The Best Week of July

Time for another update as it's 2:09AM and I cannot sleep.  I spent hours working on lesson plans with hopes of getting tired but nope, wide awake.    Probably going to go work on organizing part of the basement after this.    Oddly enough I was exhausted around 2:00pm earlier today and kind of slept then for like an hour so I'm slowly screwing up my sleep schedule.   Go me!

• I'm excited for this week because it's the end of the summer program.    I enjoy it and the such but by week 6-7 I am ready for it to be done.   We have the usual Family Night on Wednesday so I have some preparations to do for that event.    I need to do them today (Monday) and Wednesday because Ames will be a zoo on Tuesday.   Why you ask?   RAGBRAI will take over the city.
• Cory and Katie and their crew are camping in our yard on Tuesday evening and are welcome to use our facilities and showers.    Dan's boss and her fellow bikers aren't camping on our property but we are letting them shower if they want to as well.    It's going to be a little odd as both Dan and I will likely be at work when people actually get to town but I'm making Gavin stay home to be the host so people aren't in the house without anyone present.   I actually just made some signs to post so people use the correct door, bathrooms, etc.  
• I'm oddly excited that Jude is FINALLY going to the dentist on Tuesday too.    He's getting a bit nervous but it's been something I've been pushing Dan about for two years.    The next thing on my list was a well-child check-up but that's actually happening without my nagging.    Jude lost his place in his after school program and is using a new one and they require a physical.   Wahoo!    He has a physical on August 10.   The next thing on my list---he has to get a flu vaccine this year.    After the number of times he got the flu last year, I would hope his mother doesn't fight Dan on this.   
• Gavin finished his thank-yous today.    He's pleased to have that endeavor done but now he needs to start organizing himself for moving into his dorm.    I had mentioned buying his laptop in the last update but I noticed my debit card was never charged.    I contacted the store and was informed I should have gotten an email stating the purchase had to be canceled.    We are buying a laptop through the bookstore at the university and the model of laptop we bought was no longer going to be bought under contract by ISU.     Thankfully they just bought a contract to similar (better) model of laptop of the same brand so we bought that instead.    It was slightly cheaper too.    I'm just irritated because I never got the so-called email that was to notify me the sale couldn't happen anymore.     
• Dan and I spent time today organizing our furnace room and added another shelf and it is the last shelf we needed to organize our extra food and extra appliances for the kitchen.    The room looks a lot better and bigger now too.    We also got a lot off the floor too in case we would ever get water but I hope that never happens.    
• I am grateful for this extra job in terms of the extra money (not that I've seen any of it yet) but I am very sick of being on a computer so much as well as writing lesson plans.   I am actually having to wear my glasses more often because my eyes dry out too much with contacts when I stare at the computer so much.   Sad but true.  I'm going to have to bring my computer and do work on our vacation which is sad and I have to participate in some webinar meetings too.    Our hotel has a business center so I'm hoping I can bop into their to have those meetings and not have them in our room as I doubt the others can be quiet.    The last time I tried having a meeting at home I had a loud meowing cat and a 9-year-old asking about yogurt a lot.   

Computer battery is almost dead so update is done for now.   Here is a picture of our damn cute cat.  

Hello July

Time for another update.   It's been busy since the last update but there have been lulls so that's nice, especially on weekends.

