Final Blog 07/23/11

Has 25 days come and gone already?  Well I say it’s about time! In writing blogs for the last 25 days, I can honestly say, I have grown to hate writing.  I know that is not the point of this exercise but that is what it has accomplished for me.  I didn’t like to write to begin with and having to do it every day has just made it worse.  Also, I don’t like sharing my writing with the world and doing the blog has not helped that either.  Maybe if I was just writing for the teacher every day it wouldn’t be so bad but writing for the world is not what I want to do for a living or even just for a class.  This was supposed to have increased my writing fluency and I guess it possibly has done that to an extent.  I still feel like I have a hard time coming up with topics to write about and sometimes even if I can come up with a topic, I have a hard time having enough to say about it.  I tried the writing prompts and did do a couple of them but most of them I either didn’t feel comfortable with or didn’t feel like I could come up with enough to write.  I think I was able to write the most when I just wrote about my life and all that is going on but I am leery of putting too much information out there for the world to read.  I realize that probably the only people that will ever read that blog are my classmates but there is the possibility that anyone could so I didn’t want to put too much personal information out there.  I don’t feel like I got very much feedback so I don’t have any idea what I need to improve on.  If would have been more helpful to receive feedback at least weekly.  

We didn't show 'em today 07/22/11

My alarm started sounded at 5:30 this morning.  I hit the snooze until 6:00 and then had to take a quick shower and get ready to leave.  Today is our first game at the Show Me Games.  My son is in going into the fifth grade next year and this is the first time he has played.  We left the house at 7:00 and met up with the rest of our team.  We all put “Go Jays” and such on our windows and headed to Columbia from Marshfield.  There were six cars in our convoy and the lead driver was not a slacker.  I was going 80 mph trying to keep up.  We past several highway patrolmen and I can’t believe we all made it with no tickets.  We were able to make it in plenty of time for our noon game.  I don’t know if the boys were just out of their element or what the problem was but the game didn’t start out too well.  The other team was up four to nothing within the first couple of minutes.  By half time, we were losing eight to thirteen.  I didn’t think that was too bad because we weren’t playing too well.  We were making bad passes and just not handling the ball well.  I knew we were a better team than that so I thought we might be able pull it out in the second half.  Unfortunately, apparently the other team was not playing their best during the first half either.  After the second half started, we didn’t score for several minutes but the other team did.  We ended up losing 34 to 13.  Ouch!!!!  Well, it was a learning experience.  Tomorrow we have two games so hopefully they can be a little more competitive.  We are having fun anyway but it’s definitely more fun to win!

Just another blog 07/21/11

I am struggling again with a topic to write about today.  I am so tired and feel like the stress of life is really getting to me today.  I was up late last night getting my place essay submitted and doing things around the house.  I think I probably got to sleep around midnight and was up by 5:30 this morning to start working.  I went ahead and took the puppy to the kennel today because we will not have time in the morning.  I have to admit, it has been nice not chasing after her today but I do miss her.  I had to take a half day of vacation from work today so that I can get as much homework done as possible before leaving for our trip to Columbia tomorrow morning.  I double checked the hotel’s website and they do have wifi so I will be able to do homework I just won’t want to.  The boys had practice today.  They are going into the 5^th grade and they scrimmaged a team that is going into the 7^th grade.  I was pretty impressed with them.  The older team scored more but they didn’t just run away with it.  I think if we can hold our own against a team two years older, we should do ok at the Show-me Games.  Even if we don’t win, it will be a great experience for the boys.  They are all excited about staying at the same hotel and swimming.  One of the boys has some idea about them all bringing nerf guns.  I’m not sure how that is going to work but I guess as long as they don’t get too wild with them, it will be ok.    Just a couple more blogs and I will be done for this summer class.  I am really looking forward to a break.

Sugar is not so sweet 07/20/11

I still think my puppy is trying to drive me crazy.  This week since my son has been gone; it’s been just me and Sugar spending way too much quality time together.  She is doing really well with her potty training but she is just too busy for me.  I am glad that I work from home so that she doesn’t have to be kenneled all day but I actually do have to work and it is hard to do and watch her too.  She cannot be trusted to just stay out of trouble.  In the living room, we have a stuffed bobcat and she has been trying to chew its tail off and chews on the wood that it is attached to.  She has chewed up the bottom of my curtains in the living room.  We have a wooden rocking chair in there that she chews on the rockers.  Other than that, she’s pretty good in the living room.  Her food and water is in the kitchen, so she does ok in there as long as I keep the closet door closed where we keep the trash.  We have finally broken her – I think- from trying to jump up on the cabinets.  We have to keep the doors to the bathrooms closed because she will get into the trash and there will be toilet paper everywhere.  She likes to lie on the tile floor in the laundry room but she gets in trouble in there.  That is one of the places she chewed part of the trim off the wall and part of the wall.  She also chewed up a rug I had in there.  When I lock her in my office with me she will play with her toys for a few minutes and then commence to chewing on whatever she can get her teeth on.  She has chewed the trim in that room too.  Monday, I put her outside on her leash while I was trying to cook supper.  I heard her jump on the door and I knew she couldn’t reach the door on her leash so I went to check on her.  As soon as I opened the door she came barreling in soaking wet!  She had somehow gotten off her lease and decided to take a swim in the pond.   

