How smart are you at Geography?

My girlfriend sent me this link. Check it out. I can get to level 7.

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq?73dd=13cb

Christmas memories

Time sure does fly when you're having fun. The Christmas party circuit started for us on Sunday. The entire English family traveled over the hills and through the woods to Hillsdale to celebrate Christmas. It was a very relaxing day. And from what I could tell everyone had a GREAT time.

On Christmas Eve the four of us did our traditional Christmas. We had appetizers, opened presents and watched movies. We turned in early in preparation for the next days activities. At around 11:oo Dan got up and was extremely sick. Then at 11:30 Nate was sick. Through out the rest of the night the two of them tagged team bathroom detail. At around 6:oo am Matt joined the mix. It seemed I was the only one to escape the bug, so naturally we thought it might be something food related.

I called my mom and told her that we would not be coming in because of the illness. She, of course, was heartbroken. At around 1:00 she called and insisted that I come in. She said she had a surprise. At that time Matt was feeling well enough to travel with me. When we got to Busia and Papa's we were greeted by the Texans. Phil, June, Morgan and Gwen surprised my parents and flew in from Dallas. They took a cab from the airport to surprise my parents.

If you were wondering, I too, got sick. Matt and I spent the night at my parents and at around 3:00 I became ill. Eventhough I was ill I didn't let it ruin Donna day. I did my traditional day after Christmas shopping. After that is a different story. I came back to Hillsdale, curled up with two blankets on me and the fireplace on high.

One of the perks

One of the perks with being a teacher is having breaks during the holidays. Today was our last day of school for the year. Yesterday we had a staff gathering at the end of the day. Jackie sent us a voice message on Wednesday to wear jeans on Thursday. This, in itself, started the masses chattering. Then on Thursday we were left in the dark all day. With only one period left we received another message to get directions from our mailboxes. Needless to day every teacher sent a student to get the message.

Bowl Brent Bowl

To read the message we had to hold it up to a mirror - the directions said to meet at the bowling alley at 3:00. There is not one staff person who bowls on a regular basis. We gathered at the lanes and proceeded to pick out rental shoes and find balls. We had TONS of fun. We were broken up into teams and "competed" against each other. I use the term competed loosely. I think that most of us were just happy to break 100.

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas... or maybe a snow day

Nothing says Christmas like a good snow fall. As we woke up this morning we were greeted by a white winter blanket across the land. I had my coffee, got dressed, and went out to do some shoveling. Since this is the first major snow of the season I had to find my boots. I pulled them off the garage shelf. For some reason I decided to tip them over - I am paranoid of finding mice living in my shoes. Well, It's a good thing I tipped them over; yes, there were clues that something has been using my shoes as home. Thank goodness I didn't see any living creatures. And yes, I did throw the boots away. I loved those boots.


Once I got over that I went out to enjoy nature. It's so quiet and peaceful out here in the country. The only things moving were me, Butch - only walking in paths made by the shovel, the guy that plows the street and the birds I feed.

Poor Baby

I hope you don't need wisdom teeth to be wise. Like many, many other young adults Nate has started his Christmas break with a visit to the oral surgeon. He finished his finals on Wednesday and had his teeth removed Thursday. He had all 4 of them removed - 2 were impacted and 2 were just breaking throug. He also had a sinus cyst removed from his sinus cavity. I saw that and it was pretty gross.

Interestingly enough as Nate was under the knife, or laser one of his friends walked in. He too is a student at Hillsdale College. Then, when we got back into Hillsdale, I ran into another friend and his daughter is going in on Monday for the same thing. And finally one of my girlfriends called me, and her daughter is having hers removed on Dec 26. I guess if I was going to pick a new profession I would pick oral surgery; there seems to be money in it.

The furniture is back in order

Well after a very long week, we are just about done with the painting. All that has to be done is the trim and all the doors. Dan is hoping for an ice day tomorrow so he can spray paint the doors in the garage.

We have always been one for deadlines, so it's not surprising that we finish the painting two weeks before Dan's family invades Hillsdale to celebrate Christmas.

I'm jealous of my brother Phil. He leaves tomorrow on a Hawaiian cruise. He and June fly out at 8:00 headed to the Big Island where they will board their cruise ship. I hope Phil isn't too sore. He ran the Dallas Marathon today. He did really well, finishing the race in under 4 hours. He had a cheering section in Michigan. All participants wore chips in their shoes. When the went over a wired mat, their location and time was fed into a computer, where it was then uploaded to a website. I spent the entire morning checking his progress from Hillsdale and Busia checked his progress from Plymouth. Gotta love technology.

Sweater Party

While we were in the middle of painting, Nate came blowing through with some of his football buddies. Tuesday was the last day of class before finals, so in true college fashion there was a party. To get into this party you had to be wearing a sweater, i.e. the name sweater party.

Well, when it comes to sweaters, Nate is the man. He collected a bunch of Bill Cosby sweaters from Papa. So he was the man when he opened up his closet to his friends.

Sidenote - you can see the new paint color in the background. I'm not posting any finished pictures until the house is back in order.

Paint in on the walls - and we're still talking

We were able to get two coats of paint on the walls in the living room, dining room and part of the kitchen. The second coat is going on in the hallways this week. This coming weekend we are tackling the trim. We used Bahr (not sure about the spelling) boy is it good. The color is very different from the blue that was on the walls before. This is a deeper, richer color. I can't believe that a little paint can make a house seem new.

What are you doing this weekend??

It's 7:58 am on Saturday, and Dan and I are about to begin painting the house. Wish us luck. Hopefully we will still be speaking (to each other) after this process is done. Our plan is to be done by tomorrow night. But, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.