I Might As Well Blog

I'm up. It's 1:00 am. And I'm freaking out about school next week. So I figure: I might as well blog.

My mom had this crazy idea a few months ago. As my grandmother is temporarily in between jobs, and we all had some vacation time to use, we decided on a surprise visit. We flew from the East Coast to Phoenix, AZ, where my uncle picked us up and took us to see her in the high country. The visit resulted in something like this:

My grandmother was shocked beyond belief. We stayed for a week and just got home, oh, about an hour and twenty minutes ago. The trip was (mostly) beautiful and a good time was had by all. We got to see "the Rim" which goes across the state of Arizona:


We went to gorgeous Hawley Lake, which is on a reservation:


Notice that there are cattle drinking the water! And because we were in Arizona, the obligatory cactus picture:


While I had a good time, I've learned a few things.

1. My sinuses are accustomed to humidity and do not take kindly to dry air.
2. I get out of breath when higher than 5000 ft above sea level.
3. I missed my blogging and my cat!

We left at 9 am (their time) and got home at 12am (our time). It has been one long day! But as soon as I got home, I checked my school email. Oh boy, have I been neglecting it. I discovered that I have my class lists already for the upcoming year, and I immediately fell sick to my stomach. I am SO not prepared, and I report back to work on MONDAY! I began to scramble, and I attempted to get some work done. But I'm so out of it from the trip that nothing really got done. So this is what I'm going to do.

• Get seating charts made.
• Make full lesson plans through the first week (three Blue days).
• Decide how to handle attendance and parental issues.
• Decide how to "train" my kids.
• Set up project descriptions for the projects I will assign.
• Focus more on Algebra II, as I always come up with good Physics activities.

While it doesn't seem like a lot of work, items three and four are the most difficult of all. Deciding how I stand on things and my expectations, and determining how to convey them to the kids, and sticking to my guns are the most difficult parts of being a teacher.

We got the contract for the house, and the settlement is set for September 18th. This is almost a month away. While I'm trying to be enthusiastic, I am just drained over the first-time-homebuyer thing. I am hopeful that all will go well and we will be able to settle with no problems.