Whew

O where to start.
It's like every night I say- O I should write in my blog tomorrow, and then go to bed...tonight I decded to just stay up and write before I'm so far behind that I can't recall a thing! So the last time I wrote was on the 27th! A long time ago.

Starting Monday the 28th things got pretty busy and haven't quit since. I had a few random things on the agenda that day and a PAS meeting that night. We had a quiz that was terrible in our Argentina class...but no one was too concerned because we all did bad. Hopefully those scores won't count for much- how do you fail a trip class anyway! lol The MediaCom guys actually came back that day and fixed our cable...or so we thought. It took three of them about two hours and when they left they said they still weren't sure if it was working right...ugh seriously. Now, a week or so later it isn't working again. I also decided that day that I was going to go to National FFA Convention. Yes, I will miss school, but it is an excused absense and only comes around once a year. I will have an expense paid trip with Ag Bio Ambassadors and work at the SDSU booth! It should be lots of fun:)

Tuesday was another movin' day. I had my classes and labs, and that resulted in a true highlight of the day. We had a pork slaughter lab...most amazing thing ever! I really liked being a part of the entire process and seeing and acutally doing all of the proper slaughter steps from live anminal to commercial cuts of meat. It was great! I can honesly say that I love that class...and I don't say that often, belive me. So, we killed our pig (named Ralphie II) and went to soils lab. In that lab we did legal land discriptions, something I can catch onto fast and is very useful- I actually liked that lab as well. After labs I ran home and grabbed my chip dip that I had made earlier in the day for a Spanish potluck that we were having for Argentina class that night. it was optinoal but me and my friend Melissa decided that we must go and do better with our Spanish! That was fun, be we could only stay for an hour because she had to study and I had to meet some land renters with Virginia in Brookings for supper...there's nothing like double eating! I spent that night studying my life away... as I had for several nights before.

I had my 7am ambassador meeting on Wednesday followed by a visit to the area multi-district for one of my teaching classes. As if that wasn't enough, I came back home and ran straight to Religion class, follwed by Indian's of North America class. I took my meats test that day- it went quite well and then attended a meeting for national Block and Bridle convention. It is held during the North American show in Lousville, KY during the first weekend in November, who cares about school when you can do awesome stuff like that!? lol I'm pretty sure I'll be going! I specifically recall staying up until 3:30 that morning to study for my upcoming tests-soils and middle school philosophy.

I got up at six on Thursday and went to my soils test at 7:15. O what fun. Neither test that day went to terribly, although I was a bit dissapointed in the soils results becuase I studied so much- but he curves so I ended up doing alright with a high B. I can settle for that I guess. I spent thrusday doing more odds and ends. I had a couple meetings and studied a bunch again.

Friday wasn't real exciting either. I had a Religion test and a Indians or NA test. They went fairly well too, so my tests were finally completed! Five in that last week! That night after work at the lab I came back to the apt and went and got Lauren from next door. We rented movies from Cody at the movie store he works at and came back here and watched them. It was nice to just sit back and relax after all of the studying and tests.

But, Saturday came pretty quick. I got up and spent the morning doing odds and ends and packing for my Ag Bio Ambassador retreat that started when we left a at noon. We had six state vehicles and all headed out towards the hills. The destination was a lodge in Keystone, but we played tourist along the way. There a quite a few ambassadors from MN, IA, or NE so they hadn't seen a lot of our dorky SD tourist attractions. We stopped at the corn palace and took that quick tour and then headed on. Everyone wanted to see the badlands so we went down at Kadoka and hopped on hwy 44. My car decided that since I was complaining about how close we would be to the ranch, we should just stop. And we did. We only drove fifteen miles out of our way and only stayed for about twenty minutes, but it was worth it to be there again. Merle was able to meet us and hang out for a few min, then we headed back out. We acually ended up missing supper at the firehouse restuarant in Rapid, but we just met up with everyone and then stopped for fast food on our way to Keystone. We did a quick introduction for all of our new ambassadors that night and then hung out for a while and went to bed. We learned that there is nothing to do in the "off season" in Keystone...at all.

We spent Saturday planning and doing various retreat like things. We were at this beautiful lodge tucked back on Old Hill City Road and as we were planning and whatnot is started snowing. Yup, that's right, snowing. Now it wasn't accumulating but it was chilly and kinda pretty, just not very welcomed. In case I never mentioned it, Ag Bio Amassadors represent eh SDSU college of ag and bio and go around the midwest visiting high schools for SDSU and serve at various ag events on campus. We finished up our retreat stuff for the day and went out to eat at a Mexican restuarant in town that opened just for our group. The food was great. Afterward two car loads of people decided to go to Mt. Rushmore while the older ones stayed and drank...o boy. So, we load up and head to Mt. Rushmore in the dark, in the snow. I knew what was gonig to happen but thought we should try it out anyway. We get there and there is absolutely no one around. I mean not a sole, not even a park ranger. The lights were on the mountain but you couldn't see it at all- the fog and snow were completely blocking the view and reflecting the light. So....we had a snowball fight. Yeah, that' right we had a snowball fight at night, in the snow, at Mt. Rushmore- probably won't happed again. A few of us decided to take a trail and get a little closer and we eventually could make out the faces to some extent. But, the two girls who had never been there woudn't brave the trail so they didn't get to see them at all! But, hopefully they come back someday, in the daylight, with no snow, when someone is there. So eventually we turned back around and headed toward our lodge. On the way we picked up three guys in our group who were walking back from the restuarant carrying a carton of beer... quite hillarious conisdering that it was cold and snowing! We spent the rest of the night just chatting, then headed to bed.

That next Monday morning was supposed to be the day we all went out and did some west river school vists but when we woke up arond five...there was not electricity, over six inches of snow on the ground and some still coming down, and a massive tree blocking the hotel driveway. Yeah, there was not way the six Chevy Impalas were gunna make it out. After they got the tree moved a few groups were able to get out to their school visits but ours was not. We just loaded up and went home. We made quick stop at Wall Drug for the two people I was riding with who had never been there, and then went back to Brookings. It snowed or rained the whole way...gross. We made it back in time for our Argentina class last night. Then, I came home, fell asleep doing homework and went to bed.

I spent my day today either in class or doing homework. Because I spent every spare second I had last week studying I got a little behind on the homework, but after my six hour shift at the front desk tonight I think I've got a better handle on it. In ranch news for the past week it sounds like they finished up working calves and Merle has kept busy since. He was picking up some cracked corn in Gordon and the pickup we left in Phillip to get body work on a while back. He called me and asked if we brought it there without a spare tire becuse there wasn't one in it. I had to laugh- I think we did. Other times I have called he's been fencing or moving cattle around. I think all the wheat is finished now, so it's odds and ends for the time being it sounds. I am hoping to plan an ambassador visit out west sometime soon and then just stay for the weekend- that would be awesome~

Tomorrow they will start digging with the backhoe at home to try to find our infamous water leak...we'll see what happens.

Alright, definitly bedtime!