful, but maybe it was a not-so-good Idea to go back to the classroom.

YEA! Labor Day Weekend

Whoa. This weekend I had more fun than I'm allowed to have. Friday night I participated in the "Back to School Bash" at the high school that I teach at. I sponsored a Dodgeball team and went into the dunk tank. The team I sponsored/ coached was called the "Stupid Freshman". they gave themselves that name, and it was too late to change it when I found out about it. The poor guys didn't win a game, but they had fun I hope. As much fun as you can get from being mergatroied by seniors who are twice your size. I went into the dunk tank, and got wet. Apparently, there was a lot of aggression toward the metric system. I got dunked at least five times. It was warm enough that it was a pleasant experience. Afterward wards me and several other young science teachers had a drink together.

Then Gina and Mary Erin came to visit. We went hiking at the local state park and then drove down to see Karen and Jason, the newly weds. They had just got a new puppy and that was cool to play with. He had a great brindle color and was super cute. The dog, not the hubby!

Saturday we went to the zoo. The Zoo is free in St.Louis, and we found free parking, so it was a really cheap weekend. The favorite part of the trip was going into the penguin house. Nice and cool , with lots of species of penguins. Expensive food, and lots of people.The Herpatarium was really cool too. The Insectarium had a butterfly house and it was beautiful to walk through large flocks of butterflies with red and yellow hibiscus flowers blossoming. We went into the zoo mid morning to later afternoon, so a lot of animals were sleeping. We saw tigers, bears, camels, zebra, giraffes, antelopes, red pandas, lemurs, frogs, scorpions, bird-eating spiders bigger than my hand.

Also, I hadn't really thought about it before, but I could be a zoo keeper for the St. Louis zoo. My bachelors degree in biology would get me to be a animal keeper. And...they have seasonal positions. (Afterall, I' will have had plenty of experience after this year!)

I'm also going to hike the Appalachian trail into two years...more about that later.

MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED!

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YippEEEEEEEEEEEEE
HAHAHAH WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!