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).

Yesterday was a frustrating day in some ways.  I worked all day rearranging furniture and doing laundry.  I didn’t get the laundry done (not really surprising…therefore, not really frustrating), and I got stuck on the arranging project long before I was happy with it.  Grrr!  Today, I think I’ll go back to it and see what I can do, but I’m not going to have high hopes.  Maybe then I won’t be disappointed either!

My friends are arriving this evening, so I also have LOTS of cleaning to do.  The bathrooms must get done today, and I have to finish the laundry, too.  I need to make their beds, vacuum the floors, clean the kitchen (including the floor) and run some errands.  At least I won’t be bored.

Don’t worry, though…I won’t forget to sit and relax some of the day!

Good news!  I found out yesterday that some friends (Tim & Steph) from college will be coming down and staying with us on Friday night.  They live in Cleveland (right on the lake) and just had a baby (Brandt) in the fall, but I haven’t seen them since he was born.  Tim’s brother and family will be in town on Saturday to visit his wife’s grandmother, so they’re planning a small reunion of sorts.  So my friends are coming down a day early and spending some time with us.  How fun!! 

Yesterday, I ran errands in the morning.  I got Eric’s coffee for free (gift cards to Tim Hortons) and the Tazo tea he likes for free (gift card to Starbucks).  I love free money!

I spent the rest of the day working around home.  I shredded old documents, updated the small group website that Eric created for our group (he manages it, I update the information on it), and generally organized, cleaned and got ready to move more furniture. 

After supper, Eric had orchestra rehearsal at the church, so I watched television and relaxed.  Then we watched MythBusters (turns out you can’t beat a speed camera by going faster…uhhh…duh… ) and then we went to bed.

Yesterday was not terribly exciting overall.  I guess that’s why we love Spring Break!

I read for a while in the morning, then started working on inventory lists of our house.  I decided that this week would be a good time to work on an inventory of our “stuff” so that if we ever had a fire, we’d know what we had!  Of course, the longer I worked, the less specific I became.  But I was mostly trying to make a list for myself so when I sit down with the computer program, I don’t have to keep running into the other rooms.

Eric got home about 4:30 and watched some tv to relax while I made dinner.  Then we watched Ice Age: the Meltdown which had come from Netflix in the afternoon mail.  It was very funny…I was surprised since sequels just aren’t that great, really.  By the time we finished all the extras, it was 9:00, so we read in bed for a while before going to sleep.  See, nothing terribly exciting.

Today, I have a couple of errands to run, and then I’ll either go back to the inventory stuff or start working on my furniture rearranging project.  I also SHOULD clean the kitchen floor and clean the bathrooms.  I COULD also start the laundry.  We’ll see how much of that gets done.

I kept waking up last night (I haven’t slept great in a few days), but I think I finally figured out why.  I was cold.  I woke up cold.  It’s crazy how fast you adjust to the temperatures being a bit warmer…and then how much of a shock it is when it dips back down for a bit.  It’s only 14 degrees right now!

Anyway, I kept myself pretty busy yesterday.  I got groceries in the morning, and I spent the afternoon cleaning and rearranging my house.  I have big plans, but they will require changing something about almost every room in the house.  Thankfully, Eric said he would help me move the big stuff!  So, yesterday, I changed our bedroom, moved some stuff to the living room (and other stuff out of the living room) and then rearranged the living room furniture to make it work with the new stuff in it.  I’m a bit sore today (not much, but my shoulders did a bit more than they’re used to!), but I doubt it will stop me from working around today.

Other than moving furniture, I also rehung a bird feeder outside, wrote an email to my grandpa, talked to my mom on the phone while she was home for lunch, and chatted with Karen on her way home from work.  In the evening, we had supper and watched television, and I read a book (Orwell’s 1984), too.  Geez…I was busy yesterday!

It’s Spring Break!  I have no classes until Wednesday of next week, so I have some time to goof off.  I do have some grading to do, but we’ll see when I get around to that!

Friday night, Eric and I watched a movie and just hung out.  His brother called to talk about the Jeep which was out at the farm being worked on.  Eric thought the radiator had a leak.  I thought they had taken it to Jimmy, the local mechanic, but I guess Alan and Eric’s dad had just been playing with it themselves. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to even get it to leak again, much less find out where!

So on Saturday, we headed out to the farm.  Eric was planning to change the oil in the Jeep and then we’d bring it home. I goofed off in the house while he worked.  After the oil change was done, he refilled the radiator with water and antifreeze (it only had water in it for most of the week), and TA-DA, the leak came back.

Apparently, the antifreeze thinned the mix enough to leak again.  So we stayed all day while Eric and Alan tried to find out where it was leaking from.  They couldn’t (Jimmy does actually have the Jeep now).  We stayed for dinner and didn’t leave for home until 9:00.  It was a late night, but hopefully, the Jeep will actually be fixed this time!

