Thankful Tuesday

1. The Aldi's near where the kids play flag football has closed for one month for remodeling. Before they closed we made one last trip, and we were delighted to find grapes on sale for $1/lb. I bought quite a few pounds of them! Yum!

2. Paul's parents were able to join us for the kids' two football games on Saturday. Paul's mom started a different type of chemo treatment last week because the one she had been on wasn't working. Praying that the side effects won't be too

severe and that this treatment will be effective!

3. Margie's foot surgery was successful last Wednesday. Now she's in the two month recovery process.

4. We got the bill yesterday for $500 for Paul's mole removal. If it had been scheduled one week earlier, it wouldn't have cost us a dime. I certainly hadn't budgeted $1,000 for the removal of one mole, but that's what it cost us this year. When I got the bill, I was again thankful for my

Ian playing center

job that makes it possible for us to pay for this medical expense.

5. I received my first paycheck on Friday. When looking at the paystub online, I discovered that the university is making contributions toward my retirement account in addition to my salary. I had been told when I signed my contract with HR that I wasn't eligible. So it was a pleasant surprise to see that I am eligible for retirement benefits.

6. The Steelers won on Sunday! The game wasn't aired, which is

Oliver playing nose tackle

very rare in our area, but even that was a blessing because I got more work done than I would have if I had taken the time to watch the game.

7. My Aunt Tina and a friend of mine both live in or near Jacksonville, Florida. I am relieved to know that neither of them lost their homes, and their electricity has been restored. We had been praying for them with Hurricane Irma!

8. We enjoyed seeing a BMX show, air show, puppet show, and

Ian playing center, and Oliver playing with his mouth guard.

magic show at the Balloon Fest on Saturday. Nadia, Ian, and I enjoyed a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank on Saturday night.

9. Shutterfly had another coupon code for getting 111 free pages in a photo book instead of the usual 20 free pages. This is the second time they've ever had a code like that. I put less time into the 109 page photo book than I usually do into a 20 page photo book, but I managed to get it done on Sunday (albeit it meant I didn't get work done for the university that day).

10. Oliver was excited about going to his Sunday School class at 9:00 and to Soul Patrol rehearsal at 10:45. What a change from last spring!! What a relief!!! Nadia was thrilled because she has a small solo in the song they are singing in October.

11. My first pair of progressive bifocals arrived in the mail on Saturday. I am definitely still adjusting to them. Sometimes stationary objects appear to be undulating to me, which is rather unnerving! I do love being able to read when I'm wearing them! I think though I still prefer contact lenses. I imagine I'll be contacting the eye doctor in the near future.

12. Ian doesn't mind when I am a forgetful tooth fairy. He lost three teeth in about one week! As long as he gets his $1, he doesn't mind if I hand it to him the next morning because I forgot to put it under his pillow during the night. He has lost 5 total teeth thus far. The three he lost recently were all from the top jaw.

Nadia fell asleep on the way home from gym class on Friday around lunch time!

Nadia also volunteered to be involved in the puppet show.

BMX, Parachutes, and more

Nadia, Ian, and I were home very little on Saturday. The kids and I were out the door at 7:50AM because the teams were having their pictures taken by a professional photographer prior to their game, and the Panthers were scheduled for pictures at 8:15. Paul was actually home sleeping in our bedroom while the kids and I were eating breakfast and getting ready to leave. He had left the house at 2:30AM, but he only spent one hour at the plant, which meant he was back home at 5:30AM. Driving two hours to spend one hour there seems a little crazy to me, but he was really tired and didn't want to stay any longer than he did. I was very confused when I heard noises downstairs and was relieved it wasn't an intruder or one of the kids getting up super early. I wasn't expecting him to get home until after 8AM. Paul's parents were there for both games, and Paul arrived a little after the boys' game. The Panthers lost, and the Chargers won, which means the boys' team is 1-2 and Nadia's team is 2-1 thus far this season. Ian played center quite a bit. They threw the ball to him once when he ran a wide receiver route, but the QB really overthrew the ball, and he couldn't catch it. Ian rushed the QB sometimes when he was on defense, and he pulled the QB's flag once only to find out they don't allow that in the K-2 level. Oliver doesn't really help his team at all. On defense he's often lined up as the nose tackle, but in reality he pretty much just stands there during the play. He pays more attention to his mouth guard than what is happening on the field. Nadia never touched the ball this week. She did rush the QB. She never was able to pull his flag, but I think she caused him to throw the football sooner on more than one occasion. She said if her team had score one more TD the coach was going to let her try to rush for the next extra point.

