DONE!!!

I just finished the last and final Harry Potter book. I just had to finish it (even though I have lots of work I need to be doing). I wanted to find out what happened in the book by reading it myself - I did not want to hear about it from someone else. I heard that there was an article in the Houston Chronicle today that had some spoilers in it.

That said - I will not say anything except that I loved it.

Now I really have to get some work done that I have seriously been putting off. Why couldn't the book have come out during my break between classes?

RESOLVED: Whoa - we owe how much?

As previously stated, we were told that the meter was mis-read and that the correct reading would be applied and a new bill would come. A new bill DID come, but it said we owed exactly the same amount as before.

I went to the gas company's website on Saturday and sent an email to customer service saying that we thought the new bill would reflect the correct amount we owed. Two days later I got a response saying that an investigation is pending, and to allow 7-10 for the new bill to come.

I was very impressed that not even 48 hours after I got their email, the revised bill showed up (electronically...the USPS is not THAT fast). We are very pleased that it is around the average amount of $20. Whew!

Harry Potter

We jumped on the bandwagon this weekend and saw Harry Potter for a Saturday matinee.

We loved it!

I hadn't read Order of the Phoenix since right around the time it came out and Justin had never read it. I actually think that is the best way to do it. I couldn't remember everything that was supposed to happen (according to the book) so it didn't really make as much difference to me if they left small segments out. Now that I have seen the movie, I do plan to re-read it though so I can pick up on all the little things that they may have left out or altered.

In the meantime, I started reading The Half-Blood Prince again this weekend. I really want to get through it before the last book comes out (in just a matter of days). So it will be a little while before I get back to Order of the Phoenix.

Happy reading!

Whoa - we owe how much?

We have any bills that we can set up through our bank so that before we get our electricity bill, gas bill or credit card bills in the mail we typically get an email from our bank letting us know the amount of the bill. A couple days ago we got an email letting us know the amount of our electricity bill (hate paying for central air, but sure do love it).

Then yesterday we got an email telling us the amount of our gas bill. Imagine my shock to see that our gas bill was $112. Considering that the only things that use gas in our house are the hot water heater and our central heating unit, this was some cause for alarm. For the last 2 months, our gas bill has been $20 a month and now it is suddenly over 5 times that amount. I called Justin (in Houma) to see what he thought about it.

We remembered that on Saturday, we thought there was a strange smell in the garage (where the hot water heater is located) but on Sunday we didn't notice it so much anymore. But of course now I am freaking out a little bit that we have a gas leak. What would you think - strange smell and then your gas bill is out of control?

I called the gas company and told them my concern and they said that since we smelled something the other day they would send a technician out that day (yesterday) in order to check to see if there was a leak or if there was some other problem.

About 30 minutes later the doorbell rings and the guy is here to make sure we don't have a gas leak. Luckily there was no leak and the high bill was due to a "mis-read of our meter".

The thing is - the guy acted so annoyed with me that he had to check to find out that there was no leak. Especially since we had not "officially" received a bill in the mail. I'm sorry - isn't that your job? It isn't like I called and said, "we have a gas leak, send someone right away". I explained the situation to the lady and she said "that is cause for concern, we will send someone today".

And would he have preferred that I waited a few days to have a paper copy of the bill in my hands so that if there was a gas leak, we might no longer have a house?

Can you tell that it irked me?

It is finally over, or is it?

Yesterday marked the last day that I have to go to both my statistics class and my business calculus class that I taught this summer. I gave the final exam in each class yesterday, got them graded and figured out what everyone's final grade is in the class. Now all I have to do is enter the grades into the system online, print out my grade records and go up to the school to check out.

I survived teaching 2 different summer courses at the same time!!!

Now let's see if I can survive my next summer course that starts tomorrow. Yes - you read that correctly, it starts tomorrow. Who needs a break, right?

This means that as my students were working on their final exams, I was busy writing a new syllabus. And while I would love to make cards today and do whatever I want to do, I need to be getting ready to teach tomorrow. This time I think that I am a little better prepared though.

First off - I put a note in the syllabus letting the students know that since this is a "short" summer course, we will cover as much material in one day as would be covered in a week in the fall or spring. Secondly, this class should be a funner class than the two I just finished teaching. This is Math for Education majors. It is teaching them math that they will have to teach once they have jobs out of school. It means that we will do activities in class that hopefully they can use with their own students.

And I am not giving a final exam. Yea!!! Instead, I am going to make them get up and do a presentation and teach something that we covered in the class and the whole class will judge everyone's presentation based on how prepared they were, all that good stuff. It should make my job cake, right?

Let's hope so. I am already ready for August 7th when I turn in grades for this class and have a 3 week break before classes start for the fall. How sad is that?

We are so proud...

Isn't that what you are supposed to say when someone graduates? Well - we haven't posted much about Colby lately and since he is the closest thing we have to having any kids, we thought it was high time to give him the recognition that always wants.

This past Saturday, Colby graduated from his puppy class. Yea Colby! This was a 6 week course that we did at Petco and we really learned a lot - now it is our job to make sure that we practice the stuff with him so that he remembers it. Here are a few pictures of the little boy on his graduation day.




Actually - graduation doesn't mean that Colby learned anything, it just means that he went through the class, but we think that he learned quite a bit although he still has a lot to work on. And this problem is one that we hope won't be quite so bad in 2 weeks when he gets neutered. Although we know it won't stop him from doing this, the urge shouldn't as great (that was about all he wanted to do in class when he was around this other dog named Max).

Anyway - I thought that I would also show a couple other pics that I snapped one day after church. Check out my 2 men - they are so sleepy! This is Colby's favorite way to sleep - on our laps. It makes it really difficult to get things done around the house. But he is so cute, it is hard to stay mad at him!

I must be crazy

This last week I got an email from my department chair saying that he just found out that a class that starts on July 12th (the day after I turn in grades for the 2 classes I am teaching now) needs an instructor. I must be insane because as frustrated as I have been with my current two classes, I said that I would do it.

This one is a 4 week course, instead of a 6 week course (like I am teaching now), which means that I will teach this one class for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. That is an hour shorter than I am currently in class. Plus I decided that it won't be nearly as much work to prep and grade for one class whereas right now I am doing that for 2 different classes.

I guess I will just hope that a few weeks from now I am not completely regretting my decision.

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.