Happy Christmas!

Well, we're now in the beautiful southern state of Oklahoma.  The locals (i.e. family) keep trying to convince us that 30 degrees is cold, and we keep telling them that it is a heat wave for us.  Maybe we'll start listening to them though as we're both starting to feel the colds that are going around.  I've been having trouble with congestion for about a week, while Chris seems to have it starting.  Oh joy. 

We made it down to OK with relatively little problems.  We had the typical construction zones and the Illinois State Police shut down the highway right outside of the Joliet refinery.  Who knew that a tandem trailer dropping the second trailer in front of an oil refinery could cause such havoq?  I mean, they had the bomb squad out, about every highway patrol there, the hazmat team...and we got diverted around a really neat lake.  We got to watch a very pretty sunset at 4:15 pm as the sun came through the clouds and washed over the snow.  I've got a few pics on my phone that I'll add once we get back to Chicago later this week. 

Since it has been a few weeks I'll catch everyone up --
the term ended well for me at Westwood.  I successfully managed to get most of my students through earth science despite their best efforts of not passing.  I also managed to successfully get everyone through my physical science course, though those students honestly tried to fail.  I had one student go on and on about how I needed to give everyone the 10% of the grade from the quizzes that everyone (save one student who actually did the homework) failed.  I figured that since I let them use the homework they did on the quizzes taken directly from the homework that it was their choice to fail that 10% because I honestly couldn't have made it any easier.  They have asked me to teach there again, and at this point it looks like I'll be teaching a section of Earth Science and a section of Physical Science starting in January.  Hopefully though I'll get a new job and be able to quit both the cafe and Westwood.  Keep praying that it happens because I have an interview on January 4.  Hopefully I'll get a second interview and then offered a position. :) 

Chris finished up the term well.  He managed to get all of his stuff done in a timely manner, which is good seeing as the university is starting a remodel of one of his rooms.  He then had all of last week off (yay! for not having to be at the train station at 430am) and has all of this week off.  They have closed the campus in all reality for this week, so he really couldn't go to work if he wanted to. 

Christmas has been good for us.  It is nice to see family, though everyone seems a bit disappointed that I'm not quite sporting a sizable baby bump yet.  As opposed to looking incredibly skinny I just look like I've put on a few pounds.  I've got a few pounds yet to put on, that the doctors and us are trying to work on putting on.  We did go to the OB on Tuesday last, and the heartbeat was nice and strong.  We go for the ultrasound this coming Thursday, so we'll see what comes of that.  We're really looking for a healthy baby, not sure about the gender thing yet.  Back to family though, everyone is quite excited for us, which is fun.  Having not seen everyone for about a year though makes this time here sweet.  We miss those we've lost this past year (or two) and are excited about the new additions to the families through marriages and babies.  Families are truly amazing units of people, and ours are definitely blessings.  Anyway, we're now ready to start our day with more family and maybe do some baking and cooking (like that's unusual for us).  Yay Braums!!

Well, the term is basically over for both Chris and me.  Chris has been doing clean up of the labs all week, and has been successful.  He hasn't killed either of his minions, and comes home more relaxed for the most part.  I'm slowly getting to the point where all my grades (except the finals) are done.  I'm getting sick of students asking what they can do to "not fail" my class -- when I tell them that they should have done the work all term, they just look at me.  I think I'm going to tell them, "well I'd really like some blue diamonds set in platinum for Christmas" just to see what kind of response I'd get.  I think most of my students would laugh a lot, but there would be a few who took me seriously, and I'd probably get in trouble. 

The cafe is going well.  We're slowly picking up business.  We tend to have busy enough Thursdays that I've threatened to not go in until after 1 simply so I don't have to deal with the girls.  There are way too many females working at the cafe though, and life is hitting most of us hard.  It isn't too much fun, so I simply try to go, get my stuff done, and then leave. 

I joined the YMCA here last week so that I can start swimming.  Having been a graduate student I got to use the UIC pool during the winters, and realized that I really miss swimming when it is cold outside.  So I've now swam several times and like getting back in the water.  I think I'll do some more cross training though with riding stationary bikes and whatnot -- i'm just not brave enough to go bike riding when we've got snow on the ground. 

We did get snow this week -- twice! They've had to plow both times, so we've gotten at least 2 inches both times.  We're supposed to get about 6 inches this weekend depending on the lake effect snow that happens.  We made a snowman last Saturday -- Chris made the bottom, I made the middle and top.  So, its part Chris, part Carolyn & 100% a baby snowman.  It was small enough that I could carry it up and perch it on our balcony. 

Last Sunday we also went to the MSI for our yearly Christmas tree visit.  The Museum also has the Jim Henson muppets exhibit.  It was really neat because they also had a gingerbread MSI with all the Sesame Street characters outside it.  The main tree in the rotunda was also decorated with ornaments to look like different muppets.  We'll go back soon and see the special exhibit, we've just got a few friends who'd like to go, so we're waiting on them.  Not sure how much longer I'm willing to wait.  Here is a picture of Big Bird at the MSI and Chris with the Kenya tree. 

Random Lack of Motivation

I'm sitting at a computer trying to come up with a powerpoint for my physical science class tomorrow.  It is over earth science stuff so it should theoretically be easier than making pie, or cinnamon rolls in my case as pie is ridiculously easy for me these days.  I have less than no motivation to actually do it though.  It doesn't help that my class refuses to do anything I say and I'm quite sick of putting energy that I simply don't have into them.  For example, I told them the first day that they would have homework assignments that they needed to do.  I would not collect the homework assignments, but there would be quizzes and all quizzes would be direct homework problems.  Plus if they had done the homework, they could have the homework out while they took the quiz and USE their homework to help them on the quiz.  I have 2 of my 20 students who have caught on.  They regularly get 85% or above, while the rest don't even get 10%.  The "rest" are also curious about how to improve their grades in my class.  We have 5 class meetings left and they are just now wondering what to do to improve their grades?  One of the girls who regularly does the homework has actually started asking her classmates why they don't do it since they keep failing the quizzes.  You know it is bad when the students are asking other students why they are being stupid. 

The other really hard thing about coming up with this presentation is that approximately 1/3rd of the students have had or are taking earth science with me.  We spend three weeks in Earth Science talking about rocks, so spending any time at all with rocks in physical science seems like a complete waste of time to me.  They didn't learn the material in the three weeks that we spent on the material in Earth Science so why would I expect them to learn the material in the one day physical science stuff?   I suppose I'm just super cynical right now, but this really isn't rocket science. 

Anyway, I should go start because I know that the quicker I get started the sooner I'll be done.  Maybe I'll be done and go to my small group tonight.  This might be some motivation if I felt some deep connection with them, but I'm quite disappointed as of late because I don't really.  We've been meeting as a small group for a bit over a year now and neither Chris nor I really feel "more connected" to them.  We'll see where this leads, but it doesn't help my motivation to only go to sleep and forget to do anything else.  I'm almost curious what my physical science class would do if I turned up tomorrow and simply told them that I forgot to prepare anything for class. 

Well, off to start banging my head against a wall to see which is actually a harder substance.