So I’m back in Ohio and back at work.  A friend needed a ride to
CU this morning, so I got up at 5:50 and left the house at 7:20 so she
could be here by 8:00 (or close to it!).  That actually is a good
thing because I needed to do some class prep before I actually get to
class today!

The weekend…I will get to pictures tomorrow.  The road trip was
certainly that (a road trip), but it was a good time away with
Eric.  We left at 4:30 on Thursday and drove into PA, stopping in
Dubois (as you probably saw on Friday).  On Friday, we drove the
rest of the way across PA (rain), into NJ (rain/clouds), around NYC
into NY (clouds) state and then onto I95 which is the New England
Turnpike.  Things were moving along just fine all that way, until
we got into CT on I95. Then we hit a traffic jam.  We went 10
miles in 2 hours!  
So we should’ve gotten to our hotel at 4:30 and instead didnt’ get
there until after 7:30.  YUCK!  So we went and got some
dinner and tried to unwind a bit at the hotel.  The one nice thing
was that the wind blew all the clouds away while we were sitting on 95,
so there were blue skies in CT for us to see!

Saturday was a leisurely day for us.  We drove around the
coastline on a scenic highway, stopped at a beach/state park for
pictures and to walk around.  Then we headed to our only
“official” activity: a ride on a steam train.  We were supposed to
also go on a riverboat on this ride, but the boat wasn’t running that
day because of the wind.  It was sunny, but very windy!  So
after the ride, which was very cool, we did some more driving
around.  We went up and saw the Gillette Castle (originally the
home of William Gillette, who was the original Sherlock Holmes) and
walked around there for a bit.  Then we stopped at an outlet mall
to wander around and get some supper.  Then we headed back to the
hotel and watched tv and relaxed.

Sunday we left the hotel at 7:30 to come home.  We did NOT drive
on 95 back towards NJ.  Instead, we headed up 84 into NY state and
then down into PA near Wilkes-Barre and Scranton on I81.  We got
back on 80 to come home (and then it clouded over and rained again) and
drove it all the way into Ohio (cloudy/no rain) where we picked up 76
in Youngstown, then back to 71, then back to Columbus (about
6:30)!  It was lovely to get home.  My butt hurt so bad from
sitting for so long that I decided to lay on my stomach on the floor to
watch TV and veg out.  But it was just nice to be home and sleep
in my own bed!

Overall…the views in CT were no better than the ones in PA and NY
(actually they were probably better overall). The train ride was fun
(we bought Kelly and Holly engineer hats and train whistles…won’t
Chris & Deb love that!). We got some good pictures and had a good
time together.  And we won’t be taking another road trip for a
while! 

So we are in PA (Dubois, PA to be exact) and are packing up to head out again.  We drove about 4.5 hours last night, so today’s jaunt will be much more bearable.

Thanks for the affirmation about the haircut.  The funny thing is, a couple of years ago, I went in trying to get this haircut and ended up with something completely different.  This time, I asked for something completely different and got this cut.  So, Gail…I think you and I have the same problem!

Anyway, Eric is ready to go.  Have a lovely Friday!

EDIT:  I put a pic of my new “do” below…I’m still learning how to add pictures…

EDIT: I’ve had a rough morning.  I got a haircut, which didn’t turn out like I really wanted.  And I missed the FedEx guy who was bringing Eric’s new toy which we were hoping to take with us this weekend, and since it requires a signature, who knows when we’ll be here to get it from them.  Hope the day gets better… End Edit

It’s Fall Break, and I caught up ALL my grading before I left work yesterday!!!

Okay, so I actually have a couple of miscellaneous things, but those are quick so I won’t count them.  I even graded my huge stack of bonus work from Basic English.  I was very proud of myself.  Of course, I didn’t leave my office until almost 5:00, but it was so worth it!

Eric changed the oil in his Jeep last night so we could take it on our trip.  We’ll probably leave sometime later today and drive a few hours.  That will cut the drive tomorrow (it’s about 10 hours total), which will be nice.  My students said that the area should be really pretty right now, so I’m getting excited.  And a road trip with Eric will be a nice change of pace, too. 

Of course, I have lots to do before we go…cleaning the house a bit, running some errands, packing…all that fun stuff. But I’m on Fall Break, so what else do I have, right?

     

Last day of class for the week!  Yeah for Fall Break!  And
I’m going to let my classes out early (since a number of them will
leave early anyway and may not be in class at all) so it should be a
good day.

