Year End Update

So here is this year's form letter that I was too late to send out, but decided to write it here for those who are interested.  2008 has been a busy year for us and we have been able to have many new experiences along the way.

Rob finished up his second year of med school last spring and spent two months studying non-stop for the infamous step 1 of the National Boards.  This was probably the biggest test of his life and thankfully, he did great and it is over and done with.  Having Rob studying for 14-16 hours a day for 2 straight months was not fun for either of us.  After the boards, Rob started his 3rd year, which involves rotating through different specialties in the hospital.  He spent July and August doing his surgery rotation, going in at 4:30 am and usually getting home around 7 pm.  It was another long two months.  Luckily, he got to do radiology next, which he loved, both for the laid back schedule and the interest he found in this specialty of medicine.  So far, radiology is his top choice for what he wants to go into, but that could easily change over the next few months as he goes through other rotations.  After radiology he spent time doing neurology, cardiology, and internal medicine.  His schedule changes practically weekly, so we've learned to just go with the flow and plan to not know his schedule.  To read more about Rob's experiences, go to www.medschooljourney.blogspot.com In all of his free time (ha ha) Rob was able to build us a screened in porch, grow a fantastic vegetable garden, and work on his photography. 

I have been busy at school, finishing up my second year of teaching 4th grade and starting another year in the fall.  No matter how many hours I spend working on school stuff, I have accepted the fact that there will always be more to do.  I have also kept myself busy participating in the MCG Medical Student Auxiliary (a club for the spouses of medical students).  I became the president of the club this fall and have kept myself very busy planning volunteer work, fundraisers and social events.  Luckily, I have a great group of girls that I work with that always step up and get things done.  I have enjoyed being a part of this club for the past couple years because it is a great source of support and friendship as we are all in similar circumstances with our husbands in med school.  In my free time this year I have taken up the hobby of card making and continue to put together digital scrapbooks and videos.

Even in our busy schedules, we have made time for a lot of travel again this year.  We have taken countless trips to Charleston, when we need to get away for a weekend.  We have also been back to Atlanta on many occasions this year.  I was able to head out to Utah twice this year as both of my grandmothers passed away within a month of each other.  While it was a sad time, I am grateful that they are finally at peace and that I got to be with my family more than usual.  After Rob finished the boards, we headed down to Mexico for a cross-country trip from Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta.  We went with some friends from school and took buses across the countryside, stopping in Guanajuato, Guadalajara, and Puerto Vallarta.  To read Rob's blogs about this trip go to www.egberttravels.blogspot.com  After Mexico, we headed out to NC to visit Rob's family at John and Ashley's house.  It was so fun to see everyone and spend even more time at the beach!  Our last trip of the year was a last minute trip we took last week to the Bahamas for our 6th anniversary.  We have been in Atlanta for Christmas this year and neither of us are looking forward to going back to work next week.

We hope everyone had a great year and wish you all the best in 2009.  

What is the World Coming To?

So I was talking with a couple of the fourth grade girls I teach (9 and 10 years old), and they were giggling about the boys they like in the fifth grade.  One of the girls got embarrassed when the other girls said she liked a certain boy and her response was "I don't like him!  I just want him to be my baby daddy!"  Yes folks, my 9-year-old student aspires to be knocked up by a guy she doesn't even like.  What is the world coming to?

Just an Update

As I find myself reading everyone else's blogs, I got a little ashamed that I hadn't updated mine in so long. I couldn't think of anything really great to blog about, so I thought I'd just give an update of what's going on in our lives.

I'm still busy as ever at school. We're getting ready for parent/teacher conferences. I hate these with a passion. I guess I'm just not that comfortable telling parents that their perfect little angels aren't so perfect after all. Well at least one of my trouble makers won't cause me any problems for a few days considering he just got 3 days of suspension. Yup, that's what you get when you cuss out the principal!

