It's Finally Here!

Spring Break is finally here! I can turn off the alarm and wake up when I want to. Of course, that's a big joke because it will take my internal clock all week long to figure out that I'm not getting up at 5:30 a.m. every day. Oh well, I can always go back to sleep. Yay! Today was not a fast day. It seemed to crawl by. That is always the case when it's an early dismissal day. 

Speaking of early dismissal. Do parents read anything that comes home in their children's backpacks? We dismissed at 2 p.m. today because of Spring Break. I wait in the cafeteria with another aide with the children who get picked up. Some of the children are waiting on siblings who ride the shuttle from one of the other schools and some are just children who's parents still don't know that we get out at 2:40(on regular days) and show up at 3 p.m. Today, at 2:25 (25 minutes after the bell rang), there were still 8 children that had not been picked up and when I left at 2:30 there were still 2 children in the office that were waiting on a grown up. The early dismissal time was on the calendar that went home the first day of school. It was on the calendar that the children just took home Tuesday. It was on several notes that the children's teachers sent home. And it was announced yesterday at the end of the day. Sooooo, does anybody read the stuff that we send home from the school? When Dane and Evan were in school, not just grade school, but until they both graduated, I took the school calendar the first day of school and wrote down ALL the important times and dates on another calendar. If I picked my kids up after school, I thought I was late if I arrived 5 minutes before the bell. It's really sad because most of the people who are late are the ones who have no job and no commitments except the couch. O.K. I'll step off my soap box now. 

I am looking forward to tomorrow. DeWayne and I are going to spend the whole day together. I think we are going to take pictures. Can't wait. I'll post some this week.

New Books. I love new books. Actually, I like old books and used books. I just like books. I wonder why? I can remember getting the Scholastic Book Order when I was in grade school and picking out many dollars worth of books. And that is when most paperbacks sold for 75 cents. My mom usually limited me to one or two at a time so it's not like I didn't ever get books. We even went to the library when I was growing up. I now have many, many, many shelves full of books. All kinds of books: fiction, non-fiction, reference, picture/coffee table, you name it I probably have that kind of book. I don't think it makes me any smarter. I just have more useless knowledge floating around in my head. :D It's that random thing again. I say all of this partly because of the Book Fair at school and also because I received our new book for Book Club today. WooHoo!!! It's not very long so I should be able to plow through it this next week while I'm off. I'll keep you posted. :D

It's turned out to be a lovely evening. It started out as a very dark, very rainy Tuesday. It's still kind of chilly though. Those 70 degree days really make me forget that it is really still March. Of course, tomorrow, it will be April. My goodness how time flies! But it is not supposed to be very warm for the next two weeks. Of course, it's going to be chilly; next week is our Spring Break. Oh well, there's always summer to play outside.

DeWayne is on midnights this week. I love it when he's on this shift because he always has supper ready or almost finished when I get home from working out. All I have to do is sit down and eat. It's nice not to have to get home and then try to figure out what to fix for us to eat. He's a good guy, I think I'll keep him. :D

I'm really looking forward to being off next week. I'm going to paint the downstairs bathroom and clean my laundry room. That's my goal anyway. I also want to go to Evansville and hang out with Evan one day. Probably on Tuesday because she only has one class. Not sure yet. I'm also looking forward to sleeping past 5:30 a.m. 

One of my friends at school asked my when I was going to blog again. I didn't even know she was reading. You know who you are and thanks for keeping up with all my randomness. :D

More later this week. 

The laundry is done (well, all but the folding). Evan is packed and Dane is packing up. It's time for everyone to head back to their places - school and work. Soon it will be the quiet house again. Don't get me wrong, I like the quiet time and I like the uninterrupted time with DeWayne, but I do miss Dane and Evan when they are not here. I also miss having their friends here too. Jackie and Angela were here last night watching a movie and this was after we had spent the afternoon in Carbondale shopping together. I'm just glad that even though they are all grown up they still like to come here and hang out. 

Dane bought a dirt bike this weekend. We have always had 4-wheelers (or 3-wheelers) but we have never owned a motorcycle. DeWayne was the wildest 3-wheeler rider ever seen; racing, mudding, whatever just always riding so when Dane said he was buying a dirt bike we weren't thrilled but we couldn't say a whole lot. He bought a helmet too (thank goodness). His buddies all have dirt bikes, so he has a lot of friends to ride with.  I'll just keep praying for his safety while he rides. :D

My book group decided to read The Priest. It's a book about Moses and Aaron written in fiction. It is one I haven't read so I am excited to read it. I ordered our group's books from Amazon. They will be here on Tuesday. Yay! I'll keep you posted about how good the book is. Our group continues to grow. I said something about book group today at church and one of my Lisa friends said she would like to join too. So, yeehaw! The more the merrier especially when everyone loves to get together and have fun! 

I'm getting ready to paint my living room. Probably not until Summer, but I like to be prepared. :D I am looking at colors and painting techniques. I am thinking about an orange color with a red wash. I will try it first on a piece of board to see if I like it. I've got to paint the upstairs bathroom too. There are many things that I want to do to our house. We haven't really done anything to the inside since we've moved in here (1996). So some things are a little outdated.  

This is the last week of March. Thursday is mine and DeWayne's anniversary. We've been married for 26 years (more of less :D) I have to work late at the Book Fair. It's the First Grade Art and Music Show at my school. It will be a very busy, late night. Can't wait! 

I'll try to post more than once this week! 

