A Natural Campus

Several areas on campus the grounds crew have left to grow wild. They are interspersed between areas of cut lawns and other maintained grass areas. As we drive from our apartment to our student homes, we get to enjoy the beauty and changes that occur to these areas. Today we finally captured one section we drive by regularly:

The wildflowers and other foliage have been striking. It's mid-July and there is none of the brown grasses we are accustomed to in the west.

I Hate It When That Happens!

Just one piece and the border would be complete!

Time to hunt through all 55 million other pieces to find the 1...grrrr....

Snow Geese Sightings

Last year we had some noisy birds stop on their migration path. They sounded much like Canada geese but they didn't look anything like that type of goose. We later learned that they are snow geese. They are noisy, but very pretty. From a distance a large flock can resemble moving snow on the ground.

We had a couple different groups fly past our house and it was mesmerizing to watch them:

 

(The video might be sound only for some reason. You can hear the geese best after the siren passes.)

A few days later I was running an errand and saw another flock of snow geese on the ground enjoying a meal from the freshly turned earth.

It's been amazing to observe these animals the last couple years.

Keeping Track

In September, we had an assignment change at work. Instead of being substitutes for 60 Senior Division student homes, we are now assigned to Flex (or substitute) with the same four female student homes. We work 12 days then are off 3. We start at our 'A' home at 2:00 pm and transition to our 'B' home at 2:00 pm three days later, then at 2:00 three days after that to our 'C' home and then onto our 'D' home. We then enjoy our three days off until we start the rotation again.

The change from 12-2 to 12-3 was confusing for us at first and very difficult for others to follow. To keep it straight, I used a school calendar colored our days at each student home and off a different color.

Now that we've been at this for several months, we have it figured out fairly well and don't have to think too hard which home we go to when.

With the assignment change, the number of students we could work with has dropped from about 700 to 48. It may still seem like a lot, but 48 is much more manageable, and we are developing closer relationships with each student. We love our girls and have had a great time getting to know them better and sharing in their activities.

A Unapproved "Pet"

A number of weeks ago I pulled a pan out to make some dinner and found a little surprise in it. I showed it to Dan saying, "Please tell me that isn't a mouse dropping." We cleaned the pan out well and then kept our eyes open to try and discover if we did have a mouse or not.

Several weeks went by with no sightings so I thought we were in the clear. (Thought being the key word in the sentence...)

One of the houseparents we cover for gave us some Ghirardelli chocolates as a "Thank You" for helping with their students. Knowing Dan as I do, I hid the chocolates in a dresser drawer to ration and divide evenly between us.

Shortly after that I was getting into that drawer and noticed a little mess:

 

I was afraid of what the mess meant...sure enough when I moved the chocolate package I discovered the proof...

...we had an unwelcome guest in our home.

Some time earlier Dan had asked about his leftover Christmas chocolates that disappeared from under our Christmas tree. I figured he ate them but forgot that he did. He insisted he didn't eat them. Until the Ghirardelli chocolates disappeared I lived happily in a state of denial. Now the truth had come out, we did indeed have a mouse roaming our house and eating our chocolates. I suppose the calories would be been on it than us but this is Ghirardelli chocolates we're talking about here!

We called the exterminator and he put a couple traps down and some poison in our attic. He was confident we'd capture the critter. Well, it is pretty slick, one of the traps has been without bait and set for a couple months now since the mouse ate the bait and didn't set off the trap.

Not too long ago I moved a sticky spider trap from our laundry room and noticed a ball of fur in it. I was uncertain how we'd managed to get that much dryer lint in it so I looked closer and discovered claws and teeth. Not sure how long it had been there but our spider trap also successfully captured a mouse!

We've seen no evidence of rodents for some time now and the poison is gone from the attic so hopefully we're in the clear. I suppose only time will tell.

Mailbox vs Sentra

When backing up to check the mail at the student home...

...because you drove past it on the way into the driveway, use caution otherwise it can be extremely hazardous TO YOUR CAR!!! 

Ok, not so bad; I can live with that.

Yeah, not so much with that!

Yes, the all metal mailbox is just fine. It was leaning a little but a slight push and pressing down on the dirt around it was all the repair needed. Our car on the other hand...it'll be going to the hospital in the near future.

So if you see Dan walking everywhere, just know he still isn't allowed to drive the car. I suppose it's a good thing I love him more than my car.

(Yes,I know that I'm behind. Planning to come at the updates from both sides and meeting in the middle so it's not so maybe posts will happen sooner.)

Does the Milk Drain Clockwise Here?

Milk is ordered for the student homes by boxes of 5 gallons. Depending on the house, it can take a little over a week for 12 students to drink a full box. However, it takes about 15 minutes to drain a full one into the sink...

(We weren't sure how long the milk had been waiting outside prior to being put back into the "cow"so we erred on the side of caution.)

A "cow." (Photo from here.)

Something to Shoot For!

I didn't realize that...

...has so many locations:

Hmmmm...I wonder if our discount works at all the locations? And, how hard will I have to beg Dan to visit all of them and find out? Future break itineraries!

Friendly Competition?

It has become a tradition to have NCAA Basketball bracket groups for our families. We've had a good time following the games and bragging about who has the best method for picking teams. This year prizes were on the line for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places.

