4.0

I got my grades from Hell, Part I. I got A's in both classes! I think the Tom Petty concert this weekend is well deserved. And I think I just might have to buy myself the new Tom Petty album. And go to Sweet Tomatoes.

Oh shit! I just realized that I forgot to pack my lunch today.

Hot For Hubby

So I wrote a post yesterday (which I just deleted) about my lack of concentration in class over the fact that my professor is hot. When my husband came home, I attacked him. I think that the similarities in their appearance simply renewed my infatuation, lust, desire, etc. for my husband. I'm totally hot for hubby right now. It was difficult to let him go to work today.

My professor is short (though, not at short as Navigator). He has dark brown hair and a beard. If he was in the same room as my husband, along with a bunch of other people, and I described my husband to a stranger, they might see my professor and think he's my husband. I checked out Navigator this morning. I mean, really checked him out. He's way hotter than my professor.

I think I've just been really stressed out with school that I haven't had time to think about just how unbelieveably attracted I am to my husband. We've been married for almost a year, but we've been together for three. You'd think that by now, we would be past the stage where we can't keep our hands off each other, and be in the happily comfortable stage. I thought that's where we were last week because I wasn't feeling totally crazy about him.

It took the cute professor to get me going again. That's why I think it was stress from school. I just have 3 1/2 weeks left, then a week of work. After that, I'll have a month of no responsibility and all the time in the world to be crazy about my husband.

A Meme

I was tagged for a meme by Waterfall. I've never done one before, so we'll see what happens...


The "4" Meme

4 jobs you've had:

1. Hot Shot Investment Banker
2. Campus Security
3. Database Administrator
4. Papa John's Pizza Shift Manager

4 movies you could watch over & over:

1. Casablanca
2. Office Space
3. Walk
4. Monty Python's Holy Grail

4 places you've lived:

1. Cranford, NJ
2. Raytown, MO
3. Plaquemine, LA
4. Stockton, CA

4 TV shows you love to watch:

1. Stargate SG-1
2. Veronica Mars
3. Smallville
4. The Biggest Loser (Although I'm not sure that's on anymore. When it was on, I loved watching it)

4 places you've been on holiday:

1. The Appalachian Trail
2. The Pacific Crest Trail
3. Alaska
4. Vancouver Island

4 websites you visit daily:

1. google.com
2. weather.com
3. myspace.com
4. craigslist.com

4 of your favorite foods:

1. applesauce
2. bagels (really, it's any bread product, but bagels are my favorite. Of that category, NJ bagels win.)
3. berries
4. popcorn

4 places you'd rather be:

1. In a house with air conditioning (we're on the downside of a heat wave)
2. In the woods
3. At the beach
4. In Colville, working on our property

4 lucky people to tag:

I'm new to this blogging world, so I'm going to pick the only blogging people I know (and I know I can't tag waterfall again...). Hopefully at least one person will respond...

1. Double I
2. Gloves
3. Bear Bag
4. Batteries Included

Cycle Oregon - The Weekend

This weekend, temps got into the 100's. Instead of sitting in front of the fan, sipping iced tea and lemonade, my husband & I joined the Cycle Oregon weekend ride from Eugene to Oakland.

It would have been a fairly easy ride, if it was 30 degrees cooler. There weren't too many major climbs and it was mostly flat. Saturday morning, it was cloudy for most of the day, but Sunday was brutal. Navigator nearly succumbed to the heat. I had to wrap him in cold, wet towels to cool him off. I had a headache Saturday night, but only because I didn't drink enough water.

The town of Oakland was fun. I don't think they have one stop sign in their downtown area. We camped on the ball fields at the high school. The high school and the elementary school share the same grounds, cafeteria and multi-purpose room. The elementary school has about 8 classrooms and one bathroom. That's how small this town is.

Downtown, there was one tavern (which was closed) and a soda shop/restaurant/bar, one hardware store that sells everything and a grocery store about the size of a 7-11. Every other building in town was an antique shop. In fact, the soda shop/restaurant/bar also sells antiques. What is it about small towns and antique shops? I don't get it.

I didn't take too many pictures on account of the heat and the fact that we were kinda miserable. I also packed the camera in our overnight bags on Sunday, so I didn't even have it during the ride yesterday.

I have ass rash on the crease where my butt meets my legs. I'm not looking forward to riding to work today.

The good news is that I found my I-Pod on Friday. The bad news is that one of our kittens, Cholla, succumbed to the heat and passed away this weekend. She had been losing weight for a week and was failing to thrive to begin with. My roommate had to work until 10 and when she came home, Cholla was in bad shape. She was seizing every so often, and hadn't had any water or food all day. She finally passed at 3am. Reuben is 1.5 pounds, Meesha is 1 pound, and when Cholla died, she was less than 1/2 a pound. She was also the runt of the litter. She was part siamese, and some cats in heat will have more than one partner. This means that Mom probably had a siamese partner a while after her first, and Cholla was probably a premie, so her chances were already slim. I miss her. She was super sweet.

We still have Reuben and Meesha. Reuben is currently attacking the cords on the computer. Silly kitty!

Good News... and Some Bad

The good news is that I need to get only 5 points (out of 15) on my final today to get an A in the class.