After the game we went to Sears so Paul could drop off his car. The first 11 years of our marriage I was the one responsible for taking car of both of our vehicles, meaning I took them for the annual inspections, tire rotations every 5,000 miles, oil changes, etc. The last five years Paul has been in charge of taking care of the Prius, but it's something he doesn't think about on his own, and since I rarely drive his vehicle it's hard for me to keep track of when the Prius needs an oil change or tire rotation. When I drove the car once last week I realized it was very overdue. It had been 16,000 miles since the new tires had been put on the car, and the tires had never been rotated. Not good. So on Saturday his car got a long overdue tire rotation and oil change while we were at the Balloon Fest.

In 2014 and 2015 I had put the Balloon Fest in our calendar, but both years it ended up being rainy weather on the day the event was held so we didn't go. Last year they took a year off from holding the event. I remember enjoying going to air shows when I was a child, and I wanted our kids to experience that as well. In the future I want to take them a Blue Angels show to be specific. This Balloon Fest is held at the same place where we go to the Lycoming County Fair each year. It cost $26 for the five of us to get in. Nadia enjoyed a magic show with Paul. Naturally she was one of the volunteers in the show. We also saw a puppet show and a 15 minute BMX show. The BMX show was the part that was most impressive to Paul and I. The boys played with some really large cardboard boxes. We also watched the 3:00pm air show. We had seen four airplanes flying in formation a little before noon as we dropped off the Prius at Sears (the end of the 11AM air show) but sadly they weren't included in the 3PM air show. We did see three men who sky dived down to the ground and another pilot who did tricks in the air with his airplane. I'm not sorry we went as we did see some things we had never seen in person before, but I doubt we'll return to this particular air show. They also were giving hot air balloon rides (the tethered ones were MUCH cheaper), helicopter rides, etc., but everything else (including inflatables) cost extra so we skipped the rest.

I used a coupon to get something for $3 at Sears in connection with picking up the Prius, and then we had breakfast for dinner at home. After dinner, Paul stayed home with Oliver. I took Nadia and Ian to Bloomsburg to see a production of the Diary of Anne Frank. Had I known it was almost 2.5 hours long (including the intermission), I probably wouldn't have taken them, but I figured it wasn't appropriate for Oliver, and I would have had to take him if I had gone to a week day matinee performance. Plus this performance was "pay what you decide." It was a little after 10:30pm when we got home. We all went straight to bed. The show was very well done. Aside from church on Sunday, we stayed home sweet home all day long, which meant I was able to get caught up on some cleaning, laundry, dishes, cooking, etc. Today in addition to homeschooling the kids I've been doing some grading for the university.

Thankful Tuesday

1. On Friday night we stopped at Sears on the way home from Nadia's rescheduled flag football practice and used a $9 off coupon to get a bathing suit for next year for Nadia for free. In the past I've mostly used coupons at JCPenney, but now that they are no longer in our mall, I'm going to try to get good deals at Sears instead. On Saturday I made another brief stop there on the way home from their football games, and this time I used a $10 off coupon to get myself a fall dress for $25 (that was originally priced at $70). I enjoyed wearing the dress to church on Sunday, and I'm planning to wear it to work on Thursday.

2. I have been asked if I'd like to teach again next semester and which classes I'd like to teach! I am so grateful! I have asked for one night class that I've taught many times plus 15 student teachers so I won't have any preps or 8:00AM classes next semester.

3. I was able to get a new glasses prescription on Wednesday, and someone at Sears Optical measured my pupillary distance (no charge) on Friday night so I was able to order my first pair of bifocals that night. Once

they come I'm going to wear them exclusively for a few days to try to decide whether I will just switch to wearing glasses or if I want to get new contact lenses. I am not crazy about the idea of wearing contacts plus reading glasses. I think I'd either rather just wear bifocals or wear contacts that will work for seeing near and far (monovision or bifocal contacts).

