August 9
This'll probably be a quickie note, mainly because I'm rushing to leave the office to go get some stuff done (ie: mail you a ton of pictures, go to the bank, pick up Blythe, go get Kaylee (Mandy's daughter) who's staying for a few days). I've checked off quite a lot on my list today but still have lots more to do and my back is seriously killing me. I pinched a nerve in my back last week when I carried a too heavy cooler when I took the kids to the waterpark on Monday. I went to chiropractor on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday before I went to Iowa and then again today but I've had little relief. I've been icing it down a lot and taking ibuprofen like they are candy! Ah well, it will get better!
I have more pictures to print out and send you, or order and send you but I didn't take that many when I was in Iowa since my back had me mostly on the couch. We had fun though and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. Uncle Tony and Aunt Wendy have a nice in-ground pool which the kids loved spending time in. I went in a few times myself but just floated around. We were there from Wednesday to Sunday morning. Sunday David had the physical test to be a fireman and he passed with a time of 8 minutes 34 seconds. Super proud of him. The next step will be the interview process then hopefully a job offer. I worry, of course, about him being a firefighter and putting his life on the line to save others, but it's a dream of his and I support him in that.
So there wasn't a ton of activity within the last week, other than the waterpark we went to on Monday before we left, that was fun but of course now I'm paying the price with a freakin super sore back. Darn it! My back isn't really hurting, it's my leg. The nerve pinched in my back sends waves of pain down my leg with movement. Talk about fun! Once my back is better I'm going to start using an exercise bike to get back in shape. I'm sick of being not as thin as I once was, so I bought a bike on Walmart.com and it is at the store, I just have to go get it and make David put it together (he's so lucky! J)
I don't think I told you in my last letter but David, Blythe and I went to the Elkhart County Fair the last week of July and saw Huey Lewis and the News in concert. It was a lot of fun and I loved singing along with the songs and forcing Blythe to dance along with me J. Oh also I had emailed my professor for my Final Grade in Algebra and I got a 95% on the Final Exam and I already had an A in the class but I was soooo excited to hear about the final as it was seriously Intense!!!
David is taking John to the Wisconsin Dells tomorrow to a waterpark hotel til Friday. He's doing that because I'm taking the girls to the Justin Bieber concert on Thursday in Indianapolis with Mandy and Kaylee. They don't know yet and I'm going to tell them when we get down to Indy. They are going to freak out!!! J
Okay well I just looked at the clock and saw the time and I really got to get running but I'll write more next week!
August 31
I'm super irritable right now too. I'm on break between classes and half-assedly eating some yummy strawberry shortcake and just got done re-reading and tweaking my Sociology paper due this Friday. I started school on August 23, I have 4 classes this semester: Spanish 2, Sociology, Intro to Great Issues (Philosophy) and Algebra/Trigonometry. I'll tell you about each one. Spanish 2 is great, 5 of my friends who took Spanish 1 with me also signed up for Spanish 2 with me, so we have a row of our regulars! However, one of the girls just dropped Spanish 2 because she felt she wasn't going to do good at it. Our Spanish professor is from Colombia and she just learned English 10 years ago! She seems really nice though and is not rushing us through stuff so that's good. However, she hasn't issued any homework yet and the only way I learn is from repetition and doing homework, so I asked about that today and this one loud mouth girl that I already can't stand gave me shit about it and I was super irritated by it. Still am. People are stupid. You go to college to learn! Anyway I had a similar experience in math class last night, which I'll tell you about in a minute. Right now in Spanish we are currently learning about food and saying that we like something. So I've been practicing saying stuff in Spanish with the kids which is fun. Like: pido unos huevos, which is I would like some eggs. Or pido una torta de chocolate. I would like a chocolate cake, or torte. If you say I like Spanish it's: me gusta espanol. Or if you don't like Spanish you say: no me gusta espanol.
My sociology class is all online, which I was at first worried about, but now I think I'm getting into the groove of it. Each week we have a 2 page single spaced paper due as a reflection of what we read in that week's chapter. We are currently on Chapter 2. We also have to watch a video or read an article and then answer a couple of questions in the format of a discussion thread. Then you have to respond to your peers' response as well. The professor expects at least 3 interactions per week, and I'm very driven to get an A so I do at least that. I was really worried about my Chapter 1 paper, but I got 2 out of 2 points and when she made an announcement of how she graded the papers, she said to look at mine or one other students' as to what a 2 point paper is like, which is awesome! It made me feel so relieved! I've already wrote the Chapter 2 reflection and I have sent it off to a couple people to review for grammatical issues before I post it. I'll send them to you as well.
The Intro to Great Issues (Philosophy) class should be quite interesting. Each day a summary of one article listed for the semester by day is due. The summary has to be less than a page and contain no opinion in it. So we basically read a small article or like today, we are to turn in a summary of Books 1 and 2 of Genesis. I wondered why we would have to write with no opinion considering it's a Philosophy class but the entire class time is discussion of our opinions. We write what the author states to show we can clearly see what the message was. I'll be interested to see how the class discussion goes today because sometimes religion is a volatile subject. I think everyone should respect each other's opinion, even if it differs from their own, but a lot of people don't do that.
