December 31, 2013

Uh, so no pictures today.  I have quite a few since I last posted (...geez!  was it really mid-October since then? ), but...there are so many, and I decided I'd rather just write some stuff than have photos with it.  So, in keeping with the New Year's theme, here come some highlights of the past few months.

At the end of October, we were able to travel up to our alma mater to visit some friends and stuff.  (We'll probably do that again this semester too).  It was a really nice get-away, good to catch up with some friends, and just kinda pretend we were college students again.  It's not many people who can say they literally took a step back in time like that, but we did, and it was really nice. :)

In November...two of our boys left, (and we got to experience having boys kicked off the bus for the first time.)  But, that's about as exciting as work got.  And, we got to take some time off around Thanksgiving, which was pretty nice, since Nathan's family was able to come down for a visit.  We just hung around the surrounding area here, but it was still a really good time.

In December, again, nothing super exciting as far as work goes.  But, we did get to take some vacation time.  Right after Christmas, we got to meet up with my family in Memphis and tour around there some.  It's a really neat place, and we had a  really good time.  Plus, we switched cars with my parents, so we have a car(SUV) that's a bit more suited to living on a dirt road than our previous car was.  So that worked out really well. :)

We've had a really good year.  Lots of interesting things have happened, lots of things have changed, and we've learned a lot.  So, here's hoping to another year of good experiences and lessons!

(P.S.  Let's make a deal - I'll try and post once a week, and if you read/like my blog, comment, share it on Facebook/Google+, or just tell me.  okay? God bless :) )

October 13, 2013

So, what we do on our weekends off:  go for walks.  And it's starting to get a little cooler here, so the leaves are *just* starting to change.  (It's still mostly green...really green.)  But, what has changed looks really pretty, and makes us even more excited for it to change. One of the things we said when we first moved here, was "man, I bet it's really pretty when the leaves all change and everything in the fall," so it's exciting to see how that goes. :)

And then we came back on duty, and had one of the busiest weeks of house-parenting I've experienced yet.  The day after we came back duty, we had a boy who had a left for a short stint, come back.  Of course, his behavior showed that the reason he had left in the first place was still an issue, so, he left two days later, which was the double-edged sword:  it was stressful to have him back here, but it was stressful to have him gone too.  (But on a more serious note, pray for him).  But then on top of that, the next two days after he got back, all us houseparents went to a marriage seminar, from 8am to 3 pm (and with travel time, that goes from about 7:20 am to about 3:40 pm).  Which more importantly, means no time to go talk to office people about issues, no time to plan meals or get the food for them, any of the paper work we need to do during the day, or (probably most importantly) no time to process what we talked about at the seminar.  So in short, that was a very long two days in itself.  But, they treated us to a very nice dinner after the second day, so that was nice (and I still have leftovers. :D ).

But, we've had a good weekend.  We took advantage of the nice weather, and went down to the creek last Friday night.  We roasted hot dogs, and made s'mores, and it was even nice enough that the boys could go swimming a little bit.  It seems like the boys had a good time (and I know they had a better time than the other cottage that went camping, and then got rained out and had to come back in the middle of the night).  We also got to take all our boys to Wal-mart so they could spend their allowances, so they're all jazzed about their new Nerf guns and everything.  So, as usual, ups and downs, but overall good. :)

October 4, 2013

oops, guess it was another long one.  And to be fair, we have been on for pretty much the entire time between our last post and this one. This picture is the only exception to that; it was from our last weekend off (actually, on the same day as my last post).  We went for a walk, and these were just some pretty flowers along the road as we walked.  And so...there's a picture. :)

And that was pretty much the end of our time off; we didn't do anything particularly exciting.  Just slept a lot and got our house cleaned up.  (This time around, I got it cleaned up right before we went off. :) ).  Our time on was pretty exciting too; family visits for some of the kids, parent-teacher conferences (which took forever).  One of our kids also had to leave rather unexpectedly.  As hard as that was, it was really kinda see God teach us through that.  I was rather moved, because the morning that happened, I went to a Bible study about how God is outside of time and controls everything, and so I thought it was really cool to see not only that we can trust him through everything that happened that day, but also that God knew that I needed that reminder that morning.  Nathan got a good glimpse of that too; he said that his Bible reading that morning was about God telling people that "I'm going to take you away for a while, and it's gonna be really hard and not fun at all, but it's for the best," and that was just a really good reminder for us too.  So as we've said, God is good, even when life is hard.

