Damp Monday

It finally rained here last night, so there wasn't any use to doing outside work today. It was too muddy to work in the field, and too wet to burn leaves. Instead I stayed inside most of the day. I played with the embroidery machine this morning and re-did some class exercises that I hadn't gotten quite right. This afternoon I picked some asparagus and pulled some onions that we let go too long. After school was out, I tutored my cousin for a little while. I spent the evening with my parents and played with their cat.

Not a day of rest

Today was the planned day to work on the fence. My parents decided to wait until my grandmother got back from church before starting. So until we went outside, I did a little cleaning up inside. I was tired at looking at a dirty kitchen floor, so I decided to sweep it. Well, I couldn't help myself, so I mopped the floor too. We got a citrus pine-sol that smells really good. It doesn't plug my nose up like regular pine-sol. After lunch, we went out to the field. I trimmed cedar trees with the chainsaw and helped put up the new stretch of fence. We got it clipped in several places before it started sprinkling. We figured it was getting ready to rain, so we called it quits. My grandmother and I will go back and finish the fence sometime this week. At least the way we have it now, none of the cows will go through it. This evening I used my embroidery machine to monogram a chef shirt for my cousin for his birthday. Our uncle wanted to send it to him, because my cousin is really into cooking. I vegged out the rest of the evening and watched T.V.

Never should have gotten out of bed this morning...

This will be a combination of the past two days worth of activities. Yesterday I got up and got ready to go fix fence, but got a last minute call from the school. I got ready in record time and ended up being the shop teacher for the day. Now, no need to worry, when there's a sub the students aren't allowed to go and work in the shop. They watched movies all day. After I got home, my grandmother and I decided to go check on a stretch of fence after a neighbor said she saw a cow out in the road the previous day. My grandmother went to open the gate, and it fell off the hinges. Well in my hurry to get to her, I slipped on the loose gravel and fell on the running board of the truck (It's the board that helps you step up into a truck that sets higher off the ground). I landed at an angle, so I was lucky I didn't break my tail-bone. I guess I had enough padding not to break anything. So far no bruise, but it really hurts.

This morning was one of those mornings where it would have been better to stay in bed. My grandmother came running into the house saying we had a cow and calf out in the road. Well we managed to herd them back into the field, and then checked the fence to see where they got out. We found it down in 3 spots, so we patched it until we can get time to fix it. We have another fence that needs our more immediate attention. Yesterday 5 calves found a hole in it, but luckily they came back in after a gate was opened. We got the wire ready to fix it, but will have to wait for my Dad to help. After a busy morning, we went shopping because the pantry was bare. We were so tired that shopping wasn't as fun as it should have been. The rest of the night I have crashed and done nothing. Tomorrow will be the day I learn to fix fence. I think my family has a secret goal of turning me into a farmer.

Sewing Class

I missed posting yesterday, but I won't regale you with the boring details. Instead I'll skip to today's events. I started out the morning by opening a new account at the bank. After that it was time to substitute, but I didn't know who until I got to school. It turns out that I substituted in my cousin's fifth grade class. He was shocked to see me as his teacher, so he basically ignored me and was good. He was probably afraid I would tell on him after we got home. The kids were good for me. It was my first experience with fifth grade. After school, my grandmother and I went to our sewing class. I have a new embroidery machine that I am learning how to use. My sample from the class was so horrible that I am going to redo it at home when I have the time. I'm glad I went to the class and think I learned something. I can't wait until the next class. As soon as I do the sample over again, I post a picture. I think once I get the hang of this embroidery machine, I'll have a lot of fun.

The army came to town

I substituted for the computer teacher today. He also teaches a 7th grade social studies class. The first class ended up watching some of Dennis the Menace. No matter how many times I've seen that movie, I still chuckle at the funny parts. The second class was in the middle of a made for TV movie, when they were interrupted to go play in the army semi-truck that came to school today. On this truck the army has equipment valued at over 2 million dollars. There is a tank and helicopter simulator. There is a laser gun target practice, and other fun stuff that the kids got to play around with. They just started taking a state required aptitude test, so this was a nice treat for them. One of the soldiers said that the toys were part of the army recruitment resources they had at their disposal. For those interested the army recruitment headquarters is at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. After I got home, I didn't really do anything the rest of the night. I just couldn't get motivated to do a whole lot. We are in a tornado watch until 11 p.m., so hopefully nothing severe will pop up. I think it is going to be a dangerous tornado season.

