Looking Forward to November

    Hey guys, sorry to post on a Friday, but I was desperately in need of a break this week.  The first three days were awful and long, so it felt nice to just sit and relax for a night without having to do anything.  I've also spent little to no time with my husband since he's been working so much, so it was great to get that alone time with him.  Needless to say I'm beyond ready for a weekend and a chance to sleep in tomorrow!
    Health-wise I've been feeling great.  Still no obvious side effects from the drugs and no pain in my joints or anywhere else.  The only thing I've been noticing lately has been cramping in my hands and feet.  I don't think it's supposed to be as frequent as it has been and that is a bit concerning, seeing as it can get quite painful.  Hopefully it's not a side effect but a lack of water consumption on my part, which I've been trying to improve on.  You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to down about 6-8 bottles of water a day, but it's definitely a struggle for someone like me who's always doing something.

    We are also still in the process of moving.  It's full-force now so we're packing up everything we can as quickly as we can in order to get everything out within the next two weeks.  We have been house-sitting for my parents this week, so neither of us have been at the apartment, but I'm going over there today after school to work on packing up the living room and our bedroom.  My short term goals are to have the living room and bedroom done by next weekend so we can start on packing up the kitchen, which will probably take us the longest time because of all our large and breakable items.  There is also a serious lack of newspaper and other packing supplies, so hopefully we are able to wrap everything properly.  Next week will be a bit crazy, but I feel confident that we can have everything out of our apartment by the 22nd.  We'll see how that goes, but right now we seem to be right on track!  It'll be nice not to have to worry about too much anymore after Thanksgiving break.  Then I can finally start planning to save up for the things I need!  I can't wait!
    As far as teaching goes, I had a meeting yesterday with my cooperating teacher and my professor about starting the transition back into a leadership role in the classroom for the start of Trimester 2, which starts in two weeks.  I believe I'm more ready and confident now than I was at the beginning of the year and that's partially due to the way my health has improved over the last month or so.  I'm feeling better, so I feel more focused on what's going on in my class rather than what's going on outside of school.  I've been giving myself little pep talks and trying to remember everything I've learned and observed so far from my observations, so hopefully that will help me discover what kind of teacher I will become as I try taking control again.  We'll be starting our "Poetry Out Loud" unit after exams, which I will be following with my cooperating teacher.  After that, I will be creating my own lessons and running a unit on my own, so I'll be prepping for that in the coming weeks.  I'm actually excited about planning again because I feel like I have some good ideas and I have easy access to other teacher's ideas as well, so I'm looking forward to teaching my own stuff soon.  I have a colloquium planning day next Thursday, which is a mandatory workshop for interns in the teaching program where you learn more about educational law, practice and your subject area.  I plan on taking full advantage of the day so I can better prepare myself for what's to come.  One of my previous professors is running the English seminar, so I'm excited to see and learn from her again.

    TV was sparse again this week, partially because I have to wait for my husband to watch most of our shows, but also because half of them didn't air this week.  I have Once Upon a Time and Arrow for this week, which were both pretty intense.  We finally find out that Elsa's mother had not one, but TWO sisters, Ingrid and Helga, at least one of which had the same ice powers as Elsa.  We also find out what Ingrid, (the Snow Queen), has been trying to plan this whole time- a chance to have her perfect family.  She wants to use the evil mirror to turn everyone in Storybrooke against each other, except for Elsa and Emma, (whom Ingrid believes would be a perfect replacement for Helga, since she apparently doesn't have the time to try to look for her too).  Those scary movies where the creepy stalker is dead-set on constructing his or her perfect family out of people they pull off the street at random really makes my skin crawl.  Despite the Snow Queen's plot to destroy everyone in Storybrooke being revealed, this episode was mainly focused on Belle and her relationship to Anna, as well as her role in her disappearance.  After Belle's mother is killed in the Ogre Wars and Belle loses her memory of the attack, she goes on a mission to Arendelle to find a way to get her memories back from the Rock Trolls, which Anna helps her do.  Unfortunately, through a series of events, Belle ends up choosing her memories over saving Anna from falling to her doom, causing Anna to be taken by the Snow Queen.  Belle is wracked with guilt over causing her disappearance, so she seeks out the Snow Queen to see if she can redeem herself, with the help of her lying, deceiving husband.  I still think everyone in Storybrooke is lying to each other, which bugs me, but I guess that's the theme in this season, so we'll have to go with it.  We still haven't found Anna, (it might just take the whole season), but at least we might get to meet Helga this Sunday.  We'll see!

    Arrow was pretty interesting this week, focusing on my favorite character, Felicity Smoak and her mysterious past as a "hacktivist" back in college.  Obviously Felicity's special skills were needed to solve this cyber terrorist attack on Starling City, but it wouldn't be that easy.  We got to see Felicity as a Gothic rebel with a fellow hacker boyfriend and awkward roommate.  This set up made me think of the Ted/Marshall/Lily dynamic from How I Met Your Mother.  Anyway, Felicity's sleazy mom stumbles into town unexpectedly, (which is all part of the plan, we later find out), Diggle gives her his baby to watch, (a complete stranger?!), and spends the whole episode basically in the dark while Felicity tries to help both her bosses tackle this cyber bully, who is using her own virus from five years ago to steal money from Starling.  Although this episode was great because we see a different side of Felicity and a reconciling between Ollie and his sister, (who now has a sweet new apartment), the REAL mind-blowing moment of this episode comes at the end, (figures), where we find out WHO killed Sara.  It was ROY!!  In a mirakuru-filled stupor he literally threw arrows into Sara's chest, which is weird because he should have it under control by now.  I don't think he's working with anyone in secret, but I do think he needs help, so who knows when everyone else will find out the awful truth and eventually turn on Roy.  Didn't see that coming!
    That's all for this week!  It's finally November, so that means I've slowly been turning into a holiday-crazed lunatic trying to find any excuse to buy Yankee Candles.  With moving into a more comfortable home, more school vacation days and Thanksgiving so close now, it's hard not to get excited about the holidays coming up.  It puts me in a great mood, so I'm not complaining!  I'm looking forward to everything I have coming up in the weeks to come, so hopefully that propels me forward to achieve everything I want to get done this month.  I'll be moving pretty much all weekend, both for myself and my uncle, who just bought a new house, so I'll be working my upper body strength this weekend.  What are you looking forward to this month, if anything?  Let me know in the comments below!  I also posted a new Book Review in my review tab, so check that out as well!  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.