The end is in sight!

I have only 8 more days to teach these two summer classes. Well - 8 days spread out over the next 2 weeks, that is. I am so excited for the summer session to draw to a close.

For both fall and spring semesters, I taught two college algebra classes each. I thought it was very interesting that for each semester I would have one class that was very mature and accepted the fact that college classes are more difficult than high school, whereas the other class would complain about practically everything. I was given the impression that is how it is when you teach college algebra. Another reason that I was very excited to teach higher level classes this summer.

I just have to say that I am experiencing the same thing this term with my statistics students. One lady in the class was upset from the very start about the cost of the various required materials. She said that she had never had to buy any materials for any other class (not even textbooks) and there had to be a way around buying a book, access to the online program where they do their homework and a graphing calculator with statistical functions. She was very unhappy about needing the access code and the calculator and said that she would get through the class without the calculator. Since when do students think that the only expense associated with going to school is tuition? When she was unable to do 25% of the first test, she walked out of my class and never came back. Apparently, it is more cost beneficial to lose your tuition money for not completing a class than to buy an $75 calculator.

Now I have had quite a few students complain about the speed at which we are covering material in the class. Forget the fact that I pointed out to everyone at the start of the term that we would cover as much in one week for summer term as in 3 weeks in a regular semester. In fact - I had to point out to the students today that the attitude that they have in the class is not appropriate and if they feel like we are moving too fast it is only because this is a summer term class. I could tell that some people loosened up after my little speech, but a few left class and came back with drop slips for me to sign.

I feel bad that some people decided to drop the class and lose their tuition for the term. But at the same time I feel super frustrated that some of my students seem to blame me personally for them underestimating the difficulty of the class.

My calculus class on the other hand is much more mature. Even though the class overall does worse on tests and quizzes - they accept the fact that I teach the material and it is their responsibility to learn.

Add to the frustration of the statistics class (which is so sad because I love teaching statistics), the fact that I am averaging working at least 45 hours a week and I am only paid for 16.5. I can't wait for this summer session to be over!

3rd anniversary

And yes - it has been a happy 3 years. :)

Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary, but due to the amount of work I had to do for school our celebration consisted of Justin picking up some Chinese food and flowers on his way home from work and then after dinner, I wrote a statistics exam. Fun stuff, right?

So far today I have worked on my handouts for my stats class, written the exam for my calculus class, and taken it up to the school for copies. All I have left to do for the evening is grade some quizzes. Maybe we will have to pretend that today was our anniversary instead. :)

What a week!

This past week was my first week of summer classes and it was a killer!

In a normal semester, I would be in the classroom teaching these 2 classes for 6 hours a week. For a summer session though I am in class for 16 hours a week. I know that partly it is just that I am used to working part-time, but right now it is killing to be in class for 4 hours a day and then spend 4-5 hours a day preparing for upcoming classes or grading. It will be even worse this week when I give a test in each class. You also have to keep in mind that I am only paid for the time that I spend in class so all of my prep time and grading time is time spent without compensation.

I guess that is really the thing that makes it so difficult for me to deal with how much I am working right now - who likes to work when they know that they aren't getting paid for it? The funny thing is, I wouldn't have even noticed quite how much extra work it was to teach two different classes at once if I were teaching them during a regular semester.

I guess my big complaint here is - if they are going to work me like a full-time employee then they need to pay me like one.

Beware those big "bargain" stores

A lot of people think that just because something is at Sam's Club, it is a better price than anywhere else. Don't get me wrong. I know that some things there are great deals - you just have to make sure you are really getting as good a deal as you think you are.

Let me backtrack a few years. Justin and I had rolls of lifesavers as wedding favors. They were very cute - here are the customized wrappers that we got to put over the existing packaging:


Anyway - after getting all the wrappers, I just needed to get 300 rolls of lifesavers. I was at Wal-mart and priced them, just so that I could see what a better deal I would be getting when I bought them all at Sam's. To my surprise, they were about $.50 more per pack of 10 at Sam's than they were at Wal-mart. Since I was buying 30 packs, I left and went back to Wal-mart so I could save $15.

Now on to today - we ran out of black ink for our printer. Our printer takes 6 different ink cartridges and although we had a back-up for light pink and light blue we didn't have another black one. How we buy the ink depends on all the other ink levels. Each color cost anywhere from $10-$12 to replace and the black usually costs about $20 since it is a larger cartridge. In the past when all the other levels are looking low, we have bought a package that contains all six cartridges and 150 4"X6" sheets of photo paper at Best Buy for around $40. We haven't done much photo printing so we now have quite the stash of photo paper - but even if we are just using the ink, it is a much better deal to buy the big pack.

