Are we CRAZY???

Yep, I think we are and here is proof.

Meet Malinki... the newest member of our family

Check out his baby-blue eyes

Malinki is a flame-point kitten, named so because his ears, alittle on his nose, and his tail all have orange (flame) coloring.  He also looks to have quite a lot of Siamese in him, especially when you look at his face.  He is about 14 weeks old.

So far, on day two of his living with us, Malinki and Inigo are getting along great!  Midnight is a bit unsettled by her new brother.  She would rather look down on him from above, in her high places.

The first time Malinki met Samson and Toby, he freaked!  I have a few scratches on my scalp to show for it (thankfully they're hidden by my hair!).  He is slowly getting more comfortable around them... and by that, I mean that when he's on the bed in our room, and we allow the dogs to come in, after a minute or two, he is comfortable while protected between Tim and I.  But it is progress.

Currently, Inigo and Malinki are chasing each other around the house... I think Inigo is enjoying his new brother, someone to play with since Midnight isn't much for play : ) 

To end, here are a few other cute pictures that we snapped yesterday, his first day here...

"I made it to the top shelf all by myself!"

"Hi... what's your name?"

"What bird??"

All three together... well, kind of...

"I like to play!"

Come see him sometime... he is a cutie!  Have a wondeful day!

What we've been up to...

 Now that school is out, the Kalamazoo Haines have purposely tried to not be up to too much... well, some of it has been purposeful, some of it has been necessitated.

We have enjoyed laying around, not doing much!  Notice his lip?  I thought that was hilarious

We also have enjoyed hanging out with our nieces and nephews... one day, we even babysat for a few of them. 

Finally, with a five Sunday month, Tim's schedule vs. our church youth group schedule changed and he was able to come to the evening Embers where we played a digital scavenger hunt game...

Being Mr. Wilson from Home Improvement and Smashing against glass (pretending to.. pretty good, huh?)

We also spent this past weekend over on the East side of the state.

I got to hang out and have a wonderful time chatting with my sister-in-law who is expecting around August 27th!

Tim got a new snow outfit, and his brother got new overalls.

Here is the rest of the family.  From left to right, Ronny (a friend), Nick (Beth's friend), Bethany, Mom and Dad Haines

It was a pretty good weekend all things considered... We were glad we went.

Now we are at home.  Through most of this, Tim has been nursing a sore back... so sore in fact that he has been on Darvoset (narcotic pain reliever), as well as the previous 3 weeks having muscle relaxants that he can take.  After an MRI this past Wednesday, we found out that he has two disks out of place (L7 and S1) which gives reason for the sore back and shooting pain/tingling down his left leg.  As a result, he is not working currently, and is spending a lot of time laying down.  It's a good thing we just registered for Netflix for the summer

For the rest of the summer we intend to...

• Hopefully have Tim's back heal quickly!
• Fix the bathroom (easy fix - fix shower wall, harder fix - redo entire bathroom to "make it our own")
• Purchase and install a new water heater
• Go on a vacation (hopefully canoe camping in the wild north)

Well, I should go, so have a wonderful day!

Completed!

Wow, three years, done and gone... I have now completed three years of teaching at Paw Paw High School.  In some ways I am sooo thankful to be done.  And yet it doesn't seem real yet...

Things I am looking forward to for next year:

1. Beginning the school year with drafting boards and computers already set up (rather than having to wait until December for the drafting boards like this year)
2. Teaching all the drafting classes offered (instead of having another teacher teach my baby - general drafting)
3. Not being new at teaching Geometry
4. Not having to set up my classroom from scratch (like this year... I still haven't unpacked all my boxes yet though...)
5. Already knowing Inventor and Revit (instead of learning it the day before the students)
6. Having plans already made for all but one of the subjects I teach.
7. Not having any more students that had the previous (not that great) drafting teacher
8. Can't think of any more right now, but I know there are many more things

Until next school year though, starting August 26th for teachers, we have many things we are going to try to accomplish (or atleast work on).

1. Finish re-fencing backyard to keep Samson in better
2. Re-do bathroom
3. Buy new water heater (ours is somewhere around 40 years old at best guess!)
4. Paint kitchen
5. Fix-up upstairs bedrooms for our new housemates (more on this later)
6. Begin Masters of Arts in Education (thru Cornerstone University) end of July

Think we can do these things?  I certainly hope so!

