A New Week - FINALLY!!

Stressful pretty much describes last week and I am so glad it's over and life resumes!

I took the Praxis in English Language, Literature and Compisition on Saturday  . . . two tests: Content Knowledge and Pedagogy.  Don't have any idea what Pedagogy is but still . . . Content Knowledge showed me that in 12th grade English I should have paid way more attention to Shakespeare!  Short story, my 12th grade English teacher paid myself and a friend $20 to grade her term papers plus as an added bonus we got to do this task during our own English class so instead of Shakespeare and sonnets we graded and oh how I loved it!  That is until this weekend and I really needed to know something on Saturday about Shakespeare and haikus and iambic pentameter! Therefore, if around this time in December you don't see a blog post about how smart I am then that means that 12 years ago I should have stayed in class!!

I do however now know all you ever needed to know about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn if any needs to write a short essay on that book!

Other things happening . . . my sweet Mason is learning to play checkers and something about cold weather always makes me want to play checkers (beat Ryan three times in a row last time!)! I am glad to teach him because now I will have someone to play games with this holiday season!

Mason has the best Mimee ever who just last week took him to McDonald's to play (and possibly eat), after his grandparents day program, even though she HATES McDonald's!  As an aside, my own mother, who happens to be Mason's Mimee, never took me to McDonald's - EVER - just saying! He also came home with a random assortment of Lunchable's, roasted peanuts, rice krispie treats, and a package of gum.  Not at all spoiled!

Mason informed me that the worst class of all is music class because all you do is "sit there and sing."  Also I am trying to persuade him to let me use the car drop off line at school since the weather is cooler and he told me no because one of the teachers might ,wait for it, . . ..say "hi" to him!  Oh, he is so much like his mother!

Sweet baby Conner has been a hysterical sweet mess as usual!  We went to the library last week and Conner has been going there since he was in an infant carrier and the librarian commented on what a big boy he was and he quickly corrected her - "uh uh big boy, my sweet baby!" - which in Conner speak means "I am NOT a big boy, I am a SWEET BABY!"

The sweet baby has also started hitting when he is mad so I watched Super Nanny on Friday to get up to par on my timeout technique!  Speaking of Super Nanny, the strangest thing happened on Friday night . . . Ryan, Mason, & Conner went to a hockey game around 5:45 p.m. so from them until around 10:30 I was home at night ALL BY MYSELF! Seriously, cannot even remember the last time I was home by myself at night - it was FABULOUS!

Felt a little like Andy's mom from Toy Story last night . . . trying to make room for the expected avalanche of new toys coming our way by cleaning out our various toy areas . . . started sorting out baby toys to store in the attic (I can almost hear the toys plotting their escape now!) and the saddest part was removing some of the stuffed animals from Conner's bed.  Mason made him a Build a Bear a few weeks before Conner was born and that teddy is now the beloved "gunga," however since the pacifier has been thrown out and the baby bed converted to a toddler bed he hasn't asked for gunga quite so much.  I left him in the bed because he is a forever kind of toy but the giraffe he got for his first Easter got moved to the shelf while the toys on the shelf got moved to a box . . . sniffle, sniffle.  Last year at Mason's Secret Santa Shop he bought Conner a little stuffed bulldog.  Mason has such a sweet sensitive spirit and he wanted so very much for Conner to love his dog and well every night I would arrange the dog just so in Conner's bed and every morning I would find it thrown out on the floor and I would quickly toss it bag in before Mason saw!  Conner now accepts the dog as his own so it will have to stay somewhere nearby but poor little giraffe had to move on . . . growing up is hard!

So amid all my studying life went on and hopefully I will have more time to blog now!  The GRE comes next so send your prayers my way!