Things are speeding up! Josh just started his SPA exam this morning. It was a little nervy. They sent him a medical case via email at 8:30. He had until 10:30 to email in some preliminary work on it. Now he has 48 hours to prepare for a presentation of the case before a committee on Friday morning.

Taught my last class last Thursday – it was the final exam. I made the exam sooo easy. Multiple choice, 50 questions – and I told them I would grade it out of 40 questions. Then I added 5 extra credit questions. Some of the questions were the same as questions I had given them on previous tests even! So most of them did pretty well. Still had two fail. What can you do? So we ended up with an odd spread of grades: A, A, A, A, B, F, F. Posted grades, turned in books, attendance sheets and grades on Monday. Now I am hanging up my gradebook at least for a semester or two.

We had a full weekend. Friday night we stayed up late and watched a video. A stupid video at that. I borrowed it from the library – Steve Martin, A Man with Two Brains. ’80s movies generally seem to fall in the stupid with gratuitous nudity category. Well, at least it was free! And we tested the laptop to see how long it could run a DVD movie w/o batteries: 1 hour, 13 minutes. If we want to watch movies on the plane flight up to Alaska, we’ll either have to rent a DVD player or get a second battery.

Saturday we got up early and checked out the med student garage sale. Josh got a bunch of books and I got two patio chairs, a fan, and a breadmaker. I deliberated over that breadmaker. We already have minimal counter space in the kitchen. But my friend Leigh Anne had gotten one at a garage sale. I couldn’t resist. $10. And it works great! Already made two loaves in it.

Then we went with some friends for a little hike and climbing (Nick and Josh climbed, Brooke couldn’t because she had a bad poison ivy rash on her hand, and I didn’t really feel like trying to haul 25 extra pounds up there!).

Here’s the spot on Pilot Mountain – caught a hawk overhead:

Josh belaying Nick:

Josh:

Nick at the top:

Brooke patiently waiting:

Josh posing:

Went to a nice barbecue at the Babcock’s house in Clemmons after that. It was nice to sit outside and relax and chat and eat good food.

Sunday we went to a different church. I was particularly sleepy. Even with the heavy rock worship! The band was really talented, but it was so loud that it felt more like I was supposed to be audience rather than participant. The sermon topic was really interesting: single mothers. But the pastor followed rabbit trails all over the place. Josh and I left after he told some vignette and followed with something like, “what am I telling that for? did I make my point? what am i saying?” and sounded truly lost. If he didn’t even know what he was saying I was certainly too uncomfortable and sleepy to figure it out and asked Josh if he would mind if we left. We headed to Border’s and had coffee and a cinnamon roll. We had a lazy day the rest of the day.

Monday I turned in grades like I mentioned before. And in the afternoon Josh took me to the midwives to make sure I was ok. I’ve been having some strange dizzy spells the last week and a half. She is pretty sure it’s allergies – the pressure in my head. So I’m on a generic of Claritin to see if it clears it up. Had a little dizzy spell Monday night as I went to bed, but been doing ok since.

Yesterday we went for a walk in Greensboro – in the Battleground park. I’ve been trying to work out a kink in my back by walking more. I was slower than ever yesterday!

Today is the 12th, my Mom’s birthday. Happy birthday, Mom! Tomorrow is my brother-in-law Mark’s birthday. Tomorrow night I’m attending a banquet with Gracia Burnham as speaker. This weekend we’ll visit the Greek Festival with the Zanders. We really have only 20 days before we leave for Alaska, so I guess I better get serious with my cleaning, packing and organizing!