12-15-07

Today I was worried about being headachy, and thought about staying home, but I'd signed up to work on a Habitat for Humanity house. I went anyway. Dan and I worked from 9-3 on these two houses. He did a lot of flooring while I caulked and painted. It ended up being a fun time!

12-14-07

Developed a migraine overnight. Woke up early and took a Maxalt and managed to go to school. They are really stripping the land next to the school- it's depressing. I looked at the package of manacotti and saw that it contained romano cheese. The combo of dehydration and aged cheese probably caused the migraine. Meanwhile, Aza came home this evening from school. It's good to have here home. Very good.

12-13-07

I went to the new ACAC gym downtown on the way home from work today. It was a really nice gym, but I didn't bring a water bottle, and I got dehydrated. After dinner I started developing a headache. Dinner, I thought was fine- manocotti. Went to sleep with a growing headache.

12-12-07

Last night I set up the equipment for splitting water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. I let it run all night long and this morning I had a whole test tube of hydrogen and a half test tube of oxygen. I ignited both for my students and we all thought it was really cool.

12-11-07

Today I mailed Christmas packages at the post office on the Downtown Mall. There's a Free Speech wall, and I liked this prophesy I read.

12-10-07

Today, Monday, I begin to see the end of teaching middle school in sight. Here is a picture of the algae colonies we are growing- it will be oddly enough, sad to part with them. I hope to bequeath them to the life sciences teacher. Sky looks snowy. I stayed up late tonight wrapping Christmas gifts.

12-9-07

Today I graded papers, graded journals, and got ready for a new week. This week I will not tolerate sassing, talking in class while I'm talking, and disrespectful behaviors of any kind. I have one month left to learn how to take charge and I'd better get going.

12-8-07

I went on a rampage Saturday, cleaning out bathroom closets, throwing away old bottles of expired medicines and vitamins and lotions. I even organized our growning collection of single socks and found only 5 pairs. Note to my daughters: If you have any single socks, bring them home for Christmas. I'd bet your mates are here in the purple bag waiting for you.

12-7-07

There used to be a woods next to the school. But this week I watched a bulldozer push the trees down morning and afternoon. Today they were burning. It's sad to see development in this rural part of the county. Today was one of the worst days teaching I've had yet. I tried giving my science students a work day and it failed miserably. I brought blondies for the kids who'd behaved all week. Half. Only half.

12-6-07

It snowed this morning but not enough to cancel school. Today, Thursday, is an odd day of the week and usually odd days are rough for me. I stupidly let my first math class go outside to see the snow falling and they came back in with muddy feet which we had to clean up. I had class tonight and served on a discussion panel. Took pictures of grounds on my way to class.

12-5-07

Today was a gray Wednesday. It looks like it's going to snow.

12-4-07

This morning as the light was filtering through the door, I looked at the back door rug and thought it beautiful.

Tonight Dan finished fixing the oven with the new part he bought. It was a pain because a screw had stripped. So tomorrow I can make quiche.

12-3-07

This day I drove to work and took a picture of the beautiful scenery. Scenery from my car, scenery from my desk. After work, Dan and I did kitchen duty. He worked on fixing the broken oven and I worked on fixing the broken ice cube maker. Aza will be thrilled to know that I fixed it! Yeah! I cleaned out the tray and by the evening's end it was making beautiful fresh cubes.

12-2-07

Ian came over today and we worked on a flyer for the ASTE conference and we worked on our paper too. He had lunch with me and Dan and stayed for most of the afternoon. It was fun working with him.

12-1-07

Moving day 2007-
That's what I've been calling this day since I was 10 years old and my friend Bert Francis moved away. Every day on December 1st something moves in my life. Today I got moving on my dissertation proposal. I officially started Chapter 3 and hope to have a good first draft done by the new year.

This picture was taken from the back deck looking in.

11-23-07

A day in Washington. We went to the Women in the Arts Museum, shopped at Macy's, walked around the Monument, the WWII Memorial, the WhiteHouse, etc. It was a beautiful, crisp, clear day- perfect for touring DC like tourists.

11-22-07

Thanksgiving with Dad and family. William was not to be found, so we took the picture without him. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting Anita and Joanne, friends of the family.

11-21-07

The moon in the sky as I enter ACAC to run and work out. I stopped running for a couple months and am trying to get my groove back.

11-20-07

The grande finale of the "Save the Penguins" engineering teaching kit. It went well with the other class I taught. This would be a good dissertation kit.

11-17-07

Today we spent the day at Aza's school. It was band parents' weekend. Squirt tried on her tuba, she marched at half time and did a post-game show, and we got to see the colors of fall in the valley. A beautiful, cool, crisp day.

11-16-07

The top picture is of Jes and her new "Camera on a Stick" which her father and I designed and created this evening. She wants to take photos from a bird's view and we rigged up this contraption. It even includes dental floss to pull the shutter with. We had fun!

The other photos I took this afternoon of our street and house. I just love the way everything looks in the fall.

11-15-07

The view from my back deck. We live in a little forest!

11-14-07

Comfort food! Baked sweet potatoes are so good to eat on cool fall days.

11-13-07

Fall as seen from my front yard.

11-12-07

Fall has flung in central Virginia. This picture was taken on my way home from work today.

11-4-07

One day Dan and I will be making pictures like this with our grown children. Here's Dan with his parents and siblings. Three sibs are in their 40s, one is 30 something still...

Some days I get really sad thinking about the fourth child we lost. There's always an empty chair at the dining room table for what would have been a 3 year old this coming December. I still yearn for a baby I'll never have on this earth and wonder what might have been.

11-3-07

Yesterday we drove to New Jersey for Uncle Ed's birthday party. Here's a picture of the kids at the party. Jes had fun drinking legally at a family function from an open bar!

11-1-07

This morning I got up to watch the sun rise with my students. It was beautiful and silent. The only sound being the clicking of my camera. We headed home early this morning, as gale-force winds were expected later on in the day. I got home at 6pm, showered, ate dinner, packed up my computer, and headed out for school by 6:30pm. I was in class until 9:15 when I came home, exhausted from the day.

10-31-07

Halloween on an island in the middle of the Bay. It was a full day- picking up crab pots, having a feast, scavenger hunting for candy, and marsh mucking with rinsing off in the brackish Bay water.