Life...

Ugh! I get so far behind now...to pick up where I left off.

That next Wednesday, the 23rd was pretty typical. Went to my four morning classes then to work for a few hours at the lab. I kinda felt nasty all day long because my acid reflux did not appreciate the spices in the meat we had on Tuesday- tummy ache! But, after a couple days I got over that. That Wed. night was the Ag/Bio scholarship banquet. I ditched out of marching band a little early so that I could be there on time to usher for Ag Bio Ambassadors. That worked out ok and I made it right about on time. We got almost 500 people seated and made it through the ridiculously long list of recipients! But hey, I'll eat a $15 plate of food in exhcange for $500 from the SD Corn Utilization Council. I came home after the banquet and did some homework, studied, and called it a night/morning.

Thursday...I went to my two morning classes and went to the lab for about an hour. Then, ran home and grabbed lunch (got completely soaked in the rain on my treck across campus) and had Cody give me a ride to motorpool (the DOT) and picked up a state vehicle. Another Ag Bio Ambassador, Dani, and I were headed to Garretson for a school visit. We got there a little early so I gave her a tour of the parks and whatnot...lol, o G-Town. So, we finally made it to the school and attempted to recruit a bunch of lazy, inattentive high school boys to SDSU's college of Ag and Bio. Let's just say by the end of the class period they did not like Dani or I; we wouldn't put up with their crap! Haha, o teaching is going to be so much fun... The next class period was just a couple students, one of which was a friend, Alysha. We had fun with them and actually accomplished a few things in our presentation. We finished up our visit there, and headed back to Brookings. that night, I did some homework and eventually headed over to a friends house to watch the premiere of Grey's Anatomy. I'm not a huge TV watcher, but I saw the finalie so I felt it neccesary to see the premier! Afterward, Kayla and I sat and contimplated what positions we were going to apply for for Little I (big livestock expo on campus). I put down photographer for first choice- sounds like a lot of fun! We'll see... I went to work at midnight that night. It was a fine and dandy until about 1:30 when some students reported a creepy guy sleeping near the girls side windows outside. They said they woke him up and he was running around in a cape like thing just being creepy. So... I called the CA's on duty and they checked the building. Then, called UPD and they said that if we couldn't find him that there was nothing they could do- since he really hadn't done anthing illegal. So, we called the search off, deciding that he must have left. But when 3am rolled around and I was the only person awake for what seemed like miles I was not all that eager to walk out in the semi-lit parking lot to my car. But, have no fear I made it with no creeper behind me...although I think I coulda fought a weird one like that off with my backpack full of books! Ha!

That next Friday morning always comes early. Went to morning classes and studied. Since our boss was out for the day, I could only kill an hour at the Ps lab, and headed back home. I spent some time trying to study soils in the afternoon and then headed to good ol' Baltic for the homecoming game at seven. I was kinda not sure what to expect, but I ended up having a pretty good time. I got to see quite a few people that I hadn't seen in forever. Not many hs friends (didn't really have a whole lot of Baltic friends) but I saw a bunch of teachers, neighbors, and such. And..remarkably, they won! I was shocked- our fb team has been pretty bad for years and years, so it was nice to see them have a decent record so far this year. That night I headed back to Brookings, watched a movie with Eillie and her friend Brianna and went to bed.

Saturday... was not exactly a joyful one.
I woke up to Mom calling me telling me that I had better come home because Joe wasn't doing well at all. He was laying down and just plain wouldn't get up. So, I picked up Virginia and we went down to the barn. By the time I got there he had gotten up, but the problem was obvious. He had done something nasty to his front leg. It's really hard to say what, but he was terribly sore and couldn't hardly hold himself up. He had slowly been looking a little older and older this past few weeks and I think that the leg was probably just one of those old age things. Long story short, we called the vet and they had to put him down. Sad day:( Dad and Mom gave me one of those bronze statues when I was younger that had a picture of a girl facing a horse and it says "First Love". Very true. I will miss him dearly, but that's how life works and I would never want him hurting like that. It's hard to say goodbye to an old friend, but somtimes it's for the best. It's a good thing he had his buddy Ace for the weeks we've been back, and it will be good for me too, since there is still a horse around to ride. One with quite the personality at that. I'll miss my Joe and so will a lot of the folks around there, but life goes on. They actually had a colt that morning...the cycle of life.

