It's Been a Long, Long Time

Well, as predicted, now that I'm back in the swing of things with school, the blogging has fallen a bit by the wayside. It's been incredibly busy lately. This week, my schedule has been such that I've been in my house and conscious for an average of about 2 hours each day. There have been meetings, appointments, soccer games (Caleb's team played my school--coach's wife couldn't miss that one), my night class (philosophy of education--and me without my heart pills...), swim lessons and working out. It's pretty much absolute craziness.

So tonight I blog at 10:30, when I should be upstairs showering and getting ready for bed. But I'm so not tired, since I just finished working out at the Y. I did my 4 miles (that's right FOUR miles, baby!!), then I had to run to Walgreen's to pick up the family photo (taken this evening since we don't actually have any pictures of the entire family that are less than 2 years old) that we needed to turn in to Con-man's preschool teacher sometime earlier this week and some milk, since we were completely out. That's pretty much indicative of how my week has gone.

I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow, for several reasons:

1. CAUSAL FRIDAY!!!!!!!! That's right, my principal finally caved and has given us casual Fridays. Maybe not a big deal to most, but that's one more day before I have to do laundry. Which is good, because I'm pretty certain that we may be going washing machine shopping this weekend, as ours seems to be on the fritz.

2. So far this year, I haven't been the crappy, disorganized teacher that I normally am. I'm staying on top of things much better than normal. Fridays have become my "copy-everything-I'm-gonna-need-for-next-week" day. It's working out so nicely for me, as I get all my stuff done and I'm not flying by the seat of my pants come the following week. (we'll see how long this lasts...)

3. I can work out as soon as I get home from school tomorrow, and then I have NOTHING that I have to do, nowhere that I have to be for the rest of the night. For once, I can just come home and hang out with my kids. We're going to make pizza quesadillas for supper, maybe rent a movie, and it's going to be a fantastic, restful evening! I can't wait!

Things I am not so much looking forward to about tomorrow:
1. Language Arts department meeting after school, 90% of which will in no way apply to me and what I'm doing in my classroom.

2. Getting up at 5 freakin' 30 in the morning so the carpool bus doesn't leave the commutor lot without me. Yep, I've joined the ecological revolution, and I carpool to work. It's a bunch of girls ("the cool kids", as my neighbor-teacher put it), and we have a good time riding our "bus" to school. Unfortunately for me, I can't hit the snooze button as often as I once did nowdays. I have to be out of my house no later than 6:15 a.m. I think I'm crazy. But I'm saving some money.

3. First hour. For the most part, this class is great--fun kids who want to learn. Except for two of them. I have two young men who seem to be employed by the McCain-Palin ticket. They have made it their personal mission to preach on about the Republican party at every opportunity. Now, everyone is entitled to his/her political views. And on some counts, I do agree with these fine young gentlemen. But, much like I disagree with...say...Rush Limbaugh's methods of presentation and content, I disagree with these boys hijacking my class with their commentary. A few things they do are kind of cute (for example, the speeches that they delivered today and yesterday started with the phrase, "my fellow Americans", and one of them puts "(R)" behind his name on everything he turns in to me, which is kind of funny), but I'm afraid I'm going to have a mutiny on my hands if these boys are not silenced soon. Ahh, well, only 3 months and 1 week until the semester's over.

So, to recap all that has been going on here at Casa Zustiak: As much as I hate to admit it, I'm kind of enjoying my job (don't tell my children!), and it's going pretty well. I'm still managing to keep up with my running and I'm starting to add swimming back in. Maybe one day I'll lose all my baby weight. Although, are you still allowed to call it "baby weight" when the "baby" is over 2 years old? Caleb's soccer season is going decently. They've only played 3 games so far (some were canceled last week due to hurricane rain left-overs). Their record is 1 & 2, but one of the losses was a moral victory (meaning they only lost by a few goals rather than 10). Connor and Riley are both loving their day-time activities and swim lessons. Connor starts fall soccer on Saturday, which should be a load of fun. My house is a disaster, as per normal. I have no idea who keeps making a mess of it. It can't be us, since we're NEVER here!

Now I'm finally starting to feel tired enough to hit the sack. Say a little prayer for me tomorrow that I don't fall asleep during my students' speeches!