Life 07/19/11

My son has been gone to church camp for two days and I miss him a lot.  Today I got finished working at about 2:30 and was so tired that I took a nap!  I was thinking this is my last day before he gets back and then there won’t be any naps so I might as well take advantage of it.  I was also thinking that I have so much English homework, I don’t know if I will be able to get it all done.  I knew if I was tired, I wouldn’t get much done either.  So now I have had a good nap and I am drinking a diet Dr. Pepper to help wake me up.  This is my last day of somewhat relaxation for the next two weeks.  Tomorrow, when I get done working I have to go pick up my son.  I’m sure he will talk for an hour or two about his time at camp.  Thursday we have basketball practice, have to take the Puppy to the kennel, and get everything packed so we will be ready to go to the Show Me Games in Columbia bright and early Friday morning.  We play three games Friday and Saturday and then that determines if and when we play on Sunday.  Vacation Bible School starts this Sunday evening so hopefully we will be back in time for that.  I always help in the Pre-school Crafts room and usually help a lot with the prep-work, decorating and planning.  This year, I wasn’t able to help with all that because of school but hopefully I will be able to be there for the actual crafts.  With finals, work, and VBS next week will be intense.  Then I have one week of work and the next week we are going to the lake.  I am looking forward to that little vacation!

More about my place 07/18/11

I have been working on my “place” paper this afternoon and I feel like I have writer’s block.  I can’t decide what to write about.  I know that my place is the lake and I have written some about that but I have been so many times and have so many memories, I am not sure which one to focus on.  There is the time we were there with some friends and we had our boats together.  Our friend Matt was getting some bait out of our boat to put in his and had one foot on his boat and one on ours and they started drifting apart.  I so wish we had a video camera for that!  We laughed so hard at him.  He nearly did the splits before he gave it up and allowed himself to fall in the water.  I think that was the same weekend that he saw a snake by our camper and screamed like a girl!  That was definitely his weekend to get picked on.  There was also the time that we were there and my husband caught about a 40 pound catfish on a rod and reel.  My youngest son was probably about 5 or 6 and that fish was as big as he was.  He just kept saying, “Dad, that’s a monster!”  We have had many instances where we have had to fight the raccoons.  They almost always get at least some food of ours.  One time they actually got into one of our coolers, opened a package of bacon and ate the whole thing, raw of course.  Another time they got a whole cantaloupe and took the top of it off just like they had used a knife.  They ate the whole inside and just left the shell.  The last time we were there we had some of the puppy’s food in a storage container outside and they figured out how to get the latches undone and the lid off.  They ate every bit of her food and I had to go to town to buy more. The raccoons are not one of my favorite things at the lake but they are amusing.  Some of the best times we have are sitting around the camp fire with friends and family just talking and relaxing. 

Church Camp 07/17/11

Today is the day my son leaves for church camp.  I am a little sad because he will be gone for three days and I will miss him.  I am excited for him though and know that he will have a great time and hopefully learn more about and get closer to God.  I can only remember going to church camp one time when I was a child.  We went to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  I was probably about the same age as my son is now which is ten.  I may have been a little older.  It is funny the things that you remember about an experience.   I remember riding the bus down there and riding horses and swimming there.  I also remember some of the church parts.  I went to a very conservative Baptist church when I was a child and this church camp was no different.   The girls were not allowed to wear shorts.  We could wear skirts or what they used to call and maybe still do call coolots.  They were kind of like capris but fuller like a skirt with legs.  I remember one time we were in the sanctuary and there was a woman talking to us about men wearing shorts.   I can still see the room and everything in my mind and this lady talking about how she didn’t want to see men’s hairy legs.  I don’t know why I remember that so vividly.  Weird. I don’t remember hearing sermons about God’s love but I remember the sermons about Hell and damnation.   I do feel that we should have a certain fear of God’s wrath but I think the main thing to focus on is His love.  I know that the church we go to now does focus on that so I am not nervous about my son going.  I know a lot of the leaders that are going and he is in good hands.