Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

One professor I admire confided in me that at the beginning of the semester he already knows who will be the A-grade students and who will be the C-grade students. We discussed this paradigm and at the time, I felt this to be an unfair prejudice towards incoming students. After some time teaching I have decided it is a horrible assumption to have, and yet it still rings (mostly) true semester after semester. Perhaps the reason why I keep seeing this behavior prediction come true is because my courses are very cumulative in structure. Therefore, if a student begins to fall behind early in the semester because -- for whatever reason -- they aren't completing assignments, then I always see these students not catch up by the end of the semester. There are many broken promises on their parts of made-up work and failed 'last minute' attempts. I believe that I'd like to try a different approach to learning which doesn't depend so much on consecutive and consequential units.  read more »

Wayne and the girls tagged along on a few adventures with Camilla this week. The science museum on Monday, the water show at Jordan's another day, and the park on Saturday. Cameron and Camilla came to play Thursday while Wayne was teaching class too. Paela has enjoyed running around with her cousin so much. And Aderyn has enjoyed tagging along.  read more »

I still haven't caught up on my email inbox.

Things here have been busy, although not exactly taking care of highest priority events. Because the weather has turned suddenly warm, we took advantage of that fact to get the girls out of the house as much as we could. They both enjoyed the Drumlin farm on multiple occasions -- since we decided to get a membership this year -- and were lucky enough to get to see one day old pigs. Although both girls preferred the baby goats and lambs, but it was a good and tiring adventure for both.  read more »

Happy Easter! Camilla and Victor and Cameron came to Church with us and then hung out for dinner and running around time. It was a great day. Paela especially loved having them over. She was concerned as we were driving home from Church, wanting to make sure they were still behind us. And never mind that Aderyn wanted to hold Paela's hand for ring around the rosy -- Paela was busy trying to sandwich herself between Cameron and Camilla!

We looked briefly at the furniture store, trying to visualize Paela in a twin-sized bed, but her legs are just a touch too short to make it comfortable for her to climb on. So we shall return to trying to convince some of her stuffed animals to "sleep in the box with the others" to minimize the bed crowding. Both girls loved running around the store though. Plus, it was the store that has a huge colorful water show and little cars we could use as strollers. Fun times.  read more »

I didn't keep a very good calendar this week. And my memory in the past year or so has gone down the tubes, but I'll give it a shot.

We went to celebrate Cameron's birthday at Camilla and Victor's last night. We all had fun, and Cameron was a happy birthday boy. Cake, bubbles, balloons, new toys...what's not to love about birthdays? Although Aderyn thought I was leaving at one point when I went to the other room. She has quite the lungs. And is not afraid to use them.  read more »

We got the plague again. Well, Aderyn and I did. The rest of them are healthy enough, so far. I suppose I got less sick than everyone else the other times, so maybe it was my due comeuppance. We are tired of stomach bugs in our house, though.  read more »

We got 6 inches of snow on Friday. Every weather station's favorite joke was about mother nature pulling a spring prank on us. Luckily, it all melted again that very same day. We snuck in a snowman before it was all gone, and didn't even have to shovel. That's the kind of snowfall I'm talking about.

Wayne had a consultation about his wisdom teeth. He never had to have them out before, but they are now recommending that one of them come out. It's not urgent, so he scheduled that surgery for late May after the semester is over. Smart man, from what I remember about wisdom teeth surgery. 

Aderyn had her weight check this week. She gained nearly a pound and a half in one week's time. She's back on track again. We all have colds now, but that never seems to get in the way of growing like normal, so whew.   read more »

The level of busy continues to be crazy. Ask me offline if you care about the details. Wayne was busy all week, and I was busy all week. The girls are busy all the time.

Aderyn had a 15-month check up (only a month late...) on Monday. Unfortunate timing, really, because she had gone through about 8 diapers in 4 hours time. They still had me bring her in, but didn't give her shots because they decided after asking me details and weighing Aderyn that she was too sick. They also were shocked that she had not gained an ounce in the last four months. And so I get to bring her in again tomorrow for the shots and another weighing so we can be sure she's bouncing back. Fun times.  read more »

Wayne is incredibly, overwhelmingly, insanely busy for the next several weeks, so I will take a few extra turns with our weekly update. Even when he's able to be home, we still sometimes pretend he's not so he can get more done.

I just looked at my calendar to see what we did. Spring Break was this week??? No kidding. Huh. I guess we did our job of pretending Wayne wasn't here during his usual campus time pretty well! Plus, he went to Axiom to gallery-sit Thursday evening, and spent much of his time troubleshooting some installation problems with the artist.  read more »