Crazy Month
I can't believe November is nearly over and I haven't had any time to write! Here's what I've been doing this month --
I flew down to Kentucky on Halloween for Jeff's grandfather's funeral. I arrived down there at about 10:30pm, completely exhausted. The visitation had been that evening, so I missed that, but I was there for the funeral on the 1st. I met the rest of Jeff's family that day, too. His aunt Susan and her boyfriend, John, had come from FL as well as his grandma Martha. All nice people, though John is not someone I wanted to be left alone with... The funeral was at 10:00 the morning of the 1st. It was a nice service, but I am so used to Catholic funerals, that I was again thrown off by something different. Jeff's dad gave a really nice eulogy. We went to the cemetary after the service and then out to lunch from there. We all then gathered back at his grandparents' house to go through some old family pictures for awhile before dinner. Apparently it's been 18 years since the whole family -- including all the kids -- have been in the same place at the same time. (Jeff does not expect that Aunt Susan will come to our wedding.) I headed back home on Sunday, arriving back in MI at 1:30 and home by 4:30. Very busy weekend, but at least I had a little bit of time at home to prepare for the rest of the week.
Monday night was Night Three of conferences. It went well, but those are always super long days. Tuesday -- Election Day -- I stayed home sick. I'd been feeling a bit off all weekend and Monday morning my nose was running non-stop and I was exhausted. I decided to take a day at home to chill out and recover before another night of conferences and my upcoming trip to Arizona. So I spent the 4th at home working on Jeff's anniversary present while tuning in to watch election coverage. As for the election, all I can say is thank God!
I felt much better on Wednesday which was good as I had Night Four of conferences. Another long day, but it went well. Most parents aren't usually too surprised by what we have to say. Thursday was a normal day of work and then I drove back up to Grand Rapids to catch another airplane, this time to Las Vegas.
Friday the 7th was a comp day for conferences. Jeff and I went to visit his maternal grandparents in Bullhead City, AZ, about 90 miles from Las Vegas. We flew out at 8:00 Thursday night and arrived in Vegas at 11:30, their time. We decided to get a hotel room and spent the night about half an hour outside the city rather than drive all the way to Bullhead City that night.
We left the hotel at about 11:30 Friday morning. I'd never been to Vegas so we first went back and drove down the strip before heading to AZ. I love to see things in real life that have been on TV or in the movies so I enjoyed seeing places that have been in movies I've seen and such. We didn't get out of the car at all, but the drive-by was enough for me for this trip. Jeff asked if I wanted to come to Las Vegas for our honeymoon and I said that would be OK with me. (We're not planning on taking a huge trip this year as we don't know for sure if I'll be working. We're just going to take a long weekend somewhere the week after our wedding.) We then headed to Bullhead City, arriving at his grandparents at about 4:00pm.
Not having any grandparents left myself, I of course thought his were great. I was a bit freaked out at first by how alike his mom and grandmother are. Yikes! Throughout the whole weekend, if Grandma Janet was talking to me from a different room, I would momentarily think it was his mother talking. His grandfather, the Chief as they call him, is nice. He is starting to fall apart so he takes awhile to get up from chairs. I'm so used to helping my grandpas get up that I immediately offered to help him. I was reprimanded immediately and he told he could do it himself. OK, just checking... But I learned right away not to offer any help. ;-) The Chief spent most of the weekend teasing me in a way that only a grandfather can. Man, I miss that.
On Saturday, we went out to breakfast at Harrah's (which I'm actually seeing an ad for on my LJ right now!). It was a delicious buffet and I swear I gained 3 pounds during my trip out there. After breakfast, his grandparents went back home and Jeff and I want to Oatman. It's an old town along Route 66 where donkeys (burros as they call them) wonder free. Some of the stores even have little beds inside for them. We took along carrots to feed them, but I had flashbacks of being chased around a petting zoo by a hungry llama who was nearly as tall as me so I let Jeff handle the feeding while I took pictures and pet them. We got back home around 3:30 and headed to church. We went to Mass at a casino! His grandparents' church do two Masses a weekend in the church and three in the casino. It was a very strange experience, but whatever. We went to dinner at a restaurant in the casino building afterwards. Then Janet and the Chief went home while Jeff and I stayed. I won $12 on a penny slot machine (Deal or No Deal) and then we went to a movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. (Actually pretty funny if you don't mind the gross out antics and of course the sex.)