Church and MSA are also keeping me busy these days. Between the young women sleep over at my house on Friday and the movie night I'm hosting Thursday, then the huge church activity I'm involved in planning for Novemeber, plus a Halloween party for the little kids, I'm starting to lose it! Then don't forget the MSA directory I'm trying to put together along with sending out invites for upcoming events plus organizing the Halloween activity with the dental wives and some other stuff I'm sure I've forgotten to do, I've been a little overwhelmed the past few days. I just have to remind myself to take a breath every once in a while. Things should calm down after Nov. 8, but until then, just beware I might be a bit scatter-brained!

Rob is just about to finish up his neurology rotation. He's been back into study mode the past few days for his test this Friday. He's not too excited about his medicine rotation next week. It is supposedly pretty long hours again. Too bad he can't do radiology again. He had the best hours and he loved what he was doing. Right now, radiology looks like his top choice, which I cannot complain about. Great money, great hours, and great vacation! What's not to love?

I can't wait for election day. But not because of the election--because I get school off that day! I just get more and more frustrated about the election every day because I really don't like either of the candidates at all. The only good thing about this election is watching the Sarah Palin skits on SNL. Now that is some seriously funny stuff.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little update into my life. I promise next time I won't be lazy and I'll post some pictures. But for now, this post will have to do.

Not Bored Anymore

Well school is back in full swing now, and I can officially say I am definitely not bored anymore.  Its been a crazy first two weeks as I adjust back to the routine.  My class this year seems pretty good...but they always act nice the first few weeks.  We'll see how long it lasts.

So I gave the kids a geography pre-test last week, just to see what they already knew and apparently, they knew close to nothing.  Over half of my class could not label the United States on a map.  I'm giving the final test on Friday and if anyone gets that wrong then I think I will cry!  And the funny part about all this is that all of the fourth grade teachers at our school had to decide to teach basic geography as an add-on to our curriculum because its not even required!  Now I know South Carolina is not tops in the nation in education (or even anywhere close for that matter...we're 42nd), but in my opinion, a 4th grader should be required to find the country they live in on a map!  However, they are required to learn all the history of their country from cavemen all the way to the civil war in one year.  And knowing the history of your country is great, as long as you know where your country is to begin with!  So all of the 4th grade teachers at my school have taken 2 weeks out of our completely filled S.S. curriculum to go back to the basics.  So I figured while I was teaching the basics in S.S. I would go back to the basic addition and subtraction facts in math.  It wasn't much better.  Almost all of the kids still use their fingers to add and subtract!  I'm sorry, but when I was in fourth grade, you just had to know these things.  You would have been laughed at terribly if you started counting 5 + 6 on your fingers!  But that's what I have to work with, so I guess I'll just start from the beginning.  Thankfully though, I have a class full of good readers.  At least they learned something in the previous grades!

Yep, I'm Bored and I have a Confession

**I will preface this post by saying...it's a long one.  Be forewarned...I'm bored.  The amount of my boredom will correlate well to the length of the post.  Oh yeah, and the "confession" doesn't come until the end...so sit back, get yourself a drink or some popcorn or something, because you'll be here for a while (assuming someone out there in the Internet world is actually reading this). **

 

My favorite part about teaching school is that I get great vacations (you know, summers off, spring break, Christmas, all major holidays and a few of the minor ones).  Since rob has been in school for most of our married life, he has also had some summers off.  We have been able to take advantage of a lot of this time and do some great traveling (see www.egberttravels.blogspot.com).  This summer was no exception--we went one our wild tour across Mexico, then off to Jacksonville, NC for a family get together, and just recently got back from a weekend trip to Charleston, SC.  We had to squeeze all of those trips into a 3-week period between when Rob took step 1 of his boards and when he started up his surgery rotations in the hospital.  Well, as you may have surmised from the title of this post, Rob is back to work/school and I am not yet.  So I sit at home trying so hard not to spend money because a). we went on all of the trips mentioned previously, b). I have already surpassed my budget for buying school-related stuff and c). I am saving for one last trip to Charleston before school starts (Whoo-hoo for girls trips!!). 