4. Paul took the kids on a field trip to Hershey Gardens today. They were having their semi-annual homeschool day. They had a wide variety of activities for the kids to do (for 2.5 hours) and since most of the activities related to insects, I wanted the kids to go because we are studying insects, birds, and bats (flying creatures) this semester. Before I bought the tickets, I asked Paul if he would be willing to take the day off because I teach on Tuesdays. He agreed. I had mixed feelings. I've gone with the kids almost every single field trip. Part of me was disappointed to miss out on that experience with them, but I was also glad that they still got to go AND that Paul got to go with them, and he doesn't get to go on many of their field trips. Also, I was able to teach at the university today, which I also really enjoy. You can't do everything! Saying "yes" to one thing means saying "no" to something else. I suggested he take them on the free Chocolate World ride afterward, which he did. It was their first time on that ride this year, but they've done it many times over the years. He also  stopped at the library on the way home from Hershey, which saved me a trip there this week. There are a few differences when Daddy is the chaperone instead of Mommy. #1 The kids get to spend more time watching dvds in the van during the drive, #2 Daddy stops for a treat for the kids and lunch for himself at McDonald's because he doesn't pack a lunch for himself whereas I pack myself a lunch, and #3 there aren't any pictures of the field trip (because I am the photographer in our family). Nadia told Daddy he got a B+ as his grade for his chaperoning skills. I have zero idea why she gave him that grade. Not that it's a bad grade, but considering he let them watch a screen more than I would have and let them get a dessert from McDonald's, I thought they'd give him a higher grade than me, ha ha! I'm glad they had a good field trip!

5. Oliver has started reading! We are working on three letter words with the short "a" sound. Yahoo! I had a really good day of homeschooling with him yesterday. I did math, handwriting, art, and reading with him. He's in Kindergarten!

6. Sunday was promotion Sunday at church for the kids. It doesn't mean anything for Ian or Nadia because grades 1/2 are together and grades 3/4 are together, but it was a big deal for Oliver to move from the 4 year old class in the preschool wing down to the K-2nd grade wing of the building. There was an unexpected parade of some sort in our town on Sunday morning, which meant it took us longer than usual to get to church. Because of this we didn't take Oliver to his classroom for the first service but just had him come to the worship service with us. He was so disappointed so I let him go to his class during the second service even though the Soul Patrol choir started up again on Sunday during the second service. Nadia and Ian attended the rehearsal. Next week Oliver will go to his Kindergarten class in the first service and the Soul Patrol rehearsal in the second service. Hopefully he'll do a better job in the kids' choir this year. He did fine this summer at the Alliance Church. I'm so glad Oliver is back to wanting to go places even when it means separated from me. What a relief!

7. I have slept better than past three nights. I am very thankful. My body is adjusting to my new schedule.

8. The kids love going to Tab's house - they love her two kids, her two dogs (especially Ruby, the longhaired dachshund), etc.

9. Today I finished revising my lesson plans and the PowerPoints for the one class that is not a new course this semester. That is a relief! Now I just need to keep plugging away on the two new classes. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. I asked Paul to take the kids to flag football practice. I usually have that responsibility each week, but since he was home (due to taking the day off for the field trip) I asked him to do that this evening so I could work on my course preparations.

10. I attended a Bible study last night on Nehemiah. I was tempted to just back out of the group in light of my overwhelming workload at the moment, but I decided I can't cut everything out. I already gave up Facebook, reading fiction, playing Words with Friends, etc. I managed to finish my homework while we were at the Toyota dealer yesterday for the annual inspection of the van. Aside from emailing some students, I didn't get any work done for the university yesterday, and I think I needed a day off. Instead I focused on things like homeschooling (takes longer this year), a little bit of exercise for me, cooking, Bible study, and the van inspection. I love being in a Bible study! I did it once a week last spring, but I think once every other week is all I can handle at the moment. I've been doing Precepts (Inductive Bible study by Kay Arthur) over the past year. At some point I still want to try a BSF group.

11. Ian pulled another tooth tonight! I am excited because a permanent tooth had erupted on his top jaw before any of those teeth fell out, and it was literally perpendicular to the other teeth. I'm hopeful that now that he's pulled the teeth closest to it that it will hopefully move into the correct location and the correct position/angle. This was a canine tooth. He has some other wiggly teeth; the tooth fairy has delivered money for four teeth between Ian and Nadia over the past month.

12. Hair grows back. I have to keep reminding myself of this because Nadia decided to cut one section of her hair about 10 days ago. Ironically the boys have never cut their hair (yet anyhow). Nadia did it one other time several years ago. It's worse this time around because she had grown her bangs out. We shall see what the hair dresser says the next time I take her for a haircut. For now I've been trying to have her change her part to basically hide her "bald" spot.

