Hello. Remember me? I've been gone a while. I didn't go anywhere, but I just stopped writing.

I think it all started (or stopped) when I realized that my husband linked our blog to his facebook account. I don't have a facebook account (and don't want one), so I guess I feel a little weird about all his high school friends, mission buddies, and co-workers reading my posts. Sorry facebook friends...but I've never even met you. You understand, don't you?

Anyway, I started this blog as a way to keep a family history and to communicate with grandparents that live far away. For these reasons, I will make an attempt to blog more regularly.

Last night we ate dinner with some new friends from our ward. I know the wife, but was really meeting the husband for the first time. He looked at me and said, "so, you're a teacher?" It was really weird to answer, "yes." It felt just like the first time Paul introduced me as "his wife" after we got married. The fact is true, but it's just so new.

I've loved teaching these past 12 weeks. It hasn't been all rosy, and I've made some mistakes, but I know this is definitely what I'm supposed to be doing. I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was to handle classroom discipline, but I'm changing what I need to change, and things will get ironed out soon enough.

I've learned several valuable lessons. I will volunteer to teach any subject that involves "advanced" or "gifted" students. Right now I teach two classes of 8th grade Algebra I. Together they are the top 30 math students in the middle school. It's a dream job. They are so interested in learning and try so hard. They fight for every point on every assignment. No one is getting a C, and there are very few Bs. There are a few people with a 100 average.

On the other hand--I have three classes of Math Models. They are the 50 lowest math students in the 11th grade. They aren't the lowest by intellect, but the lowest in motivation and discipline. They are taking Math Models so they don't have to take precal their senior year. In Texas, students have to have four years of math credit to graduate. This causes some major problems for some students. Anyway, there are some students who are doing very well in my class and genuinely try hard to learn the material. But then there are the others. The ones who tell me, "all I need is a 70, so a 65 is close enough." I just don't understand that attitude. It's causing me some problems. I just keep telling myself--"You can't care more than the students do" and "You can't work harder than the students work." In the beginning, I was so stressed out when students wouldn't turn in an assignment, or when they failed my test. I've learned to just let it go. I measure my success on the success of my best students, not my worst.

I'm grateful that I have a great mentor assigned to me. She takes her job seriously and has given me some great advice. I'm also blessed to have a husband who taught for 4 years. He's been where I am and is very willing to give me advice. He's very supportive, often making dinner or doing laundry when I am busy. I love him for that.

Well, much more is going on, so I have plenty to write about later. Perhaps I'll explain to you the predicament I'm in since we decided to remodel our kitchen (yes--with demolition and everything) TWO WEEKS before I host my sister's baby shower at my house. What were we thinking???