It was an Indiana Jones type day...

As anyone who has seen the movie Groundhog Day knows the main character relives the same day over and over again. Well, that's how my day seemed to go. I substituted for the high school math teacher today, and her lesson plans were to watch a movie. Well, she only had 2 movies to choose from and I didn't feel like watching Robo Cop. I chose Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Now, I truly enjoy the Indiana Jones movies. However, today in all 4 of the classes I showed it in, we watched the begining and got to about the same point in the movie all 4 classes. By the end of the day, I felt I could recite the first half of the movie word for word. I got to where I just zoned the movie out and finished the entire National Geographic magazine I had brought with me to read today. I'll close with my favorite quote from the movie:

Sallah: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Junior"?
Professor Henry Jones: That's his name. [points to himself]
Professor Henry Jones: Henry Jones... [points to Indy]
Professor Henry Jones: ... Junior.
Indiana Jones: I like "Indiana."
Professor Henry Jones: We named the *dog* Indiana.
Marcus Brody: May we go home now, please?
Sallah: The dog? You are named after the dog?
Indiana Jones: I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog

Happy Easter!

This morning started out earlier than usual for me. I was up by 6 a.m. in order to get ready for sunrise service. There are only 3 churches in town, and every year they have a community sunrise service. They alternate the service every year so it is in a different church each year. It was nice to see the church full this morning with various denominations. After a good service, we had a breakfast, and I saw a lot of people I knew. I got several compliments on my outfit. My grandmother made me a beautiful butterfly jacket out of pink silky material. We got pink material to make a dress that we thought would match, but after trying them on together they didn't look right. A couple of days ago we found some blue material, so on Friday night and Saturday morning she worked on a blue dress. The finished product was gorgeous. I ended up not wearing the jacket to regular church service, because by then it had warmed up too much outside to be comfortable in a jacket. After church, I spent the afternoon with my parents. Tonight we had dinner at my other grandparents house. All in all, it was a good day.

The thunder rolled and the lightening striked

Most of my morning was spent at a soccer game. My cousin's team ended up winning 3-1, but it sure was a long game. When the first half was winding down, it started to thunder and lightening. The refs decided to call a 15 minute wait to see if it was going to rain or not. Well, the kids could have been playing those 15 minutes and been done by the time it started to rain, but that didn't happen. Now, I know those rules were made for a reason, but the teams on the other field continued to play during this time, so I don't know what was up with the refs for our field. The game got over just as the downpour began. I'm not complaining about the rain, because we really needed it around here. In fact, it would be nice to have a steady rain for 2 or 3 days to wet things down a bit. I didn't do much the rest of the day; just some laundry and housework. I also watched Remember the Titans and am kind of watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the umpteenth time.

Coloring Easter Eggs

Today started out like yesterday. My grandmother and I worked on the electric fence, while my cousin played and was our gopher. We are pretty close to being done, thank goodness. We stopped around 10, because it was getting warm, and my cousin and I had an appointment with my other cousin to color Easter eggs. We picked out the coloring yesterday, and I didn't realize how many types of dye were now available. When I was little, the only thing available was the type of tablets you drop in vinegar and then somehow have to figure out how to keep your egg on the weak metal egg dipper without dropping and cracking the egg. How times have changed. I think there were at least 10 different types of coloring. We finally decided on speckle and marble coloring. We had a fun time coloring eggs, and came up with some interesting color combinations, like green and pink, purple and pink, yellow and pink, and the list goes on. There were even some eggs with all the available coloring on them. We only had three casualties that fell in the floor due to slippery fingers. It brought back childhood memories of coloring eggs with my little brother. You're never too old to color Easter eggs. I spent the evening watching The O.C. with my mom. I don't know what we're going to do when she's finished with season 2 and season 3 isn't out on DVD yet. We'll figure something out, or start a new TV series that I own.

