Forgive me, readers, for I have, well, been absent.

I've been thinking of you, I promise. But things are busier than ever right now. School is back in full swing, and I am pretty happy with my Monday through Thursday schedule. Mondays and Wednesdays have five classes (ugh) but Tuesdays and Thursdays have only three each. I've also figured out a new system this semester: instead of doing lecture recaps, which means five lectures some days, I'm doing no more than 10 minutes of example problems, and then the students are working together on worksheets. The worksheets are exactly like their homework and quizzes, so they're helpful to the students and I only have to do a little talking when they ask me questions. It's working out better and I'm not quite as exhausted as I was in August. It's still a little rough on my introverted self, but I'm getting through it.

I also am subbing on Fridays at the close-by high school. It's about 5 minutes from the house and the school day is from 7 am until 2 pm. Not too shabby for an extra $100. And I just had a successful interview at a particular computer store whose logo is a fruit. (I'm going to try to keep all references to a minimum so as to fly under the googling radar. I won't disclose any secrets, so if you've found me, know I promise to behave.) Anyway, I'll be working there alongside Brad, who has been there since mid December. He really likes it, and I'm excited to start. Though an evening job is tough on the energy level, at least we'll be together. I'm going to try to work toward being a trainer of sorts in their individualized computer tutoring program. It sounds realllllly cool to me and seems to fit my giftings. Our current dream-of-the-week (everybody needs one) is to get on full time with them in the next two years, and then move and help them open a new store somewhere in an exotic location, like Ireland, or England, or Finland, or Australia, or Canada, or anywhere in the Midwest. Ok, so it closely ties in with our dream to get the hades out of here, but at least it's more positive and focused, instead of whiny and flailing. We shall see what comes of it. For now, we are terribly grateful to have these jobs and that we enjoy them. And they make our budget balance, which is a rarity in this town, this state, this country, this economy.

We're also starting training for the Theophostic Prayer Ministry class we took last fall. It begins tonight and runs every Tuesday for about a year, I think. There's a DVD series we'll watch, a manual we'll work through, and then about 8 months of group experience where we'll work through some of our own lies and observe others' work as well. At first all the training requirements seemed like overkill in my opinion, especially since I've been on numerous prayer ministry teams before without a year of training. But this is different, and because its goal is to help a person go back to their childhood or adolescence and dig up old hurts, the facilitator has to be trained to know what to do when really bad things come up, or nothing comes up, or the person freaks out, etc. Without training I could do more harm than good. So we begin that tonight.

Which means life is busy around here! We leave the house around 6:45 or 7 am to go to school, leave there at 4:30 for the fruity computer store (not fruity in the sexual-preference kind of way, goofball), work 5:30 until 9:45, get home at 10:30 and do it all over again. (Disclaimer: Brad is the one who has been doing that schedule for a while now. I will begin it soon. Up until now, my evenings have been free and easy and full of laundry and bills.) That will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesday is Theophostic night. Thursday will be go-to-sleep-early night. Weekends will be lots of sleeping.

All of this is to say, if you haven't heard from us in a while, please don't be offended. First, we're both horrible correspondents and it's a wonder any of our far-away-friends are still our friends. We were astounded that we got any Christmas cards at all! Ok, that's an exaggeration. But we know we're bad at keeping in touch. Second, things are just busy. But we will work harder at it. We do love you and miss you horribly.

There's not a whole lot else to tell you, I think. It's a rare cool day here with a -gasp- windchill this morning!!! I think the high is 68 or something, so people are all bundled up in fleece and coats. Go ahead, laugh away.

Oh-- we have made a few travel plans for the summer. We'll be in Columbus May 16 or so as my cousin is getting married in Cincinnati that Saturday. Columbus friends, we will want to see you! And Chicago friends, we will be in town in mid August-- the weekend that covers the 15th or so. We will want to see you, too! I'll get in touch closer to those dates to arrange meals (ahem, Donato's and Massey's, stock up) and visits.

I'm off to meet with a Stats professor for whom I teach. I haven't had stats since that unfortunate summer school class at Trinity with the psychology professor who was obsessed with sex. That was a joy of a class, so I promptly forgot everything I learned. Now, ten years later, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm faking it pretty well, though.