Nothing very exciting to report today, I guess.  I was in Cedarville yesterday until 5:30 doing conferences.  Annoyingly, I had one student just not show up for his.  If I’d known he wasn’t coming, I would have been done at 5:00.   So I got home just about 20 minutes before Eric had to leave for orchestra. 

The rest of the day wasn’t terribly exciting.  The morning was classes.  I had lunch with Mom who was spitting mad about mistakes that her people had made with the graduation list.  She’s been trying to get the official list so that it could be sent to the printer, and they kept bringing her mistakes yesterday, just after she’d sent the list.  Thankfully, it hadn’t gone to the printer, so they fixed the changes, but Mom was pretty hot…mostly because she’d made it clear that these mistakes were not to happen!  Once she had vented, she started to feel better, but she definitely needed to vent when she walked in the door!

Last night, I watched TV and worked on Mom’s present.  Eric and I watched Mythbusters when he got home and then we went to bed.  See…nothing exciting!

Really Good News:
My mom told me at lunch today that Uncle Les called her yesterday to
say that he had just left his doctor’s office.  His surgery (last
Wednesday) was a huge success and his tumor was completely removed, all
the cells around the site of the cancer were clear and his lymph nodes
were also totally clear.  He’ll get the rest of his stitches out
next week and then he’ll have a follow up appointment in August,
between which he’ll have to visit his local dermatologist regularly for
checkups.  But as of right now, he’ll need no radiation, chemo, or
further treatment.  Praise Jesus!!


So the final for Basic English is next Wednesday…that mean I have one
full week of work left.  Wahoo!  Of course, I also have to
finish all my grading, but I have every intention ()
of getting that done by Friday of next week.  Last year, I was
done with my grading at graduation, so I think I can do it again this
year!

Eric flew to Georgia for a meeting yesterday.  He got up at 4:15
am to make is 6:00 am flight.  He got home about 7:00 last
night.  We went to bed at 9:00.  I suspect we’ll be in bed
pretty early tonight, too.  We’re both pretty tired right now.

Yesterday, I got my grading done (almost!) and my part for the video
for church this Sunday, and then I got to play for the rest of the
day.  I ran errands and let Karen’s puppy out.  I also worked
on my Mother’s Day gift for a while in the afternoon.  And I did
one load of laundry (towels).  Other than that, I just
played. 

Okay, I actually have one more paper to read for today’s conferences,
so I’d better get to that before I start anything else. 

Why men can’t make women happy:

1. We don’t know what we want 
• Gail’s comment on yesterday’s post reminded me of this.  She admitted that she struggles to appreciate DeWayne’s help sometimes because it makes her feel like she failed to get something done that was her responsibility to do. 
• I have been in the same place.  In fact, Eric commented recently that he hasn’t helped more because he was afraid I’d take it to mean I wasn’t doing a good enough job.  I had to admit that it was possible I would react that way.  And I’ve even seen my mom do this with ironing my dad’s shirts.
• So, I guess, if women complain when men don’t help out and then take it wrong when they do, it’s no wonder a man can’t figure out how to make us happy…we don’t even know what will work!
2. We don’t communicate the same way 
• When we were engaged or newly married, I asked Eric what was one thing women really need to know about men.  His answer: Men say exactly what they mean.  He explained that whatever words come out of a man’s mouth are exactly the words that he meant to say (no more, no less) and that they will also assume that the words coming out of a woman’s mouth are exactly what she meant.
• Of course, the problem here is obvious.  Women almost never mean exactly and only the words that come out of their mouths.  We have multiple layers of subtext for every sentence, every word, every noise we make.  Sometimes I think we don’t even know everything we’re trying to communicate!
• Thus, if a man says, “Where do you want to go for dinner?” and the woman replies, “I don’t care,” he’s going to assume she really doesn’t care.  And we all know, that is rarely true!  We really do have a preference, but we want him to just know us so well that he can choose the restaurant we really want.  Uh…fat chance! 

Poor men…it’s a good thing they love us anyway!

I’m VERY glad that this is the last full week of classes.  I’m getting tired!

So the weekend was pretty much as busy and consistent as last week was
(and this week is shaping up to be).  Friday night, we crashed on
the couch.  I was pretty beat, so I was glad for the rest. 
Saturday was busy with grading, cookie baking (for a bridal shower),
laundry, and keeping Eric occupied.  On some weekends, he almost
ignores me, but he was unusually in need of my attention this
weekend.  Unfortunately, that means that every time I got about
halfway through a paper, he’d want to chat.  So I still have 3
papers to read for this afternoon’s conferences.  Oh well…I’ll
just be grateful that he still likes to talk and be with me!

Sunday was church.  I put gas in my car while Eric played the
second service.  We grilled out hamburgers when we got home, and
then I read a couple more papers and got organized.  I left about
1:30 to come to Cedarville for the bridal shower that I’d made cookies
for on Saturday.  That went until a little after 5:00.  Then
we left for small group as soon as I got home.  We didn’t get home
from small group until almost 9:00.  It was a busy day!

