Lots of White Stuff

Hi, folks! It's been ... ahem ... 9 days since I last posted. Sorry about that. I discovered Facebook, and ... well ... those of you who have made that discovery as well are surely aware of how that site can suck a person in! But it's been so much FUN rediscovering old friends. I even have plans to get together with two of my bestest buds (or would they be buddets, since they're women?) on January 3rd. I can hardly wait!

It's so odd, though, to see the pictures of the siblings. It's not too jarring to my psyche to see pictures of my friends themselves, but when they put up pictures of their little brothers and sisters, who are "supposed to be" elbow high and running around in nightgowns, being pests... and these "children" have become gorgeous adults with spouses and LIVES ... wow. Time does keep ticking, doesn't it? I wouldn't go so far as to say that I feel old, but it certainly reminds me that I'm not exactly young anymore! Which is fine, really. I think our society unduly worships youth and underestimates the value of maturity and experience. Quite frankly I prefer being (nearly) 37 over any other age I've been yet, and I really do feel that my best years are ahead of me. But this-all reminds me not to waste the time that I have, because it's a finite gift and is not renewable.

About the family ... things have been good here. I'm sure most of you who read this blog know about the snow and ice here the last week. We ended up not having school at all last week, which means we'll have to tack a couple of days onto the end of the school year in June, but ... oh, well ... I ran into our superintendant in the post office and she was commenting how people get upset if school is cancelled and others get upset if it's not! I certainly wouldn't want to be in her shoes, always having to navigate her way through the mire of public opinion! But she seems to do a great job at it. Me? No. Give me the classroom and a bunch of hormone crazed teenagers any day! I much prefer working with them than with the ones who spawned them!

Anyway, my unexpected time off has been quite productive. I've been preparing lesson plans (and warmups and tests and PowerPoints and ... yada yada yada) for next term. That may not sound exciting to you, but to me it means that I won't have to spend nearly as much time working after-hours this winter and can focus on STUDYING for the Praxis exams, which will be happening soon-ish, two (Spanish) in March and two (English) in April. I don't have time to flunk/retake these test and still make the deadline for registration for grad school, so I simply MUST pass them. And pass them I will, doggonit. But not without becoming quite cozy with The Books over the next few weeks.

Mark has been doing reasonably well. He had a bit of chest pain yesterday, but nothing too significant. Even if the ablation only works for a few months (like the last one did), it's worth it to have this relief for a time. And his liver pain has been manageable at home so that we haven't had to make a single trip to the hospital this week, except for one visit (yesterday) to get the dressings on his pic line changed. (We wouldn't have had to do even that, except that his home health nurse was snowed in!)