Oh, they did study!

Last week was a crazy, hot mess. I allowed my students to take their exam on Thursday and have as much time as they wanted or they could take it on Friday and only have an hour. I had quite a few students come on Thursday and some of them stayed for two hours. I think overall they really appreciated having more time. When I started grading the exams on Friday morning, the scores were less than stellar. I was super disappointed.

I decided that I would put them away and finish grading later (like today). Yesterday, I went to campus for our open house. I gave a short presentation and tried to sell all the prospective students on why this is the best college for them. I really think it's a great place, so by no means was I lying or fibbing. Afterward, I grabbed a coffee and while I was waiting for my latte to be made, I looked over and on the white board were some of my practice problems. I walked over to check it out, and I realized it was completely correct. I was so proud of them, and it was at that point that I realized that it's just really hard material that was on the exam, and maybe I wrote a really hard exam. Okay, not maybe, I did.

Today when I finished the grading, there were some good scores and some bad scores. I know several of them will be disappointed, but there are some that should be really proud of themselves. I'm sure they won't see it now, but it's good for them. I know I was always annoyed when people would say that to me, but sadly, it's true.

And when everything is said and done, it's just one score. I think more than anything, I'm here to teach them a little about life. And unfortunately, life doesn't always give you As.

Facelift

Last weekend, our dislike of the security door on our house finally got the better of us. We have been toying with getting a new door since we moved in. There were a few things on our list of immediate improvements, and the door was one of them. The first thing on our list was the damn lava rock in the front yard. We're not quite certain who thought it was a good idea to use lava rock when landscaping, but we made sure to take care of that as soon as possible.

Here's the before picture. Please note the ugly lava rock and the security door that your eye is immediately drawn to because of its color.

As I mentioned in previous posts, we were so fortunate to have all our family come visit once we got moved in. So not lucky for them, we put them all to work. When my mom and my sister were here, we shoveled up the lava rock in the front yard. Then, when M's dad came, they laid the sod in the front yard and put in the flag stones to get to the side entrance of the house. We not only sodded where the lava rock was, we put it about halfway to the road. It ended up looking SO MUCH better. However, now that fall is here, I think we're going to have to sod the rest of the yard. You can really tell where we sodded and where the original weeds lawn is at.

It's a little far away, but doesn't it look good?

 When we were working in the front yard, we found out that our huge tree (seen in the first picture too the left, an oak tree) needed to be trimmed. There were some of the branches that were hitting the shingles, and if that goes on too long, it shortens the life of the roof. So we had some people come in and trim the tree in the front yard and grind down the stumps in the back yard. I can't believe how much of a difference it makes. Probably we'll have to be much better about watering next year, but it should allow in more light and hopefully, the grass will grow better.

The last thing on our list was that damn door. At least it's functional; it's certainly not pretty. Unfortunately, our door is a little bit wider than most doors, so we can't just get a standard security door and install it. We had gone back and forth about getting a custom door made, but they're about $400-500, which isn't too bad, but it doesn't make a lot of sense when there's plenty of other things we'd like to do and the door still serves it's purpose. So we decided to go ahead, and just paint it. If it turned out awful, well, we weren't any worse off, and if not, then we saved some money and had a better looking house.

Before

We went ahead and just primed the door and then used the brown acrylic latex from the house (we found it in the basement) on the door. We had to do two coats and then touch up in a few places. Here's the finished product.

After

It looks so good, huh? I should mention that when we put the glass back in there, you could see the white border on two sides only. Instead of painting the border on the glass and risk painting the glass, we put white electrical tape on it. Never would have guessed? I think it's perfect too; it gives it a little bit of dimension against the dark door.

Up next, the inside door...

Fall Break

Fall is here. Last weekend was beautiful. I spent Sunday afternoon walking along the river. It was lovely, even a little warm. However, yesterday, the rain blew in, and it's been cold. We turned the heat on last night for the first time, and this morning when I was walking Charlie, I was rushing, not only because I needed to get to work, but because I was FREEZING. I've tried a few pumpkin spice lattes, but I just haven't been in love. There's something so charming about them this time of year.

We had Fall Break on Monday and Tuesday, which as a student I absolutely loved, but as a professor, I'm wondering if there's any benefit to it. I'm sure the students love having a long weekend to go home, but they COMPLETELY check out, which doesn't benefit anyone in the long run. They get hammered the week before with midterms and then get hammered this week in classes that were sparing them last week from midterms. All the while, they haven't done any work during the past four days. I should say that of course there are a few exceptions, but the majority of my students are just not doing their homework.

I've tried to get in the Fall spirit. I've made a few trips to Michael's (fun!) and bought some fall garland. I've decided I'll wait until after the holidays and stockpile the decorations. However, I've found some fun projects I can do in the meantime. We also visited the pumpkin patch, although it was in a parking lot, but still fun. I think we're planning on carving the pumpkins soon.

Charlie loved the little pumpkin. He was so frustrated he couldn't keep it as his own (to chew on, of course.) I chased him around the house and had to put him in the bathtub to get the pumpkin back.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we got to finally spend an evening out on the patio using the fire pit. It was so romantical. I hope there's a few more weekends this fall that we can enjoy the backyard. Unfortunately, our friends fondly refer to it as "chiggertown" because of the lovely bugs that call it home. We've sprayed a few times now, and I hope they're gone, but I'm not certain. I think we might also have some poison ivy or poison oak on our hands. ugh...

I'm looking forward to the next few weeks, Halloween, a few football games and maybe a 5K or two. Oh and of course, Thanksgiving!!! I'm going to try to find some great gluten-free recipes, so I don't have to miss out.