It's Friday, Friday, gettin' down on Fri-iday

Friday nights are my absolute favorite time of the week these days.

As soon as I get home from school on Friday, I feel like the world is limitless. It's such a nice relief to come home and not stress about making sure I have everything ready for tomorrow, revamping my planned lesson based on the feedback I got from the kids that day, creating videos to supplement for the kids that need an extra boost, answering emails from parents and students about the next day, and all those other wonderful mid-week things that come along with teaching 8th grade.

But Friday. Oh, how I love Friday.

Friday means Saturday comes next. And though Chris and I have had shoots every Saturday and Sunday for as long as I can think back right now, at least I don't have to plan anything. Friday means I can come home and organize all the stuff that I've let fall into disarray during the week. Tonight I came home and did the dishes, and gosh did it feel good. When Chris came home we laid down and talked about our days while the cats sat on our backs. For the last hour I've been looking up crafty things I want to do so I have stuff to add to my Christmas list, because Chris' mom just called him and told him I didn't have enough stuff on my list. (#firstworldproblems)

I'm catching up on NCIS. I did our finances for the beginning of December. I paid a huge chunk off my student loans (woot!). I did laundry and took out the trash. I bought our first real Christmas stockings off of Etsy and then surfed for things Chris would like (sneakily, since he's right here next to me).

Tomorrow I can lesson plan, and grade, and make videos. Right now, it's still Friday night, and I'm going to eat pumpkin pie and buy Christmas presents.

Photo courtesy of indoor lighting and the not-so-great camera flip feature of my iphone.

Christmas pictures

We got an email today from Chris' mom about doing family Christmas pictures while we're up in Redlands for Thanksgiving. That of course led to me reminding Chris we need to do our own Christmas pics. Which led to the following conversation:

C: "Everybody wants Christmas pictures from me!"

J: "Well, I don't want it to be like last year where I looked like crap just because we ran out of time and happened to find a wild field at sunset after a family shoot."

C: "That's not my fault. You should be prepared at all times for Christmas photos."

Touche. From here until December 25, I'll be glamming it up on a daily basis.

Flashback to last year's "just-finished-a-shoot-and-hey!-look-there's-a-cool-field" last minute photo shoot.

And for those of you who are noticing that it's been almost two months since my last post, yes, I am still alive. Teaching 8th grade Algebra is literally taking up all of my time. Between lesson planning, and making instructional videos, and grading, and inputting grades, and creating tests and bellwarmers and interesting activities, I think I'm just lucky to be able to sleep. First years at a new school are the worst. Fortunately, my co-workers are all great and encouraging.