I spent the rest of that day attempting to study. Emphasis on the attempt, I have a hard time focusing normally, so it wasn't exactly the easiest to abosorb info. I ran a few errands, paid the rent, etc. At about 1pm Ellie took off to vist her boyfriend in the cities, and Cody was home for the weekend so I spent he rest of the day by myself. I worked from 8pm to midnight and spent a majority of that time talking to Kayla and Michael who came to visit me! Michael was down for the weeked and I keep giving Kayla a hard time about not seeing him so they just came to me. It was nice to have someone to talk to and pass the time, and I got to see them! ...wayyy better than studying. I came home a basically fell into a heap in bed.

I got up today, went to church, and studied...and studied...and studied. And still managed not to get everything done on my list. I got some laundry and cleaning done and ate/ went grocery shopping with Virginia in the evening. It was nice to spend some time with her and get out of thsi apt. Then, studied some more and helped Cody move a few things in. We fought with a dresser that he brought for a while and finally decided it wouldn't fit in his closet- so instead, we rearranged his room. I spent some more time with the books and found myself falling asleep so here I am- typing, it's much more involving than staring at a page of notes!

It sounds like things went well on the ranch this weekend. They worked cattle on Friday and thing went smoothy according to sources. Apparently they didn't test as good as they usually are, but that' s just how the odds go sometimes. I can't remember if it was the black cow or Chief Bears. I think the Chief Bear cattle were done last week. Now, they will ride for quite a few days to put everyone back where they belong and move some things around. Merle went to a fire school today and said it was really good- jealous. I was originally going to come down this weekend but between my Friday classes, the four tests and a quiz I have this week, and work, I decided I shouldn't. Sounds like I missed out- but isn't that how it always works? grrr.... o well, I'll be back around sometime. It sounds like Glen is having some heart surgery on Tuesday- I'll be praying for him and hope all goes well! I can about imagine how excited he is...eh. Besides being completely jealous that I missed out, that's about all the ranch news I can think of.

It has been a long week and it will be a long week...but I think I'll make it- because "making it" and getting A's are two completly different things!

Catch-Up!

ok...it's been waaay to long. I completely forgot my blog existed for a couple days there! sorry!

So as a quick recap/summary...this past week has been busy- not unsusal. I had a 7am meeting after a night of minimal sleep and a few extra assignments always here and there. I spent last Wed. evening at the barn with mom and Joe and Ace. That was nice- to get aways from here and go riding. Joe is having some trouble with his fetlock yet, so i took Ace out and just played with Joe. Mom rode John's horse, Dancer (a sane Arab) and I took Ace the tank out in a rope halter because we don't have any bits that fit him. So Dancer looked like a mini pony..hillarious. Ace felt pretty good, and was entertaining to ride. But, all good things come to an end and I came back up here and studied, then headed to bed.

That next Thusday I had a couple meetings. One to get a flu shot with student health and another to work on a group project for CTE (teaching) class. After a really really long day I went home to Cody's 21st birthday party. Him and Ellie had organized this whole deal and it was pretty nice. He had a make shift beer pong table and cupcakes! Haha, to top the cake we spent most of the night palying charades...hillarious. There were about ten people there at any given time- it was a lot of fun! But, I went to bed before they shut down...I don't want to know what all happened after one o'clock.

I went to classes on Friday and spent some spare time doing homework. Later that night I watched a movie that Cody rented and headed to bed. He works at the movie store so he gets free rentals all the time...hence we always have movies around! Not neccesarily a good or bad things. Distracting but sometimes fun!

