....And we're back!

It's been a big two and a half weeks since we left Texas for Kentucky for the holidays, and there's so much to tell, I can't even begin to think of all of it.  So I'll do my best, and we'll go from there.  (This list is no particular order.)

1. We bought a car!  Thanks to the very wonderful relationship my FIL has with the Tim Short dealership in Hazard, we were able to afford a brand new Jeep Cherokee.  It's lovely.  We'll be selling the Saturn, as its time has probably come.  On the other hand, Dear Husband's boss has already called first dibs on buying it!

2. I learned that despite my nightmares of being unable to run/scream in case of some sort of danger, my reptilian hindbrain works just fine in real life situations.  We were over at Snarky Writer's house during our last stop on our world tour when the SWAT team invaded two apartments over.  We heard shouting (not unusual), a thud (odd, but not out of the ordinary-this was the SWAT team bursting into the apartment), and then a shotgun blast (fired by the police, not the perpetrators), at which point, SW's husband shouted for us all to get down, and everyone's bodies seemed to obey without thinking about it.  Naturally, we have no idea why any of this happened, as the news has not picked it up.

3. I crocheted an entire afghan in UK colors.  This seemed appropriate after UK stomped UCLA and then proceeded to beat down on UofL.  I'd forgotten how much I really enjoy crocheting.

4. The kitties were unhappy while we were gone.  According to DH's co-worker, who cat-sat for us, she never saw Ding or Bergie. Cat, on the other hand, made friends with her.

We came home to find that someone had puked all over the house (Bergie), which was not all that unexpected, as they'd had unimpeded access to food, and he tends to do that when he overeats.  When I walked up to the door, I could see through the window and saw Ding sitting on the kitchen table.  *facepalm*  And then, I discovered that four of my Willow Tree figurines had been knocked off the bookshelf and are now in several pieces.  Fortunately, DH is going to try to patch them up for me.

5. I got new Jamberrys in Stewart plaid.  All of the SILs got Jams for Christmas.

6. DH bought me the most beautiful blue diamond earrings to match my engagement ring.  They are absolutely beautiful.

7. I'm sure I have more, but I can't think of them right now.  But watch this space for more exciting news in the near future.

All in all, I think 2015 is going to be a pretty good year.

Week 6: Homesick

I've been in Corpus Christi for almost eight weeks at this point, but next week begins week 6 of the semester, and that's the funny thing about getting into the grind of the semester--in some ways, you start running on autopilot, which lets your brain finally start focusing on other things, particularly when you get home on Friday, like how you can't just jump in the car and make the quick journey home to see the fam.

Kentucky for Kentucky has a great print with a quote from Happy Chandler that says "I never met a Kentuckian who wasn't either thinking about going home or actually going home."  And while I do generally like Texas (apart from trying to drive in traffic down here), and I'm making new friends, I am desperately sick for home.

It really wasn't so bad when we were living in Tennessee, because again, a jump in the car on Friday, and in four or five hours (depending on who was driving), we were back in God's own country and with family.

This is the longest I've ever been away from home.  And it's going to be Christmas before we get back.  Dear Husband has a bit more experience with it, having spent six months surveying in New Mexico (without me, even), and I am so blessed to have him with me here.  But I still find myself wishing for hills and green grass and for Jeopardy to come on at 7:30 like it's supposed to!

I think part of the homesickness has also been a realization that some of my teaching is going to have to fundamentally change.  I'm dealing with a different level of preparation for college than I ever have before, and in some ways, I feel like I've been doing a lot of things wrong because I've been taking things for granted that I shouldn't have.  I've had to explain to all five of my classes--Composition I, II and American Lit--the difference between a summary and a response.

On top of that, I've been reminded, once again, there are some students you simply cannot help.  You can get as many resources available, but if they don't want help, you can't make them get it.  On the other hand, there are also victories when you have a student who you can help and you do.

I ordered my books for next semester, and I've got a new appreciation for trying to order books and keeping the costs down for students, and I've decided that handbooks need to go the way of the dinosaur.  There's nothing in a handbook anymore that students can't find online for free, mostly through the resources of very excellent university and college writing centers.  So for one class, I've ordered it as recommended, but I won't be assigning any readings out of it.  I'll simply be supplementing from online, and for my 1302 classes, I haven't ordered one at all.  It's not that my students don't have grammatical problems--they do--but I think there are far more effective ways to teach grammar than handbooks.  I think the Grammar Girl podcasts will be helpful too.

So the week has been up and down, but I'm hoping that things will look up.  In the meantime, I'm going to start counting down until Christmas and charging my brothers with installing Skype on my mom's computer.  Even though my laptop is currently broken, I have it on my phone, and I'd like to at least see some people's faces.