A Lot of Hard Work

Today is the first day in a while when both Ken and I have been home and able to get some much-needed work done around the house. I got up bright early around 4:30 a.m. -- but stayed in bed until around 5:30 a.m. -- and decided to get my "mandatory" Saturday exercise in and done for the day. I got on the treadmill downstairs and managed to get in about 50 minutes while watching almost two full episodes of "Sell This House." The good thing about walking and that show is that I desperately need to see the completed versions of the houses and so it makes me keep walking until the end of the show.

While downstairs, I managed to do two loads of laundry and clean the cats' litter box area (sweeping and scooping). Sadly, I discovered much to my dismay that one of the cats had peed in the Kitty Pop Tent and so had to also do a cleaning of the floor and another trip to the garbage to dispose of the now-ruined pop tent. So much for buying them toys! Side note: I must say that my Swiffer Wet Jet is my new favorite cleaning tool for the basement. It's perfect for cleaning and sprucing up a concrete floor after 3 cats.

After that, it was on to the outside where Ken (I made him get out of bed by this point) and I set to work on the yard. It was my goal today to get all the lawn decorations in and get some of the nasty plant stuff put into the yard waste bin. Thankfully, because yesterday was Veterans Day, there was no garbage or yard waste pick up until today, so we managed to get the yard stuff out with about 20 minutes to spare before the truck came around. Victory! Ken went around with the leaf blower/sucker thing and picked up a lot of the loose leaves blowing around. It looks pretty good out there. I should get a fall house picture up to share. Will work on that. Now we just have to get the furniture in the side porch pushed to the middle of the room and covered, and we should be pretty much good to go for winter. Considering we had our first round of snow on Tuesday, we are now aware that this could happen for real anytime.

Tonight we're off to a UNI game with some of Ken's family. His sister Linda is making chicken tortilla soup before the event. Can't wait! Not only do I not have to cook, but I get to have an excuse for not doing any school work for the rest of the day (not like I've started any of course).

On a side note, I thought I'd mention that I've been doing Weight Watchers again for the past 9 weeks or so. My friend Kelly and I decided to do it together. It's so much easier when there's someone who's going through it at the same time. We've been moving steadily along. Kelly hit her 10 pound lost mark on Wednesday, and I hit my 20 pound mark the week before that. My first goal is 25 by Christmas. I'm not looking too far past that at this point. Small goals, right?

A Trip to the Apple Orchards

Yay! I have 2 readers!! Thanks to Susie and Nikki for still checking in on me/us! That does my heart good.

This weekend has so far found us taking off from the Waterloo area and experiencing the fall colors. Sounds corny, I know, but everything looks so good outside and smells like fall all over the place. We took off Friday afternoon after I got done teaching. Ken even left work a little early -- that rarely happens! We headed out to his Dad's to check in and say hi and then were off on the road. We decided to go to this place in Wisconsin called Gays Mills (yes, that's really its name) where it's apple orchard upon apple orchard. Passing through the Mississippi valley area, we saw so many trees changing colors and as we made it toward the orchard areas. I took some pictures but haven't had a chance to get them ready for uploading yet. We ended up getting 2 bags of apples -- honeycrisp and creston (or something that sounds like that). We also bought some fresh squash and apple butter, which I adore!

It was so nice to get away from home and away from thinking about home/school/work. In addition to the students I mentioned in the last blog post, i.e., the zombies, I seem to have some who were especially starved for attention as children. Some follow me around in the room and to my office while others talk over others that I am speaking to just so they can be heard. Then I have some that act like children, okay maybe just one in particular who is so immature. On Friday in class, I had to actually tell him to stop jumping in class. He obviously has ADD/ADHD or something. For example, he almost always comes in late, and then when he does, he tries to bend down as he walks in between me and the class (whom I'm already speaking to as I've begun class). His bending down as he walks in, not out of embarrassment for being late but rather more for attention because he is trying to make it look like he is sneaking past me. Like I can't see this big dude with his baggy clothes and bright green sports jerseys crouching down in front of me. He wears on me and it's a struggle sometimes to go to class knowing he'll be there. In all seriousness, I really thought he was not likely to be here this long into the semester. I know that sounds bad, but early on her gave me the "Just here for the Financial Aid check" vibe. Alas, here we are at midterm and he is still coming in late and doing his jumping jacks in class.

Well, I'm home now and am beat. Tomorrow's a long day of grading and doing all the things I didn't do today. Thanks, friends, for reading. Before I log off, I'm heading over to your blogs to see what you're up to.

Doing Fine!

So, for my faithful reader (so far I know at least Susie is still checking in on me), an update. Ken and I are doing fine. We're just doing our thing: work, home, play, etc. Yesterday, we took a break from each of our work projects (writing soldier evaluations for Ken and planning/grading for me) and went out to Hickory Hills park south of town. It was a great day out, so we wandered around looking at the animals in the wildlife area. Then we went down to the lake and went for a hike. Afterwards, we had dinner at Perkins. I've been trying to eat better, so I stuck with the chicken breast on wild rice with broccoli. It was pretty good, I must confess. Ken stuck to his "tremendous twelve" breakfast platter.

Work is good -- I can't complain. The only thing that's getting me down a bit are the students who just sit there and don't do anything -- don't talk, don't participate, don't pay attention. It seems particularly bad this semester for some reason. Maybe it's just because I had the whole summer off so it seems like a big deal now. I just hate it when they look and act like zombies. It's really just a few here and there; overall, students are all pretty nice.

