Day 13 – This week, in great detail

Two-for-one today!

This week in great detail. Kind of sucked but here goes:

Monday: My Advanced Integrated Science kids started a Mineral Hardness Lab. They weren't too thrilled about it and I had to write one or two of them up for refusing to do the lab. I'm not a fan of writing kids up for preventable behaviors, but I don't take insubordination well so that's that. My Chemistry kids bombed their Chap 7 exam the Friday before so they got to do mandated studying by writing lines for all of the naming and mathematical processes in the unit. They weren't thrilled, but at least they were focused and quiet for once. Unexpected early release meant that I didn't see my other Adv. Int. Science class -- this meant they had to skip the Mineral Hardness Lab.

Tuesday: Snow day! Though these days bore me out of my skull being at home, the general attitude of my students is the worst I've ever seen so I enjoy my time away from them. I was feeling pretty under the weather anyway so this was a day spent catching up on sleeping.

Wednesday: Back to work. Adv. Integrated Science kids finished up our lecture notes over Minerals and Rocks in both class periods. Chemistry students had their re-test over Chap 7. I would say a good 10% of Chem kids refused to do the re-test (sat there with their re-test, albeit quietly, until the bell rang and then turned in a blank paper). I had about 3 kids overall that refused to be quiet about the fact that they were refusing to take the re-test. I wrote all of them up. Sucked.

Thursday: Snow day! See above. I also did a fair amount of planning for my sub that I'm having tomorrow (the 14th) due to professional development.

Friday: My first group of Adv. Int. Science kids were given the chance to finish their Mineral Lab and any other missing work they had out. Chem kids started a new unit on Chemical Reactions and how they're represented on paper. Second group of Adv. Int. Science kids I didn't see because we had a pep rally the last period of the day. Apparently it is "homecoming" for the basketball season. (Sidenote: I have never been anywhere that celebrated this second homecoming for basketball. Football or go home, baby! haha) I actually didn't feel good all day, queasy, warm, dizzy -- just general ickiness. I about passed out at the pep rally though. Too many bodies and too much noise going on at one time. Several people noticed I looked flushed and I had to step outside the gym a few times. I came home that afternoon and noticed a strange rash on the backs of my hands and insides of my wrists. It's itchy and miserable.

Saturday: Yay for sleeping in! Got caught up on all of my TV shows, finalized lesson plans for Monday. Played around on the internet a bit. Pre-planned for my final paper in my current graduate school course. The rash seemed to subside a bit, but now my hands/wrist are scaly and itchy. I'm really hoping it's not PUPPS because that would just be so unattractive. Went out to eat with hubs and one of the guys he works with.

Sunday: today hubs hasn't yet gotten out of bed. I need to go pick up my copies for tomorrow's sub. I plan to get a HUGE chunk of my paper written and make sure I've replied to any discussions I need to for my class. We need to talk more about our upcoming move to WA and settle on when we're going to apply for pre-approval on the VA loan and narrow down our choices for houses to look at when I go the first week of April. Need to clean the house a bit and finally pack the Christmas stuff away, away (it's down but not in it's proper boxes).

Day 12 - What's in your bag, in great detail

So I've really sucked it up at this 30 Great Details thing. I hate leaving unfinished business, so to speak, so I'm going to try and blow through the last 19 days and hopefully that will get me back on track with blogging.

First off, I don't really have a bag in the purse sense. If we're talking about purses I don't have one and normally only carry my black Coach wallet. I do have a work bag though, so I suppose I will talk about that instead.

So first off this is my bag:

 

I am totally in love with this bag. It is completely awesome and I bought it on sale about a year ago at Target for like $18. It was advertised as a work tote and has a special padded zippered pouch for your laptop with a leash-style clip to secure it to the inside of the bag. It also came with a matching half-lanyard key ring to secure your keys with a leash-style clip to one place inside the bag, a matching cell-phone pocket with loop to attach to the inside and of course another inner pocket with pen-holders on the outside. I LOVE knowing exactly where everything is inside this bag. I don't have to dig for keys or my phone or anything else! Truth be told my phone usually stays in the smaller of the outside pockets (the buckles are just for looks, the pockets actually close with magnetic snaps) -- it's just easier to get to and the cell phone pocket wasn't exactly designed for smart phones so it's a touch too small for easy use.

Since it is currently the weekend the small outside pocket is empty, during the week it holds my cell phone, my mascara and maybe a small scrap of paper or two. The larger outside pocket holds a small coin purse/card holder thing, my iPod charger, a set of headphones and my pill case for the pre-natals (otherwise I'll forget to take them!). Inside the bag I usually have my 13" MacBook in the padded case, with the charger floating loose in the bag. A grading wheel and my planner float loose inside, as well as whatever miscellaneous assignments I have yet to grade for my classes (nothing really in there right now as grades were due on Friday for progress reports). My pen pockets hold whatever random writing utensils I have, usually a pencil or two, a couple of pens and a highlighter or two. Currently it's one purple and one red felt tip pen and a permanent marker. There's a zippered component to the pen pocket and inside there is my iPod and a few random scraps of paper. The empty cell phone case is somewhere at the bottom. My key lanyard is clipped into place on the inside but hangs outside the bag with carabiners attaching my house keys and work keys (on separate rings) to the ring on the lanyard. (I really like this system with the carabiners because it also allows me to clip the keys I'm using at the time to my pants pocket or belt loop. I don't ever lose my keys because of this!)

I honestly LOVE this bag so much. It is the pinnacle of sturdiness as it's been well over a year and showing no signs of tears or even much wearing. All of the zippers are functioning tip top, the leash-style clips though small are strong and never catch or have to be forced open. The walls of the bag are still pretty stiff so my papers and books etc never get curled. I even love the color and the fact that it is faux-croc because that gives it enough style without being too boring or too gaudy. I might actually shed a tear or two when (if! *fingers crossed*) this bag dies.