Utter Depression

These two pictures say it all...

Tailgating and Victory

Today is one of those days that builds and builds your excitement...OSU vs. USC. I'm hoping that this year the excitement is not followed by a severe let down (that which the like of the past few seasons has given) We plan to tailgate all day and then take advantage of living less than a mile from campus and going home to watch the game on the big screen in the basement.

I love having our finished basement...it's great for parties. The best feature is the kegerator with the beer tap coming out of the wall.

So everyone enjoy the game today and GO Bucks!

I won my very first giveaway today! I'm super excited about it. Brittany found this great website Vistaprint where you can get some awesome stuff. I'm leaning toward the address labels, but there are so many designs to choose from. Thanks Brittany! You're awesome!

Am I an Eighth Grader

Sometimes I worry that my sense of humor isn't that much more mature than that of the students I teach. Case and point: Today we were doing an activity that had them see how many tennis balls they could make into a trash can in 15 seconds. Each trial they would move further away from the basket. The goal was to show a negative correlation in a scatter plot. (Geeky, I know) Students who weren't throwing were in charge of chasing down rogue tennis balls. So it played out like this...
Me: " Everyone needs to help pick up the balls"
Me: "Go get that ball, I don't want it to roll away"
Student " Grab my balls before they get away"
Me: "Don't throw those balls, place them gently in the container"
Student: " BALLS!"

For some reason, all of those were funny to me...and getting to say balls about 20 times in 30 minutes was really hard not to laugh at. Who knows what's wrong with me, but balls are funny.

Mentoring

So I got picked to be the mentor for the new math teacher we hired. This is kind of a cool honor. People must like what I do enough to let me help someone else figure this whole teaching thing out. Some of my duties include:
-watching her teach, then giving her advice on how to make things go better
-listening to her vent about the crazy jerks in her class
-reminding her that it is okay to just use the material in the book and not stress herself out to make something better
-filling her in on all the basic necessities for the school building
-attending monthly mentor meetings

We had our first meeting today and it took me right back to my first year. I can remember getting together with a bunch of new teachers and feeling the relief that I wasn't the only one who totally sucked at this job. It's great knowing that I can reassure our new teacher that everyone's first year is like this, and it will get better.

Pregnancy affect on Mentoring: Having an extra two hours after school for a meeting before I get to home makes baby very cranky due to hunger. Good thing I remembered to pack a granola bar, or else I might have eaten the papers they passed out to us, just to satisfy the rumbling in my tummy.

Go Bucks

Joe and I were lucky enough to attend today's home opener against Navy. (Thank you Mays!) Coming from a military family, it's always nice witnessing honest tributes to the men and women who protect this country allowing it to become what it has. The game was pretty normal for an opening day game, up until the 4th quarter. Then Navy made it exciting, coming very close to tying up the game. I question a couple of calls by Coach Tressel, especially not kicking the field goal on 4th and two. Although it puts me in the minority, I'm still not a fan of Pryor. I get nervous every time he throws the ball...he can't seem to hit his receivers in the numbers...which led to a very untimely interception. We'll see how he handles himself next week. Hopefully we'll be organizing a fun tailgate for the USC game.

Pregnancy effect on football: I've always felt a tug at the heart strings when hearing Carmen Ohio. It always makes me think about how lucky I was to meet the love of my life and the best of friends by going to OSU. Well today, not only was my heart being tugged, but my tear buds were on full blast. I was actually crying. I had to wipe away tears. These pregnancy hormones apparently cannot handle emotional songs. The baby, however, truly enjoyed the dip and dots that Daddy trekked down to get us at half time.

First Times a Charm

Well...it had happened. And on our first try. Joe and I have made a baby. That's right, in about 8 months there will be a new member in our family. We've been keeping the secret for weeks, waiting until we got to see the ultrasound to make sure everything is okay. We told my parents today, followed by the few people I just couldn't wait to tell. It's very exciting finally getting to share this news that Joe and I have been relishing for the past 7 and a half weeks. So I would like to prepare you all...many baby posts will be to follow. I'll begin with this glorious image.

How Sad

So my first occasion of a student asking me a question that makes me sad for them happened. I was sharing some pictures of our Europe trip, and showed them one of the mummy in the Vatican museum. I was explaining that the lady had died over three thousand years ago, when one young man raised his hand and asked how someone could have died before the Earth was even born. He was obviously confused that today is only 2009...how could something be 3000 years old. I carefully explained, trying not to make him feel bad about himself, always a delicate balance. Luckily the other students were kind, and no one made fun or laughed. It always amazed me what some of my students don't know.