Currently February 2014

I cannot believe it will be February in 1.5 hrs. I am linking up with Farley for February currently. January seemed to come and go with the blink of an eye.  We had FOUR cold days off of school and the best news is that we do not have to make them up!  We have such a LONG school day (7:50-3:15) at the middle school that we actually have enough minutes without tacking on extra days at the end of the year.

Listening:  To the crazy loudness of all the boys that are currently inhabiting my house.  My husband insists they are louder than a bunch of girls.  Not that we would know anything about that because all we have is boys.

Loving:  OK this may sound simplistic, but I absolutely love carrying around a whiteboard, marker, and erasing cloth with me during workshop work time because I can easily and quickly model problems for students.  I got the idea from my friend Charla who teaches 7th grade math with me.  I tried it once and now I am sold.  I think my students are going to start thinking of the whiteboard as another appendage of mine because it is attached to my hands all the time.  Old school can be good school!

Thinking:   That my oldest has a birthday Sunday and he will be 15.  He is at the age where all he wants for his birthday is cash.  Easy to shop for at the ATM.  The other day we were talking during lunch and other teachers informed me that he should take Driver's Ed this coming summer and it really hit me like a ton of bricks that he is no longer my little boy.

Wanting: To have a little break from sports.  Between my three boys we are all sports all the time (except soccer).  Basketball is my least favorite to watch for some reason.  I just wish they would take a season off.  My middle practices basketball, LAX, and baseball right now.  Wed nights are the worst.  

Needing:  To finish my organizing efforts in the master bedroom/bath/closet.  You would think with having FOUR cold days this month I could get it done, but I chose to menu plan/cook/bake/do laundry on those free bonus days.  Someday I will get it done.

Two truths and a fib:

1) True,  my second year of teaching I took a personal day on a Friday and flew from WI to San Diego to be his date for a work related dinner cruise.  He had to unexpectedly attend a business meeting in San Francisco the next day so we flew there; I shopped and explored to city all day while he was in meetings and we went out that evening.  It was a pretty epic blind date if I do say so myself (and the only one I ever went on).

2) False, but I did and still do LOVE that movie.  Oh Jake Ryan, how I loved thee.

3) True, I was staying with a friend in Lamia, Greece (well I had met her on the train and we became friends) during my Spring Break while studying abroad in Spain my sophomore year of college.  I stayed with her for five days, one day I took the train to Athens by myself and spent the entire day shopping and trying to find the right bus route that would take me to the Parthenon.  Due to the fact that I did not speak the language and the bus drivers did not get my pointing to a postcard of the Parthenon as my way of saying "take me there", I ended up in the bus terminal and almost missed my train back to Lamia that night.  In the end I made it back, but the closest I got to the Parthenon was pointing to it from a bus, while yelling and pointing, "that's where I'm trying to go".  Good times!