Sunday was a quiet day, just what I needed. We lounged around the house for most of the day, watching the Packers game. Jeff and I went to Katherine's Landing in Lake Mead National Park late in the afternoon where we fed enormous fish. I also made Jeff chase humongus ducks away from us. (Yes, I seem to be scared of large animals.) We had dinner at home that night and continued to just lounge around.
Jeff and I left at 9:00 Monday morning. (I claimed to have a doctor's appointment and took the day off school.) Jeff had to fly back to Boston so I flew back to GR alone. My flight left Vegas at 12:00, but of course that was 2:00 in Michigan. It was 11:00pm by the time I got home. I was definitely exhausted the next day and most the next week! We had a good trip and I'm glad I got the chance to meet his grandparents. Grandma Janet should be able to make it to the wedding, but the Chief won't be able to travel that far. Jeff doesn't seem to think he'll be here anymore by September, but we'll see, I guess.
With conferences out of the way, you'd think that rest of the month would be more peaceful. Not so much. I didn't have anything after school on Tuesday, but I was still wiped out from the weekend. Wednesday I had a professional development session from 4 - 6pm. Fun times. Thursday I had Math Night at U. which are never well attended, in my opinion. This year, with PD on Wednesday, I prepared my stuff for the night after school on Tuesday. I planned for 10 families, but knew I would never get that many. Final count: 3. Yup, well worth the stress and time, don't you think? Oi. The actual night is not hard (I just prepare some of the games the kids are playing in math for them to teach to their parents), it's just one more thing I have to do and one more long night at school. I didn't get home that night until 7:30. Friday night I headed up to Jeff's for the weekend. He ordered me a Wii from Amazon.com for Christmas and it had arrived in only two days. So of course we opened up that bad boy and played before we went to bed that night. I'm not much on video games, but I do enjoy the Wii. I'm not good at it, but it's fun. :-) Now I have my eyes peeled for a Wii Fit for Jeff for Christmas. (Something tells me that I should enjoy the extravagant Christmas presents now while they last!)
The first snow of the season was on Sunday. I could definitely live without snow. I was a basket case all morning even though I knew it wasn't supposed to be a bad storm. Of course, forecasts have failed me before. We went to Jeff's mom's Sunday afternoon. Jeff needed new tires for his car and had been unsuccessful in optaining them on Saturday, so we went to Cosco with his mom on Sunday to get them. I didn't wait around for the tires to be put on. I left about 3:30, driving in and out of the storm the whole time. This time I use the term "storm" loosley as it wasn't bad at all. If only the entire season would be like that. I went grocery shopping when I got home as I haven't been here on a weekend since mid-October, if that. Jeff came down later Sunday night and we played more Wii before going to bed. (He hooked it up here.)
I had another busy week at school this week. I've also been taking a Master's class, educational research. It's a blended learning class so it's met in person about four times and the rest has been online. Our final class meeting was Monday night. I was supposed to have my proposal done by then. Yeah right, not when I've been told that due date was just a suggestion. ;-) When have I had time to write that?? So Monday night I had class until 9:00. Tuesday night I had more professional development until 6:00. I was free from after school obligations the rest of the week, though. Yea!
I took off work today to stay home and write my paper. I had gotten everything outlined so I knew exactly what I was going to write. I was confident I could turn it out in a few hours once I finally sat down to do it. I started working at 9:30 this morning and e-mailed the finished product to my professor at 1:00. Yup, I'm awesome and I know it. ;-) I know exactly where the weak parts of the paper are so I'm curious to see if she thinks the same thing. I'll be getting my revisions from her within the next two weeks, I hope.
Phew! So that's why I've been too busy to even put up my Christmas decorations which I usually do on the 1st. But I did manage to get them up today -- my reward for turning in my research proposal. :-) It's hard to believe that this coming week is already Thanksgiving. Craziness.
