Merry Christmas-New Years!

2015 is shaping to end well.   It is now December 27 and we are still spending time up in Waukon.   Mother Nature will determine exactly how much longer we are here but it's been a good visit.

A little bit of a change related to first meeting at LeAnn's on Christmas Eve Eve rather than coming directly to Waukon.   It made sense due to Mom's work schedule.   It was nice to eat a good meal together, watch our waiter run around like a crazy person, snack on goodies, and watch TV together.  
We did our usual 8pm Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve and watched a Christmas movie afterwards.   Alissa and LeAnn did a spectacular job ushering at the service.   No one was burned with wax this year.  

Christmas was wonderful like usual.   The reduction of presents and gifts didn't seem apparent.   The gifts were thoughtful though.    I have enough black licorice until March.   I was more concerned about Gavin liking his gifts as he's difficult to shop for and I still feel bad that I couldn't get my hands on his Xbox One.   Let's hope I can get one before his birthday.   Considering he's attached to his new furry blanket, apparently that was a good purchase too.

The Smith Christmas was a little bit lackluster energy-wise compared to other years.   I was the vocal side to the White Elephant gift exchange.    Alissa's boyfriend (Michael) joined us for the event.  

I'm still thinking about my New Year's resolution(s).   I would like to do something less predictable (e.g. lose weight, be more active, etc.).    And yes I need to work on those too, don't get me wrong.   I may try to do something more social in nature.   Developing a hobby or getting involved in a regular activity of some sort.    Just not sure yet.  



That's it for now!   I'll write a more in-depth meaningful entry in January.

The start of my 33rd year...

I have some time to kill before heading to a social gathering on campus.    Let's see if I can post a quality blog entry in 15 minutes.  

My birthday was great.   It was nice to be home and see family and be lazy.    I wasn't bummed to not stay overnight at Ron and Elaine's.   I slept much better going to Mom and Dad's on Thanksgiving Eve.   I also got to see Nicole while up in NE Iowa which was nice and she brought the fiance along too.   I wasn't a complete bum and did some work while in Waukon too.   And 33 feels no different than 32. 

I have made good headway with grading.   I finished some major assignments today.    I have about 65 unit plans to grade in the next two weeks.   My DMACC students also have to turn in their handbook assignments.   I'm fairly sure not all will submit the project too which will make grading less strenuous.  It seems that about six students have "checked out" and decided they were done learning for the semester.    Enjoy your Fs!

Finances are starting to worry me a bit as we end the year.   I had hoped to have more in savings by now but extra expenses have ruined that goal most months.   My main concern is Gavin turning 16 and our insurance changing for the car.  Not to mention that he does need his own vehicle too because my Ames schedule is progressively conflicting with his schedule. 

I sent some questions to my supervisor at the Red Cross and I am indeed laid off from all teaching opportunities at the Red Cross.   No more Babysitting Training.   No more CPR/First Aid.  They have fully contacted paid instruction to an outside company but instructors can still teach but only if they volunteer.    I still will teach classes at Iowa State University.   I need to ask more questions about how I'm supposed to be aware of updates and trainings so I'm still active for our needs on campus.   I have a feeling the answer may not be great.

I thought I had more enthralling topics to write about but I guess I don't.   I am excited to get a start on my new grading tasks this weekend as well as decorating for Christmas.   I wasn't fully into it last year due to the move and my emotional state.   I wish I had a Christmas tree.   I refuse to buy one at full price though. 

Time to head out!   And for your visual pleasure....

It Is Done!

It sounds like I just ordered a hit on someone through the mafia and they completed the job for me but my entry actually relates to my application to be advanced to a senior lecturer.  

Fingers crossed.

I feel a combination of relieved, happy, sick to my stomach, and exhausted.    It would be nice if the negative feelings would fade away so I can enjoy the rest of my Friday. 

Shortest entry ever!

Procrastination is My Middle Name

Greetings:

As my title states, procrastination and even prioritization has been an issue in recent weeks.   My application for promotion is due at the end of the week and I have SO much work to do on it.   Sigh.   But to be fair, I've also been working my butt off on grading too.    I almost wish I had waited to apply for promotion in the spring.

Other than being buried in work, life is pretty good.   Home life seems more relaxed since Gavin is done with football.   He lifts after school on most days but it's still easier to pick him up and transport him now.    I had to guess when he was done with football on many days which got irritating very quickly.   I am still waiting for his PSAT scores.   Anxious to see how he does on that type of testing since he should be thinking about the ACTs soon too. 

I am so ready for next week.    ISU is closed all week and I need Monday and Tuesday to catch up with work.   DMACC is technically in session Monday-Wednesday but I gave my online course a work week for a handbook they have to create.   I am hoping to be able to go to NE Iowa and not bring any work with me.   Who wants to grade on their birthday anyway?