But yeah, that were pretty much the highlights of this week.  Oh, nope one more.  I had felt a little rough over the weekend, but the high (or low...) point of that was Saturday night when I actually got sick, which then meant I couldn't really do anything the next day.  I felt bad leaving Nathan by himself for the next day, but it was nice to have some extra time to relax, and I had to erase this:

All month, I've been systematically using colors to make a pattern as I crossed out dates on our calendar.  Of course, what I didn't really think about when I started this, was that it wouldn't really show up until it was time to erase it.  so...I took a picture of it right before I erased it.  And as Nathan points out, the blue, purple, and black, are almost indistinguishable from each other, so that whole pattern idea might have been a flop.  (Which is why it's a checkerboard this month. :) )



And the last big deal (or at least the last thing I remembered to take a picture of), is the fly.  When we first moved up here, there were a TON of flies, EVERYwhere.  Literally, we put people on "fly patrol", where they just walked around with a fly-swatter and tried to kill as many flies as they could.  Anyways, we noticed...maybe a month ago, so that the flies got a lot better (more scarce).  as in, we didn't really have any.  And then about two days ago, we found another one.  and not even just a normal fly....a HUGE one.  and it just flew around the house, and buzzed around my ear while I was trying to nap, and basically I vowed to kill it.

Well, tonight we made it happen.  I got serious about getting it, and ran around our living room for about 15 minutes, and then finally Nathan got it.  Of course, we didn't think he got it, so we just stood guard in the room for about another 5 minutes, before we finally found where it had just landed after he had smacked it.  And I'm telling you it was a big one.  Here's the fly near my thumb:



And...I guess that's all I really have to say.  Except...maybe I'll be back sooner this time?  We'll see. :)

September 21, 2013

Whoops, I haven't done this in a while.  Just get busy during the day, and at the end of the day, it's just a race to finish some paperwork so we can go to bed.

Anyways, this is the picture of the week, I guess.  I mean, it was from over a week ago, but it's the only picture I have since the last time I posted.  Anyways, here's the deal:  every night, we have to set an alarm that goes off if any of the kids leave their room or anything.  But one day, it turned off.  Like, the batteries died, and there was not getting it set that night.  So, we had to sleep out in the living room.  It worked out okay though, because you remember that couch/bean-bag thing we got a while ago?  It turns into a mattress, so we didn't have to sleep on the couch, we got to sleep on an actual mattress.  Our assessment:  better than an air mattress, not as good as a real one.

September 8, 2013

Well, it's been a crazy week for us.  Sunday through Tuesday of last week, we were really just pushing to make it through to the end of our on-duty stretch.  We made it, and actually, as hard a time as I had making it to the end, I spent a surprising amount of Tuesday night thinking and talking (and some planning) about our boys.  And even then, we weren't really free from work, because we had to make a 3-hour trip to go to some training for work on Wednesday.  but then, we really were done. :)

Thursday, we really had some time off, but even then, we couldn't really just sit down and you know...rest.  Instead, we got our house pretty much cleaned up (or at least, we got the junk off our table. :) ), and got packed up for our trip.  And then, Friday, we got up super super early and left to catch a plane back to my home, for my sister's wedding!  Friday we got the place all set up and decorated (...which was mostly done by the time I got there...), and did the rehearsal and everything, and then Saturday we ran around doing last minute things and getting ready and taking pictures, and getting my sister and her now-husband married. :)  It went so well, and we all had a great time :)

And then today, we packed up (or you know, put the boxes we packed up yesterday in our cars), and drove home, unpacked, took my brother to the airport, and just kinda hung out (and watched Duck Dynasty, which I just found out my parents are big fans of. :) )  Anycase, we're gonna rest and sleep up tonight, and tomorrow we'll get up at a much more reasonable time than we did to come here, and catch our flight back to where we live.  And then we'll get to just sleep up tomorrow night, and then go back on duty the day after that, so we got some nice vacation time in this week. :)

Anyways, considering my sister got married, you'd think I'd have a ton (or at least one) pictures of her wedding.  However, my husband borrowed my camera...for the entire weekend.  so, I don't really have any pictures from it.  I did manage to catch a few pictures though, so because it's been a whole week since I posted something, and in honor of her wedding, you get all three of them!

