Sweet Potatoes and Dogs

Sweet potatoes and dogs? I know what you are thinking, they don't go together and you are right. This week, one night for dinner, I fixed baked sweet potatoes. The shell of the potato (what was left after we ate them) was in the trash. Well, this morning it was 27 degrees and we thought it was too cold for Abby to stay outside while we went to church. So we let her out to potty and thought she would be okay to stay inside. When we got home, she was good, she hadn't pottied anywhere. But when I walked into the den I saw part of a baked sweet potato on the floor. I was like "somebody has been in the trash". Last night before I went to bed I put a pile of clothes on the couch to fold before I went to bed. I moved them this morning to fold them and underneath the pile was a whole sweet potato. So she had gotten both sweet potatoes out of the trash. How it ended up under the clothes I don't know. I also don't know if she got them during the night or this morning while we were gone. Anyway, she had eaten part of one. We got home from church about 9:40, two hours later, I was sitting on the couch grading papers, when I hear and see Abby, throwing up. And guess what she was throwing up...sweet potatoes! I was like "oh gross Abby!" So I quickly got up to clean up the mess and believe me it was a gross and big mess. Then I realized that I didn't have anymore resolve, so I ran to Dollar General and got some resolve and came back to finish cleaning it up. Where was Kevin you ask? He was in the bed taking a nap, he never heard me making all the noise that I made, he didn't know I had left the house, nothing. I hope Abby has learned her lesson, that her stomach wasn't made to handle eating sweet potatoes. I have learned my lesson that the next time I fix them, to make sure she can't get to them.

No Snow for Us!

I am sure that many of you who are north of us, were blessed with snow, sleet, or ice yesterday evening through early this morning. However, it was 51 degrees when I was on my way home from school yesterday evening. I was talking with my friend Noelle, who lives in Charlotte, she had called me to say they were getting snow and she got to leave work early. She wanted to know if we were... Nope, not when it's 51 degrees and no sign of any type of precipitation in sight! However, last night it did start to rain and the temperature this afternoon was in the middle thirties. It's still misty outside and they are calling for possible freezing tonight. Hopefully, nothing major so we will still keep our power and heat. And Kevin and I both realized had we gone skiing this weekend, we would have of seen the "real" snow. But then again, the roads may have of been worse than they were with the ice and snow. My parents got snow in Greer. My dad sent me a few pictures. He said that he thought they got about 2 inches. It's just so unfair.

It's the 100th Day of School!

Today was the 100th day of school! Why is that such a big deal? That means we are over half way done and we only have 80 more days of school (with students) left to go. Translate to 4 more months and a few days. Yippee!!!! Today we celebrated that we were 100 days smarter in the third grade. In third grade we don't make as big of a deal out of it as I did in second grade, but we did a little celebration. So....tomorrow will start the count down with 80 more days to go...

Snow Skiing at Sugar Mountain

For Christmas this year, Kevin and I decided to give each other a trip. Since it was time for Kevin to clean out the chicken houses, it was a slower work time for him. Before Christmas we decided to go to Sugar Mountain in North Carolina to snow ski. I took the day off of school on Friday, (the first day of school I had missed yet) and as soon as I got home on Thursday we headed to the mountains.

Thursday, January 21st: It was a 5 hour drive. We didn't get there until 10:00 that night. On our way, we did get lost in Charlotte and had about a 20 minute detour. But we soon got back on the right track. And just for the record, I was reading the directions correctly, the driver got lost and went his own way, but then did admit that he was the one that got us lost. Then, Kevin kept saying he wanted to eat at Arby's for dinner. I saw an exit that had Arby's and was like there, over there, so he cut across 3 lanes of traffic and cut off this tractor trailer, to pull into....nope, not Arby's, I was one exit too soon, but a weigh station. It was pretty funny. Then, we found the right exit and we went in to order. Kevin asked the guy where we were (meaning what town were we in) and the guy said, Arby's. We have laughed about that all weekend. We were staying in Banner Elk, NC. When we got to Boone, NC it was completely iced over. The roads, trees, everything was ice. It was very pretty, but also dangerous driving. We had to drive up the side of a mountain with it raining, icy, and foggy, it scared both Kevin and I. We were so happy to finally get to our hotel. We both learned a lesson: If you have never been somewhere before, leave so you will arrive there during daylight.