So, there's really not a whole lot new to report other than to say that life is good and we are blessed. We hope the same is true for all of our friends and family.

Should I change the focus of this blog?

So my new dilemma: is it time to change the focus of this blog? "Cohabitational Life" was meant to be about our new adventures of a couple living together (which those of you who've known us for a while, know was a HUGE accomplishment for us). That said, now we're married and living together (thanks to the military which has almost released him from his 20-year-long duty...just a few months to go!). But now, we've been doing this married/living together thing a while and things seem to have settled into a comfortable routine: work, home, going out, etc. Yeah, Ken and I are not ranking too high on the ole "wild and crazy" scale, but we're perfectly okay with that. Life is good and there is not much we can complain about these days.

That being said, what should be the focus now? In other words, obviously I haven't had a lot to write about lately, so I think I need a new focus to motivate me. Any ideas?

Praise the Lord! I saw the steps!

I was definitely not prepared for the whole dealing with house construction projects part of home ownership. We have successfully completed 3 major home projects this summer with others on the horizon for future years. This year's accomplishment: 1 painted upstairs closet, 1 new Water softener and a set of new front steps. It's awesome having soft water again. I thought I could handle not having it, but now that it's back, I know I'm spoiled and I'm never giving it up again!

The steps. Ugh. The steps. The best I can say right now is they are done and we don't have a gaping hole covered by a blue tarp in the front of our house. Now if the dudes would only come back and get their portable concrete mixer out of my driveway!!! If they aren't back in a week, I'm hiding it behind our house and Ken and I will have fun doing our own home renovation concrete projects. We still want to get the steps sealed and painted brown to match the trim, but I can wait for that as long as we're able to walk up to our front door again. I am a terribly impatient person, and I have decided that any house project that takes over 2 weeks (let alone a month) is 1 week too long.

As for the painted closet -- to anyone who thinks painting a closet is easy...you're wrong! Dang nab it! That was a lot of work. Pull everything out, sand down the rough walls where hanger-type things used to be (70 year old house has seen a lot a changes in terms of closet hanging fixtures), clean sanded closet, cover wood floors, paint walls coats 1 & 2, paint trim coats 1 & 2, touch up areas where painter got sloppy, clean up, rehang wall things, and put stuff away. I managed to accomplish this task for the upstairs hall closet (aka Marcy's sewing/cardmaking supplies closet) in about a week's time. When I began the project, I was all gung ho because there are at least 2, and maybe even 3 or 4, more closets that need painting something fierce. After finishing that one closet, forget it. Maybe Christmas break or next summer.

Still on the horizon: a new roof, new driveway, and new concrete around the pond in the back yard (hey...wouldn't a portable concrete mixer come in handy for that???). We are thinking roof next year and then we'll see about the others. Heck, we've got time, right? We've got time, and I'm tired of house projects (and tired of spending money on house projects).

Always Tired...why?

Why am I always tired? I get plenty of sleep each night, and I sleep soundly too! But every day, at least for the past week or so, I am exhausted by 2 p.m. and seriously just crash on the couch. We're not talking "taking a little nap." No, we're talking lay down, eyes heavy, headachy, and down for the count. Two or three hours later, I open my eyes but feel like I've been drugged. I can hardly get up from the couch. I continue to feel druggy the rest of the evening, so I go to bed, and start the whole process again the next day. I'm baffled.

The bad thing is that I'm supposed to start the AP Reading this week. That means 8 hours a day sitting in hard chair at a big folding table scoring student essays. How am I supposed to stay awake for that?!?!?!

First Day of Summer Class 2011

Twelve students are registered for my summer Writing 1 class. Today was the first day of class, and 7 showed up. Sigh. At least I can say that those 7 were awesome and we had one of the best discussions I've ever had in a writing 1 class (especially considering it was the very first day)! I'm hopeful that this group of students becomes a solid core group and we don't lose anyone. So far, so good!

After a quick trip to Lowes for some paint samples (I need to paint the upstairs hall closet before rehanging shelves from the "great clothing fall" last week) and a few more plants, I made it to my appointment with my financial advisor so as to get all set up for my Roth 403 b account. I know it's all good to set money aside for retirement, but ouch! My paycheck is going to start looking pretty weak pretty fast.

I came home to find the concrete guys working on the front steps. Big Yay!! (finally!). Still not done, but the whole area is starting to look better. The guys got the steps framed but not the concrete poured. One additional hiccup in the process (what is that now? 3?): we had to tear up the walkway leading up to the steps. The reason for this is that there are 2 small steps leading to two short landings on the way to the steps. Apparently, when the builders constructed these in 1940, there was no code for step height, but now there is. Our steps there were significantly shorter, one only measuring only 3 inches! So, after considering the risks of what would happen if someone fell and sued us, etc. etc., we decided to go ahead and replace those too. The cost of replacing them will be significantly less than any other cost possibly incurred. While our old steps would be technically "grandfathered" into meeting code, the fact that we replaced part of the walkway and the steps would make one question why we didn't just correct the other hazards at that time. Now we will only have 1 step up to a landing before the main steps to the door. And so, more breaking up of concrete, more dirt everywhere, more time, and of course, more money.