Domestic Bliss

Erin gave me a choice tonight regarding what I should do first: I could either help her with the sheets or update the blog. I chose the sheets, which means that I put this off for even a few more minutes. But now I'm back in he blogosphere, here to satisfy the clamoring audience that Erin tells me has been asking for me.

I think this is my first post as Mrs. Zoutendam's husband. Not as Mr. Zoutendam, though; I've been Mr. Zoutendam to 90 people for a couple of months. That still seems a little strange, especially because I've always associated the title "Mister" with mustaches.

Anyway, back to the point. This is my first post since getting married. Marriage is great--well, to be more specific, being married to Erin is great. It's wonderful to relax together after a long day at school, it's great to laugh together and cook together, and Erin smells delightful all of the time. Seriously, she always smells great. I don't think that's true for me.

Our little home is still messy, but it's becoming more ordered. Each weekend we try to take another step towards putting everything in its place. Last weekend, we finally got a dresser, and this weekend, I was going to deep clean the kitchen, but instead I bought a wireless router and a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum is still in the trunk of the car, but the wireless interest is up, which is how I can write this post in the kitchen and Erin can watch TV on the bed.

The bed/TV this is especially good right now because Erin's been pretty sick the last few days. The doctor said it was viral, so Erin can only rest until it goes away. So . . . bed and TV. She is beginning to feel better, and hopefully she'll be ready to return to school Monday.

Speaking of which, school is going well. We just started the second quarter last week, and it was nice to start something new again. There are fewer things on the grading pile, there is more time to plan (and relax), and we have moved past the first round of rookie mistakes. We've also written our first round of student evaluations--that's one paragraph for each student, noting strengths and weakness and areas for improvement, and in case you're wondering, those take the better part of a week (i.e. our Fall "break" week).

That does it for this installment. I hope to post more often, and I hope to add more interesting specifics, so you'll want to keep clamoring.