School's Out!!

I'm officially finished for the semester!! I calculated grades, and I'm done. (Yes, done; not finished. My English teacher brain is on vacation.) YAY!!

However, I am going to spend quite a bit of the summer reading. Today I worked about half way through Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. I hadn't read that one before, and I figured that it was about time....

And His Name Is....

No, I'm not pregnant. And no, we didn't get a dog.

I've decided that I need to name my rosebush. I spent a few more hours today cleaning brush and junk out of my soon-to-be-garden, and I think my rosebush needs a name. The rosebush is beginning to bloom, and the roses are yellow--a soft, pale, almost-white yellow, and not the bright yellow that you usually see in the flower shop. (Did you know that the yellow rose is not the state flower of Texas!! Dad used to sing 'The Yellow Rose of Texas' all the time; since Dad's originally from Texas, I thus--for some reason unbeknownst to me--always thought that the yellow rose was the Texas state flower. But it isn't. Apparently the Texas state flower is the bluebonnet. The bluebonnet? Who thought of that? Oh well, at least they have a state flower. All Oklahoma has is a state parasite that we try to pass off as a flower. I mean, mistletoe, a state flower? Really.... Hmmm, I digress.) Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out what to name my rosebush. I think it needs a 'he' name, though Jimmy and I thought it would be kinda cute to call it Petunia. Any ideas?

Things Eastern Oklahoma has that Western Kansas Doesn't....

Yesterday I was thinking about Kansas and Oklahoma and the differences between the two. Thus, 'Things Eastern Oklahoma has that Western Kansas Doesn't.'

1. Chiggers. (Not fun. We have pheasants in Western Kansas.)

2. Ticks. (Again, not fun. While you'll occasionally find a tick in Western Kansas, they're fairly rare. You certainly don't have to check yourself for ticks every time you come in after being outside.)

3. Poison Ivy. (I didn't have a clue what this stuff looked like before coming to Oklahoma. I still don't know what it looks like, but I do know that it has three leaves and that Jimmy's allergic to it.)

4. Red Dirt. (I thought dirt was supposed to be brown.)

5. Trees. (I like trees, but there are tree roots and tree stumps from old, dead trees all over where my garden is supposed to go.)

6. Snails and Slugs. (Okay, the snails are kinda cool to watch, but the slugs? How am I supposed to get rid of these little creatures?)

7. Lakes. (I don't really like to swim anyway, so the thought of swimming in green water with fish in it just isn't overly appealing.)

8. Humidity. (I think this probably has something to do with the lakes and the trees and just water in general--which is something that Western Kansas doesn't really have.)

Also, where are all the basements?

Almost Finished....

Wow, the school year's almost over. Our last day of class here is Monday, and I'm trying to get all of my grading and stuff finished up by then. I still have some work to do, but I'm looking forward to summer. I'll have about a month 'off' before I start teaching my summer section, but I'll be keeping myself with reading and studying, working in my yard and garden (after I get the overgrown rosebushes and poison ivy cleaned out of where my garden is supposed to go), and preparing for the classes I'll be teaching both this summer and in the fall.

We finished our ultimate frisbee season tonight. We lost our playoff game tonight, and we ended the season 4-2. Since we had a good turnout tonight, I just sat on the sidelines and watched everyone else play.

Also, it seems that winter's almost finished too. Actually, since I decided to pack my sweaters away and pull out my summer clothes today, I wouldn't be surprised if winter decides to reappear for a few days yet....

Playing....

I did some playing this past week and over the weekend....

I played a couple of games of Ultimate Frisbee this past week with an intramural team from my church. Though I hadn't played in a while, I did okay. Our team is currently 3 and 1; not too bad....

Last night Jimmy and I had a few friends over to play Settlers of Catan. I'd only played that game a few times and I didn't do too well, but I did have a lot of fun (and I think everyone else did too).

Today I played in the dirt. I have a little flowerbed out in front of the house, and Jimmy's mom gave me some bedding plants for my birthday. Though I didn't get the plants planted today, I did manage to get the flowerbed cleaned out (which was a much larger task than I'd anticipated). I hope to be able to plant flowers within the next few days....

"Poo-tee-weet?"

Kurt Vonnegut died today at age 84. So it goes.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!!

Jimmy and I went to an early Easter Mass this morning, and we determined that neither of us can recall ever going to an Easter morning Mass before. We're both more accustomed to going to a Saturday evening vigil Mass, so the Easter morning Mass seemed very (very!) short and different. I think I'll/we'll go back to the vigil Mass next year; it just felt more like an Easter Mass....

We had Easter dinner with Jimmy's family at our house today. We cooked a ham and all the fixings, and it was generally a lot of fun.

I spent most of the afternoon taking a nap. (The early morning Mass combined with the late night of housecleaning threw my sleep schedule way off.) I've been spending most of the evening working on my computer and playing with wedding pictures. (I got some wedding pictures from one of my sisters, and I got the proofs back from the photographer. I'm in the process of uploading the wedding pictures to my shutterfly site; I should have some up there to share within the next few days. Oh, if you were at the wedding and have pictures that you would like to share, I'd love to see them....)

BDanica Finally Had a BBaby!

In case you're as out of the loop as I am, BDanica (who doesn't update her blog very often) finally had her baby! Her name is Brynna Elisabeth, and she was born on Wednesday, March 28. YAY BDanica!!