Fixing Fence today

This morning was an early morning. Since we knew it was going to get hot today, my grandmother and I got up early to fix the electric fence. The cows have started riding the fence and sticking their heads under it to get at the green grass on the other side. To stop them from completely destroying the fence, we are re-wiring an electric fence to keep them out. Hopefully after getting zapped a time or two, they will leave the fence alone. We worked hard until 10 and then got cleaned up to go to town. We did a little shopping and picked up a cousin who is staying a few days with us. We all were completely wiped out by the time we got home.

Before we left for town, I had a major bug infestation in my room. The termites decided to come out and play in full force. I would estimate they were over 100 strong. We sprayed some bug killer on them, but I was left with a mess in my room. After we got back from town, I stripped my bedding, wiped off my desk, vacuumed up termite carcasses, and sprayed the baseboards and window again to keep them from coming back. I don't want to wake up in the middle of night covered in termites. I finished my evening watching a Disney channel movie with my cousin about 2 sisters trying to save the family dairy. It wasn't a bad movie. I think the name was Cow Bells.

Slowing down a bit today

Today I didn't work as hard as I should have. It was kind of a lazy day for me. I spent the morning surfing the net for online activities for elementary kids. I needed some activities for my cousin to do during our tutoring session today. I found some age appropriate things. I also tried on the Easter dress my grandmother is making for me numerous times to make sure everything is right. This afternoon we did a few things outside, but it was too hot to work hard very long. I think it reached 85 degrees today. I picked my cousin up from school and brought him to my house for a while. We looked at some of the online activities, and after we were done we played Monopoly on the computer.
Tonight while reading a friend's blog, I did the belief quiz she had posted and came up with some interesting religions that I matched according to the quiz. Here is the link if anyone is interested: Belief-O-Matic; you might be surprised if you take the quiz. The results might not correspond to the type of religion you participate in. If anyone takes it, she's interested in your results. Here's her blog: The "zed" word. Don't say it! Let her know. Forgive me if my blog tonight is similar to her's , but I thought it was an interesting quiz.

Here's my results:

1. Mahayana Buddhism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (94%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (93%)
4. Liberal Quakers (92%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (85%)
6. Jainism (85%)
7. Hinduism (84%)
8. New Age (83%)
9. Reform Judaism (81%)
10. Taoism (73%)
11. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (72%)
12. Scientology (69%)
13. New Thought (68%)
14. Orthodox Quaker (68%)
15. Bahá'í Faith (68%)
16. Sikhism (68%)
17. Orthodox Judaism (64%)
18. Islam (57%)
19. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (55%)
20. Secular Humanism (55%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (36%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (35%)
23. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (35%)
24. Nontheist (31%)
25. Jehovah's Witness (25%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (24%)
27. Roman Catholic (24%)

A little hard work does a body good

I've been busy the last 2 days. Yesterday I substituted at a local highschool as 2 different teachers. It wasn't too bad, and the kids were good for the most part. After I got home, I just vegged out around the house for the rest of the night. I tried watching the Moses movie on ABC, but it lost my interest after a few minutes. Today my grandmother and I worked really hard all morning. We are trying to get the yard cleaned up from all the leaves and sticks. A tree at the corner of the yard was cut down last fall, and we finally got the limbs and what little wood there was picked up. I even fired up the chainsaw by myself to cut some chunks of wood into smaller pieces. Around noon, we decided that we'd worked hard enough, so we quit for the day. This afternoon I tutored a cousin who needs a little extra help in understanding that he needs to turn his school work in. It might be a long learning experience. It's not that he's not smart, but I think he is lazy about getting his work in. Tonight not much is going on. I made a cd of pictures to send to my brother. I'm also in the process of making a dvd of home movie clips to send to him to let him know we miss him and think of him while he's in Iraq. Unless school calls tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be hard at work doing things around the yard. I'll be so happy when everything is caught up, if it ever is.

