Happenings 1/5/09 - 1/11/09

Today we finally got a new bishop in our ward and I was called as the 2nd counselor, so that will be a slight change in my church duties. The previous 2nd counselor is now the ward clerk, and the former executive secretary is not the 1st counselor. The former 1st counselor is the new bishop, so we just all switched places. We still need an executive secretary because we did lose our bishop to the stake presidency. But it was interesting that it wasn't really much of a shakeup. (I am glad Paul was not called as Bishop, even though that means I keep my calling as RS President - at least as far as I know. Either way, one of us is gone a lot, having to deal with a lot of the same things, and has lots of meetings to go to.)

This week was more normal than the past few weeks because all of the little kids around went back to school and so Claire was home all day every day. Plus, the library was closed for annual inventory, so there was no storytime for either Rachel or Claire. J.J. worked on Monday and Wednesday and I worked on the other days of the week. All of my days at work were productive -- I did everything I planned on doing for the week, which included getting my course schedules all ready and doing a couple of small projects. Amidst all that, one of our adjuncts e-mailed me on Wednesday and told me that he was hired at a local high school full-time, and couldn't teach the four sections that he was scheduled for this semester. (I just stayed busy at work. I am helping to train a nurse practitioner who is coming in to cover me while I am on maternity leave. They are cutting things a bit close to get someone fully trained, but luckily she has a little experience in orthopaedics. It makes my days a little longer though trying to train and teach someone while seeing patients.)

So on Thursday, along with the department chair, I tried to fill those sections. We were able to fill two with teachers we already have who wanted to teach an extra section, and then I had to find a new teacher. Luckily, and quite luckily, the department chair received a call from another professor on campus saying that he knew a young man in town who had just graduated with a Master's degree in English composition and rhetoric from the University of Missouri and was back living at home deciding what to do next. I called him and asked him to come and talk to me, and after talking to him a little I asked if he wanted to teach two sections of composition. He had taught at Missouri, and was troubled only by the terrible pay that all universities pay adjuncts. He thought about it overnight and then came in on Friday and said he would do it so we went over some things so that he could begin planning for next week. We were fortunate that he was around and that we received that phone call from his acquaintance, because I didn't know anyone else who could teach those sections.

Thursday evening we had the missionaries over for a dinner of slow-cooked roast, (we got a new crock pot a couple months ago and didn't realize how bad our old one was until we started cooking in the new one. We just thought all the meat and everything we got was not top quality. Now we realize how yummy these things can be once again when you have a crock pot that actually works!) and then I went for an interview with the stake president, where he called me to be a counselor -- he thought J.J. would be coming, but the stake clerk hadn't asked her to so he met with her and me before church today. After the interview, I went to the Murray State vs. Tennessee State basketball game. Murray State ended up winning by a smaller margin than they should have, but I didn't watch too much because I was catching up with some people who I know. After the game, I went home and watched the National Championship game. After watching all the games, Utah was definitely the most impressive.

Friday night Claire stayed the night at Katey's house, and so we got to bed really early that night. I was going to run on Saturday morning but it was pouring when I woke up. I spent the morning building a toy trunk for the toy room, getting some of it finished before I took Claire and Katey to Murray State's game against Austin Peay. MSU came out flat and never really got going -- it was close the whole way and Austin Peay went ahead by one with 10 seconds left and we didn't make our last second shot so we lost. Claire and Katey were real good, eating popcorn and sort of watching the game. (I spent my morning getting my toenails and fingernails done. I have been wanting to do this for months now since it is very difficult to reach my toes by myself and actually be able to breathe. So I finally got my time to do it and it was wonderful! Now I really feel like I am prepared if I go into labor soon, because who would want to go to the hospital with unpainted, ugly toenails. Paul was teasing me that now i am ready to face the hospital staff - I seriously agree with him. I have been having some contractions that actually become painful and are pretty regular for a couple to few hours, but then just kind of peter off. So who knows.)

Later, many of the young single adults came over for a pizza and ping pong party here before the semester starts, and that was fun. About 12 of them came. Mostly, we all ate and talked, but a few people played ping pong. They all left around 8:30 and we got the girls in bed and went to bed.

So it was a good week, and we hope all of you had good weeks as well.