I was bored yesterday.  I seem to have trouble finding a good balance between being overwhelmed with my workload and twiddling my thumbs.  Not sure how to remedy that problem…

Classes went well yesterday, I think.  I got a lot of prep done for the rest of the week, too, so I’ll have to figure out something else for the rest of the week!

The evening was pretty busy because I had to come back to Columbus immediately after my last class so that I could make dinner for some friends who just had a baby.  I got everything done and headed over there just after 5:00.  Matt was on the couch with the baby on his stomach when I arrived.  Lisa and I chatted briefly, and then she asked if I wanted to hold the baby.  Of course, I did.  I picked him up, laid him (upright) against my chest, and had held him for all of 45 seconds when he spit up (more like an explosion) RIGHT DOWN MY SHIRT!  It went straight down my v-neck, across my chest and down my side to my pants.  Lisa was mortified…I was highly amused.  I mean, he couldn’t have gotten a better shot if he was aiming! 

When I got home and got cleaned up, we grilled steaks for dinner.  Then I goofed off the rest of the night while Eric played on the computer.   Nothing too exciting…

Eric spent much of the weekend tweaking a new version of Linux “eye candy” on the media center computer (the new one by the TV).  “Eye candy” means the capability to make the windows jiggle, to have 4 different desktops running at once in a cube formation so that you can spin the screen, and the setting where the window or menu, when minimized, disappears like it went up in flames or just was beamed to the Starship Enterprise.  There are, of course, other neat features to it, but those were the ones I’ve seen.  He also did a number of chores on Saturday (fertilized the grass, fixed the downspout – see below, and other outdoor activities).  But other than that, he spent the weekend relaxing with his new Linux toy.

I spent the weekend relaxing, too, for the most part.  I played a computer game, worked on my book, and drove around town with Eric on Saturday looking for a particular part to fix the downspouts on the side of our house.  The PVC pipe on two corners of the house have cracked, and the area where the sump empties from the house had also broken, and with all the rain, it needed somewhat immediate attention.  Unfortunately, there were no 3-inch parts to be found…lots of 4 inch…but no 3 inch.  We went to Home Depot, Lowe’s, 84 Lumber, and finally found them at the little hardware store in West Jefferson.  Yeah for small town hardware stores!

Yesterday afternoon, I did a lot of cooking and baking.  I made dinner (taco casserole), and then had to run to the grocery store.  Eric came with me…which he never does, so that was fun!  Then I made cupcakes (for small group) and read the paper and watched a HD show with Eric while they cooled.  I finished the cupcakes (I turned them into mini-Boston Cream pies), then made chicken salad, which we ate for a light supper, then headed to small group which was a lot of fun, and at which all of my mini-BC pies were eaten.  I love it when I make a snack that’s a hit!

Not much to say today, really.  I went to CU and taught like usual.  I’m having trouble keeping my “guy” class focusing this week…it’s a challenge, but I’m sure I will prevail!  We are definitely getting closer to the end of the term, but I also plan my class to get really practical at the end of the term…so that should help them.

After classes, I had meetings: one with an advisee, one with a former advisee.  Both went very well, and I think they are both beginning to find their way to the right major.  How nice!

Unfortunately, those meetings meant I didn’t leave CU until about 5:00, so Eric got charcoal, and I stopped and bought brats so we could grill out.  We had dinner, then Eric left for orchestra.  I watched television (I found Mr. and Mrs. Smith on a movie channel) until Eric got home and then we watched Mythbusters before going to bed.

Today’s agenda is somewhat up in the air…lots of things I could do, but we’ll see what I get done!

Yesterday was a sad, gray day.  Not sure why, but I was just sort of down.  Classes went fine, and I did get some things done in my office before coming home, but it was just sort of blah.  I think it was related to a let-down from the weekend, some recent sad news, and maybe hormones (isn’t that always a possibility!).  Anyway, Eric spent the evening working on his new computer (the one attached to the TV), and I just hung out.  We did end up watching Office Space which he put in to test some things, and then I read in bed for a while and he watched TV and played more on the computer.  I slept really well last night, though, so that was good!