Family Fun day

This morning I got up and helped my grandmother tidy up before some family members arrived for dinner. She swept the kitchen, and I mopped for her. My parents were the first to arrive for lunch, which was surprising since my mom is usually late to events. The cows came up from the woods, so my dad fed them some hay. I took some pictures to send to my brother, so he can see what his calves look like. The babies are so cute, and curious. A few got up close while I was taking pictures. I got to see a cousin I hadn't seen in a while. I also got to see a cousin who will turn a year old in a couple of weeks. He is the happiest baby I've ever been around. After company left, I fired up the chainsaw to cut up some limbs of a fallen tree in the yard. My dad had to show me how, since I've never started let alone used a chainsaw before. You will be happy to know that I didn't injure myself in anyway. I rounded out my day watching the drag races on TV with my parents, who came over for leftovers for supper. I found this picture while looking for an image of a chainsaw, and thought it was funny. That just might be my sense of humor, I don't know.

Something I'd never seen before....

The weather fooled me today. It looked nice and sunny, but when I stepped outside the wind chilled me to the bone. It was windy and chilly today. I went to a soccer game this morning and found out that I wasn't wearing warm enough clothes. Somehow I managed to survive :-) This afternoon I attended a wedding of a sister-in-law to one of my cousins. The main color theme was camouflaged. Now, I know that this might sound weird and not very appealing, but the camouflage was actually okay. The flower girl's dress was made entirely of the camouflage with tan ribbons to accent it. I found myself liking her dress. I never thought I'd say that the bridesmaids dresses could have used more camouflage. They were made of a pale green top and a pale green skirt with the camouflage running through the skirt. I thought it would have looked better if they'd wore full camouflage skirts with the pale tops with a camouflage band running around the top of the top. It was a nice wedding. Afterwards, my grandmother and I came home and started cleaning and cooking. We are having a family dinner tomorrow, so this gave me motivation to clean. I don't want anyone saying we never pick up after ourselves. On a surprise visit, they'd find out that we usually don't.

Friday Fun

None of the schools called today, so I spent the morning working around the farm. I tried to fire up the chainsaw to cut up some tree branches, but I couldn't get it started. I'm going to have my Dad show me how. He always makes it look so easy, so I don't know what the trick is. Instead of that I helped my grandmother rake up leaves and sticks to put on the burn pile. I finished out the morning putting out mole poison. You can't walk around the front yard without tripping over mole mounds, so I'm trying to get rid of as many of the critters as possible. They are nuisance, and are destroying the yard. I'm afraid they'll move to the garden next. I checked on my herbs I'm growing in seed trays before planting them outside, and they are growing quite nicely. I learned the trick of mixing the super small seeds with sand and sprinkling the mixture over the seed trays. This trick works very well, and I have seedlings sprouting. After working hard all morning, we decided to go to town. While there, I found some pink material to make an Easter dress out of. Hopefully it will turn out nice. We also bought the cat some kitty treats, which he absolutely loved. I rounded out the evening watching TV with my mother.

Welcome to the world of sixth graders

This week I have spent everyday in the elementary substituting for various teachers. Today I was back with the sixth grade class I was with on Tues. I don't know if they just got used to me, or if they were more hyper than normal, but they were sure noisy. They are a good group of kids, but they make me realize that I never want to be a sixth grade teacher. There is just too much drama with that age group. They are constantly worrying about looks and boyfriends/girlfriends. I am so glad I am not that age, and would not want to be that age ever again. They all have their little groups that they belong to, and I just don't miss those days. Today I had to teach a worksheet about the stockmarket, and what happens when the prices go up or down. It took a while for them to get it, but I think they finally did. I don't remember ever having to do stuff like that in 6th grade. Tonight was a lazy night, so all I really did was watch tv. I did manage to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I love to cook, and chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. There is nothing better than eating one fresh out of the oven. I taped The O.C., so I'm sure I'll have something to say about that tomorrow night. We are in for another round of severe weather, so hopefully no tornadoes will touch down.