• We had Gavin's graduation shindig in Waukon in June and I have to say it went quite well.   He was surprised with how tiring it was but we had a good turn out.   It was nice to not have a plethora of food left over.   I did have a ton of paper plates, cups, etc. left over but we'll make good use of them.    I'm thankful for all the help we had and it was a much better idea to have it in Waukon and not Ankeny.  
• I taught a class for 5-6th graders at the end of June and it went fairly well.   The students were talented and gifted so I was a bit nervous but I simply tweaked some of my college content and activities and they thrived.     The maturity of some of those students was concerning for them being so bright and smart.    Still waiting for my paycheck but should be getting it at the end of July.   I actually had a couple of the kids in my after school program a few years ago.  
• The summer camp is going well and we are entering the last three weeks.    I am happy with 75% of my employees.     A couple need to be fired but I cannot get rid of any life guards so my ratios are OK and another culprit is a grad student.    I did have to dismiss a child from the program due to his anger issues.    I hope that's the only dismissal so far.
• A group of people are starting a book club in Ames so I'm excited to join it.   It's supposed to be a variety of genres as well as a social mixer type of thing.    The leader for the endeavor says about 25 people are showing interest so far.    
• It sounds like our vacation plans will take us to Minneapolis at the end of July and early August.    The Cleveland Indians are playing the Minnesota Twins (Dan), there is a good zoo (all of us), and maybe a trip to ValleyFair (all of us).   It's close to Dan's birthday hence an activity focused on him.    He's still trying to get days off work though which is proving to be difficult thanks to his work environment.    He's the first to help people and work for others yet no one steps up to help him.    He needs a new job.
• We attended a concert recently and I was finally able to see Bush and Gavin Rossdale in the flesh.   It was actually a great concert and paying a bit more for good seats was wise.   Our next concert is July 29 (Shinedown and Godsmack).  
• I’m procrastinating at home and still don’t have my office in order as well as storage in the basement.   The “man cave” is also in shambles but that’s Dan’s job to fix.  I need to have my tasks done before ISU starts.   
• We had a meeting this weekend in regards to Dan’s troubled 15 year old.  We are taking a step back from things.  He’s going to Newton after treatment and not staying in Ames.  He won’t agree to our terms and conditions so his mom can deal with him.  She keeps sabotaging things away so she can deal with the consequences too.  Case and point, he’s not to be using the internet (says his therapist) yet when he’s on pass with her, he’s on the Internet all day.   We would uphold that rule and be the bad guys.  We can’t win so we are bowing out.   She can fix the mess she keeps contributing toward yet isn’t taking responsibility for at the same time.   You can’t be your kid's friend.  You need to be their parent.  
• Gavin had his orientation for ISU and was guided thanks to LeAnn.  I was able to pop in at times but I had conflicts due to the 5-6th grader class and my summer camp program too.  We’ve picked out a meal plan and he’s done his financial aid counseling.  I finally purchased his graduation present too.  His new laptop will be arriving in a week.  We are going to start searching for his textbooks online too so we can find deals and avoid the bookstore prices.  We got his dorm situation worked out too and he’s living with his friend fromAnkeny in the Birch dorm.  I’ll share his address in the future if people want to pepper him with mail in the future.  His ISU email is gfsmith@iastate.edu

That’s enough for now! 

It's Been a Busy Month

Whoops I let May fly by me without blogging very much.   It was a very busy, hectic month but it went very well.  

• We had our housewarming party in May.    Sadly it rained so my plan to have people in the backyard did not happen and we had a lot of people in the house mingling.   It did get warm and stuffy and I felt like I was constantly rushing everywhere but it was a good time.   I was grateful my family could come and help with things.    We didn't think things through with Dan's work schedule so Mom and Dad ran the grill thankfully.     A lot of people were able to see the house finally so it was like 40 birds with one stone. 
• I said good-bye to the apartment in Ankeny and Gavin moved into his basement bedroom on May 23rd.   I had to go back on May 24th to empty the refrigerator and clean it because I didn't have a good way to transport the food to Ames on the 23rd.    Thankfully since we are clean people it didn't take much to clean the apartment so I anticipate getting a lot of our deposit back so I can put that into savings.    
• Gavin graduated from high school on May 29 and we had a good crowd in attendance at Hilton Coliseum.   I was disappointed his picture wasn't included in a presentation at the beginning of the ceremony and now that I think about it, I've never gotten an answer as to why that happened.   We have his actual party this upcoming weekend and I still need to do some purchasing and packing for the event before Gavin and I depart on Thursday night.  
• Dan and I have found a decent babysitter for Jude (we hope) and she will be watching Jude on Friday since Gavin and I are out of town.    Dan has to work most of the day and then take Jude to his Mom that evening.     The same babysitter will be helping with Jude the weeks of June 18 and June 25 since I have some extra teaching duties for ISU in the mornings.    We will have other periodic days too that we need help too so it's nice to have someone in Ames we can count on.   And yes Gavin helps with Jude too but he has a life of his own and we don't want to always depend on him.   Plus after June 18-19, he will be getting another job.  
• We've continued to work on the house quite a bit.   After officially moving out of the apartment, we added many more  boxes to the furnace room in the basement so Dan and I bought more shelving units to store extra food and extra appliances that don't get used too often.    I'm also re-boxing some kitchen items that Gavin may want/need some day when he has his own apartment.    I still have a lot of organizing to do in that room.    We spent a lot of time last Sunday organizing Gavin's bedroom as he was dragging his feet with unpacking boxes but he got it done.     I also got our laundry room and cleaning supplies unpacked and organized too.    Next is my office area....ugh.   Dan and I need to open all the windows in the house and vacuum out the window sills still as most have a lot of dead bugs in them.   
• Summer Youth Fitness started this week and it started off well.    We are low on kids compared to past years but I have a great group of staff.   I may have more kids join late.    It's one of those jobs where I kind of run around like a crazy lady all afternoon but I enjoy it.   

