Day 81: School

The view from my seat in class.

I complain about school, a lot sometimes, and it is tiring.  Sometimes the amount of homework (coupled with my job, housework, and having a life) feels like it's too much to bear.  But when I really think about it, school is such a blessing.  Besides the obvious reasons: being able to afford it, obtaining a 4-year degree in this job market, etc., there is a more personal reason for me.  When I worked for Delta College Corporate Services, I was just kinda skating along, not sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, which was fine because I was only 19 when I started working there.  I had my whole life ahead of me.  Towards the end of that job, I was working there until I moved to Texas where my life would finally begin.  I moved down there and never really found a job worth keeping.  Not to say that those jobs (the swim place, the DNA place, and the school district) weren't good, they just weren't careers for me.  Which, in the end, turned out to be fine, since I moved back to Michigan.  Once in Michigan, it was my goal to get a job, any job, so that I could pay my bills.  Once I had an income again, I could start looking for a job I actually liked.  I don't know what this dream job would entail, I only know that I haven't found it yet.  Anyway, being in school gives me a goal to work towards.  Without it, I'd just being going through the motions—a zombie from 8-5, Monday through Friday.  So, while I can't wait to graduate and be done with school, it's also a little scary.  What will I do when I'm not going to school?

Day 80: Spicy Citrus Chicken

Recipe:
Mix the following ingredients in a medium sized bowl:
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 green onion sticks, chopped
1 cup of orange juice
handful of cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 chicken breasts, cubed

Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and heat on medium.  Add chicken mixture and cook until chicken is no longer pink and liquid has reduced.  Add another cup of orange juice and a bag of instance rice.  Cook until rice is tender.  (You may need to add water if the liquid reduces too much.)

Day 79: Dinner

Tomatoes from Mom's garden, sautéed squash (also from Mom's garden), and pesto pasta.

Day 78: Legos

We went to the Lego exhibit at the Midland Center for the Arts.  It was pretty cool.  This is a Lego replica of the Midland County Court House.

Day 77: Long Walk

Toby, Rodney, and I went to the Bay City State Recreation Area.  We hiked around the lagoon.  It was more of a swamp.  Anyway, this boardwalk was part of the trail.

Day 76: Freezer

Ashley and I went shopping for a chest freezer yesterday.  She picked one out and paid for it.  The Home Depot guy loaded it into Sing Sing, though the freezer had to be on its side.  Because of that, we couldn't plug it in right away.  So, I plugged it in when I got home from work today, waited a few hours for it to cool down, and then loaded it with meat and fruit.  [On Monday we went grocery shopping.  I had to rearrange the freezer, twice, to fit everything in.  And even then, it didn't all fit.  It will be so nice to not have to worry about that in the future.]

Day 75: I love lamp!

Ashley bought me a (belated) birthday present: a bedside lamp so that I can read in bed—previously I was using the flashlight on my cellphone.

Day 74: Scrabble

I gave Scrabble to Gage for his birthday.  Last night we played a non-scoring game so that he could get a feel for it.  Tonight, we played and kept score.  It was a lot of fun.  I can't wait to do it again.

Day 73: Compost Bin

Ashley and I ordered a compost bin and have already started filling it up.  Hopefully we'll have some nice dirt to plant tomatoes in next spring.

Day 72: New Flowers

Went to Menards yesterday and bought the bricks, flowers, and dirt.  My mum and I put it together and planted the mums.  ":)

Day 71: Temple Theatre Tour

Sarah, Dennis, Mandy, and I had a private tour of the Temple Theatre in Saginaw.  It was so cool.  The picture is of the main chandelier in the foyer—they're all Austrian crystals.  After, we had lunch at The Junction, also in Saginaw.

Day 70: Kayla and Josh

Kayla, Josh, and I went hiking in City Forest.  Last Christmas, Josh gave me a compass and we just had to try it out.  Since there are so many trails in City Forest, it's easy to get lost.  If you have a compass, it's also easy to find your way back, since the parking lot is north of the forest.  After hiking, we picked up KFC and headed to the Fun Zone.  Josh suggested picnicking under the water tower, and since I'm trying to live a better story, that's what we did.  Then we played on the playground for a bit before heading to Baskin Robbins for ice cream.