13. I emailed someone in the faculty union office on campus to ask if I was eligible for dental and vision benefits. I had been told by HR that I wasn't eligible for any benefits because the contract was for only one semester, but I decided to see if that also excluded the benefits provided by the union. I had assumed based on what HR said that I wouldn't get those either. She wrote back and said YES - I, my spouse, and my kids are eligible for dental and vision benefits this semester. YAHOO!!! I'm going to test the waters by first submitting my vision bills (once I get them). If they do indeed reimburse me for those, then I'll schedule eye appointments for Paul and Ian so they can also get exams and new eyeglasses.

14. I haven't quite gotten access to using the copiers on campus yet, which means I can't print from the computer in my office yet because they don't use printers any more. I *should* have access starting tomorrow. All that to say, I have been really, really grateful we have a laser printer at home because I have been printing a lot more than usual lately!

15. It is such a relief to not be under the financial strain we had been under the past few years. This manifests itself in so many ways - mostly small ones but some bigger ones (like I'm planning on making some extra payments on our mortgage). I'm a saver not a spender by nature, but pinching every penny because we *have* to is stressful for me. For example, when I got the kids' order forms for their flag football pictures this coming Saturday, I didn't think "we can't afford this." I picked a simple print instead of a big package, but last fall I didn't buy anything when I got an order form for their soccer pictures. I'm very thankful to have an income again! I had assumed I'd just be PT if I went back to work, but actually I've returned to my role as the primary breadwinner of the family. I was in that role for the first 11 years of our marriage, and after Paul being the primary breadwinner for 5 years, I am back to being the primary breadwinner for at least one year. Time will tell if I continue to be able to teach at BU or not. Maybe just maybe I'll be offered a permanent position at some point. We shall see!

16. My kids make me smile and laugh! I do miss them when I'm at BU. Yesterday the funniest moment was en route to the Toyota dealer for the inspection for the van. Oliver kept talking about Star Wars, and I finally figured out he thought I was talking about a toy Yoda. Let me tell you it was very hard (impossible) to get him to understand that Toyota was the name of a car company and had nothing to do with Star Wars. When we walked in, he looked around and said, "Mommy they don't have any toy Yodas or even any Darth Vaders." LOL!

17. The five of us enjoyed attending a picnic at one of the pastor's houses on Sunday night. Paul enjoyed playing cornhole with some other men. A good time was had by all and lots of yummy food was eaten!

18. The Steelers won on Sunday night! I would have liked to see a more resounding victory, but a win is a win. Unfortunately the Giants didn't fare as well that night. Paul didn't stay up until the end of his game. When you get up at 2AM it doesn't really make sense to watch an entire game that starts at 8:30PM. Hopefully he'll get to see his team win next week.

19. Last week we finished an EXCELLENT chapter book - The Bronze Bow. I don't think I had every read it before. I highly recommend it. It was perfect for our study of Rome this semester. Now we are half way through Monster in the Hollows (book three of a four book series).

20. We have been enjoying yummy apple treats from our apple tree - applesauce, apple crisp, etc. Now hopefully some other people will take some of our apples because we will never use all of them.

21. AWANA started last Wednesday! Oliver is in his first year of Sparks, and he seems to be having an easier time memorizing his verse (John 3:16 this week). Memorization was difficult for him the last two years. Ian is in his third (last) year of Sparks, and Nadia is in her 2nd year of T&T.

Flag Football week 2

We are gradually starting to figure out the rules of the flag football league. I was incorrect last week when I said there were five kids from each team on the field at one time. It's six against six. Each quarter is nine minutes long. No one manned the scoreboard in the boys' game today, but the Panthers definitely lost to the Cardinals. Ian played center quite a bit; Oliver was nose tackle again for part of the game. Nadia's team (Chargers) soundly beat the Falcons. I think the final score was 34-14 or something like that. Her coach asked her to rush the quarterback several times on defense, and once the opposing QB had to get rid of the ball because she was about to "sack" him (pull his flag). She also was given the ball once on a rushing play for a two point conversion. She didn't succeed, but it was nice to see her being given the ball once. Unfortunately I didn't have my shutter speed high enough (and trust me I had it WAY higher than usual) so the photos I took of her running are blurry. I'm still learning as a sports photographer. If they give her the ball again, I'll get a better picture next time. Hopefully by the end of the season at least one of our three kids will have either pulled a flag to "tackle" someone, run with the ball for positive yardage, or caught a pass. Obviously seeing one of them score a TD would be really exciting, but I'm dubious that will happen. The games were at 9:00 (boys) and 10:15 (Nadia) which was very convenient. Last week out of the 32 kids on the four teams there were 3 girls. This week out of the 32 kids on the four teams, Nadia was the only girl. There are fourteen total teams in this league (fewer than are in the Upward basketball league the kids play in each winter).

