Friday, May 7, 2010

Day two

Day two of my month away from school. It is eerily quiet. I created a new budget, checked the mail, read the mail, threw most of the mail away, played a little apartment putt-putt and had lunch. If only I could get paid for it. Speaking of getting paid to do ridiculous things. Have you heard of the MLB player who was dropped by the Seattle Mariners? He is still owed $11 million by his previous team the Arizona Diamondbacks. What is he doing now? Why he is playing in a recreational softball league of course! This is his last year under the contract, but for the next few months he will be paid the remainder of his $11 million. The original contract was 3 years for $30 million.

I really have nothing else. I suppose I could read another news story and give you my thoughts, but thats why you have cable news networks.

In the words of the old country - bye

Thursday, May 6, 2010

This is new - for me

I actually had to search google to find our blog. Once I found it I had to remember what the password might be. I'm glad I have a good memory.

For those of you who don't know - (which is probably no one, but for the sake of giving me something to write about lets just go with it) Meredith is working and taking classes at UH and i'm taking classes at HBU. Meredith has 6 of 15 (36 if she decides to get the full masters) hours knocked out and I have 18 of 49 hours completed. We are officially done with our respective classes for one month. Then summer classes start. This summer i'm taking career counseling and theories of counseling. For the fall i'm taking psychology of learning, research techniques, clinical psychopathology, and individual psychological evaluation. Should be fun.

Eventually we will open our own college teaching only education and psychology courses. We will call it College of Wiley and Meredith. It worked for William and Mary so I thought why not Wiley and Meredith. We even have the same initials. I suppose we lack the King and Queen title, but those are just petty details.

So, how about El Nino? Also, I have a struggling fantasy baseball team. If anyone can offer any advice on strategies to get it going I would be much obliged.

Monday, May 3, 2010

I'm Back!

So, it's been forever since I visited this site and now it feels outdated. Wiley and I are so tired of talking about and learning how to be married that we're ready to be out of the "Newlywed" title. Currently I am sitting in a classroom learning about student blogging available through my school district. Because I am part of the technology grant at my school I am required to learn cool new technologies and expect my students to use them. I'm excited about the potential these resources bring, but it's a LOT to get used to. I'm looking forward to this summer when I will have more time to play around and become familiar with these things. Hopefully I'll get more involved with this blog as well.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Random Memories

Yesterday I was walking down the hallway in a dorm and walked right in to a water fountain. I'm such a good listener that I will sacrifice myself. =) Wiley was afraid that I would break the fountain, but I was not walking very fast.

Break: right now I'm watching a Food Network show. Why do they use gross ingredients? I like watching people cook something I would be interested in fixing myself- or at least eating. But, gross stuff is nothing that I want to eat. Ex: Eel, stinky tofu, unhatched eggs- gross!!!!!!!

This is short because I'm not remembering the memories. More will be made soon.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Monday today

I have figured out that there are some people who actually read the blog and that's fun. So, an update is needed.

Wiley is becoming quite the cook. I believe that the combination of him being at home more than me (because he's in grad school) and his building confidence around food and appliances is causing this wonderful change. My Aunt Kelly mentioned that I'm a lucky girl and she's right. When Wiley asked me to marry him I was not thinking that one day he would be fixing me really tasty dishes and helping me enjoy eating. This has been a blessing uncovered. If anything, it's a helpful reminder that I do not have anything in my control and even when I think I know what I'm getting, I do not.

God has so much more going on that I realize and recently it seems that my eyes have been opened to more of it. Can it be possible to have a pretty significant shift in idealism in only a few day's time? This is one thing I'm working through and beginnning to feel like I'm being pulled out of the adorable bubble that I grew up in. My parents and God must have done an incredible job of sheltering me for it to have lasted well into my 20's.

Last week I learned of two very devastating circumstances among my own students. Can you imagine being a 13 year old who has nothing to hope for in life and attempts suicide? Not I, but I also had a very stable life around me. One of my students overdosed, but that's not the only tragedy. She was new to my school and already I sensed no hope. She is a nomad. She didn't like school, didn't like anything. I think I even ate my lunch in front of her when she didn't have the money to buy lunch at school. How awful!
Another situation unlike anything I have known: 13 and pregnant. No one to tell her no, no one to enforce boundaries, just a parent who lets her stay home from school. Again, how is it that there are such different sides of the spectrum- me and these two girls. My heart breaks for them: they have a bleak future. How are two girls with barely a middle school education going to survive in our world? Even charity and hand-outs only go so far.

If you're reading this and wonder why I'm so grave, please understand that I love my job and the students who are in my classes, but they have been teaching me as I have been teaching them.

On a lighter side, Wiley just returned with Dryer's Vanilla Bean ice cream. I get to eat ice cream on a Monday night. That's why being a grown up is so much fun. My mom would not have let me eat ice cream on a school night. =)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Little Hamburgers

It seems like I always talk about food. Wiley and I brainstormed yesterday for future meals and came up with the idea of little burgers. Turkey burgers to be specific. We combined ground turkey meat with Wortchestshire sauce, an egg, bread crumbs cooked bacon and a little honey. Then I sauteed some little onions (little onions = < half a big onion cut up in to small pieces) and cooked some corn bread. I made little cornbread loaves that we cut up and put the tiny patties on. Needless to say we were successful at cooking a good dinner. Wiley found a new "last meal".

The other topic of conversation is grad school. I go to school every day and do 6th and 8th grade level math. Last year I realized I missed being a student myself and wanted a little mental challenge. When the opportunity arose early August for me to apply to a graduate program through UH for a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction I prayed and then applied.

Wiley found out that he was accepted into the grad program at HBU for a masters in psychology the Thursday before classes began. In a similar fashion I heard that I have been accepted into this teacher's program last Thursday and class begins tomorrow (Tuesday). Funny similarity.

Either way, I will begin taking a math class for teachers at HCC Spring Branch every Tuesday night. I'm excited about it even though it may add a number of assignments to my plate. In today's official and more detailed email from my UH contact I learned that the textbook for this course is one I used at A&M during methods. The nice thing is that I liked it then and that I still have it now. Hopefully that fact that it's one edition old will not cause a problem. It will save me over $100 if I can use the edition I already have.

The Parkmans are officially both is Grad school at Houston schools. Will we graduate? Yes. Soon? No. =)

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Another Tuesday

Here are a few things I have figured out recently:

1. I really do love swimming!
2. The more I cook, the better I get.
3. I really can control how well I handle stress and the load that comes with teaching.
4. Not complaining on purpose makes everyone more positive. =)
5. Bluebell's "Light" ice cream is very good and half the calories.
6. One year of teaching makes ALL the difference.

Also, Wiley will be grading 90 quizes in the next few days. That is more than I have ever graded at one time. That sounds like torture to me and I'm a teacher . . . he's a TA at HBU for an undergrad sociology class.