This is a picture of my husband, the night before we left.  He decided to shave while in the shower (and thus, no mirror).  He did ask for me to tell him once or twice where stuff would be evened up, but...obviously not enough.  After a while, he just gave up, and shaved facing a mirror (over the sink) after he got out of the shower.  And he looked very nice after that. :)

This is a picture I took while running some errands after getting picked up on Friday. We had to go pick up a keyboard from the music store in town, and when we pulled up, I noticed that the strip of buildings in which the store was located had a funky swirly chimney.  I thought it was cool, and so here's a picture.  

This is a picture at the rehearsal dinner.  The restaurant we went to set this out as an appetizer (I think just for the bride and groom).  It's a rose, but it's edible.  The stem is made out of some fancy bacon (I heard some one say that it had something special done to it, and it sure looks like something was done to it, but I have no idea what was done to it.)  and the flower part is made out of a deviled egg.  

And this is the only picture of the wedding day that I have.  My sister and I went to run errands the day of the wedding (because we had to get our hair done, and pick up the flowers).  Anyways, I ended up needing to parallel park while we were out, which most people make a little bit of a big deal of, since it's kind of uncommon to do anymore (which probably adds to why people always say it's hard).  It was also more of a big deal for me, because (though it was debated later that day), that was the part of driver's ed that everyone (including my dad, which is kinda impressive in and of itself) thought I didn't actually need, and never made me do.  Anyways, first time time having to parallel park, and with no one else in the car (coaching or otherwise), this was my second attempt.  ...The first time, I got between the cars, but I was only like a foot in from the street.   But, by the end of the day, I was a pro at parallel parking (and backing up and down steep, curvy hills.)

Anyways, I might be gone for another bit, since the battery in my camera is dead, but once we get back home, I'll find some more stuff to take pictures of. :)

September 1, 2013

So, our week wasn't been too bad.  and then it was the weekend.  And really, it's not even that the weekend's been that bad; the kids have actually been really good.  ... it's just that we're tired, and they got out of school early on Friday, and they don't have school tomorrow, so we have to come up with stuff to do with the kids while they're not at school.  But it has been good.  we've had a lot of fun playing around the house and at the creek.

Anyways, our picture for today:

We're having a group on campus this week.  They're going to stay in their campers and do some helpful things around the Ranch (though to be honest, I don't exactly remember what they're going to do.  I know the ladies are going to decorate Christmas wreaths and bake us cookies, but I don't know what the guys are going to do.  I kinda went into "I'm going to be off-duty that week; I don't really care what's going on then" mode when they started talking about it."  Anyways, just be praying that they can do all the things that they mean to do, and that they're blessed while they're here (and especially that we don't do anything to make them not blessed).  

Also, I found this picture on my camera today.  It's not really anything special, just a moth we found on our house the other day.  But it sure did look cool, so I thought I would post a picture of it. :)

August 29, 2013

Welp, I was wrong...that chair did get here today. And I even managed to squeeze in some time to get it unpacked and assembled... well, sort of assembled.  All you had to do was open the box, put the cover on the floor, then dump the mattress-cube deal into the cover, zip it up, and squish it some to get it to decompress.  I think it's still got some decompressing to do, but it's plenty comfy anyways. :)  Even better, it's just the right size for my husband and I to both sit on, which is exactly what we wanted. :D

Anways, the only other real exciting bit of news is that we're getting two new boys today.  The other boys are all excited to have them here, so I think it's gonna work out real well.  In any case, be keeping us in your prayers, and just that they'd settle in well and all that.  Also, one of our other boys started asking about salvation and so forth last night, so keep in your prayers too!