I got my papers read (but didn’t get grades put on them…I’ll do that
this morning) yesterday morning.  Then I went to the church for a
meeting about Christmas.  Then a trip to Sam’s Club and Meijer for
a few things. Eric was home when I got there, so I went back to work on
the laundry that I’d been slowly chipping away at all day and helped
him update our new website.  We had supper and then he wanted to
watch a Netflix movie we’d had for 3 weeks or more.  I had no
desire to watch it (it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting), but it meant
that I didn’t really get much else done while the movie was on. 
Once it finished, I acutally put away my laundry
before getting ready for bed.  Spent some quality time with Eric
and then we went to bed (and actually slept in some this morning!).

Oh, and on a positive note, Eric thinks they might have fixed the
broken machine that’s been causing him SO much trouble at work for 6
months!  And today, a bunch of people (not him) are at a meeting
in Dayton, so he’s expecting to get LOTS of work done.  Yeah for
happy husbands!

Okay, I need to get on to my grading and such!

So yesterday was a lot less exciting than the weekend.  Classes were fairly uneventful.  I gave a chapter test in Basic English, and I had a group presentation scheduled in Comp.  So I had a light day!  Mom and I even made it home for lunch about the same time so we had 45 whole minutes to chat yesterday…that’s just craziness!

Other than classes, I graded like a mad person yesterday.  Mid-term grade reports were due (actually today, but I needed to do them yesterday before I left), so I was trying to get some of the grades recorded to help some of the students if I could.  Mid-term reports are warnings that students are not doing well in class, and they are sent to advisors and deans who then are supposed to call the children in and start working with them.  I have a larger than usual number of low students, but it’s pretty much their own fault.  And the grading rush I did actually did get one of them off the list before I submitted them!

Anyway, I just got in a grading mood, I guess, so I spent most of the evening working on that as well.  I did make dinner (meatloaf, baked seasoned potatoes, and veggies), but then we both did our own thing last night (Eric on the computer, me grading).  Such fun! I also worked on laundry which I need to finish today.  And I have a few errands to run as well.  But I really do want to get most/all of my grading caught up before we leave this weekend, so that will be a primary focus!

So I missed some great discussions on Friday on Xanga (Kimberly’s book list was great…thought Madeleine L’Engle is NOT a Scientologist like Tom Cruise, nor is the Christian Scientist the same thing as Scientology…but that’s another discussion!).  Unfortunately, I was booked solid for the entire day.  There were 4 sessions during the day; the first one started at 8:30 and the last one ended at 5.  I started toward home at about 20 after 5.  In each session a number of people read papers they had written and then there was 30 minutes for discussion about the topics each person had addressed.  My first paper was a rationale for the benefits of using popular culture in the writing classroom, and then most of my questions in the Q&A time were about how I do that.  My other presentation was a workshop about the importance of critical thinking and how we might get ourselves and our students to do more of it!  There weren’t very many people at my second presentation (a number of people left early and skipped the last session), but it went well anyway.  And the best part of all was that it was DONE!

So I tried to spend the rest of the weekend relaxing a bit and unwinding.  I was still crazy busy, but I think I’m starting to let all the stress go.  Friday night, we had meatloaf and vegged out for a while, before I took a bath to relax and then read a book in bed until I was too tired to keep my eyes open.  Saturday morning was actually pretty low-key.  I decided to clean my house because people were coming on Sunday, so I did some of that.  Eric & I also loaded up the recyclables we’d been accumulating for weeks and dropped them off.  I stopped at the grocery quickly on our way home.  Then we had a wedding to go to at 1:30 (the poor groom fainted!) but skipped the reception. We watched the first half of the OSU game before heading to Cedarville for Erik’s birthday party which took the rest of the night.  It was actually a good time and not too overwhelming, although we are a very LOUD group!

On Sunday, Eric’s brother, Alan, and his two cousins, Mark & Michelle, came out to visit our church and have dinner with us.  So we slept in and went to the second service…how nice!   I put a chicken in to roast while we were at church, so of course, Pastor ran long.  But the bird was falling off the bones and was very good!  Our company stayed until about 3, so then I had the rest of the afternoon to just relax and unwind.  I did clean up the kitchen so that was done, and we went to small group about 7:00.  Our group was pretty small last night, but it was one of the most refreshing and enjoyable times ever…lots of beneficial sharing.  God is so awesome!

Yesterday was a long day!  I did get a lot accomplished, and considering that I have to be done with everything by this afternoon, I think I just might make it.   So there were the normal classes yesterday.  Deb came to Mom’s house with the girls at lunch time (I was on my own for the day), so we chatted and played with the girls (they’re SO cute!).  I ran to Mom’s office after class and ended up driving her to Springfield to meet Dad for dinner.  Then I raced the storm clouds home (I won!).  I ate a quick supper, then headed for the church for the meeting with the music minister candidate.  I think it went well…I’ll be very surprised if they don’t offer him the job, but we’ll see.  He seemed very nice and capable.  Then home to work on my projects some more before bed. 

