Saturday, November 29, 2008

Geocaching - Thanksgiving in Tucson 08

Dad wanted to go geocaching while we were in Tucson to drop off the two geocoins that we found when we were camping. We found this AMAZING cache that was a sculpture garden. I LOVED it. I can't wait to go back. There were at least 12 sculptures that I'd pay for.


Here we all are with our cache. I LOVE the auto-taking feature on my phone.

The yard was full of huge metal sculptures made from found metal.

Butterflies on a metal fence.

3 FOOT wide blue sunflower.

Dragons!


Shovel sunflowers.

Cactus tunnel.

Studio 2633.

Little guy who wants to eat you.

The front yard.


Alvin wanted me to take a picture of the "bird."

Friday, November 28, 2008

Black Friday - Thanksgiving 08 in Tucson


Ah! The 5th wheel. Do you see how Papa's truck has rolled back and is TOUCHING the trailer? Yeah, that's where the propane bottles live. The propane bottles we needed to turn on to turn on the oven in the 5th wheel to cook part of Thanksgiving dinner.

We all pushed (Helped once the truck was in NEUTRAL instead of REVERSE) but nope. Couldn't move it. Ended up microwaving the potatoes.

This is actually the day AFTER Thanksgiving, but I didn't take any photos of Turkey Day itself. This is me and Alvin (very over-exposed)

Front to back, left to right: Dad, Maurice, Papa Charlie, Nana (you can just see her purple sweatshirt and hand), Tia Vicki, Alvin.


In this photo you can see Nana. She's kinda hidden behind Vicki.

Mom, standing up.

And I just LOVE this photo with Tia peeking out at me.

Kyle and his girlfriend WERE there but they didn't eat with us. Kyle was complaining that he just COULDN'T eat any turkey leftovers and his girlfriend went out to eat.

The soup was super spicy!





After dinner, we played penny poker. I HATE poker but play because Nana likes us to all do something together and SHE likes poker.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Tucson Flood - Thanksgiving 08 in Tucson


It rained today in Tucson. See that driveway next to the brown car? Yeah, that's NEW. My grandfather's neighbor poured it and then sloped it so the water runs towards my grandpa's house.


Like this. It's about 6 inches deep. Needless to say, it really worries him and stresses the foundation of his house; his 55+ year old house! He's called the City of Tucson but they're dragging their feet. They did give him a sump pump (under the white "board" in the photo) but that doesn't really FIX the problem.

I'm figuring out how to get Pre-Paid Legal involved since Papa & Nana ARE members. I figure they'll write a letter and help them out. I don't know if it's to the neighbor or city or both.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Chili Relenos - Thanksgiving 08 in Tucson


Remember all those MILLIONS of chilis I grew in my garden this year? I shipped them all to Nana so she could roast them. Well, some of them, she roasted and stuffed with cheese for chili relenos! Here she is showing us how she dips them into batter.

A close up shot. I THINK it's just whipped egg and a bit of flour but I wasn't there for it.


And into the skillet. We all had some as a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Everybody had 2. Except for me.





I had 4.





One was sweet and 3 were melt-your-face off. Guess I'll never learn.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Alvin's Goatee

Alvin grew a goatee for hunting and I wouldn't let him shave it off until I took photos. Isn't he good looking with it?

Yeah, he shaved it off the next day!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Chaos in the Living Room


So, I got the bright idea to throw in a movie and put together my shoe rack. Yeah, it's more complicated than it looks! I thought it would help as part of the moving-in process for the new house.

This is what Lily thought of it all. After sitting on the couch (behind where I was working) and putting her VERY cold, wet nose in my ear, she retreated to her bed to watch me pound the show rack into shape.

I gave up pretty quickly and just watched the movie.

FAFSA

Okay, I did it. I completed the FASFA. I'm applying to Prescott College for their Spring semester to get my Masters Degree in Spanish.

It's really kind of scary and exciting all at the same time. It's scary because it's expensive (hello! PRIVATE school) and exciting to be working on an advanced degree. I went to a Q&A session there and was very happy with the results.

Of course, I should have applied by the 17th of November. Yeah, that was MONDAY. I would have been eligible for a scholarship. I didn't though. I guess, in a lot of ways, I wasn't really committed to going. But, my family and I had a big talk last weekend and I realized that this is something I need to do. It's not going to get easier time-wise to wait.

So, here are my goals:

  • Attend 1/2 time for Spring 2009
  • Have the tuition paid off by May 2009
  • Earn enough with Pre-Paid Legal before July 2009 to pay for the fall tuition
  • Work on my master's during the summer to make it easier for fall

I know they're lofty goals, but I think I need it.

Wish me luck! I've never filled out a FASFA all by myself before so I hope I did it right.

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Most Remarkable Things

You can find the most remarkable things on your desk when you work from home. WHY there is a pair of tweezers on my desk, I'm really not sure. I must have used the restroom and then, what? CARRIED them in?

Why? Why was I using tweezers in the middle of the afternoon ANYWAY?



