Think School Started?

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I realized that I haven't posted since the first day that I returned to work from summer break, August 16th. It has been nothing but chaos ever since. Wedding plans, new school year, grad school... all those things I talked about in that last post have consumed my life. If I hadn't just broken my Adobe Reader a second ago, I'd still be doing homework. Do you believe it's been so long that I forgot my password to this thing? Yikes.An update on wedding plans- invitations are sent and responses are coming in. It's very exciting! I am still struggling to find a musician for the ceremony and I think we have finally gotten a preacher to agree to marry us. I also have my first dress fitting on Thursday. We'll see how that goes. I'm a little intimidated by the seamstress because she didn't want to do any weddings in December, but agreed to do mine and she's like a friend of a friend of a friend (or something). So I feel guilty that she's doing mine, as if I'm putting her out. I hope she doesn't get mad at me for anything. I'll let you know how it goes. And, we have rehearsal dinner booked which was a delightful adventure in itself. Dinner will be at Matthew's 1600 in Catonsville. My stepbrother just had his there last week and I decided to visit after hearing my mom rave about it. Josh and I made those reservations ourselves and weathered a brief storm with his parents as a result. But, no surprises there.An update on school- this new "ActivBoard" that they put in my classroom is a neat little thing. Only trouble is, it takes twice the time to plan a lesson because you have to do all the ordinary planning and then build a "flipchart" to be able to teach the lesson using the board. It's supposed to be interactive so the students are using the board, but sadly I have little time to incorporate things like that into my lessons because we still have our standard amount of planning time during the school day. Mine usually gets used to show directions or vocabulary words. Sometimes I use it for visual aids (pictures and such) if I can throw it together in time. Other people use theirs for all kinds of sound effects and videos and have kids doing neat things with them. I have my theories, but I honestly don't know where they get the time.An update on grad school- it's going well. I have to say it takes up every second that I'm not at work or driving to or from work. As soon as I get home in the afternoons I start reading and/or writing up an assignment. Josh has been good about making dinner, soI get to eat, and then it's back to work until shower time. I'm interested in what I'm studying, but at the same time I have so much else going on that I almost feel like I don't care. I've resorted to reading chapter summaries in my one textbook and have no idea how I'm going to finish 196 pages of another memior-type book by next Wednesday. It's a common complaint amongst any college student, but it's like these professors think all you have to do in your life is their classwork. I don't know what I'll do when the research papers are due. Unfortunately it will be at the time that I am busiest with wedding stuff.And I just have to note, my stepbrother's wedding on Friday night was exquisite. It was at the Elkridge Furnace Inn. The ceremony and reception were both outdoors, the weather was perfect, the food was amazing and I got some fantastic pictures. I will post them somewhere as soon as I can. I do have them on my computer, they just aren't published anywhere yet. Their wedding made me so excited for mine. They were second out of the three we had this year. Now it's just us that's left. I really can't believe it. And I really can't believe October is staring us in the face.Speaking of October, there are thoughts of a housewarming party somewhere in there. Keep an ear/eye out for more info. Nothing's for positive yet :o) Hope all is well!