Classes

What were your favorite classes in school? What class(es) would you like to take now?

Of course I loved Art class with Mrs. Catlett. (hey, another C) She really turned my life around.

I liked humanities with Mrs. Carson (wow, C again)

One of the classes that I think helped me most to prepare for college was Expositions with Mrs. Packer. Even though she seemed a bit scattered sometimes, her emphasis on getting the details in your writing helped me to be the only person in the incoming Freshman class at Columbia College to test out of English 1. Mrs. Braun told me that my scores were very good on the grammatical test but all of the faculty was very impressed with my essay and the detail in it. (As I look around this room.... All of the students were all in the cafeteria testing and I wrote about specific people, i.e. Will North Dakota farm girl Darla be able to handle the homesickness to be the first person in her family to graduate from college?) Another fun thing about the class was playing "Dictionary", the original version of Balderdash. The person who had the dictionary would find a word in it and then write the real definition while the rest of us made our own up, just like Balderdash. Wish I had translated that class game to the money making commercial one!

I HATED math. Thank goodness we were only required to have one year of math for my graduating class (the requirements upped the next few years). I took Algebra with Mr. Baylor. I don't know how I ever stayed awake in that class.

I think I could have liked science, but it was so much about memorization (those periodic tables) instead of learning how things worked or why.

Win some Thickers

Wanna win some Thickers? Check out this gal's contest.

http://thisscrapperslife.blogspot.com/2009/10/thickers-giveaway.html

The Battle of the Gately Boys

My crazy boys (that would be husband and son). They love to torture each other. It's like having two brothers rather than parent & child.

Tonight's torture topic was exercise. John thinks that Jacob should get exercise by trying to escape Dad as Dad tortures him. Lots of yelling goes on. Lots of laughing goes on. At least it's in the privacy of our own home instead of picking on each other at the mall (which always happens if I take them both with me. Maybe that's why we never go to the mall!)

One Word

USING ONLY ONE WORD:
Not as easy as you might think! Now forward, change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to send back to the person you received it from!
Where is your cell phone? Purse
Your significant other? Couch
Your hair? up
Your mother? Missouri
Your father? Garage
Your favorite thing? food
Your dream last night? none
Your favorite drink? milk
Your dream/goal? health
Your hobby? books
Your fear? death
Where do you want to be in 6 years? family
Where were you last night? Rodriguez
Something that you aren't? thin
Muffins? blueberry
Wish list item? peace
Last thing you did? ate
What are you wearing? sloppy
TV? John
Your pets? Lucky
Friends? many
Your life? boring
Your mood? tired
Missing someone? Yes
Drinking? water
Smoking? yuck
Your car? Van
Something you're not wearing? shoes
Your favorite store? Walmart
Your favorite color? Blue
Who will resend this? unknown
Where do you go to over and over? work
People who email me regularly? Groups
My favorite place to eat? TXLC
Favorite place I'd like to be now? chair
People I think will respond? Flyfriends

Black Friday 2008

Couldn't sleep night before. Didn't get to bed until after midnight. Up at 3:30 a.m. sicker than a dog (nausea). Listened to my aunt gripe at my cousin about her driving all the way to the store (about a 30 min drive). Got to Walmart about 4:30. The only thing I really wanted to get that day was a kitchenaid mixer that WM had for $130. When I got there, there were 10 mixers and about 20 people already standing there waiting to grab. I stood around, chatted for a while, evaluated my chances of getting one without being killed and decided that with the carts and people blocking my way, there was no way on earth that I was going to get one of those 10 mixers at 5:00. I went on and got other stuff and met my cousin at the checkout line.

After surviving the long checkout line at WM, we headed to Target. Arrived before they opened. The gal who ended up in line behind me to get in was one of the close ones to the mixers at WM. Asked her if she got one - she did...for her friend. But the little old lady who had been standing beside her - who was the first one to get there at 3:30 - did not get one because "She was too nice. Everyone just grabbed them from around her." Hello holiday spirit......

After Target, we hit radio shack & gamestop in the mall (Target is in our mall back in MO). Then we got breakfast (my aunt with us for the first, and last, time and she has to have breakfast - and it did help my stomach a bit) then to Toys R Us.

