Making good use of summer vacation.

I am determined not to waste any of my summer vacation.

Therefore, I purchased a small notebook, and I am keeping track of what I  accomplish every day.

Friday was the last day of school.

On Saturday, I slept late (about 11 am) then got up and packed all my laundry into my giant suitcase and took it to my mom's.  I did a ton of laundry there.  While I was washing laundry, I sewed a lot of doll clothes for my tonner and kish dolls. 

My mom's cousin Phyllis called from DesMoines at about 3 pm, saying that she was on her way to Minnesota with her daughter Cathy.  She was hoping she could be dropped off at mom's for a visit.  That was all well and good, but it appears that she intends to "visit" through the whole month of JUNE!

She is pretty disabled, and my mom has to wait on her quite a bit. 

I think it was a bit gutsy to call two hours before she arrived and then expect to stay for a month!  What if mom had plans?

Well, mom loves her, and she is a very nice lady.  I hope that it doesn't take too much out of my mom.

She slept in my bed upstairs and I slept in the basement.  There was something in the air down there that was bothering my allergies.  I couldn't sleep very well.  I probably only got about four hours.

Sunday, I downloaded a disc of pictures from Phyllis on my mom's computer...then I made a copy on a disc for her too.  I also took care of some ebay issues mom was having.  Jack, Kari, Caleb, and Cora came over in the afternoon.  I gave the kids the "Little Stinker" shirts I made for them.  I'll post a picture later--they are cute.

Cora has apparently decided that I am suitable to talk to because she is talking a blue streak to me now.  LOL. 

I spent most of the day sewing doll clothes again.


On Monday, I watched a Clean House marathon on the Style Network.  I love that show--it inspires me to get stuff done in my own house.  Gene and Berniece Cornelius came over to pick mom and Phyllis up to go to the memorial day services at the cemetary in Geneva.  I am not into that stuff, so I stayed home and sewed.  After that, mom and Phyllis went to LaVonna's house for lunch--they were only going to stay a couple of hours, but they never got back until about 6 pm. 

I hung around till about 7:30, then headed for home.  I stopped at Walmart in Owatonna on my way home because my kitties needed treats.  I bought a few groceries too--I was excited because they had guacamole dip--but it turned out to be nasty guacamole flavored dip.  Yuck.

I need to get a good recipe and just make my own.  I wanted to buy a nice beef roast, but none of them looked good. 

When I got home, it took me a while to haul everything into the house--and then I had to put the groceries away.  Most of them needed to go into the refrigerator.  I cleaned a bunch of crap out of the refrigerator and ended up hauling two bags of garbage out to the trash can.   I had to fill my pill caddies before I went to bed too.

My kitties were very glad to see me and snuggled with me all night long.  Sigh.  That was blissful.

On Tuesday, I  discovered that something had drained into my refrigerator as there was about 6 inches of liquid in my vegetable drawers.  It looked like pineapple juice, but didn't smell like it.  Also, I had no pineapple juice in the fridge.  It smelled sour--sort of like sour milk, but not so intense.  It was disgusting.  So, I cleared everything out of the refrigerator and scrubbed it down within an inch of its life.  after I had scrubbed it with dish soap and water, I wiped it out with chlorox wipes to kill any random germs and bacteria that might have been lurking in there.  I wiped down every single thing that was in the fridge too.

It looks and smells great now.

I did up all the dishes that had been sitting around all last week and put away all my clean clothes. 

I did a little sewing.  Not too much.  And I read a little in my Ghostly Adventures book. 

Today (Wednesday), I boiled eggs and potatoes to make potato salad.  I had just one onion left, which was perfect for potato salad.  Once I had boiled and shelled the eggs and cooked the spuds, I put them in the fridge too cool.  I whipped up a batch of almond bark candy with pretzels, mini marshmallows, peanuts, and fruit loops mixed into it.  I spread it out on a sheet of tin foil on a cookie sheet, then put it in the fridge to chill and harden. 

After that, I cleaned the living room  and dining room.  I tidied up everything, sacked up garbage, hauled a load out to the trash, and have another bag ready to go out in the porch along with a third bag that I will take out tomorrow when I have had the chance to dump the kitchen garbage into the big black bag.  I dusted my book shelf, all the pictures sitting on it, and the little side table in the dining room.  I dusted all the games under the china cabinet too.  I still need to dust the side board and the stuff in the living room .

I got everything vacuumed, though.  It looks a million times better now that all that cat hair is vacuumed up.

When I went to finish my potato salad, I discovered that my damned Miracle Whip was nasty--it smelled and tasted stale, even though its expiration date wasn't until June 30 of this year.  I chopped up the eggs, spuds, celery, and onion for the potato salad and have it in the fridge.  I will have to buy some miracle whip tomorrow so I can finish making the salad.

I sorted out all my mail.  I will have to pay bills tomorrow. 

I had a bunch of toilet paper rolls that needed to be put in the cabinet, so I did that too. 

As I cleaned, I watched Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters' Academy, which I don't like so much.  Steve acts like a big dick head in that.  I am finding him very annoying as he is arrogant and bossy, and he squeals like a little pig whenever he sees a bug.  Good grief.  Get over it, man!

Pretty much, that's been my use of summer vacation so far. 

