A Week of Studying

Meg had two big tests today and had spent the entire week studying, visiting a tutor and attending review sessions.  She was extremely stressed out about the A100 midterm and her third Finite exam.  I talked to her several times during the week.  A100 was the biggest worry as there were only two tests in the eight week class and it was known as one of the Kelley weed out classes.  Thankfully, Doug was able to help her with the accounting terminology.   As the days wore on she became more comfortable with the material and felt a lot better about the midterm.  Finite was challenging, but she worked on multiple practice tests, got help from her Bethany Calculus teacher and by noon today she was happy to let me know that she was able to solve every problem.

The first test was at 12:45 and Meg felt very good about it when she checked in afterward.  She decided to take a break from studying and rest before her 7:30 midterm.  She worked on one more balance sheet before walking to Hodge Hall.  The test didn't end until 10:30, but she called well before that.  She was extremely pleased with how it went.  She was able to come up with an answer to each and every problem which was an accomplishment in itself.  She decided to celebrate with a pizza and breadsticks from Pizza X and relax while enjoying Disney +.  I was thrilled that she was done.  It had definitely been a long week for her.

A Day Out

My parents and I had planned on going to Warsaw on Monday to take advantage of the Veteran's Day sales.  The weather changed our plans, but did not cancel them altogether.  Instead, we left this morning for Warsaw.  It was cold, but the main roads were clear.  We stopped at Brouwer's and JB Furniture first so that I could look for a lift lop coffee table.  I wanted on to use as a puzzle table and Doug had offered to get me one for my birthday.  I was disappointed that the ones that we found were either too expensive, the wrong color or even damaged.  We took one last shot and tried a new place, Furniture Factory Outlet.  Dad wasn't going to go in, but once Mom and I walked in the door we went back out to get him.  The store was the perfect place for us to shop as it had a large selection of furniture all at responsible prices.  Mom and Dad looked at couches and mattresses while I checked out the coffee tables.  I couldn't believe it as they had exactly what I was looking for, a brown life top with the perfect dimensions for our living room.  It was even twenty percent off.  I checked in with Doug and he agreed that I should buy it.  I had spent countless hours shopping for one online and in stores and couldn't find one that I wanted.  Thus, I was thrilled to be bringing home my birthday gift.

We stopped next at Ruby Tuesday for an early birthday lunch.  I hadn't been there in quite some time and we all enjoyed the salad bar.  The waitress brought us birthday sundaes as well which were delicious.  We stopped at Walmart and Kohl's before returning home.  My Mom was able to help me get the coffee table in the house.  My Dad still couldn't lift anything because of his surgery.  I had just enough time to rearrange the living room before Doug got home.  I was so happy with the table and how well it fit.

Cam had a good day at school and spent the afternoon playing Madden before we took him to his tennis lesson.  It was at the Blue Gate Inn with three of his Bethany teammates.  The hotel had turned their Splash Pad area into a tennis court.  Cam said that it went very well.  He liked the instructor and was glad that he took an extra racket as his strings broke on the last drill.  While Cam was playing, Doug and I ate dinner at the Blue Gate Restaurant.  It wasn't bad, but I don't know if we'd go back again.

E-Learning #1

We found out last night that Wawasee had a two hour delay.  Therefore, we knew that Cameron would not be going in early today.  I woke up at 5 a.m. and found out that Bethany had one as well and that Wawasee had cancelled.  I texted Cam and then fell back to sleep around 6:30.  By then all of the schools in our area had arranged for an e-learning day and Doug had said that he had experienced one of the worst drives into work in quite some time.

With eight inches of snow on the ground it took me awhile to clear our driveway.  Cam came out to help for awhile as it was part of his PE assignment.  Once we finished, he then went to the backyard to look for signs of animal tracks for his environmental science class.  With those two assignments complete he had finished his e-learning for the day.  Hot chocolate and a game of Swap Meet warmed us both up.  Normally, I run to Penguin Point on e-learning days, but the roads were still not cleared well enough by lunchtime for me to feel comfortable driving, so we ate at home.  Cam didn't mind and learned how to make scrambled eggs before we watched an episode of Gotham.

Doug left work at 5 p.m. again tonight because of the weather.  He said that the roads were definitely better.  He exercised and made chili once he got home.  He then spent the rest of the evening working.  It was a good night for it as I definitely didn't want to go out.  My body was not prepared for this storm and I was happy to see that the forecast called for fifty degrees next week.

What a Veteran's Day

Today was not my typical Veteran's Day.  In the past I always attended the morning Veteran's Day program at one of the Wawasee schools.  This year I knew that I wouldn't be participating in that endeavor as I had actually decided to take advantage of all of the Veteran's Day sales at the local stores.  My parents had offered to go with me and to take me out for an early birthday lunch.  I was happy with my plans, but what I didn't expect was five inches of snow to alter my afternoon activities.

I did post about my favorite Veteran first thing this morning and also did some shopping on Kohl's website, but other than that my day revolved around getting the snow off of my driveway.  As it hadn't started snowing when I dropped Cameron and Jacob off at school, I really thought that the meteorologists had overblown their prediction.  In fact, I made fun of them on the drive.  Obviously the weather gods heard me and while I was halfway through my walk the snow started coming down. By the time I got home, I was soaked and freezing and soon after I showered the roads were completely covered.

