Still plugging

Got the assignment posted for online class, now I'm off for a two-job day. Looking at another late night/early morning combo, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. More tomorrow, maybe from MIL's. Hopefully, they'll head to their lake place for the night instead. She's really looking forward to getting out and about a bit, so I hope the weather cooperates.

Countdown...

I pulled my first all-nighter in years. I think the last one was 2004 when I had a final project for my speech methods class due. Technically, this was a "most-nighter"; I did get a nap from 3-5 am. I got the project and paper done, and by comparison with what I saw in class it should fare pretty well grade-wise. I cranked out some discussion posts for the online class, watched part of Jane Eyre in authors class, got free pizza at the final NTSO meeting, then crashed on the couch in the NTSO lounge for nearly three hours. Yay couch! I pulled my brain back together, ate some leftover pizza, gathered some online sources for the medium-sized paper, then went to night class. I have really enjoyed that class, but I feel bad because we are all so draggy by the time we get there. Got home safe and sane, and snuggled in for a family movie and some alone time with iPastor. Not a bad day overall. Just don't like having to cram so many crazy days in a row.

Hell week

It's finals time. AAAAUUUUUUUGHHH!
One week of class left. Four classes to wrap. One assignment, one quiz, three small papers, one medium paper, various deadlines, eight shifts at various jobs, a couple shifts with MIL and peripherally monitoring the household (iPastor is taking the bulk of that for now, Thank God!) until Tuesday, May 6 at 8pm when the last two papers are due. Yikes. I hardly have time to be doing this, but sanity must also be prioritized! ;) Off to crank out the paper and project due tomorrow.

Homeward bound

After service this morning we'll hit the road home, where I have to finish the resource unit I did not work on in my free time here. (I really did have a use for the laptop...) The sun is out and it promises to be a beautiful ride home. Hoping to save some stories for the dearth of quality content once finals start rolling in. ;) Happy trails!

Saturday

The speaker has been starting out the sessions with excerpts from this little book. Very cute, and good for a laugh. She follows up with awesome teaching. Lots of good things to say. She's also written a devotional based around my Bible-reading format of choice (an OT & NT selection and Psalm or Proverb each day) so I bought myself one as a present. Found the kids some trinkets out thrifting (new-with-tags!) and watched a fun video from this gal before bed. I need more days like this! (without the four-hour drive to get here.)

Retreat!

We left home in a miserable, cold rain and headed east to drop Alex off for her prom in Buffalo Lake. Just as we dropped her off, Julie's husband called to tell us it was snowing so hard at ome that he couldn't see across the yard. By then, the rain for us had slowed to occasional drizzle or mist, and that's how it stayed until we got to Austin, home of the Spam museum. Think I'll skip that and go thrifting. We have an awesome speaker named Kathy Slamp. After the first service, I met up with the Oskalosa farkle champ and we had a game. Too much fun. Now it's time for bed. Gotta sneak back to the room like a penitent teenager. I wanted to bring the laptop for free wireless, but iPastor had other plans.
Nite!

Like sands through the hourglass...

These days slip by so fast; I blink and they're gone. Went to school, then off to stay with MIL. In between, I have to get ready for women's retreat this weekend. I am ready this year. I need a battery recharge to last through the next few months.

Oh dear...

I met up with family after our various shifts at work or with MIL. iPastor had taken Thing 1 to the Evil*Empire. She and her sister soon came down to model her new shorts. SHORT shorts. Driver's ed is coming up this summer. Short shorts. A booty to put in them. Oy. I am so OLD.

Ten on Tuesday

Today's ten on Tuesday: Ten things I love about my life.
I tend to blog about how hectic my life is; the "I can't believe that just happened" moments or the crazy hoops we jump through to make ends meet. Despite these occasional rantings, there is a lot in my life to be happy about. If I sit and reflect, I feel mostly content. Although the reasons may be a bit difficult to articulate, I'll give it a shot.

Ten Things I Love About My Life:

1. I serve an awesome God, and I am saved by His grace.
2. iPastor rocks. He's been my partner in crime (and punishment) for 17 years. We've had typical spousal highs and lows, but I have never for one second questioned his commitment to our family. To beat a cliche to death, he is as constant as the north star. He drives me batty some days, but I don't know what I'd do without him. And he shares his Ben and Jerry's with me. That's love.
3. My kids rock. They are the funniest, smartest, most talented young people I know, and it is a delight watching them grow, although I wish they wouldn't do it so darned fast.
4. My church rocks. There is not a person there who would not come immediately to our (or anyone else's) aid if we had a need. We have conservatives and liberals, and everything in between, all believing on the promises of the Bible and hanging out, studying the word, and enjoying each other's company.
5. We are part of a huge extended family. My kids have a whole network of people that love them and care about them. It is so cool to have allies in life.
6. Spring is here. The yard is greening up, I can get out in it and dig or just sit in a sunbeam and soak it up. I have a fire pit and an Adirondack chair, and I'm not afraid to use 'em.
7. I am almost done with school. Really. Finally. I mean it this time. I can see it from here.
8. I can start looking for a teaching job.
9. My dogs are always happy to see me. The cats are, too, I suspect, but they'll never let on.
10. I am a blogger. I can dump my junk here, happy, frustrated or mad, and someone out there can connect with it. Some even connect enough to leave a comment. I can share a word of encouragement or a joke with someone maybe thousands of miles away, or right next door. Having this outlet helps make my life great.
10.

