23 May 2012

Blog Delinquency

I apologize for my silence. There’s absolutely no excuse for it. I’ve been done with all my schoolwork for two weeks, and I’m discovering one of those age old truths about myself: I get more done when I’m busy.

Now that I’m off for the summer, I have completely devolved. My blog is quieter, my house messier, my child fussier, my laundry hamper fuller, and my dishes stacked higher. I’ve gone back to drinking coffee everyday (which is always a bad idea for my headache prone self.) I have a mental block when it comes to running any errands outside of walking radius. An old running injury continues to flare up, and after six weeks of no running it still can’t handle 30 minute jogwalks 3 times a week. Our internet has been finicky which has me climbing 40 stairs to the garage where I fuss with a jack on the router multiple times a day. Jacob continues to divide his free time in favor of his nautical paramour. And on top of everything else: my yogurt has been very VERY grainy, and if that don’t beat all...

So forgive me that I haven’t been sharing all my molehill mountains.

In no particular order I give you the more interesting parts of our recent living (drizzled with parenthetical commentary.)

Jake and I flew to Chicago to watch my littlest-biggest brother graduate from college. You may remember him.


He’s lost in the neighborhood of forty pounds since he last was featured on the blog. (Apparently that’s what happens to football players when they stop working out.)

All the sibs were present.


As was my Nana June.


(Jake was a crying/scratching/hairpulling/notsleeping nightmare on the plane. And the angelic four month old girl across the aisle who slept and/or giggled the entire flight was just icing on the cake.)

Jacob and I are a proud uncle and aunt of two fine little babies born over the past month. Our nephew Ollin Sage was born to Jacob’s brother Shannon and his wife Willow.


And our niece Emma Grace was born to Jacob’s sister Kathleen and her hubs Thomas.


(My family isn’t fasttracking it to babymakingville so I’m really grateful to my in-laws for giving Jake some cousins and filling my life with pink and squishy newborns.)

I have finally begun playing the banjo Jacob and Uncle John bought me for my birthday several months ago, and I’m becoming slowly less horrible. (I would feel bad for our upstairs neighbor who’s had to listen to my bum ditty these past weeks, except we’ve had to listen to his yippy dog for a year, so I don’t.)

Jake understands a few words. The first of which was ball. And if you're really keen on seeing it in action you can go here or you can just look at the picture below and take my word for it.


Work on the sailboat is almost done. Uncle John is moving on board next weekend, so I hope to send some sailing pics out old internet way soon.

(I asked Jacob this morning if he was looking forward to being done with the project and spending more time with his lonely little family, or if he was going to miss working on it. He took me in his arms and said: “Katie, I love you more than any boat in the whole world.”

Thanks, dear.)

02 May 2012

The Classroom and The Baby's Room

Since you've all been dying for more classroom/babyroom posts, I've finally decided to cave.

Yesterday my students turned in their final portfolios for the semester, so all that lies between me and almost four months of summer is a mountain of (my favorite!) grading. 

Ever since Jacob started working again I've been bringing Jake to my office hours. He chews on wires and binder clips, opens every drawer he can reach, takes off down the hallway whenever the door opens, and spreads the contents of his diaper bag everywhere. He only peed on the floor once (sorry Wendy...) When students visit I try to maintain some level of authority as he sucks on my face or pulls down my shirt.

Deceptive innocence

The classroom became the baby's room once when my babysitter bailed and I had to bring him into class strapped on my back. Jake fussed whenever he couldn't see the students, so I taught the entire class facing the side of the room.

Yesterday was full of goodbyes, lots of handshakes, and two hesitant hugs. 

One girl - my sweet little airhead - came in, handed me her work, and said: "Just the portfolio, right?" And I said yes and smiled, but I was thinking: "Yes, just ALL the written work you've done in the course." This is the same girl who once in a sentence accidentally wrote "internally" instead of  "eternally," and when I asked her which she meant, she replied: "Well..which one works better?"

That was one of the more memorable moments of my semester (riveting! I know!) until the following incident. 

One of my baseball players came in extra flustered at the cut off time for portfolio collection. He had been a decent and respectful student all semester, and he had thus almost redeemed college baseball players in my mind despite multiple negative experiences teaching them over the years. He handed in his portfolio and took a deep breath. Slightly concerned, I asked how finals week was going for him, and he said he was stressed out because his girlfriend was in surgery and he was hurrying so he could be there when she got out.  

I expressed an appropriate level of concern.

Then the 19 year old proceeded to plummet from all my good graces as he shrugged his shoulders and, with a bit of a smirk, said: "She's just getting her boobs done."

The awkwardness cannot be overstated really. I managed to raise my eyebrows only a little, keep my face-twitching to a minimum, and say something like "Ah-oh-uh." 

Then there was silence as we watched Jake rip paper. 

He told me how much he loved kids. 

I nodded.

Then I crossed my arms over my chest because I had started letting down...which always happens to my still-lactating-self whenever I get embarrassed.