Hope you're all doing well!
I flew down to Kentucky on Halloween for Jeff's grandfather's funeral. I arrived down there at about 10:30pm, completely exhausted. The visitation had been that evening, so I missed that, but I was there for the funeral on the 1st. I met the rest of Jeff's family that day, too. His aunt Susan and her boyfriend, John, had come from FL as well as his grandma Martha. All nice people, though John is not someone I wanted to be left alone with... The funeral was at 10:00 the morning of the 1st. It was a nice service, but I am so used to Catholic funerals, that I was again thrown off by something different. Jeff's dad gave a really nice eulogy. We went to the cemetary after the service and then out to lunch from there. We all then gathered back at his grandparents' house to go through some old family pictures for awhile before dinner. Apparently it's been 18 years since the whole family -- including all the kids -- have been in the same place at the same time. (Jeff does not expect that Aunt Susan will come to our wedding.) I headed back home on Sunday, arriving back in MI at 1:30 and home by 4:30. Very busy weekend, but at least I had a little bit of time at home to prepare for the rest of the week.
Monday night was Night Three of conferences. It went well, but those are always super long days. Tuesday -- Election Day -- I stayed home sick. I'd been feeling a bit off all weekend and Monday morning my nose was running non-stop and I was exhausted. I decided to take a day at home to chill out and recover before another night of conferences and my upcoming trip to Arizona. So I spent the 4th at home working on Jeff's anniversary present while tuning in to watch election coverage. As for the election, all I can say is thank God!
I felt much better on Wednesday which was good as I had Night Four of conferences. Another long day, but it went well. Most parents aren't usually too surprised by what we have to say. Thursday was a normal day of work and then I drove back up to Grand Rapids to catch another airplane, this time to Las Vegas.
Friday the 7th was a comp day for conferences. Jeff and I went to visit his maternal grandparents in Bullhead City, AZ, about 90 miles from Las Vegas. We flew out at 8:00 Thursday night and arrived in Vegas at 11:30, their time. We decided to get a hotel room and spent the night about half an hour outside the city rather than drive all the way to Bullhead City that night.
We left the hotel at about 11:30 Friday morning. I'd never been to Vegas so we first went back and drove down the strip before heading to AZ. I love to see things in real life that have been on TV or in the movies so I enjoyed seeing places that have been in movies I've seen and such. We didn't get out of the car at all, but the drive-by was enough for me for this trip. Jeff asked if I wanted to come to Las Vegas for our honeymoon and I said that would be OK with me. (We're not planning on taking a huge trip this year as we don't know for sure if I'll be working. We're just going to take a long weekend somewhere the week after our wedding.) We then headed to Bullhead City, arriving at his grandparents at about 4:00pm.
Not having any grandparents left myself, I of course thought his were great. I was a bit freaked out at first by how alike his mom and grandmother are. Yikes! Throughout the whole weekend, if Grandma Janet was talking to me from a different room, I would momentarily think it was his mother talking. His grandfather, the Chief as they call him, is nice. He is starting to fall apart so he takes awhile to get up from chairs. I'm so used to helping my grandpas get up that I immediately offered to help him. I was reprimanded immediately and he told he could do it himself. OK, just checking... But I learned right away not to offer any help. ;-) The Chief spent most of the weekend teasing me in a way that only a grandfather can. Man, I miss that.
On Saturday, we went out to breakfast at Harrah's (which I'm actually seeing an ad for on my LJ right now!). It was a delicious buffet and I swear I gained 3 pounds during my trip out there. After breakfast, his grandparents went back home and Jeff and I want to Oatman. It's an old town along Route 66 where donkeys (burros as they call them) wonder free. Some of the stores even have little beds inside for them. We took along carrots to feed them, but I had flashbacks of being chased around a petting zoo by a hungry llama who was nearly as tall as me so I let Jeff handle the feeding while I took pictures and pet them. We got back home around 3:30 and headed to church. We went to Mass at a casino! His grandparents' church do two Masses a weekend in the church and three in the casino. It was a very strange experience, but whatever. We went to dinner at a restaurant in the casino building afterwards. Then Janet and the Chief went home while Jeff and I stayed. I won $12 on a penny slot machine (Deal or No Deal) and then we went to a movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. (Actually pretty funny if you don't mind the gross out antics and of course the sex.)
