Good-Bye Artemus

Artemus passed away on Saturday, December 18 at home. He had been diagnosed with feline leukemia in November, and so we knew all we could do was make him comfortable as there is no cure or meds for that. He rallied for a bit and was eating, cleaning himself, and even playing some. However, in the last few days, he had less of an appetite and was drinking almost constantly. We knew we'd have to make a decision soon.

On Thursday evening, Ken and I left for an Army conference in Denver, CO and received a call Saturday morning from our neighbor who was watching the cats. He told us that Artemus had pased away early that morning at home. I am so sad that I was not there for him as he passed, but I am grateful that God allowed him to be at home when he went. I miss him terribly as he was "my" cat, always cuddling with me while I was grading in the chair, following me to bed every night, and really being my shadow around the house. He was my "serious" cat, not one to give in to the silly antics of his fellow cats, even giving looks of disapproval to the other cats at times.

I just hope he knew how much we loved him and that we made his three years with us the best that they could have been. So long, my Moo Moo.

This week is insane. Yes, insane.

So I thought I was doing really good by getting so many portfolios graded early. Okay, that is a good thing, yes, but what was I thinking about taking on all this other stuff? On top of grading portfolios and final exams, I agreed to review another textbook (for $150 who wouldn't??) but that needs to be done by Thursday. Then I have the Division holiday party to get ready for Wednesday night -- we're hosting the 6-8 p.m. version with desserts & drinks at our house. So I've been making Christmas treats for a while now and need to make more this afternoon (and of course clean or something like it). Then there's needing to get final grades posted by Thursday, then graduation Thursday night, and then we leave for our Army Yellow Ribbon event in Denver, CO. Sometime in there I'm supposed to be doing some Christmas shopping and prep our house again for the two family Christmases we are hosting for family (Christmas eve & day). Not sure when all of that is going to happen. I'm sort of hoping for another blizzard so that graduation can be postponed and our trip may be put off for a later time. Fingers crossed.

More finals today. We'll see if anything grinds my gears today. Have a great day all!

What really grinds my gears...Part II

Ok, now it's the second final exam of the semester:

About a week before the final, I give all students a short prep sheet with some general concepts/ideas they should reflect on before the test. (This is in no way a "Cheat sheet" -- just some general questions to ponder about what they learned in the course). Three students just came up to me to ask what a word on the test means. Mind you, this word was on the prep sheet AND we discussed it in class. Methinks they didn't take any time with the prep sheet at all.

What really grinds my gears...

It really grinds my gears when a student shows up an hour late to take the final and all the other students are already done. So when I could actually be leaving and going back to my office getting work done, I have to stay in the classroom a whole hour because SOMEONE decided to come an hour late!

December is Beautiful!

December is beautiful! I love the cold grey days with the flurries swirling all around. I love that we have our new home and it's getting all cozy with holiday decorations, etc. We have 2 trees this year! Yes, I said it! Two trees! One in the family room and one in the formal living room in the front. Since we didn't put any lights up outside, we thought having a tree in the front window that could be seen from the street would look cool. Shoot -- we even took pictures. I'll post some soon. I'm at school right now, blogging while my students revise papers, otherwise I'd post some now.

Countdown to the end of the semester (not including finals): 3 days.

Lazy, lazy, lazy students!

My students are SO stinking lazy! Today in each of my 4 Writing I classes, I had on average about 6 0r 8 students out of 20 who showed up. Nice, huh? Well, the first class did good on having their early drafts of papers ready for turn-in, but slowly as the day progressed, each class had fewer and fewer students who did their homework. By the time my last class rolled around, I had 2 students who actually did their assignment. That's right....2! Granted, that gives me fewer papers to grade, but COME ON PEOPLE! I showed one students his grade -- he's at a 30% and didn't have a clue he was that low. When I pointed out that he hasn't turned in a single assignment, he didn't seem shocked that he wasn't passing. He's been there for almost every single class and so I think he thinks that if he shows up he'll still pass. Sorry dude.

I seriously wonder about these people. How do they function in everyday life? Do they really think that can make a decent living with an education for which they did not do anything? Sigh.

Is it December yet?

Midterm and I'm pooped

I just looked at the blog and realized I haven't written anything since Week 3 of the semester. Well, here it is the start of Week 8, and I'm thinking, "Crap, where do I even start?" How about school? I've already lost several students to the imaginary plague this semester so my classes are down to about 12 in each of my Writing I classes and 18 or so in my Writing II classes. That hasn't seemed to make my work load any lighter though. The papers keep coming and piling up. I'm so far behind I don't know where to start.

For the past 3 weeks, I've had to travel to Des Moines for conferences. I also made an impromptu trip to South Bend, IN to see my friend Megan. (She lives in Cleveland, but we split the drive.) We had a great girls' weekend, shopping, hanging out with Max the dog, and checking out the Notre Dame campus. I had no idea how beautiful that place is! It was also cool to get to see Touchdown Jesus in person!

The house is coming along, but thank goodness we didn't have to do a lot when we moved in. It's a daily struggle to get things together for the week let alone get caught up on house projects. We don't dare start anything new! For a while there, Ken was at home and so took care of a lot of household things, laundry, etc. But he's back to work now, so that means we have to find a good balance of trying to get everything done. I seriously don't know how people with kids do it.

Well, I want to get some pictures posted on here of my trip to South Bend, but I have to finally get to some grading tonight. I'll try to get those on soon. Right now I'm just looking forward to a 4-day week!