First Day Back

I want to start by apologizing for not writing in so long.  I have had a hard time balancing my move, prepping for school, and blogging.  I miss the summer (the time, not the hot weather--it needed to be said). SO, I'm sorry to all that follow my blog and might feel disappointed in my lack of attention....

Ok, back to business.  Today was the first day back to school after the long months of summer.  I woke up with my normal "first day of school" jitters.  Even though I have been teaching for eight years, I still get nervous on the first day.  I think part of it is my people pleasing disfunction.  I care way too much about what people think of me; thus, I care way too much about what my students think of me.  Well, despite my nervousness, and my self-inflicted lack of preparation, my first day went well.  Being from Arkansas and now in the north, gives me a whole new bag of material to pull from when I see my students starting to leave me mentally.  Throw a little y'all their way, and I've got em.

For the past four years, I have taught an enormous course load, anywhere from 17 to 21 hours a semester.  This has had its ups and downs: extra money=good, extra work and always playing catch up=not as good.  This kind of schedule has left me a little burnt out.  I chose it though, so I'm not complaining.  With that said, when I had the chance to go part-time this semester in Findlay, I jumped for joy.  So, this semester I am teaching seven hours (two classes).  Yes,  you read that correctly: 7 hours!  I didn't have any idea what this would be like until today.  Today my class met at 11am.  I didn't have to be at school until 11am, and that's just the beginning.  My class was over at 11:50am, then I was done.  Yes, done!  After class, while I was walking back to the Math House, I was mentally organizing what was next and what I had to do to hurry for my next class, then I realized, "I have no next class."  A calm and peace came over me that I haven't felt in a long time.  I felt space to go and relax and not have to worry about school; something I only feel when I'm on Christmas or summer break.  It was wonderful.  I think this is going to be a good semester.

Procrastination

What a long week we had last week, and this one has started out the same.  Garrett started his week-o-meetings yesterday.  As a new faculty member, he has a slew of meetings he has to attend.  I went to the math department meeting yesterday morning, so my commitment is now fulfilled.  It's strange not being full time; I feel like I should be doing more, participating more.

Even though I'm not going to meetings and being a part of the "meet and greet"s, I do feel a little overwhelmed by the start of this semester.  I have so much to do and so much to learn about this new school.  I haven't done much preparation for my classes, that start on Monday, due to the move and my summer courses.  I have to get on that.  I'm not very motivated unfortunately.  What I'm "working on" now is a class called Applied Mathematical Analysis.  It's a combination of a couple of classes that I've taught before; thus, making it harder to prepare for.  It's easy to leave it be and look at it as I go.  So, to keep from working, I'm writing to you all while at a local coffee shop (no internet at home yet, blah)!

Here's my unopened text book with a neat cup Garrett got in one of his meetings.  Yeah for free stuff!

Maumee Bay

Since this past Wednesday, we've had some friends from Washington in town visiting (Travis and Tiffany).  Today they wanted to head up to Lake Erie and see what was going on.  We've never been, so we were up for it.  

Not knowing anything about that area, Garrett decided we'd head to the first place he found on the map, Maumee Bay State Park.  Little did we know that this little jaunt would take us through some rough parts of East Toledo.  It's all good though, we made it there and back in one piece.  

The park was fair.  Nothing too interesting or beautiful.  We'll probably take some recommendations on our next trip out.  The weather was nice though, so it made being outside for a few hours nice.  While Tiffany played in the water, Garrett and I took a nice long walk around the property, along the lake/beach.  I've attached a couple of pictures of the area.  They're nothing to write home about, but at least you all will get to experience a taste of what I did today.  

Here's the beach and a portion of Lake Erie.  I didn't attach the shot were you can see the nuclear plant in the distance.

Garrett happy that his friend Travis is in town.

Here's the mini lake that was created for swimming.  Apparently, swimming in this part of Lake Eire isn't that cool.

This is a stream created from the lake that was bright green with algae.  Yucko.  

Contemplative Garrett playing "Words With Friends."

