This is me! Writing!

Heather guilted me into it. (Just kidding, Heather! Thanks for the encouragement!)

I am now SIX weeks into the school year. For the very first time, I sat down at my desk Friday afternoon after my last class and blinked in amazement at the fact that I was caught up. Now, for you to understand the trauma I have endured, you need to understand my Nerdiness. Inherent in my nerdiness is a compulsion to be completely organized, all the time, and I really stress out when I'm not. I've managed to let go of quite a bit of that here at home, but work is a whole 'nother story. It's just been... well... traumatic for me to NOT be two weeks ahead in my lesson plans, even though I've worked several Saturdays.

I finally figured it out, though. All of my five classes cannot possibly do a lab for every chapter, and it's okay that they won't. You see, I LOVE my lab. It's new and clean and well-stocked. (I should know. I spent all of last year doing it.) More to the point, I LOVE having kids in my lab, because they LOVE being there. So, I've practically killed myself trying to do that for them, and it's just not physically possible for me to keep doing it.

Truthfully, there are several labs for each class that have to be done at the beginning of the year because they are technique labs. If they don't do them, then they're lost later in the year, and I have to backtrack to those labs anyway. Now that all of my classes are through the first few chapters of their respective curriculums, though, it can slow down some. I can focus on the concepts that really need labs in order to be understood, instead of just looking at a lab and saying "Ooh! That's a fun one! They'll LOVE that! We have to do it!"

In other news, my laptop screen is still broken. This contributes to the lack of posting since I have to come ALL THE WAY into Knight's office (a whole ten feet!) to use a computer. (It really is a bit of a pain because I can't keep an eye and a half on Jet from in here.) Fortunately, the laptop still works, and he has it magically hooked up to his monitor. I don't see us spending the money to fix my laptop, because I am cheap. Knight is trying to convince me to just use his, and he'll "just get a new one". Because he's loves me sacrificially like that.

I've lost a total of 12.2 pounds in six weeks on Weight Watchers. I'm pretty proud of myself for that. Just today, I was in the grocery store and crouched to get something from the bottom shelf. When I stood up, I had to hitch up my jeans. I haven't had to do that in a looooong time. Big huge thanks to Granny and Grandad for helping me finance the expedition! :)

One Jet story before I go to bed: His new talent is "tinkeling standing up". He's quite proud of himself. He informs me before he goes to the bathroom that he's "gonna tinkeling standing up". We had these tin, magnetic spice containers on the side of our fridge, and I had them all on the kitchen table because our freezer finally became Too Much. (Thanks for the "new" one, Mom and Dad!). Later that evening, Knight and I were watching TV, and Jet was being awfully quiet after having finished his meal in the kitchen. Knight discovered him playing with those spice containers, and little green flakes were everywhere.

We decided to just let him have at it, since we don't use them anyway. Knight gave him a big bowl and a wooden spoon, and stood him on the chair next to the table. Soon the house was filled with the aroma of basil, fennel, mint, oregano and whatever else was in those things. We continued our TV-watching. A few minutes later, I heard Jet pouring something into a cup. I thought to myself, "He didn't have any water...??" I looked past Knight just in time to see him tucking his "pee-nit" back into his pants. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he had peed in one of those empty tin cups. I promptly told Knight, "That's all you! That's so totally a guy thing!" He went into the kitchen, talking at Jet, but I don't even know what he said because I was laughing too loud. I'm sure I was helping the situation.

So, now, he's done a similar thing for the last three evenings while in the bath. He'll put a little cup that he plays with in the bath on the side of the tub and PEE in it!

I don't know what to do with the boy.