Spring Semester: A First Day Blizzard

Day 1 of the spring semester has us facing another lovely Iowa blizzard. Yes, a blizzard. As I was walking to my first classes this morning (I taught 8 am, 9 am and 10 am), I had no trouble until the 10 am class. Naturally all of my classes are in different buildings aacross campus so I have to suit up -- coat, hat, gloves, bag, etc. just to trek 5-10 minutes across campus to get to my next class. On the way to my third class, the blowing snow had already started though they said the full effects of the snow/wind wouldn't start until this afternoon. As I walked, I could barely look up to see where I was going as the blowing snow was so bad. I just have one more class to get to at 1 p.m. and thankfully it's in the same building as my office. I just have to walk down the hall -- no coat, no gloves, no nothing. Sweet!

I did just learn that classes at Hawkeye have been canceled starting at 3 pm today. What about canceling them now? I suppose I should be happy that I can get my last first class in today before they cancel them all, but still. I'm tired and would like to go home and keep working on wedding invites that I need to get weighed and mailed soon and that card cake that is just plain fun to actually work on (pics to be posted soon). I bought a glue gun last week and am having a good ole time gluing things to this 3-tired cake-like structure. I've just realized that the wedding is a mere 8 weeks away and there is still a lot to do.

I also need to ready our guest bedroom as Ken's parents are coming in tomorrow to stay for a day or two. His dad is going in for surgery to have some stints put in. It's kind of scary when you think about it. It's the same thing my Grandma had to have done last year. His appointment is at 6 am on Wednesday, so they're driving in from Oelwein to stay overnight and get there early enough in the morning. One of Ken's soldiers from Muscatine, IA stayed with us this weekend as it was their Army drilling weekend and needed a bed, so after having him here, I need to freshen up the room with some clean linens, towels, and a quick vacuum. I love getting into B&B mode! I wish more people would come stay with us as it's actually fun to get ready for them!

And so back to my classes at Hawkeye. At least the students in the first 3 classes I've had today seem nice. No obvious concerns just yet, or at least no one mouthed off or looked too bored during the 50 minutes we were together. One already revealed that he is a recovering alcoholic who's back in school after 20 years. So that makes 2 of them between last semester and this semester. That's always interesting. It always amazes me how open people are here about their personal situations. I also have some special needs students already that have more obvious needs. No one has shown me their special accommodations sheet yet though so there may be more.

On a syllabus note, I've made a greater point this semester of making it clear to students that I will not tolerate the following: texting on cell phones and making fun of other students during class. By "making fun" I mean students making faces/rolling eyes when another speaks, etc. I had a problem in one class with this last semester and it drove me nuts. I mean, seriously people, this is college. Grow up. I'm calling it my "Zero Tolerance Policy" and I told them if it happened, they get 1 warning and then they're out of class. I didn't say when or if they could come back. I just said they were out. I'm sick of the immature behavior.

Well, I guess I better get ready for class #4 which is coming up. Then I head home to hunker down and watch the blizzard unfold from the living room, glue gun in hand. The only thing is that I'll have to worry about Ken making it home from Deere on the far side of town. The big question on everyone's mind (ok - maybe just my mind) ....will classes be cancelled tomorrow?

Christmas Recap

Christmas has come and gone and it was a lovely one indeed. Ken and I had two Christmases: one the Saturday before Christmas with my family and one on Christmas eve with his family. During my family's Christmas, we enjoyed a new tradition of "Bring Your Own Soup." Missy made cheesy broccoli, Mom made her famous beef n' noodles, and I made the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana. All three were a hit. Corrina brought some fabulous breads, Connie and family supplied drinks, and Aunt Sheila and Uncle Roger brought some very yummy pigs in a blanket and little pickle wrap things that Mom and I couldn't get enough of. Grandma brought her excellent peanut brittle and I think some other desserts. In all, we ate well and enjoyed the company.

Gift exchange proved to be interesting yet again. Audra had fun opening all the gifts from family. Here's a shot of her with the purple socks that have a penguin on them and say "Chill Out" that I bought her. Last year, I bought her some socks with princess frogs on them and she liked them a lot. I thought I'd made it a tradition to get her a funny pair of socks each year. In this picture, she's decided that the socks are more fun on her hands.