Finally Findlay

We finally arrived in Findlay Saturday with our car and stuff in tow.  It, of course, starting raining while we began to unpack, but thankfully stopped when it was time to unload the big stuff.  Garrett recruited two young men to help us move in to our upstairs apartment via a woman from Findlay he met when we were on vacation in Mexico (crazy!).  I don't know what we would have done if they hadn't shown up.  The heavy stuff was quite unruly, having to go up stairs with it proved very difficult.  By the end of the move, Garrett was covered in sweat and felt like he was going to die.  Poor thing.  At that moment, I was glad that I wasn't a man and didn't have to be responsible for heavy items.

The rest of the afternoon on Saturday and all day yesterday, my mom and Brittney cleaned and unpacked.  I'm sure I did some stuff too, but it's all a blur at this point.  All I know is that one minute my apartment was covered in an overwhelming number of boxes and the next minute I had a lovely kitchen, living room, and bathroom; all decorated so nicely and everything put in its place.  I don't know how Garrett and I could have done it without Brittney and my mom.  I'm 100% certain that all of my stuff would still be in boxes if it weren't for my family (trust me on this, I'm a math teacher).  So, thanks mama and Brittney; you're awesome!

We found a Starbucks in a Kroger in Bowling Green, OH!  Aren't we all cute!

Here's a taste of what our apartment looks like, thanks to my mom and Brittney.  This is one side of the kitchen (duh) and the dining aka storage area (Who needs a dining table! Not us; we have TV trays!)

Jealous?  Probably not, but it's all good.  Even though I miss our huge kitchen and huge bathroom, I'm looking forward to seeing a small electric bill for our small apartment.  Down sizing has its perks.

Surprise!

In my last post, I wrote about going to dinner with our friends Jake and Lacee.  Well, that dinner turned into something so much more.  My sister and Lacee, being the awesome people they are, planned a surprise going away party for Garrett and me!  Here's the story:

Garrett and I met up with Jake and Lacee this past Saturday evening drained from packing and grading but ready to have a relaxing dinner with friends.  They drove us to a local steak/Italian place (Fred's Hickory Inn), a place we've never been.  The reservation was for 7pm, so for those who know me and Garrett, this is a late dinner.  We're more of the 3 to 4pm dinner eaters.  We like to roll with the senior crowd.  So needless to say, I was hungry.  We walked in and were immediately ushered to the back of the restaurant.  "No wait, great!" I thought; that was the hunger talking.  As we approached our table I was making some comment about the decor of the restaurant when I hear "SURPRISE!" coming from somewhere.  I had not reached the room our table was in yet, so I thought, "Aww, someone is having a surprise birthday party.  How fun."  Then, I got to our room and was SHOCKED to see my church friends, sister, and mom waiting for me with big smiles.  It was then I quickly deduced that they were yelling surprise to me and Garrett!  My emotions got the best of me, and I started crying.  What a sweet gift, the best one I could've imagined.

My sister and Lacee had been planning this shindig for months apparently.  I have been so preoccupied with school and leaving that I had no idea this party was coming, and they all made a conscious effort to keep the event off of Garrett's radar (he's not the best surprise keeper).  The room was filled with pictures Brittney had taken on her trip to Italy (Garrett's and my favorite place, other than Colorado), and a slide show of pictures was going on in the background.  Brittney informed me that we got to keep all of the framed Italy pictures.  They are beautiful.  I'll try to post some of them so that you can enjoy them too!  They had also ordered a cake from our favorite local bakery, Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville.  Everything was wonderful: wonderful friends, wonderful decorations, wonderful food.

To end the evening, Brittney and Jake hosted an award show that they had created: The Clawsome Awards.  (For those that don't know, "clawsome" is a fantastic new word that combines cool and awesome.  Use it, and be amazed at the joy it brings to your life.)  The awards were hilarious, adapted to each person's personality, situation, or character.  For example: one friend, Greg, had just that morning returned from a mission trip to Indonesia, so he was super tired.  Greg received the award for "the person mostly likely to not remember this evening and have malaria."  So, awards like that.  The show was super funny; Jake, Lacee, and Brittney were so creative.  It felt so good to laugh.

The party was the perfect way to say goodbye to Arkansas.  I feel so loved.  God has blessed me with some good friends.  I will miss my church family and friends.  

This is my high-five trophy I won at the party along with one of the framed Italy pictures.  Jealous?!