Paul missed only the beginning of the boys' game. He had gotten up at 1:45AM to go into work, but he was only there for about four hours before he drove back home. We ate lunch when we got home, and Paul fell asleep while the kids were eating lunch and he slept the entire afternoon and slept through dinner. Oliver woke him up at 5:15pm. He hasn't been getting much sleep lately. I feel tired because I'm getting less sleep than usual, but I'm getting a lot more sleep than Paul. Part of my problem is that my body likes to wake up at the same time seven days a week. I've never been one to sleep in on weekends. My roommates teased me about this in college. So if I'm getting up early on Tuesdays and Thursdays, my body is now waking up early every day. The bottom line is for the next three months I need to go to bed earlier and just get up when I wake up instead of lying there hoping I'll go back to sleep. Sleep does a body good! I truly wasn't expecting Paul to come to many football games this season because he didn't come to their soccer games last fall. Ironically that was part of the reason I switched to flag football because it was impossible for me as one driver to take three kids to games at three different locations, especially when some games were at the same time. So I picked a sport I could handle on my own because all the games are at one location, and now we are going to the same game in two cars (because we leave the house before Paul gets home from work as the kids have to be at the field 30 minutes before the game starts). I still don't regret this choice because of the fact they only have one night a week of practice compared to four nights a week with soccer. Plus it's nice to expose them to a variety of sports. Speaking of football, we had the cable tv reinstalled at our house yesterday morning (cost us $52 just for them to turn it back on!); we are now ready for the NFL season to begin this weekend. Two of the teams in the Upward league are the Steelers and the Giants, but they are both middle school teams (6th-8th grade).

I had planned for us to visit T&D Cats this afternoon. We've never been there, and it's not very far away, but since Paul was sleeping we skipped it. Similarly, we didn't go on a field trip at Camp Susque yesterday even though they were doing a program about bees (we're studying insects this semester) because I just wanted to stay at home and get schoolwork and housework done around here. I think we'll be going on FAR fewer field trips this school year due to exhaustion levels (both Paul and I) and also my having less time available due to taking on a full time job. Overall I think it's a good thing that I've gone back to work, but there are some negative consequences. I'm certainly far more tired than usual. I'm planning to go to bed at 8:00 tonight after I put Oliver down. My goal is to wake up without a headache tomorrow morning.

Better than nothing

I think if I want to continue blogging (and I do) I will have to accept that #1 not every post has to contain photos. I haven't touched my camera since the football games last Saturday. #2 I will have to realize a short post is better than none at all, even if I wish I had time to write more. So here are a few highlights of the past few days.

• I was able to teach all four classes yesterday (almost 6 hours straight). I was utterly wiped out by the end of the last one. I absolutely love being back in the classroom, but it's exhausting to me at this point. Hopefully as I get back in the groove it won't be as tiring.
• Paul came home from work earlier than usual (6pm) last night, which meant I could mow the lawn while he was home (meaning I wasn't responsible for the kids at the same time I was mowing as is usually the case).
• The kids didn't have their gym class this morning, and that was a blessing because I was able to focus more time on school work, which was helpful since we had taken Monday off. I'm still trying to figure out how to juggle all the subjects since they aren't doing certain ones with the babysitter on Tuesdays and Thursdays (ex. spelling). The one subject we need to start doing more regularly is writing. 
• Oliver read some words for the first time in his life today! I was thrilled beyond belief, and Paul was also very happy when Oliver read a few words for him this evening. We have officially started Level 1 of the reading program. The words he was reading today were ones like "ham," "jam," "sat, " etc. Way to go, Oliver!
• I was asked to teach at the university again next semester! My current contract is just for this semester, but I was asked if I wanted to be PT or FT next semester. I was given the choices of teaching 1-2 evening classes and/or supervising 5-20 student teachers (or some combination of those choices). I'm thrilled to be able to continue to teach, and I'm also happy there wasn't any mention of an 8:00 AM class because let me tell you getting three kids  and myself out the door at 6:35AM two days a week is not ideal to me. I am leaning toward asking for the Tuesday night (assessment) class plus 15 student teachers. When I first was a professor (January 2003) I supervised 20 student teachers and loved it. It's a very flexible position as far as the schedule goes. Since I wouldn't have a new course to prepare (which is why this semester is rather overwhelming at the moment), I think  it would be much easier. I could choose to have 20 student teachers and not teach on campus, but I also love teaching and I've taught that course many times so that's why I think it's the option I'll pick. The Thursday night course I was offered would be another new preparation, and at the moment I'm wanting to steer away from any new preps if possible. I'm also happy to know that although it will still take awhile for the paperwork to be processed, I am getting much more notice this time around and I should  be able to sign my contract long before the first week of class this time! Plus I'll already have a ID, key, email address, etc. I will need a new parking permit, but that will be about it. I also won't have to get all my clearances done again either. It should be much simpler even though I might have to go through a formal interview this time around.