Another Fiendishly Productive Day

Even though I stayed up late last night watching Medium, I got up at 7:30 and began my day.  I had hoped to go out for breakfast this morning on my way to school, but I dilly-dallied too long at home and ended up going through the BK drive thru.  I only ate have of the biscuit egg and sausage sandwich and less than half of the potato ole looking things  that always taste a little sour to me.  I threw the rest out the window on a gravel road for the birds and small critters to eat.  (I only threw out the food, not the packaging.)

I filled my car with gas in West Concord before going to Kasson where I picked up my prescription for pain meds.  From there, I went to BK.  I was hoping to get a frozen Diet Coke but they didn't have them.  Rats.  

I stopped in Byron to pick up the traditional poppy seed muffin treat for my beloved Jaymar.  I bought a yummy cream cheese and strawberry jam croissant for myself.  They are sticky as can be, but oh, so delicious.

I took the gravel back roads to Rochester.  I was about half hour early for my appointment with Jay, so I hung out with Laurie out on the bench in front of school for a while.  She is such an amazing person.  When I went in, Jay was still meeting with Nick, so I went into the board room and found a book to read--Montana 1948 by Larry Watson.,  It turned out to be an excellent choice.  I read the whole thing today.  (175 pages, so not too long.)  It has been one of my goals to go back to reading more.  Making time to read is important, otherwise life just sucks you along.   I've done pretty well lately.  In the last few weeks, I have read Cheated by Patrick Jones, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, and Diary of a Wimpy Junior High Kid.  Don't remember the author of that one, but it was cute and a very easy and fast read. When I was in high school, I used to read five books a week--at least.  It was my goal to read every fiction book in the high school library before I graduated.  And with the exception of the Betty Cavana books (which were all the same anyhow), I did.  That's how I discovered the Chronicles of Narnia.  I read the one with Puddleglum in it first.   

My meeting with Jay went well.  He thinks I did a great job this year.  The two things he wants me to work on are  clearing more crap out of my room and rearranging it, and paying more attention to the protocol--making sure to keep no-fly kids in the room and not giving bathroom passes the classes after break and lunch.  These things are like non-issues to me, but they get some other teachers' underpants in a bunch.  I actually think I did much better on those things this year.  I continue to have problems with catching people with their phones--and apparently the little shits are blabbing to other teachers that I "let" them use their phones, which is absolute bullshit.  I never let them use their phones.  I just don't pay enough attention to where their hands are, because I rarely catch them with phones.  When I do, I usually just tell them to put them away rather than taking them.  I guess next year I have to make a mad effort to take them right away. 

The other thing is that we are going to be teaching to "need" next year, which makes sense to me.  Teach the kids the skills they need.  I don't really like the thought of teaching to the MCA tests, BUT, hopefully, the things they need to pass the tests are the same things they need to succeed in life.  It will be okay.  I will find ways to make it fun.

I wanted to go and see the movie Robin Hood after my meeting, but it was at 1:00, and I left school at about 1:47.  I could have made it, but I would have had to rush and probably miss the first five minutes.  When I go, I want to be relaxed, get a snack, have a little time to settle in, and enjoy all the previews.  So, I decided I would get my hair cut instead.  It was getting way too long and shaggy.  Now it is pretty short, but that is good for summer.  Before I got my hair cut, I paid my cell phone bill at Verizon. 

After I got my hair cut, I went to Carlos O'Kelly's for lunch.  I had my favorite--spinach and mushroom enchilada--but I had the lunch option, which is about half of the dinner portion.  It was fine for me--I still got totally stuffed.  I had iced tea, despite how much I desired the delicious strawberry mug-o-rita.  I had planned to pay bills while waiting for my meal, but first, I had forgotten my stamps and address labels, and second, my meal arrived so rapidly that I wouldn't have had time to write out the bills anyhow.  The bill paying will be at the top of my list tomorrow.

From there, I went to Walmart.  I bought a few more bags of kitty treats and another $5 24-pack of diet coke.  Hard to pass up that deal.  I also bought myself a cheap radio/CD player for downstairs.  It was only $22.  I enjoy listening to Minnesota public radio--and there is no reason I should not enjoy it during the summer.  i bought the ingredients to make lasagna--I'll give at least half of that to Jim and DeAnn and Swayze.  I also bought  Miracle Whip to finish my potato salad and some grapefruits.  I love grapefruit. 

On the way home, I stopped at the Kasson Kwik Trip so Icould wash my car.  I tried to use my debit card, but it was declined, so I had to use my Visa instead.  I only had a couple of twenties, so I couldn't do cash.
 

When I got home, I hauled all my plunder in (except the diet coke, which I will bring in tomorrow) and put the perishable groceries away.  I wanted to finish the potato salad and make the lasagna, but I was so hot and  tired that I went upstairs.  I had to pee anyhow.  I figured I would just lie down  for a nap, but once I got my pjs on, I messed around on my computer then watched a couple of things on TV and finished the  book I was reading.  I was so tired, I was sure I would fall asleep,  but I didn't.

Now I am ready to turn out the lights and get some sleep.
 

Tomorrow I really want to clean  the kitchen and cook.  I want to be up early enough  to cook in the cool of the day rather than in the afternoon where everything will be a furnace.