The Countdown is On!

Zak has 30 days of student teaching left as of today! At his request, I made a paper chain similar to this paper chain pictured above, but I didn't take a picture of my paper chain. It's so much easier to search Google Images to find what I need than to actually take a picture, put it on the computer, and then save it to my jump drive. I am so lazy when it comes to things like this. My lovely paper chain is made of construction paper in a pattern of yellow, blue, orange, red, and brown, and is hanging by the door in the kitchen so that Zak can rip a link off every day when he walks in the door. It's the simple things in life that make you happy, right?

His last day is April 24th, so he's got 30 days left in the classroom, obviously not counting weekends and Spring Break. I thought I would post about it so that you can all celebrate with us when the day arrives. He is also happy about the timing of the ending of student teaching for another Very Important Reason, which is that Mario Kart for the Wii comes out on April 28th. It has bikes!! The game is going to be his you-made-it-through-student-teaching/graduation present. I am sure that he and his brothers will have some late nights, starting April 28th. I think he deserves it! He has worked really hard this semester.

I should mention here that he does like student teaching. But it's a countdown to graduation (which has been a long time coming -- I am so proud of him!!) as well as a countdown to the end of student teaching. Graduation is May 3rd and 4th.

About the student teaching: Zak has some students that are really responsive and participate and like his lessons, and he really enjoys that part of teaching. It's the ones who disrupt class and don't show up and don't turn in their assignments that make it less fun... but that's all a part of teaching! We talk a lot about his lesson plans and what he wants to teach, and I am constantly amazed by the cool ideas that Zak has to make learning more fun for the students. He is already a great teacher and will be fantastic wherever he ends up teaching!

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In other unrelated news, our furnace stopped working on Wednesday night while we were sleeping. We woke up very cold on Thursday morning (it was about 5 degrees above outside) and heard our landlord banging around in the basement, trying to fix the furnace. We figure our neighbor called him to come and fix it. She is in her seventies and doesn't deal well with the cold. This is our "ant advice" neighbor. She's a nice lady, even if her advice doesn't work.

The furnace seems to be working okay now after a visit from some heating/cooling technicians, although we had to put the thermostat on 80 last night in order to get it to run. But better to be a little too warm all night long than to be freezing, in my opinion.

I am looking forward to the day that we can move! I think we've put in our time in this place -- it's been 3 years and 8 months, and it's definitely time for a change. Where and when we move will depend on where Zak gets a teaching job -- so we hope that we can find out within the next few months where that will be!

Have a great weekend, everyone!