At long, long last!

I have to give a shout out to my awesome mom (you're the best!) for her help over the weekend. She came over and worked her weeding magic to help me conquer the last corners of our yard that were yet unfinished. The bark we got way back at the beginning of the summer didn't make it all the way around as we had hoped and in the interim the weeds had yet again taken over. With so much on our plates I wasn't sure when we'd get around to finishing though I was desperate to try to get all the dirt covered before the winter hit. The dogs, Molly especially, love to lay in it and they drag so much of it into our already dusty house. So with mom's tenacious super-weeding abilities we were able to deep-six the weeds and yesterday we got the bark down! Now all that's left is filling it all in with plants, but that's for next year. My backyard is officially done... for now. You may be interested to see the before photos here and here. Most of the work happened this year, except for the grass! However as an aside, I do still have a butt-ton (literally 140) tulip and iris bulbs to plant, perhaps this weekend if it isn't too rainy. Next year our yard should be totally rockin'! I can't wait to have people over for a little bbq on our sweet new patio in our sweet new yard, but I'm afraid that the weather this weekend may not hold up for it. We'll see. You guys have plans?

drawing

The first real drawing I've done in my sketchbook for a while. Finished over the weekend while Notre Dame lost to Michigan State.

I must be having a growth spurt...

Don't they say that great growth happens through great challenge? I hope so. I have a class of students that could very well be my most challenging obstacle in my short 4.5-ish years (5 sounds better but I'm in my 5th so I guess I can't say it just yet) of teaching. I've had classes in the past with one or two students who were challenging from a classroom management standpoint, but this particular class has no less than 6. I've tried a few different tactics and finally broke down and contacted some parents today (we'll see next week if that helps) but they have thwarted my every maneuver. It seems as though every day they pass the torch to another of their group as to who can make me pull the most hair out. At this rate I'll surely be bald by Thanksgiving. It's so frustrating because I don't think any of these kids are bad kids (I can say that now, semi-objectively 6 hours later) and I'm pretty sure that if I had a couple of them mixed in to a couple of my other classes that I would have no problem at all. But all 6 at once is just more than I can emotionally bear. I hate the fact that I dread the days in which I meet with this class because I just cannot seem to get a grip on them. The other day I even had to stoop to bribery (candy can be an effective motivator) and even then I met with mediocre results. But like I said, maybe contacting a few parents will make all the difference. I'm not big into disciplinary write-ups but that may also become my best tool. However I have a difficult time putting a word to what exactly each student does that is so counter-productive to my teaching. I mean, I could easily attach a few words to some of the actions but not all of them. And some things (like some suspected bullying) I haven't been able to clearly witness (clear enough that I can hear what was said) though it seems to be happening under my nose. It's all so utterly exasperating I can hardly stand it and it makes me look at the calendar and think, "It's only September???"

Master's weekend in review

When I graduated with my bachelor's degree in 2003 I clearly remember thinking that there was no way I could ever attempt a Master's degree. I so badly wanted to be done with school (well, my student role in it, anyway). The thought of going back was unfathomable. Then last fall I had a student teacher who was doing his observation hours with me before beginning his student teaching in the spring. He got me seriously considering the possibility of taking the leap. I began my pursuit in earnest in February with Lesley University. This weekend was my official launch into the program.

I worked through last week with the knowledge that my weekend was going to be completely sucked up into class and that I would (horror of horrors!) not get a single morning to sleep in (a true hardship). But worse than that, I had barely been able to see my dearest husband all week. He's been working a few side jobs to earn a little extra money which required late nights every night last week. He would get home after I had gone to bed nearly every night. So we had literally a cumulative of about 40 minutes a day in which we were awake and in the vicinity of one another. It felt as though I needed to start writing notes to him throughout the day so I could remember things that I wanted to tell him in our precious few minutes of conversation each day. So facing a weekend where we had MUCH to work on around the house (that's for a different blog post altogether) and knowing that I would not see him but for an hour or two before bed time wasn't making me feel terribly confident about my choice of going back to school. I wondered if I could handle the time commitment, the workload demands, and *shudder* the paper writing... eegads if there's something I hate to do, that would be it. I'd gleefully clean the bathroom before writing a paper. Our first 5 hours of class started Friday night at 5, after a long day of work. Joy.

