So you haven't heard about us for awhile because we were both trying to survive my first week of school. This may sound like an individual effort but, ask Mikel, it's a group effort. The first week and the last seem to be like this... the 14 weeks in between I can usually handle!
I always think I should start going to bed early and get my internal clock back on track but it never really happens. I actually did have my books before the semester started which is an accomplishment compared to last semester. This is partly thanks to my new friend at Human Kinetics. Human Kinetics is the main book publisher in the sport sciences and a rep from their company came and met all of us (graduate assistants and teachers) last semester. Now, all I have to do is ask for a book and he sends me a free copy- it's great! Their hope is that when I get to choose a textbook I will use theirs and, considering how much they charge for textbooks, I'm sure they're not losing any money. I also probably will end up choosing their books so it's a win-win. Apparently, he doesn't seem to respond to all of the grad assistants as quickly as he does to me but I was able to get 2 of my 3 books free for this semester so I feel lucky!
As for school, things went well. I am teaching a Healthy Lifestyle class and have an Masters student as an intern helping out so that will be fairly painless, as well as 2 volleyball classes and a swim conditioning class. Mikel is teaching a basketball class as well. Both of us think our classes are going to be really fun this semester so I hope nobody proves us wrong!
I am taking 2 growth and motor development classes and a class called socio-emotional development across a lifespan. I think it's going to be a good semester.
Now that the first week is over, I will be back in a routine and am looking forward to this semester. Hopefully I won't get lost again; I almost ended up with frostbite in this terribly cold weather. It wasn't really that dramatic, but I did get lost on the way back to my office from a class. I had just walked there about 2 hours previous and managed to be nowhere close to my office after 15 minutes of walking. This shouldn't surprise most people; Mikel didn't even bat an eye because I do seem to get lost a lot.
Mikel is thankful to be teaching a class at MSU and still working at Sears... things are going well here!!
So the picture is slightly dark and blurry but it's the best I could do. These are the screws that were taken out of my leg; they were in my tibia and they only had to make one small incision to get them both out. 
I forgot to show everyone that asked so here they are with the measuring tape for perspective.
So there were no blogs for awhile because I was at home in California and Mikel was here in Michigan but I got home late last night.
The trip to California was great! The screws were taken out of my leg and there was very little downtime so that was very nice (especially compared to last Christmas)! I also got to spend a lot of time with family and some friends!
While I was gone, Mikel did a lot of working and a lot of relaxing! He also found out that he is going to teach a basketball class for MSU this semester so that's very exciting! It will be just like the classes he taught in Idaho and may be a good excuse to play basketball twice a week.
Now, we're just getting ready for the semester to start tomorrow! I'm off to a meeting about test writing and Mikel is off to work!
After dinner we came home, relaxed and watched a movie. We watched The Express which was a pretty good football movie about Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman. All in all, a great birthday!
