So after my early morning post yesterday, I tried going to school. I made it through first period and decided it just wasn’t worth it. My head was incredibly stuffy, my nose incredibly runny, and my throat hurt incredibly badly. Then to top it all off, when 3rd period began, they had a fire drill. Needless to say, I was happy to go home after lunch and just lie like a useless blob on the couch. I have decided that I would much rather be healthy teaching classes with my kids than home sick. Blech!

About 9:00 last night I had Jared give me a blessing, and decided that because I wasn’t feeling well still, I should take today off. I’m glad I did. I slept better last night, but this morning my cold had lessened slightly, but I had definitely developed a cough. I called the doctors office and the nurse wasn’t very helpful. Just told me to do the same things I had been doing: Dayquil/Niquil, resting, lots of fluids, and such. No magic fix for my lame head/chest cold!

It’s actually been kind of nice to relax. I didn’t realize how stressed out I’ve been about school until I was forced by my silly body to slow down. I’m counting on because I’ve chilled out yesterday and today, body will get better and let me go back to school on Monday. 🙂 However, it also has just shown me that I am really enjoying my job and teaching, and I really care about how my students are doing (and not just in my classroom). I know I’m not that great of a teacher yet, but I hope that next year I’ll start off a lot more strongly for the students.

Anyways, I need to get ready for the evening. Jared is kind of hosting/helping out a guy who is interviewing for NI, and he has a fiancee so I am going to try to help answer any questions they may have. 🙂 NI is taking us all out to County Line tonight for some delicious barbeque, and as I can finally taste a little again, I am excited!!!

It’s about 2:15 am Thursday morning. Why am I up? I have some sort of nasty disgusting cold that hasn’t really allowed me to sleep very well, and I have been up for the past 45 minutes anyways because it hurts my head less to sit up. 🙂 I had heard 1 year teachers have to deal with getting sick a lot as we acclimate to the schools, but I didn’t believe it. 🙁

Anyways, things have been going pretty well overall. The kids amaze me with their different levels of maturity. Some students have me wondering, “Was I ever that smart when I was their age?” Probably not. And then there’s the opposite level- “Was I ever that immature and annoying?!” Some of the kids are just so responsible and mature, and I can hardly believe that they are only 12 years old. Other ones act more like they are 6. And as Jared and I taught the 6 year old primary class on Sunday, I feel justified in saying that. some of the 6 year olds were able to sit more quietly and still than my 7th graders!

Speaking of that particular adventure, Primary isn’t really my favorite thing. I do think that little kids are really really cute… but that’s from far away or for 5 minute intervals. (Depending on the level of cleanliness and whiny-ness, I can like them for up to a couple of hours at a time even.) But despite my convictions, this is the second time I’ve been put in primary at church. (At least Jared got dragged along with me this time!) And really, yes, the kids were pretty good, pretty cute… they all immediately wanted to sit next to me and Jared (or on my lap, or at least hold my hand as they went on various bathroom excursions), which surprised me. I expected at least a little “Getting used to the new teacher” phase, but nope.

I think the biggest problem was with my headaches and my overall pathetic sensitivity to chaotic noise. Since the kids did so well on their primary program at church, the chorister thought that it would be a great idea to start passing out kazoos. Small, plastic, brightly colored, and they make obnoxious noises! Who can resist? Certainly nobody between the ages of 4-8. As you could guess, without any directions with the kazoos, mayhem ensued during the “Sharing Time” of church. As long as that doesn’t happen again, I’d probably survive those 2 hours every Sunday.

Anyways, I think I am going to attempt sleep again, as my head feels slightly better from some of the medicine I took 45 minutes ago, and I have to at least try to teach later on today. 🙂 Cheerio for now!

So, this summer Jared and I got all excited about the show, America’s Got Talent. For some reason, we think it’s pretty awesome. We got hooked last year when we saw Terry Fator the singer/ventriloquist (if you have NOT seen Terry Fator, you are really missing out! Last year, we went to Utah’s State Fair where he performed for a hour and a half and it was absolutely AWESOME.) But I digress.

So Jared and I were hopeful that this year would be as promising as last year, and all in all, it has been. There’s always a few choices that the judges make that make me go “HOW DID YOU GET THE POSITION OF JUDGE?! COME ON!” but there was a surprising lack of that. And so then it got to the point where America votes. And they did a pretty good job… up til tonight.

The options were Queen Emily (awesome Diva singer), Eli Mattson (talented singer/piano player), Neal E. Boyd the crybaby, Donald Braswell the musical theatre guy, and Nuttin But Stringz, the amazing R&B violin playing brother duo. Straight out, I wanted Nuttin But Stringz to win. They were so creative, and so talented, and I absolutely loved the music they played. I was absolutely shocked by the results… Queen Emily left first, followed by Donald, then Nuttin But Stringz. I thought “Well, Eli’s got to have this in the bag!” But no. When they announced that Neal won first place, I thought I might just die.

My faith in the American Public has been officially broken. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?! Seriously- he can’t even go 10 seconds without crying. I didn’t let Jared watch Neal’s finale song… let’s face it, he would be crying to hard to be any good anyway. I have nothing against opera; he has a pretty decent voice, but America made a big mistake tonight. Maybe there was a fluke with the voting system… or something.

I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. Right afterwards, Jared found this blog link, which made me feel a little better:
http://blog.zap2it.com/ithappenedlastnight/2008/10/americas-got-ta.html

Okay. Well, I think I can go back to grading again… now that I’m calmed down a bit. 🙂 Thanks for listening to my rant about stupid shows and the crazy people who vote for them. lol.