Canning Peaches

I took my turn at the church cannery.  I have to leave work right away to make it to the 4 o'clock shift.  Terry came with me.  It was our first time going together.  He was on the line, weeding out the bad peaches, and I was running the chute where they come down and fill the cans.  Every job there is wet, sticky, and monotonous.  After about 20 minutes your back and feet hurt.  It's loud and you usually end up with a headache.  You're looking at the clock constantly. 

It is rewarding though.  You're there with a 50-100 people who volunteer their time.  The cans of peaches go to those in need all over the western United States.  It makes you appreciate your education, training, and jobs.  I know we're blessed for doing this.  Best of all, last night, we ran out of peaches right before 6:00.  We cleaned up and were out of there 2 hours early.....  I think we still get the blessing.

Campaign

I don't like politics.   I hate that education reform and teacher unions are the focus of elections and the Idaho legislature lately.  I've spent one Saturday morning going door to door with information about the referendum, another Saturday going door to door talking about a pro-education candidate running for representative in our district.  I've also spent two nights at the phone bank, talking to people all over the state.  I know how important it is, so I do it.  However, I don't understand how anyone gets into politics.  I have zero passion for it.  It's controversial, argumentative, drudgery.

Fundraising

The school year is just starting, but we're getting things going for EFT.  It's will cost the kids $200 each this year, which is a bargain for four days - food, lodging, classes, swimming, zip-lining, and entertainment. We're busy fundraising already.  Order forms went home for Spirit Cups.  You can get almost any college or professional team logos.  Some kids pay for their entire trip by selling BSU cups.  This year some moms have taught all the sixth graders how to make bracelets out of parachute cord.  We're trying to sell those for $5 each.  I have one student who's parents set-up a Facebook page and sold $200 worth to friends and family.  We also sold pizza, soda, and snacks at Bingo Night.  Now we just have the Monster Mash Dance to get through.  It's a lot of work, but it's good because it's all over with by the end of October.  After that it's up to each student to babysit, rake leaves, shovel snow, or save their birthday money.

Yipee!

Finally!  Ty came home for a visit.  He spent 3 days in Boise before he went with Frisbee friends to a tournament in Missoula, then a couple more days in Boise.  It was soooo good to see him.  I think he had a great time.  Mostly he just caught up with friends, but the wall bed worked.  He spent nights here.  I'm not sure what his hi-lights were, but here's my list:

• picking up bagels at Blue Sky (Terry doesn't like bagels, so Ty's my bagel buddy.)
• an afternoon off work and Moonrise Kingdom matinee
• lunch at Mickey Rays
• dinner at Westside with Ty and Dylan (I miss Ty's friends.  It was great seeing them.)
• doing his wash for him

I just miss him being around.  A week is a good visit.  I wouldn't want it to last much longer, but I hate sharing him while he's here.  It just makes me happy.

Art in the Park

This is always my favorite weekend in Boise.  I didn't take Friday off, like I have the past two years.  I just finished things on Friday as fast as I could, and then went with Terry to walk around and get some dinner.  It was a perfect night.  Besides dinner, we finished off a big bag of kettle corn.  I can't pass that up ever.

The next morning I called to see if my usual family members were up for a walk around.  Andrea was out of town, Nan was busy, Mom wasn't feeling well, but of course, Dad was up and ready to go.  It was just the two of us.  We started before the booths were open with our traditional cinnamon roll and hot chocolate.  We covered most of the park, bought a woodpecker made of metal scraps to put on top of Millie's scratching post, a silk scarf for Mom, and a crocheted scarf for me.  It was great spending 3 hours of my favorite weekend with Dad.

I bought a big oval mirror from IKEA this summer.  I want a mosaic frame.

I've never done a mosaic, but I'm wondering if I could do one like these.

Up the Road

I came home from work one day and found the fence at the end of our ally torn down.  The big lot that has been vacant for more than a decade, has become a lot full of activity.  I wish more little kids lived around us, because every day brings more tractors, big shovels, trenches, hills of dirt, and noise.  We actually went to a public hearing about the little subdivision that they plan to build...about five years ago.  Bad timing.  Because of the economy and the housing market, the developer just sat on the property and plans until things were looking up.  Now we're all looking up the road each day to see the new developments.

Labor Day Weekend

I was ready for a long weekend after the long first week of school.  Ty was suppose to come home to play in The Scorcher, an ultimate Frisbee tournament.  He called on Friday morning to let me know (and get a little support) that he was going to do the responsible thing and stay in Eugene to finish work and get ready for finals next week.  Terry and I drove over and watched the end of the championship game.  Ty's team ended up losing which I think was a shock to everyone.  I do love watching those games.  The whole ultimate culture is lay-back and a little different.  It fits Ty so perfectly, and he's good.  He can really throw. 

The tournament was at a park right around the corner from Bry and Amee's house.  We ended up dropping in on them, and also Stacey and Mike so that we could get a report on the first week of kindergarten from Tanner and Hudson.  They both showed me their take-home folders with four green circles for good behavior.  They're going to avoid getting any yellow or red circles this year.  They were both excited and neither of them know the names of any other kids.  They can find their way around the playground though.  I don't know how it all worked out, but they're in the same class with 18 boys and 3 girls.  Sounds a little crazy to me.

That's about the extent of what I accomplished this weekend.  I just refrained from laboring. 

His Project

For years we've checked out the booth at the home show.  We've talked about it.  We wanted one, and all of a sudden, my husband that is handy, but really doesn't own much in the way of tools, decided to build a wall bed.  He checked out plans on the internet, ordered the hardware, had Home Depot cut the boards, and it's done!  It only took a couple weeks.  Most of that was prep work and final painting.  It's really pretty cool.  Now we have an exercise room / guest room.  It easily pulls down to a comfy queen size bed.  It will be ready for Ty's visit in a couple days.  Maybe now he'll stay here when he comes to visit instead of crashing at friends' houses.

I think I'll hang a bulletin board on this with some motivational pictures and an exercise schedule.  The room is really bigger than it looks.

BSU - New Season - New Team

We went over and watched the game with Terry's parents.  We don't get over often enough to visit.  They have cable and a big TV, but they have to turn it up real loud.  I needed some sort of discreet ear plugs.  Felice also fixed dinner (including fish sticks) which was simple and good.  After the long first week of school, I couldn't even come up with game snacks.  I needed to weigh in at WW in the morning so it was all for the best.

Our Broncos didn't look the same.  I thought by third quarter they were okay, not good, not exciting, but okay.  For a little while I even thought they might hold on and win.  As it turns out, we were just fortunate that the Michigan State coach was classy enough not to tack on another touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter which would have made us feel worse.  The final score was 17-13.  This will be a rebuilding year.  We'll have a lot of fun games and no stress.  When you're Boise State, if you don't win the first game, your (BCS) season is over.