Sweet Student

I'm supposed to be working on my take home final right now, but I just wanted to post a quick update:

I'm almost done! I have to finish a take home final that's due by 4 pm on Friday and that's it! My semester as a student is almost over!!

I'm done teaching, but I still have to proctor (and then grade) finals. So now begins the process of answering a ton of emails with some of my favorite questions: "What do I need to get on the final to get an A?" "What do I need to study?" "Will (some topic) be on the final? Will (some other topic)?" Yup, aren't students fun?!

I'm allowing students who have above a 95 to be exempt, and whether it's because of this, or because of some other reason, when some students email to tell me they're not going to take the final, they also tell me some kind words. For example: (Sidenote: Fireman is THE Stat 100 professor - she teaches three courses, each with 300+ students, and is literally known across the state!)

Everyone always says to try and get Fireman for this class, but I
am so happy I had you this semester and tell all my friends to try and get you
as their teacher!!

Isn't that sweet?!

Today we finally got some snow ... and I literally mean "some"! The downside was we had to put up with 50 mph wind gusts today and it was CRAZY!!! At one point, while walking to Starbucks with Melissa this morning, I was walking on the sidewalk and a gust of wind came up between the buildings and blew me past Melissa and almost knocked me into the road! Definitely crazy!! Sadly, we really didn't get much snow, but at least it was something!!!


Smile: I will be in Texas in about one week!!!!!! Awesome!!

Frown: They're predicting that the wind chill might be as low as 0 to -10 when I leave my apartment tomorrow morning! Seriously?! If it's going to be this cold, can't we at least have more snow on the ground?!!

Thankful Thanksgiving

Sadly there are no pictures in this post, but I still thought I would take a minute to update you on my Thanksgiving week.

I had an absolutely wonderful time hanging out with Bobby all week! We ate at some very yummy restaurants, watched some fabulous movies (Blind Side was my favorite!!!), and really just spent some quality face time together. I miss him already and I'm very glad that we will only be apart for two and a half weeks this time!!

This week we spent some time with Bob, Anna, Pat, Ted, Patrick (sadly, I didn't get to see Jenny - maybe at Christmas!), and Brett (Ted's son) - whom I haven't seen in years. It was fun getting to see and spend time with everyone.

I did not get to see any friends on this trip (there was no way I was messing with I-35 this week and my focus for this trip was Bobby, not friends, sorry!), but perhaps I will get to see some at Christmas.

I did not get enough work done this week, but I don't mind because it meant that I got to spend some more time with Bobby!! The downside is that as a result of not working this past week, I am going to have to work overtime (is there such thing as overtime for a student?) to get everything done!! Oh well, it was worth it!!

Currently I am sitting in DFW. I was supposed to be on a flight that left at 5pm, however, they needed people to give up seats and honestly, who am I to give up a $300 voucher?! So I took the voucher and am now (hopefully) leaving DFW at 8:40. Now I won't get in until at least 11 pm, so I went ahead and canceled my Chicago to Champaign bus and my awesome friend Erin is letting me crash at her place tonight and she's going to let me ride with her back to Champaign tomorrow! Sadly, this means I had to cancel my morning class, but hopefully my students won't be too upset. (Sidenote: My original flight didn't end up leaving until 6:45 so I would have missed my 9 pm bus to Champaign and probably would have canceled class anyway).

Smile: Yay for a fabulous week!!!

Extra Smile: Yay for a flight voucher!! This will definitely come in handy when I want to visit Bobby in the spring!

Birthday Blessings

Although my birthday isn't until Monday, I have already been very blessed this birthday!


Pat and Ted sent me this beautiful floral cupcake!! Isn't it super cute?!! It has a wonderful aroma, too!!



My friend Alice waited in line in an Austin bookstore to get me a signed copy of Elie Krieger's new cookbook. If you don't know about her, she's a nutritionist and a chef on Food Network (they don't play her episodes too often). The recipes look easy (perfect for me!) and delicious!!


(I'm not sure if I've posted about this one yet or not, so sorry if it's a repeat.) Elaine got me this very cool clock! I got it a month or so ago and I love it! One day it will hang in my office (when I get one), until then, I love having it in my apartment.


My mom sent me a nice card and a Starbucks gift card (can't go wrong with that!) and Bob and Anna also sent me a very sweet card!

Thank you to every one!!!

Smile: I finished grading my tests today!

Frown: Now that the tests are graded, I have no more excuses for procrastination. Tomorrow I have to get my two projects done.

Looking Forward to ....

In one week I will be back in Texas and I absolutely cannot wait!!! Here are a few things I'm looking forward to.

• Blind Side!! I absolutely cannot wait to see this movie with Bobby! It looks like it's going to be a good movie! Sidenote: Am I the only one that didn't recognize the character who's the husband of Sandra Bullock's character is Tim McGraw?

• A Christmas Carol! This movie looks super cute, too and hopefully it will be another fabulous date movie!

• New Moon! I haven't read the books, but I did like the first movie so hopefully the second one will be good, too!

• Pumpkin Pie! I LOVE Thanksgiving - perhaps because this was usually when we celebrated my birthday - and I LOVE pumpkin pie so it will definitely be a good week!

• And of course, I absolutely cannot wait to spend a week with my wonderful husband!!!!

Smile: I love this time of year!!!

Frown: My new microwave and I are still getting used to each other. Last night I attempted to make some popcorn so I used the popcorn button on the microwave. However, before the bag was fully popped, the bag was burned and it popped open and popcorn started going everywhere in the microwave!