Things are going very well with Dan too.  It turns out that I need someone that is as quirky and goofy as me.   Tomorrow is four months since I've met him.  It truly seems longer which I take as a good sign.  I am hoping to introduce him to some family now at the end of 2015 or as 2016 begins.  He and I went to see "The Martian" and it was a pretty decent movie.   I still plan on reading the book some day.

Gavin and I are doing a good job of plugging away through our Netflix list of movies too.

"Rendition":   Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Withersoon.   Women's husband is detained as a possible terrorist.   It was OK and kept my attention but I'm not a huge fan of that type of movie.   It had two story lines and showed how they were connected by the conclusion of the movie so that was neat.

"Wish I Was Here":  Zach Braff (Scrubs) is the main character about a family struggling with money but also dealing with a terminal cancer situation with a grandparent.   It had interesting comedy and I did really like it.

"Boyhood":   I was really surprised by this movie.   It won major awards.   It really doesn't have any famous people in it.   It follows a boy's life from like 5 years old until college.   As Gavin and I were watching it, we were wondering how they found actors that looked so similar as the boy ages in the movie.   Turns out the director used the same kid throughout the movie and took 12 years to create the film.   No wonder the kid continues to look the same as he ages.

"Men, Women, and Children":  we actually saw the preview of this before watching "Boyhood".   Adam Sandler and Jennifer Garner are main characters.   The foundation of the movie is on technology and how it affects relationships.   I was surprised by the nature of the sexual situations but in the long run, it made sense to include them in the movie.

"Birdman":  I was intrigued about this movie as it was supposed to win a lot of awards and I hadn't seen Micheal Keaton in a movie for a long time.   It's centered on a broadway show and an actor struggling with the decrease in popularity.   It alludes that he's a super hero (Birdman) as that was his first acting gig and was super popular in the 90s.   It was rather confusing at times and was WAY too long.    Don't bother with it.

"St. Vincent":  It was nice to see Bill Murray in a movie again.   It was pretty funny but there were serious parts too.  He ends up babysitting for a single mother and helps the boy cope through a divorce situation.   He's also dealing with his wife dying from Alzheimer's and his own health problems too.

"The Giver":  the book is better.   Decent job with trying to relay the message from the book but definitely liked the book better.   Jeff Bridges did a great job and most of the acting was decent.    I guess they tried making this book into a movie since the 90s. 

"John Wick":  I was interested to see if Keanu Reeves was still a decent actor since he's not appearing in many films anymore.   The film was excellent but had a very sad beginning.   It's like "Kill Bill" but with a male lead actor. 

"Whiplash":  This movie was up for major awards so I added it to our list.   It's about a man going to a post-secondary music school that focuses on jazz.   He is striving to be a great drummer.   The main teacher (the dad from Juno) is a very difficult teacher and some awful things happen in the movie in regards to deception.   There are scenes where the drummers have to practice so much their hands bleed.   Yikes.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas":  I wished I had read the book before the movie but reading for pleasure isn't doable at the moment.   It was a good movie with a sad ending.   It relates to World War II.  It turns out that some of the wives of German officers didn't fully know what was happening in the concentration camps.   The movie shows one of those wives realizing what is happening at a local concentration camp and their son never fully understanding the purpose of those sites.   I assumed that everyone was in the loop in regards to the camps' purpose so it was an interesting perspective.

"Gone Girl":  I saw this in the theater and wanted to see it again for the heck of it.   Gavin thought it was good and really twisted...because it is.   I still need to read the author's second book. 

"A Million Ways to Die in the West":  The dude that made Family Guy created this movie and it was actually pretty funny.   Lots of crude humor though.  I liked it more than I thought I would.

"Sex Tape":  Cameron Diaz movie.   It was 'meh'.   Another one of those sexually-based comedies that tries too hard.    Moral of the story:  don't film  yourself having sex with your Ipad and let it automatically sync to "the cloud".

Don't get me wrong, we aren't sitting around just watching movies.   Some movies are from September and October.   We are currently waiting to receive "Babel" and "The Constant Gardener".

I've been working on this for two days.   Time to finally hit 'publish'.

Yawn

I'm not sure what is going on lately but I am consistently tired.  I'm relaxing and taking it easy in the evenings and still feel pretty wore out in the evenings.   I even go to bed early but sadly I usually don't fall asleep quickly.   I have one more class to teach today and I'm honestly looking forward to going home and taking a nap before I pick up Gavin from football. 

My need to hibernate later is a great transition into my next topic.    Time for some tattling on myself so I can hopefully get myself back into gear with good choices.  

