So, does anybody know where socks go to in the laundry?  I have this one little sock sitting on top of my dresser, alone and friendless.  And I would love to know where its partner is…

My students are writing their Bag O’ Fun Stuff prompt right now.  I have a yellow gift bag filled with random items from my house and my parents’ house.  They have to pull out an item and write a short paper about the item (story, description, essay, whatever).  They usually enjoy it, and I usually enjoy reading them!  Some of the funniest stories get told in this assignment, so I do it every term.

Last night, Eric and I finished the puzzle I was working on.  It was of the Tower Bridge in London.  The sky in the picture was all shades of pinks and purples.  The purples were the last part to finish, and it was really hard to see how the colors changed.  But we finished it, so I will be glad to get it out of my living room now!

Yesterday turned out to be a very dark day.  It started with the
news that a good friend’s father-in-law had died over Christmas Break
and ended with the news that another friend, from small group at
church, lost her sister who’d been in a car accident last week. 
In between was a series of stressful, stretching
events/conversations.  I’m also glad that God doesn’t leave our
sides on days like those.  It is really hard to connect with so
much hurt in a single day, but I at least know that he’s right there,
too.

Today, however, seems to be a day of recovery.  I’m very glad the
sun is out…the sun is good for my heart.  And a trip to the
chiropractor has hopefully cleared up my back issues that started last
night…so my body feels a bit better.  And I slept hard last
night, so my mind is a bit recovered.  I’ve also gotten a few
things done in my office, and I’m having lunch with a friend before I
go back to Columbus to work on a project for my in-laws.  Not a
day of cup-runneth-over kind of joy…but that’s okay.  

Wow…what a morning.  My 9:00 class seemed to go well, but my Basic English class is still complicated.  I am currently proctoring the test for three of the students who either haven’t taken it yet or are getting a second chance.  At this point, the number in the class is steadily dropping, so we’ll see if any of these test out, too.

Last night I got LOTS of work done, however.  I planned my drama rehearsal for tonight and finished the small group newsletter.  I also cleaned up some of the clothes that had been lying around the living room…of course, I only moved them to our bedroom, but at least they aren’t in plain sight now!

Ryan, Eric’s brother, came over for a bit last night.  They went out to eat and ran to Sam’s Club on an errand for the Adamsville church, while I worked at home.  It was good that Eric had something to do while I worked…and they had pizza, which we don’t get very often for just us.

I think it’s a good thing that Trisha doesn’t work in my building.  The closest bathroom that you can guarantee will be open is clear in the other wing.  And it’s a long way to walk when you really need to go!

Classes start today at CU, so all the students are back.  It’s also the missions conference week, so we have lots of extra people around, mostly missionaries.  This year marks the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Jim Elliot and the other 4 missionaries in Ecuador, so the entire conference is focused on that story and on S. America in general.  Today’s chapel speaker was a little old guy who was in Ecuador when the men were killed, and he led the group that found and buried the bodies.  Unfortunately, he was a little hard to follow at times, but the story is still a good one!

I have to re-prep one of my classes today.  My Basic English class has turned out to be very complicated!  I have a number of people with very diverse abilities in the language, including some international students, so I have to rethink what I originally had planned which works best for the average CU student.  So I guess I should get on to doing that!

So, I’m in my office again, and I am not working yet.  I was
trying to download something into the old PDA my dad gave to me, but
after working on it for a while, I found out it’s too old.  I
guess I need a new one!

I hope to get my class stuff prep done today (although I do have
tomorrow before I have to actually do anything).  Of course the
Copy Center is way overloaded because everyone waited so long to send
their print jobs for the semester, but hopefully I can still get mine
done for Wedensday at 9:00 a.m.!

We had small group last night which was actually a pretty good
time.  It was the first official meeting since November, so we had
a lot to catch up on.  And we got a good start on a plan for our
bible study for this spring.  We’re going to be studying 1 Timothy
together, so that should be interesting.  Speaking of which, I
guess I need to get started on studying the background/context of the
book…I think I’m supposed to present something on it next week!