During our other tradition of the "white elephant" or "bring something from your basement" gift exchange, we all laughed when some interesting gifts came out. People started the game off right by stealing gifts from others. My nephew Josh got a gold purse, which Missy promptly stole. Then someone ended up with a singing/dancing woodchuck from the movie Caddyshack which Scott stole away. I ended up getting a Yogo ball first, but Josh's girlfriend stole that from me and then I ended up with a half broken blender. Ken walked away with a tool box that had a bunch of old baseball cards in it. We all had some good laughs when Jeff brought out an old wig that he'd been given as a gag gift when he left his job at Musco Lighting (Jeff shaves his head). He tried it on and then so did Ken. It's interesting to see what he would look like with curly hair.

Christmas eve found us at Oelwein with Ken's family. A funny event occured when it turns out Lisa and I gave Ken and Matt the same gift: the Scene It Seinfeld edition. We tried to play the game later in the evening, but we experienced some DVD problems, so we settled for just watching a couple of Seinfeld reruns on TV. That's one thing you can always count on: somewhere in the world there's a Seinfeld episode on.

Ken and I were excited to give his dad an engineer's hat we found for him. His dad has been working a lot with his model railroads/trains, so we thought that would be a fitting gift. We think he liked it as he wore it the rest of the evening!

And finally, here's one of Teresa, Elizabeth, Lisa and me on our way to the local thrift store for our annual Christmas eve thrift store run. (Linda had to step out of the van to fill up on gas.) That tradition started a couple of years ago (for reasons I cannot remember), but we've made it an annual event now just because it was so much fun. We had a lot of laughs on the way there and back.

And now that those major holidays are over, Ken and I are trying to figure out a way to get out of town. We've planned a trip to Tennessee, but so far have been unable to make it out of Iowa. First there was the fog that engulfed Cedar Rapids and now we're dealing with an Ice Storm. We're going to try to get out of Waterloo today, but we'll see. I'll post the details as they become available.

The Semester is Officially Over!

Big sigh of relief! My grading is done. Or, for my English-majory friends, to take it out of the passive...I am done grading!!! I finished yesterday at 1:00 p.m. to be exact. I had no problem getting through the Hawkeye portfolios. The papers were shorter and fewer students actually made substantial revisions. The UNI revisions much more time. The papers were about 5-7 pages, with the exception of the overly ambitious student now and then who would think that s/he'd have to write 8-10 pages to get that A. Ugh. Anyway, more revisions on all 5 papers meant those suckers took way too long for me to grade. But I finished 1 hour earlier than expected and was able to start handing them back to students who were still hanging around campus on Thursday of finals week. Today I finished everything by posting my grades online.

Of course, we had a major snow storm come through here last night. We even had "thunder snow!" Apparently this is when it's like a thunderstorm outside so you hear the rumbling, but no rain. Instead....snow and lots of it! I believe we had a total of 8.5 to 9 inches around Waterloo. Here is a picture looking at our driveway.The entire end of the driveway was covered as high as the piles you see on either side. Thank you Mr. Snow Plow. We live on a hospital route so our road is always pretty well cleared, but we pay the price with terrible icy frozen snow drifts.

Hawkeye's classes were, of course, cancelled as is the case there so that meant a snow day for me! Ken stayed home from work until about noon so we could dig ourselves out. There would have been no way he would have made it out of that driveway by 8 a.m. We started by using the shovel, but soon realized our efforts would allow us to leave the driveway sometime next Tuesday at the rate we were going. I seriously began to question why we had NOT purchased a snowblower for this year. I think we thought global warming would have us receiving little snow. Fools. Neighbor George offered us the use of his snowblower in exchange for using it on his driveway as well. And so in a mere 3 hours we were all cleaned out! And just in time as our next storm is supposed to come through on Sunday. Ah, Iowa.

And so, after posting grades and then digging us out of snow, it is actually sinking in that I am officially done for a few weeks. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I wrapped a couple of presents and determined that I'm a little short on what I need to purchase, so that will mean a trip to the store in a little bit. I'm also tasked with making Zuppa Toscana for Christmas at Melissa's on Sunday so will need to get a few things at the grovery store. I did manage to start my very first load of dishes in our new dishwasher which we have had for a week or two now! (Ken ran the first load.) Isn't she a beauty?!

I've been meaning to get this picture posted for a while. This is a picture of my friend Lynsey and me from our Thanksgiving meeting in Cedar Rapids. She, her husband Jeremy, and son Jack were back in IA from WI visiting family over the holidays, so Ken and I took a short drive to CR so we could see each other. It was a great visit and a lot of fun to just catch up. Before we knew it, almost 3 hours had passed and we figured we should probably let Lynsey get back to her family.

