Just January

Well, I don't know about y'all, but the theme of my week (besides busy) is paying bills and surfing the Higher Ed job site for any sort of online, part-time instructional technology teaching positions (as a side gig)...seems everyone is looking for Business or Literature teachers instead.

My first 101 class met Wednesday morning, and it went pretty smoothly. My students were just so quiet, and I could not get them to say hardly anything. The first day is a bit overwhelming for them, because this is an orientation class and there are tons of handouts and things to take in. I even made french vanilla coffee with toppings for them, but most of them acted too shy to partake. What a vast difference from observing HS students during my practicum in Fall! They would've knocked each other over to get to a coffee bar, and I would have had a few discipline problems to boot! So I can't complain, all in all.

I also made a couple of awesome bulletin boards at work: one for the office on careers and one for the college to promote campus organizations. I received a lot of positive feedback on these. Sometimes I feel like a working machine.

It's been so warm and humid here that I am loving the cooler temps and gusty winds tonight. I just wish we had a few snowflakes in our forecast too -- jealous of those northwesterners and their blankets of white. I am gearing up for a busy MLK Holiday weekend and will be in touch soon!

Simply Cupcakes Soothes My Sweet Tooth

(Photo: Simply Cupcakes' Facebook Fanpage, Key Lime.)

I recently discovered a little slice of heaven for my (sickeningly-sweet) sweet tooth in Warner Robins. My friend Tyler mentioned that there's a new cupcakery in town, and later I read an article in the Houston County edition of the 11th Hour featuring this new haven for cupcake enthusiasts in middle Georgia, Simply Cupcakes.

Despite having baked a poundcake over the weekend that I have been hacking slices off of for the past few days, I was not tired of cake in the least bit and simply had to have a Simply Cupcake...or three.

One of my favorite people where I work had a birthday this week so I had a very valid excuse to indulge. Simply Cupcakes makes each of the day's cupcakes that morning. Once they have sold all of a particular flavor of cupcakes for the day, there are no more. Unfortunately, I made a mid-afternoon trip and every variety of chocolate or caramel was sold. These were the two main flavors my co-workers had picked out.

Fortunately, they still had their fruity flavored cupcakes on display which made me happy, as I tend to prefer fruit flavored desserts anyway. Though there were no peach cobbler cupcakes which I had read are a top seller, the key lime cupcake was still available and was absolutely delicious. It was extremely moist and had a small dollop of key lime pie baked into the center of the cupcake...mmm, mmm, mmm.

I also tried the Raspberry Waltz and the Simply Lemon. My co-workers beat me to the Red Velvet and Pink Caddy and everyone raved about how fresh, moist and tasty their cupcake sampling was. The website (linked above in kelly green font) promotes 50 flavors and provides descriptions of their most popular varieties.

I see another cupcake stop in the near future.

Here's to a Relaxing Memorial Day Weekend!

I have a bittersweet update: This morning I submitted my resignation and two week notice in my current position of 2 1/2 years. I will miss my co-workers and all of our science and technology advisees. But I will be starting in a similar position at the end of June at a college where I previously worked for 5 years. I am very much looking forward to this new change and being a part of the GMC family again.

This move also works well in allowing me to complete the considerable amount of hours to meet my practicum requirements this Fall. After my online summer course ends, I will have 1 online class, several extensive video projects, my portfolio and any other requirements with my practicum class to satisfy the M.Ed. objectives and graduate from Georgia Southern University in December 2011 (the weekend of my birthday to be exact). I just received my graduation clearance so it looks like everything is on track on this front too.

April is the Cruelest Month

I have not updated in a long while, because as usual life gets in the way of blogging. I stop by other people's blogs when doing a quick search for a coupon deal or a recipe or to find some other random piece of info for work or class. I am afraid that is the way it will be for the at least the rest of this year.

April was an unusually stressful and trying month -- 3 funerals, 2 sinus infections, 2 20-page papers, a project and finals -- quite a lot to take in during one 30-day time period.

My graduate program starts a week earlier than everyone else on campus (which can be annoying with work stuff that first week) but is definitely nice at the end because my finals week is the week before everyone else. I finished up all of my work last Monday night. A good thing because we're always deluged with students with unfinished business before heading out in different directions for their summer.

I received a nice note from one of my construction management advisees today. His management class had an end of the semester assignment pertaining to how to demonstrate appreciation in an organization when it is not monetarily feasible to do so. This obviously is a realistic exercise for future managers in this economy. Their assignment was to chose someone on campus who has positively impacted their university experience and express their appreciation. The professor attached the note to the assignment and sent them to each individual. What a lovely activity for a management class in the world of furlough days and pay cuts.

Sadly there is nothing domestically or creatively noteworthy to report, unless you count couponing success. I love finding a deal or finagling a free product. I am not ashamed to admit that I have 5 Colgate toothpastes under my bathroom sink that cost less then 50 cents a tube. I hope toothpaste is on everyone's Christmas list this year! Otherwise I've more or less been a total MIA nerd, battling sinus infections and trying to stay afloat with school and work stuff...and the occasional baseball game...