Wow…it’s been an unusually busy Sunday!  We went to first
service (starts at 9:00), but we have to arrive by 8:15 so Eric can
play in the orchestra.  Then I usually bum around the church until
he’s done playing in the second service before we go home.  Today,
however, he played in the second service after which I had a
meeting.  So I read until he finished playing and then he went and
got coffee (and some groceries for me) while we met. 
Unfortunately our meeting didn’t get done until 1:00, so it was 1:45
before we sat down to eat.  Which meant that everything about my
day is now about 1-2 hours off schedule.  And we start small group
again tonight, so at 7:00 we have to be somewhere else.  Wow…I
must be too used to having no real schedule…it must be time to go
back to school!

Yesterday, my parents came for a few minutes to give me a gift receipt
for a shirt I needed to return from Christmas.  So Eric and I went
to the mall last night and returned a few things, got him some new
pants, and bought him a new pair of running shoes.  We also had
dinner at Panera.  Always a good time!

OH…and I like having small feet again…I found a pair of athletic
shoes at Target for $10!  Of course they are children’s shoes, but
they fit and they don’t have Barbie (or Bratz) on them, so I was very
happy.  I still haven’t found any other real possibilities, but
I’ll keep looking, I guess!

Well, I should go iron so that Eric and I both have dress clothes for
the week. I also should work on my class prep stuff, but we’ll see if
that happens!

So it’s Friday…I made roast beef with gravy and noodles for dinner
last night, along with homemade wheat bread.  I’d never made that
before, so I thought I’d try it.  It all turned out pretty well, I
thought, and Eric is a big fan of gravy, so he was very happy with it.

Last night, we went to MicroCenter (one of Eric’s favorite places) to
buy new speakers for one of his computers.  We currently have 3
computers and 2 laptops in our house.  Our loft has the really
nice, new computer on one desk, and the other two computers on the
other desk (Eric’s old 386 is stacked on top of our middle-aged
computer and the two monitors are in another stack beside the
cpu’s.)  Then my laptop is downstairs and Eric’s old laptop is
sitting unused in the loft.  Anyway, Eric needed speakers so to
MicroCenter we went.  He is definitely a tech kind of guy!

I have more laundry to do (finish the dress clothes and iron
them).  I also should clean the master bathroom, but we’ll se if
that happens.  I might go get a haircut (just a trim…no locks of
love), but we’ll see.  And maybe if I get really bored, I’ll drive
up to Sawmill and go to DSW to see if I can find any shoes I want
there.  Or I might just start a puzzle.

I rearranged my living room last night.  I was tired of the empty
spaces left from when we took down the Christmas stuff.  I think I
like it.  And besides, I ran out of pieces of furniture to move!

Update…NO SHOES.  I hate having small feet!!!!!!

So I didn’t get anything else written yesterday…but I did get some
prep for classes done which was probably more useful, though certainly
less fun than another Xanga entry!

This morning I’m back to laundry as well as rearranging my kitchen
cupboards to fit in some of the things I got for Christmas.  I
don’t really have much room to store the type of things that you don’t
use often but need to have so that they’re available when you need
them.  I’m used to my mom’s whole room for laundry and extra
storage…though she would probably say that she could use more
storage, too, if you asked her…I think it’s a girl thing!

I’m also watching The Rescuers on one of the Disney channels this
morning while I work.  I always liked that one, so I’m listening
to it while I write.  Oh…and I also think I’m going to do that
shoe shopping today…I’ll let you know if I find anything fun!

Eric and I had ministry at church last night…he had orchestra
rehearsal and I had drama.  We worked on characterization in
drama.  We certainly have some good fun during our
rehearsals!  I also now have some great improv games that would
work well for parties and other such gatherings…they are highly
entertaining!

So I made it to CU today, but not until almost 10:30.  I woke up
at 7:35 and Eric wasn’t out of bed yet.  So he was late, which
tends to make me late, and so on and so on…

But I’m here, anyway.  I haven’t gotten much done yet, but
hey…who wants to overdo on the first day back from vacation, right?

Can’t think of much to say, so I think I’ll write again later…