But surprise surprise, it actually was a joy. Holy cats is this going to be a stinking awesome ride! I wish I could do justice to the experience but I know that like some secret societies, some things are just better left in the circle. But I can see how these people will become my extended family already. I've been out of class now for 2 and a half hours and I miss them!! Don't get me wrong, I had moments where my eyes were crossing and my brain was functioning at half-power but spending 23 hours of my weekend with one group of 22 people was an exercise in team-building that I didn't expect. I have met some WONDERFUL people that I cannot wait to see again, already. We ate our meals together, we planned future meals, we supported one another, laughed at one another and with one another... This is dangerously close to Mr. Roger's touchy-feely-ness, I realize. But truly, I'm floored by what I get to spend the next 21 months doing.

I suppose I have to disclose, however, my mortification for the weekend. Most of you know about my arachnophobia. To say it's debilitating is an understatement. This afternoon we were having a serious discussion when what should I look down to see on my paper? I, true to form, freaked, threw my papers on the floor and jumped about 6 feet back while everyone turned to stare at me, completely dumbfounded. The initial fear was enough to get the sweat going, the shaking and the heart racing (I have a GREAT flight response), but then the emotion caught up to me and the tears started to flow (only in part due to my embarrassment). It's humiliating to be so utterly undone by something so small and I have zero rationale for it. I suppose I should revist my spider therapy from a year ago though I'm in no way up for carrying the spider in my purse for a week ordeal, and definitely not without a counselor telling me I have to. So now my new friends know that I'm a mental case, but to their credit no one laughed and my unwanted guest was promptly removed from class.

So anyway, I'm really happy to be done with my first loooooooong weekend, not wild about heading back to work tomorrow, but super excited for what I've started. It's absolutely the right program for me; a fear that has plagued me since I decided to go for it last February. Now I need to finish writing down a few thoughts on the activities of the weekend before my memories escape me and I crash into bed.

The official studio

Ok, so it might not look like much, and of course the sofa isn't ideal, and the seasoned potter with their complete studio may look at this and think how can anyone work like that, but to me it's pure gold because it's all mine! I haven't had a chance to break it in yet as we are, yet again, projecting around the house. Our latest is that we are chinking our logs so that we can oil the house in another couple of weeks. But then today we were out of chinking material so we went to the nurseries looking for the great sales. Unfortunately we came home with a truck full of yard work on top of everything else. In the middle of purchasing all our shrubs and grasses and rose bushes and trees I looked at Adrian and said, "What the HELL are we thinking?" The afternoon was spent transplanting our old bushes that are nowhere near creating the hedge we desired in the front yard and started replacing them with larger, faster growing hedge plants. So we had to move the old boxwoods to the backyard, plant our new trees (in the middle of which Adrian decided he needed to prune the overgrown pine tree in our front yard) and we have yet to get to the rest of the grasses in, finish the transplant of the boxwoods and plant the new rose bush.

We still need to move my shelves upstairs and get rid of a few things we'd been needlessly storing up in the loft before I'll be able to fully utilize my new studio space, but rest assured I'll be breaking in the new wheel SOON.

#1 Dad

You should all know that my dad is the ultimate. He told me a few weeks ago that he wanted to help me purchase my wheel so I can kick up my production at home. So today was the day. We got a crazy good deal on a great (at least that's what I've heard) Thomas Stuart Revolution wheel. I had originally had the Shimpo Whisper VL in mind but I talked to an artist who has a Thomas Stuart and she highly recommended it, plus it was cheaper. I'm in the process of relocating "my studio" upstairs to the loft so I'll post new photos of my AWESOME NEW WHEEL and my awesome new studio as soon as I'm set... hopefully tomorrow.

THANKS DAD!!! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!!