The Cake was a Sucess!

There is Janette with her cake. If you do not know Janette, you should; she is nice! She made me dinner which I thought was a good bonus for me seeing it was her birthday. It should be the other way around...on your birthday, people should make you dinner, but whatever! (that was a Janetteism!) The dinner was good. I enjoyed spending time with Janette. It isn't too often that you are able to have the birthday person all to yourself and I did. Fun.

Not much else has happened today. Church was good as it always is. I am sure I learned something. Actually, that wasn't sarcasm, if you were wondering. I really did learn something...like that service is important because the whole reason we are here on earth together is to learn and grow with each other. We can help each other learn and grow. Our needs can help people learn to help us so their needs for helping are met at the same time we get the help we need! Get it? We are so interconnected. If the plan was all about just doing it alone, we would have been sent here alone. But we are here in groups for a real reason!

Boys are weird. I don't understand them at all. One guy I was interested in at one time now is around more. And one that I am trying to get away from keeps hanging on. I cannot get that man out of my hair. I really just think I should swear men off. Life is so much simpler when I am not trying to figure them out. MAN! (literally!) But I guess fear of getting hurt is no reason to miss something and I think figuring them out is part of the journey!

Well, those are my thoughts for now. Happy Birthday Janette! Everybody have a great night!

Love My Saturdays

Howdy again all. I often wonder how many people are truly checking up on me. It would be interesting to know. Maybe it would be better to just email everybody. But I have been so horrible at that lately.

Today was fabulous. First, I woke up at about ten to ten. I like that sleeping in thing. And just saying ten to ten is fun. I really have been tired lately. I do not know why but I have my theories. One being that I am burnt out majorly. After that, I lingered around in my pajamas for a while. I even was out on my porch watching my roommate, Melanie, weed the flower bed. For some reason, the grass just grows like weeds in the bed. Any quick fixes for that, green thumbs? I guess if I do find a way to rid the garden of weeds, then Melanie will not have a stress relief. Maybe they should stay, but only for Mel's mental health.

It was sunny and semi-warm today, so I decided to go for a walk up in the canyon. I do believe that Spring is one of my favorite seasons. Of course, I like most seasons but Winter just seems to last so long. It was pretty. The trees are getting leaves which is very fun. I sure do love my mountains. I live in a very beautiful place. My sister told me that she could see why I lived here. That was while we were walking up in the mountains, of course.

I also did a little shopping. I bought a cake mix to make a cake for my friend, Janette. She turns 29 tomorrow. Poor kid. Just kidding. So I am trying to be a little domestic right now by making her a cake. I am not the best culinary artist so it could be interesting. I try sometimes and sometimes it works; sometimes not so much!

This afternoon I enjoyed sitting out on our porch and reading. The picture for today is of that. I am enjoying taking pictures for this blog. I especially like taking pictures of myself with the self-time on my camera. Amazing stuff. I also like writing on here. It may just be meaningless banter but I think it as a good outlet for me.

Tonight my roommates and I went to the dollar theatre. We saw "Music and Lyrics." It was Mary Beth's and my second time. It is a cute little romantic comedy. Melanie enjoyed it as well. I sure do love my movies too.

Well, not much else is going on here. Just waiting for that cake to be done. Maybe that will be tomorrow's picture :) Have a great day.

Peep War Day

Well, I have survived two working days this week. I think I can make it to another Friday. And I am looking forward to it because it is Burger Friday(to celebrate payday). We usually get together on payday to celebrate and we usually go to Red Robin. Man, I love that place. Their fry sauce is to die for. My favorite is the Bleu Ribbon Burger.

Tonight, my roommates and I had our annual Peep War. This is where you arm some Easter Peeps and put them in the microwave. As they heat up, they get bigger and the swords(in this case the prongs of a plastic fork) get closer to one another. The peep that actually gets their sword into the other peep wins. See pictures. The best part about the peep war is the eating of the melted peep. There is a pic of me enjoying that part too.

Today went well at work. My kids were good for the most part. I did have to remind my girls PE class to only be nice to each other and that I will not tolerate bickering and belittling. They tend to have this weird split in the class. It is usually Latina girls against the Caucasian girls. It is very weird to me. I wish they could learn to get along and be the generation that stops this racism crap. Don't even get me started on that. I would have a very long blog.

I really do love my students. They make me laugh and really make the day go by fast. One of my students had to leave suddenly today and is going to Mexico. I asked him if something had happened in his family and he nodded and couldn't speak. I almost made me go to tears. My heart really goes out to these kids. I love them.

All I wanted to do tonight was watch TV. It has gotten chilly again here and that is what I do when it is cold. Mary Beth and I did go for a walk and for the first five minutes I thought I was going to freeze to death. I guess we have been a little spoiled with good weather and this cold week is just payback. Oh the joys of spring.