So about the new housemates... a wonderful lady and her son are going to be moving in with us probably around mid-August.  Tamara and Lukas will be living with us for the coming school year.  They need a place to live while their house sells, Tamara would like company (other people) around more and Lukas needs some stability for the school year and we can provide that.  Tim is excited about doing boy things with Lukas, like changing oil and growing plants in the basement, and playing catch... he's going to be a great father when the time comes : )

Well, I think that's a decent update on what is going on with us lately... or perhaps it's not, but I need to get back sorting things/putting things on tables for our garage sale on Saturday.  Have a wonderful, hot, muggy evening (hopefully you have A/C as well!).

Educators

I got the following over school email today... it's funny how many I've thought or how many seem to be true!  Hope you enjoy...

p.s. Pertaining to the last point... I've only counted that seniors have 14 days left, and we only have one more day off until the end of the school year.  I don't know the count down of the regular days/minutes/seconds yet... perhaps once the seniors leave then I will begin that! : )

Jeff Foxworthy on Educators

YOU might be a school employee if you believe the playground
(classrooms) should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

YOU might be a school employee if you want to slap the next person who
says, "Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off."

YOU might be a school employee if it is difficult to name your own child
because there's no name you can come up with that doesn't bring high
blood pressure as it is uttered.

YOU might be a school employee if you can tell it's a full moon or if it
going to rain, snow, hail....anything!!! Without ever looking outside.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe, "shallow gene pool"
should have its own box on a report card.

YOU might be a school employee if you believe that unspeakable evils
will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

YOU might be a school employee if when out in public, you feel the urge
to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their
behavior.

YOU might be a school employee if you have no social life between August
and June.

YOU might be a school employee if you think people should have a
government permit before being allowed to reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you wonder how some parents MANAGED to
reproduce.

YOU might be a school employee if you laugh uncontrollably when people
refer to the staff room as the "lounge."

YOU might be a school employee if you encourage an obnoxious parent to
check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate
the UHAUL boxes should they decided to move out of district.

YOU might be a school employee if you think caffeine should be available
in intravenous form.

YOU might be a school employee if you can't imagine how the ACLU could
think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring
uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be
misunderstood by the public.

YOU might be a school employee if meeting a child's parent instantly
answers this question, "Why is this kid like this?"

YOU might be a school employee if you would choose a mammogram over a
parent conference.

YOU might be a school employee if you think someone should invent
antibacterial pencils and crayons...and desks and chairs for that
matter!

YOU might be a school employee if the words "I have college debt for
this?" has ever come out of your mouth.

YOU might be a school employee if you know how many days, minutes, and
seconds are left in the school year!

5 weeks!!

It's hard to believe, but I only have 5 weeks left in this semester, then exams, then done for the school year!  I am so excited.  It has been a rough school year as I have had to move rooms, didn't have proper equipment to teach with until December, was expected to teach a new class with new curriculum which nobody had used yet, among other things.  However, I am more recently realizing how good of a support system I have with some of the other teachers around me.  Another math teacher has taken me under her wing... or perhaps I pushed and shoved my way, forcing myself under her wing since I had really, no clue what I was doing this year.  And another teacher is really working with me, helping me with classes and students in general, giving advice, and encouraging me.  I work for an amazing school district.  Now we all just need a break!
I could just be speaking from exhaustion though on some of this.  Thursday was the regional competition for MITES (Michigan Industrial and Technology Education Society).  I made it a requirement this year that my advanced students submit a project to this competition.  Of the 17 who had the assignment to do so, 13 actually finished in time, and of those, 5 placed.  Keep in mind 4 were in one category, 9 were in the other and only the top 6 are placed and only the top 4 go to State competition.  So of the 8 possible places going to state for these two categories, we took 4 of them.  I'd say that's decent : )  I'm just glad the push to get the work done in time is over... it was busy and stressful!  Tim was amazing, driving all around town and back and forth to school, purchasing and bring me supplies!  THANKS HONEY : )

Speaking of Tim, he is done with schooling for this semester.  He will resume classes in the fall for his second semester in the nursing program.  With all his "free" time, he is picking up more hours at work, tripling the number of days he is working, and also intending on volunteering at a local hospital to get experience.

Along with all of that, we have big plans for renovations to the house.  If we had endless money, we would like to finish our fence in the backyard, purchase a new water heater, put a new roof on (which involves tearing off all the old stuff), renovating the bathroom, painting the living room, purchasing/making new drapes for living room... I think that's it.  We'll be happy if we accomplish only a few of those things, but we would really like to do it all some day.

Well, I think that's about all for an update.  Tim should be arriving home from work any minute now : ) Have a great evening!