In other pictures, here's one of Tucker. On Black Friday, Menards had pet beds on sale for $5 and now that I'm feeling slightly better off than I did as a grad student, I decided to splurge and by the boys (Tucker and Artemus) each a bed. Tuck warmed up to his within a few days and now is a petbed "regular", but Arty has turned up his nose and deemed the bed no comparison to our bed witht he down comforter or the back of the couch in front of the window.

Oh, and yes, Tucker really is that big! That and the bed was actually made for a small dog. Shame on me thinking that a bed made for the size of a small dog would fit my cat!

I See the Portfolios... They are a-Comin'

Well, here I am sitting in my office up at UNI waiting for students to turn in their portfolios. Me, the diligent teacher, has been grading some as they slowly come it, but now my poor brain is feeling fried and I can go on no longer. I've graded 8, some of which had only minimal revisions, but I felt pretty good about those 8 until the other 41 started making their way into my office and on my bookshelves, making my small grading accomplishment seem extra small indeed.

Because it's been over a year since I officially taught a first-year composition course, I'd forgotten just how daunting the task of grading so many portfolios with so many revisions could be. Why does it seem like it took no time at all to grade those English 101 portfolios back at ISU a mere 4-5 years ago? I seem to remember getting through them so fast that I was able to return them to students during finals week (within days of them submitting them). I was often one of the faster ones among the other teachers, getting them graded and returned well before finals week was even over.

And as I think back on this, I begin to wonder if this experience is at all similar to the childbirth process I hear my friends talk about. Indulge me for a moment as I try to make a comparison. I've heard stories from mothers who agonized during the labor and delivery process only to claim that they "forgot" the experience and later wanted to have more children because of the joy of the experience, etc. etc. Have I in turn "forgotten" the pain that accompanies portfolio grading simply because I wanted to get back into teaching and leave my job this summer? Am I now all of a sudden starting to remember what the process was really like?

That said, I'm terribly behind in posting to this blog, but soon I will have some pictures to post from my fabulous dinner with Lynsey in Cedar Rapids as well as some church and flower pictures from the wedding planning. It's been a busy couple of weeks to say the least.

Ken and I had our engagement pictures taken last weekend and I just picked up those proofs today. I'm happy to report that there are some good candidates and so I think we'll have a fairly easy decision. Our Christmas cards are finally out too after weeks of struggling to get people's addresses and realizing that the postage required would cost me an additional $0.17 per card. Sigh. Nothing's easy these days.

Our dishwasher also pooped out on us last week, but I'm happy to report that we have a lovely new one in our kitchen ready to be run and we just had soft water installed today to make our usage easier. Talk about living in the lap of luxury! Cable TV, a new dishwasher, AND soft water! We're definitely movin' on up, Weezie. Oh, and I also had to take a final exam for my "teacher course" at work. Fingers crossed that I passed. Of course, add all to this the ice storm we had on Monday night, and it's been a busy week!

Tonight, at 6:00 p.m. sharp, I'm leaving my office with a box of portfolios for the weekend and am off to watch little Audra's first Christmas program. She's starring as an Angel. My camera's ready to capture the moment. Things like this make me happy to be close to home.

Black Friday Fun

After a lovely Thanksgiving Day with both families, Ken and I made it up by 6 am to do some Black Friday sale shopping. My mom and niece Nicole picked us up and we went to Younkers, Menards, Wal-Mart, Kohls, Sears, and finally a fabric store. The one with the worst lines was Menards. There was this one entrance to all the check-out lanes and you and to snake your way around the store. At various points were sales people who then told you to get into one long line or another where you then proceeded to snake your way around more of the store until you got to the checkout lanes at which point you met up with all the other people in all the other lanes that were separated from you at an earlier checkpoint. What seemed to be a system of reassurance that you were making progress was indeed a system of just shuffling people around to different parts of the store. Along the way, many "impulse buys" caught your eye. Proof: My mom ended up with two fleece balnkets for $1.99 each that someone left behind on a nearby rack. She wasn't planning on buying them, but the waiting in line convinced her she needed them.

Ken and I like to use this shopping day to stock up on new bedding for the year. Last year we got the most amazing flannel sheets for our bed for about $20 at Younkers. I love them! But to buy flannel sheets -- or sheets of any size for that matter -- for a King size bed at other times during the year is a bit pricey. Today, we made out with one new set of flannels ($24.99), one set of cotten sheets ($14), and a new down comforter ($20) for the bed. I think we're set for the year. I also picked up a new lovely light blue quilt plus shams for the guest bedroom for about $35.

