Gross!  Peeps are just always yucky, I think!

Unfortunately, I don’t really have anything that exciting to post
about.  Friday night we hung out with some friends from church
(pizza, salad, and I made an ice cream dessert).  We ended up
having to watch the kids’ movie (Sky High) because the downstairs DVD
player broke, so we all sat around and watched a movie.  It’s
actually not bad…definitely a kids movie, but with lots of humor to
keep the parents entertained.  And a good moral ending, too…

Unfortunately, Eric’s back was bothering him again…but just a dull
ache.  Then when we arrived at Tom & Vicki’s house, he was
mocking my tendency to explode into nonverbals (imagine intense, highly
frustrated shaking of fists in the air…but no noise) when I’m grading
particularly bad papers.  In punishment for this, I think, he
actually hurt himself and started having sharp, shooting pains in his
back muscles.  He spent Saturday in moderate pain (dulled by pain
reliever, ice packs, and Icy Hot…Trisha, do you remember brushing
your teeth with Icy Hot at my Grandma Campbell’s house a long time
ago?).  Anyway, by Sunday, he was back to the dull ache again and
was much better.  I wish I knew why his back keeps doing this…

Anyway, while he was sitting, I ran to Sam’s Club and cleaned my
house.  But not the bathrooms.  I saved that for another
day.  Actually, I would’ve gotten to the bathrooms, but I suddenly
realized that I needed to make dinner (it was 6:30), and after dinner
we went to Home Depot to get Eric out of the house.  We looked at
countertops and paint colors for our kitchen re-do (currently scheduled
for this summer sometime).  Then we came home and went to
bed.  Sunday was church, relaxing, doing “homework” for small
group, going to small group, little bit of flag-waving, then sleep!

Wow…guess I did have stuff to say…

I am really tired today!  Yesterday I made an impromptu trip to
Pittsburgh with a friend. She had an audition for a TV pilot, and her
husband was more comfortable with her going when I volunteered to go,
too.  She was excited about the trip, but I think was glad for my
company when it was all done.  So I got up at 5:30 (on my day
off!), met her at 7:00 am and we drove to PA for her audition.  We
drove partway back and had lunch.  We got all the way back about
4:30.  I was SOOO tired!  But it was a good trip, and we had
a lot of fun talking.

Today it’s back to work (my alarm went off much too early!), but my
classes won’t be too hard today.  And I’m meeting Beth (Maxie)
Dillon for lunch today, so that should be fun.   Tonight,
Eric and I are going to hang out with some couples from the drama group
for pizza and games.  That should be fun, but I don’t think I’ll
be staying up too late!  I’m very glad tomorrow is Saturday!

Oh…and I’m coming to Trisha’s shower, too!

It’s back to classes for me today.  It won’t be that exciting of a day,
but it’ll be good for me to get back into a routine.  Spring Break just
wasn’t that relaxing, and I’ve been dreading coming back.  But my first
class went okay, so that was good.  Hopefully, the rest will, too.

Yesterday evening, Eric got home later, so after dinner, he worked on
some work stuff, and I worked on my new laptop.  I needed to get
some writing done, so I didn’t even turn on the tv. It was kind of nice
to be quiet for a while.  We went to bed about 9:30 and read until
10 or so.  I had trouble falling asleep, and the alarm went off
very early again, but it wasn’t too bad, I guess.  And I get to
sleep in tomorrow a bit anyway.

Okay…I guess that’s all the (not) exciting stuff I have right now. 

So it’s weird to not have anyone on Xanga for so long.  I hope
everything went well in Chicago, and I hope your grandma is doing okay.

My weekend went way too fast, and I am not ready to start back to
work.  We had my mom’s birthday party on Sunday, so that took most
of the day (it began with church and ended with small group).  I
was really tired by the end of it!  I also spent some hours on
Saturday shopping for a present for my mom.  It was a hard
year…very few good ideas.  But I did find a few things! 
Then on Saturday night, Eric and I went out for Greek food and wandered
around Half-Price Books for awhile.  Shockingly, I didn’t find
anything I wanted, and he did!

Monday, I finished up my grading and ironed.  And today, I babysat
Kelly (Holly slept the whole time!) while Deb got her teeth
cleaned.  We watched Lady & the Tramp and a VeggieTales while
we played Memory.  It was stimulating!  Then we all had lunch
with Mom and I came to my office to input grades and prep for
tomorrow’s class.  I need a better attitude!  Thankfully,
it’s only like 4 weeks until Easter (not counting this week
anyway!). 

It does help to leave all the “good” ones to the end!

I still have 10 portfolios left to grade.  Anyone want to take bets on whether or not I finish today?   Seriously, it’s taking me FOREVER to grade these dumb things…I’m already dreading the final portfolios!