Finally Friday

It is finally Friday. I am so glad. It's been a long week. The Book Fair arrived on Monday and I have sold books all week long. I love the Book Fair but it is exhausting. Along with the Book Fair I had book group here last night. 

I love my book group. They are the funniest women I know (all of them). There were 10, including me. Darla, Brigette, Lisa G., Lisa O., Jaime, Brenda, Wendy, Terah,  and JeriLyn. I laughed until my stomach hurt. Everyone really like the book The Rain. Since the meeting was here I was the facilitator. Fun, Fun! I really enjoy listening to what everyone thinks about the books we are reading. I am learning so much about my friends and their views. I'm glad these people are my friends. 

Dane will be home tomorrow. Evan came home today. Yay!! We will all be together this weekend. Dane is very glad to have a weekend off. I might even have to cook something. :D

 

Sunday again but this time no laundry. I got all my laundry finished yesterday and my mom even folded it!!! I love my mom. She came out yesterday and helped me clean my house. She washed all the glass in my curio cabinets and the windows in my living room. Jim washed the windows on the outside. My living room is very sparkly now! I love it. I cleaned Dane and Evan's bathroom while she cleaned. I started at the ceiling and worked my way down. I washed the walls, I scrubbed the toilet and the tub. And I scrubbed their sinks and floor. It is very sparkly too. Yeah! Now all I have left to clean is my bedroom and my bathroom. I'll do it this week. Then during Spring Break maybe I can get to the downstairs. It really needs to be cleaned too. I'm going to try to paint the bathroom downstairs during Spring Break. That was supposed to be my Christmas Break project but I put it off. Now I have to do it soon. I'm ready to repaint our whole house. I have ideas what I want; I just have to get motivated and buy the paint and then do it. DeWayne doesn't like to paint but he will tape off the trim very neatly for me. Then I don't make as big of a mess. :D

The weather has been very nice today. All the yellow things that I love are blooming. I also saw some tulips this morning too. They are orange. Yellow and orange, my two favorite colors!! 

Dane's crew got rained out yesterday so he drove home for a couple of hours. He hadn't been home in almost 3 weeks so he was ready to see us and we were ready to see him. Evan came home for a couple of hours too. She wanted to see her brother. It turned in to an impromptu party with mom and Jim, Dane, Evan, DeWayne and me. We had an early supper together. It was nice to just be together. 

Church was really good this morning. Jeff has been talking about self-control for the last two weeks. Every problem we have in our society can be traced to the lack of self-control. It's sad to see people who blame all their problems on something or someone else when the problem is of their making by choice. Many things would be solved if everyone took responsibility for their own actions and  practiced self control. I could go on forever about this, but I'll quit now! :D

Truly Geeky!

Well, today I went to a Technology Showcase at John A. Logan College in Carterville. I found out how truly geeky I really am. I chose to go to all the Apple workshops to see what the new products are. I also went to a workshop on wikis. I had a REALLY good time. I just bought my MacBook last fall and I would love to upgrade my system and my iLife suite. The new iPhoto stuff is really cool, the new iMovie stuff is really cool, the new Pages and Keynote are really cool, the new garage band stuff is really cool! Some of the things I can do with my computer and some things I need the update for. I will probably update but just not today! :D The workshop on wikis was ok.  I have a wikispace that I use for school. (You can check it out: http://westsidetechtips.wikispaces.com) It's is the "working on" stage. I kind of quit working on it for awhile. I need to get back on it. I was making it for a resource for the teachers at my school. The little details of the day were fun and exciting. I guess that's what makes me a nerd, a geek, whatever!

DeWayne caught fish again today. We ate them for supper. We were out of fish batter so we experimented with different mixtures of cornmeal and spices. They were really good. I really like crappie!

It's Grey's Anatomy night so I better get this posted. 

More tomorrow!

Rambling

Well, I've been informed that our nice days are coming to an end. Tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy and cold (again)! Oh well, what is Spring for anyway but a constant change in the weather. 

Tomorrow I am headed to John A. Logan to a Technology Showcase. It's an annual event where all us "Geeks" can get together and learn something new. It is usually pretty good. There is always something new to learn. Several of our teachers are going this year. I hope they also learn something. 

DeWayne and I have been enjoying the nice evening sitting on our dock in lawn chairs. He fished while I read. He caught several blue gill and crappie with a few bass too. He's outside cleaning them now. I love fresh fish. Maybe that will be supper tomorrow night! The clouds are starting to roll in and the temperature is dropping a little. I had to put my sweatshirt on right before I came in. I sometimes wish that our weather here was like this year round. I just like this weather. Sunny, cool, warm in the sun, no humidity, very nice!

Sickness didn't take over this time. (I said on Monday that I was feeling a little sick.) It must have passed me this time. Yay! I have too much to do to be sick. I really must get ready for book group next week. I now have only one week. I have to clean and put some things away. I guess that's what Saturday is going to be for. :D

I am almost finished with Numbers and John. I decided to read Numbers in The Message. It is much easier to understand. A few years ago I bought the entire Old Testament in The Message. Some of the Old Testament books are more readable in that translation. I'm reading the other books in my regular quiet time Bible (The New King James Version). This isn't even the version I use all the time either. I was raised reading the New International Version. (I got my first copy in High School.) I use the Holman Christian Standard version on Sunday mornings. It is similar to the NIV and I really like it too. I keep several Bibles close so I can check the way verses read in different translations. Sometimes the language doesn't make sense to me so I check it out in another version. I'm thankful that I have the resources available to me to be able to do that. 

Time to get back to hanging out with DeWayne. More tomorrow!