it used to be saxy was up before me in the morning and i slept until he left, then i'd get up and take care of getting the little ones out to their buses. it may or may not ever be that way again (it's more likely to go back to both of us getting up at the same time, him taking me to work, then coming home and waiting to get littles on their buses), but right now it's a total turn around. i'm up early and he's just getting up as i leave. he's working with someone other than mcat this week and this other person is picking him up after the last kiddo gets on his bus. it's very odd to be up before him in the morning. of course, for me it's very odd to be up early in the morning period. i do seem to be adjusting to the schedule (to the point that i'm waking up at 5:30 am on weekends and asleep no later than midnight most nights - 1:30 am monday through wednesday since i watch "wolf's rain.")

vagner must be missing mommy now that she's working. the little bugger was expressing his independence as much as possible when we moved out here. now he needs mama snuggles every night and has taken to sleeping on the bed. course, he's also expressing some kind of anger as well - he's tearing up the box with my writing magazines in it.

today was a much better, and a much stranger, day than yesterday. first, the lesson plans were very general - "there's this stuff over here and this other stuff over there, find a combination that works." pretty much left me open to come up with something as long as it fell within the subjects she had mentioned. so the 6th and 7th graders did skits. it was loud and kinda fun. some of them really seemed to enjoy it. granted, we also had those who didn't participate, but for the most part it was okay. it would have been better if some of the kids paid more attention to what was going on and less time talking, but such is the nature of middle schoolers.

i opted NOT to do skits with the 8th graders for a couple of reasons. the 8th graders are the most difficult age group at this particular school, for one. for two, by the time i was getting the 8th graders, i had pretty much lost what voice i had to the 6th and 7th graders. i also didn't want to risk the insanity of yesterday. then i had a teacher come in and tell me not to let them out of their seats for any reason and not to hesitate to use the panic button. with that kind of warning, there was no way i was going to do skits. the class tried several times to get out of hand and was handled, either by me or by another adult who came in to see what was going on. yesterday, almost no support at all; today they were crawling out of the woodwork!

my mood also had a nice turn around. it could be that the cold seems to finally be going away - lost voice not withstanding. it could be that it stopped raining and the sun came out this evening. and it could be that i'll be going to my son's school tomorrow and thursday and subbing in a couple of gifted classes. maybe it's knowing i'm going to see my oldest girl in a few weeks.

whatever it is, a lot of things seem to be on the turn around. hopefully the mood they're inspiring will stick around awhile. i hate being depressed or grumpy.

i might even work on some writing today.