I'd like to thank the Academy

For giving me a perfectly good reason to avoid the piles of papers that I need to grade, despite the fact that midterm grades are due on Wednesday.

Cheers! (And a gratuitous picture of Ellen.)

Updates

1. The Severe Strep Throat Feared to be Mono has cleared up nicely. I've encouraged the two students who have come down with strep this week to call their plastic surgeon dads for a good prescription. Do as I do, kids.
2. High school boy who finally fessed up to hitting my car has fessed up to his parents, who have agreed to cut me a check for the damage to my car. This is good news.
3. In six days, Jim and I will be leaving for Arizona. Next weekend's forecast for Phoenix is 74 degrees and sunny, 73 degrees and sunny, and 75 degrees and sunny, respectively. I. Can't. Wait.

Yoga

KC's been encouraging me to start yoga for awhile now. I smile, nod, agree that I should probably start that or therapy, and then one of us changes the subject.

This afternoon the topic came up again, right before she and Sarah demonstrated some yoga positions (poses? What do you call them?) right in my classroom.

While singing the praises of her yoga class, KC said, "Really, Rach, you should do it. Your biggest problem is going to be shutting off the ongoing chatter in your mind, but other than that, you'll be fine."

Uh-huh.

And now, I'd like you all to imagine me in these positions and then decide if the admittedly nonstop chatter in my mind will be my "biggest" problem with yoga. Something tells me it will be the actual stretching and physical exertion that will be my largest challenge with yoga. I mean, LOOK at those people!

My sole European Reader

Dear Reader,

You are the only red dot across the Atlantic on my clustr map, and you give me serious bragging rights in the readership of my blog.

Kate T--it's got to be you, right?

xoxo,
Rachel

The Confession

A (boy)friend of the high school neighbor girl has confessed (under some duress) to hitting my car. Rich spoke with the young man today who promises to call us back with insurance info once he fesses up to his parents tonight.

Frankly, I can't believe the little culprit fessed up at all. I thought for sure this was going to go on the increasingly long list of unsolved mysteries with my car.

In other news, my Tivo just started acting up. For a machine that I've had nearly a year, the "Welcome, Powering Up!" screen that won't go away seems problematic.

The hits just keep on coming, people.

I've honest to God lost count

Tonight while I was having dinner at Mom's, someone hit my car. My PARKED car.

I'm not entirely sure because I've honest to God lost count at this point, but I think that makes FIVE total times that my car has been hit while freaking PARKED.

Number of accidents while the car was moving or even in gear? Zero.

And that, people, is how you know the gods just are NOT on your side.

Not my best week

On Monday, Jim and I babysat Ellen for a couple of hours. Ellen was less than thrilled to see her auntie:

She was, however, perfectly content as soon as Jim picked her up:

Tuesday morning I started to feel "a cold" coming on. By Tuesday night I was downright sick. Wednesday I was sick enough to call my dad to see if he'd call in a prescription of antibiotics for me. Thursday I nearly didn't make it through the school day. I thought it'd be a good idea for KC to look down my searingly sore throat with the school provided flashlight (for use in emergency lock down procedures), but that didn't turn out so well. Kace was so disgusted by what she saw down there that she referred to me as "Sickie" the rest of the day. I finally gave in and stayed home today, but I am now thoroughly convinced that this cold turned strep throat is now officially mono. I'd publish a photo of my nasty tonsils but you'd shriek in terror and never return to my blog again.

On a happy note, Jim has been a very good sport:

I'll let you know how the mono spot comes out.

I've brought back the photo slideshow. Just FYI.

Babysitting is my new favorite pastime