Happy Birthday Thing 2!!

My little clone turns 14 today. Not so little anymore, I guess; she's just as tall as I. She's about half as big around, though.
She has blossomed into a quirky comedienne. Although she could hardly get a word in edgewise, she's never been one to stand serenely in the background. Thing 1 loved to sing and perform for the camera when she was tiny. Thing 2, did, too, with a little help. We have a home video of Thing 1 performing, when along comes Thing 2, shoves her firmly out of the way, and takes the stage for herself. Thing 2 writes fan fiction and illustrates comics in her spare time. She is developing into a lovely young lady before my very eyes. Happy Birthday, Thing 2, Mama loves her baby...

Home stretch

Tagged off with iPastor this morning, headed for church, then work, then home to my pit of a house where I struggled unsuccessfully to enlist some help before coffee hour at church. That failed miserably, so I concentrated on enjoying the fellowship. Upon returning home, it was discovered that Alex had not yet seen The Princess Bride, a cultural omission that was immediately corrected. So we did get something important accomplished.
Now it's time to crank out papers and projects. I only have to drive to school 4 more times. I have no written finals, just papers to turn in, so it's time to shift into overdrive.

Tired

Spent most of the day with MIL. When iPastor woke up after night shift, he came and I went home and did 15 minutes worth of yard work and took a lovely bubble bath , then headed off to job2. Now I am back for the overnight.
On the way home Monday from the hospital with MIL, we made a gas/potty stop. I was in the back with all her bags, so I grabbed what looked like a grey sweatshirt off the top of one of her bags to wear into the gas station. I had to wrestle quite a bit to get it on; it seemed rather long When I finally got into the bathroom, I noticed the problem. It was a housecoat. Everyone else wears their jammies to WalMart, I may as well take it a step further.

Topsy turvey

Blogging from MIL's house. We're tag-teaming with her boyfriend to make sure someone is here 24/7. So far so good. She tires out easily, but she's glad to be home. We're glad she's here.

Insidious

We have a MAME. It's iPastor's toy, so I don't always pay a lot of attention to it. It has a lot of great old games on it from our misspent youth. Thing 4 likes it. He's been running around the house humming a little ditty from a game. Imagine this:
but in a sweet little boy voice. It's lodged firmly in my brain. Curse you, Pengo, curse you!

Wordless Wednesday

Windy

So the part of the state where I go to school is notorious for wind. The ante was upped a bit today. I ran out to the bread store between classes to stock up for the freezer, and their door had ripped right off the hinges. When I returned to campus, the doors where I came in had been banging so hard that the strut between them broke. It was hard driving into it in the morning, but the wind pushed me home.
Got back to town just in time to wait for the dancing girls to finish their pictures. My least favorite day of the year. Hard to herd all those kids into all those outfits and pose them. Got home late. Time for bed!

Jiggety jig

iPastor and I buzzed into the cities and stopped for a quick visit with Elsie. We checked into our hotel, then tried to decide where the heck to eat. We decided to walk down the Nicollet Mall to Market BarBCue unless something better caught our eye. We'd had a great day at job one, but that put us on the road late and some places were closing, not to mention those "bar and grill" establishments that chose to remain closed on Sundays. We did go all the way to Market, which was pretty good, but not up to Famous Dave's standards according to iPastor. I could not convince him to stay for karaoke (though it sounded like they had some good singers) so we headed back, and got to watch the late WCCO broadcast news from the back. Who knew they kept the lines looking nice on a lady's jacket with a big black binder clip in back?
This morning I went to the cattle call education job fair while Kyle got his mom squared away. Her sisters took her partway out of the city while he picked me up, then we met up with them and brought her home and got through the initial visit with hospice. She is so happy to be home! We're happy she's here. A good birthday gift for iPastor.
Happy Birthday to my favorite movie star, now appearing on DVD in the role of "Blurry Hands"

Happy Anniversary to Me!

iPastor and I are off for a few hours away from the kids.
WHeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Hey...

How did this day go by so fast?