We received a text from Amanda saying that Jake wanted to prove his dominance to Liz and to open up the group to assist him. He seems to think that he won our tournament challenges in the past. Weeellll, ESPN kept track of last year's rankings and Jake didn't do so hot that year. Maybe this will be his year.

When the tournament ended, the results were as follows:

Broadbent Family Bracket:

1. JaNae
2. Amanda
3. Liz C.

Horrocks Family Bracket:

1. JaNae
2. Rebecca
3. Amanda

Yes, I have the best approach for picking NCAA teams. (Dan jokes it's by team colors or mascots but that's not the case, I do glance at their placements before selecting winners.) In fact, at one point this year I was the only one in the ESPN tournament challenge with a perfect bracket. Now by the third game that was over but I enjoyed the bragging rights as long as they lasted; especially since I was beating all the sports fanatics in the family.

After the results were finalized, messages went to the winners to determine what their prizes would be; favorite Hershey's Candy of course. The first prize ended up being an all expense paid trip to Washington, DC with Dan. (More on that in a future post.) Second and Third both requested Reese's Peanut Butter Cups of different sizes. Of course Amanda wanted this one:

Having her waistline and sugar intake as our concern, this is what was sent:

We made sure to include the following note on the Resse's:

Not sure what Amanda thought when it arrived but we thought it was very clever.

Liz asked for mini Resse's and she received her own package with her prize and certificate.

A fun tradition.

Oh, and Jake, there's always next year; hee, hee, hee.

Our Reward for Sacrificing

All of my student loans are paid off! It's been a tough journey full of sacrifices and big extra payments resulting in my loans all paid off in 5½ years. We still have a couple of Dan's to finish, however, his will be all finished by the end of June 2014. Afterwards the trick will be to NOT spend every dime we've put towards debt and save, Save, SAVE as much as possible of that "extra" income.

To celebrate the milestone of my debts being finished we decided to look for a new couch. We asked for recommendations, having no idea where to begin the shopping process. The first store we went to had many to choose from and we found three that were our favorites:

None of them we were both 100% sold on; they were too formal, too casual, or too retro for what we wanted. So off to a couple more stores we went.

Finally we had some time between Conference Sessions and decided to try one or two more stores. We entered one and looked through several options not very excited about much of what we saw; the price and/or style. Finally we found one we both agreed upon! The price was reasonable enough that we were able to purchase the ottoman too.

Because we purchased the couch exactly how it appeared on the floor (in fact it is the one from the sales floor) it was delivered about a week after we purchased it. The morning it arrived I raced home from work to see our new furniture in it's proper place. I must say, we picked well!

Since the couch is a totally different color than what we had before, that means that purchases need to be made so that more of the living room items match the different color scheme. I'm trying to be patient but am anxious to finish the search for additional seating options and to complete our new living room decor.

Diet Problems #1, 2, 3, & 4

These are my favorites. They are distributed by Hershey. They've been out for a couple weeks in several stores. We get discounts on them at Chocolate World. I'm in so much trouble!

Pondering the Mysteries

A couple weeks ago I entered the student home living room to find Dan "diligently" keeping an eye on things...

Thankfully it was a home where the students were good enough this wasn't much of a concern.

A New Tradition?

I thought I'd celebrate Pi Day for the first time in style:

Two pies made from scratch, crust and all! It was fun to break out my pie making skills for some appreciative students. We'll see if it's a new tradition next year.

Trust is Important in ALL Relationships

After seeing the following, a student came to us saying his computer had "trust issues:"

We thought it was a very clever description of the error message.


P.S. I'm trying to enter posts as close to chronologically as I can so scroll down, there might be one or two older ones I just posted.

Is Jack Frost Unemployed Yet?!

It has been a crazy winter. I know others have been hit hard too, but I say enough is enough for all of us; let spring start!

A couple weeks ago the. The students had 2 snow days and 2 late starts because of  snow and ice storms. And that's not counting the TWO snow storms that hit during their President's Day long weekend! I am officially finished with snow, ice, cold, and winter!!! Hopefully we are about finished, but I have a hunch we have storm or two still before Spring will officially begin.

Despite the cold, snow, and damaging ice storm, I was able to capture some pictures of Jack Frost's artistry (and some of his destruction too):

 

You can see the weight of the ice pulling on the branches in this picture and the next one.

A large branch from the tree on the right broke off from the weight of the ice.

Sometimes, this is how we get scraped out:

Thankfully, this is how the student home and our driveways are scraped out:

Before Dan slipped on the ice, I was able to capture a beautiful sunrise from the student home where we were covering:

One of the snow days, this is what greeted the students when they woke up with their regular 6:00 am alarm:

Just one example of the humor we share with the students. Later in the day someone changed it to "you will be already are stupid."

Despite the groundhog's prediction, Spring can start any time now!!!

"Patience Prudence" As Mom Would Say

One night I was running errands on my night out. When I entered the bathroom stall in Walmart this was sitting on the back of the toilet.

 

 

I thought, "Seriously, you are that desperate to know the results that you can't go home do this in the privacy of your own bathroom?" It's kinda funny actually. Hopefully the results were what they wanted.