Microwave

This morning I was soooo proud of myself. I woke up on time at 5:30 so I actually had time to cook breakfast before catching the bus! I got some water, measured my oats, put them in the bowl and put it in the microwave. Three seconds go by and then *POP*, my microwave makes a sound like a spark popping. I immediately stop it, check inside and outside and everything looks okay so I start it again.

After three minutes, there wasn't another sound, however, when I checked my oatmeal, it hadn't changed! The water was still cold and the oats were still, well, oats.

I waited a couple minutes (I put the microwave in a mini time out) and then tried again. After a minute, my water was still cold and the oats hadn't really changed (well, by now they were soggier).

I broke my microwave! This is what I get for waking up on time??

Thankfully my microwave came with my apartment so I called my apartment office from school today and when I got home at 6, I had a "new" microwave. I say "new" because although it is new to me, I can guarantee it is not new. The outside was sticky and the inside was dirty! Gross!! (Is it too much to ask for a clean microwave???)


I spent thirty minutes cleaning it and I am now very content with my new microwave! Yay for an apartment complex that quickly fixes problems!!!

Smile: Melissa was kind enough to drive me home at the end of the day today!

Thursdays

I know most people hold a grudge towards Mondays, but for me, the day to hold a grudge towards is definitely, without a doubt, Thursdays!!

I don't know what it is about Thursdays, but for some reason, they're just not usually the best days for me. I think it's simply that typically by Thursday, I've been working so hard all week to get my assignments done and to read my texts, etc., that come Thursday, I'm just utterly exhausted. (On Fridays, for some reason, I'm back to my usual self, just in case you were wondering.) Usually I spend Thursdays just biding my time and counting down the hours until I get to go home and veg in my recliner while playing computer games and watching whatever is on tv.

Today started off good enough. I did my morning swim (12 laps of kicking - I might be getting a cold so I didn't want my head underwater) and then headed to class. Halfway through class I went into my backpack to get my book out (to verify something my professor was teaching) and I noticed that the bottom of the book was wet! Soaking wet! I investigated further, and my fabulous plastic spiral folder that I use to carry papers to and from school was wet (some of the papers that weren't in the pockets were wet, too). Turns out my Sprite bottle (which was unopened) somehow leaked and got my stuff wet. Long story short, our fabulous secretary Melissa graciously offered to take apart my spiral and clean out all the parts with a clorox wipe (it wasn't just wet, it was also sticky), thankfully my computer didn't get wet, and it looks like everything else will survive. Well, hopefully. The book (which I also used at Teachers College so it has been with me awhile) may never be the same (as an anal perfectionist I do not like wrinkled pages, but I'll learn to live with it) but hopefully it will at least dry out in the next couple days so I can study from it this weekend! I guess that's what I get for putting the Sprite in the backpack instead of carrying it.

After class I was going to eat my leftover breakfast panini that I got at Panera Bread yesterday. But guess who was an idiot yesterday and put the panini in her desk instead of in the fridge? Yup! Me! Sadly, I had to let the trash can eat my panini.

The rest of the day didn't go much better. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that I went through a range of emotions - from an extreme high to quite a low - as a result of some meetings that did not go as well as I had hoped. By the end of the day I think everything was all worked out, but it was definitely a long day!

Smile: I love that I'm still in school and can leave at 3:30 when it's been a day and I just need to go home!

Frown: I haven't even started grading my tests yet. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow!

Test Day

I LOVE test day!!! More specifically, I love giving tests!

I know this is strange since I really don't like taking tests (I tend to freak out and overthink every question on the test), but there's just something about giving tests that I enjoy. I love that I get to grade the tests to see what the students understand and don't understand and see what methods they use to solve the problems. I also love how entertaining students are during test time! Here are just a few examples. (Sidenote: The test started at 8 but I let students come anytime after 7 in case they wanted a headstart - I don't care about time limits, I just want them to finish. If students sign up at least 48 hours in advance, they can go to a "conflict" exam from 1 to 3 pm instead.)

• I got an email at 6:30 in the morning from a student. She informed me that she wouldn't be coming to the 8 am exam because she had to be on time to her 9 am class and she wanted to be able to spend as much time as possible on her exam. And she thanked me for understanding. Yup! That was the email! Nothing was said about when she hoped to take the exam, she just wanted to let me know she wouldn't be there to take it. Nice, right?! (Follow-up: She showed up at the 1 pm conflict exam.)
  
• A student arrived at 8:35 and was panicked and was about to cry! As I was talking to her out in the hall (I had Erin proctor - don't worry, I didn't leave my kids alone!), another student came sprinting up the hallway. Neither of the girls could breathe - I think they each sprinted from their dorms. Poor things thought I wasn't going to let them take the test. (Follow-up: I let them meet me at my office at 9:10 to test.)
• A student emailed me at 8:10 am saying he had just woken up and obviously wouldn't make it to the test on time so he asked what he should do. I said he could come into my office at any time before 1 or he could take the conflict test. He replied and said "Actually, it would work out better for me if I could just take it tomorrow." Yup! I can't make this stuff up! He added that "beggars can't be choosers" so he understood if I didn't want him to take it the next day. I simply replied "See you at 1 at the conflict exam." He showed up.
  

The majority of this test involved solving equations, so I'm not sure if grading will be as entertaining as it sometimes is, but I'll let you know if I come across anything!

Smile: Did I mention I love test day???