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.

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.)

Miscellaneous Spring Related Things

Our winter was very wet and harsh to so Spring was a very welcomed change. There were so many beautiful blooming trees around campus and it seemed that they bloomed at the same time:

In order to get these beautiful flowers, rain must fall. I took a student to Walmart and noticed the clouds gathering. I hoped that we'd get in and out before the storm hit...One of us got back to the van without getting wet...

As I was driving towards campus with a student, we saw a person flying around with a parachute on a chair with a motor. (Not sure of the official name of the "sport" or equipment.)  As I was driving a few minutes later I stopped the van to take a picture or two; not great quality but you get the idea of what was being used:

Dan frequently introduces himself as "The Chosen One" or "Your Highness" to the students when they can't remember our name. One day he managed to find himself a scepter-he thinks it helps his case for his titles:

One of our day's off we headed to DC to spend some time in the Temple. The flowers and green was amazing here too:

I smile whenever I see this sign as we head to the DC Temple; it's definitely an attraction to not be missed:

With the warmer temperatures comes the need to collect delivered milk as soon as possible. At one student home we weren't sure when the 5 gallons of milk were delivered so we erred on the side of caution:

I discovered dumping 5 gallons of milk doesn't take very long. Not the best but better than drinking sour milk for several days.

Dan received the following in the mail this spring:

I found it very funny for some reason, maybe because my card is still so far away. The thing that was strange though is that he could have joined at 50, two years ago! Guess needs to update their mailings a bit.

My cooking skills have been put to the test with this new job.Not only am I cooking for at least 14 but I have tried more new recipes in the last year than I think I have in previous years put together! I've even tackled coconut shrimp.

While we were shopping for our new couch, we saw this small plaque and Dan thought we should take our picture with it...The things we do to humor each other...

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.

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.

"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.

An Imaginative Distraction

This was a stethoscope & magnifying glass for the 3-year-old girl who sat on my lap in church today.

Ag & Zoology Related

So the saga of the double yolks continues...

When I finished the dozen, 10 of the 12 were double yolks!

We live among corn fields:

The corn might not be quite elephant eye height but it does surpass Dan's eye:

Over the summer there was a orange bullfrog outside the student home. Well, since then we've seen two outside OUR HOUSE! The first one appeared at home on an night out for Dan. I wondered if maybe I'd have to kiss the toad to get my prince back:

 

 

 

 

Lately they've gotten a little bolder...the two frogs were guarding our door:

 

It's kinda cool to have them here but kinda creepy at the same time.

We've seen a hawk seen several times outside our house. It's remarkable to see it just resting on the wires looking for something to eat. One day we even saw a couple of them a few feet apart:

I won't post the pictures of the huge spiders we've seen so far; just know they aren't big, they are HUGE!!!!!

Summertime Randomness

In no particular order, here are some things we've experienced during our first summer in Pennsylvania:

It's harder some days than others to hide the difficulties of working with your spouse 24-hours a day. ;)

(I just realized this looks like a mug shot…I promise it isn’t if you look close you can see the hook from our bathroom door & that’s a white shower curtain behind me HONEST!)

Summer has officially arrived!

Occasionally our job requires us to hang at the pool. How GREAT IS THAT?!?!

Dan's newest fascination...Fireflies. They have been so fun to watch "dancing" around in the evenings.

My first double yolk ever was before we left Boise...I cracked 4 of 4 eggs with double yolks on August 11! Things are certainly different in Pennsylvania (hope it's not because of our close proximity to Three Mile Island! Ha ha ha...).

Just hanging in a 60's style student home kitchen.

Our car reached a milestone. I think it's the 4th car I've driven that's hit 100K.

How about some ice cream with your whipped topping??? We stumbled upon this fabulous ice cream parlor in Mt. Gretna, PA. We haven't returned to Jigger Shop yet, but I we might have to make another trip before the summer season comes to a close.

Dan becomes a complete rebel when he seeks time in the spotlight.

It's been a fun summer so far. Hopefully the weather will stay nice for awhile so we can continue to enjoy various adventures around our new home.