So it goes

The weekend is bearing down fast. I'll work Saturday night, then lunch on Sunday, then we will leave for the metro for an anniversary evening out. We've just learned that while I am at the ed fair on Monday, iPastor can meet up with his mom and ride along as her boyfriend brings her home. She's been hospitalized since March 2. We're ready to have her back, and face the road ahead together.
For now, it's been a two job day and I'm shot. nitey nite

More Slop

Really wet, rainy, windy snow playing havoc with the internet connection tonite. Getting ready for the weekend. Lotsa jobs, then off to Mpls. for the education job fair. Pray for a job for me!
Otherwise, we seem to be passing a bug around the house again. I am desperate for open window weather to banish the germs with fresh air. Yuk.
Off to bed now!

This never happens...

iPastor and I both have the evening off, as does Thing 1. No school or church activities. I'm gonna go hang with the fam!

Blogger in draft.

Ooooh. Blogger has more toys. I need to keep from mucking around in the dashboard and playing with all the widgets. Time sink. Bad.
***
Seen around campus...

Why would a custodian-type person, find or be otherwise informed of a puddle on the floor, go get the "Wet Floor" signs to place around the puddle, but not bring the mop to wipe it up?
***
I am reading a rather hateful book for Gender and Sexuality in Literature class. I spent some time this afternoon Googling up the author, Edmund White. Rather, um, interesting. But better than the book. Of course, I went off on linky tangents and wound up checking out pictures of Alan Rickman, as well, but those are the hazards of Googling. One of my classmates in the aforementioned class is currently teaching a class in which he has his students Google themselves partly "Because it sounds kinda dirty to tell someone you googled yourself in class..." We take our fun where we can get it, I guess.

***
iPastor is off for the day at his mom's care conference. Hoping for some encouraging news when he comes home. Since we're down to one car I had to hitch a ride to school this morning. Not too big a deal, as the aforementioned classmate is from my hometown, so it all works out in a lovely little serendipitous kinda way.

News

So when I got to work yesterday the boss was watching this.
What's the world coming to when people are getting their butts kicked by turkeys? Gotta be a sign of the apocalypse or something.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

iPastor ran to the Evil*Empire and got dessert for potluck, saving me a drive or baking session, so he rocks. After potluck we both had the day off and just puttered around the house.
The secondary vehicle broke down, and is too old and beat up to bother with fixing. We paid $200 for it 4 years ago, so we've gotten more than our fair share of use out of it. It has so many nickel and dime problems I'd hate to fix the one and then be faced with the rest. I'll probably get back what I paid for it at the junk yard. Now we have to be even more serious about carpooling and bike riding until we can replace it with something reliable. Gotta keep the other one in running order as well, it's getting to that questionable age. Yikes. Better keep working!

Pooped v2.0

Two job day today, tomorrow is potluck and we're on for dessert. One of us has special music tomorrow as well, but I can't remember who, so I need to throw something together just in case. I think it's actually Thing 2's turn, but she may not have anything prepared, even though we talked about it earlier in the week.
I need to go get ready for Sunday. TTFN

I'm Old

Thing 2 has her 8th grade formal tonite. Pictures when I get them uploaded.

Spring is in the air, mud is on my floor

The sun is out and the temp is heading to the mid 50's. Thing 4 and I wandered aimlessly around the yard for a while, picking up garbage uncovered by the melting snow. I made the calculated decision to have muddy dogs and put them out in the sunniest (least wet) part of the yard for a while. They were just itching for OUTSIDE! The neighbors are out trying to rake down their parking ruts, while their kid wheels around the yard in the battery-operated jeep that Thing 4 covets. We have an old one in the shed; I should see if it could be resurrected. We need to do a little "goin' fishing"to get the shed cleaned out, meaning the trailer needs to be hauled, meaning the hauling vehicle needs to be emptied, yada yada yada.
I returned to the bike store yesterday with the two older Things in tow and found a couple of used bikes for them. Now we can pass down a bike to Thing 3 and remove the various bike bits from the aforementioned shed. I have learned my lesson about buying bikes from the Evil*Empire. They fall apart.
Time for another shift in the yard. Can't pass this weather up...

I ::heart:: Runnings

Runnings is a regional Fleet and Farm outlet. We buy lawn mower blades and occasional bunnies there. They have been expanding lately, whenever possible buying old Wal*Mart buildings. Our town is no exception, and the corporate moving crew is in town moving them across the road from the old store to the new. They put them up in hotels and feed them all over town for a week. They've been at job 2 twice this week. Tonite my tab for them was over $400. They tipped VERY generously. I can pay for my online class this week! Woot! Off to bed. Just submitted homwork for said class and I am sleepy!

Ten on Tuesday

Today's Ten on Tuesday is Ten Things You’d Fix in Your Home (if you had the time and money) If time and money were of no concern, there are only a few things I'd do around my house:

1. Apply turpentine to floor
2. Light a match
3. Throw it in
4. Move to Florida