Now that I have been off work for a while, I have been able to do some things that I was just too tired to do before. I thought that I would post some pictures of some of my projects. I have been able to clean the apartment (though it needs cleaning again *sigh*), I have been baking cookies and making what I call "real dinner", meaning that I actually get out pots and pans and cook, as opposed to defrost things/open cans of things. Incidentally, there are no pictures of the aforementioned projects because the housework, cookie and dinner-making would have bored you (or confused you...I mean, who takes pictures of their dinner?!). What I DID take pictures of are the other projects that I have recently finished.

I wonder what it feels like to be 232 years old...I suppose that only America (and a few people in the Bible) know what it feels like. I just wanted to post this blog and let everyone know how grateful I am to be living in "the land of the free, and home of the brave". I am grateful for all of the freedoms that I have. The freedom to be a member of the church, to worship the way that I chose. The freedom to go where I want, when I want to. The freedom to have my voice heard, to know that decisions in this country are not made by one person. The freedom to be considered an equal (as opposed to being inferior) to men. Ever since I was little, I would get goosebumps every time I heard a patriotic song, or a reading of a patriotic document.

It came to my attention that there is a part of my blog that is slightly confusing. Some of you might have been reading my entries and thought to yourself that I didn't completely wrap up my train of thought. This is due to the fact that my blog likes to save space. If my entry is larger than a certain amount of sentences, it only shows that much of the entry. You can read the rest, but you have to click on the "Read more" link that is at the bottom of the individual entry. Hopefully it is a little more clear now. Thank you to everyone who reads...feel free to leave comments!

Well, the school year has finally come to a close...I had a pretty good year. I was very excited when I became a resident sub because it meant that I would be working everyday. I think that this helped me to not be as stressed out about not being able to work in the summer. Plus, it made me REALLY ready for a vacation. The kids were starting to test the limits more...they were ready for the break too. Most of my summer is going to be spent relaxing around here, but there is a possibility of a trip to Utah in the not too distant future (August-ish). Right now I'm just enjoying getting to spend lots of time with Paul, sleeping in and relaxing all day.

okay...today was an interesting day at work. They didn't have anything for me to do at my normal school site, but another school needed me, so I went over there to teach a kindergarten class. About 5 minutes before I was due to take the class out for last recess, another kinder teacher came in and told me not to take the kids out because there was a s-n-a-k-e (she spelled it) in the wood chips under the slide. I am glad that she spelled it because the kids would have had a conniption.

One thing that I look forward to almost every spring is the baby ducks. For those of you that do not know, we have mallard ducks living in our apartment complex (we have a bunch of streams and a couple of lakes that they like to swim around in). Where there are adult ducks, there will eventually be baby ducks. I don't know what it is, but I am drawn to baby animals. They have this cuteness level that is hard for me to resist. Don't ask me why, I can't explain it. Well, anyways...Paul and I were coming back from the laundry room and had to cross over one of the lakes in the complex. I looked over and saw...ta-da! baby ducks!! I was so excited!

Well, I am finally all better...it took quite a while, but I finally finished my antibiotics and am feeling 100% better. I could not believe how sick I was until I just looked at my tonsils and saw about what size they were supposed to be. I would not be exaggerating if I said that when I was sick they were probably 3 or 4 times bigger than they were supposed to be. I didn't THINK that my tonsils were supposed to touch each other. Let me just say that I am grateful for antibiotics. I know that I most likely would have eventually gotten better without them, but I would have been miserable for a lot longer than I was already. It took 3 weeks to fully get over my illness WITH the antibiotics, so I don't even want to think about how long it would have taken to get over it without them.