1.  I am not being nearly active enough on a regular basis.   On most days I do hustle and move a lot at work but I'm pretty sedentary in the evenings and on weekends.   The approaching winter weather isn't going to help that.  I am hoping to play some more tennis before Mother Nature interferes.

2.   I am eating out way too much which is bad for the waistline but also bad for my budget.   I did some thoughtful grocery shopping yesterday which is going to promote more meals being made at home.   A cranberry pork loin is on the menu for an upcoming day.    I cancelled my Weight Watchers subscription.   With my budget, I don't see the logic in handing them money each month.  

3.  I am not reading for pleasure anymore.   I have so many books sitting around (sorry LeAnn) and need to start reading a couple again.   The sad thing is that I do really want to read them but I just don't have the mental energy on most nights.   And if I do have a lot of energy, I usually devote it to grading.  

And finally, I'll end with some good news.    I am pretty pleased with how I'm handling my workload and organization with both jobs.   Now I do have a buttload of grading to do all the time but I feel pretty calm & collect when it comes to starting each week.   I'm doing a good job of coming in early or staying a little bit later on most days to work on "extra" tasks so I'm caught up or slightly ahead with some of my duties.  

I guess that's all for now! 

Yippee It's Fall!

I am very happy that it's October.   I love this time of year.   I need to make more time to enjoy the weather as well as fall-based activities.   I want to visit a local orchard one of these days.   I just never remember to stop by it when I'm driving home.   I'm also bummed because you cannot pick your own apples anymore.   I'm a weirdo and picking your own apples is fun.   I'm excited for Halloween at the end of the month too.   I didn't do much with the holiday last year because I was in such a funk.   I actually decorated this year.   It would be neat if I could go trick-or-treating with Dan and his son(s) but that hasn't been determined.   I miss having a young kid for that very reason.  Never mind Tooth Fairy duties and Santa Claus, I miss picking out his costume and taking him out for candy.

Work is going OK.   There is an ebb and flow of workload.   I made some good headway over the past weekend and into this week.   I'm taking a break from grading at the moment because my brain feels fried.   I can't be fair and accurate if I can't think straight.   I'm surprised I'm making sense in this blog.   I am doing some different things in my health classes at ISU.   The big change is that I no longer have a midterm exam or final exam.   I'm only using quizzes throughout the semester.   Both are methods courses and I thought that more interactive and pedagogical-based activities would be logical in class time and for grading purposes.   I wrote some quizzes today too and that's another reason why my mind feels like mush.   DMACC is going OK.   Many of my students aren't doing squat in my online class so they aren't going to like the midterm grade they earn.   Plus if they haven't been active in weeks, I can still remove them from the class.   I have to finalize all that over the weekend.   I taught a few weeks ago for the Red Cross but I'm not doing much for them.   I have an online training with them next week.    I was told I was needed to teach some classes in November but they are no listed on the assignment calendar.   Shrug.

Things with Dan are going very well.   They are going very well with little to no work.   It's been an odd mindset because I spent years thinking like this:

"A, B, and C are wrong with this relationship.    What do I need to do to fix those issues?"

It's an odd mindset because I'm not in continuous repair-mode.   It was bad enough back in the day when I was the only one putting effort into repair mode.    Not having anything to repair is dandy.   I've spent more time with his kids.   I'm still nervous about my presence with his 13-year-old son but interactions so far have been fine.   Hanging out with his six-year-old is a piece of cake.

He's been working a lot...I'm talking major over time which is great for his financial needs.   It works out well too because my hours can be intense on some days too.   It's been fantastic seeing someone that enjoys their line of work too.   He's passionate about what he does.   He enjoys helping others and is selfless about it.

Needless to say, my relationship status will be changing soon on my Facebook page.   I'm taking my time with the process.   I am honestly tempted to change it on November 4 since that is officially a year since a difficult but necessary change happened with the previous relationship.   (Dan suggested that and it's growing on me.)   Either that date or on my birthday.   Shrug.

Today is Gavin's last football game of his sophomore year.   It's been an up and down season.   He's been decent in most games.   The team as a whole struggled with their offensive line and defense for much of the season.  He'll continue to practice into November with varsity but it's unlikely he'll play in any remaining games.  He got another academic award for his high GPA and surprisingly lettered in academics too.   The assembly was during school this year which bummed me out.   He acted like it's no big deal anyway.

I think that's it for now.  I need to teach in 30 minutes.   We are doing a mock "Pharm Party" in my health class.   Yes, I'm officially one of those weird health teachers.   Weird teachers are more memorable anyway.

Another Blog Will Come Soon...

The laptop is currently being fixed and a new blog will be posted within the week.    I was correct in that my hard drive took a dive.   It pays when you son is friends with the computer shop owner...got a 20% discount.   :)

In general things are going well.   More details later!