On a lighter note, some pictures for all to enjoy…here is our new furniture (we got 2 side tables).

And now, some pictures from my Mom’s birthday party.

And my favorite of all…pictures of Holly drinking out of a real cup (with my help):

Ain’t she just too cute!

Fun Times Had By All!

That describes the weekend pretty well, I think! 

Friday night was the Girls/Guys Night for our small group.  The girls had dinner together and then talked for 3-4 hours.  We had a good time just talking (I did try to get a game going, but no one seemed interested ).

The guys, on the other hand, met at my house where they grilled their burgers, hot dogs and steaks, watched basketball on the hi-def television, and then deep-fried everything they could think of.  Things that were battered and thrown in the deep-fryer included candy bars, Oreos, those coconut Girl Scout cookies, chocolate cake, Doritos, jelly beans, and maybe a few other things I can’t remember.  They also enjoyed daring each other to try different things and one of the guys (Ty) ate the 21 remaining candy bars for $40.  All in all, the house doesn’t smell horribly like grease, they cleaned up before I got home, and they didn’t burn the house down, so I think it was a big success.

Saturday, we were exhausted (we’re too old for those kinds of parties, I guess!) so we just hung out at home, slept in and goofed off.  It was quiet and nice. 

Sunday was church, then we headed to Cedarville for a birthday party for my mom. We spent the afternoon chatting, watching television, and playing hide-n-seek with the girls…so cute!!  I’ll do pictures sometime soon. Then we came back to Columbus for small group.  I was tempted not to go, but it was fun, so I was glad we did. And then we collapsed into bed last night because we were so tired.  The end.

Today was an early day since I brought someone with me to CU
today.  I had to get up a bit before 6:00 so I could be ready to
go about 7:15.  But I had some things I needed to get done, so it
worked out well.  Of course, I haven’t started on those things
yet, but I have plenty of time to finish them after I post!

Eric did make it home yesterday, earlier than I expected him
actually.  He arrived at 6:30, just as I was finishing supper. He
had eaten a very late lunch, though, so he wasn’t hungry yet.  He
played with putting together his new computer (the parts had arrived on
Wednesday) while we watched TV last night.  I like it better when
he’s home!

We watched Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
last night (there wasn’t much on!).  The questions are really
easy, but you have to be careful about answering too quickly and about
thinking too much about the answer.  They kept talking themselves
out of right answers or into wrong ones.  I won’t be watching
regularly, I suppose, but it wasn’t too bad. 

We later watched a show on badgers in high definition (mostly because
it was in hi-def).  I get so annoyed with those shows, though,
because they’re all written from the “evolution-is-the-best” mentality,
and they make it sound like the the animals are consciously doing things like passing on traits and developing ‘adaptations.’  Yup…I’m sure the badger is purposely
trying to pass on it’s cranky personality and digging ability. 
I’ll bet they’d stop passing on those traits if they weren’t
careful. 

Anyway, other than that, I worked on the computer, went to the doctor,
ran errands, made ice cream dessert for the guys tonight, made 2 types
of cookies, and then cleaned my kitchen.  Fun times!

Nothing exciting to report.  So here is a list of things that I have on my mind today.

• I have my yearly appointment today at 1:00.  I need to type up the questions I need to ask (so I remember) and pull together all the paperwork I want to take with me.
• I need to look up how to make deep-fried candy bars.
• I don’t think I have any chores to do today…not even laundry!
• I have to make cookies and an Oreo cookie ice cream dessert for the guys night tomorrow.
• Eric is coming home tonight.  It was weird, yesterday, to send him off to work with a “See you tomorrow!” 
• I’m glad today is “tomorrow.”
• Classes went fine yesterday, though my students still had a Spring Break mindset. 
• I got to see Michelle yesterday for about 5 minutes.  Sierra is too cute.  Michelle is really cute pregnant.  I wish I could’ve talked to them more.
• I met a friend for dessert at Panera last night.  They were out of chocolate chip cookies and brownies.  I got a chocoloate, choc-chip cookie.  It was okay.  I really wanted the chocolate chip one.
• We have 3 weeks until Easter Break.  Then 3 weeks until Finals.  I’m so happy about that.
• I want to buy a Yahoo game that I really like.  But it seems like a dumb thing to spend $20 on.

