Procrastination. Because we only have here and now.

OK-I have a buttload of grading to do today (Memorial Day-Hurray!), but I wanted to share some thoughts with you....

I really like my rats. I do. I also realize I don't give them as much attention as I should, but I try to talk and play with them everyday. Rats should be the pets of all those who are trying to maintain a healthy diet. If you care about your rats, then you will give them what is best for them, right? And most people are real good to their pets. Also, we all love feeding animals. Don't ask me why, but giving an animal some food off your plate and seeing them ask for more is, in a word, cute. What brings these two things together is the fact that rats must have a low fat diet. That means that if I want to give them treats from my dish, then my food should be low fat, too. See?? Tim and I just gave the girls the remaining hot cereal from our breakfast, which has very little butter and is made from several grains. We also eat a lot of veggies, which we share with them and the millies (I told you I had African Giant Millipedes, didn't I?), not to mention the occassional chicken bone they get from our dinners. So, if you need motivation to stick to a healthy eating plan, maybe you should get some rats. Of course, they'll eat anything, but everything else will give them cancer, which has, without a doubt, been proven in every study you've every heard of.

Thanks for listening. Now I must go grade.

17 days to go....will I regain my sanity??

I had a good intructional day today. The 7th graders dissected a chicken wing to look at the muscles and tendons and stuff. Honestly, I thought they'd be above it, thinking it was so lame to dissect something you batter, fry, and dip in ranch dressing (Mmmmm....buffalo wings....). But you'd think I wanted them to anaestesize a rabbit then cut it up! They were grossing themselves out, others refused to touch the wing (which is why I did this in groups...smart, huh?), and basically lots of drama. I thought the instructions were easy, simply peel the skin off the wing, but one group cut everything off, not realizing that the "pink stuff" was muscle.

In the 8th grade, we began a project-bassed learning assignment on the atom. I was impressed with some of their questions. I didn't think they had enough background knowledge to create the questions and categories, but they did! I'm going to try and make this a short project, so we can work on Chemical Reactions the last week and a half of school.

Tim has noticed that I am on edge lately. I noticed that I am always hungry. It could also be due to the fact that I GAINED LAST WEEK EVENTHOUGH I WAS FOLLOWING THE PROGRAM! HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT HAPPEN! I was this close to crying when I was told my weight. A large part of me wanted to quit right then and there, storming out of there. But then a little Betty voice inside my head told me to hang in there, it'll all work out, and that I should trust myself more than the numbers on the scale. So, I stayed. I was working the scale, and two other lifetime members weighed-in at my scale, and they also have been gaining steadily, so we got to moan and that made me feel a bit better. It's nice knowing I'm not the only one with troubles.

Barbara seems out of sorts this evening. I hope she's alright.

Need...to...hang...on.....Sanity....slipping....away...

Well, only 19 days left of school. YIPPEE!!!!

Tim's sister Jane spent the weekend with us last week. I like her. She was here for my Bday BBQ with Marcy, Darrel, Cristal, Royal, Paul, Gwen, and Jessica. Everyone seemed to like everyone else, which makes these get-togethers fun. Since we were hosting, it enabled me to make some low-points foods. I made this killer slaw from Chinese cabbage and a really tasty cake from a box mix and diet soda. Now Tim's parents are heading out for a visit in July. That'll be nice. I like his parents, and it'll give them a chance to meet my parents, as we'll be very busy when they come out next year.

This last week we've been trying forced socialization on the rats. It has been hard for all of us. They climb around and squirm during the 20 min of continuous handling. we also include several minutes of you're-not-going-anywhere holding which breaks my heart, because they dislike it so much they squeak :(

OMG-ONLY 19 TEACHING DAYS LEFT THIS YEAR!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR JUN 18TH. I JUST HAVE TO HANG ON FOR LESS THAN 3 WEEKS. !!!!!

Lesson Learned: nothing makes a day longer than shortened periods.

my brain hurtz..my feet hurt,..they've sucked my will to live.
it's been hot here the last couple fodays and so the kids at then end of the day have been extra whiney so i hve no enerfgy left for you. but wanted to tell you that STAR testing has begun, so not only are they nhot, but whiney aabout having to fill in bubbles and actually think /do workk the rest of the day. they hare trying to talk all their teachers out of doing homework and uroumor has it that some teacher aare just showing moviesbut i don't think that but i am still naive.

had a talk tiwth one teacher and the said he teaches creationism when he does evolution! almost got into seriois discussion about evolution versus creationism but fortunately left under friendly terms still ...agree to disagree undsaid.

the rat is trying to take tim's shirt to the huge nest they build, but he is still wearing it ha ha ha

Lesson Learned: It's all about tenacity and perseverance. In rats and people.

Well, another Sunday. At least I actually lost weight this week! Down one pound! WooHoo! The WeightWatchers site has been a bit understaffed lately, so they have been training me to weigh-in other people. I'll admit, I was intimidated by this awesome responsibility at first. I mean, we (meeting members) tend to give the scale a lot of power over our lives--it influences how we eat during the week, how we feel about ourselves that day and the next, how we think others see us, measures our worthiness, etc. But I think it will be good for me. Part of your responsibility at the scale is to talk to others and be encouraging, especially when they have gained. By saying those positive things to them (ex: "What was gained in a week can be lost in a week," "Who do you trust, the scale or yourself?" "Now you know what you did, it is what you do next that counts"), in a way I will be saying them to myself, and so try to take back some of the hold the scale has over me.

OK, you might be wondering if I did the rice thing with my kids, and yes, I did. 5th period didn't buy into it. All they saw was a lot of math. So I presented it in a better way to 6th period, and they seemed to get more out of it. I introduced it as an exercise in extrapolation, which is a valuable tool in science. No one has ever sat down and counted the stars--it would take some 80+ years to count to 200 billion, and I don't even think they have computers do that. But they do take small areas of the sky and count those stars, and extrapolate from there. That made a big difference. And, they were all soooo good!

Can't wait to finish astronomy, though. Chemistry is next. In the 7th grade, we are wrapping up classification and are going to enter the realm of THE HUMAN BODY. They are going to have a butt-load of questions, which should be fun!