Ain't Nothin' I Know Of Can Make you Fall in Love...

Like a Night at the County Fair

Pea and Strawberry and I went with Grandma and some of Grandma's neighbors to the county fair today.  It was lots of fun.  There were lots of displays, some of which were even from my students.  Nice cake, Jordan!

Pea's favorite animals were the Nigerian Dwarf goats.  There were pigs, goats, sheep, and cows there, beut we couldn't tear her away from those tiny goats.  The goats even had babies, which were the size of puppies.  They were so unbelievably adorable!  Pea asked me if she could get a goat.  Um, no.

Both of them really liked the kid corner, which had a fake cow you could milk and some straw you could push around with little rakes.  Their favorite part?  The sandbox that was full of corn kernels instead of sand.  We stayed there for at least 30 minutes just playing in the corn.

There was a weird pink clown who hosted a tortilla-throwing contest, which this three-year-old kid won.  He chucked that think all the way out of the stands.  Pea just had fun throwing food off the stage and getting a sucker for trying.

She went on a ride that had little jets going around a center pole for a while.  We had cotton candy and kettle corn, and I got friendship bracelets for Pea and the little girl who came with the neighbors.  I think that covers our fair adventure.

I did have to shower as soon as I got home.  It's a sweaty, smelly, hot, sticky experience.  I feel much better now.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte

9 out of 10
Gothic Romance

I loved this book.  It isn't the first time I've read it, and I've seen the movie, albeit a while ago.  It was wonderful a second time through, and I admit I missed a lot when I read it the first time.

Jane is raised by her aunt, who hates her, and finally sent off to a charity boarding school.  Upon leaving the school, she takes a position as a governess and promptly falls in love with the master.  This book has far beyond a love triangle; it's more like a love pentagon.  A loves B, who flirts with C to make A jealous but is married to D, at which point E enters the picture and proposes to A.  I hope that's intriguing enough while being nonspecific enough to qualify as spoiler-free.

The language is a little dense for the general reader, but I think it is worth it.  I would recommend this book for readers 14 and older.  I may have been younger on my first read-through because I remember having no idea what a 'mistress' was and assumed it was a girlfriend.

Sunday Share

Yesterday (which was Sunday) was a day of fasting, which we generally call Fast Sunday, as we do it once a month as a church.  On these Sundays, the whole ward is asked to fast for whatever purpose they choose and to donate an offering based on what they would have spent on food to be given to the poor.  During the meeting, members of the congregation are invited up to share their testimony.

Pea loves Fast Sundays.  She asks every Sunday morning: "Is it Fast Sunday?"  If I answer no, she replies, "Oh.  It's a slow Sunday."

Yesterday when I said that yes, it was Fast Sunday, she jumped up and down saying, "yay! I get to bear my testimony!"  She was very bored several months ago watching members of the congregation go up to bear their testimonies, and she asked why they got to go up there and she didn't.  When she found out that she could go up if she wanted,  her outlook changed.  Now, she gets to go up in front of everyone and use the microphone and say anything she wants.  We've had to practice some with making sure she's saying "things about Jesus," but I've been amazed at how much she has grown in her ability to do so already.

Her first testimony went something like this:  "I'm thankful for dinner, and lunch, and dessert.  And snacks."
Yesterday she said it with no help from me at all, and I wasn't even standing next to her.  "I'm thankful for Jesus, because he is the Lord and the Savior."  I didn't tell her what to say, I just reminded her that testimonies are about Jesus or church.

Of course, this means I get to go up EVERY Fast Sunday, too.  For those of you who aren't privileged to hear my testimony every month, I want you to know that Jesus is real.  He is the Christ, the Savior of Mankind.  He was born of Mary, the Son of God, and He died to save us from our sins.  Because of His sacrifice, we can live again.

Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and saw Jesus and Heavenly Father in a grove of trees.  He was directed by an angel to find and translate the plates which would later become the Book of Mormon.  He was directed to restore the gospel to the earth as it has been in ancient days, from the time of Adam.

Shoot 'Em Up

We had lots of fun things going on this weekend.