Ah... Wednesday

The best thing about Wednesday is that it means the weekend is almost here. It would probably mean alot more to me if I had a 40 hrs, Mon-Fri job, but I still look forward to the weekend. My Wednesday was spent doing housework during the morning hours, and hanging out with a group of pre-schoolers since the teacher had to leave early. I always find preschool to be a fun place, because you never know what ideas the kids are going to come up with. These kids were good, and fun to be around. I spent a lot of the afternoon helping the aide work on her college geography worksheet, which was over Middle Eastern geography. This is one area that I hardly know anything about, so it was kind of challenging. We had the book to work from, but some of the questions the professor came up with were no where to be found in the book. I don't know where or how he came up with them. After I got home, I picked some fresh asparagus for supper. My parents came over to have supper with my grandmother and I. We had a huge roast that the two of us didn't want to have to eat by ourselves. My mom brought me the pencil that my cousin got for me. You may be wonder what's so great about a pencil. This was a gourmet pencil that smelled like chocolate milk. One of the classes is selling them for a fundraiser, and have several different flavors to choose from. I had asked for the cookie dough one, but they were out of those. I'm going to have him check to see if they are getting anymore in. These pencils really do smell like the real items, like cinnamon, grape, caramel, etc... They are also made out of recycled newspaper. I know, it doesn't take much to impress me. Oh well!

Wading thru the Poison Ivy

Today I was supposed to be with the preschoolers again, but the substitute that was coming in for a sixth grade class didn't show, so I spent my day with sixth graders. Suprisingly, they weren't that bad. When I was in high school I was a teacher's aide for the sixth grade, and those kids were mouthy and horrible. This gave me the impression that kids at that age are like that, so I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't have any problems with these kids. I had to teach them how to use the interest formula i = p x r x t, so hopefully I didn't screw them up on that. There is a reason I became a history major and not a math major in college. After I got home, I spent the rest of the evening raking leaves, and mixed in with those leaves was a whole mess of poison ivy. Well, I'm deathly allergic to poison ivy, so I didn't touch it or stand in the smoke after I burnt the leaves. Hopefully this will keep me from getting it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Just Another Monday

Today I had the pleasure of hanging out with pre-school aged kids. For the most part, they were pretty well behaved. The little boy that usually gives subs a hard time was good today. We made homemade play dough and made snakes. The kids had a blast, and I have to admit I did too. I also ended up reading several books to them while they ate their snacks. Not much else happened today. I came home and set the trash out for pick-up tomorrow, and am having a lazy night. I did fill out a couple of job applications for a more permanent job while I work on my thesis. I was looking for a picture of play dough, and had to laugh when I came across this one. I could see myself doing something like this poor guy in the cartoon. Enjoy. Until tomorrow...

Spring Forward

It is that time of year again for Daylight Savings. I love when the clocks change in the spring, because that signals the beginning of longer evenings. My favorite time of the year is the longer days of spring and summer. When it gets dark, I automatically think of sleeping, so when the sun is out longer I want to stay up longer. It was a really windy day all day today, so I'm glad Nan and I got the leaves raked yesterday. There were severe weather storm warnings for our area, but luckily it only hailed for a few minutes. This evening I picked some fresh asparagus, and boy was it good. I just love picking fresh produce from our garden. It is so much better than store bought, but maybe that's just in my head.

Fun in the sun ... or not

Today was a gorgeous day, with sun shining and a light breeze for most of the day. I spent my morning at a youth soccer game. I think most of the players were 11 or 12, with a few younger ones mixed in. It's also a co-ed team, with some girls that are more aggressive than the boys about kicking that soccer ball. It was a good game, and the team I was rooting for won. I think I enjoy watching soccer more than any other sport. The rest of the day was spent raking and burning leaves, since it's going to rain tonight and there was no wind to fight against. I decided that I wanted to get a little sun, so I put some shorts and a tank top on. Since I'm fair skinned and burn easily, I should know better than to go out without sun block on, but I didn't put any on. Boy am I paying for that now. I'm pretty sure that my sunburn has gone from pink to crimson. To get the sting out I even doused myself with vinegar and then lathered myself with lotion laced with aloe vera. I'm sure that by tomorrow I'll be even redder and more sore. Maybe this will teach me to wear sun block next time.