I spent all my spare time on the weekend getting errands run, chores, and homework done. I spent from about noon to three helping with Sr. day for ag bio ambassadors on Saturday. This was the "lure people in and tell them how great the college of ag and bio at sdsu is" type of event. We also answered a lot of questions about sdsu as well. It was fun, but I had to leave a little early to get ready for marching band and then headed to our rehearsal. We marched pre-game and then half time. Both went pretty well, but no one really likes our new director a whole lot so we'll see how it goes as the school years mores on. On Sunday, I just went to church and spent the entire afternon doing homework and such. Then, really really late Cody and I watched the worst movie of the century. Ellie showed up just as it was finshing...she didn't miss anything! lol

Monday was a busy day as usual. I have six classes and on top of that we had or first CFFA meeting last night. I'm president of the club and nothing has really been done with it for a couple of years so it has been quite the undertaking for our officer team. The meeting took a lot of organizing and work but it ended up being a huge success! We had 73 people there! Crazy. In face did you know that when offered free pizza 73 people will eat approximately 21 large papa johns pizzas? Yep, that delivery guy deserved his tip. So we had the meeting and wrapped up with a quick officer meeting. Then, I headed up to my friend Jennifer's room and caught up with her and Rachel before heading home, studying, and going to bed.

Today was not as productive as it should have been, but that's life. I basically went to class, studied, and killed some time in between. We had a really awesome meats lab lab today. We cooked meats from all across the country. My group made a German Schnitzel. We had pork tenderloin and sliced it into thin slices, pounded it flat, breaded and spiced it, then fryed it and dipped it in a dill sauce. It was really tasty, along with all of the other groups recipes. The only draw back...my acid reflux did not appreciate the taste test. I have had this annoying stomache ache all day- but I'm sure I'll survive. We also had a cool soils lab today. We travelled around to five different soil sample sites around Brookings (I drove the jinumbo van again) and studied each sample. I'm kindof a dork so I thought the lab was really cool and interesting!

Afterward I went home and worked on some homework, took a short nap, then headed to work- where I'm at for another half an hour or so. I had planned on starting bible study tonight but opted to nap instead since I didn't feel so good. I'll try next week!

Well, I think that's probably more than enough info!

From carcasses to dirt to telephones

Alright...only one day behind, I can handle this.

The last couple days have been similar to a rat race for me. On Mondays I have seven hours of class (6 classes), so they get a little long. I started the days off trying to look excited for my CTE (career and tech ed) class. It was consecutively followed by Religion, Meats, and Indians of NA. Yep, that's a sequence that'll put you to sleep. After that last class I go to work for two hours at the front desk and then have two hours to kill before band. yesterday I went to the meat lab during this time and studyied the muscles on a pork carcass. Then, I quick ran home and ate and put my stuff together for band. Virginia picked me up while I was walking over there- works out pretty handy. Right after band I came back and talked with my roomate just long enough that it was time to go to my last class for my trip to Argentina. There, I signed a nice chunk of money away to the trip and left them with my passport. ...Hope I don't need the money or the passport anywhere in the extreme near future! lol...although I might want that money I don't think I'll "need" it. You can't starve if you know how to mooch! After class I went to a friends 21st birthday party at Cubby's. I was already late but ordered a burger anyway. My friend, Becky, doesn't drink much but they bought her something she liked and then a guy that knew a different girl at our table came over and found out it was her birthday so he bought her a shot. It was the most hillarious thing to watch. They said cheers and he threw his shot down...Becky sipped hers. Yes, I said sipped. It took her like five minutes and a few sips to drink it. How funny, I guess she has a piont- why drink it fast when you can enjoy the strawberry cheesecake taste! I guess they took her out a little later. I just went home and studied. A freind stopped by to talk FFA a little later in the night and after that I was ready to go to bed. I didn' t get near as much done as I wanted, but that's how it goes.

Today was crazy again. I went to my early classes and then had a short study break before meats lab. I was group leader for the lab and for one reason or another it just didn't go that well, we were one person short and really slow, but oh well- life goes on. After lab I walked all the way back across campus to our apt so that someone was around in case the cable guy came. Well, I ate dinner (if you can call it that), cleaned the living room, and then had to head back to class- he must have come later because I see a cable box set up. For soils lab we were to meet in the motorpool (DOT) parking lot and head out to sanderson gardens. I showed up and as soon as the instructor found out I was a state employee she gave me the keys to a 15 passenger van. lol...oh what fun. So, we took three vans out to the melon and produce farm just east of Brookings (really cool). We did our lab on soil profiling, which I actually kindof enjoyed, and then came back into town. Right after that I headed straight to the FFA office. It was phoneathon day. Essentialy the phoneathon is where we call anyone who has had any affiliation to the SD FFA, catch up with them and their FFA experiences, and try to raise money for the foundation. I didn't have too many awful calls this time (I tend to call the cranky ppl) but I didn't raise a ton of money either. That's how it goes though- I think we do that again on Thursday. After the phoneathon I went to work at Hansen from 9 to midnight. The desk was fairly constant but I was able to get some work done which was kinda nice. Now, at 1:40 I am finally calling it a day. I hope tomorrow isn't as hectic. I have planned to meet mom down at the barn in the afternoon to ride the ponies! I'm sure I'll enjoy that!