Now if you have always had a job that keeps you busy year-round, you may not realize how expensive it is to not work.  First off, staying in the house all day gets a little old.  So right off the bat if you want to leave you have to factor in gas money.  Then you think to yourself, "Where should I go?"  My first thoughts are always shopping or eating.  Even if it is necessary, like grocery shopping, it still adds into the budget.  I also think about doing something outdoors, but it is so crazy hot and humid with pop-up thunderstorms threatening at any moment lately that that is really out of the question as well.  I've thought about joining a gym, but again, it costs money.  So I try to keep the shopping trips to a minimum.  Well that leaves me sitting at home.  While I could do something productive like clean or plan stuff for school, that usually doesn't happen.  So my other options are the computer, the tv, the kitchen, or a book. 

First off, the computer.  This is almost as expensive for me as going out shopping...possibly even more expensive.  I guess I realized this when I was booking a hotel online with the girls tonight and they were impressed that I have my credit card number memorized as well as the expiration and the security code.  I did not have that memorized before the summer started.  Online shopping is just so nice and convenient now that so many places offer free/cheap shipping.  In my defense though, most of the stuff I've ordered is for school and I will be reimbursed for it...most of it...

Secondly, the tv.  While I do have my dvr set to record Days of Our Lives everyday, I am not much for daytime television.  Mostly because I usually don't have time for it.  As I have had more daytime free time on my hands, I have come to see the dangers of the Food Network and HGTV.  I've always liked these channels, but it is a little too easy to get hooked from one show to the next.  They're all interesting enough to me that, if I don't have something else planned, I can easily waste away an entire afternoon and not even realize it!

Next, the kitchen.  I like to cook and bake. When I get bored, I make food--usually a dessert of some kind.  Now this can be a money thing again, but more pressing is the health issue.  I have a major sweet tooth and I could eat desserts all day.  Luckily, its been so hot that the thought of using any heat in the kitchen in the middle of the day is so unappealing that I have stopped spending my days baking.  But this leads to more boredom.

So that brings me to my last major choice for entertaining myself at home, which is reading.  And this is the part I am most ashamed of.  Now I know you're thinking, and no, I have not started reading trashing romance novels.  It's worse.  I started reading non-smutty, teenage vampire romance novels.  Yes, I've gotten hooked on the Twilight books.  I like to think of myself as having very cultured tastes in media.  I always read the reviews on movies (www.rottentomatoes.com) and books (www.amazon.com) before I watch/read them.  I try not to waste my time on "fluff."  But alas, I am counting down the days until the 4th book in the saga comes out.  And unfortunately for me, these books are super quick reads so it only takes me a couple days to get through them (not to mention I can hardly put them down).  So this will only satisfy my boredom for a few more days.  Well my sisters have been telling me to read these books for years now (or at least it seems like it) and I finally read them this summer.  I guess I can take solace in the fact that I got two of my other friends completely hooked on the books as well.  So at least now I have brought two other intelligent beings down to my same level of guilty pleasure.  So there's my confession.  I have succumbed to the boredom and tossed my pride out the window in favor of living in the fantasy world of vampires, werewolves (I am a big fan of Jacob), and the flutterings of a hormone-filled, teenage heart.

But don't worry.  I actually have to get to work on school stuff now (just a couple weeks till we start again!!!) so the boredom has probably already come to a peak.  Even though I complain, I know that once school starts again I will be dreaming of my carefree days of surfing the web, eating cookies, watching daytime television and reading books meant for pre-pubescent girls.

The first round of Mexico Photos

2008-06 mexico

Click on the photo to see the album.

We haven't even looked at Rob's photos yet! These are just the ones from my camera! Enjoy!

travel blog

Rob is working on finishing up our travel blog from Mexico. You can read it at egberttravels.blogspot.com

We're still finishing it up so check back for future updates.

