crazy busy

i have been crazy-busy with school. trying to keep one chapter ahead of my students...i think i am actually about 3 ahead of most of them, but i need to make plans for the next chapter for the next class...actually now that i am thinking about it, it seems like a good time to finish the last chapter and do the next lab and then do the next chapter on thursday...hummm...sounds like a plan. i am having the best time teaching! i want to figure out different ways to get them into the plan, but i am having a bit of difficulty with that, as i think i am aiming too far above them, this is biology 111, and many of these people haven't had any kind of advanced biology classes, or at least not in the last 5 years or so...hard to know what to expect from them. i always thought i didn't want to teach little kids because i really have no idea where they should be (can they tie their shoes yet?) and now i am seeing something similar, but with "adults" - ranging in age from 18 - 55. i really would like to be able to take a few steps back and see if they are really struggling with the material or if they are just not applying themselves...who knows. but i am enjoying the teaching anyways - busy though i may be.

i miss being with fonda too, this long-distance stuff is for the birds - i hope to find a full-time job sometime soon and we can make plans to move (wherever) and get resettled into our lives. it will happen, just as the job will happen...i just need to remember to keep breathing and keep looking for good jobs : )

i so want to sew...i have gotten a quilt from "quilts for kids" and i have made the top, but i need to now pin it and quilt it. i don't have a good place for pinning yet, but i am heading to the floor of the living room...maybe tomorrow night or tuesday morning. so i have not been doing much but refreshing my memory on cell stuff and membrane stuff - crazy how the understanding of things have advanced in the last 15 years!

below is a picture of an egret i saw just as i arrived some evening. it was hanging out on a slough near the parking lot at school. it really didn't like me watching it and getting close, so the picture is not all that great, but it was chowing down on some tadpoles, i think. it hung out for a while.



fonda and i also went to southport, NC. really cute town, not too far from where i am living in leland. we found a neat old cemetery there and took some pictures...when ever i saw this stone all i could see was "...Jane...laughter..." i think mom was hanging out and snileing (nod to mom). i know it said "...Jane...daughter..." but i keep thinking of mom laughing. thought i would share the image.



and another taken in the same cemetery, but looking up at the live oaks (they are such cool trees!)




and one more from our trip the day before heading to southport - we went to wrightsville beach, just east of wilmington and saw some neat clouds, i guess i have been trying to keep looking around me and seeing what is happening in nature.



enjoy the pictures and i will (hopefully) be posting some quilt photos some time soon. peace for now.

neat clouds yesterday

there were some neat clouds yesterday and i managed to have my camera with me (rareity)...



i was shopping for fonda and the temperatures were cold...20s...the day before had been in the 50s. grrr. but i had a good time and got more than what fonda wanted : ) so a good time was had by all (me).

also went to the beach and got snowed on:



really it was more like sleet - balls of snow-bits. some nice waves, but i didn't stay long...wishing for long underwear. but i had my hat, scarf and gloves on along with both pieces of my "3-in-1" winter coat that kept the wind off my body, but not my legs - burrrrr.

bought a space heater for me at the kitchen table (house is set @ 64F). love it! but my writing hand gets cold : ( i will figure it out soon and spring is only a month or two away, right? *fingers crossed*

like living here in Leland, NC. fred and shari are my roomies and sera will soon be joining us - i think they like the idea of having a pet without the bills required by having one. i will like having here around...i miss my kitties, still wish we had fewer, but that will likely happen through attrition (maybe - didn't work well when steve was eutanized, though).

peace for now, back to the school stuff. : )

classes start in a week...

and i still don't have a place to stay...but i have a lead or two. i am going to contact a rental agency in holden beach and maybe i will be able to rent a vacation house for the spring. i think that the rent will quadruple after memorial day, but i am hoping that i can swing it for the semester at relatively cheap...this is not going to be a profit-making opportunity, but i am hoping this is not a loss-situation. i will be getting a lot of experience with the teaching "from scratch" there are no basic notes for the class, just that we need to go through about 25 chapters within 16-17 weeks (yikes!).

went to try to find a table today to take with me to use as a sewing table...the tables are very expensive...the five-foot table was almost $60! and then we found a six-foot table (folding-plastic) for $40, but that is too much for what i need. i will probably end up taking the three-foot-square wooden table that i was using as a desk in the middle room.

and this is near where i will be living...took the picture with fonda when we went down there last week (thursday). what fun!

OMG!! A job!

well, i have accepted my first true teaching position...it is PT (2 classes, 6 hours/week each) and it is ~3 hours away, but i will be teaching for the whole semester! i go to meet the department chair on thursday (yay) and we will get classes set up and the paperwork done, etc. i am a bit excited - i have downloaded the official syllabus and after thursday i will be developing my own and starting to make the lectures, etc.... i am just a bit excited and f is sleeping...YAY!!

breathe - now i need to find a place to stay on the days i will be staying over - i do not enjoy the idea of a 3 hour commute/day so i need to find a place to stay...who knows - maybe this will be the foot in the door i need to stay in the area (actually it is closer to the ocean and near SC boarder) - still looking for a full-time position, but as doc suggested: this is a good way to see if this is really what i want to do and the other jobs will wait for me if they really want me...so here we go...classes start on january 7th, but my first class will not meet until the 10th (monday). YAY!

this picture just makes me happy - cowfish


peace!!!

"the power of ugly" taken from UglyOverload

amazing what one eel can do! behold...the power of eel!

back in the loop (?)

hay...and other stuff for horses (and their pals)...i was just hanging out and enjoying being out of the loop and then i realized that it is almost the end of the year. i have been feeling not so sad about this time of the year...Mom and all...this year has been different. graduating, looking for a job and life-perspective has had a bit to do with things. i still miss mom, but not as dramaticly as i have in the past. dramaticly isn't the right word, but close enough for now.

i have been looking for a job...(duh)...and i have been applying places i never thought i would go (northern IL?!), but i am still holding out hope for someplace closer to the warmer part of the atlantic ocean (read: southern). i have a cohort who will be moving to DC in january and a friend who just got a fishery job up in alaska and will be moving there in january (silly girl! [not really, she will have a great time, but...alaska?...january? - what is she thinking????}]) anyway...is it my turn yet? i know it will be, and thanks to mom, i am not freaking out about $ yet (THANKS MOM!!) and i just need to get out of the house and feel productive about working, etc. i have been "subbing" or "guest lecturing" for Dr. O and Dr. R this semester and that has been fun, but i want my own class that i can make the decisions and rip my hair out because of that...i have enjoyed the experience, but i am ready to go out on my own in those terms.

Ok, enough whining.., : ) below is a picture from National Geographic that i just love!! it is a mudskipper and one of my first "favorite fish"...there have been many over the years and there will be more to come, i am sure...but enjoy the picture of this, one of my favorite fish...from Africa and they can "walk" out of the water, hence: mudskipper with cheeks bulging with water to breathe :)

felted purses, take 2

Ok, so the last purses were too short...so i determined that they shrank about half in height and only a bit in width...so i made them 20" long and the same width...

i like the way it turned out...now i want to make a fabric lining for this one and the other one i made.