The bad news is that I seem to have misplaced my I-Pod. I honestly can't remember the last time I had it. I think it was at work on Friday. I hope it is still at work, under a bunch of stuff on my desk. It's not in my car. I just hope I didn't put it on top of my car before I left work and drove off. Shit. I hate it when my mind is so cluttered, I can't remember a damn thing.

Hell, Part 1

On Thursday at 4:50pm, Hell, Part 1 will officially be over. We will celebrate with happy hour, then go home, recouperate, read two chapters in a new book and return on Monday for Hell, Part 2.

What is this Hell in Two Parts? It's the Summer Session of the PSU Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Ed Grad Program. This is the idea:

Take two classes that usually meet four hours per week in 12 weeks, and shrink them into two classes that meet eight hours per week in four weeks. Follow that up with another round, and you have Hell in Two Parts.

The only good thing about it is that after Thursday, I will be on the downhill side. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and my only hope is that it has a 3.5 (or better) dancing in it.

Students with Deafness and Hearing Loss Presentation

Tomorrow is my group presentation on Students with Deafness and Hearing Loss. I'm exhausted, but I'm almost finished. I was hoping that my sister-in-law would have the time to put together a first-hand account on being a parent of a child with hearing loss, but I haven't heard from her. She probably has a lot to do besides my homework. Luckily, she kept a journal of my niece's progress, so I think I'll print it out tomorrow morning and just make that supplemental material.

In the mean time, I've created beautiful transparencies, a Deaf Time Line and a most wonderful outline that will wow our professor (at least I hope). I know I'm putting more work into this than I need to, but I can't help it. I am a perfectionist.

I have strong feelings about my professor, textbook and the class in general, but I have neither the time nor the energy to express such thoughts. Right now, I must put all my stuff together, take a shower, turn off the lights, kiss the kittens and go to bed.

More Pictures of Kittens

I couldn't get these pictures to upload on my last post.

Kittens sleeping in their corral. From top to bottom: Reuben, Cholla & Meesha

Meesha tangled in my backpack strap!

Who Wants a Kitten?

The Shmuffinator passed away last month. He'd been having digestive tract problems that got complicated into kidney trouble and eventually complete shut-down. It was difficult in that the kidney problems and shut-down happened so quickly that we were pretty surprised when the vet gave us the choice to euthanize or put him through more trauma to attempt to keep him alive for another couple months. He's been creamated and sits next to Rocky Cat on my dresser.
I decided that I didn't want to get into another relationship with a cat in the near future. However, my roommate wanted one, but wasn't sure if she could make a long-term commitment. We decided that she should foster cats. She signed up with the Cat Adoption Team. We got our first set of kittens w/ mom on Friday. They'll be with us for the next 4-6 weeks. While they were in the shelter last week, they all lost weight and mom stopped eating because it was so stressful on them. Since coming here, they have all been nursing very well and mom has eaten quite a lot. We haven't seen much weight gain yet, but that'll probably take a week.

We've named them Reuben, Meesha and Cholla. Mom is Sheba, though she was misnamed. When Heidi went to pick up the cats, she was told that she was getting an all black set. She thought that an all black cat would make a cool Sheba, so when the woman asked her what she wanted to name the mom, she said "Sheba." Then she got the tuxedo cat and it was too late.

Sheba is about two years old and she likes to play. She isn't as active as a normal two year old right now because she's nursing and needs to keep her strength to make milk. However, she does like to play with the little yarn toys we've made for the kittens. She's also a big lover. She sleeps at the foot of Heidi's bed every night and likes to be around people. She hates to be locked in the spare bedroom alone with the kittens. She will make a wonderful lap cat for somebody.

Here's a picture of the sweet lumps of fluff. If you are in the Portland area and may be interested in adopting a kitten or cat, let me know!

Mama nursing her kittens

Philosopy of Teaching

We have an assignment due in my Intro to EI/ECSE class today. We have to write our philosophy of teaching. We weren't given any guidelines. In fact, none of my assignments so far have had any guidelines, except for amount of pages. My philosophy of teaching is to be a page or less, double spaced. This is my first draft. My instructor will look it over, make comments, and I will use those comments to rework my philosophy and turn it in to another instructor in another class. The idea is that by the time I'm finished with the licensure program, I will have a lengthy philosophy of teaching that is succint and solid. So, here it is folks, Delphi's current short but sweet philosophy of teaching:

Learning is a continual process of which every human being is capable. Everyone acquires skills and knowledge at different paces. No one pace is correct. The pace is correct only to that individual, as one must master a certain set of skills before moving on to the next.

As a teacher, I hope to foster a lifelong love of learning in my students. Therefore, it is my duty to help the students in the mastery of each set of skills, determined by their pace. If I require that a student who is learning at a slower pace learn at the pace of her peers, she may lose self esteem and any desire to continue to learn. Conversely, if I require that a student who has mastered a set of skills to continue to practice those skills without building on them while his peers reach the same level of mastery, the student may lose his desire to learn because of boredom.

In order to attain such goals, it is important that a teacher form a partnership with parents. Parents are a child’s first teachers. As such, they have a wealth of information about the student’s strengths and learning needs. I believe that supporting a parent’s role as the first and continuing teacher and advocate for their child is vitally important to the success of a child’s learning. If a parent does not get that support and their interest in their child’s learning is lost, the child’s own desire to learn may be wasted.