I did grade yesterday, but I also had a dr. appointment at 2:00.  Thankfully, I was walking  out of the building at 2:20 (and it was the obgyn!).  Since I was done so early…I went shopping!  And I actually found a few things I had been looking for, so it was productive all around!

Today I am going to try to finish grading (please, God!).  I actually sorted them into “probably bad” – “probably okay” – “probably good” piles, and I started with the “bad” ones.  So hopefully, as I move into the “good” ones, it’ll start to go faster!  I’m also meeting a couple of friends for a bit this afternoon, and then our small group is going out to a Destroyers game (arena football) tonight.  I don’t really care about the game, but it would be nice to be with people for some fun.  And Eric doesn’t care either way!

Eric walked back in the door about 5:30 last night.  I am so glad to have him back…but it feels a bit surreal.  I mean, I was all tense, just waiting, for three days, so I’ve had a bit of trouble letting go of the tenseness, accepting that I don’t have to wait anymore.  I’m weird, I know. Still it was so nice to have him in bed next to me last night (and when I woke up this morning!).  And even though he had to go to work this morning, I’m just glad he’ll be coming home tonight!

So, I’m back to grading again today.  I just can’t seem to move through these papers quickly.  My head is foggy.  But I just keep taking them one day at a time.  I don’t have class again until next Wednesday, so I have the time to get them done.  I just wish it didn’t take so long!  I am beginning to wonder if I am not really wired to be a full-time teacher for the rest of my life…

Today it is much warmer in Columbus, but it’s supposed to rain.  That’s the annoying part of the shift into spring.  You finally get the really warm weather again, but you can’t really enjoy it because it’s wet outside!  Oh well…

Oh…I just remembered the garbage, so I’ll go do that now or I’ll forget it!

Just thought you’d all like to know…I finished my first class of portfolios!  Now only 19 more portfolios to go and I’ll be done grading.

Eric should be in Dallas right now, about to leave for Columbus (or maybe he just left for Columbus…I’m not exactly sure). 

Okay, I’m very excited about that fact.  It’s been a very empty couple of days (except for my family taking pity on me, of course)!  I’d forgotten what life was like when I had entire days to myself all the time.  I mean, I used to have all day/evening to fill with whatever I wanted to do and I didn’t really see the problem.  But now that I’ve had constant companionship…I do not want to go back to that any time soon.  (So, Lord, PLEASE keep him safe coming home!)

To keep Kim from wondering anymore…I did not have an exciting day.  I tried to focus on my grading (didn’t get that much done though) and I did laundry to give me occasional breaks from sitting on the couch with papers on my lap.  I don’t know what my problem is this week.  I just cannot focus on the grading.  And while I’d love to just blow it off, I need to just get it done so that I can then REALLY enjoy the rest of my time.  And once I finish these portfolios, I won’t have to grade any more drafts for like two weeks.  But I just can’t make myself do it very well.  I’m still not done with the first class (though I should finish them this morning).

So, other than grading (and laundry), I watched tv.  Well…really, I just had the tv on while I graded so that there was sound in the house.  When I know that someone is coming home in a few hours, I can grade in silence, but if there aren’t going to be any sounds later, it helps to have a low volume in the background.  And of course, I watch educational shows (shows with stories are too distracting…I can’t grade because I get sucked into the plot) so that’s how I justify it! 

My parents took me out to dinner last night in London (it’s about halfway between my house and theirs), so that was nice.  I think I talked almost the entire time…but hey, I haven’t had much in the way of listeners this week!  Then I ran to the Walmart that’s right next to the Bob Evans.  I went in for Dryel sheets and to see if they had sunglasses.  I ended up spending a lot of money.  I guess that’ll teach Eric to leave me alone!

So thankfully, Karen came and talked to me for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon.  I didn’t get much grading done as a result, but I was bumming yesterday anyway.  I was more thankful to have some company for a bit!   Of course, Erik called Karen twice to find out where she was…but her phone was in the car so she didn’t know!

Eric made it to California (he’s probably just starting to get up now).  They ended up having to switch flights because of storms, flew into a different airport then originally planned, and had to drive to their hotel from the new airport.  Of course, one of the four guys decided to check his bag (before they switched flights), so it didn’t arrive with them.  Now, the dumb part is that they flew into CA last night, have a meeting all day today, and then leave tomorrow and will get back tomorrow evening.  So…why would you need a bag large enough to check for that trip?  Especially if you’re male?

Anyway, I did very little yesterday.  I need to be more focused today, though.  But I figure – It’s spring break – so I’m entitled to a little bit of bumming.  I did get to Walmart to get milk and some other small items, so that was good.  But anyway, I should get on to the grading!