Alarms, teeth, and eyes

I have really been wanting to blog in more detail about my first day back at the university, but over the past six days that hasn't happened yet. Hopefully I'll have time while it's still somewhat fresh in my memory. Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying to work on my courses as much as possible. Aside from emailing some students and my department chair, today I took a break from that. Not because I am done preparing. Absolutely not. Because I decided I needed a day to focus more on other aspects of my life. It meant I spent more time doing Kindergarten with Oliver today. I didn't really do that much with him last week. Today I actually assessed where he is with his knowledge of associating sounds with the letters, and I was pleasantly surprised that he knew most of them. So I am encouraged that it won't be too long until he can start Level 1 of the reading program I used with his siblings. It meant that I took 13 minutes to exercise. It was the first time I exercised since last Wednesday. I usually do it longer than that, but that was all the time I had in order to make it to the eye doctor on time. I figured 13 minutes was better than nothing. It said I burned 100 calories. It also meant that today I finally did something with some of the apples from our tree (we have an overabundance). I made one batch of applesauce and also an apple crisp. I'm hoping that other people will claim the majority of the apples, as I definitely don't have time to peel and core all the apples on that tree this fall.

I also decided I was going to blog today even though I have a boatload of work I *could* be doing at this moment for my class. I also need to get going on my Nehemiah workbook because that study starts on Monday. My to do list is rather daunting at the moment, but I decided I cannot work every moment I am awake - at least not for days and weeks on end. Even without doing much work for the university today, I was very busy. I homeschooled three kids, did a large load of laundry, did a load of dishes, cooked dinner, cooked applesauce and apple crisp, cleaned the guinea pig cage, picked up a few things we needed at Walmart, went to the library, went to the eye doctor, exercised for 13 minutes, etc. I learned this evening that on Wednesdays we need to pack lunches after dinner because doing it after I picked the kids up from AWANA meant that Oliver went to bed later than usual, which isn't good considering I will have to wake him up at 6:15 tomorrow morning. I also decided I was going to blog today even though I didn't get around to taking any pictures today. I intended to take a picture of Nadia's mouth to show the evidence that she had two teeth pulled on August 22 (yes I've been busy since then and haven't gotten around to it yet) and also one of Ian to show the proof that he pulled one of his teeth today. It was his 3rd tooth to come out. Nadia had pulled out his first two (bottom) teeth. In this case the permanent tooth had already come in so it was high time this baby tooth came out. He has a few more that are loose so the tooth fairy will be busy in our house!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to be able to teach all four classes. Last Tuesday I couldn't teach any of my classes because HR hadn't issued me a contract yet. I taught all four last Thursday. Yesterday I taught my first two, and then the power went out on the campus because of a fire in one building that led to a power surge in another and a second power surge in another building, and the power was out for 2.5 hours. My first two classes are in a room that has a lot of windows, but my second two are in a room with zero windows. I couldn't teach in a pitch black room so I cancelled those two classes. The power was back on by the time I started my office hours, if it wasn't I would have left early as I don't have a desktop not a laptop computer, and there aren't any windows in my office.

Today I went to a different eye doctor - an ophthalmologist instead of an optometrist. My last eye appointment was about 20 months ago. My prescription had changed, and she gave me one for bifocals. Yahoo! My ability to read has been deteriorating rapidly. I am going to order some bifocals online to save some money. Then I have to decide about my contacts. My choices are #1 keep using the ones I have and also use reading glasses when I need to read, #2 get bifocal contact lenses (most expensive option but also the one that will give me the best vision), or #3 go with monovision contact lenses which means one contact will be for distance and the other for reading. I haven't decided which of those three options I'll choose. She said that my eyes were still inflamed from the conjunctivitis, that they are dryer than they should be (so I'm supposed to use artificial tears, cool compresses in the morning and warm compresses at night, and take fish oil), and that I have lattice degeneration of the right retina (which means I am in danger of retina detachment). I was given the list of symptoms to be aware of and to be seen by the doctor as soon as possible (within 12 hours) if it happens. I'm really hoping that when the new glasses arrive I will not get a headache when I wear them as my current glasses give me a headache. She told me not to wear my contacts for awhile, but I'm going to wear them tomorrow at least while I'm teaching because I'd really prefer to teach without a headache.