I spent some time after lunch finishing laundry and catching up on a few items my computer.  I headed outside at 2:15 to shovel the drive.  It didn't look like a lot of snow, but once I got started I realized that it was very wet and extremely heavy.  Thus, the hour I spent shoveling only cleared enough for me to get my car out of the driveway.  The trip to Bethany was a treacherous one.  Their was a wreck on county road 29, so I had to turn around and take a side road.  It had not been cleared very well, so the detour added an extra twenty minutes to my trip.  Thankfully, my Mom was able to text Cam and let him know that I would be late.  Cam and I took the main roads back home.  It was better than the route to school, but overall it was pretty stressful, especially since I barely avoided an accident in town.  As soon as we arrived I went back outside to finish Doug's side of the driveway and the front walk.  I ran out of steam before I completely cleared the area behind the truck, but I did get enough done that we could get the truck out if we had needed to use it.

Doug's trip home was long and challenging.  He was positive that school would be cancelled tomorrow.  Wawasee had a delay already, so we knew that Cam wouldn't be going in before 9 a.m.  Doug worked at home this evening while we watched television.  We both enjoyed the fifth episode of the Ken Burns' Country Music on PBS and I have a new favorite song, Loretta Lynn's "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (with Lovin' on Your Mind)."  Even though today wasn't my typical Veteran's Day, it didn't mean that I forgot about PawPaw's time in the army.  The two hours of shoveling actually gave me a lot of time to think about him and remember those who had served.

Calm Before the Storm

All week the forecast called for a winter storm tomorrow.  Normally we don't put much stock in the meteorologists, but once we heard that it was a system snow, we started to believe it.  Thus, we decided to get all of the yard work finished today that we could.  Doug raked, cut down bushes, put away the outside furniture and burned the brush.  I helped by sweeping the back deck, driveway, garage and porch and Cam cleaned off the swing set.  Everything looked very good by nightfall.  We realized that the front two trees still had leaves to fall, but overall we were happy with today's progress.

While Doug was working and watching the Bears, I ran Cam to Goshen so that he could hang out at Bailey's for the afternoon.  They played games with her brothers and enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls.  He said it was a lot of fun.  The Browns lived close to Walmart so I was able to pick up a few items after I dropped him off. I usually do my shopping on Monday mornings, but wasn't sure I would be able to tomorrow with the predicted storm.  Doug picked Cameron up at 4:30.  He was excited to announce that IU was ranked 24th in the AP football poll.  It was the first time that they had been ranked in twenty-five years.

Doug and I went to dinner tonight.  My parents then came down to play Oh Hell once again.  This time my Mom took home the bird.  Meg called after we were done.  She had enjoyed her bonfire with Hoosier Catholic last night.  She spent today working on accounting and finite.  Doug was able to help her with A100 and she had plans to go to tutoring for math tomorrow.  If Mark wasn't available, her calculus teacher, Renae, said that she would.  Meg was glad to hear that.

Back on the Court

Cameron was back on the court today after a month absence.  He had signed up to play USTA team tennis this winter.  The match was in South Bend this afternoon and he got to play doubles with Aaron first.  Cam was a little rusty in the first couple of games, especially with his serve, but once he got going he played well.  The boys came back from a 1-4 deficient to tie it at 4 all when time was called.  Cam played mixed doubles in the second match of the day and the Bethany duo won easily.  His last match of the day was a singles set.  He served very well in that and was on top of the scoreboard when time ran out.  While we at the racquet club we were also able to get information on upcoming lesson opportunities.  Cameron was extremely interested in participating in those.

After tennis we stopped at a couple of stores to look for a puzzle table.  We didn't purchase anything, but did decide that we wanted a lift top coffee table.  We needed to do some measuring before we bought one, however.  While we were window shopping, Cameron watched the LSU vs. Alabama football game on his phone.  He had missed the ending of Minnesota vs Penn State, so Doug filled him in on the last second drive that left the Nittany Lions just short of a win.  Knowing that Macri's had a great spot for watching multiple games, Cam picked it for dinner.  I was happy as we hadn't been there in quite some time.

We made it home in time to watch several great finishes.  Illinois beat MSU and became bowl bound with six wins on the season.  LSU held off a late run by Alabama and Wisconsin bested Iowa.  Once football was over we ended the evening by playing Oh Hell once again.  Cam destroyed us all.

A Night Out with Friends

Today was spent running errands.  I first paid our property taxes, then met with Key bank about changing our checking account and home equity line, and finally dropped off a check for Cam's 529 plan at Edward Jones.  I was happy to finish everything before I picked him up from school.  He had texted me in the afternoon to let me know that he was more than ready for the weekend.

Tonight I went to dinner at Sleepy Owl with Paula and Wendy.  We had planned it several weeks ago, but I wasn't sure that we'd still be able to go out as everyone kept cancelling.  I was glad that the two of them were still available.  It was the only Friday night in November that I had free and it was a lot of fun catching up with them.  They had just finished the first trimester today and were ready for a break before completing their grade books.  Both had changed positions this year with Wendy becoming the seventh and eighth grade special education teacher at Milford and Paula a sophomore English teacher at the high school.  There were positives and negatives to the change for both, but each agreed that they were ready for the challenge.

While I was out, Doug and Cam played pool.  Doug made nachos for dinner as that has become one of Cam's favorite meals.  My parents came up later to play cards.  It was fun as usual even though I was the big loser once again.