into the groove

Life is good here in Frisco, TX. This was a much better week than last week. We had some fun playdates planned and a few more that happened spontaneously, and lots and lots of things to do. Dane has been fluctuating between being the cutest, sweetest boy in the world to being the most frustrating one who hits me 349 times a day. I guess he must be almost two! (Speaking of which, I've been scouting out the consignment stores near us to find some presents for his birthday and I've already found WAY TOO MANY things. They're all much cheaper than they'd be if I bought them new, so I feel justified, but come on! He only needs about one really good present and he'd be happy. Maybe I'll space out giving them to him so all the newness doesn't wear off really quickly.) But we are getting into the groove of living here and feeling good.

We have a serious problem here that we are working on, though. There is a family that lives right above us with two young boys, and they are SO CRAZY LOUD. Like, Dane has gotten woken up multiple times a week from his nap ever since we got here because they are constantly jumping and thundering around upstairs. (Literally, Dane points to the ceiling and says "Thunder!" when he hears it.) The other day they were frustrating me so much that I even got the broom and hit the ceiling with it a few times (I know, mean, I shouldn't have, blah blah blah.) But today, I tried just going up and asking them really, really nicely about possibly being quieter during naptime, if they could possibly, I'm so sorry to bother you, etc. etc. And so far, so good. It's been about an hour and the thunder has been minimal. I can handle loud jumping as long as it's not when Dane's sleeping. THIS is a strong motivator for us to start house hunting. (That's not happening yet, but if I get super fed up with these kids, it just might start.)

I am starting my new class I am teaching here at Collin College next week. It meets once a week, in the evening, which will work perfectly with our schedule here. Tommy will be able to be home with Dane, and our Saturdays will no longer be dominated by my teaching! I am really excited to teach at a new place. It is just so interesting starting somewhere new (my third school that I've taught at) and seeing how every place does everything differently. I have barely gotten any orientation to anything at this school, so I'm kind of just making everything up as I go along and using a lot of the same stuff I've done in the past. I am having a hard time being totally motivated--usually before a semester starts I like to have EVERYTHING planned out as much as I can--but I know it will all fall together as the semester goes on. Maybe that's the good/bad thing about being a more experienced teacher--the fear of the beginning of the impending semester isn't quite strong enough to get me to get all my work done. Oh well!