I DUNNO, JUST KEEP READING...

Monday, October 16, 2017
Happy Birthday to my Mommy! 

I was up early this morning for my class, but Analiese didn't have hers. The substitute she was supposed to have was sick. Seminary was canceled, and she got to sleep in. Lucky duck. Even being sick wouldn't be a good excuse for me. I could (seriously, though I won't) sit in bed and do an online class. No contagion passed along.

Ken and Analiese got started early this morning on painting the rest of the house exterior. We got some white paint for the trim and extra brushes to help with the task. Poor Analiese had the chore of cleaning off the mailbox, exterior light, and the house numbers. Besides being coated with dust, they had lots of sticky (and surprisingly strong!) webbing plus dead or alive spiders. She was not happy. For the record, I got rid of the live ones but left her to deal with the dead. Buck up, buttercup!

They (and Jonathan, who chipped in when he got off of work) got all the major wall painting done outside and started on the trim. My plan (ha-ha, we'll see) is to paint the mailbox, house numbers, and the front steps railing black on Friday. That, with the black shutters (we'll put them back up after all is said and done) will make a nice contrast to the light color of the house. As it is, it's already looking sparkling and new. I feel good just looking at it!

Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Another earlier-than-normal morning so I could substitute again for Analiese's class. I thought I'd have to do tomorrow, too, but her regular teacher will be back to do that. I think I'm going to have to start backing off on subbing (one of my worst faults is not saying "no" enough). I have too much to focus on, now that the house is getting painted and we may actually start to see some action. Extra teaching on top of it all saps me of necessary time and energy.

I found thirty books of all shapes and sizes on my cart today when I got to the library. I did them all. Yep. Now I know we received a box of audiobooks today that I'll be able to do once Janet is done with them. That's maybe six or eight. Then what am I going to do with myself? Oh, I have things I can do, all right - donated DVDs and music CDs. But they are neither pleasant nor easy to deal with. Gonna be a loooong work week!

Wednesday, October 18, 2017
The air smells so horrible right now, especially in the morning! The cotton farmers are using a defoliant to get the leaves off the plants so they can more easily harvest the cotton. But it smells just awful and we can't escape it, since the town is surrounded by cotton fields! It kind of gives me a headache. Makes me a little edgy, too, but I don't know why.

There were nine audiobooks in that box from yesterday. It didn't take me long to get them done, even with the four that I had to download records from directly. I worked through two more boxes of withdrawn books and sorted them, plus I had two new books come in the mail that I cataloged. That's it. There's no avoiding it - tomorrow I will have to do some DVDs. Maybe even some CDs. Shudder!

Thursday, October 19, 2017
This is the second morning in a row that the internet/WiFi at church isn't working. This means I can't work on Seminary stuff until I get home. Nothing else will get done at home. Something about the Church's firewall being down. Better figure it out by Sunday!

Yep. I had to do DVDs and CDs today. All of twelve movies and six music CDs. Painfully slow work. I though I was done sorting withdrawn fiction, but they showed me a 10x10-foot storage room in the garage FULL of boxes of books. Floor-to-ceiling. The thought of it is daunting. I asked Jonathan to pull some fiction boxes out for me. He managed to get five out and then gave up. He found out - books are heavy!

Analiese received a birthday package (a little early, but she didn't complain!) from our friend Karla. It was one of those Feisty Pets - stuffed animals

that have a lever in the back that, when you push it, the sleepy-looking animal (in this case, a rabbit) becomes a ferocious, teeth-baring beast.

It's hilarious and a little disturbing.

Friday, October 20, 2017
Analiese didn't have Seminary today, so she could sleep in. Not me, though. Jonathan had work at 7 a.m. and wanted a ride. So I dropped him off and made good time by going to Walmart. I had all four tires replaced; they were all getting worn and, with the possibility of a severe winter, I wanted them replaced. While I was there, I was able to pick up a prescription I've forgotten for three days now. So, for being up early, I accomplished much!

I wasn't done with the van, though. After a few hours at home, doing laundry, studying for Seminary, etc., I went off to the Ford dealership. Time for the regular tune up! And they told me the next one is free! I will really miss their reliable service when I move to Chickasha!

Saturday, October 21, 2017

I thought this was funny, being in the OK/TX area. Come to find out, they're offering it all over the US!

There was only three of us at work this morning. The one who was out, I don't know if it was time off or something else. One of the three of us left is fairly new, so HL came in during lunch hours to make sure we were covered. She came back for the Lego event later, as well.

I found a few books to be cataloged on my cart - about ten. Easily done. The rest of the day (not spent helping at the front) I spent sorting through some of those withdrawn books. I wore jeans today so I could dig through the cluttered closet. What a nightmare! There is so much in there that is just junk...like empty VHS cases, three boxes of them. No one is EVER going to use them again. Why keep them? I had to toss out some things just to make enough room to get other boxes out. A dusty, cluttered, mess!

After work, I quickly grabbed a bowl of chicken chili at home and headed towards the church. Some of the RS ladies were there working on prickly pear jelly. Note: those "prickles" are nothing to scoff at! They're practically invisible, tiny, and hurt like crazy...I'm still picking them out of my hands! We had tons of fruit and must have made at least 40 quarts of jelly and syrup

Sister-friend Ellaina filling jars of jelly.

(we ran out of pectin, having bought up all that Walmart had!). We ended up throwing out one large bowl of fruit, if we hadn't we could have still been cooking up to church starting tomorrow morning! We were there, as it was, until 11 p.m. (way past pumpkin time)! I kind of cleaned up as we went, so that wasn't too bad, but I am exhausted!

Sunday, October 22, 2017
Staying awake in church was SO hard! I made it all the way, but after church and family devotional, I went to bed and SLEPT!

The problem with sleeping, though, is that it took time away from what needed to be done. Like finishing Seminary lesson stuff - thought I did get that done - for tomorrow. Like greeting my husband when he came from Chickasha. Oh, and writing a blog. That got put aside for the moment.

Jonathan bought the latest (and best, in my opinion) Spiderman movie, so we had our Family night watching it with popcorn and plenty of commentary. Pretty mellow evening, but then, I didn't really have energy for much more.