RATS!

I'm almost halfway through my NCC teaching! YAY! It's actually going quite smoothly. I've surprised myself this term by tackling the thing I tend to put off the longest--grading. That's not to say I like it, but I'm taking it on head first. Today in class, the students took a short quiz that I managed to get graded before the end of the second class! They had an in-class assignment and I graded them during that, so before I even left the room, I'd handed them back. That's never happened before. :)

I start teaching at WCC tonight. This class is only once a week (Monday nights) and it's probably the worst way to learn a language, but we muddled through one semester already, so I'll get through this one with them. Surprisingly, I have 16 students! Not bad for a class that hasn't been taught there in 8 years! The other guy who teaches French there (he's like 85 years old) had one student signed up for 102 this semester, so he dropped that class off the schedule. He's just going to teach another section of 101. I have to wonder how long they'll keep him around.

Packing is going slowwwwwwwwwwwly. Holy CRAP, we have a lot of CRAP. I like to think I'm doing a good job of organizing things that are being packed away. I have to constantly leave lists for Paul to do and practically stand over him to make sure they get done. He doesn't realize that some of what I need to do is contingent upon him finishing certain things. So I push and nag and eventually, it gets done. With any luck, we'll have the house ready to go on the market by the end of February. That's my goal right now anyway.

Work at the vet clinic is going well! I'm learning so much there and actually having fun! Last week, I held rats for the first time in my life. I try not to act squeemish around clients and their animals. I've heard that rats make good pets and I'll be damned if these weren't the 2 sweetest animals I've ever held! They were great! They cuddled! I cuddled rats! I could see having one as a pet at some point. Even Paul isn't opposed to the idea.

We've been in contact with the fertility clinic. I've been adament about not starting the next round until after I finish teaching, but I might go ahead and start next month (Feb), which would put our egg retrieval date in mid-March, right after I start teaching. I haven't totally made the decision to start then--I'm still more inclined to wait another month. At this point, what's another month, right? It would certainly make my life easier. Anyway, the protocol will be much different, which I'll detail later once we get started.

I have to run to school now but wanted to give a little update. More in while!

Stinky

So I've gotten through 3 weeks of school now and it's going pretty well! I've had a few minor bumps but they're smoothing themselves out nicely. It's definitely a much different semester. I think I have only 21 classes left (of 30), 7 weeks, 24.5 actual teaching hours, and 1470 actual teaching minutes left to go. WOO HOO!

Things have been BIZZY at home! We're trying to get the house ready to put on the market and sell. Well, that's no easy task. For anyone who's been to our home, you know it's pretty damned crowded around here. We have STUFF. So far, we've finished one room--the office. In fact, I'm sitting on the floor on a laptop typing this up (the computer's on a table tray). Paul has a desk and his computer, but mine is out for now--after we move, we'll each have our own again. I already miss mine *sniff*. Anyway, I've been packing like CrAzY! And throwing out, and organizing, and donating, and shredding...

The new fertility doctor is going to be ready to start up with us in March. I had to wait until I finish teaching at NCC--it's just too hard to do both. I'll still be teaching at WCC (which hasn't started yet--it will at the end of January...oh shit, we're getting close, aren't we...). Anyway, that will be only one night a week. I'll still work at the vet clinic as well but that's just a couple days a week, so it'll be tolerable.

Everyone's doing well. My mom's on her way to Florida with her best friend, Barb. I look so forward to the emails about how warm it is there (note: this last sentence was DRIPPING with sarcasm). The kids are all healthy and doing well. If you'd like to see the most recent pictures of everyone, check out the photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/beckysensei There are some good ones on there from Christmas!

Hope everyone reading this is doing well!

HNY

Happy New Year!

So far, 2008 is shaping up to be pretty good. Obama wins in Iowa with Hillary right behind him. I'll take either one...in fact, anyone other than what's living in the WH now. Just my political opinion.

I started school this past Wednesday. It hasn't been a tough start--a few of the rotten eggs I had last term are gone. There have been a few glitches (the bookstore didn't order any new books for the new students, so about 10 of them are struggling to find something while they wait a week for theirs). This is just one reason why I detest school bookstores. I absolutely HATE how they extort hundreds of dollars from students. Does anyone know what the markup on these books really is? I encourage my students to go online and find them. Probably not what I'm "supposed" to do, but I've been there. It's sucks to have to pay $150 for a book. NCC bookstore won't buy back French ones at the end because they're initially bundled with a code to get to the online workbook (which is actually a separate entity from the book). The students use the code and it can't be used again, so they say the book is useless, despite the fact the code can be bought online. It just sucks.

Onto other things. Paul and I are trying to get the house ready to go on the market. Our target date was Feb. 1, but it's pretty evident to us both that it's going to be a bit later than that. I'm trying to get him to commit to one day each weekend to devote to getting it ready. That in itself is a nearly impossible task. We have quite a list of things--nothing too difficult, mostly packing stuff up and getting it into storage. Quite a bit of painting and touch-ups, which will take more time. And we really need to get someone in here to help tell us what needs to go, what needs to be moved around, and what's acceptable in each room. We had a 30 minute discussion yesterday on how to arrange the living room. It wasn't fun.

IVF will start again in March (possibly late Feb). It won't be so bad doing the shots, pills, patches, etc. this time around--having been through it once already, we know what to expect, plus not being in school, I'll have more time to go to appointments. That alone will make it tons easier. I'll still be working at the vet clinic, but if I'm a few minutes late or need an hour to take care of something, it won't be a big deal. BTW, I still really like working there. I'm learning so much and really enjoy the people with whom I work.

I hope everyone has a happy and prosperous 2008!!