Remembering the fabulous spring

As many of you know, Rob has a tendency to get a new hobby a day.  And he always gets way into these hobbies and goes all out.  Well, the latest phase of Rob's renaissance is gardening.  While the vegetable garden is absolutely insane (we will never be able to eat all of this food), we have also done what we could in the floral department.  I took the following photos a few months ago when everything was in nice spring bloom.  I hadn't posted them yet, because I was waiting for our other flowers to bloom come summer.  Well summer kind of snuck up on me and its now 100+ degrees every day and our flowers are really struggling.  So I post these older photos to remind myself of the beautiful spring days when leaving to house to walk around the back yard was a treat instead of a race to get back inside before a heat stroke comes on.  Maybe if the temperature drops below 95 again I'll go take current pictures of the yard, but for now, this will have to do.  Oh, and as a side note, I took these pictures, not Rob!  I think I did a pretty good job on some of them!

I Can't Believe It's Not Over Yet!

I am only 2 1/2 weeks away from school being over, but at this rate, I don't know if that last day will ever come!!!  We're almost finished with end of year testing and the kids have been insane since the week before spring break (over a month ago)!  And when the kids go insane, I go insane...just not in the crazy, hyper way that they show it...more in the grumpy, exhausted, irritable way.  So wish me luck as I head into the home stretch!  I just hope I make it.

My new favorite ice cream!

New favorite ice cream = Edy's Loaded Chocolate Chip Mint Brownie!

This is the best ice cream ever.  It is very soft, and true to its name, it is loaded with brownie chunks and chocolate chips.  I just tried it for the first time this week and I cannot stop eating it!  I tried to find a picture online to show you what to look for, but the Dreyer's website didn't even have this flavor listed!  So here is a picture of another on that looks good :)  I bought mine at Wal-Mart, so I know you can get it there.  It comes in this measly little 1.5 qt tub, but it is still worth it!  (It's the green ice cream kind of mint, not chocolate ice cream or white mint ice cream).

Recipes

Since I don't do a separate "recipe blog," but still love to cook good food, I thought I would do a little recipe blog entry.  This will be easy since we get all of our recipes online so I can just post the links to them instead of typing them all up.

Our newest recipe that has been added to our favorites is this roast chicken.  The is such a delicious meal.  You stuff the chicken with rosemary, thyme, a  lemon, garlic, and an onion and then wrap the whole chicken in bacon (how could anything not be delicious wrapped in bacon?).  You throw a bunch of mushrooms in the pan to make a yummy sauce.  Its even delicious if you pick the mushrooms out like I usually do!  Its actually really easy to make and fantastic with yukon gold potatoes.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_34517,00.html

Now for those of us with a major sweet tooth and weakness for all things chocolate...Brownies!  This is Barefoot Contessa's recipe and these are the richest brownies you will ever eat.  They are especially good if you cut them up and put them in the fridge and eat them the next day.  I usually don't care for recipes with coffee in them, but this was outstanding!  (PS...I don't add the nuts...I can't stand brownies with nuts!...well, not so much that I won't eat them...I just pick the nuts out).

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23629,00.html

Here's an appetizer that we made for the MSA wine and cheese party and it was a big hit.  They are little mini tacos you make in muffin tins with wonton wrappers.  Just lay the wrappers in the tin like little bowls and brown them up in  the oven and load in the taco fillings.  This was a great way to use up all our extra wonton wrappers from when we made delicious pot stickers...recipe to follow.

http://www.recipezaar.com/74301

Pot stickers--we leave out the water chestnuts because Rob doesn't like them.  We usually make a big batch and then freeze most of them.  Its great to just pull a couple out of the freezer and cook them up as an easy appetizer.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pot-Stickers-Traditional/Detail.aspx

And here's the sesame chicken we usually eat it with.  This is just like the kind from the restaurants!  We have received many compliments when we make this for friends.

http://www.recipezaar.com/129598

All of this is making me hungry now, so I'm going to go get some dinner started!  Let me know if you like these recipes.  I think I'll post some every now and then if anyone actually uses them!