This is probably NOT the type of thing I should tell people when I call them about the Pre-Paid Legal Home Based Business Opportunity. That's what I was doing when I looked down and discovered them!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Trees


I got my trees today. I got 3 Red Robe Locust trees. This is the "before" picture of my very naked back yard.

And this is the guy from Growin' Crazy delivering them. They planted them and everything. BUT, I don't have an "after" photo yet. I'll keep you posted. The arrived at 7:15 AM. Hope the neighbors didn't mind the hydrolic shovel thingy too much!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

595

I paid my first mortgage payment today! It was check 595.

Why am I so excited about this?





Because a mortgage payment means I OWN A HOUSE! My very own house that I don't have to share! (Well, except for the dog!)

Monday, November 17, 2008

Spanish I Worksheets

So, I've decided that my first semester cultural project for Spanish 1 is a bust. Frankly, they don't like it and neither do I. So, I'm cutting it out. TODAY. I was going to let them do their presentations, but I couldn't figure out WHY that was a good idea. I mean, then I have to grade it! I think I'll just cut journals 7, 8, and 9 totally. If they turned 7 and 8 (and 9?) in on time, I'll add 10% to the grades for 4, 5, and 6.

We're starting chapter 3 today. Which includes clothing.

Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to find non-smutty pictures of underwear and panty hose? Geez! I ended up with this photo for panty hose. Which I think look like deflated legs.
And this one for "underwear." Don't even get me STARTED on trying to find ladies' undies!


I hope the worksheet is a success. It SHOULD be, we've done this type of thing before. I'm printing it at MDI and we're not going to double side it so they can cut it apart later for flashcards.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Kim's Outside Office


Lily is afraid of the dishwasher. So, we went outside. She went to the far back corner of the lot, made a little hole and laid there. She REFUSED to get up. I just let her be -- earth is grounding.

Kim's Outside Office, take 2. Like the first time I did this I just really needed some fresh air, sunshine, and getting papers graded. This time I've got a chair and Lily's bed.


She didn't use it!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Underworld Myths


We're studying the Underworld in my Latin class. The myth (and they HAD to accept it!) was to write a myth about the Underworld. As part of the assignment, they also had to PRESENT the myth. This is one of my students presenting her myth.


Another shot of the underworld. The girl in the black toga belongs to this myth. The other is helping (she provided the Dinos)

And the REASON the red-head is in a black toga? She was an "actor" in yet another myth and the math teacher stapled the toga onto her and she couldn't get it off!




Why no faces? (I know, it takes a lot away) Because these aren't my kids and I don't want to blast their photos all over the Internet but the MYTH was worth sharing.

In fact, we're thinking of a way that we can collect everyone's myths and publish them into a book at the end of the semester. It would be a full myth cycle of the 17-odd students in my class. If they don't want to be published, I'd let them off the hook, I'm thinking.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Workin' the Leads

Dad & I bought some leads through a website for home based business opportunities. I'm staying really positive about it all. I've had a couple of good contacts and left a lot of messages. The best part about it is a FREE website I can send my prospects to that explains about the service. They can't enroll or request more info so my lead can't be "scooped."

Oh, the Young Gunz call tonight was awesome. Jesse McPherson was on it. He's 26 and makes $100,000 a year with Pre-Paid Legal. Woot! I want that to be me.

Dad is already at 9 Player's Club points and I've got 5. Yeah for November!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Comma Club

Dad's in the Comma Club already. I'm so proud of him!


I'm next: workin' hard.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Sun, Water & Smaug

So, I've been over-the-top emotional the past week. And no, it's NOT a girl thing! I've been just down and upset and easy to anger.

Today, after helping Dad & Mom outside at THEIR house (grumpy for a while then happy happy) I started to think about something: How long had it been since I'd been in the sun for any length of time?

Yeah, that would be a month. Since our October camping vacation.


NOT GOOD for an Arizona girl!


So, since I have Smaug stowed on my back porch. I grabbed some leftover broccoli soup, a BIG glass of ice water, Lily, and some tests to grade, and spent an hour in the sun. I feel a lot better. I don't know how much grading I really got done (it's hard to grade in full sunlight -- it's glarey) but I am feeling a TON better.

Note to self: More sun. More water.






What on EARTH was I thinking!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Blog Updates

Okay, so I was VERY bad in posting during October. However, being the sneaky person that I am, I'm actually retroactively updating my blog. So, keep an eye on it to see what I was up to in October!

And, yes, I did delete a post from Monday. A student from TCP was killed and I had posted about it. Afterwards, I decided that I didn't really want to post about it. It's sad, it's private, and after getting a very kind comment, I realized that I didn't really think it was appropriate to talk about it.

It's rough, but I'm dealing with it.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

It's Exciting!

Woot! Pre-Paid Legal just changed our compensation plan to put in even MORE money and to make it easier to advance. I'm really excited about this. It now only takes 6 SIX people to get to Manager and 21 to get to Director.

I'm putting it out there:

I intend to create three new Director Legs by January 1, 2009 or sooner.
I intend to be an Executive Director by January 1, 2009 or sooner.
I intend to be in the "comma club" for November and December.

Check out the new info at http://www.prepaidlegal.com/go/keldredge