I'll have more to report on after this weekend when we see a bunch of family and part for Gavin's accomplishments.    It's been nice to have him in Ames now.    He does travel down to Ankeny a lot to see his friends though so I don't see him as much as people think.    

Almost to the Finish Line

I didn't grade much today but my brain needed the break.    Starting this week and through the rest of the summer I am only supposed to work 20 hours a week but I can tell this week will easily be 40+ with the remaining grading I have plus I need to do some work with the summer program for kids.    The good news is DMACC grading is done.    I have one more class to completing grading for and I'll be done.    Only 50 more items to review. 

It was nice to just be at home and do some odds and ends.    I had Jude all weekend as Dan worked and we spent some good time together.    He had never seen the "Wizard of Oz" or "The Sandlot" so we watched those while graded.   We also watched "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" too.    I spent time cleaning up our kitchen and dining room as it became a "catch-all" for a lot of papers and mail.    We went to Ankeny today and I brought more from the apartment so all my cleaning went to hell as now I have boxes in the kitchen sitting around.     I have a lot of work to do with figuring out how to best organize the kitchen and deciding what needs to get stored in the basement.   

Dan and I got some black-out curtains for the two upstairs bedrooms.    They aren't to truly black-out light but to keep the sun out at the end of the day.    Both bedrooms have windows that face the west and when the sun is setting, it bakes the rooms.    It's already been quite warm.    We are hoping the new curtains keep the rays out and help us better control the temperature.    I am getting a little excited as we'll need to mow the lawn for the first time soon.    We'll likely only need to mow the front and side as our backyard grass doesn't grow much.    Mowing is supposedly Dan's job.   We'll see how often he does it with his work schedule.     He barely has any time off in May.    It's ridiculous but he also chose to pick up extra shifts on his days off.   

When I wasn't watching child-friendly movies with Jude, I watched "Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise.   I've tried to watch it in the past (usually edited on cable) and never fully understood the story line.    I watched it start to finish yesterday and was actually impressed by the story line.    I usually don't like movies with 'Tom Cruise but I give this one two thumbs.    I need to make myself sit down and watch "Inception" too as that movie confuses me.   I've never been able to sit down and watch it fully. 

I guess I didn't have anything earth-shattering to blog about but I cannot sleep and didn't want to grade anything. 

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.   

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.  

    

Back to Iowa

Greetings:

I've traveled to Nashville, been professionally developed, and am back in Iowa again.   I admit before leaving I was no longer thrilled with the notion of leaving town with all the house stuff taking place.   I stuck with my plans though and took off a few days early with a colleague that works in Des Moines in the area of public health.   We left on Saturday morning but took off later than planned due to the weather and road conditions.   We drove to Tennessee which took about 11 or so hours.    She travels the way I do and we barely made any stops.   Our first planned stop was at a state park called the "Land Between the Lakes" and it was pretty cool.   We also stopped at Clarksville to their original train station.   That was more of a stop for her as she thought it was cool to see a location related to the Monkees song "Last Train from Clarksville". 