Our First Tornado as Homeowners

So Rob and I can now say we have experienced one of a homeowner's big scares.  We were hit by a tornado about a month ago (the same storm system that hit downtown Atlanta real hard).  The tornado didn't actually hit our house, but it was somewhere in the very near area.  We didn't see a funnel cloud or hear the "train" noise, but it was pretty scary for about 5 minutes.  We had been watching the news all afternoon and getting really worked up and excited about the possibility of a big storm.  I am super impressed with how accurate the technology is now.  The local weather guy was predicting the exact location where the tornados could form and giving minute-by-minute details of where it would be right down to the street names.  We kept watching and saw that the whole storm system was coming right at us.  The rain started right as predicted and within a couple minutes the wind was howling and we decided to take cover in our hallway.  It was right at this time that the power went out and we lost our exciting commentary on the TV.  Rob was running in and out of the hall to take video of it all (you can see the video footage on his web album http://picasaweb.google.com/regbert/March08Tornado).  Next thing I know Rob is yelling that a tree fell and we are freaking out/excited/confused.  We were worried one of our big pines would fall on our house, but luckily it was a smaller tree that didn't do any damage!  Luck was definitely on our side as not a single plant from our yard was touched.  We had been planting stuff all over the yard earlier in the day and working on the garden.  The tree came within inches of our brand new azaleas and one of my rose bushes, but not a branch was harmed!  Here are the exciting photos of the clean-up.     
   

Here I am taking all of the branches off the tree.  Rob had a test the next day, so while he studied, I tapped into my Harding genes and did all the work on day 1 of the cleanup.

 

 

Showing off all of my hard work            

A view from below

We don't own a chainsaw so Rob decided to be resourceful and cut the tree up into pieces using only a circular saw and an axe.  Yes, it sounds crazy, and it was.  But it did the trick.  Granted, the really thick part at the bottom and all the roots are still laying in the yard until we get a chainsaw to finish it off.

Tagged

So Kauti "tagged" me and now I have to answer these few questions about myself for you all. I hope you find my life interesting...

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning

B. Each player answers the questions about themselves

C. At the end of the post, the player tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they are tagged.

10 years ago I was: 16 years old. I had just got my driver's license and my first boyfriend. I was a sophomore at Lassiter High School and I ran track. Sometimes at practice we would have to run a few miles around town. I remeber one time when a few of us just happened to run right by Bruster's Ice Cream for a little mid-run snack...probably wasn't the most productive track practice ever!

5 things on my to do list today:

1) Burn a CD for school (I taught my kids "Why Does the Sun Shine?" by They Might Be Giants as part of our solar system unit, and they're performing it for the school this week).
2) Watch Days of Our Lives (Yes, I'm hooked and I still record it everyday!)
3) Take Gob for a walk
4) Start reading "The Kite Runner"
5) Either make dinner or convince Rob that we should go to PF Chang's for the grand opening tonight (I am so excited that it is finally open!)
(Just a little side-note...had I answered this question this morning, the answers would have been completely different with things such as "print report cards, plan math lessons, grade papers, copy worksheets, etc.)

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:

1. Pay off Rob's loans
2. Travel the world!!!!
3. Go to grad school without worrying about the cost
4. Buy one of those old mansion houses in downtown Charleston
5. Buy a cottage house in Carmel By the Sea on the beach
6. Buy a private jet to fly everywhere I want (I'd have to move this up to #2, before Travel the world)
7. Get a maid! I hate cleaning!
8. Spend the rest of my life traveling from place to place
9. Now that I think of it, let's make #1 QUIT TEACHING!!!!!

3 of my bad habits:

1) Biting my nails...I have tried to stop so many times but now I have just accepted that this is the way I am.
2) Not doing the dishes. Sometimes we let them pile up for a week before we wash them all. That's why I like having company over, because it forces me to clean.
3) Getting too comfortable with watching TV all night long. Sometimes that's all I feel like doing when I come home from school. I admit it, I really like watching TV.

