We have made some progress on the issue of James and kindergarten. I talked a lot with my neighbor, who conveniently happens to be a school psychologist, and she also did comprehensive testing on James to find out what the problem is. She is very strongly against James staying back. She said that James is way too smart to stay back, and that if he did stay back, it was an open sesame to behavior problems. I sure don't want that! She also said that this kind of problem could be dealt with, but it would take about 3 years (she estimated) to get past it. This was a bummer for me, but on the other hand, at least we know now what the problem is and we can start the process of fixing it. James has started seeing the Title I tutor three times a week, and I will be tracking down a tutor for over the summer too. I don't want him to lose anything he has learned during the school year.

In other news, I finally ordered new lenses for my glasses a couple of weeks ago. I have had the new lenses for about a week now, and I still cannot get over how much better I can see! The depressing part about this is that while my distance prescription changed only a tiny bit, but my reading prescription (and so my bifocals) change a huge amount. I am now up to a 2.00 magnification, and I tell ya, the difference is amazing!! I can read the license plates and road signs now, and the sharpness of regular print both on the computer and in my books is tremendous! So, I guess it was $560 well spent. (Still depressing though.)

Ron has been pursuing employment all over the state of Arizona. He has also started looking in Texas and California. He had an interview two weeks ago in Scottsdale, and it went very very well. They even talked money and the guy said that he would probably give Ron gas money as well. Then the next time Ron hears from him, he is asking Ron to come back up to Scottsdale for a second interview with two other people. I am hoping this means that they want him for two jobs and that they will be arguing over him. The interview is on Tuesday morning. Offer up a prayer please.

School is going well for me. I just received my class assessments from last semester and I think they were pretty good. It seems that most people enjoyed the class and felt like I was accessible for advice, etc., and that is really good. Out of the 14 people who filled out the assessment form, four of them actually left written comments. Here are the written comments:

Leslie is very educated. She wants us to succeed. Very interesting too!

Love this teacher! I've learned a ton this semester and look forward to taking more classes with Mrs. Howe.

Very easy to ask questions. Reviews papers and gives pointers before you turn them in. Willing to help students succeed, gives good study guides to make student successful.

It's been fun!

I am pretty pleased with this whole thing. This was excellent for my ego!

I am teaching two remedial writing classes this semester and so far, it has been fantastic. I love the classes, even though the students have turned out to be very conservative politically. I figured that the way to get them writing about stuff was to choose topics that were very controversial and insist that they write on the topic for the entire semester. We have talked about the death penalty (most of them in favor), immigration (most of them in favor of severely limiting it, in spite of their Mexican background), and universal healthcare (very much against it, including my student who had spent his high school career homeless). I just don't understand why they are so determined on these issues. How can they be so against universal healthcare when they so obviously need it?

I am having some difficulty getting myself together to train, and this is bad, because I am considering signing up for a duathlon in April. It would be a two mile run, then a 15 mile bike, then a two mile run. With Ron being out of work, and then taking on three classes, I have not been doing very well with biking or running. The great thing is that with my new running method, nothing hurts -- not my feet, hips or anything. I still have the lung searing unhappiness of running, but nothing hurts like my body is about to break. So, I guess I will keep on doing it for awhile.