Good things come in threes

But we need 6!

Good news 1: Keith is now back to work. He's on a shut down at a refinery. Sucky part I is that it's night shift. Sucky part II, I think his first night off is in 14 days. Sucky part III is that he will be working minimum of 10 hour shifts. But all of those sucky parts outweigh no work, so we will take it.

Good news 1 1/2: I think our new mortgage is almost approved.

Still needed good news:
1/2: definite approval of new mortgage.
3: we sell our house
4: our offer for the woolwich house is accepted
5: moving goes easy
6: my contract gets settled

As for #3, Keith's mom bought us a St. Joseph statue to bury in the ground upside down. It helps sell your house. Have you ever heard of this before? We didn't. But not surprisingly, I wouldn't, not being Catholic and all. I know there is a saint to pray to for finding lost things, and I heard about putting the blessed mother in the window for good wedding weather. But not this. So when she told us she was buying us the statue, we thought we were getting a STATUE that we would have to bury in the ground. STATUE = big. Can you try to imagine burying a big statue in the ground, none the less, especially with all this snow that we still have. Boy! Guess what, it's only 3 inches tall. Thank goodness.

old habits stay with you

Keith's mom tells the story of when Keith was a little boy getting dropped off for school. Everyday he would ask his mom what she was doing that day and where would she be going. Seems kind of protective don't ya think? It hasn't been until recently that I noticed Keith pulls a similar interrogation with me. However, the distance is extreamly shorter. After sitting on the couch for a little while, I like to get up and go into the office, or I like to brush my hair, or I simply need to use the bathroom. You can bet, within two steps from the couch, Keith is asking me where I am going. Like really? Isn't that weird? It's not like I am planning on running away, or like he can't follow me with his eyes to my destination. The couch is in the center of the house on the 2nd level. I am within viewing at all possible times. By, he can be funny!

So what kind of habits have followed you in life. I know I still bite my nails but I'm not talking about that stuff. Weird stuff that you have programed into your head.

I like to Move it Move it

I just got done playing a new Wii game Just Dance. I like it and I had fun playing. Keith says I look dumb doing it. So do all the people on YouTube performing the dances. So far I've done 10 short versions of songs and I'll tell you, it is a cardio booster. I was sweating by the third song. If you like to just have fun with it, I totally reccomend. However, scoring seems off as my moves were read as misses. We even have the Motion Plus remotes. Whatever. And get this. You know the Family Guy episode where Peter is obsessed by singing "Bird, bird bird. Bird is the word." I totally thought they made that song up. Nah, it's a real song. Go figure!

High in demand

This weekend is the first weekend in some time where mother nature hasn't threaten us. So it isn't any surprise that people are out and about. We have had 6 invitations to go out with our friends and family within 5 hours of time. Crazy. Unfortunately, we accepted on a first come first served basis without really knowing who was going to call. We are not at all trying to say we are popular and have more friends than you. Not at all. I just find it extreamly ironic and the math geek in me finds it low in the probability sense. You know what I mean? But anyway, it is nice to have friends & family that care for you and would like to spend quality time with you.

Snow Woes

Ahhh. So she hit us again. That mother nature! Ironically, I assigned a project to my kids this year to create beautiful snowflakes from rays, lines, and segments. They then had to measure all the angles and write a letter to Jack Frost begging him to let us have a snow storm. Do you think he listened?

This last strom, although less in accumulation, was harder for every thing is stuck too. And boy did it stick. It was clinging to our power lines and trees. Keith would knock it off the cables every few hours in prevention of keeping our electric. However, it still went out last night for over three hours. Our heat was dropping 2 degrees every hour. We have three of our own trees that fell, but luckily it was over the lake and not on the house or cars.

Today was another day off from school. I'm hoping for a delay opening tomorrow. And then we are off Monday again for President's Day. But get this... snow is in the forecast for Tuesday into Wednesday. Get another batch of milk, eggs, and bread!

Official Big News

Nope... not what you're thinking.

But, we did put our house up for sale today. We recently found a house in the country that we LOVE! Definately a place to raise a family. So please send your prayers and well wishes our way so that we can get our house sold, so we can purchase this new home. Fingers crossed!

Yeah I know

So it's been a while, again. Sorry... sue me. But it's not like anyone really noticed.

What have we been up to?
Just pretty much day to day things. Keith has been working on the house by fine tuning some things on the "hunny do list". He is still out of work. I have been teaching my classes. And I started my new class... Geometry. My professor asked me to teach the class in a few weeks. Still working without a contract so I have been home by 2:45 which is really sweet. Besides, all the kids stand you up anyway when they ask for extra help or to retake a class. Which leads me to my rant.

I really have been thinking about our education system. Or maybe just the methods my school runs. I feel my students are getting too many chances to fail. For example I give my students a hands on lesson with triangles, do it again in traditional format, assign CW, then HW, then a quiz, then a test review, then a test. Pretty much how it was when I was in school except with the hands on stuff. Now, when the kid fails the test, they can retake it again to get a better score. Here's the kicker... it has to be after school with you, which means you donate your time (without a contract). Then they fail the test again. Ok... so they are put into a 9th period tutoring class where they learn the material again. They are given another test, much easier and basic this time, and then they fail again. They end up failing the year, get put into summer school, and the teacher is told "Do whatever you can to get these kids to pass." Guess what... they pass. Then the kids take the state test and fail. They take it again and fail again. Then they take special tests to see if they know the concepts and while waiting for their scores, they take the state test for a 3rd time. How many times is it going to take for them to pass? I asked some of my kids this and they had a good philosophy about it. Why should they worry about it once, when they can do it again? Why should they worry about the second time, when they can take it a third? My big question... when is the responsibility going to be put onto the students again? It has not been that long since I was in school. However, if a student decided not to do the work, then they earned a failing score. They did not earn the chance for do-overs. Can you believe that in meetings, we are told kids aren't doing their projects so that means we shouldn't do projects. Recently, we were told they are not doing their HW. So no HW? Really? What's next? Quizzes? Tests? Good grief.

New wii games

Wii Fit Plus - Awesome! Better than the orignal. Has more exercises and a bunch more games. Also, you can customize your own work outs by targeting areas of the body. Body tests can be done in less than 2 minutes!

NHL 2K10 - Not bad. Very different than the PC version. Currently using the motion plus to gain more excitment.

Super Mario Bros - Cool. Somewhat similar to the 90s version. Gets a bit confusing on who is which player. We went through two worlds in two hours. A bunch of fun. One complaint: my thumb hurts.

2010

"What did you do in the last decade?"

Kim
Got my driver's license
Owned three cars: 85' 5th Ave, 92' Explorer, 08' Versa
Voted
Graduated High School
Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics
Began Graduate School
Held one part time job in a bakery, one full time job in retail, and finally became a teacher.
Started drinking at 21
Gambling in AC
Got married (twice - to the same guy)
Lost some family members, and more shockingly friends in death
Vacationed at the shore, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Jamaica

Keith
Owned four cars: the green one, the black one, now the gray one and a green truck
Graduated High School
Associate Degree in Drafting and Design
Apprenticeship with Steam fitters
Awarded high grade average from the Steamfitters
Worked for Old Navy, then the fitters
Started drinking at 21
Gambling in AC
Got married (twice)
Lost some friends in death
Gained new family members
Bought a house
Renovated the house
Vacationed in the Bahamas, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Jamaica