Lesson Day

Today was another busy day. Will it get easier??

Day 5 is a day of mostly lessons for me. I have 1 class during 8th period, and a self-contained class during 2nd period. The rest of the day is all lessons. This makes for a long day, since I teach two 20 minutes lessons every period. So, three periods of lessons feels more like 6 periods. My lessons went well. A had a lot of kids not come, but it always takes a few weeks till everyone gets used to the schedule. The lessons I did have went well though. Just as I said yesterday, I am very happy with how the 5th grade class is doing. I got most of my permission forms back, and I only lost a few kids from 4th to 5th, and they all still seemed psyched about the year. I am probably losing two of my middle school students, which was a little unexpected. Both are good musicians, who always seemed to enjoy band--I don't know what's up with it. I plan on having a talk with them tomorrow morning and trying to change their mind. But I'll leave it up to them. If they really don't want to be there, then I probably don't want them there anyway. But I will give it a try.

Tomorrow is day 6, meaning after tomorrow, I will have had all of my classes once. Geeze, the first cycle went slowly. Only 29 to go! Things will get easier as I get into the routine. And the weeks/cycles will go faster. I hope so anyway. I am sure looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow's Thursday, which is almost Friday, which means=weekend!!

After school, Meggie and I had dinner, apparently too early, because, by 7, we were starving again! We ended up ordering some more food out. Dinner also was a bit of a (failed) experiment, lemon chicken. It was a little too lemony. Making it was a group effort by Meg and I, and apparently, we need to read up on making lemon chicken. Well, after an early and unsatisfying meal, Meggie and I were really hungry. She got wings, and I got a cheesesteak from Bella Vita. We felt a little guilty about it, but Meggie had some extra money for it, and we are going to try to eat dinner a little later (like 6 instead of 4:30), so we don't get hungrier later.

I got some organizing done with my planbook, and then blogged. Kind of a busy-blah day. Alright, time for bed!

Piece of Summer

Ahhh, the weekend--a little bit of summer does exist! The weather was great today, which helped too.

The day started off well, with getting up at 9 AM, which is late for us. Of course, things went downhill when I felt that my back was hurting worse than it was yesterday. I got up, had breakfast, was about to get ready to do some yardwork, and just needed to lie down. I felt like an old man, with my back hurting and all. I hate not being able to do stuff. So, I laid down in the bed, used some pillows to get my comfy, and relaxed for a while, reading my news, mail, and blogs in the meantime.

My back was still hurting, even laying down. I finally decided that since I felt no worse laying down than standing up, that I would get up and do some yardwork--after lunch, of course. Meggie made some leftover cheesesteaks for lunch, and then I went out to do yardwork.

My goal was to have both lawns mowed, but I didn't get to either. Instead, I backwashed the filter, since now I have a hose long enough to get me to at least our driveway. Then, I raked up all of the leaves and sticks in the backyard. I was planning on mowing, but was hot, tired, and thirsty, and REALLY wanted to get in the pool. I decided to put off mowing till tomorrow morning, and go in the pool. We took Max with us, of course, and cooled off.

After the pool, I got showered, laid down some more, and then got started on the sauce. I decided to make a double batch this time, to yield more leftovers. This was a little challenging, because the sauce pot isn't quite big enough. I ended up having to cook some of the sauce in a smaller pot. No big deal, though, we got six meals out of the whole thing. We had a delicious pasta dinner, and then I got to work on my goals for the evening: school work, and money stuff. I got my list of stuff I made yesterday at school done (so now, I don't have to worry about school the rest of the weekend), and I also finished the money stuff. I don't think our grocery scheme is going to exactly work out this month. We budgeted $500 for the month ($100 per Saturday), and we are already at $367. That leaves only $133 for three more shopping trips (about $45 each). This might be difficult to do, but, we bought a lot of stuff this month that will last us at least 2 months, meaning it'll even out eventually (I hope so anyway!)

Okay, gonna get to bed now, so I can get up early and mow the lawns.

Home from G-Burg, Maps are Done!

I didn't blog last night, as I was very tired, so I have some catching up to do.

Saturday, August 19
Got up, hung around the house with Mom, Cait, and Meg. Meggie got showered, and I blogged, then I got a shower. After that, I helped Mom order those prints we went through the night before.

