Updates

Just in time for the new year I've finally gotten around to updating my blogroll. Check it out--there are some great new blogs there, plus I've removed links to the blogs that have gone defunct in the last 6 months.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and that there's a happy new year in your future!

Korea

We're going to do it, we're moving to South Korea. Six months from now military movers will box up all our stuff, put it on a boat, and we'll pick it up in Korea.

Korea.

I sort of can't believe it. We've done nothing but talk about this move since we first learned it was a possibility late last week, but it still hasn't quite sunk in.

Korea.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, but I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't really excited. I'm the type of person who would never up and move overseas on her own, but if the last five years have taught me anything it's that change is a good thing. Yes, it's frightening, and yes there are things I will desperately miss about the States, but ultimately I really believe that this will be an amazing experience we'll be grateful to have in the long run.

So, Korea.

More as we find out exactly what we need to do in preparation for the move.

Sure to be the first of many such posts

One of the best things about having a newly verbal toddler is that I now get at least a few clues as to what he's thinking about as he falls asleep at naptime. Today's Thought of the Day by Luke (overheard via baby monitor) is thus:

"Mama, Daddy, baby, towel, Elmo. Mine mine mine gahsh... kitties...(singing)...hey dat da kitties...(banging on the bars of his crib)...mine mine mine mine mine Elmo...(more banging)...no mine no mine MINE bo bo bo bo Elmo...a dis? Dis? Ahhhhhhhh...Ball, ball, BAAAAALLLLLLL...zzzzzzzz."

Too Many Thoughts in My Head

Juan didn't get the fellowship slot he'd been virtually guaranteed just a month ago by People In The Know. As a result we've spent the last 48 hours scrambling to put together a list of bases we wouldn't hate for the next year or two until he can re-apply. Staying in El Paso is a possibility, but the job he would need to take here would be 90% paperwork to 10% actual medicine. Not only would he likely be miserable if he took it, but he'd be deployable. Neither of us wants that. Most of the other positions at the top of our list (hospitals in the DC area, San Antonio, and Washington State) would be similar.

Then there's Korea.

He would be working in a hospital and practicing actual medicine, he wouldn't get deployed, Luke and I would be able to go with him. To Korea.

I don't know what I want at this point. Well, I take that back, I want our original "guaranteed" plan back. That's not going to happen, though, which leaves us with a number of less-than-ideal options. Korea is at both the top and bottom of that list. On the one hand, it would be an amazing opportunity for all of us to live overseas. On the other, we'd be gone for two years in a country so far away that coming home even once might not be financially possible. Plus I'd almost certainly have to give up teaching until we got back to the States.

So, I don't know what we're going to do. If we decide about Korea (and we need to decide soon--like before Christmas) then we'll have a set plan in place as soon as the decision is made. If not, we won't know where we'll be going until February at the earliest.

Quirk

More memes! I was tagged for this one by MJ which seems quite appropriate since I'm one of the friends who nicknamed her "Quirk" back in high school and the subject of the meme is (what else?) quirks.

In case anyone is wondering, my nickname in high school was A Loof.

Now, on with the meme!

Six of C's Quirks

1) I hate to talk on the phone. I don't know how quirky this really is since it seems like I know an increasingly large number of people who would rather drive large metal spikes into their eardrums than talk on the phone (I blame the internet) but unless you're my parents, you're twenty times more likely to receive an e-mail from me than a phone call. There's just so much pressure on the phone to find interesting things to talk about, versus e-mail where you can ramble on for paragraphs and either go back before hitting the "send" button and delete everything or send it all and rest assured that the recipient will just skim for the good stuff.

2) I have no problem discussing how Macbeth and Harvey Dent (from "The Dark Knight") are remarkably similar characters with my students. In fact, I've had lengthy discussions on the subject with my second period in the last week, and while it may seem like we're goofing off on the surface, I have elaborate character development maps all over the board by the end of those discussions to prove that not only are they both tragic heroes, but that the Batman franchise nails the archetype far more often than Shakespeare ever did. If I can talk about superhero movies and Shakespeare at the same time AND finally get my students to understand the tragic hero, I consider it a good day.

3) If I have M&Ms, I can't just eat them one at a time, I have to eat two so they're even in my mouth--one on each side as I bite down. Same thing with baby carrots, olives, and pretty much anything else bite-sized.

4) I don't like breakfast food unless it's relatively bland. Sausage? No way. Bacon? HATE. Plain toast? Now you're talking. Lunch and dinner, bring on the strong-tasting food, but leave my palate alone before noon OR ELSE.

5) I watch TV out of the corner of my eye. I've done this for the longest time (and if you've been to my house, our family room arrangement might suddenly make sense now that you know this fact about me) and while it's probably partly because I have mild astigmatism, mostly it's just because I find the TV itself is rarely engrossing enough to keep my full attention so I'm always doing something else while watching TV. I'll knit, I'll cross-stitch, I'll play online (sometimes while also knitting or cross-stitching) and watch TV at the same time, just out of the corner of my eye.

6) I don't understand the appeal of "30 Rock." I've tried, I really have, but I just find it contrived and too cute for its own good.

Six Things That Make Me Happy

M tagged me for this meme and specifically asked for Luke pictures, so here goes--six things that make me happy, a photo essay.

1) This face:



Loved mostly because it's simultaneously his "yummy" face and the face he makes when you ask for a kiss. My boy gives kisses! It's really all I can do not to ask for them every five minutes.

2) This face:



Just look at him! Coloring (brief moments of marking the page in between attempts to eat the crayon) and smiling so sweetly it makes my heart melt.

3) Not Luke, but I have to brag about my AP students for a moment. They're just the best group of kids I've ever had the privilege to work with, and I'm particularly proud of the boy who transferred in halfway through the semester and has already surpassed most of his classmates in terms of writing ability. He's going to pass the big test in May, I can feel it.

4) My family:



5) Dancing!



This is unfortunately the best picture I have of Luke dancing. Anytime music comes on the radio (or from one of his toys) Luke dances by shaking his hips. It's simply adorable, and the fact that we have yet to catch it on camera is criminal.

6) January 20, 2009



Can't come soon enough, my friends.

Cause and Effect

So Luke decided today that he no longer hates green beans, in fact, he appears to love them so much that he's been saying "bean!" all evening.

Exhibit A:





Thus, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he's learned another word that, if nothing else, tells me that he's truly a boy. "Caca"

I won't get into Exhibit B because, well, no one wants to see that, but suffice it to say, he's using the word in the appropriate context.

Language Explosion

I must say, it's one thing to read in all the baby and toddler books that at some point your child will suddenly start acquiring several new words a day, but it's another thing entirely to witness it. Since our vacation over Thanksgiving, Luke has learned more new words than I can count, and is coming up with new ones every time I turn around. There's no rhyme or reason to the ones he's learning (for example, "down" still eludes him, but "up" and "eyebrow" are current favorites) but tantrums are WAY down around here since he can communicate the basics of what he wants/needs most of the time.

I love this age, I really do.