We stayed at a hotel in the college area of Nashville and just settled in the first night.    A Chili's was across the street so we didn't try to find any local, unique eateries.    She got a really nice hotel room that basically served as an apartment.   It had a full kitchen.    Considering I was "tagging along" I volunteered and slept on the sleeper sofa.   The next day (Sunday), we went to Lynchburg TN to see the Jack Daniel's Distillery.   I don't like that kind of alcohol but it was actually a really good tour.   The place has really neat history in relation to the start of creating whiskey, Prohibition, and how the production enlarged to meet the world's needs.    The tour ended with a tasting of five types of their whiskey.   We did some tourist shopping after that and went back to Nashville.    We purposely took back roads to avoid the  heavy traffic and drove by a new development with houses starting at 500K.   And they were having open houses.   Jess decided we should stop and look at one.    It was a very awkward walk through the house but was neat to see what 750K would buy down there.   (FYI, they don't build many houses with basements.   I think that's weird because they do get tornadoes.)    I'm pretty sure the realtor thought we were lesbians or something. 

We went to a local place for supper called BrickTops because we thought it was casual.  It was not.    But it was a really good meal.    I was able to get deviled eggs for an appetizer with "millionaire bacon".   It is the best bacon I've ever had as it goes through stages of being cooked, coated with brown sugar, cooked, brown sugar, etc.    After a heavy appetizer I got a basic salad but we ended up sharing an ice cream sundae.   

On Monday we went to the city's wax museum.   It had a heavy focus on country music (of course) but it was cool.    It was also a bit creepy at times too.   It included some cool historical artists too.    We went back into Nashville  afterwards and found the American Pickers location in the city.   The TV show is quite deceiving.    It made it sound like they bought an entire old factory but the old building is actually a fancy strip mall and the Antique Archeology is just one of the stores.   It had a lot of artifacts they've picked on the show and the usual magnets, t-shirts, etc.    We decided to head back to hotel as we both needed to do some work and some pre-conference stuff.   

Tuesday was the first official day of the conference.   It was the  SHAPE annual conference.   (Society of Health and Physical Educators).    The highlight seminars for me were related to me teaching pre-service how to teach health.    I also went to some cricket activities as they are trying to bring that sport into the USA.    Jess is originally from England so she's a big cricket fan.   The lead speaker for the day was a educator from the Bronx that helped solve a food dessert issue in the area by having kids plant gardens for the school and community.    He did well to outline what needs to be fixed in society and how teachers fit into that picture.    Wednesday was another day of seminars too and then I made my way to the airport to fly back to Iowa. 

The flight out of Nashville was a bit stressful because we left late.  It wasn't a big deal for me because I ensured I had a decent layover at the next location but a lot of people were panicking as they were going to miss connecting flights.    The flight was fully booked too and they started making announcements early that not all carry-on luggage would fit on the plane.   They were encouraging people to check bags (free of charge) so I decided to volunteer my roller bag.    Very few were willing to do so and by the time they were boarding the last two zones on the plane, they announced that all remaining bags had to be checked so people were pissed off.    I got to Atlanta though (only took 20 minutes).   It was an odd flight pattern---Nashville to Atlanta to Des Moines but it was a cheap flight.   The flight to Des Moines was also fully booked which many people said was odd for a such a late flight at night on a Wednesday.    I got into Des Moines at 11pm and Dan picked me up.   We were up late though because I had to stop at my apartment in Ankeny to get my vehicle and when we got to Ames I needed to stay up to eat.   I was starving.   

I was back to work on Thursday and the rest of the week ended well.   The conference itself wasn't as good as past conferences unfortunately but I did learn some new things.   I saw/met more people from Iowa than I expected too.   The venue for the conference was too big in a sense with how spread out things were but I guess too big rather than too small.   The venue didn't have options for food and lunch either.   There were a lot of hungry health and PE teachers walking around.    The location for the conference next year is Miami!    Doubtful I'll go, but it's under consideration. 

I'll be spending this weekend grading a lot.   I have about 400 assignments to grade for ISU alone.   Weee! 

Here are some pics from my adventures in the South: