They've begun bringing me apples. Anonymously.

I have a cold, and I thought about calling in sick today, but the biggest thing holding me back? I wanted to go to school. Because I'm enjoying it.

This is Sex Ed week in Science. I might extend it through next week as well. My original intent was to try to embarrass them as much as possible, but not only are they unflappable, but they also ask really good questions. We spend an entire hour Monday discussing sex and sex myths. I get the feeling that they know they need to know this stuff, but no one's really talking to them about it. It's kinda sad. Fortunately for me, I'm enjoying it immensely and I'm going to take the Praxis to add a Health endorsement.

Usually I have my iPod playing music either when they're coming in the door at the start of class, during work time, or during their break. I realized that I should take note of Heather's class and have a specific song I play during class clean-up at the end of the period. Lately, especially because of the number of illnesses going around (60% of the staff are stricken), I've had them clean all the surfaces in the room. So, to make it more interesting, I brought in the Benny Hill theme, "Yakety Sax." Hilarity ensued. Not only are my students awesome enough that they immediately knew where the music was from ("This sounds like the Benny Hill theme!"), but a few of them began mock-chasing each other around the desks in appropriate style - even making it look like sped-up film. Ah, MACA kids. They're the best.

So, for your viewing pleasure:

Poor Hubby. He seems to have caught a wicked cold - not an easy feat for a man whose immune system fights a hard battle. What's more amazing is that I am not sick - a testament of how unpredictable my own system is. Granted, I've been teaching for a few years now, so it's had plenty of time to build itself up, but usually it's a safe assumption that my first month of school will be filled with orange juice, cough suppressant, and snot. This year it seems it's Hubby's turn. I guess it's his first real exposure to the petri dish that is public education. Poor Hubby.











Speaking of Hubby - his student teaching placement fell through at Newberg. I quickly made some arrangements with Laurie, and about a week later James was starting his practicum at MACA. Since he started about a week and a half ago, I've seen him very little during the day... lunch, usually, and maybe we see each other in the hall once or twice. What's great is that he's pretty much just taken over Paul's first three periods already - he was antsy to start teaching and he's getting some really good experience. Most days I forget that he's in the building until I walk by his door and have some momentary confusion. At first, I thought it might be weird, but it hasn't been at all. Students pretty much all know that we're married, but still whenever a student asks, it's become customary to rotate through relations. "He's my uncle." "He's my first cousin once removed." "He's my P. O." They get mad every time but they should really just learn to stop asking if they already know the answer.

School is still going remarkably well. It seems that the critical mass has finally figured out what the school's about, and now we just need to focus on the really tough kids. Every day I'm pleasantly surprised by something new.

Yesterday was the most treacherous day at work, however... One kid tried to pierce his ear and mangled it pretty good (which, in my opinion, you deserve if you're stupid enough to do that), two more kids cut themselves, one kid puked in the other science room, Liz's movers had not one, but two vans break down, a staff member had her wallet stolen, and Courtney (math teacher) sliced her finger open and had to go to Urgent Care so they can stitch her up. She knicked an artery in her finger, which needed to be tied off itself before they put six more stitches on top. The trooper even came back to school for the last period!

New year!

Okay, I think I'm back.

School started last week, eerily stress-free and easy-going. James says he's not surprised all the kiddos are behaving well, polite, and doing their work without complaint - after all, this is the third year and we've spent two years working on developing that culture. However, it's about two years early by my calculations (based on other new school start-ups). Not sure how long this will last. Usually the kids are worse at the beginning of the year and you force them into submission by late October. It's really creeping me out.

I forced James to pose for some pictures a few weeks ago, as we have only a handful of us and most of those were taken sometime around when we got married. It's close to four years now so I figured it was time for an update.









I also got a car, finally... It had everything on my list, plus a few bonuses! The old one actually sold for $600, so really, we only spent $200 for that car for 2 years. Nice.









New favorites: Dutch Bro.s Skinny Carmel Lattes, hair straightener, True Blood, 30 Rock, Kozy Shack chocolate pudding, and my hand-held steam cleaner. Dragging Hubby to Lincoln City to eat at Mo's.

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