That's right - I am playing catch up at school and at home. I had a merry little time on vacation: spending like there's no tomorrow, doing art projects and showing videos(to make my vacation one week longer?)Now it's payback.

I have finished with my grades - just have one more make-up test to give. I worked on grading yesterday. I hate grading!!!! Part of it is because it's drudge work. The other part is because I am afraid that I will see little or no progress in my students! It wasn't too bad. Still, I need to get back with my program of last year of sending weekly grade reports home.

Today, I am still finishing up make-up work - this time, giving the Standards Master test, so that I can turn in my Scantron cards to be checked. I also need to do lesson plans. And enter my grades.

And place my classroom orders before I lose my alotment. But I have until March 1 before that happens! As long as I have paper and ink cartridges, I am pretty much set!

Last night at home, I paid my bills and extracted a check from my spouse. Now, I have to deposit it and add some from my savings! It was a bit of a reality check, but not too bad! Still, we have some debt, and I want to make it a priority to pay that off.

My husband's job seems to be going well - it's a different schedule from mine. He works from 10AM to 7PM, and I work from 7AM to 3PM. I need to learn how to program the VCR so that "must-see TV" doesn't get in the way of quality time!

Last night, I was able to get an appointment for a massage. I was having some shoulder and upper arm aches. I think I feel better now, but I will probably feel sore this afternoon. I will take a hot bath tonight.

So, I am work work work right now - after the necessities are taken care of, I must plan something for the Cultural Diversity Committee to do, and publish the next newsletter. At home, it will be time to take the Christmas decorations down!

I really want to make room in my office area to do more creative things - I had a great time doing my line drawing collages, and am coloring one of them right now. Think of them as complex, overwhelming coloring pages. I have done one with my name, one with a Hispanic theme, and one for Christmas. I use ornate letters to spell out a message, then make a collage of line drawings found in illustrations, and from coloring pages on the website. It's a lot of fun.

I was able to find the sourcebook from which I took my ornate letters, and ordered it from Amazon.com the other day. When it comes in, I will first do one with my niece's name and a flower and heart theme, for her birthday. Then, I aspire to designing a coloring calendar, with a different theme for every month.

I also need to do something with all of the frames I bought. I ran out of time in New Orleans to show them to shops. As it is, retail stores were marking things down to get rid of inventory by the end of the year (something to do with taxes), so it probably would not have been a good time to sell anyway!

I probably should aim at exhibiting at a local flea market - with the icons and coloring pages, and any other thing I get together. It could be fun.

I am not sure yet about selling the t-shirts. I don't know how long the transfers will stay pretty. My husband suggested that I advertise them as "special occasion" wear - like giving a birthday card. That's a thought. Still, I can post my collages on CafePress.com. There's a lot to do!