August 28, 2013

So, as we expected things are going fairly smoothly.  I mean, we've been on the receiving end of some temper tantrums and such, but...that's what we get for working with 7 year olds, right? But seriously, it's been going really well, overall.  Having them in school is pretty nice, 'cuz then we can catch up on sleep during the day and stuff, and that's been very helpful.

So...pictures.  yeah, last night, I went to bed knowing what I was going to post when I got around to posting it, so here it is.  When we first moved into this apartment, we noticed there were no blinds in the window (but two sets of blinds lying underneath the window).  Turns out, those blinds were too big.  We put in a maintenance request to get those installed...within two weeks of getting here. But other stuff was more important (and we do appreciate all the other stuff they keep running instead of us having blinds), and they had to hand-cut the blinds to the correct size, and this that the other... but finally, we got them installed yesterday.  Or, to be fully accurate...our wonderful handymen finally installed them yesterday.  And they look great, and we're excited to have them up in our apartment. :)  (Plus, I got our kitchen table cleaned off, so it actually looks like responsible people live here and stuff. :) )

BUT THEN, came the truly exciting story of the evening.  Or rather, the next day.  We have to set an alarm system in our house, so we know if kids are getting up in the middle of the night and that sort of thing.  Unfortunately, the kids in our cottage set it off a bit more frequently than we'd really like (especially once we find out WHY they woke us up at 1:30 and 4 in the morning).  In any case, last night the alarm went off  (twice, if you didn't pick up on that), and I ran out, turned off the alarm, and started to go to the kids room, but I accidentally kicked the door I had to go through, and scraped my foot. But I didn't realize I had until after I had gotten him all taken care of, and was starting to go back to bed. (I feel like the tape all the way across my foot makes it look way worse than it really is, but at the same time...it is kinda gross-looking underneath the gauze.)   Anycase, doing that meant that today I got to fill out forms about my injury, and what time it happened, and "the specific process I was involved in when I sustained the injury" and so forth, and it was really kinda a hassle.  ...Especially since I'm pretty sure the most this'll turn into is a week or so of me having to take an extra 15 minutes a day (throughout the day, not even all at once) to make sure it's clean and bandaged nice and that sort of thing.  oh well.

And the really exciting part of the day is that we're supposed to get our couch/beanbag deal today (check out CordaRoys.com if you want to know exactly what I'm talking about).  I didn't believe that it'd get here today, especialy when it got to Memphis at 7:20 last night.  But, it was in town at 6 this morning, and on it's delivery route at 6:05, so I started to change my mind.  ...but it still hasn't gotten here, so I'm getting a bit more skeptical each second again.  I guess it doesn't really matter, since we won't really get to use it until next Tuesday or so (when we finally get some time off! :) )

August 24, 2013

Well, things at the Ranch never go quite like we plan on them going, but this past week has turned us for more loops than I really care to count.  Monday was the last day I posted about, so here's a quick update of the week:
Tuesday:  all hell broke loose in our cottage.  and yes, it was really that bad.  and keep in mind, the kids are in school for most of the day.
Wednesday:  our wonderful co-workers helped us recover from the previous night, and stuff is starting to look up a bit.
Thursday:  We went to training out of town for the day, and were supposed to go off for the weekend that night.  Unfortunately, our relief houseparents had a death in the family, so we got Thursday night, and Friday night off, and go back on Saturday morning.
Friday:  ...nothing super exciting happened. just slept up, and ..well, didn't really get a day off; we had to keep running to the office about kids we have to take to the doctor before the office re-opens and other crises with kids and stuff.  ...But we weren't responsible for WATCHING (or feeding. :D ) kids.