I have more I could write about, but I need to get to bed. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight than I did the night before my last two days of teaching. I have had a paranoia about alarm clocks since I was a teenager. I have a fear it won't go off on time. So I rarely have ever used alarm clocks. I am by nature a morning person so it was really not a problem because I would wake up early enough on my own. However over the last year I have shifted my wake up time a bit later (sometimes I didn't get up until 7:00AM), and now I am needing to get up earlier than I have needed to in a very long time. I have been setting my alarm for 5:30, but I end up waking up many, many times during the night to check the time and getting up before the alarm goes off. It also doesn't help that Paul's alarm goes off at 2:15AM. My prayer is that I will be able to get a lot more sleep tonight and not wake up too much before 5:30.

Thankful Tuesday

 1. Last Tuesday I used a coupon at Sears to get a suit (shirt, pants, vest, and tie) for $1.22. Now if only I could have gotten a wonderful deal like that on the two tires I got there on Saturday, ha ha!

2. My eyes had been oozing since August 16. I foolishly waited until September 1 to do something about it. Hopefully I have learned my lesson and will immediately go to the doctor if I don't have any antibiotic cream on hand. I was trying to save $35, but it was absolutely not worth it, especially

because my glasses give me a headache, and you're not supposed to wear contacts when you have conjunctivitis. I was finally able to put new contacts in yesterday because for the first time in almost 3 weeks I woke up and my eyelids weren't stuck together. PTL! I also am scheduled to see an eye doctor tomorrow. I'm praying it doesn't cost a fortune as we don't have vision insurance, but I've decided it's worth the cost to have a pair of eyeglasses that don't give me a headache. I also think I probably need a new Rx for my contacts too. I'm at that age

where my vision is changing. Part of the reason I also didn't want to go to the doctor was because I don't like going with three kids in tow, but amazingly I was able to schedule an appointment that took place while the three of them were in gym class.

3. Oliver hasn't given me ANY grief about going to flag football practices or his game. It probably doesn't hurt that Ian is on his team. He also went without any hesitation to the first gym class for the fall on Friday morning, which was so much better than last spring when I had to stay

and watch or he wouldn't stay. I'm so very glad he's out of that phase!

4. Only have one night a week of flag football practices and only two games on Saturday (both at the same location) is also a huge blessing. It's much less hectic than soccer was for me with three kids.

5. Paul's parents came to both football games on Saturday, and Paul was able to be there for Nadia's game. This also meant we had more hours with him than usual on Saturday. He also didn't go to work

on Sunday (he had the previous two weeks), and the biggest shock was that he took Labor Day off. I wasn't expecting that at all. Usually I have done school work with the kids on Labor Day, but I had told them a few days ago that they'd be getting Monday off from school work so that I could spend the day doing work for the university.

6. I am making progress with getting everything I need for the semester. I signed my contract and got a parking permit for the semester on Thursday. On Friday my bloomu

email and my course management software accounts were reactivated. Today I got an ID card. I think at this point the only thing I am missing are keys for my office and the computers in the two classrooms I am teaching in this semester. The computer was actually locked in the classroom where I teach from 8:00-10:45, and it took the department chair a few tries to locate a key that would open up the cabinet. Thankfully she found one before it was time for the class to start. I also am starting to get a little bit farther ahead with my planning. This is my

first time ever to start a semester without having a course totally planned out, and it's definitely uncomfortable for me, to put it mildly. Hopefully before I know it I'll have everything mapped out.

7. Homeschool gym class resumed on Friday at our church. Another organization in our area is starting to offer a homeschool gym class this fall, but for now I'm sticking with the one at our church, in part because the other one is on Tuesdays (a day I am teaching this semester). All three kids enjoyed

playing baseball outside at gym class on Friday!

8. Since Paul was home on Monday and because the buffet costs $2 for kids on Mondays, we headed to Bonanza. That still needs to be a special treat because even with the discount for kids it still costs far more than getting pizza for take-out, but in light of our second income we can afford to go there every once in a blue moon. I always enjoy having a night off from cooking and doing dishes.

