Back to work...

After a wonderful and fabulous Thanksgiving break, it was SO hard to go back to work!!  I spent a whole week doing nothing but shopping, eating, and relaxing, and for the first time, I was finished with almost all of my Christmas shopping before Christmas!!  I ate lots of turkey, spent lots of time with the family and Travis, and refused to do any school work.  (Well, I did have to finish grading quizzes, but I did that before I left town and it didn't take me more than 45 minutes, so I don't count that as working over vacation!)  So, needless to say, going back to work on Monday was no fun!  I had all my lesson plans made, and the topic we are doing for the next few weeks is really easy, so I don't really have much work to do right now.  The kids are still a little woozy from break and seem to have forgotten how to behave in a classroom, so today I laid out the rules again and had to be mean (no talking (period, at all, zip, zero, nada), raise hands for everything, etc).  It wasn't fun, but it sure has made things easier for me!  It's amazing what we can get done when they are quiet and are forced to listen to my lovely voice.  I am trying to remember that they are only 13 and really don't think about things from a grown-up point of view.  Hopefully we can all make it through the next two and a half weeks without going crazy!

Overall, though, I don't have much to do right now.  I have everything planned and copied for the next three weeks; all the tests and quizzes are written (thanks to my department).  All I really have to do is show up every day, make sure my kids learn something, and keep a smile on my face.  One of my free periods has been taken away due to the computation blitz we are doing for the kids who can't do things like add, subtract, multiply and divide.  So basically, for 12 days, they are going to sit with me and do problem after problem...after problem...over and over and over again.  (Yes, it is as boring as it sounds.)  And, I am working the basketball games after school on Mondays, which involves flipping two switches (one for the time, one for the possession clock) and adding points on the scoreboard.  Oh, yes, and also a LOT of laughing at the attempts of 7th graders to play basketball.  (This makes me remember my own, young sports experiences and I want to give a shout out here to everyone who was ever forced to watch me play sports...I hope you had a good laugh and I love you even more for having the patience to show up time and time again...)  Here are some pictures to spark those hilarious memories...

Softball memories from 6th grade (I think)...

Volleyball...check out the "cool" uniforms...hand-me downs from the high school!

Showing off our beautiful, giant, purple mouthguards the basketball players were forced to wear!  And again, check out the "awesome" uniforms...

So, since I don't have to focus on anything for school, I have had time to do other fun things like decorating my house for Christmas!!!  I spent a couple of hours on Monday night moving the furniture around and putting up my decorations.  It was so fun to pull out my three huge boxes of decorations and open up all the stuff I packed away last year!  I didn't even remember all the new stuff I bought at the end of the season last year, so it felt like Christmas opening it all up again!  It's not a lot of stuff, but it sure is cute!  Here are a couple of pictures...

And, my club volleyball practices have started, and yesterday I was assigned to my team.  I am coaching the 14 Pink (pink??  PINK?? really?!?) this year, so it will be a lot different than the 12s team I am used to coaching.  The kids are older and more experienced so the games should be a lot more fun, and I am looking forward to that!  I was not excited about the color pink, but it is what the girls wanted, so here I am.  My club director even bought me pink tennis shoes and threatened to buy me a pink backpack too.  Yikes.  Anyways, our first tournament is coming up on December 14th in Austin.  Not a lot of time to practice before then, but we should be okay.  The girls are pretty good players already, so it will just be a matter of getting them to play as a team.  I am looking forward to a fun season!

So, now the countdown to Christmas break has begun...12 more school days until we are off for two weeks!