Tired

whew..what a few days! I'm getting behind.

So.. back to Thursday. It was one of those days where you just do what you have to- even if you think it's ridiculous. I only have three classes on Thursdays so I spend a whole lot of time at the PS lab. Now, normally you would think this to be a good things because I am getting in hours. But six hours on end is wayyy to many in that place with that boss. I went to my first two classes and tried to be lively and excited for the day! lol..then headed to work. I spent a little over three hours out in the plots counting soybean plants. None of my coworkers hours line up with mine so I just go out by myself...our boss doensn't like it but the beans are turning- they need to be counted asap. It was alright, just kinda tedious and tends to leave you with a sore back. I came back in and recorded my date and dropped off the state van. Eventually I headed to the Ag Bio ice cream social, where I helped with ag bio ambassadors and CFFA. Then, went out with Virginia for supper at a new pizza place downtown. It was tasty! We stopped by our friend, Erin's place and hung out for a few minutes. Finally, I went home for a couple hours to do homework and then headed to work at the front desk for the late 12-3am shift. I kept busy with some homework when I didn't have something else to do and eventually went home for the night and it was time to crash.

Friday was a similar day. Went to class, got assignments. Went to work at the lab. We spent the morning clening out the teaching lab. Gross. Seriously, they only have part time janitors in the building who basically take out the trash once or twice a week. Otherwise, not much is cleaned but the bathrooms. So, once a year they clean up this teaching lab and it was nasty. I got regrigerator duty. Cleaning out plants and random petri dishes owned by madd plant science professors is rather interesing. But, I got it all cleanded out and helped clean upt he rest of the room then went to a quick meeting with a professor, but it didn't last long enough- I went right back to work. Eventually, I got out of there and went to band. Afterward, Virginia and I headed down to Sioux Falls and met our aunts for supper. Three of them were in town and one more was on the way. It was nice to visit with everyone and catch up. We ran a few errands and met up with them once more at my aunt Charlene's place near Renner. Then, stopped by home and headed back to school. I spent the rest of my very sleepy...until I finally gave in and went to bed.

Saturday...was plent busy for a Saturday. I spent the morning from about ten until two out in the soybean plots with Megan and Nate (the friends I work with at the lab). We finally finished the whole plot! woo hoo. So, we rewarded ourselves with a little Chinese food and headed home. I only had about an hour to shower, eat, and get ready for the game. I suited up and headed to the practice field. We marched our pregame show and then played for the game. Our new director definitly took some of the fun stuff out, but I think we looked pretty good. We didn't do a full blown field show, which dissapointed a lot of people I think- but what do you do, they guy is hired now. After the game I met with Megan and Nate again at Nate's place and had some brauts off the grill. I stayed for about and hour and then headed back for another late shift at the front desk. Ugh...I don't mind the shifts but they're hard on the mornings after.

This morning was not as bad as suspected. I got up and did laundry before church. Then, walked the whole block over the Lutheran Center and ate the free meal afterward. Woo hoo...college kids love free food! :) But, the fun didn't last long. We had marching band camp from 1-5 to learn the real field show. It was alright- but very, very long. Let's say we were all pretty happy to get out of there. But, we did make progress and learned the basics of the show. I came home after eating another free meal (pizza) and spent the night doing homework, fryed some hamburger for the week, and spent a lot of time working on my room. I finally got some pictures up on the walls and we even got an sdsu flag hung up in the living room (I know that's not a ton of progress)..but it's better than nothing! I'm headed off to read some more 'middle school philosophy'...ahh gotta love the teaching classes.

Dance the night away!

So, last night I was literally falling out of my chair I was so tired...tonight isn't too far off from that.