Other purchases included gift items for Ken that he picked out throughout the day and some new items for me as well. No surprises here. Ken's already in "deployment planning mode" so we're trying to think of things he'll want to take to Iraq with him next year. He wants a digital camera of his own plus a small MP3 player for music (not an expensive one as one never knows what will get lost while over there). There were several good camera deals but we got to the stores too late to get them. I'm sure they'll be more sales later so I'll get him one soon.

Tonight, we're driving to Cedar Rapids, which is only 40 minutes away (people in Iowa speak about distance in terms of time, not mileage!), so that we can visit with my friend Lynsey who is in town with her husband and son for Thanksgiving with his family. They live in Wisconsin. Lynsey is my friend from my first year at UNI (1996) -- she lived across the hall from me in the dorms!

Well, I better get moving so we can get on the road! I have some wedding flower pictures to post sometime.

Thanksgiving On My Mind

I'm not thinking about Thanksgiving for food purposes -- I simply can't wait for the break! I have to teach on Monday this week, but then have the rest of the week off. Monday will be a busy day with grading and meetings in the morning, but students are working on revising now, so the ball's really in their courts, so to speak. I also have to go to my "new faculty" class tomorrow afternoon which is seriously a bore, but there's really no way out of it. It'll just make for a long day. The piles of grading on my kitchen table seem overwhelming, but just knowing I don't have to teach all week makes them seem much more bearable. I should have done more this weekend in terms of that, but I just didn't feel like it.

The weekend was pretty typical except my Aunt Beryl came in from Chicago for a visit, so we spent Friday night and Saturday afternoon at Grandma's visiting. Today after church, Ken and I did some errand running and then pretty much spent the day inside doing odds and ends around the house. He's been "working", i.e., watching football, and I've prepped class for this week, did laundry, graded one set of journals, and well, that's about it. Oh, I guess I did write the Xmas letter we'll send out this week. I just need to get it printed and get the envelopes mailed.

We had some light snow Friday night, which we awoke to Sat morning. I even had to clear off the driveway! That was kind of fun to have. Of course, it melted by late afternoon, so it wasn't a blizzard by any means. That's about it for things around here.

This weekend found us at home -- both of us at home. Thank goodness too because we've been running around like crazy. Friday night we just chilled at home with Sister Kathy who was in town. She and her daughter Kristina came by for a chili supper. Then Kathy left to take Kristina to her father's, returning later to stay over at our place. It was nice to catch up; plus having company forced me to clean the house Friday night instead of my usual Saturday morning deep clean. It was nice to wake up to a clean house on Saturday.

Having a Saturday at home meant trying to get projects done. I set Ken to work on cleaning out the garage that still hasn't recovered from our last summer garage sale. We really wanted to get it ready so that come the first big snowfall, one of us can park it in. We finally got the landlady to get Larry the Maintenance Man to get us a remote for the garage door, so we can enter without having to go into the side door first. After 5 months of waiting, she finally got him to do it and we now have a remote! Seriously, we probably should have just done it ourselves!

Anyway, Ken cleared out the remaining no-sell items and set them in the basement for next summer's sale, and we can now park in there. The only problem: it's a 1 stall garage, so we'll have to take turns. Ken says well each take it for a week at a time. I told him I get it the weeks that it snows! :)

A few weeks ago, Ken and I took a short overnight trip to Pikes Peak, IA -- a spot that's great for hiking and overlooks the Mississippi River near the Iowa/Wisconsin border. Here's a couple of pictures from the absolutely beautiful day. This is a black and white one I like of Ken walking toward the steps leading away from teh waterfall. It's a cool shot though you can't see how nice it actually was outside. The next picture is better for that.

And so, wedding plans continue to progress. Last week, we met with Pastor at church to discuss some of the details and this weekend had an appointment with the cake lady and met with one photographer. We still need to settle on a photographer and invitations. I'm planning to make some real "save the date" cards and get them out over Thanksgiving when I have more time. I feel like I'm saying that all the time! Well, I will meet with the person doing the flowers next Saturday, so hopefully, I'll get some good ideas for that then.

Who knew there could be so much work involved in getting one of these things ready? And to think that Ken and I are actually trying to do things on a much smaller, more simple scale!