Sunday was a quiet day, just what I needed. We lounged around the house for most of the day, watching the Packers game. Jeff and I went to Katherine's Landing in Lake Mead National Park late in the afternoon where we fed enormous fish. I also made Jeff chase humongus ducks away from us. (Yes, I seem to be scared of large animals.) We had dinner at home that night and continued to just lounge around.
Jeff and I left at 9:00 Monday morning. (I claimed to have a doctor's appointment and took the day off school.) Jeff had to fly back to Boston so I flew back to GR alone. My flight left Vegas at 12:00, but of course that was 2:00 in Michigan. It was 11:00pm by the time I got home. I was definitely exhausted the next day and most the next week! We had a good trip and I'm glad I got the chance to meet his grandparents. Grandma Janet should be able to make it to the wedding, but the Chief won't be able to travel that far. Jeff doesn't seem to think he'll be here anymore by September, but we'll see, I guess.
With conferences out of the way, you'd think that rest of the month would be more peaceful. Not so much. I didn't have anything after school on Tuesday, but I was still wiped out from the weekend. Wednesday I had a professional development session from 4 - 6pm. Fun times. Thursday I had Math Night at U. which are never well attended, in my opinion. This year, with PD on Wednesday, I prepared my stuff for the night after school on Tuesday. I planned for 10 families, but knew I would never get that many. Final count: 3. Yup, well worth the stress and time, don't you think? Oi. The actual night is not hard (I just prepare some of the games the kids are playing in math for them to teach to their parents), it's just one more thing I have to do and one more long night at school. I didn't get home that night until 7:30. Friday night I headed up to Jeff's for the weekend. He ordered me a Wii from Amazon.com for Christmas and it had arrived in only two days. So of course we opened up that bad boy and played before we went to bed that night. I'm not much on video games, but I do enjoy the Wii. I'm not good at it, but it's fun. :-) Now I have my eyes peeled for a Wii Fit for Jeff for Christmas. (Something tells me that I should enjoy the extravagant Christmas presents now while they last!)
The first snow of the season was on Sunday. I could definitely live without snow. I was a basket case all morning even though I knew it wasn't supposed to be a bad storm. Of course, forecasts have failed me before. We went to Jeff's mom's Sunday afternoon. Jeff needed new tires for his car and had been unsuccessful in optaining them on Saturday, so we went to Cosco with his mom on Sunday to get them. I didn't wait around for the tires to be put on. I left about 3:30, driving in and out of the storm the whole time. This time I use the term "storm" loosley as it wasn't bad at all. If only the entire season would be like that. I went grocery shopping when I got home as I haven't been here on a weekend since mid-October, if that. Jeff came down later Sunday night and we played more Wii before going to bed. (He hooked it up here.)
I had another busy week at school this week. I've also been taking a Master's class, educational research. It's a blended learning class so it's met in person about four times and the rest has been online. Our final class meeting was Monday night. I was supposed to have my proposal done by then. Yeah right, not when I've been told that due date was just a suggestion. ;-) When have I had time to write that?? So Monday night I had class until 9:00. Tuesday night I had more professional development until 6:00. I was free from after school obligations the rest of the week, though. Yea!
I took off work today to stay home and write my paper. I had gotten everything outlined so I knew exactly what I was going to write. I was confident I could turn it out in a few hours once I finally sat down to do it. I started working at 9:30 this morning and e-mailed the finished product to my professor at 1:00. Yup, I'm awesome and I know it. ;-) I know exactly where the weak parts of the paper are so I'm curious to see if she thinks the same thing. I'll be getting my revisions from her within the next two weeks, I hope.
Phew! So that's why I've been too busy to even put up my Christmas decorations which I usually do on the 1st. But I did manage to get them up today -- my reward for turning in my research proposal. :-) It's hard to believe that this coming week is already Thanksgiving. Craziness.
Hope you're all doing well!