Seeing Red

167 papers - that's how many were supposed to be submitted to me on two weeks ago.  Amazingly enough, nearly all my students handed in their creative writing projects.  I should be dancing in the street because my kids not only handed them in, but most of them did a fabulous job.  Who knew the next Dean Koontz, Jodie Picoult, and Rick Reily were sitting my classroom and doodling their way to the New York Bestsellers' List?!  

I'm exhausted, and the red pens I purchased just over a week ago are nearly dead, but the papers are done.  Their characters are dead, in love, and/or just got asked to the prom by an impoverished midget dressed as a superhero (their creative genius, not mine).  And I am ready to curl up in a ball and sleep away the stress of trying to get these papers finished for Monday.  

Good night.  Sleep tight.  No, your and you're do not mean the same thing.  See you in the morning sans the red pen smears on my left hand!

Baby Bit is a GIRL!

Most aspects of adulthood leave something to be desired.  However, the prospect of being an aunt(a rather grown-up sounding title) and the fact that I will be one at the end of the summer is fantastic.  When Jewels announced this past December that she would be having a baby, I was so excited.  It has been too long since we've had the sound little people in the Hutchins home.  I started calling the baby "Bit" since it was an it, and saying the baby or he/she or whatever other titles people use got old quickly.  Today though, Jewels officially announced that Bit is a GIRL!  This is exactly what I had pictured and hoped for (though I know technically you're not supposed to wish for anything except a healthy baby).  If you know Jewels, you can see her cradling a smiling little girl wrapped in a handmade quilt or baking alongside a two-year-old with pigtails.  So much cuteness and we haven't even met her yet!  

[If you want to see some of Baby Girl Munson's first pictures, go to Jewels and Brett's blog (jbmunson.blogspot.com).]

Along for the Ride

One of the reasons I hesitated doing the whole blog thing is that I don't feel like my life is all that interesting.  I go to work, I go to church, I spend time with my family, I spend time with my friends, and I try to sleep.  Then I wake up, and I do it all over again.  My dad described life this week as a merry-go-round.  Though I think he was talking about the fact that you repeat your days over and over again, I have been thinking about that in the context of the ups and downs that come on the ride.  I am glad that despite the fact that my life seems to be an experiment in chaos, that I can hold on to the stability of good friends (my family counts as friends - they're some of my favorites) and the Gospel.  Without those, I'd definitely have thrown an dry-erase marker at a student by now or randomly blurted out "I quit" to my administrator or Bishop (obviously, two very different contexts).  

Anyway- the "autosave" feature of the blog just informed me that it saved this at 12:02 AM- this means I should be in bed "trying to sleep" so I can "go to church" and start the ride up again in the morning.  Fingers crossed and more importantly, prayers said, for a good week and that somehow the merry-go-round will break so that everyone's horse stays "up." 

Counting the Minutes

It's after 11:30pm on a school night.  In college, this would have been just the beginning of the evening.  At this time a few years ago, I would have been feverishly writing a last-minute paper while sipping Diet Dr. Pepper.  Now, well into my second year of teaching, I go to bed with the senior citizens of the world in hopes of staying one step ahead of my students the following day.  Much my dismay this evening, I cannot sleep.  In the past couple hours I've tried some traditional and not-so traditional methods--

*Listened to music

*Pondered getting a sub tomorrow

*Listened to nothing

*Thought about boys with cute smiles

*Text messaged someone in hopes of getting the thought off my internal to do list

*Bought books on Amazon (also on my to do list)

*Laid down on the bathroom floor (not feeling the best on top of the sleeplessness)

*Apologized for less-than-ideal behavior in a cheesy facebook message (yes, I also think that is really not the place to things like that, but I have my reasons)

*Ate a couple Tums (they actually don't match my symptoms but I didn't know what else to take)

*Perused favorite blogs (nearly cried reading Hillary's - I adore her!)

Most of the above usually are not helpful in aiding sleeplessness, but when hours have passed since you tried to go to sleep, you get pretty bored and borderline desperate.  "Maybe, just maybe if I stare at a computer screen in the dark my eyes will get even more...."  None of it's worked, but in reading a few blogs, I, at least, got to reflect on how much I love the people in my life...the people who listen to me and care enough to ask questions and care about what the answers are.  

Good night.  Sweet dreams.  Don't worry about the bugs.  I fumigated the underneath the bed this morning!