Cross Country Ski's

I've wanted to try cross country skiing for quite awhile now. I needed a good winter exercise other than skating b/c the ice is so touch and go in Ohio. I normally only get to skate about 1 month the whole winter if I'm lucky.

However, I didn't know anyone with ski's to "borrow and try" and I didn't want to just go buy them in case I hated it. It was just pure luck that the guy who Nick has been shadowing at work for the past 2 years is moving to Arizona for retirement and wanted to get rid of his skis. EVEN BETTER; they were my size!! (I have massive feet haha).

I tried it out in the dark the first night; in the field behind my house. The next day I went to the towpath and went 2 miles. I was pretty sore. LOL. I need to watch a few instructional videos on youtube to get my technique under control. haha.

Mess of the Century

Nick just randomly got it in his mind one day that THAT would be the day we would insulate our kitchen. Oh yeah and it happened to be Sunday. I got home from church and before I knew it, he had 36 holes drilled into our walls, and the entire contents of our kitchen (or what seemed like it at least) in my hallway and living room. It has now been one week since that fateful day and only now is everything getting put back into place.

Can you tell we had the greenhouse fan sucking air through the kitchen and out?

I am just as happy as I look about this job. LOL. At least it was daylight. Last time we did this it was March and COLD and dark.

Holes Holes Everywhere!

This should NOT have happened! Guess we found the hole that we didn't know about (so that was how the mice were getting in! LOL).

And some other random pics: Before and After the rain storm!!

Last Week

Well thank goodness it is a new week!! Last week was the worst week!! Sarah Palin did not get elected vice-president (like my wording?), our school levy got defeated, my family's farm got robbed (they broke into a locked garage) and we are now missing 2 new motorcycles and my favorite 4-wheeler EVER, AND a local business got robbed of $45,000 of 4-wheelers, motorcycles etc.

Yikes.

The school levy going down basically means local taxpayers don't want to give money to our schools. Our district gets less money than the average district does from the state of Ohio. We have to rely on local taxes to get money and voters are saying NO. So now the district is making kids must pay to play sports, cutting principals and teachers, cutting vocational programs, and as of January cutting bussing to the high school and within 2 miles of elementary and middle school buildings. Scary stuff!


But it is a new week and my kitchen now has insulation!!! YAY! And I figured out I have enough money to buy our house new windows (TRIPLE YAY!!).

School Levy

Today one of my students said, "I hope the levy goes down in smoke". I got so mad at that comment I almost couldn't contain myself.

A friend of my sister had on his AIM away message: "Proud to be helping defeat the school levy".

Some "people" today seriously don't understand that our schools are the building blocks of society. So maybe they disagree with government's idea of school funding, or maybe they think they could do a better job running the schools than the superintendent. So What??!! By voting down levies, it is the children who will be the ones suffering. It is society that will end up being worse off in the long haul.

Then I get home and find out my mom's two "vote yes on the levy" signs got stolen last night.

UGH.

And yes, even if I weren't a teacher, I would ALWAYS vote YES on every school levy.

Bell Choir

Bell choir is a huge part of my life. I have played since 3rd grade and that is how I learned to read music, leading me to trumpet, etc. Since about 7th grade I've played the base octave pictured here (we were at a mass ring when I took the photo hence the other ringers EVERYWHERE! totally neat). I'm in two bell choirs now and LOVE IT!!

Fort Wayne Zoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Pkh3BroSI

Our pumpkin is the 1200 lber that is the base of the panda. We donated it to the zoo. Too bad I didn't get to see it in person since we live 3 hrs away. But it looks sooooo cool!!

Is it Winter Yet?

A teacher at school asked me the other day, "Aren't you dreading winter?" I thought, "ARE YOU KIDDING!!??"


I can't wait until winter. Not because I love snow (I actually do), but I want to HAVE TIME TO ACTUALLY SWEEP MY HOUSE. Haha. This last month has been such a whirlwind. Every weekend we've had a cross country meet AND a weighoff to attend. And these things aren't local either. One meet was an hour and a half away, and one weigh off was in Indiana. We are gettin around!! I am sort of depressed this life-style (travelling everywhere and never being home) will end once we have kids but it will be a relief in a way and an open to a different amazing chapter in life. But there is still another year or more until that so don't get any ideas. :)


I really do love how life unfolds.


This year was amazing for our pumpkins. Best ever! We really lucked out because most of the "heavy hitters" had bad years so we could place higher than normal. I finished 2nd in Indiana, and Nick was 5th at Canfield. Definitely our best ever. We still have one weighoff left in Columbus this weekend.


Boating this year was fun as always. Warm weather was a major plus.