We looked at the ink levels and it looks like the next ones to go are going to be the two colors that we already have back-ups for so really we just needed black ink. I decided that I could probably get a package of 2 black ink cartridges at Sam's Club for around $30 so I headed there this morning.

How surprised was I to see that not only could I not just buy black ink for our printer at Sam's, but that the 6 cartridge multi-pack (without any photo paper) was $58.96 (+ tax)! I knew that we hadn't bought ink for a while, but surely the price hadn't gone up that much. I went next door to Best Buy and bought the multi-pack (with photo paper) for $35.99 + tax. That means that (including tax) it was $25 less to buy the ink at Best Buy than it was to purchase it at Sam's.



And that is supposed to be a "club" price at Sam's? Shame on you!

They grow up so fast!

So - both Justin and I have been not so good at blogging lately. We really should tell you more and more about our little boy.

Last week he was sick and I had to take him to the vet on Monday. They weighed him in at just over 6 lbs. He is quite a healthy eater though and when I took him in this morning to have him kenneled for a couple days, he weighed in at just over 8 pounds. The vet said that maybe we should start feeding him only 3 times a day instead of 4.

Anyway - here are just some pics that we have taken of him. There is one of him with a stuffed animal in his mouth. Sometimes when we put him in his pen, he picks up all his toys that he can and start whining. It is his way of saying, "I just want to come out and play with my toys!" When we really know that he wants to come out and bite us or chew on the carpet.


This one is Colby saying "Let me out of jail please. I will be a good boy"

Colby's Longest Car Ride

Last Saturday, I gave Julie a break from Colby. I took him with me for a trip to Sargent, TX., which is between 1.5-2 hours away from our home.

A senior manager where I work had invited a bunch of us to go to his "fish camp" in Sargent, to help him with the construction of a deck.

At first Colby was a bit restless, and barked a bit. Then, I guess he resigned himself to the fact that we were going somewhere, and barking wasn't going to get us there any faster. Or, maybe it was the lull of the road that knocked him out. Either way, he slept most of the rest of the trip there.

When we arrived, I set up his pen and crate partly in the shade and partly in the sun. He did pretty well, as I had positioned his pen in a way that he could see us and not feel abandoned.

Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, everyone there loved him. They thought he was so cute. There was a boy there who kept Colby company, either by sitting and playing in his pen, or by walking him around on his leash. I would have let him run around on his own more, but the back and the left side of the house are adjacent to the river. That wouldn't be so bad, except there is nothing to keep Colby from walking across the lawn and straight into the river.

Colby liked the water bottle we bought him Friday, which hangs on the crate or pen. It looks like it is for a big hamster. (Our big hamster named Colby)

I could tell that he enjoyed sniffing around and exploring that strange new place. I'm glad he acclimates well to new surroundings.

The trip home was even better than the trip down. Not only because traffic was lighter, but because Colby slept almost the whole way.

This should help him when we decide to go up to Dallas or over to Austin. :)

Adjusting to our new life

The past 11 days has been quite an adjustment for us as we try to get used to having Colby here with us. I think that it is actually a little harder for me because I am home more often than Justin is.

I think the thing that we are having trouble with (at least the biggest thing that I am having trouble with) is the biting. I know that he thinks he is playing with us, but his little teeth are quite sharp. We try to give him toys to chew on instead - but he really just wants our hands. So now I have scratches all over my right hand. I hate having to leave him in his pen, but I don't like to get hurt. So when he won't give up on trying to chew on me, I have to put him up for a little while.

Despite the biting problem, we love him. :) And especially right now when he is sleeping while Justin rubs his tummy we think about the fact that he really is just a baby and he is so cute.

On another note - we think that he has already gotten quite a bit bigger since we brought him home on the 14th. I hope that he stays on the small side, but it is good to know that he seems to be happy and healthy.

So easy to lose my patience

The past week has been an adventure as we get accustomed to have Colby here. Especially since Justin left on Sunday evening for a 2 day training up in Chicago and I was on my own to take care of our new puppy. For those of you who have never tried to housetrain a young dog - it is no fun.

Sunday evening was nothing but headache for me as I tried to finish getting tests graded for my students while Colby barked almost the whole time. Then on Monday morning I kept taking him out to try to potty but he wouldn't do it - instead he waited until we had come back inside so he could poop on the floor in my bedroom. I grabbed him and took him out again (this time in my underwear) for him to just stand outside and whine until we came back in. I barricaded him in the kitchen (so I thought) to run upstairs and finish getting ready. 2 minutes later - he has pooped on the floor in the kitchen so I get the joy of cleaning it up before leaving for class.