To summarize the weekend: it was awesome! It was great to be back and see familiar faces again where it was quiet and content. I had a great time with the round up and was so glad we were able to help out and get some haying done while everyone was around. Hopefully I can go back and visit again soon. :)

Back on the homefront in Brookings...

Yesterday was fairly chaotic. My class schedule has two classes and two labs- fun. I basically ran around in all of my spare time trying to get various odds and ends accomplished. Soils is my first class and it's really hard to stay awake in- monotone voice and not the most riveting subject matter for 8am. Although I'm interested, we all seem to struggle to stay that way during lecture. He gave a quiz- it wasn't so easy, but that's life. My middle school philosophy class was next and that professor is slightly wacky. Always interesting, and hard to fall asleep in! It might be a little interesting as the semester goes on. Meats lab was by far the best three hours of the day though! We got to trim the fat off of half a pork carcass. So cool! I messed up and cut off too much a few times, but that's life. I'm really excited for that class:) Finally, I had soils lab, which was better than lecuture and seems like it might become pretty interesting.

I spent the couple hours of free time I had running around working on little things I needed to get done and homework. I don't know how successful I really was, but i got some done. I got even more done during my front desk work shift hours from nine to midnight. Then, finally, home and to bed.

Today wasn't much different except the class schedule. I had four classes this morning, none of which are terrible, but I'm gong to try to be optomistic. After class I went to the plant science lab for work. Of course, no one was around becuase my work schedule doesn't coincide with the others well at all, but non the less I was there for work. I wasted some time arond the lab until I decided to take it upon myself to work on our soybean project alone. So, I grabbed our state vehicle and went out to the plots. It's a job best suited for two people, but I played both roles today. Counting plants in each row and then putting down the count of alive and dead. How fun. I reall don't mind working with the soybeans, but the aphids and the plant residue gets everywhere after a couple hours. ...and lets face it you can only count stems for so long until you go crazy. When I quit there after 5 little plots of four rows each, I headed to band. That was simple enough as we are preparing for our pre game show (shorter version of a halftime show) this Saturday. After band, I ran home, did some cleaning and organizing of my stuff, took a 15 minute amazing power nap and took off for my 6pm CFFA officer meeting that I was presiding for. Our meeting went well with lots of great ideas, but there is lots to rebuilding an organization so I think we will take smaller steps. After a couple hours I headed home and ate what was left of dessert - apple crisp! I ate at the meeting and they ate here, but it all worked out for desert.

Then, a few friends and I made a last minute decision to go to Jonny Holmes (a fun cover band) tonight and have a good time. I love Jonny Holmes dances and I love to dance when I have a littel time (which I just kinda created). So, I went out and had some fun with my friends! - that doesn't happen often enough. We had a good time and I brushed up those jitter buggin' skills real quick again. But, all good things come to an end. I helped a friend get to her house that is really close to my apartment and then hteaded in for the night.

It was a long day, but ended with a bang! Now it's time for bed.

labor day weekend

ok...so this is wayy to many days to write out, so I'm going to summarize.

Friday, was pretty typical, I took my three morning classes while running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Then, worked for an hour (soo not worth the money) then, ran back to my apt, packed, dropped Bart (my amazing Betta fish :) off at Virginia's and left. But, I wasn't headed west just yet. I stopped by the horse barn to grab my saddle and visit with Joe and Ace. All seemed well there, although Joe is having some trouble with his fetlock joint it seems. I think it's probably arthritis, but we've decided that it's probably the true cause of why his other leg is swollen. He's putting all the weight on it. So, we're giving him some butte and we'll see what he does after a few days. As far as Ace goes, he was a chubby as ever, I rode him around a little bit and he seemed pretty happy go lucky. But...as soon as I got a ways down the road mom called and said he looked like he might have an impaction again. So, they gave him some oil and watched him for the night. He turned out fine, but seriously...I leave and everything just wants to fall apart!

I made two stops, one for food and gas in Kimball, and a quick stop in Kadoka to rent a movie that I wanted to see the end of (fell aspleep watching the beginning the other night). I made it to the ranch just at dark, it worked out just right. Merle showed up a little later, after the football game was way to far gone to watch anymore- sounds like Martin crushed 'em.

