It was a great weekend!

John, the pups, and I got to Hartselle about 9 Friday night. Zac, our nephew, was at Billie's. It was the first time he's been there that we've been there in a while, which is really quite surprising. I won't go into all the details, but let me just say that his mother has had a tendency in the past to take advantage of the fact that Billie loves him so much and would let him live with her. For about the first two years of his life, he practically did live with her. Considering Billie's health, she just can't keep up with an active 9 year old, and it really isn't fair to him either because when he's at her house, he really doesn't have anything to do except watch TV or play video games.

When we got there, we told Billie and Zac we were taking them to the lake with us on Saturday. Of course Zac was all for it, but Billie started telling us she just didn't feel like going. We kept on, though, and convinced her that she could feel bad at the lake just as easily as she could at home. After all, if she stayed home, all she would have done was sit in her recliner. We have a recliner at the lake, plus the view is MUCH nicer. J

We got out to the lake a little before noon. It was a gorgeous day, and in the sun it was nice and warm. We cleaned off the tables on the porch and sat out there. I spread all my note cards and bib cards out to grade. (BTW, thanks for ALL the offers to grade some for me. Hahahaha) Zac got out and skipped rocks on the water. Bless his heart, Billie worried about him the whole time and kept telling him to get back from the water. Now, DON'T get me wrong—I know that kids need to be careful around water, but where he was standing was nowhere near deep enough to be over his head, and IF he had fallen in, John, Linda, or I would have been up and running in a New York second. After skipping rocks got boring, John got him a fishing rod with a jig on it. He didn't get any bites, but he sure did enjoy himself. It was really neat to watch John teaching him how to cast—I know it will be Sam he's teaching in a few years.

After we got to the lake, Billie didn't complain ONE TIME about feeling bad. Of course, she did ask the same questions and say the same things over and over and over. And over again. Just seconds or minutes apart. "I didn't bring anything to sleep in." "Did I bring my toothbrush?" "Zac doesn't have any clean clothes to put on." "Where is Zac?" "I didn't lock my doors." "I didn't bring anything to sleep in." "Where are my house keys?" It gets really frustrating, but that's the life with an Alzheimer's patient. And Alzheimer's SUCKS!!!!!

Of course Ali and Bama had a good time. They have both been sacked out since we left Hartselle today to come home. A couple of times they've roused themselves long enough to go outside to potty. John is eating supper now, and neither of them is bothering him for bites. J

As far as my bib cards and note cards go, I did get them graded. I have about 16 students who didn't turn in anything. According to the contract Misty and I have them sign, we won't accept late work. The reason for this is because there would be some who would have procrastinated and just not gotten the work done and then they'd be home right now cramming to get it done to turn in tomorrow. Sorry!!! I DO realize that sometimes there ARE extenuating circumstances, and I WILL and DO take those things into consideration, BUT for 99.99999999% of the 16 who didn't turn anything in, that isn't that case. I've been criticized for this policy before, but in addition to teaching the research process, Misty and I want to teach them time management and responsibility. If we didn't set due dates and stick to them, there would be no way we could grade the preliminary work and get it back to them in time for them to make corrections for the final paper.

I guess that's about it for now. I need to go finish up the laundry from the weekend. Fortunately there isn't much. And I need to figure out what to wear to work tomorrow. It's the week before Easter, so it has turned cold again.

Have a GREAT week!