A few thoughts...

I had about an hour to myself today. Jeff went to the school to work, and Cate took a nap. It was blissful. I sat on the couch and read. (And because names and storylines from "Game of Thrones" float through my head every time I close my eyes, I started re-reading "The Princess Diaries" for a break.)

I also spend a little time working on recovering our dining room chairs, and I started thinking. (Always dangerous with me). Here are my thoughts:

Every upper elementary and middle school english teacher should introduce three boys (men? guys?) to their students' lives. Their names are Gregor, Percy, and Harry. Those three do more for my reading scores and for getting my kids interested in reading than anyone else. (Maybe I should include their creators too....)

There are 2 incredibly annoying and, I think, offensive commercials running in our area right now. One is about that stupid "Dolphin Tale" movie. It's a preview, and someone says during it "That dolphin is the bravest creature I've ever seen", or something to that effect.

Can I just say, "Courage only counts when you can count." (from Gregor) That stupid dolphin had nothing to do with getting some stupid prothestic tail and relearning how to swim. It's not like it was given the option to say "hey, thanks, but no. I'm good." Ridiculous.

The other commercial is a USPS commercial in which some guy says "I can't think of anything worse than having to stand in line at the post office."

Really? You can't think of ANYTHING worse than standing in line?!?! Cause I can think of a few hundred things just off the top of my head, and probably thousands if you give me about an hour.

Also, I was thinking about my favorite fictional literary couples. I came up with my top three. They are:
Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy- Pride and Prejudice
Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe- Anne of Green Gables
Mia Thermompolis and Michael Moscovitz- The Princess Diaries*

*I came up with this list before I started re-reading the series.

I suppose that's it for the evening. I'm off to watch the season finale of True Blood. There better be some Erik butt in this one!

Hey there

I've been MIA for a while. I underestimated just how much harder it would be to go back to work this year. Last year, I had family taking care of Cate, and I didn't realize just how much that helped. This year she's at a day care. It makes it a lot harder. Add that to the general exhaustion and ridiculous amounts of paper work and little things that come with starting the school year, and it's no wonder I've gone to bed at 8:30 almost every night.

My class is wonderful this year. It's a big change for me, because this is my first year to have special ed inclusion. The biggest change is that I literally have no time to sit down while the kids are working, so I've been trying to get everything (copies, lesson plans, parent emails, grades, etc.) done in the hour after the kids leave and before I pick up Cate. Needless to say, that's not really working. Thankfully, I have an incredible aide who will sit and grade papers when there's nothing else to do. She even took some home to grade over the long weekend for me.

I've been sitting here staring at the computer screen with my hands in my lap for the last five minutes, trying to figure out what else I want to say. There's a lot I would like to talk about, I just don't think it's all for this post. I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here, still chugging along.