Martin Luther King Day weekend.

Darcy has been so excited all weekend long, because Kevin Patrick McPartland was going to be coming to visit her from St. Louis today.  I have not seen her this excited about anything, ever!  Kevin is her "best friend from M.S.A.".  Their goal is to consume a 24 pack of Mountain Dew by themselves today.  Considering that Kevin was already drinking Monster drinks (way caffeinated) all the way down here, I imagine they will both be bouncing off the walls by this evening.

Kevin arrived around 11:30 today and will be driving back to St. Louis in the morning.

At least since he came HERE to visit, we will SEE Darcy today!  Her norm since school started has been to spend nearly every waking moment at Aric Gooch's house (her "best friend in Bolivar")--to the point that his parents even make jokes about clearing out a room for her so she can just move in.

We never see Darcy except when she is needing the keys or money!

I just finished my Field Experience at Bolivar High School this Jan. term and I had strict instructions from Darcy before-hand that I was NOT to tell ANYONE I was her mother!  She mellowed during the week, though, and even waved and called "Hi!" to me (albeit after she had already passed--kind of an afterthought!) the last minute of the last day I was there as I we passed in crowded the halls.  The fact that she had successfully conned me into making a Sonic run for her, to bring her a plain cheeseburger and tater tots for lunch might have played into her sudden decision to acknowledge knowing me!  Maybe she was afraid I might have second thoughts about my delivery errand!

The kids actually get tomorrow (MLK Day) off from school this year for the first time in five years.  Always before, they have had to cancel being off on MLK Day to make up for snow days, but we haven't had a single snow day this year.  Only saw a brief dusting of snow last week and no ice at all this winter.  It has been unseasonably warm and mild and I for one am NOT complaining!  I love January days in the 60's!!!

While Darcy practically lives at Aric's house, Rayna practically lives with her Grandma.  Her routine has been to go over to Grandma's immediately after school every Monday and Wednesday evening, spend the night, and Grandma takes her back to school the following morning.  In addition to that, she finagles getting to stay with Grandma frequently on Friday and Saturday nights as well.

Doug has had a rough go of school this year, with learning to be appropriate with his behavior and since he requires closer parental supervision to keep him in line, he has not gotten to be over at Grandma's as much as he would like, but lately, he has been going over after school on Tuesday and Friday's to spend the evening with her and have supper with her.  His grandma has been tutoring him in reading and math.  (She also has been helping Rayna and Rayna's grades showed it!  Rayna made all A-'s and A's this semester--bringing her math grade up from a C to an A-!)

I was swamped this past semester.  I was taking 15 hours at SBU (having started back last summer) as well as working M,W, and F afternoons at the Home Health office.  All but one of my classes were upper level classes and it was baptism by fire!  We all survived though, and an older, wiser me, dropped back to 9 hours for this coming semester!  Hopefully I will be able to substitute teach some, too.  I've applied at Halfway and plan to apply at Bolivar High School, too.  I scheduled all of this semester's classes for MWF, so that I will have Tuesdays and Thursdays free to sub.

I really enjoyed my week of Field Experience at Bolivar High.  It cemented in my mind that teaching really is a goal worth pursuing.  A doubt that had begun to creep into my heart after seeing how much sacrifice last semester required and also facing the cold hard fact that I am knocking myself out and spending a small fortune (student fees, books, loss of current normal income) to earn a teaching certificate so that I can pursue a job that pays half as much as the career I'm already qualified for and employed in!  Field Experience breathed a strong fire from that dwindling ember in my heart!