Trunk or Treat

As you can see, the Bateman's become very original in their Halloween costumes. I think Makiah is the only one that dressed up as something different from last year. It was a very warm Halloween, so the Russian hat was a bit much. Evan enjoyed walking around for free candy. At first, he didn't know what was going on. Then he thought it was a game to get a piece of candy and put it in his bag. After a while, he realized that if the candy was in his bag, then it was not in his mouth. He would prefer the latter, so he began insisting that the candy be in his hands instead of in the bag. Of course, there was too much candy to hold, so we had to open a Tootsie Roll in exchange for putting a handful of candy into his bag. It only took half way around the parking lot to realize what was going on. Since he couldn't say, "trick or treat," he would just walk around holding out his hand expecting people to put candy in it. The only bad part is that it worked. It worked all night long. I am afraid that it may put him in the habit of it. Just put out a hand, and free candy shows up. If only.

First Week at Purdue University

Family,
I guess I could give an update on my first week of classes and my work stuff. Let's start with work.
I had four jobs come up. I turned down a grader position. It was 20 hours a week at $7.50/hr. It's better than nothing, but I had a feeling to turn it down, so I did. I was offered the job to be a math teacher at Ivy Tech Community College, but the college is about a 30 min. drive from my home, and the two classes I would be teaching were Tues/Thur mornings. I have class those same days at noon, so I didn't think I could teach for three hours and make it back in time for class, so I told them that I couldn't do it now, but I would be willing to teach for them some other time if they still had openings.
Some of you may have known that I had an interview with Med Institute to do an internship as a statistician. They had a phone interview with me a week ago. They e-mailed me the other day and said that they didn't think that my skills would work well for their company. I don't know why, but I felt really relieved to not get that job. It would have been really great experience, but I still felt relieved.
Last week, I was cornered by two professors who said that they had a teaching position open, and they had to know immediately if I wanted the job. I was getting desparate for a job, so I said yes. They didn't know my pay rate, so it was kind of dumb of me, but it worked out well. I just found out today that I will be getting $4000 for the semester, and I only have to teach for three hours a week. If you do the math, that's about $75/hr. Not bad for a bachelors degree. As for school, I only have two classes. I start at noon and finish by 3:00. I have a seminar on Wednesday evenings for an hour. I did have a third class, but when I was playing with my schedule, I found that when I took 6 credits instead of 9, it dropped my tuition by $6000, so I decided to lighten my load for my first semester of grad school, and I could save a lot of money and time.
I'm taking the same classes that I had taken for my undergrad work, so they shouldn't be too stressful this semester. It's just mostly a review, which will be nice. So, my schedule is go to class for three hours on Tuesday, one hour on Wednesday, three hours on Thursday, teach for three hours on Friday, and take a three-day weekend. This is going to be great!
Today was my first day teaching my class. My students have a regular class Mon & Wed, and I teach them in a lab on Fridays. I thought that their instructors would give them copies of their labs, so I didn't get any made. Apparently the students didn't have their own copies, so I had to read the questions to them and have them write the answers on their own papers. I was also having troubles with the projector screen, and I didn't have technology that I though I would have. It was an interesting first day. I later found out that the statistics department secretary made the copies and left them in my mailbox that I didn't know I had. Next week will be much more prepared and organized.
Well, that should be all for my first week. Oh, Evan and I tried out our new swimming pool tonight. I would have had more fun if I didn't have to hold Evan the whole time, and Evan would have had more fun if he didn't get cold in the water. I don't know how he could get cold when it's so hot here. Oh well.