So, I was pretty quick to go to bed because I knew Saturday would be an early morning. And it sure was. I got up about 4:30, ate breakfast, and headed out for chores. By the time everything was rounded up and saddled up, and all the help was around it was probably 6:30 or seven. We had 13 people there I think- quite a bunch. Merle, Harvey, Me, Glen, Steve, Ross, Adrianne, Mike, Brady, Dustin, Delbert, Bill, and Matt. (Hope I'm not missing anyone.) Matt stayed back to work on dinner and the rest of us loaded the horses up and headed out.

We were rounding up Erwin's about 500 steers in the timber reserve pasture. Yup, as the name implies there are quite a few trees in the low spots. We all split up on the north end and pushed everything south. I rode Bowdie and we took the spring fed creek the whole way so that I wouldn't get lost...yeah blonde in the trees- not a good combo. I never did find anything until I met up with Glen and Ross - then I magically found myself with 60 head. I was never sure if they split and some got way ahead of me or if they got up a side draw and went back around me, but I think most of them ended up ahead of me. The creek was pretty thick- as in, get off your horse and drag him through in a few spots- really pretty, but thick. I even saw some wildlife, some turkeys, a couple antelope, and a fawn. When it was all said and done and we met at the other end we were one rider short. But, with time, Harv showed up with about 50 head (maybe it was more I can't remember). That helped numbers considerably (of steer and riders that is! lol). Moving them home was realatively easy. We made it back, ate Matt's dinner that was pretty darn tasty, and then waited around for everyone to go back and get the pickups and trailers that we left out in the pasture. After everyone was loaded up and headed home Merle and I went out and hayed. Harv and Ross were already out there stacking bales and windrowing. We all worked until about six or six thirty I believe and then headed home, did chores, showered quick and went into town for dinner at Ross and Marva's. Carol and Marva had cooked a really nice supper and it was fun to just hang out. But, fatigue hit and we headed home.

Sunday was similar to Saturday. We decided to round up what we could find left out there again. We left at about the same time, but with only six of us. Before we split up we got lucky, and saw a whole herd of 10 or 15 elk cross the fence. So cool!

I rode the same spot and didn't find anything at all this time. Actually, I turned out to be the one they waited on this time..oops. But, they had 22 head there, which helped numbers considerably. This time Harv went back for the pickup and trailer before we got all the way home. We arrived with the steers at the same time he showed up in the pickup, so it worked out good. Everybody split for dinner except Adrianne. So, we went in and had hamburger and then played some cards. It was lots of fun! On the third game I finally managed to beat Merle- we didn't care who won, as long as it wasn't him again! haha- what fun. Then, a quick game of concentration followed, but I think he won that one too...dangit. But, we goofed off long enough. Adrianne headed back home and we went out to finish putting up what we left from the day before. We hayed until there wasn't anymore to hay and then went home and did chores. I managed to finish my movie too! lol

Monday morning, I helped with chores and we ran a tub chute to town. Then, I decided I had better get going because I knew I would have lost of stops on the way home, and loose an hour. I dropped off my movie in Kadoka and stopped by Kimball for food again. Otherwise, I dropped my saddle back off and messed around with Joe and Ace who seemed quite content. Then, made some stops at home and finally headed up to Brookings and unpacked my stuff. It was a long day, but I finally made it back. I managed to fall asleep studying...how fun.

I will fill you in on Today tomorrow- way too tired!

work

alright...I've started adding pictures. If you go back to the Sturgis page there are quite a few there. The others will come soon, it just takes forever to load them and I am more interested in sleeping right now;)

I had an ok day. I went to my rather boring and monotonous Soils class this morning. The subject matter wouldn't be bad if the professor didn't drone on and on is a monotone voice, it's like impossible to stay awake even! Afterward a bunch of us Ag Ed girls walked down to our Middle School Philosophy class together...boy that's gunna be an intersting class. On the extreme opposite end of things, that lady is nuts! She talks one hundred miles an hour and has lots and lots of busy work. I don't know how you could ever fall asleep...or not be annoyed! lol

I made it through those two and headed to work I stayed there from 10 until 3:30...with a lunch break. It sounds like in a couple days we are going to start working out in the soybean plots counting plants. I will like that much better than all the lab work but it's still pretty monotonous. I think it will take us a few weeks to get it all done with just three of us! Oh, well as long as we get paid and get to be outside, I really don't mind. Other than that, I went to band- woot woot, and came home to the roomies. I did some studying and then we ate pizza crackers (very tasty) that Cody made for us. I made him a deal: I will buy most of the ingredients if he will make the food. Sweet! I confirmed my own decision after I had trouble with a piece of toast falling down into the toaster oven this morning. Seriously, the microwave, the toaster...what's next!