My Algebra/Trigonometry class is my last math class (thank heavens!). I took it with the same professor I had in 064 (my first math class). He's a good guy but this class is way more intense and so I may have to go see the math tutors here at PNC or study extra on this subject! I have this class on Monday and Wednesdays from 7 – 8:15 pm. It's my only night class, the other 2 I come to PNC for are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. OH yeah I was going to tell you about the girl in my math class that pissed me off yesterday! What is it with people! Well our professor was going to show us how to do something using our very complicated scientific calculators but he had forgot it, so he told us he was going to show us yesterday. While class was winding up about 15 minutes early and the guy I took 064 with asked the Prof if he was going to go over that… well this one girl across the room got really shitty, like OMG, why would you say that, she says. Totally irritated me, so I spouted off back to her, "That I'd rather know how to do it for the tests, then not know how to do it." And the guy I took the math class with before, said "It's 10 minutes, geesh." Anyway, so people are pushing my buttons this week!
The weekend before school started we had a yard sale and made some money which was good! We also sold the washer/dryer set that was in the house when we moved in (we had our own). The kids started school on August 25. Blythe is in 3rd grade and her teacher's name is Mrs. Carlson. She likes her. The twins are in preschool with Mrs. Kelly. Her name is actually Kelli Kelly, isn't that funny? I had called the school because the pre-school is in the same school and they are teaching the twins stuff they already know. In Indiana you have to be 5 by August to go to kindergarten or they can test in, so I called the secretary last week to talk about it and she said the counselor would test them to see if they can be moved up to kindergarten. I don't know how long that will take, I just called the school and asked about it. She said hope to hear something by the end of the week. They are currently teaching the twins how to count to 10 and John can count to over 100 while Grace can count up to 30 at least. So we'll see how that goes. Thursday there is an Open House at the school so I'm looking forward to that.
Next weekend David, the kids and I are going to get family pictures done at the beach. I'm really excited though I would prefer to lose like 15 pounds before them! I got an exercise bike and I worked out on it 4 times last week but took a break over the weekend. I biked today when I got home from class. It's now 8:24 pm and I'm in bed printing off photos to send you along with the other photos I had ordered from walmart.com a couple weeks ago. I plan on going to the post office after I take the twins to school to mail you all the pictures and this letter. Back to the pictures, I'm super excited about getting pictures done at the beach, plus David and I need a photographer for our wedding so hopefully this works out.
I got all the wall decals put up within the last couple weeks. They look great, I'm sending you pictures of some. I had ordered 2nd sets for the cherry blossom in our bedroom and for the living room, which we put on our big, long wall by the entryway and put up pictures around them (David's idea and it turned out awesome!). I love the way the house looks, though there is always more to do and always cleaning to do to keep it looking good! This weekend David and I have decided to work on the garage (putting stuff up from garage sale etc.) and also the basement. I had the basement almost all finished with boxing stuff up in storage bins and something fell on the storage bins and they toppled all over so now it's a total mess down there! Ergh! Ah well, hopefully it'll be all put together at the end of this weekend!
Well mid-printing the ink in my printer started going out so I will try and print some pictures at the office tomorrow and now have to add yet another thing to do to my list tomorrow, buy more ink! I already have so much to do tomorrow, I may have to move some stuff around! Aspen is currently sniffing the pictures I printed out so if they smell like dog that's why J.
I think I printed off some pictures of the Justin Bieber concert I took the girls to thru Walmart, but I can't remember and they are out in the car so if not I'll order some and send them to you next time. I take so many pictures and then I order the prints thru Walmart as they are much cheaper that way! The girls had an amazing time at the Bieber concert. It was so much fun! We told them in the parking garage when we got to our hotel in Indy because there were a ton of cars with Justin Bieber written on them and we saw people in the hotel area with Justin Bieber shirts on. They all screamed! Blythe said this was the best thing ever, Kaylee cried and Grace asked Mandy to be her bridesmaid. I think I've told you before Grace believes Justin Bieber is her boyfriend J. Our seats were up super high which was a bummer but there were a couple big screens and they loved it. There was Sean Kingston, the guy who sings "Replay" and Drake there as well as a couple no-name opening acts. We went to dinner at the Hard Rock Café afterwards and then went back to the hotel and passed out! When we got back I uploaded pictures to Walmart.com and ordered 2 memory books for each of the girls. I just got them last weekend, I think. They loved them!
The kids' birthday is coming up… Well Blythe's is on September 30 and the twins' is on October 17. Blythe and Grace want American Girl dolls (insanely expensive dolls that you buy in Chicago) so I told them that I would buy them that for their only present. John wants a guitar so I'm in search for that now.
Okay I need to read an article for my Philosophy class so I'll write more soon!
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