So much to do, so little time!

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! Sean slept through his first fireworks show, and enjoyed VERY messy Jell-O at his aunt Desi's house on Logan Martin Lake!

Some of you may already know this, but I am switching career paths, and I will begin my first year as an English teacher on August 4th at Pell City High School (my alma mater!). I am very excited to teach, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous as well. I have completed my "summer reading", and I am currently trying to create lesson plans. Here is the proof that I am going to be a teacher!

As if all that wasn't enough, we have received an offer on the house here in Leeds! This is blessing, especially with the current state of the housing market. If everything goes as plans, we will close on the house on August 6th. It's going to be a busy month! We are looking at houses in the Leeds/Moody area, and maybe even Pell City. We will see!

The Home Stretch

So, here we are- the last week of class. Time really does fly when you have fun. I spent much of the weekend working on my student webpage, and boy did I work! I hope the content is acceptable to Dr. Wang. I chose to explore the various ways Mark Twain and Huck Finn have appeared in modern-day settings- such as pop music and television. It was very interesting research. The only thing I am bummed about is the fact that I couldn't get my iPod to work and download some awesome music for the page. Since I couldn't do that, I just hyperlinked to Amazon.com so viewers could listen to the different songs I mention. All in all, I am proud of the page-my first venture into webpage design.

My mother-in-law kept the boy last night, and this gave me and my husband a chance to go out to eat. We chose to go to Surin 280, and the food was delicious. We had some rainbow sushi and I had the Ka Proud Lamb. I love Surin- we should eat there more often. The boy spent the night with grandma, but I didn't sleep well at all. I kept waking up, thinking I heard him crying in his nursery, but then I would remember that he wasn't in his nursery. I missed getting to see and feed him this morning, and I kinda hope we get out of class a little early tonight so I can rush home to him.

I am so thankful my husband has been so supportive of me going back to school. He is a gem. Most nights I get home and dinner is cooking, the baby has had a bath and is playing, the house is in relative order, all I have to do is feed him and put him in his crib. Today I have included a Father's Day picture. I think they really enjoyed the "photo shoot", and the photos were great. Very special memories!

Weekend Update- Week Three Begins!

My interview with Dr. Pierce was Friday afternoon. I have been accepted into the Fifth Year Program! Yay, Katie! Thanks to Stanley and Jason for the words of encouragement. The interview went great, awesome in fact. My letters of recommendation must have ROCKED!

I spent most of Friday and several hours Sunday night working on the student multimedia project. I hope it is what Dr. Wang wanted. I looked at all the Intel examples, but it is still hard to figure out what the teacher wants when they don't get a chance to explain it. Love power outages!

The rest of my weekend was super-busy. Saturday I went to my Weight Watchers meeting. I was bummed because I gained 0.2 pounds! So, I splurged Saturday night at a friend's wedding, but I am back on track today. Yesterday was my husband's first Father's Day. I let him sleep late, a.k.a. 7:30. The baby is learning to clap, and I practiced with him all morning, so I said "Happy Father's Day!" and he clapped. It was sweet. We went to church and lunch with my in-laws and then we went and had the baby and the husband's portraits taken for Father' s Day. The photographer captured some very special moments, I will post my favorites when I get them. My husband was very pleased with his gift- a new Lapco barrel for his paintball gun. He thinks I really listen to him, but in actuality I asked one of his buddies what I should get him. Shhhh! Don't tell!

I can't believe we are started our third week of class tonight! Time is flying, and I am really enjoying myself.

I am posting one of my favorite pictures from my Mother's Day phot shoot. I like it because the baby is trying to get away from me. This is very typical when I am trying to give him "sugar".

Unit Project Freak-Out!

Wow! So last night we got a "preview" of what we will be doing for the remainder of our ECY610 class. I am overwhelmed at the amount of work we will be doing over the next two and a half weeks. I am so afraid that I have bitten off more than I can chew, gotten in over my head, fill in the blank with another tired cliche, etc. I am hopeful that tonight in class I will feel a little less intimidated with the project. I am planning on doing the unit on Early American Literature (as this is what I hope to teach), in particular, the themes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

At work today a gas line broke down the street. There wasn' t a mandatory evacuation, even though the workers donned Haz-Mat suits, so we all stayed and worked. They offered for me to go home, since I am still nursing the boy, but I toughed it out and stayed. Honestly, I would have loved to have gone home and taken a nap, but I didn't. I am proud of my self-restraint. Also I went over and beyond with a customer today, so I have done my good deed.

Week two of "Operation:Lose the Baby Fat" is going well. My goal to lose 10-15 pounds in eight weeks is attainable but no fun after eating for two for so long. Today I only cheated because someone said the Peanut M & Ms were the only "cure" for a gas leak!

School Daze

So I am really enjoying being back in school after a 4 year hiatus. Last night in class we learned all about Word 07, which is really going to come in handy with all the papers I will write in grad school.

In unrelated news, my child has slept through the night for the past three nights in a row! Finally! After 8 months of sleeping in two or three hours stretches, I am finally able to sleep. I feel like a new person!

And finally, something else for a new mom to worry about. On the Today show this morning, they did a story on "dry drowning" and this ten year-old boy who died an hour after swimming because he inhaled too much water while in the pool. Check out the link below:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24982210/

First Day of School

I followed Dr. Wang's directions for creating a blog using the free www.blogger.com software. It was very simple and easy to figure out, and I am looking forward to blogging about my class experiences. I learned tonight in class that by choosing "thumbnails" I can view the picture I am trying to download.