But, we ate and watched a movie, that puts me here. I think I'm gunna head to bed. I am gunna head out to the ranch sometime between 2 and 3 tomorrow, so it will be a long day of driving! Not sure if I'll get on the internet to blog or not out there, but I'm super excited to go! :)

Ok, we'll mesh a couple days together and hit the highlights.

Yesterday was a busy one...I went to class until about 2 and then headed home to get some work done there. Mom came and helped me and we got quite a bit done. All the mowing, cleaned the house (at least good enough for now) moved the pickup around, visited with Joel (borrowed his trimmer) and gathered a whole bunch of stuff that I forgot to take to school the first time. While I was there I was also hoping to find the source of our water leak, but no such luck- it has leaked out over 10,000 gallons now and nothing is bubbling up so we're going to dig later in the week- if it's not one thing it's the other. All in all, besides the water situation, it worked out pretty good. I was kinda dissapointed because I never got to go see Joe and Ace, but I'm sure I will do that soon. I had to leave there by eight to get back up here for work from nine to midnight...ooo how fun. It was pretty uneventful, just a freshman asking a question now and then. But, I sure was tired when I got home and went to bed. It's one thing to stay up until two in the morning when you're at home, but it's a whole separate thing when you work until midnight and then come home...just makes you tired out!

Today was an early start. I had a seven am meeting for a group I'm involved in on campus called ag bio ambassadors. We advocate for the college of ag and do school visits and are involved in basically all the ag recruitment functions on campus. It's a lot of fun, but every other Wednesday starts off a little earlier because of it. Getting up for 6:30 chores on the ranch is one thing, but a 7:00 meeting at school is a whole different ballgame! But, I survived. Today, I got to test out my crazy schedule. I have four classes back to back from 8 to noon. It was long, but I think it'll work out ok. Afterward I was able to go home and unpack a few things and grab some lunch before Lauren was going to take me to the Ford garage to drop my car off to get the brakes worked on. So, I throw these little pizza things in the microwave...and either wasnt' paying attention and hit the wrong buttons or just put them in wayy to long. I walked away and came back to the microwave billowing with smoke and it looked like the little pizza bagles had probably been on fire! Lol, I immidiately opened all the doors and windows and turned on the fans. It was bad...even hard to breathe! This just goes to show that I really can't cook. Besides everyone else was freaking out and I was laughing and fanning the smoke alarm...o wow. We basically left the door and windows open all day long and I think it really helped. A few open windows and a couple candles later I think we may have made some headway. Hopefully everything around here doesn't smell like burnt pizza forever! lol...we took some pictures of it- if I ever get my pictures up that one will definitly be in there!

So other than me burning things, I ran over and dropped off my car, then went to the plant science building and filled out the paperwork for m lab job. Then, came home and worked on the apt for a bit. Ellie's parents came and brought a futon and all sorts of things so that kept us busy for a while. It was fun to meet them. Otherwise I just kept busy and went to band. I was supposed to have choir but opted to drop the class after all I think I'll be ok with 21 rather than 22 credits! After band we made quick trip to Wally World and watched Marley and Me at home. It was nice to be able to watch a movie, because I know when things get in full swing that just won't happen.

I'm hoping to go back to the ranch this weekend to help round up in the Timber Reserve. I'm not positive, but I think I'm going. I'm torn between that and the state fair- but I have been to the state fair gajillions of times, and I don't think it's gunna kill me to miss it. I might even bring my friend Megan out with me...o double trouble! Sounds like Merle has been helping Delbert precondition and round up this week- always busy around there. But, I am going to try to attempt to go to bed before midnight!