Which brings us to today.  We came back on duty fairly early (...I guess 9ams not THAT early...), and had a pretty good day.  The one good thing about being suprise on-duty this weekend, is that the hard day to plan (Saturday), was actually pretty easy, because our kids already had their day planned out from about 9-6, and they're supposed to go to bed at 8:30.  We had a church group come visit and do some activities (and feed!) our kids, so it was pretty chill for us.  We spent the majority of the day building and shooting off bottle rockets.  I helped one of our boys make one (and it went pretty good! :D  mostly straight line, and a pretty good distance),  but somehow my husband and I ended up with this one:

yeah, cute little ladybugs all over it and everything.  Pretty sure it's not one of the boys'. ;)

In any case, we're pretty tired, but today went well, and it seems like things are looking up, and will smooth out soon. :D

August 19, 2013

So maybe you'll get a two-for one today.  This was MEANT for yesterday, but it was late, and the internet was being stupid, and...I just waited to post it 'til now, but you still might get one for actually today!

The big deal for today was that it was the first day of school.  So, Nathan and I got to kinda take it easy and do paperwork-y stuff while all the kiddos were off at school.  That was really nice, and we definitely appreciated being rested up when they came home from school all crazy and amped up and stuff.

The other kinda exciting thing from today, is part of a sort of long story.  We noticed the other day, that the living room smelled kinda funky.   The next day, one of our co-workers came to our house and was like, "man, it stinks in here...I think you have skunks living under your house."  So we got with another of our co-workers, who said to put some old meat outside of the critter hole we found, and he'd try and get it later.  So we've putting some chicken outside of the critter hole for the past few days.  Last night, we were going to bed, and saw this:

Hmm...I thought I caught him, when you could actually see the stripe across his eyes.  He's a little hard to see, but if you look close (just above the blue bucket), you can see a raccoon eating up the chicken.  

And that was pretty much our day.  

August 17, 2013

Today was fun, because I got to practice my wifey-mothery skills (and somewhat newfound crafty skills), and fix this cutie for one of the cuties in our cottage:  

 That particular cutie came up to me earlier, and asked me to fix his monkey (...except he called it a bear...), because one of his arms got pulled off.  I heard a story about he got in a fight with his brother, and his brother pulled it off...but I don't actually know how it got ripped off.   But it's a moot point now, 'cuz I fixed it for him.   

Though to be fair...they weren't complete cuties all day.  Sometimes the kids were being really rude to each other (it was really sad to see the brothers fighting), and after a while you just want to strangle them all.  But then you start tucking them into bed at night and they're just so sweet and give nice hugs, and you just want to take them all home with you...which is kind of an odd way to feel, since we basically do live with them.  

August 16, 2013

So, pretty early this morning, I looked out our back window, and this is what I saw:

notice how the background's WHITE.  yeah, that's how foggy it was (you can usually see mountains and trees and fields and stuff.  It was extra impressive and weird when I noticed it, 'cuz I was sitting on the couch and couldn't even see the trees in our yard.  

Anyways, we had a pretty quiet morning.  I hung out with our resident, while Husband went and took care of paperwork and stuff.  But then, things got REALLY interesting.  We had been thinking for a while we might ask to have two other residents in particular over to our cottage because  reasons,preferences and dynamics (and other factors that would take far too long to explain, besides probably breaking some confidentiality agreements).  Anyways, we had a conversation about that with some of our higher-ups almost a week ago, and then stuff came up, and we forgot to do anything about it until yesterday.  So this morning, Nathan sent an e-mail to the head honcho about it, and just before lunch, we got a phone call saying that that was definitely going to happen.  In fact, it was so definitely going to happen, it was going to happen after lunch.  

And then things got more interesting.  While discussing which rooms we were going to place the new residents in, we were told that we're going to get two MORE boys next Tuesday.  They told us things might change quickly, but I wasn't *quite* expecting that one. But things are definitely changing quickly.  One boy on Wednesday, 3 today, school starts Monday (after getting all three adjusted to a new church on Sunday), and then two more on Tuesday!  And then we go off Thursday night.  whew!  Crazy few days, but God is good. :)

August 15, 2013

Woah, that snuck up on me.  did not realize it had been...3 months since I last posted?  apparently moving keeps you busy. ;)

Right so, we agreed to take the job, went to visit my folks, went back to our apartment, spent about a week packing and cleaning it, then went up to visit my husband's family.  Then, his mom and sister came back to our apartment with us so we could use their van as a moving van (which we REALLY appreciate).  So we loaded up, and drove to St. Louis, hung out and did some sight-seeing for a day, and then continued on to our new place.  We're thankful to work at a boys' home, so there were lots of nice, able-bodied young men who could help us unpack the van and get it all into our apartment.

