Saturday, April 28, 2018

Channeling my Inner Fred

I am so happy we are having normal spring weather this weekend.   I spent a lot of time outside today to prep the yard in general but also for the upcoming grill-out on May 19.    I raked the backyard and the north side of the house primarily.  (Hence the channeling of my Dad.)    I still have more work to do in the front of the house to clean up the landscaping.    In total, 14 of the tall paper yard waste bags have been filled.    Gavin was cool and came up too and cleaned out all of the gutters.    He also helped with some of the yard work and he and I did some work behind the garage.    Past owners seemed to just throw things behind the garage and I'm trying to tidy it up.    There is a big pile of brush and branches, broken cinder blocks, pieces of old cement, and lots of leaves.    He and I handled some of the branches and raked up a bunch of leaves today.     He also dug out some erosion areas too so the gate to the fence by the garage now opens and shuts properly.    I want to make sure it worked well so if/when we get a dog, I can prove I have a secure backyard to a rescue society.   

It seems silly but I am incredibly sore from the yard work.    My legs are aching tonight.    Makes me feel old.    The yard work did lead to a little spat with Dan and he never came out to help me.    Toward the end of the evening I started hinting I could use help and he still didn't come to help me.    Now yes, it was my choice to spend a lot of time cleaning up the yard but it was something that needed to be done.   Past owners have not cleaned up leaves as they should have and I wanted to give our grass and other vegetation a better chance of thriving this summer.    He said he was on board for doing the mowing when it comes to yard work but it seems like this other work isn't appealing.    He just earned the opportunity to help me further behind the garage with clean up.    Ha. 

We dog-sat this weekend for Dan's Mom and her husband.    Despite their issues, they took a trip to Eastern Iowa so there dog Charlie stayed here Thursday night until Saturday night.   He's an easy dog.    He's pretty old so he basically laid around.    The cat was not happy at all to have another animal in the house.    She has a right to be uncomfortable due to the nature of the dogs at her past residence.   It still bums me out she was so pissy about it because introducing a corgi to the house may be difficult in the future. 

Dan's friend was able to come over and do more work with the house today too.    My closet is finished!    Well finished in the sense of carpentry.    He put up a bar so I can hang my clothes and did it in a thoughtful manner so the slanted ceiling won't be too stressed with the weight of my clothes.    I still need to get some shelving for the closet but it helped me better organize the bedroom.   All my clothes are now in the closet or in my dresser.    It looks much more tidy.    I also put away all my winter clothes and pulled out my summer clothes too.     I have a pile of things to donate and a pile of things to take to the local consignment store.   

I plan to spend tomorrow (Sunday) with a multitude of grading tasks.    I have 86 binders to grade for my health classes at ISU.    I also need to do about 55 rubrics for teaching assignments too.    I extended a deadline for PE unit plans so those will start to trickle in but I won't touch them until later next week.     I'm actually up to date with my DMACC grading...one class has to turn in a Diversity Handbook they create for a mock sport association but I only have like 10 students so those won't be too time intensive.    Needless to say, lots to do.   

The end of this semester is a little different as I am one of the department marshalls for graduation.    All faculty go through a rotation for helping with graduation.    I am borrowing a gown from the department (never got one since I didn't attend my graduate ceremony).    It is pretty old but looks pretty nifty.   I need to add some clasps to it because it doesn't stay shut.    I have an old cap to wear too (from department) but am curious to see if I can find a better tassel to wear with it. 

I am excited for the upcoming grill out at the house.     I am slowing buying things for it.    We bought the hamburger for it today.     I am buying things for Gavin's graduation party too.    On a psychological level, it's less of a blow to spread out the costs rather than buying everything all at once. 

I've also indulged in my guilty pleasure of attending concerts recently too.    Dan and I are seeing Everclear again in June.    We are also seeing Bush early in July.    Gavin, Dan, and I are seeing Godsmack and Shinedown at the end of July.    Thankfully the venues in Iowa are keeping the ticket prices affordable.   

Guess that's enough of an update for now.   

Image result for raking meme

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Making a House a Home

Greetings:

Overdue for an update so here are some recent events in no particular order:


  • We hosted an Easter lunch at the house and it went very well.    The secret to things working smoothly?   Doing must of my food prep the night before.   I made the mashed potatoes and reheated them by baking them in the oven in the morning.    Made the Oreo dessert and lemon bars the night before.   Also made a double batch of pasta salad.    I had attending people bring sides and it really made the meal complete.   Baked the ham for 1.5 hours in the oven and let it hang out in the CrockPot prior to eating.    Mary gave us an eight foot table to have which gave us extra seating.   Shirley and Stewart brought their folding table and chairs too.   It was pretty easy to convert the living room into a dining room.  


  • It's been a hectic few weeks since traveling for work.    I still have plenty of grading to do this weekend.   I also had my health fair event at a local elementary school on March 28th.   It went very well though but it always feels so stressful the day before and the day of the event.    I also volunteered some time the first week of April for a local youth event that reaches all seventh graders in the three local counties.    I worked in the tobacco room again so kids could learn about the risks and see cadaver lungs of healthy versus smoking people.    On the second day I led a Jeopardy game about the use of social media.   Each year I'm like "ugh, why did I agree to volunteer when I could be grading" but after I put in the time I'm glad I did so.   
  • On Friday (yesterday) I hired professional movers to take several things from Ankeny and bring them to the house in Ames.    They moved my treadmill (now in basement), loveseat (in living room), my table/desk (in basement-storage), the king bed (in master bedroom), my recliner (front porch), and my dresser (Gavin's room).    I don't know where my loveseat will end up as it cannot stay in my living room and I don't know what we'll do with the recliner.    I may put my loveseat on the front porch as ghetto as that sounds as it would be nice to sit out there in the summer and read.    
  • Before the movers arrived, Dan and I spent about two hours at the apartment and packed up my SUV and his truck.   My bedroom and closet are now empty.   We also packed up my "office" too.   I cannot hang up my clothes yet at the house because we need to install closet rods in my walk-in closet.   It should be done this week.   Other upcoming tasks for the house:
      • trees trimmed later in April if we ever actually have spring weather
      • organize office area, it's boxes and chaos
      • organize "man cave"---Dan's job 
      • get split box spring for Gavin's room 
      • get quote for adding gravel to our driveway 
      • get a grill 

  • We set a date for a "Wahoo we don't live in Ankeny and Newton" party in May.   We'll host the event on May 19th.    I ordered some invites for it.    Excited to show off the house and by that point it should be put together fairly nicely.    We are going to grill burgers and hot dogs and provide some sides.  I also placed an order today for Gavin's graduation party announcements.

Guess that's enough of an update for now!    Time to do some grading.  Here are some pictures from the Easter lunch as my offspring passed out right after eating.    He cozied up with the stuffed bunny Jude received  from his grandma.