9. The kids LOVE going to Tab's house on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They enjoy playing with her two boys, playing with her two dogs (particularly the longhaired dachshund named Ruby), etc. Last Thursday she took them on a field trip to Montour Preserve for a nature scavenger hunt. I'm so thankful to have a wonderful teacher to teach my kids on T/Th. She will be using the BSF materials with them for the book of Romans for their Bible lessons those days. We've been going through the book of Matthew on MWF.

10. Nadia has really been enjoying learning to play the recorder. I had been intending to teach her how to play it last school year, and it never happened. I'm thankful we're finally getting around to doing that!

11. On Saturday I did some shoe shopping at Payless. Paul's mom had given me some money to buy the kids a few things like jeans for Oliver, AIO cd's for Nadia, sneakers for Oliver and Ian, etc. I took advantage of a sale at Payless and stocked up on some shoes for now and the future because I paid $5 for a pair of Spider-Man rain boots and $10 for each pair of sneakers (which were typically at least $30 before the discounts).

First Flag Football games

Last Thursday I had my first day back to work after being a stay-at-home mom for five years, and on Saturday all three kids had their very first game of flag football. The boys' team (Panthers) defeated the 49ers 18-12. Nadia's team (Chargers) lost to the Texans (18-25). Including half-time and having each child announced as they run through the tunnel, each game lasts about one hour. The boys' game was at 9:00. Nadia's game was supposed to start at 11:00, but it didn't really start until 11:30. Although it was only September 2, it was rather cold out that morning. At least it seemed cold to us coming off of warm weather. Those temps will feel balmy to us in the early days of spring next year. It sprinkled a little at one point, but thankfully it didn't rain the vast majority of the four hours we were there. Thankfully this Saturday their games are back to back so we won't be there as long. I used the gap in between the games as a chance for me to drop the van off at Sears to get two new tires put on during Nadia's game. The van is due for inspection this month and wouldn't have passed without me replacing two of the tires. Ian was playing the position of wide receiver. He ran his routes very quickly, but there were two other taller boys also playing that position, and all but one of the balls were thrown their direction. One time the quarterback did throw the ball to Ian, but he overthrew him.

There are seven kids on each team, and five play at a time while the other two are on the sidelines. It often worked out that each team had one possession during each quarter of the game. When Oliver was on the field playing defense, he was the nose tackle. The center on the opposing team was a girl who was much bigger than him, and it was so funny watching him give her "the eye." There aren't any girls on the Panthers team. Nadia is the only girl on her team, and the Texans and 49ers each had one girl on their teams. Oliver did much better with this flag football game than he did with soccer in the spring. Nadia was a bit confused at first, as when she played defense she kept pulling the flag off the girl on the opposing team, even when the girl didn't have the ball. Oops! Now she understands not to do that again. Paul's parents were there for both games, and Paul was there for Nadia's game. This meant although he still left for work at 2AM, he worked a much shorter day than usual. It would be awesome if was home more on Saturdays this month and next month because of flag football games!

The kids were supposed to pick nicknames to be used when announcing their names. They thought they were supposed to start with the same letter (or sound) as their first name, but in reality many other kids' nicknames didn't follow that pattern. My three are Nifty Nadia, Invisible Ian, and Awesome Oliver. They thought Oliver got lost in the tunnel; they filled it with theatrical smoke, but really his flag belt was falling down and he was trying to fix it. They didn't have the smoke going when Nadia came through the tunnel. One game down and seven to go this season! I've been so busy that I didn't even pop the memory card into the computer until this evening. It was ever so wonderful to be back in the classroom. I do really love teaching! However I have wondered the last few days if I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. Time will tell. I wish I had more time to write about my first day back at the university, but as been the case for the last five nights, my desire for sleep is greater than my desire to blog. I was only planning to give up Facebook (and I did give that up), but I might be giving up blogging too. We shall see. I am a very, very busy lady these days with homeschooling three kids, mowing the lawn, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. all on top of a full-time job at the university, which has been very demanding of me as I am trying to prepare three courses - two brand new ones plus one I haven't taught since 2010. I am teaching four classes, but in one instance I am teaching two sections of the same course. I did get a parking permit on Thursday morning and an email address and access to the course management system on Friday. I still need to get a key to my office and an ID card so I can check things out at the library. Once I finish preparing my PowerPoints and course notes for the semester, I will feel a lot more relaxed. I haven't edited all the pictures from Saturday's games, but I've included a few in this post.