And I think I’ll just take this opportunity to express how great my husband is.  This whole week, with all my craziness, he hasn’t complained or grumbled at all.  Last night, he let me snuggle with him to help me relax, even though it kept us up longer than it would’ve otherwise.  And he’s just very encouraging about the whole thing.  I’m so glad that God saved him for me!

Okay, so today I have to finish my presentations.  I also have to run and get gifts for Erik’s birthday party (that’s Karen’s Erik) and a wedding, both of which are on Saturday.  I probably won’t be on at all tomorrow because the conference starts tonight at 6:00 with dinner, then reconvenes at 8:30 tomorrow morning and runs all day.  I’ll try to jump on a few times today to make up for it though!

Well, I did it.  I have a draft of my paper done.  I worked around 8 hours on it yesterday, and finished the draft around 6:30 (when I stopped to make dinner).  After supper, I ran to WalMart for some personal necessities and milk.  I also stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a wedding gift for some friends who are getting married on Saturday; unfortunately, it is a smaller store and they didn’t carry the towels my friends wanted.  So up to Sawmill I will have to go!

I didn’t work on my paper when I got home.  I figured that I needed to walk away from it for a while and then come back to it fresh.  So Eric and I played on computers in the loft.  He put together a website for our small group so I didn’t have to do a  newsletter this week.  It turned out really well…and I was so glad not to have to worry about it! But it was fun seeing what he was doing and getting people’s initial responses from the site. 

Today is a normal class day, but I have to keep working on this paper and the workshop I have to do as well.  I also have to be at the church tonight to meet our candidate for the music minister position. I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up, in case he doesn’t work out either.  We’ll see, though. 

Not a terribly exciting day yesterday.  I had classes and the normal routine.  I spent some time grading in my office before coming home.  Eric was mowing when I got home, so I took the opportunity to play a computer game for a few minutes (it’s always good, I’ve found, to have a firm time frame for stopping the game!).  I worked on my presentation stuff for awhile, then made supper. We had white chicken chili and cornbread…YUMMY!  Then I went back to my stuff for the rest of the night.  Eric worked on his website…he’s getting all sorts of fun things to work.  And he’s so cute when he’s all excited about something new he’s gotten working.  Anyway, by 9:40, I was in bed and he joined me shortly after that.  What a lovely way to end the day!

Today I HAVE to get serious work done on my projects.  There is just no question about that.  Thus, my 7 am posting.  But I do need to run some errands, too, so I will probably use those as my break sometime in the day. We’ll see…

What a weekend!  I was hoping for a lot of time to hole myself up in my (home) office and work on the paper & workshop that I have to present on Friday at our Literature conference at CU.  That didn’t really happen. I did get some work done (not much), but I have lots left to do. 

Friday evening, before 5:00, we found out that the father of a friend from small group was in a car accident, and they were going out to see him.  There was damage to his neck, but they didn’t know how serious.  This family also lost their 19 year old daughter/sister in January in a car accident, so this was a particularly hard hit.  On top of that, they were supposed to host small group on Sunday night, so that meant we had to do a mad scramble to switch the place
and snack assignments and let everyone know that we’d be meeting at our house. 

On Friday night, we also found out that we were going to have to make a trip out to the farm on Saturday, which we were not really planning to make until that moment.  And all of this was before I even got home.  So instead of working, we went out for supper and wandered the mall on Friday night.  I needed to relax and get out of the house.

So Saturday morning, I worked on my stuff for a bit.  Eric listened to Weird Al songs on YouTube and then worked outside for a bit.  Then we left for the farm about 1:30.   Eric dropped me off at a Home & Garden Party that his Grandma was hosting and then went on home.  I got a ride home with his mom and other grandma who were also there.  We joined the family for supper at the farm before heading back.  It was nice to chat and play with Ryan’s new kitten (it’s called an Ocicat – pronounced Aw-si-cat – and it looks like a spotted wild cat; they’re supposed to be the most “dog-like” of cats).  We got home about 10.

Sunday was church, then supper, then a bit of relaxing.  Then I made a quick grocery trip for snacks for small group and cleaned the house a bit (vacuumed and such).  I spent a couple of minutes planning/making reservations for a small vacation we’re going to take next weekend before going back to my work on the conference stuff.  At 6:00, I stopped to start getting things ready for small group which we then hosted.  Karen & Erik were last to leave and then we went to bed.