On MWF my schedule is that I go teach my 2 classes and am gone for close to 4 hours. I come home to eat lunch and then head back up to the college where I meet up with a high school kid that I am tutoring in AP Statistics. When I got home from school, I see that I had not successfully barricaded Colby into the kitchen since I find him underneath the couch. He is so small that he can fit through the gate that we bought to keep him in the kitchen. It was not easy to find a gate to fit a 5 foot opening and the one we found doesn't do us any good! I take him out, feed him and take him out again but can't get him to potty before I have to leave to get back to the school. An hour and a half later when I get home I find that he has pooped in his crate so it is now all over him and his pad, his two little stuff toys and a chew rope we had in there for him.

The chew rope goes in the trash - the other items go in the washer and Colby goes in the tub (something that he does not seem to like very much). After I get him clean, I take his crate outside to hose it down and get it clean. The rest of the day and Tuesday both go very well and I think that his little accident on Monday is an isolated incident. Until Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday, Justin is home so Colby gets fed his breakfast a bit earlier than normal all in the hopes that we will be able to get him to potty before I have to leave for class. Everything seems to be going well - he even went to the bathroom outside about 15 minutes before I had to leave. So I stuck him in his crate and ran upstairs to brush my teeth and change my clothes. No more than 5 minutes later when I came back downstairs - he was covered in poop. Urgh! So here I was - already in my nicer clothes having to give him a quick bath, put his stuff into the washer again, and get his crate cleaned out before I can leave. Luckily I made it to class on time since I really don't have the luxury of being able to show up to work a few minutes late on occasion.

Now this morning even though I had taken him out 45 minutes earlier and he did his business, I found a pee stain in his crate that wasn't there when I took him out less than an hour earlier. I know he is just a baby, but supposedly they don't like to go where they sleep (I think he is proving that wrong) and since he is 2 months old, he is supposed to be able to go for about 3-4 hours without having to be taken out. I have a whole list of things that I need to do - but I am not doing any of them because I finally got him to sleep but if I get up he will wake up and chances are mess in his crate again. Grrr. I think that Justin should take a couple days off work so that he can take care of the dog all day and I can get some stuff done.

A new member in our family: Colby

Yesterday, we adopted a new member into our family. Colby was born on Ash Wednesday, is about 4 pounds and so cute!!!

We have both been wanting to get a dog ever since moving into our house. Then over the past week Justin has made a few comments about needing to get a dog. Yesterday morning he said - today we should go look at some dogs. We did and ended up bringing one home.



So now we are already enjoying all the work involved with having a brand new puppy - including getting up in the middle of the night to take him out and try to get him to potty outside and not on our floor - not working so great right now.

As expected we spent more on the puppy supplies than on the adoption itself. Oh well! :)

Here are a few more pics Julie took of Colby this morning. Isn't he so cute?

Our Easter weekend

First and foremost - this is the coldest Easter weekend that I (Julie) ever remember. Yesterday, it was so cold here, that by the evening it was 63 degrees in our house and we had to breakdown and turn on the heater - something I never thought we would have to do in April in Houston. But beyond the weather - here are some pictures and a little bit about our weekend.

Believe it or not - this is a picture of the cake that I made on Saturday. It may look like a hollow chocolate rabbit - but it a cake. :) Making the cake was an adventure because about 7 minutes after I put it in the oven, the power shut off. And this wasn't one of those "the power goes out and then turns right back on situations". No - the power was out for 45 minutes and the whole time I was freaking out that my cake would be ruined since it had already started baking when the power shut off. Luckily though - I was able to turn the oven back on as soon as the power came back and the cake seemed to turn out fine.

I posted the best picture first, here is a picture from the side where you can see that even though I cut the the rounded portion off of both halves before putting them together, it did not fit together very well. Oh well - it still turned out very tasty and of course I got a picture that makes it look its best.

After finishing with the cake, Justin and I colored some Easter eggs. Here are just a few pictures of the eggs that we colored. Coloring eggs is not just for kids!

Then, we had our friends Jen and Paul and their kids Aaron and Brian over to play games and eat some of the yummy bunny cake. We ended up playing a few children's games that we had bought this past week - Chutes & Ladders, CandyLand and Ant in the Pants.

Sunday morning we ate some of the hard-boiled eggs that we had colored the night before and sat at our beautifully decorated table.


Did I mention that I put together Easter baskets for us? Justin's is the big one on the right - mine is the smaller one on the left.

Then for Easter dinner we headed down to Texas City (really close to Galveston) to be with some of Justin's family for Easter. We had a great dinner and then afterwards, Justin's job was to help the kids dye some eggs. He had gotten some good practice from the day before. Here are some pics of them having Easter egg dying fun.