Friday, January 22nd: We got up about 9:00 and headed to the ski slopes at Sugar Mountain, which was about a 2 mile drive down the road, at about 10:00. We decided to watch a few people at first before getting all of our gear. It was a misty day, it was rain, sleet, and snow all mixed in one coming down. It was very foggy on the mountain. We paid for a full day of skiing. It took us about an hour to get all of our gear and everything together before we could get to the slopes. We started at the bunny slope and went down for about an hour with it. I didn't fall any there, but Kevin fell a few times. Then we took a lunch break, which was crazy trying to get food and find a seat. In the resort there, they had a cafeteria you could eat at, you had to leave your skis and poles outside. After lunch we decided that we were ready to try the ski lift and try a bigger slope. The first time we got off the ski lift, we both just busted it right there. They had to help us up, mainly to get us out of the way so someone coming behind us wouldn't run into us. We fell a good bit going down. One time, this lady stopped me and she was with the Ski Patrol. She gave me some quick tips that made all the difference. Our last run for Friday, Kevin was trying not to hit this girl and he fell down to keep from hitting her, and ended up bouncing down into this ditch almost hitting a tree. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt and didn't hit the tree. After a day of skiing we ate downtown Banner Elk (which there isn't too much more there than there is in Blackville) at a restaurant called Stonewalls. It was very nice and very good too.

Saturday, January 23rd: We decided not to do a full day of skiing but a half day today. We rode up the mountain to check out Beech Mountain Ski Resort, but decided to come back to ski Sugar again. This time it only took us about 30 minutes to get all our gear and get in line for the ski lift. However, being Saturday it was a lot busier than it was on Friday. But we had a great time. Neither one of us fell more than 5 times. However, one time we were coming to a stop to get in line to ride the ski lift and some how both of our skis got tangled up and we both crashed into each other. It was pretty funny. Our last run for Saturday, we had gotten to a place on the slope to stop to take a break. We were at the same spot where Kevin had fallen down the ditch yesterday and realized there was this person in the ditch. We noticed that no one was with him and he wasn't getting up. So Kevin, went to check on him and he was hurt. I went to where they were. It was a little boy and he was 11 years old, parents- were down at the bottom of the slop waiting on him, they should have been right there skiing with him. He said that he had hurt his back. We stayed with him until the Ski Patrol could come and get him. That evening we had found this little Mexican restaurant and we ate there for dinner. We got everything that we normally get at the Mexican restaurant here in Barnwell, and it was 4 dollars cheaper.

Sunday, January 24th: We got up at 9:00 this morning and started our long drive home. It actually wasn't a bad drive or ride. Even though it was raining this morning and rained on us most of the way home, it was much better driving during daylight hours. When we left Banner Elk it was 38 degrees and when we got back to Blackville at 2:00 it was 68 degrees. I had to put on a t-shirt in place of my sweat shirt to continue to unload the car. We had a wonderful weekend. It was so nice for us both to get away from work and just enjoy spending time with each other. We also had a great time snow skiing and plan to go again sometime.

Enjoy a few pictures of our trip!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Long Weekend

Even though we just had a two week break for Christmas, we had a long weekend.

Friday, was a teacher workday. That was nice, not to have kids. I wish that each week I only had to work 4 days with kids and every Friday could be a teacher workday. When I came home Kevin, said since you had all day to work, then you are all ready for school on Tuesday, right? Nope. I tell you, it just takes time to get things ready. I went through a pack and a half of paper, copying things Friday and still didn't get everything copied for this week coming. And I'm talking about just copying the basic stuff, nothing extra.

Saturday, I got up about 20 till 8:00 and got ready to come to Greer, without Kevin. (Kevin's finishing washing down and getting the next two houses ready for chickens. We get those chickens not this Thursday but next. Then all the houses will be full again.) 385 is closed, so I had to come a new way-I had to go up through Spartanburg and come through Duncan to get to Greer and will have to go back that way tomorrow. Saturday I met my high school best friend Lindsey for lunch. I hadn't seen her since sometime this fall way before Thanksgiving. We had a nice lunch. Then my mom met me and we went shopping. Saturday night, Keith, Felicia, Emily, and Papa came over. Felicia's birthday was January 6th, so we were celebrating her birthday.

Sunday, we slept late, I woke up to a fire (in the fire place of course) and my mom fixed a good breakfast of eggs, sausage, grits, biscuits, yum! My mom and I went to visit my aunt and uncle, Ann and Bob for a little while. Then we had a bridal shower to go to for a cousin of mine, Jennifer Pickelsimer, who is getting married March 13, 2010. After the shower, we went to the movies to see "Leap Year". It was such a good movie! I highly recommend it. It was so, so good. It was one of the best movies I've seen in long time. My mom and I both really liked it. I'm still at my parents' house right now (Kevin teases me if I say I'm at home, he says I don't live there anymore and that my home is in Blackville now. :0) Tomorrow, we have school off for MLK day. So this will be a 4 day week, which I'm glad. Last week, wasn't too good. Especially, Tuesday and Wednesday. The kids were very talkative and just didn't want to listen and I had some that were really showing out with their behavior. I hope this week things will be better. I'm glad that I don't have to go tomorrow and get to sleep in. However, once I get back home tomorrow, I have school work to do. A teacher's job is never done. As least for now I can just relax and be thankful the clock won't go off tomorrow.