5 places I've lived:

1) Utah (Mountain Green)
2) Virginia (DC area)
3) Georgia (Marietta)
4) Utah (Provo)
5) South Carolina (North Augusta)

5 jobs I've had:

1) nanny
2) early morning toilet scrubber
3) receptionist
4) cafeteria chef
5) teacher (1st, 2nd, and 4th grades)

Something most people don't know about me:

I like taking tests! Rob and I took a community astronomy class a few years ago and I was actually disappointed that there wasn't a test at the end. I like a good challenge. And I like to see how much i know.

I tag Lisa, Maria, and Rob

And it even does Macro...

Yes, that's right, my camera takes great little macro shots. How Fun!

Finally, a picture of Rob!

Rob got me my very own camera for Valentine's Day! It's so tiny and cute. Well, there's not much around here to take pictures of the past few days, except Rob and Gob. So that's what I took pictures of. But these are probably some of the first pictures of Rob that we've had in 5 years. Up until now, he's always been the one behind the camera.

So here I am, asleep on the couch at 8:30 on Valentine's. Rob comes in and wakes me up to come look at the Moon. But he doesn't wake me up in the traditional way. No, I wake up to Rob taking a picture of me with a highlighter stuck up my nose! Oh, the romantic things my husband does for me on Valentine's Day. But back to the Moon. I had never seen this before, but there was a huge halo around the moon. After a little bit of research, I found that it is a 22° halo, formed by the refraction of light through ice crystals in the high, thin cirrus clouds. The old legends say that however many stars are inside the halo is how many days you have until it rains. Well, research says that it is sometimes a sign of rain (based on the types of clouds that come in with certain air currents that bring rain) but not a sure sign. Just thought this was interesting and wanted to share the photo.
And by the way, we aren't celebrating Valentine's Day until tomorrow because Rob has a test in the morning, so he is spending the whole night studying. So it wasn't so bad that I was asleep on the couch at 8:30. We really do love each other!

More Frustration

So my new (well, not new, just finally bugged me enough to blog about it) frustration is not just with the future of our country politically speaking (see last post), but along similar lines. As many of you know, teaching school is not my favorite thing to do...by far. And teaching in a low income area has made me like it even less. You see, I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the reality of the values taught to kids these days by their parents. Values that will be ingrained in them as they grow up. And its not that parents aren't teaching their kids values anymore. The values that they pick up from their parents are just not the values I agree with. Here are some examples of the "values" some of my students have demonstrated in school:

1. Everyone owes you everything.

One of the more disruptive kids in my class believes that every time he gets in trouble it is because the teachers are out to get him and pick on him. It has never dawned on him that he is getting in trouble because he is obnoxiously singing at the top of his lungs in the middle of a math lesson (I'm not even joking abou this). And when cofronted with the question of what can we do to solve this problem he answers "You should give me more compliments when I'm being good." Now I know that kids thrive on praise and I have seen first hand how it can change behavior in the classroom (only in the short-term, however). But why should I praise him specifically for doing what everyone else in the class has been doing every day since August? Now he blames me for his bad behavior because I don't compliment him enough when he does the bare minimum of what is expected of him in class. He is completely capable (no ADHD or anything) of sitting through a lesson without bursting into song, but for some reason, I owe him a compliment when he does. You can ask anyone at my school, I am a very positive teacher with my students, so what makes him think he is so extra special that he deserves extra attention for doing what was expected of him in the first place. He has learned in his short 10 years of life that you can blame other people for your lack of discipline/motivation/effort and when given the chance to take part in the solution, you should expect someone else's efforts to solve your problem.

2. "Taxes are good because you always get it back when the tax return comes."