Yesterday was a normal Sunday: church, lunch, goof off in the afternoon, and small group at night.  And now, I’m on Spring Break.  Any suggestions for what I should do with all my time off?

Today will be pretty low-key.  It’s the last day before Spring
Break, so all I’m doing is collecting drafts of papers and letting my
students go.  Makes for an easy day for all of us!

Yesterday was pretty busy after all.  I ran errands in the
morning, then had a meeting at the church after lunch.  That
lasted for about 2 hours.  I stopped at the grocery on my way home
and then made dinner for some friends who are due to have a baby any
day.  I got thinking that everyone brings meals for the first few
weeks after the baby is born, but in some ways, the week before the
baby comes is every bit as bad!  So I ran that over to them and
chatted with Lisa for a while (saw the nursery, etc.) before heading
home.  Made dinner and then read a book for the rest of the
evening.  Eric was working on running a new network cable through
the wall and getting it working, so he didn’t need my attention.

We both slept in this morning, and despite the wind, I even went
outside to walk today (how nice!).  And now I have arrived in my
office where I will do some things until my meeting at 10:00. 
There’s that exciting life just popping up again!

Yesterday was another of those continuous days…so I didn’t have time to post until it was too late to bother!  But don’t worry…I’m back today!

Of course, my busy-ness yesterday does not mean that I have exciting things to share today.  There were the usual (drive to CU, work in my office, go to class).  There were a few different things (a trip to the library, a quick meeting with my Dept. Chair, opening some packages which are always examination copies of textbooks that I didn’t request).  My classes went well.  I went over the basics of the library, bibliographies and citations in Basic English.  I gave my Comp students an entire list of revision techniques that they can use for their papers (and then made them work on revision in class, of course!). 

My mom had a lunch meeting yesterday, so I went over to her office after my last class to say hi and to vote for my favorite carpet swatch.  She’s redoing the carpet in the kitchen/eating area, and we’ve been voting on our favorites every time she brings a sample home.  I think we’ve found the right one.  Of course, I chatted with people (and her, obviously) until 4:45, so I didn’t get home until late.  But we had a quick dinner, then Eric headed off for orchestra and I just goofed off for the rest of the evening.

I know…you so envy my life, don’t you?

Yesterday was one of those days.  There were a lot of little things that usually I can dismiss without letting them annoy me, but yesterday I was already a bit down/grumpy so they only made me worse.  The fact that some of my students are so lax about attendance and work really bugged me yesterday.  The bad drivers (ie, unnecessarily slow) and the students who just meander across the parking lots, ignoring the fact that you’re (in your car) waiting for them to get out of the way, were also frustrating.

Unfortunately, I’m not very good at hiding my annoyances, I guess, because two different people asked me if I was okay.  And when I said I was just having ‘one of those days,’ they both said that they could tell by looking at me.   I guess my facial expressions are too obvious.

Anyway, I decided that everyone is allowed to have grumpy days sometimes, including me (as long as I didn’t let it affect how I treated people), so I was allowed to wallow for a while.  So I didn’t do very much last night.  Eric and I watched some television, and we went to bed about 10:00.  I’m in a better mood this morning, anyway.

Nothing too exciting to report about the weekend. 

It took me an entire hour to get home on Friday night (trains in both S. Charleston & London, lights, other drivers, etc.), and when I arrived at 4:20, my in-laws van was sitting in the driveway.  Their appointment had been cancelled, but they missed the phone call, so they arrived about an hour before we were expecting them.  I showed them the new tv and chatted until Eric got home (at five).  Then we went out to dinner and tried to find a new computer desk for my MIL.  I was pretty fried by the time we got home and said good-bye…I’m actually something of an introvert and I hadn’t had a single moment of downtime (read non-social) all that day.  But it was good to see them and we did get to eat at P.F. Changs!

Saturday was pretty quiet.  I worked in my office.  Eric worked in the loft.  Later I did laundry and ironed and made banana bread.  We had a “find your own” night for dinner, and to end the day I watched Finding Nemo on our huge television…very nice!

Sunday was a long day for Eric.  It seems the radiator in his Jeep is having issues, so he ended up driving out to the farm in the afternoon to drop it off there to be worked on by their Adamsville repair guy and came back to Columbus with his brother who has an extra car we borrowed.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the Jeep back soon!  I hung out at home after church (and a not-stellar dinner…I hate when meals don’t come together well), knitted, read the paper, and then went to small group.  It was fun and everyone was talkative.  Then home and to bed.

Now off to CU for the day…should be fun!  I’m going to talk about grammar/punctuation in Comp.  If you were in my class, what would you think I should talk about…or what mistakes have you heard that I could address?