However, the best part of the entire weekend was coming home after the
shower.  While I was gone, Eric cleaned the kitchen.  And I
mean CLEANED it: counters, dishes, windows, floors, everything. 
It was spotless.  I just have not done well getting things like
that done (and it wasn’t going to get done until at least Tuesday), so
it was such a huge relief to see it done like that.  And it was
even nicer when I came downstairs this morning and saw the spotlessness
again.  I love my husband!

Just a quick update.  I’ve had catch-up work and meetings this
morning (and a class), and now I have conferences until 5:00. 
Hopefully they will go quickly…especially because I really just want
to go be outside.  Oh well!

EDIT: As of 11:30, I am done reading papers for the day.  I actually did my work first, can you believe it!?! END EDIT

Random things from my life (but I have little else to say):

1. I put dinner in the crockpot yesterday (an Asian pork thing).  It did not turn out well.  Sad!
2. I was very busy with conferences all afternoon (1-4).  That’s a long time to conference.  I was braindead for part of the evening.
3. I helped get some videos done for church last night while Eric was playing in the orchestra.  That was fun because Wally (the guy we were filming) was really funny. 
4. Today the Soulforce team is at Cedarville protesting our stand against homosexuality.  They’ve been preparing for it for months, so I’m glad it’ll be done soon.
5. Eric is at a meeting in Dayton today.  He left about 6:45.  He got up about 5:30.  I stayed in bed until after 7:00.
6. I have to read more papers for conferences tomorrow.  I should do that first so that I can do more fun things the rest of the day.  I doubt I will…but maybe!
7. I can’t think of anything else to say. 

Since today will be another busy day for me, I decided to post earlier than usual so that I get a post in!

Yesterday was a very busy day.  I got a lot of things done (all the vital ones, anyway).   I ran lots of errands, graded the papers I needed to read for today, wrote some scripts for church, and cleaned up the kitchen.  I also had lots of emails I needed to write to various people, so I did a good bit of computer work as well.  And I went over to Karen’s house to let the puppy out in the middle of the day.  She is too cute!!  And she didn’t think I stayed nearly long enough.

Today, I have to write a test when I get to CU, then I have a meeting at 10:00.  Then give the test at 11:00 and lunch after that.  Then I have conferences from 1-4 with an advisee meeting thrown in at the end.  Such fun, huh?  I’m meeting with each of my Comp students about their papers, so I’m grading the drafts based on whom I will see the next day.  It breaks down my grading load nicely, but it will be 4 days of pretty continuous meetings which can get long.  But hey, it’s only two more weeks of school, so I think I can handle it!

Okay, on to the rest of my morning!

Meetings and classes kept yesterday almost completely busy until mid afternoon.  Thus, the lack of posting.

The quick recap of the weekend:

• Friday: we went to KFC for dinner and wandered around Sam’s Club before heading home.
• Saturday: we hung out at home and did very little.  We did go up to Sawmill to wander around some stores in the evening but we didn’t find anything.
• Sunday: we hung out some more after church in the morning and before small group in the evening. 

So, I guess it was, all in all, a very restful weekend.  That’s always nice!

Last night, I was sort of grumpy because of the videos that the church is trying to put together for Pastor’s current series.  I don’t know what will happen, but I’m getting frustrated with the whole thing.  Other than that, we ran to Home Depot to get something for Eric to use at work today (a particular kind of screw) and then watched some TV (Planet Earth and the improv show on NBC).

Today, I actually have a ton of things to do.  I have some chores (laundry, kitchen, floors) that I should do.  I have some grading to do.  I need to run errands, and I’ll probably need to work on church and/or small group stuff.  I feel a tad overwhelmed by my to-do list today.  So I guess I should go get started on it, huh?

I’m in a venting mood today.  So here’s another list for you…

Things that really annoy me:

1. Bad drivers: including truckers who drive too fast, people who
   multitask instead of drive, and drivers who do not know the
   right-of-way laws.
2. People who want to rant about what they see as problems, but don’t really want to solve them.
3. Poor communication between people all trying to accomplish the same goal.
4. People who get in my way in the grocery store.
5. Never being able to find good shoes in my size.
6. The fact that I always seem to run out of gas at the most
   inopportune time of the week (like when I’m already running late or
   when I’m almost home on Friday night).
7. How the radio always overplays the good songs until I stop liking them.
8. Seeing someone being a snob, a jerk, or purposely embarassing someone else.
9. When I forget something important that I was supposed to do or say.
10. When somone else’s issues double my workload.

Okay…I feel better now.  On a much lighter note…I was very productive yesterday.  Here’s what I accomplished:

1. I rearranged and cleaned both rooms upstairs, and I how they turned out!
2. I sorted numerous stacks of paper around my house.
3. I organized the recyclables that had been overflowing around my house.
4. I got on Xanga a lot!
5. I helped on a video project at church.
6. I stopped by Karen’s house to drop off newspapers for the puppy’s use. 
7. I watched a Planet Earth we had TiVo’d with Eric. 
8. I read a book before bed. 

Wow…I guess it was a good day!!

Ten things I want to do before I die:

1. Travel through Europe (all of it!).
2. Publish at least one book.
3. Have children.
4. Make a movie.
5. Go back to Australia.
6. Buy a whole new wardrobe at once.
7. Own a dog.
8. Go on a cruise somewhere.
9. Learn a foreign language fluently.
10. Find a place that sells cute shoes in my size.