While my aunt & cousin stood in line for an hour and a half at TRU to save $9 (yes you read that right - $9), I parked the car (I had let them out at door), came in to check where they were (already in line), went shopping next door at Circuit City, came back, browsed around TRU, visited them, went back and bought more at CC, browsed TRU some more. You get the idea! LOL! I had a 10% discount gamers card at CC - we could have gone next door and bought the two items (Rock Band 1 and Wii Animal Crossing City Folk) for only $9 more. Had my aunt known that, we would have been there (she hates being in line and money really wasn't an object with her) but my cousin was determined that her 20% off one item coupon at TRU was a much better deal.

Oh, and I took over driving once we were in Columbia. My aunt never complains about my driving and my cousin's driving was making me even sicker.

Anyway, after that wonderful morning, we headed home and I went back to bed. I would say my black Friday was the worst part of the whole holiday. No money, sick, only about 10 items on my list, etc. I usually get all of my shopping done on BF, but it didn't happen this year.

And thanks for asking...........LOL!

Thanksgiving 2008

We're back from our thanksgiving in Missouri

We had an awesome t-giving - up until I was sick on Friday. Didn't stop me from going shopping, though! But once I was done with the early morning shopping, I was in bed for the afternoon!

John's brother Danny from Chicago came down with his son Zain - first time we've seen him and he's 5 years old! He's a very cute and very polite young boy. He was a sheer joy! He started when the arrived on Wednesday screaming in fright about the dogs – Lucky and John's brother's dachshund Sandy. (They had gone to a friend's house once who had two great danes – who eagerly jumped up on him and freaked him out.) I told him we get him over his fear of dogs. By the time they left on Saturday, they had adopted a dog from someone on the parking lot at Walmart (whom Zain named "Noisy Quiet Love"), determined that was not the right dog for them, took it to the humane society and got a dachshund instead!!

John's other brothers were there for t-giving day (well, not the two that we've disowned) and everyone got along great. Ate, played some PS3, played some football, shot some guns, shot a longbow that Danny brought down, etc. His sister and her hubby were supposed to come but John & Danny were at their house on Wednesday night and there was a lot of drinking and Wii playing going on. So sis & BIL ended up too sick for t-giving - hangover LOL! But John spent a good amount of time over at their house on the other days, so I'm sure they got their fill of him.
John did not get to hunt, but one of our friends got a deer and John went over and helped him skin it and cut it up (the meat processors won't just take the whole deer anymore - you have to bring them just the meat and they will grind it and make sausage, jerky, etc.) Anyway, we will get some of the meat when we go back up there at Christmas.

Not only did I get to visit with my cousin and best friend, but I also got to visit with the gals from my old office that I was so close with. One is leaving the office, another got married in August and is pregnant! The things I've missed out on! (If John doesn't get a job and we end up moving back to MO maybe they will rehire me!)

Of course Jacob's cousin Blake spent the entire week with him. And the boy who was his best friend in 1st grade (Joseph) came out and spent a day with us. (We try to get them together over the summer when Jacob is there visiting, but it just didn't happen this past summer.)
John, his BIL (Chief of Police), and I took Jacob and Blake down in the woods and taught them how to properly load, handle and fire John's 22 handgun, S&W 40 and his 223 rifle. Jacob enjoyed it and looks forward to some more shooting lessons with his dad.

A visit home would not be complete without some sort of auto repair by my dad! LOL! I was losing water so he determined that the plug on the radiator was bad so he had to drain that replace the plug. While investigating the "belt squeak" that has been going on since March, he determined that my alternator as making noise and could possibly go out, so he replaced that – we figured better to be proactive and do it now then get back down here to TX and have to pay a mechanic to fix it. Of course, that cut into the already tight Christmas gift funds.

I rested a lot, read a few books, and enjoyed food, family and friends. It was probably one of the best thanksgivings I've had in years!

WHY?

Sometimes "Why?" is the only thing you can say. I walked into Jacob's room and saw the following sight. When you see something like this, what else are you supposed to say? His response - "It was loading." (as in, the Sims game was loading up on the computer) Ummmm....ok......