Okay…that’s about it for now!

Work Returns and Husband Leaves

That’s a great headline for my life this week! 

This morning, I’m back in my office for the first time in 10 days or
so, and I didn’t miss it a bit.  The drive down was fine, though
rainy.  Apparently the weather is sad about my having to finish
the semester!  
I did get all my grading done yesterday afternoon, so I just have to
organize myself for today’s classes now.  Shouldn’t be too bad at
all!

Eric has a business trip this week, so I won’t see him again until Thursday evening when he comes back.  
It’s certainly not a long trip this time, so it shouldn’t be too
bad.  And with direct flights, he won’t even have to deal with
layover problems. So he should get back on time.  Hope so
anyway! 

Last night, we hung out and had a good time.  We had dinner at the
Gyro Shoppe (cheap Greek food) on Henderson and then stopped at Giant
Eagle on our way home.  We needed supplies for the guys’ night
that will be happening at my house on Friday night, so now that is
taken care of!  We watched Robots, the animated movie, when we got home and then all the extras, too.  It was a good evening…I just love that guy!

Isn’t it funny how a day that starts out with no firm plans fills up quickly?

That’s how yesterday went.  The day seemed pretty empty in the morning, but boy was I busy after all!  My to-do list was a single load of laundry and ironing, plus some little computer-based projects…nothing too overwhelming.

Instead, I worked on the computer in the morning and then went to start the last load of laundry.  We bought Eric some new dress shirts, so I finally had enough light colored ironing clothes for a load.  In getting the dirty shirts, I realized that I needed to wash a load of sheets, too, so now I had two loads of laundry to do.   Then when I started opening up Eric’s new shirts, I realized that we’d gotten one in the wrong size.    So I ran to the mall to exchange it.  Thankfully, they had the exact shirt in the right size (it was on the clearance rack to begin with), and I stopped at the church to pick up Eric’s coffee mug that he’d left in the orchestra pit on Sunday.  I’m such a good wife!

I got home and finished getting Eric’s shirts ready for wash.  Those dress shirts come with a LOT of pins, paper and tags attached!   Then I had lunch and worked on the laundry and ironing and cleaned up the kitchen.  I wrote some in the afternoon, made dinner, cleaned up dinner and started the grading that I avoided for all of Spring Break, which I will have to finish today.  I finished the day with phone calls from my mom and to Karen before finally heading to bed.

And that is what happens on days when I don’t have much on my to-do list!

So it was a very busy weekend here.  I spent Friday cleaning and finishing the furniture movement (at least enough so that people could use the rooms…I still don’t much like where I had to leave it).  I was pretty tired by the time I finished, but I got everything done except the last load of laundry which is still in the dryer!

Tim and Steph were a bit later than we’d planned (I figured that would happen), but they arrived just after 8:00.  We sat around talking and watching high definition channels on our TV until about 11:00.  Tim is also an electronics nerd, so he and Eric got along just fine!  We got up on Saturday and played with Brandt (see pictures below) and talked some more.  They got around and headed out about 1:00 to meet up with their family members.

After they left, we had lunch and goofed off for a bit.  We went for a bike ride on the nearest bike trail, came back and cleaned up and went out for dinner (Red Robin) and then to the mall.  I got my mom’s birthday present, and Eric got some new shirts.  Then we came home and crashed (after changing the clocks of course).

Sunday, after church, we grilled out for the first time (hamburgers) and then headed to the farm to pick up Eric’s Jeep which is now repaired.  It’s 1.5 hours out, 30 minutes of chatting, and 1.5 hours back (with a quick stop at Ryan’s house to drop of the car we’d borrowed from him).  We got home about 4:45 and then had just about an hour before we went to small group. 

It was a fun weekend, really, but VERY tiring!  And here are some pics of my friends and their son!

This is Steph and Tim.

And here’s Brandt (he’s 4 months old).