Ever since we got here, we've done a lot of training (read:  following people who knew what they were doing around) on our on-duty days, and sleeping/recovering from that or getting settled into our apartment on our off-duty days.  I've already said it about 6 times, but...I think we've got it.  the latest touch:  a TV and entertainment center.  Though to be fair, part two of that is getting a couch.  but, here's the main feature of our "living room":

We were even able to set up the lovely candle holder my cousin-in-law gave us for our wedding, but didn't have room for in our last apartment.  It looks great, especially when it's all lit up. :)  Anyways, definitely thankful to have a TV in our apartment now, because now when we go off duty, we can watch TV in our apartment, instead of having to sneak into the cottage to watch TV.

We've had even more additions in our cottage (due to our jobs and stuff, our apartment, is attached to a cottage.  When we work, we leave the door open and basically have a master bedroom on steroids; when we're off duty, we shut the door and try to forget there's a house full of people on the other side.)  First off, someone generously gave us a lot of Legos and some video games stuff, like a RockBand set, and a lot of video games.  Anyways, while we were organizing some of those things, we realized some of the Legos were REALLY gross (...think what normally happens when you leave stuff in your attic for a while, like what might come and get it...), so we had to spend a day washing them and disinfecting them and everything.  But they're all clean now, and the few kids who have come by have enjoyed playing with them, so I think we're pretty much set on that. :)

And a confession:  we haven't really been sneaking into our cottage to watch TV.  We've just been going in, because there was no one in our cottage!  But, we can't do that when we go off duty any more, because yesterday, we placed our first boy in our cottage.  

This picture is of the room we placed him in (before any of his stuff was moved in, so none of it can give him away...confidentiality purposes and all that. :) ).  I thought some people might appreciate seeing his room or something as they were praying for him, and believe me...we ALWAYS appreciate prayer for our boys.  This particular kid is pretty sweet, and seems to be making friends and adjusting well, but, we still just ask that you'd pray that the situations or behaviors that got him here would go away, and that we'd be able to show him that he IS loved, and help him work through those situations or behaviors.  And...well, I think that might be all I have on updates from around here...personal or work-related.  

Oh.  well, I guess the last personal note is from almost a month ago.  My mom and aunt were able to make it all the way out here for a visit, and we had a really nice time.  It didn't end on such a good note though...we got a flat tire, and...man, we've had a heck of a time getting it fixed.  But, such is life when you live on a 3 mile long dirt road.  On the other hand, my wonderful husband did some research about getting us some thicker tires, and we got a very helpful response from a guy at Firestone, saying some characteristics we should look for, but they don't have any tires that meet the bill, and fit our car.  But, he did say that we brought up an interesting situation (cars -- rather than SUVS -- who live on dirt roads), and it may lead to research and the development of thicker tires that will fit on a car/sedan. so...look for the Wright Choice tire in the future. :)

May 20

So, because of the camera-sharing (and a crazy busy schedule), I didn't really get to do much in the way of picture taking lately.  But, hopefully that will change and I'll actually be able to take pictures of my day and stuff. :)

Since the last time I posted...I graduated college, and the very next week, my husband and I took a road trip to interview at a place we've been looking at, and last Friday, they called us back and asked us to come back down to work permanently (or semi-permanently...we made a 2-year commitment).  So now we are working on cleaning and packing our apartment and otherwise getting ready for that move.  It's actually going to be slightly difficult - we don't have much furniture (not much would fit in our apartment), but the place we're moving into is a furnished apartment, so we don't need any of it anymore, so we gotta figure out how to get rid of it.

Anyways, the picture for today might be a little hard to understand for one of two reasons:  1) you don't understand how nasty the bathroom was, or 2) you can't tell how much cleaner it is now.  But all the same, our bathroom is WAY cleaner than it was this time yesterday.  the faucets and knobs are all shiny, and there's not dirt that's somehow pasted onto the floor, or crud in the corners of our tub, and our toilet bowl is entirely white!  I'm so proud of it, even though the hole in the wall is still there.  and without further ado:

April 2, 2013

We went up to Michigan this past weekend for Easter, and took pictures because we were on vacation.  And as I started to share them on facebook, I realized I hadn't posted anything on here in a while.  However, I hadn't realized it had been *quite* this long.  In anycase,  I thought I would share some of the more interesting pictures/stories, and play a bit of catch up.

This is a picture of the birthday cake I made for my brother-in-law's birthday.  It looks kinda silly (the candle's are supposed to be arranged in his age, but you can't tell :/ ), but it was delicious, and we had a very nice afternoon/lunch with him celebrating his birthday, so it was a good day.   :)

A while later, I was working on  avoiding some homework, and found a youtube video on how to do a five-strand braid.  technically, I didn't take this picture; my husband did, but this is my first attempt at doing it.  Well, the first time I managed to make it down to the end of my hair at least.  The first few tries, I couldn't get all of my hair IN it.  It *is* kinda difficult to manage 5 different strands of hair like that. :-/

Over Easter break, we went up to Michigan for a big family event.  We stayed for a few days in Frankenmuth, and while we were there, we visited Bronner's Christmas store.  That place is mind-boggling-ly huge, but there are a lot of incredible sights there.  (For example, think of a standard size walmart, that sells nothing but ornaments.  Bronner's does that, but they sell other things too, like trees, and lighted houses, and stockings, and lawn ornaments...)  Anyways, in the lighted house displays, I was very excited to see a Williamsburg themed section, complete with Continential soldiers playing fifes and drums.  It was really neat.  Aside from that, we got to tour Frankenmuth some, a town nicknamed "Michigan's little Bavaria."  To be fair, we didn't get a WHOLE lot of time to sightsee there, but it was a really neat little place, and we had a good time seeing stuff, and more importantly, seeing some family.

Let's see, other exciting things.  Well, we graduate in ...31 days?  Just over a month, it's kinda ridiculous. It's kinda scary, too, as neither of have jobs lined up specifically, though we DO have an interview lined up for the week after graduation that we're pretty excited and hopeful about. So anyways, preparing for graduation and dealing with a full load of classes and work (while fighting off a mild case of senioritis), has kept me pretty busy, which is probably a LARGE part of why I haven't posted anything on here since the semester got into full swing.  Also contributing to that, is that through some unfortunate circumstances, my husband and I are now sharing "my" camera, and as he's actually taking a class titled "creative photography"...there's not really THAT much sharing going on.  but summer's coming, and hopefully soon after, larger paychecks, so maybe we'll be able to remedy that problem soon. :)

January 17, 2013

I think this picture is a fairly good summary of my day, or at least some of the highlights of it.  In the front, is a birthday card I received today from one of my aunts.  It's cool, 'cuz 1 - getting mail is kinda a big deal for college kids (especially when it's not junk mail! :D ), and 2 - ..face it, that's a kinda cool card.  It stands up on it's own, and looks like a tiered birthday cake.  in 3-D.  definitely pretty cool.  Just behind it is a candle we got for Christmas.  Aside from the fact that I'm having a mini obsession with candles, the highlight of my night is probably going to be waiting for it to burn out. I got to watch it's twin burn out the other day, and now I'm kinda excited to see it again.

Random side note, the plate the candle's sitting on is a plate my husband painted several years ago.  It has a paintball gun on it, with a paintball that says "splat."

Everything else on the table is basically just stuff that we need to take care of, but haven't yet. For example, there's some Christmas presents we haven't quite figured out what to do with yet, and several bits of homework that have yet to be finished.  Aaannd....that's a quiet Thursday for here.

Jan 16th, 2013

In my Literature class, we're reading Hamlet, and my professor keeps talking about how Shakespeare used words to paint a picture, so my plan was to do the same, but...I'm tired, and not that great with words.  All the same, no picture today, but I do have a funny story  (and I'll try to be a little wordier than I usually am, to make up for the lack of picture and be a bit more Shakespeare-an).

After a fairly long day of classes and homework, I went to the cafeteria for work.  As a student manager, I get to find out about all the weird things that happen during my shifts, even if I'm not in close proximity to those occurrences when they actually happen.   For example, today I heard one of the guys in the dish room start talking to my co-manager, and a few minutes later, my co-manager was holding a slightly bent food trap (that would no longer fit where it was supposed to), and asking where he could find a meat cleaver.  Not knowing where we keep the meat cleaver (and also thinking perhaps we shouldn't start beating a food trap with one, even if we could find one), I went and asked our boss, if that was the course of action we should take, and if so, where we could find a meat cleaver.  She said that we would have to beat the bend out, but she would use a hammer instead, and then told me where to find a hammer.

So, I go get the hammer and get the thing straightened out, and then go tell her that we did get it fixed and she didn't need to send in a work order or anything.  However, I think she may have slightly misunderstood me, and thought I meant that I had found the hammer, and was getting ready to go straighten it out.  she asked me, "Have you seen the Hobbit?"  and after seeing my nod, she told me, "Pretend you're a dwarf, making the swords and such."  I thought, "Oh, that would have been way cooler, I should have done that.   I mostly just thought 'wow, I'm making loud noises; this is kinda fun.'"

Jan 14th

Today's story is the newest installment to our story about getting internet at our apartment.  After classes, we went to the company's office to get everything straightened out once and for all. And in return, she just handed us a modem and let us put in ourselves.  Unfortunately, it's not cooperating with us for whatever reason, so we're STILL gonna have to have someone come out and fix it for us, but ...we're much closer than we were last week. :)



In anycase, the picture is of an old building next door to the branch office.  I thought it was really pretty (though, to be fair...I didn't actually notice it until my husband said something; I was a bit preoccupied with figuring out where I was supposed to park.), so I took a picture of it, and here they are.  One is of the whole building; the second is a close up of the largest window in the first.

January 13, 2013

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!  I should have lots of pictures from my break, as it was a pretty interesting on, but...I forgot to take my camera charger, so it might not have worked out for me to take many pictures anyways.  But now I'm back home, and that's not an excuse, so....this might work out a bit better now. Also, in attempt to kinda make up for the super long absence of any sort of post at all, I have two pictures/stories for the day.

In the school cafeteria, the napkin holders have special nutrition notes on the side of them.  Tonight at dinner, I realized that one of the current notes is this:

I thought this was kinda funny because it reminded my of a story my parents told me while I was home.  My brother suggested that they (my parents and brother) go out for Indian one night, and so they did.  Dad's not super into really hot, spicy food, but decided he'd be able to find something to eat.  So apparently, he goes to this buffet and eats everything (except for the mildest thing they served) and burns everything in his mouth at least twice.  And then it was time for dessert.  So he decides he likes pickles, so he'll try the pickled carrots.  Turns out, in India, they pickle carrots in peppers (I believe is what they said), so it was REALLY hot, instead of normal pickle flavor like he was expecting.  

This is the picture of the other story I have to tell.  I know the pictures on the TV screen are really kinda bad (but you try to take a picture of your TV.)  Anyways, there are two things you need to know for this picture to make sense, and actually be kinda funny.  One, I go to a Christian University, which one of the things I appreciate about is their standards for television and movies and stuff (which is to say, you could get in pretty big trouble for watching something really inappropriate, but they don't *really* care if you watch kinda inappropriate stuff in your room or own your own, but they won't like, endorse the showing of those television shows or movies or whatever.)  And the second is what this picture actually is.  In the student center building, they have two televisions in the main hallway, usually showing newsheadlines and stuff.  The TV on the left is showing CNN; the TV on the right is Family Guy (or something like it...it WAS Family Guy when we went into dinner).  Anyways, I just thought it was funny to have that be showing on the school televisions like that.