Kids!

Okay, I love teaching, but sometimes I cannot believe the things that come out of my students mouths! For example, today I had a student working on biology, more specifically the reproductive systems. This is normally a fairly bright 17 year old student that wants to go into nursing, keep in mind. She couldn't understand why she had scored so poorly on the material, so we sat down together to look at it... and I quickly noticed that she had completely switched the "boy" parts and "girl" parts! Not just a few of the terms, either... every single part! And yesterday, a different student (who is 18) argued with me that 3 milileters of liquid is BIGGER than 1 ton. Double wow! God knows I love them and want them to be successful, but what do you even say to comments like that? It's probably cute when it's little elementary age kids saying silly things, but when you're talking about 17 to 20 year olds... it's kind of sad.

Enough of my venting and on to other things.... my weekend was fairly boring and consisted of taking care of Chris (who is feeling better) and doing homework for my masters class. One of Chris's buddies from high school, Chad, stopped by Sunday so they could both lament that the weather isn't yet golf-able. Chris and Chad, and a few of their other friends from high school, play golf together a couple of days a week during the summer. Chad's a doctor, so it's always a little funny to me that he plays so much golf! Other than the professional development meetings I have all of Thursday afternoon, there isn't much exciting going on this week... which I guess isn't really a bad thing!

TGIF!

Well, I actually got that two hour delay I was hoping for, which was really nice. The weather was fairly nasty, and all of the county schools were lucky enough to get closed. It worked out well for Chris, because he's been fighting a cold for most of the week. Staying home and sleeping was the best thing for him. I knew he was feeling really bad when he called me at work to ask what he should take to ease his congestion, especially considering that he never takes medicine. When I got home he was all stretched out on the couch looking pitiful. This weekend will find me taking care of him and finishing the mountain of homework I have, but at least I won't have to get out too much to do that. I hate the cold! I just hope I don't catch whatever it is he's got, since it sure seems to be going around!

2 hour delays

Since this is February in Indiana, it's not surprising that we've been having fairly regular bouts of yucky weather. In the last few weeks, most of the schools in Shelby county have had two hour delays due to the road conditions. Notice, I said most of the schools; good old Shelbyville Central hasn't called a single delay. So while my sweet hubby is sleeping in, I still have to get up and drive to work on icy roads (because despite the city's efforts, when I'm on those roads in the morning it's still very slick). And believe me, I've grumbled about it. A lot. Especially when I had not one but two students call in to tell me they couldn't make it to class because they had wrecked their cars on the way to class (at least nothing was serious). After all, two hour delays are like manna from heaven for a teacher. Less time required to work, less time to deal with those kids that drive you nuts, and you don't have to make up a single hour of it! Needless to say, I'm really hoping for a two hour delay tomorrow. It's snowing pretty hard now; already there's a couple of inches on the ground. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky!

My Niece!

Well, since I'm definitely too tired to straighten up my house enough to take pictures, I thought I'd post an old one of my niece! Claire is Chris's older brother's daughter. She's adorable and VERY spunky for an almost 4 year old! She can't quite get "Melissa" out... or "Missy" out... or "Chris" our... so I have been christened Aunt MiMi and Chris is Uncle Twis! Her new favorite activity is to call us on the phone. Last night, when it was snowing pretty heavily, this was our conversation...

Claire: Mimi, you got any ice skates?

Me: No... why?

Claire: I want some. Put Uncle Twis on, he can go get me some.

Me: laughing

Claire: Mimi? Can we go ice skating NOW? Right now? Come and get me!

Me: laughing hysterically

Claire: Mimi, you crazy!

At that point Claire got frustrated with me because I was laughing too much, gave the phone a hug and kiss (all you can hear is a rustle and then a big wet smack), and hung up on me. Pretty hilarious overall!

Hi!

Since I too am guilty of occassionally checking out blogs, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and start my own. I'm hoping that this will be a good way for those of us that have drifted apart since high school to learn more about each other's lives now. Especially now that so many exciting things are going on... Rajean's baby, everyone getting married, moving away... all that good stuff that goes along with adulthood. So here we go!

For those of you that I haven't talked to in a while, here's my life summarized. I got married in June of 2005 to Chris Lakes. We met in college in some education classes our Freshman year, started dating our Sophomore year, and then got married a year after graduating. I teach in the alternative school at Shelbyville High School, which surprisingly enough I really enjoy. Chris teaches special ed at good old Southwestern (which he loves and is really good at), and he coaches tennis and baseball there as well. In fact, last fall he led the tennis team to their first ever county tourney and sectional wins in school history. We've lived in our house in Shelbyville for a little over 2 years (pictures to come I promise), and we're really happy. Chris is from Connersville, which is nice because it's close and we can still see his family regularly. I absolutely adore my mother in law Sheri, and we talk on the phone almost every day. My mom and dad both live in town as well (even though they split up about 3 years ago - amicably, at least!), and I see both of them all the time. Heidi, my crazy sister, went to school in Evansville and is still living there (but I'm going to try to talk her into starting her own blog as well). That's pretty much it! I look forward to hearing from all of you!