Another weave bites the dust...

We survived another week! Only 19 more weeks until the end of the year. As of next week, we will be half done with the year. Wow.

Christmas break was utter sweetness. We spent the first week with my family in PA. We ate lots of great food, played games with family, and I got to see my best friend from high school. My niece Lydia is ridiculously adorable. She says "ok" to everything in the cutest voice. I wanted to take her home with me! She also loves to torture the family dog and calls out his name persistently: "Jacques...Jacques...JACQUES!!!" The dog persists to hide behind the dining room table. Somehow he doesn't want to be ridden like a horse...

My bro-in-law David is the master word-man game player. He slaughtered us at UpWords and I've lost my winning streak at Acquire. Stephen and I also are terrible BuzzWord players. (All of these games are funtastic if you want to check them out.)

Utah was equally fantastic. More good food (my jeans don't fit very well now so I have 10 calorie Jello snacks in the fridge to assist in my avoiding junk) and great fun.

We ate at our favorite haunts, Stephen went skiing with his brothers, and the girls and I saw Marley and Me. Such a cute flick! I almost wanted a dog at the end of the movie but then I remembered I don't really like animals that move besides humans. (And I don't even like all of those...lol).

Steve's best friend Jeff also got married which was so beautiful! The sealing was perfect - so many great tidbits of advice were given for having a great marriage. Jeff and his bride looked so happy and in love...I love weddings! Steve helped decorate their car at the reception with Olive Loaf bologna and oreo cookies. Super sad note though - someone stole their basket with the cards and money! They don't know who took it - it was on a table at one moment and gone the next. What is the world (and Utah for that matter) coming to?!

We also saw this awesomely funny play called Cash on Delivery. If you ever get the opportunity to see it - go! I laughed so hard the entire time. Thanks to Mom and Dad Kasteler for funding such a great week!

Props to Lydia Douglas and Nathan for being so fun! Nathan gives Stephen a run for his money on his kisses and is so cute when he calls me "Doria"

One last joyful note - Steve's sister is now engaged to be married on August 11! Blake is a great guy and I think he will be a great addition to the Kasteler klan.

Back at School
Highlights of this week:

Another Weave Bites the Dust
During my planning period this week, the teacher who occupies my room at that time saw a fight forming outside and prompted me to push the security button. Meanwhile, a girl got ushered into my classroom and I had to take a double glance. Her shirt was ripped in half, exposing her black bra and stomach. Her weave was also about to fall out and she was holding it to her head. I asked her if she wanted tape to fix her shirt (ok, so masking tape is probably not the most fashionable statement in the world but neither is an exposed black bra) and she said she needed a jacket. I tried to keep her in the room as I gave her my jean jacket, waiting for security to come and get her. She decided that it was time to go abruptly, saying frantically "they gonna fight my sister" and although I tried to keep her in my grasp, her nicely lotioned arms allowed her to escape my grasp. She then ran straight for the other teacher at the door, and hit her in the chest so that she could get past. An police officer came and escorted her away. The rumor is that she's been kicked out out school.

Little Victories
Damian, who failed my class last quarter, got a 86 on his midterm!
Steve's student Dante got a 93 on his project!
Corean got a 99 on his project!
Dante got the high on the midterm for his class (ok, so maybe it was a 66, but still...)
Joe turned in a Zoology project and was distressed that he might leave Steve's class.
Aparently our principal would give up part of his manhood to make sure we stayed at TP next year. (What that means...I don't know or want to know)
*-We didn't get fired even though we woke up at 7:30 and I was 30 minutes late to my first class...whoops...-*

Big Frustrations
-Katiana denied plagarism despite me brining up the website which she copied from. She then also denied that she did not copy/share her project with a student in Steve's class. I was so frustrated with her.
-Richie still denies cheating on his quiz. He had the same answers as the person next to him who had a different test. He says they just happened to have the same answers he said.

DO I LOOK THAT DUMB PEOPLE?!?

-So many students didn't turn in ANYTHING for their project. Kids! Your grade went down at least 1 full letter grade! (An F is still an F though...lol)

-I gave my kids the exact midterm to study from. And then lots of them still failed it. Go figure.
-I have more F's this quarter than last quarter...nuts.

Well...it's the weekend! Yay! We've been grading most of the evening and I will continue to grade now, but at least I have somewhat chronicled my life. Yay for me.

Happy Friday!