Saturday one of the girls from the high school babysat Pea and Strawberry so that Farmboy and I could have a date. I picked the date, and I was very excited about it.  We went to the local indoor gun range.  I had really wanted to try shooting a handgun, so we rented a Glock 19 and used it there.  I'm not quite ready to own a gun, so renting works very well for me.  I really enjoyed shooting it, and I even managed to get a target in which I got all my shots on it.   We have yet to tally up our scores to see who won (between Farmboy and I), but I think there are good odds he scored higher.  I think I did pretty well, though.  Watch out, bad guys.

After our date, we went up to Grandma's farm to celebrate a birthday for Farmboy's sister.  She drove down and we had the neighbors over for dinner and cheesecake.  Pea got to go out and feed a baby calf whose mom died.  She held that bottle while the calf tried to run off with it.  The calf, of course, was bigger than Pea.

I know there was other stuff, but I can't remember right now.  Suffice it to say that it was a good weekend.  Oh, and this week?  Spring Break.  Love that.

Weekly Weigh-In

This was supposed to post on Friday, but my internet was having issues.

My weekly weigh-in (of which this is the first because I am a slacker): 183.6

This is good.  Actually, Way Awesome.  I'm down from 197 at Christmas.  My goal was 183.4, and I am very close; so close, in fact, that I need to set a new goal.  That may seem like an odd number for a goal, but it was based on BMI rather than weight.  I am officially no longer in the obese category.  It is, of course, more than a little depressing that I was there in the first place, but I am just glad to not be there any more.

I am trying to lose on average 1 pound every week so that it will stay off.  Crash diets don't work for me.

Goal:  178 by May 1

A day of Suckage

So, dinner kind of sucked last night.  The sweet potato soup was pretty good, but not that filling.  The vegetables I made were weird and didn't complement the soup.  The whole-wheat biscuits?  Tasted a lot like sawdust.

We didn't have a Daily Adventure with the girls because they were in Big Trouble.  According to the sitter, they were 'the worst they have ever been' and would not mind.  When I got them in the car, Pea would not stop whining, and it was clear they were having a very off day.  So, they got naps when we got home, and when they got up, they had to stay in their rooms until dinner.  It wasn't too terrible, since they play pretty well together, but they didn't get to watch any shows or play outside until after dinner.

In spite of all this, after dinner they behaved pretty well.  I think they didn't want any more Big Trouble.  Pea made me special pen-carrying pocket complete with purple ribbon to bring with me to my Primary Presidency meeting that night.  Very thoughtful.

Farmboy was in charge of putting them to bed, but apparently Strawberry had a rash and needed to run around diaperless for a while.  Within 30 seconds of my getting home and getting diaper rash cream and a diaper to put on her, Strawberry peed on the carpet.  Farmboy says to me, "you took to long looking for the diaper cream." Yep, my fault.  Oh, wait, I'm not the one who had an un-potty-trained toddler running around diaperless.

They went to bed pretty well, but for some reason, Strawberry decided she didn't want to sleep from about midnight until 4 or so.  Farmboy, luckily for him (and not so luckily for me) can sleep right through her crying. And so today is a slow, tired one in which I am only awake by the grace of caffeine.

Did I fall off the face of the earth?

No, I did not.  My computer did. 

I'm currently switching over everything to the laptop that I may only have for 6 more weeks.  I did, thankfully, have a lot backed up, but lost some pictures.  Mostly, they were Trixie's pictures.  Sorry about that.

In the interest of full disclosure, I've fallen down on my job this week.  No weekly meal plan yet.  But we're having sweet potato soup for dinner tonight.  With fresh homemade bread that I have yet to make.

Also, didn't take pictures or do my weekly weigh-in.  So I'll do that too. 

Had to write a test for my precalculus class last night and grade a bajillion papers, so I was up forever doing that.  No rest for the teachers.  Also, I like to watch Missing on Netflix.  Our internet is slow, so I do grading and stuff while it buffers.  It's a good excuse, anyway. 

On the subject of spiritual stuff, I don't have anything new since Sunday, except that our class won the trivia question of the day today: Whose wife was turned to a pillar of salt in the bible?  (It was Lot's wife, Lot being the brother of Abraham.)