Day 69: Shadows

I went to the fair with Mom, Ash, Ed, and Carrie.  We looked at the animals and I took a couple pictures of the rides, but they weren't that great.  After the fair, we went to Bob Evans for dinner.  I took this picture while Ash and I were waiting outside.  I thought it was cooler than a random photo of the ferris wheel.

Day 68: Rodeo

Mom and I went to the rodeo at the Midland County Fair.  We saw a 14-year-old kid get stomped by a bull, but thankfully he was okay and able to walk it off.

Day 67: The Strickens

Gram gave the girls a summer cottage, so I had to take a picture of them for her.  Here is the photo I took, and here is what I did with it.

Day 66: Hair Dye

I decided it was time to dye my hair black again.  Wednesday I'll be getting it trimmed.

Day 65: T-Shirt Quilt

I finished a T-shirt quilt that a woman in Texas hired Ashley and I to make.  I started listening to Ted Dekker's Black—very strange book.

Day 64: New Shelves

One of the shelves that Ed and I built for my books, already filled with books.  This shelf contains most of my writing books.  We made another one just like it (and it contains my fiction books).  The shelves are rustic, which is just my style.

Day 63: Toby

Toby hides in the woodpile, as Ed and I build rustic book shelves out of the old splash deck that went around the pool.

Day 62: My Books

My library currently contains 176 books.  Clearly, they are not all on this shelf.  I really need another book shelf or three.

Day 61: Tug-o-War

Day 60: Bed Time

I almost forgot to take a picture for Day 60.  I had already gone to bed when I remembered.  I took this photo in the dark, because my light switch is all the way on the other side of the room and I didn't feel like dealing with it.

Day 59: More Research

This is a book I'm reading to write my characters better, since all of the major characters are anti-heroes, instead of heroes.  I'm currently working on the characters biographies, making them more three dimensional.

Day 58: Rodney

I didn't do anything that I could take a picture of today (laundry, cleaning, and computer stuff), so I took a picture of Rodney since he hasn't been on the blog yet.

Day 57: Kayla's Birthday Party

Today was Kayla's 10th birthday party.

Day 56: Family Dinner

Mom, Ashley, Ed and Dad.

Ash and I had the family over for dinner.  I made crab-meat cheese for an appetizer.  For dinner, we made salad, grilled salmon, grilled asparagus, and fruit salad.  Dessert was homemade cheesecake.

Day 55: Million Miles

Today I finished reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life by Donald Miller.  It was a quick read—I started it on Sunday and read 100 pages that first day.  The book was excellent.  I learned things from it both as a writer and as a regular human being.  I would HIGHLY recommend this book to pretty much everyone.

Day 54: Mmm Pizza

Marc posted something on Facebook about pizza and then I started craving it.  So, for dinner, I ordered "The Big Bonanza" from Papa Johns with some slight adjustments.  I changed the beef (which I have always thought was a weird topping for pizza) to sausage.  In addition to that, I restricted the ham to Ashley's side of the pizza and added banana peppers to mine, since it already came with bacon.

Day 53: Bird Houses

Ashley paints the birdhouses that she, Ed and Dad made yesterday.

Day 52: Arts & Crafts

Ed made the two on the left and Ashley made the two on the right.

Ashley has a bunch of wood left over from when we tore apart the splash deck around the pool (to make way for the new, way cooler deck).  So, she took a bunch of it over to 8 Mile in the hopes of talking the family into making bird houses for her backyard.  [This has a two-fold purpose.  1. To use up some of this leftover wood.  2. To give the birds somewhere to nest, so that they stop nesting in inconvenient places, like the garage, where they end up dying.]  Ashley and Ed designed the houses and Dad helped with some of the cuts and things.  I didn't build any houses, but I did give suggestions and I built tiny picket fences for them using popsicle sticks.

Day 51: Blueberry Picking

Mom and I went blueberry picking (after an outdoor church service and picnic).  Where we decided to pick, we came upon a couple fawns hanging out in the rows of blueberry bushes.  They were precious.  I wonder where their mother was...