So it's basically meant forever.
This means I definitly won't be summarizing days but I will summarize things in clumps.
The few days before FFA convention kept me busy going to meetings and trying to catch up on homework. Needless to say, there was no way to get everything done before I left, so on Tuesday the 20th, we took off from SDSU at seven. There were six of us. Our advisor, Brad Blaha, Dani Herring, Brett Monson, Josh Johnson, Shawn Moore, and me. Yeah, so we all have our stuff for five days and all the free crap and the booth (complete with directors chairs) that we had to bring with us in the suburban. There was just hardly enough room for Josh to fit in the back!

It was a nice, long ride- I think it's supposed to be around 12-13 hours but we left early so that we could make a pit stop in Chicago. But, before we even did that we took a detour through New Ulm and saw the Shell brewery. If you don't know, that's where they make Grain Belt Beer- enf of story. lol

Brad lived there for six months and worked at the flour mill just after he graduated from SDSU. So, we took the round about route, toured Chicago, saw the flour mill briefly, and then ate at this authentic Mexican restuarant. Now, Brad had been talking up these Carne Asada (steak) burritos all night. So we all ordered one. They were huge. Absolutely ridiculous. We ended up calling them babies wrapped in tortillas because I'm quite confident they were as large, if not larger than a baby! Don't take that the wrong way, it's only size comparison!

So anyway, we left Chicago (which was fun to see). I have been there several times but never really explored the city like that. We ended up getting into Indianapolis around 2am the next day. So, needless to say it ended up being a long trip down, but we had fun.

We spent the next few days at Convention. It was quite the experience. I have actaully been to convention six times, but each time has been for a different reason. I actually really enjoyed going as a rep for SDSU and being an "exibitor". You get some extra privlages (like free breakfast and cheaper lunch) and we had more free time to roam around. I got to see lots of old friends from all over the country. And each night Brett and I found friends to go out with. One night we had to take a cab home and another night we drove the rest of our group back to the hotel...

It was a fun time, Convention is almost better than Christmas- not gunna lie. We left around 4 on Friday afternoon and stopped back in Chicago. This time we actually toured the flour mill- and it was really neat. I have done a lot of factory tours, but never a flour mill. We got to see quite a bit, and although I have a pretty nasty flour allergy (to the dust anway) I still had fun. I just lived with the after effects for a while, but turned out just fine. So we drove all night and got back into Brookings just in time for Hobo Day, at about 7:30am. That left me enough time to shower and change into my band uniform and head to 8:30am rehearsal...ugh. It was actually a pretty fun day. We did the parade (always a good time) then took a couple hours to hang out with the family (Mom brought Grandma and Grandpa up) and then went to the game. Did the whole band thing there, ate at HyVee with the family, then later that night I worked at the front desk. I honestly don't think I did anything else. Pretty sure I came home and went to bed. What an exciting Hobo Day- but hey I guess the parade and game were fun. After all we did win quite the game.
I spent the next Sunday doing homework.

This last week was basically ridiculous. Monday night was our CFFA Halloween Party/bonfire. So, I spent quite a bit of time with that whole deal and really didn't feel that amazing- but it actually turned out great and was a really good time. The weather was perfect. But, on came the rest of the week. It was basically full of studying and homework. All the time. I had some fun on Wenesday and went over to friend, Rachel's, place for pheasant and chislic. Amazingness. On Thursday I took off for Faulkton again at about 5:30. That was an interesting morning. I fell asleep without setting my alarm... I never do that but I did that night. And somehow, God was watching out for me, but somehow after going to bed at 12:30am, I woke up at 4:45am in time to take off for Faulkton. It was amzazing and I was really fortunate. But, I made it with no problem and had a great day. I had prepared a lesson and taught it- it went awesome! I was excited. By the next class period, Ms. Stratmeyer's cold was getting pretty bad, so I actually did her lesson. I had never seen the power point before, but it was just on livestock classifications- so it was fun and easy. Both of the lessons went well, and I had a good time. I've decided that I like the younger ones, Freshman and Jr. High- they are a lot of fun and still at the stage where you can mold their minds! haha- good times. At the end of the day they had parent/teacher conferences, so I stayed for a while. It was pretty interesting- I definitly learned that the apple does not fall far from the tree! It was really insightful.

Yesterday was pretty interesting. Thursday night when I got back from Faulkton I ended up studying until 4am. Then, the next day I got up at six. And proceeded to go to classes, take the test (which I'm really not sure about), work at the lab, then go to an officer meeting. After the 3:00 meeting I came home, slept for four hours, then went to my job at the desk from 8 till midnight. It wasn't all that bad except for waking up completely confused at 7:30...it was rather funny, I coudn't figure out why my neighbor was blaring his music at 7:30 in the morning- they are usuall still hung over or sleeping! But, I went to work, and came home and slept.

This morning I just got up when I woke up and basically did homework all day long. At eight I watched a couple movies with my friend and neighbor Lauren, and now I'm sitting here typing and thinking about setting up my schedule for next semester. Guess we'll see how things go! What an exciting Halloween.

From what I've heard, Merle was helping Delbert for a few days, and recently working on moving cattle around on his place again. He said that today he was able to get come calves moved out of the corral at Dicks. Apparently it was quite the task becasue the muck was deep- so it was nice to have done. I think all the calves are weaned now- but I can't be certain- guess I'll have to ask! Otherwise, it sounds like things are going well!

Well, I'm gunna think about sleeping or making a schedule for next semester...