Yes, that is an exact quote from one of my fourth graders last year. This student later went on to tell me about how her mom gave her and her brother each $100 from the tax return to buy whatever they wanted. As I mentioned earlier, I teach in a very low income area. So what lesson is being taught here? When the government gives you money to help you get along (pay the rent, bills, gas, etc), give it to a ten-year-old to buy a video game or two and about $20 worth of junk from the Dollar Store.

3. Teenage pregnancy has great benefits.

Yes, you read that right. One of the parents of one of my students came in for a parent/teacher conference one day. She saw the wedding picture that I have of me and Rob on my desk and asked me how old I was when I got married. Since I got married so young (just a month short of being 21) I am used to the comments about getting married young. I answered her only to be shocked by her response. She went into a whole speech about how glad she is that she got married so young. (She is already on marriage #2, and according to her son, this guy threatens to walk out every other weekend...very sad for the kids). Her exact words were something like this: "I am so glad I had my kids when I was 17 because now, by the time they are old enough to move out, I'll still be young enough to go out and party. I wouldn't change a thing!" After that meeting, I was no longer worried about the mature and expereinced teacher image I try so hard to make the parents see. When I think about it, she's really only a couple years older than me.

One good thing about my job: I always have stories to tell.

Frustration!

Did anyone else stay up late last night with a sick feeling in their stomach after watching the coverage of Super Tuesday? I am truly worried about where this country is headed!If I wanted to live in a socialist country, I'd move to France.

Two of a Kind

With the Step 1 of the boards coming up for Rob, he is actually starting to study more than usual. This means that I have more time to myself at home while he's locked up in the office. As the productive person I am, I have used that extra time to develop 2 of my great hobbies; watching TV even more than I already did, and taking naps in strange places. This photo shows me doing both. While laying on the floor watching TV, I fell asleep with my sweet little puppy. We even shared a pillow! Awwww, aren't we cute? Well, maybe it would be cuter if I didn't have my hoodie hood over my head making me look a little alien-like. You see, we don't like to turn the heater past 65 and we have actually had a few very cold days this month. So the hood was necessary to keep the heat from escaping through my head.

While contemplating my new found "productivity," I am realizing that this is just the beginning of the free time I will have over the next couple years as Rob begins his rotations and working 80-100 hrs a week. I guess I will have some time for a few more hobbies. So, I was at Borders the other day and found yet another coffee table book about the universe that I don't already own. If you don't already know, this is an area of great weakness for me. I love huge books with huge pictures about the universe. Of course it was in the bargain section (they always are?) so I bought my 4th coffee table book on the subject. This one is different, however, in that it might be the biggest book I've ever seen. Noth the thickest, just the biggest. The dimensions of the cover are about 2ft by 1 1/2ft. And this book is very heavy! (Yes, that is it on the floor in the picture above).

With this new book and the fact that I just finished teaching my 4th graders a unit on astronomy, my interest in astronomy was reawakened (although I like it so much that it is never really asleep to begin with). Remember how much more TV watching I have been doing? Well, I have been watching a lot of episodes of the History Channel's series The Universe (I highly recommend these shows. They are fantastic!). On the episode about the Sun, they featured this young, attractive female sun specialist. I was thinking, "Hey, I could do that!" So I got online and started researching astromony programs throughout the US. I found one that I am seriously considering. It is a master's degree in space studies that I can do completely online. I know what you're thinking..."No, Haley, don't "go" to University of Pheonix! It's not a real school!" But I think you will be surprised that this program is through the University of North Dakota...a real accredited university! And since it's in North Dakota, you can see why they offer it online. They know that no one in their right mind is going to want to move to North Dakota. Anyway, after researching it, this is a totally legite program. A lot of people who work for NASA have graduated from their space programs. And one of the great things about this program is that it is not focused on the astrophysics and mathmatics that many astronomy programs are full of. It is geared more towards space policy, space missions to the Moon and Mars, building a space station on the Moon, and the political and economic factor of space travel. I'll keep you updated as I decide if that is what I really want to do. The only problem is that is costs $15,000 per year. Hopefully I can find some nice grants for "women in science" or something like that.