I better get off to bed. Celebrate Poetry Month. Read some good Poetry and for you creative ones...write some! I am trying to do some of both of those things. I love the Poetry. Have a great day or night(whatever you are facing!)

Later,
A

Fun day. Hung out with my friend, Megan, and her family in Lynndyl, Utah. I love small towns. It is always intriguing to me to see small towners interact with one another. Any place we went, Megan knew most people. That is a cool thing. We ate 10 cent hotdogs, and 25 cent cotton candy. We also had 25 cent ice cream cones inside the grocery store. It is an annual tradition in Delta to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the grocery store(there are only two in Delta). Very interesting. They sold 13,000 hotdogs yesterday in a county that only has 6,000 people. One resident even told his dad he didn't want to leave town for the whole weekend because he would miss the annual hotdogs. Nice.

We also dyed Easter eggs in Lynndyl and had an Easter egg hunt. Later, we went to the sand dunes(one of the pictures) and rolled Easter eggs down the dunes. Another Greathouse tradition, although it is more than just her family because there were lots of other people rolling eggs down the hill. They would even carve out little paths for the eggs to follow. Interesting. I like traditions. They really are fun. I even celebrated Lent again this year even though I am no longer Catholic. My mom found that funny seeing she didn't even give anything up this year. It was very hard to go without candy for 4o days. Last night I ate lots and today even more.

Tonight, I convinced my roommates that we should dye some eggs. I guess I was inspired while in Lynndyl. Mary Beth had a really cool idea using tape. Our eggs turned out good. I even took a picture of nine of them. I like having creative roommates because it encourages me to be creative.

I enjoyed the drive on the way to visit Megan as well. It was so beautiful to see the mountains green. I love spring. It was also fun to sing Shania Twain songs at the top of my lungs. It just felt like the right thing to do as I was in the country. When I first got to Megan's house, I was talking in a southern drawl. I do not know where my accents come from. I wasn't trying to imply that they talked like that, because they do not. I just felt like I was going into the real country, I guess. Sometimes I speak in a French accent just for fun. One time, I actually taught one of my Health classes in a Russian accent. I could not stop, even when my students wanted me to! Weird.

Well, I don't have much else to say today. I hope the day finds you having a good time.
Take Care,
Alice

Friday...Facing the End of Spring Break ! :(

Well, It is the last official day of Spring Break. I do not want to think about that. Luckily, I still have the weekend.

I hope you like that beautiful picture on the right. That is what I look like as I blog today. I am still in my pajamas at 11am. Nice. You can also see into my not so clean room. I thought about cleaning it during my time off but didn't have any motivation follow the thought. That happens sometimes.

Today, I will go to a funeral. I almost said get to go to a funeral, but going to funerals is not something I feel is a good opportunity. I guess death is a natural part of life, but I really do not enjoy going to the "party" for it. It depresses me. The funeral today is for the father of one of our students. He committed suicide after being confronted about his behavior, specifically about not treating the student's mother very well. I just feel bad for my student and how he now has to deal with all the aftermath of this tragedy. I guess sacrificing an hour of my time to support the family of this child is worth it. I am lucky and get to leave the service knowing my father is still alive and well, and I have had the opportunity to make it to adulthood with both of my parents. I am very blessed.

I have been grading papers a bit this morning too. I haven't had much motivation to do this either. It is interesting to see how my motivation seems to dwindle out at the end of the year just like students motivation starts to lack too.

Later today, I will head up to Salt Lake City and hang out with some of the Bills kids(for those of you who do not know the Bills-they are my adopted family. The introduce me as their daughter and have done so for the last 12 years. They live in the Salt Lake Valley and it is nice to have "family" so close. The Bills used to live in Wisconsin, that is where I met them. They are awesome!). We are planning on hitting a matinee movie and grabbing dinner. If I can convince them, I hope we go to Su Casa, my favorite restaurant in Salt Lake. Great, fast, and reasonably priced food.

Tomorrow I head to Delta, Utah. My friend, Megan, invited me to the Easter festivities that go on there each year. Basically, you can buy lots of food for 10 cents per item. There is also rumor of an Easter egg hunt at her house sometime during the day. It will be very adventurous and I am excited to go.

I should start a countdown of days left until the last day of school. That always puts things into perspective. Maybe I will hold off on that until there is only like 15....right now it is somewhere in the thirties, I think. I will keep you posted. Less than two months and I will head to Wisconsin. That makes me smile.

I hope this Easter weekend brings all of you much fun. Remember the reason for this holiday. Christ did die for us, and he rose again after three days, proving to the world that we too can have eternal life. I am very thankful for that and wish that all of you will feel that power in your lives as you reflect this Easter season.

Love ya,
Alice