Flying the Coop Part 2

Today the rest of the chickens leave. They normally start getting the chickens when it gets dark because the chickens will fly and scatter everywhere. They turn all the lights off in the house and use one red light in the center hanging from the ceiling to see the chickens. However, today for some reason they started getting the chickens at 4:30, so I was able to not only see the process but get some pictures as well.

This was what it looked like in my backyard. *Now that it's dark outside, it looks like a runway.

This is a closer view.

As you can see, they put blue tarps throughout the house to keep the chickens in a group. This makes it easier for them to grab.

Some grab the chickens and hand them to others to put the birds in cages.

Some of the chickens get away, however I did see one get run over with the forklift. It wasn't a pretty sight.

The forklift comes in and picks up a cage at a time.

Then the forklift loads the cage onto the truck.

Once a truck is full of cages, they leave and another truck comes in place.

First Week Back

Well, thank goodness it's finally Friday! Yeah, I know what you are thinking...you just had 2 weeks off...but do you work with 17 8 and 9 years old for 7 hours for and try to keep them sitting quietly in their seats and focus on everything you are saying, plus doing work? I was ready to have something constructive to get back too, however, when my alarm went off Monday morning, all I could do was groan. But, in a blink of an eye, it's Friday. I have to say as much as I didn't want to start back, it was a pretty good week. I only had 1 fight this week between two of my girls, and I only had to send two students to the office, once, so I consider that a good week. It has been a cold week. I got a Zero coat for Christmas, and boy have I used it this week. It's been in the twenty's and very cold at recess. Last night they were calling for bad winter weather. At 7:00, it started to sleet...however, 10 minutes later it stopped. It was only in the thirties last night, unlike the nights before, being in the teens, so it was much warmer. So, as I knew in my heart, that we would have to go to school like regular today. Oh, well..it's still winter and I am still hoping for a school-snow day. Because snow days on the weekend are fun, don't get me wrong, but to miss a day of school for a snow day is much better.

I wanted to share with you some the engagement pictures that my cousin Taylor, and his fiance, Casey, took over Christmas break. You can see them at this website: http://www.janacandler.net/blog/index.php?category=5&start=0

But I copied some to show you on my blog too.

This one is my favorite!

Happy New Year!

I did stay up and watched 2010 roll in. Kevin had been a sleep for about 4 hours already. Kevin finally got finished cleaning out the chicken houses, so now he has to watch down the houses, and do all other kind of stuff. This coming Sunday evening, they will come to get the other two houses.

Abby has been under the weather so to speak. Wednesday, I noticed that she was hobbling around and she kept on lifting up her front left leg. That evening I found a thorne that was stuck in her shoulder. Thursday, she was really bad about not putting any weight on her leg. I called the Vet but they were closed due to the holiday. She continued Friday, not getting better. She also woke Kevin and I up during the night, Thursday, wining, so Friday I decided to call the Vet on her emergency line. We couldn't find anything else that might be wrong with her. The Vet said that I could give her half of a baby aspirin once a day. She's gotten better, but I'm still going to take her to the vet tomorrow, just to make sure. I don't want there to be anything seriously wrong with her and not get it checked out and I don't want to have to keep giving her medicine.

Tomorrow, I go back to school. I've had a good break and I'm ready to get back into a routine and get back to doing stuff during the day. However, I know that by lunch time, I will be saying "when is our next break?"

It is so cold down here. It's colder this winter than it was last winter. The high today is like 35 and it was 27 when we went to church and 27 when we got out of church. I got a new ski jacket for Christmas and I should have of wore it this morning, but I didn't know the temperature so low, so I just wore a regular jacket. I will get a lot of use out of it this week, it's suppose in the twenty's and thirty's as the high all week. But I'm glad it's finally cold.

I hope that everyone had a happy new year. In the year 2010, there will be some major things happening. Come June, I will have been out of high school for 10 years! I can't believe it's been 10 years since I was in high school. Kevin and I will celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. We both will turn 29, just 1 year away from thirty! Both our parents will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. And, there's no telling what God has planned for us. I'm still praying about school and my job situation. It's been better, but it's still something I'm having to still look close at. There's also the farm to pray about and how God will choose or not chose to grow the farm. I pray that Kevin and I will be able to grow even closer together as a couple and will continue to build our marriage around God and His will for our lives together as well as individuals. I pray that each of you, will do the same, grow closer to God as well as your spouse, (if you are married) and seek out what God has planned for you.

Now, my dear sweet husband has built a fire for us to enjoy on this cold Sunday afternoon. And for my last Sunday afternoon of my Christmas break, I plan to enjoy sitting in front of the fire and enjoy spending time with Kevin and Abby without school work interrupting. Because I won't have a Sunday (without school work) again until Spring Break, in April.