Song Of the Day

I need to have some non-country songs of the day, but this is my favorite song right now.  I love it.  It's been a discouraging day.  Listening to this smooths out the rough spots, just a little.

October, Redneck Style

Reading over this, I think this may be the most redneck post I've ever written.  It's got deer hunting, target practice, 4wheeler riding, moonshine, barns...  Oh well.  I like rednecks. Whatever.

We had a debate tournament two weekends ago at the University of Utah.  Over the course of Friday and Saturday, I spent about 21 hours at the University of Utah.  I  got about 3 hours of sleep Friday night before I had to be up and ready to meet the bus.  It was pretty brutal.  By the time it was all said and done, I didn't want to be a debate coach anymore.   But I recovered and am back at it.  I'm really proud of how well my students did.  Out of the 19 students I took, I think I had 12 in finalist rounds. These kids are so sharp and talented.  None of it has anything to do with me, sadly.  I love watching them develop their talents and have success.  They love it, even the ones who aren't doing so well.  They asked the other day if there are more tournaments we can go to than the 10 or whatever that are already on our calendar.  Yes, there are, but no.  Heaven help me.  One of my administrators asked me if we were doing a trip to a tournament in another state this year, and I said no, I'm too overwhelmed.  I hope the students don't hear that this is actually an option because these kids would LOVE to do that.

Today after school we had a little novice tournament in Bountiful, and it was short and sweet.  Not too bad, and the kids did pretty well. They liked the shorter rounds and getting home at a decent time.  

While I was at the UofU, Sean and Dennis took the kids on a road trip to scout out potential deer hunting areas.  They stopped here and there to get out and walk around or shoot Josh's pellet gun.  Then they stopped at Cabela's on the way home, where Josh bought a BB pistol and Lexi bought a Barbie fishing pole. She is really good at casting that sucker, too.  I didn't think a Barbie fishing pole would actually work, but I think she's going to catch a tiger muskie with that thing.

Testing out the ice fishing shacks for dad

When Lexi gets older, she is going to ask me why I never combed her hair.  In my defense, I wasn't home this day.  But in general, she hates getting her hair put into pony tails or barrettes and will only do it if I fight/cajole/bribe her.  And even then it still is just crazy looking.  Most of the time I just comb it and pray for people to not know who her mother is.

I was off work Thursday and Friday for the UEA conference, which I never attend.  Don't care.  I pay a crap ton in dues.  That's enough.  It wasn't really a vacation so much, because I spent about 12 hours+ grading papers and entering scores and other school-related business.  And then cleaned the house and grocery shopped and the usual type chores.  But I didn't have to wake up early for 4 days in a row, and any day that I don't have to wake up before 8:00 is the best day ever.

Sean took a few days off, and he and Josh and Dennis went deer hunting last weekend.  They came home with the truck and trailer in one piece, lots of crazy stories, and no dead animals.  Win!

I think riding his 4 wheeler all over the campsite was Josh's favorite part of the trip. 

In other random news:

Sean's been building a shed in the backyard, and I told him that when it's finished I'm going to use it to make moonshine in.  I'm going to turn it into a still.  He asked me if I would drink the moonshine I make.  I said probably not.  He asked me why, then, did I want to make it?  I don't really know.  It's just something I've been wanting to do for a while now.  I found a recipe for homemade rum.  It just seems like a cool science project.  I don't know.  I don't want to blow myself up, however, and I also don't want to go to jail. Perhaps I need to think this all through. Do a little research.

I'm in the mood to have a dance party. I was trying to think of a good venue, like a Footloose-style warehouse, and then I decided a barn. When we were planning Courtney's wedding we were looking for a barn. I can never find a barn when I need one. And then it hit me. I should just buy myself a barn! Then I can rent it out for weddings and dance parties and make money and get to use it whenever I want.

I have been looking for a good concert to go to, but I can't find anything I want to see/can afford.  I looked into buying some tickets to Pink, which would be totally fun, but for tickets for my girls and me it was $250. That's a little too steep for me. Maybe Joan Jett down in Wendover, I guess. She's fun, but just not really what I'm looking for.  I really, really want to see Eric Church.  Hopefully he'll come next year.

Sometimes I read what I write and decide that it's all too random and weird to publish, even on a blog that no one reads, so I delete stuff.  Today I just said screw it.  This is what I was thinking about today, unedited. Done.

Camping and Debate

We went camping at East Canyon last weekend.  It was chilly, but it's actually a nice to time to get out and go camping.  It's cooler, so you don't get all sweaty and nasty during the day.  The only bad part was that it was really windy, so it was harder to enjoy the cooler weather. Also, I had problems with my contact lenses, so I had a hard time seeing.  Oh, and there's the little thing where the starter on our Suburban went out.  We had to have Dennis come get us and take us to the auto parts store and then run back up, just in time to get there before they locked down the campground for the night.  Other than that, it was a good time!

Josh and Lexi had fun scootering down this hill.  It doesn't look like much in the picture, but it was steep enough for them to get going pretty fast.  

Lots of deer come down to the campground to feed and drink.  Lots of wildlife around this area.  They have signs posted at the bathroom that say there have been mountain lions spotted in the area.  

The view from under my awning:

I spent a lot of time hanging out under the awning Saturday morning.  I pulled up a chair, propped my feet up, and fell asleep.  It was glorious.

Josh had fun catching a fish.

I had Parent Teacher Conferences Monday night.  That made for a long day.  There has been something going every night this week.  I can't seem to ever get caught up.

Thursday night was our first debate tournament.  I love debate.  I love all those little debate nerds.  They are so adorable.  I was pushing and collecting ballots outside the tab room, and I love how they would come find me to tell me when it went well or when it didn't.