Meggie and I then went "into town," the main section of Gettysburg to visit Cait at work. She works as a ghost tour guide (pretty unique occupation) and at a souvenir shop in Gettysburg. So, we stopped into see where she worked. A typical souvenir shop, all of the junk you usually find in one, only with a lot of Civil War stuff. I've never really been interested in history, and don't think I'd have ever gone to Gettysburg if I hadn't met Meg. But, boy where there a lot of people in the center of town. July and August are the big tourist season for the town. I just can't figure out WHY so many people are there. I guess I'm like my dad. Whenever my mom planned a trip to somewhere, my dad's response always was, "Are There Rides?"

So, after visiting Meg, we went to this place called Tommy's Pizza. Meg says she loves their pizza and she has never found a place with pizza like it. Our main reason for going there was that Meg's Dad really wanted some, so we agreed to buy some, take it home in a cooler, and freeze it until Tuesday when he arrives from California. I ended up getting a cheesesteak there, which was a mistake. I forgot that PA really messes up a cheesesteak outside of the Philly area. It was made with Steakums, which are okay when you make a cheesesteak at home, but when you are paying for one, it kinda stinks.

After getting the pizza, we headed back to Mom's, where I started the packing process. This was a little tougher, since I had to work in all of the shower gifts that we got. But soon, I had the car loaded up, and Meg, Max, and I were on our way home!

The ride home was pretty snag-free. We got home around 6 or so, which was great, because it is usually dark and later in the evening when we get home from these trips. We got everything unloaded, unpacked, and the laundry started right away. Meg made a shopping list, and then we were off to Wal-Mart for our weekly shopping.

In the middle of our shopping trip, I got a really bad stomach ache. I might have been hungry, since it had been a while since my cheesesteak at Tommy's. Or, it might be that I ate nothing but junk the whole trip. Probably a combination of both. Shopping with an upset stomach is kinda good though--it keeps you from impulse buying. This is also the same reason why we usually go out to dinner before shopping. We checked out, and it was a little expensive. But I've learned to start buying meat in bulk. I got 5.5 pounds of ground beef, for only $2 something a pound, which is a very good price. I also got 3 lbs or Italian sausage. Both of these will last us a few weeks, so it will save money in the long-run.

After getting home, I curled up on the couch for a while till my stomach ache started to go away. Then, Meg made a very complicated meal: a Caesar salad kit with precooked chicken (I'm being sarcastic, can't you tell?). We ate dinner, and watched the Seinfeld DVD, and at about 8:30 or so, decided it was time for bed.

Sunday, August 20
I had originally planned to start my 7:00 wake-up time today, but quick decided to wait until Monday. I actually got up only a little bit after 8. Meggie got up too. We both had breakfast and watched some more Seinfeld. Then, Meg and I put together the Pack-n-Play we got at the shower. It is pretty neat, and very multi-functional. It is a smaller crib (I believe called a bassinet), that later converts to a playpen. It also has a changing table attachment, baskets for storing stuff, a mobile, and an attachment that plays soft music and nature sounds, and has a night light.

I finally decided to get down to business and make more progress on my maps. I was up to 6th grade, but had barely made a dent the last time I was working on them. I had some trouble getting started with the middle school maps, and was moving very slowly. Well, after an hour or so, I was done 6th grade. Now, the good thing about this, is that I could pretty much use the 6th grade map as a template for 7th & 8th. All I'd have to do is change the content and standards, but it works best for me to keep all of the grades doing something similar at the same time. So, with taking only a break for lunch, I had the curriculum maps for all grades finished by 4. I had a quick snack, and Meg, Max, and I went for a swim. After swimming, we showered, and ready to go to my parents.

Dinner at my parents' was delicious. Gnoccis with my mom's sauce, meatballs, and really good bread. There was salad too, but I usually avoid healthy food at my parents'. Afterwards, we listened to CDs of some other comedians my sister had. She recently got me listening to Jim Gaffigan. VERY FUNNY! I've listened to his bit like 3 times now, and get hysterical laughing every time. If you don't know his name, you may have heard the "Hot Pocket" bit before. That's him. Laura played some Dane Cook, who is also really funny, and another comedian named Nick (something), I don't remember his last name. I didn't find him as funny. Laura gave me a CD with Dane Cook and Brian Regan on it. I also went through my parents', and borrowed some I want to rip. Some other time, I am going to have to dig through my dad's DJ CD's, because I'll probably find a lot there. So, tomorrow, I've got some CD's to rip.

Okay, off to bed now, because tomorrow starts my 7 AM wake-up time.