Day Made Thanks to a Student

I was looking at the news feed on my Facebook page this afternoon to find an interesting photo of one of my students from this past year. It said hanging with WorldTeach at Gatavai. I commented asking how she had met the new volunteers already. She replied she ran into them by the WWII guns in Gatavai. I know the trail, as I had done that one at least five times. "Did you go hiking by yourself?," I asked. She had taken a friend with her. "Yay! That's my student," I replied. She told me she was telling the new volunteers about how I was the reason she loved hiking, I was her favorite WorldTeacher (haha), and told them about the place she had gone with me on a Saturday field trip.

Here is the photo of my student Annastasia with the 2013-2014 WorldTeach American Samoa volunteers.

This is a photo of Annastasia and me we had taken the last week of school.

Here is Annastasia in Larsen's Bay from the rainy Saturday field trip. 

Seeing this photo and her comments on Facebook really made my day! One of my main goals for the year was to encourage a greater appreciation for our surroundings. If you followed my American Samoa blog, I'm sure you noticed how well my field trips went over at the end of the year, and I was so excited about my students realizing what great beauty and resources their island of a home had to offer.

This is the view of flower pot island from the WWII gun site on the Blunt's Point Trail that Annastasia ventured on with her friend this week.

This got me thinking about the awesome landscapes I had the privelege of seeing, hiking, enjoying, and living in this past year. This is the view of Matafoa from the peak of Mt. Alava.

I am constantly in awe of my surroundings, which encouraged my love of science and curiosity. I love taking the opportunity to just go on a walk in nature, in an area where cars are not zooming down the streets. I find a constant peace in nature. Just today on an afternoon bike ride, I found myself smiling and thinking about how nice it was to be pedaling through some trees, meadows and fields around a beautiful lake.

Speaking with Annastasia today put a giant smile on my face. Some students really did pick up on this appreciation I have for nature and developed it themselves. So cool to see that, a few months after I left the island.

I have also had some communication this past week from one of my students who is currently taking a speech class at Remington College in Hawaii. He was really excited about heading to school, and I'm excited to see how things go for him. He did admit that he misses his friends back in American Samoa and his teachers (including me), but I told him he can make more friends. Good to hear from him. It's a cool thing having the Internet like we do and being able to stay in touch with people on different sides of the world. A little food for thought today. :-)

Doggie Days

So I spend lots of time with the three little dogs here at the Omaha house, and this weekend I took on a job dog-sitting for a co-worker of my mom's. Two larger dogs at their house that I spent three nights with. They're pretty lazy dogs, lay around, take naps, stare at me when I eat thinking they can have some, bark as people walk by, and follow me around. Pretty much the same thing the three little ones do at home. haha Pretty good time with them, and it was fun to help out. They quite enjoyed the two walks I took them on around the neighborhood. I also got about 6 miles in of running over the course of the time while I was staying down in the Millard area. This running thing is growing on me.

I've also been working on various job applications the past several weeks. I have some interviews, been in good contact with some people, filling out skills assessments, answering questions, and networking. While we see how some of this pans out, I am picking up some waitressing hours starting this week at The Egg and I, a breakfast and lunch restaurant. Less than 5 minutes from where I currently live. I walked in Thursday morning with my application filled out and a copy of my resume. The manager practically gave me the job right there. I had to call her back Friday morning, and she put me on the schedule for 5 shifts this week. I told myself a while ago I would have a job by August, whatever that may be. New adventure for now. May be two weeks, two months, six months. All in good time. Time to put my waitressing experience back to use and have some fun with it. I enjoyed the years of serving tables back home, so here goes nothing!

Nothing too horribly exciting this weekend. Nice and chill. I did finish reading a book by Nevada Barr, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've started reading another of her novels. There's a whole slough of them. I picked up these two at the thrift store in Syracuse. I'll pick up more whenever and wherever I happen to see them.

Hope everyone has a great end to July and a fantastic start of August. It's a bit hard for me to believe it's already going to be the beginning of August. Enjoyed my 6 weeks of summer catching up with friends and family and enjoying some time. Life is good, and now I'm going to get back into the working world a bit. Have a good one!

Danner Family Fun: Weekend in Syracuse

Left the Omaha house mid-afternoon on Friday with the ultimate destination of Syracuse, NE - home to my great friend Karena. Made a stop at Plato's Closet (a 2nd hand store) looking for a few more dri-fit exercise shirts. I found two and was excited about that. Heading South, I pulled into Louisville State Recreation Area to check it out. A group of my friends had gone camping there this past year, and luck be have it the Jeep I am currently using has a Park sticker. Pulled in, made the loop around the campsite, parked, and walked around for a little bit. I headed into Louisville itself as it was rather warm out, found a little ice cream place, grabbed a strawberry shake, and pulled in at the City Park to enjoy my shake and read a little. Grabbed this cool photo of this building and the railroad.

My friends Karena and Andy purchased a house in Syracuse this past year, and this was my first time visiting their new place. Syracuse is where Karena's family lives, actually just a few blocks down the street from her new home. First thing, we headed over to her parents' house for some supper, which included some sweet corn on the cob courtesy of her grandparents. Yummy.

Karena showed me around her house after that, then we decided to go on a little bike ride. We walked up the street to her parents' house to borrow bikes, and her younger siblings decided to join us. Here's our fun evening family bike ride group photo: Zach, Kaitlyn, Kandice, Karena, and me.

They took me through some neighborhoods down to the City Park, which we looped around. We also stopped for some random fun and photo opps. Here we are crossing a bridge over a little stream at the park.

Karena had this awesome idea for the kids and I to each place ourselves in one of these spaces in the gazebo. Love it!

I took this one of Karena and her siblings.

We had to stop at the swing set. I sure love me some swinging. Girls on the swings here.

That's my friend Karena and me - the beautiful goofs that we are. :-)

I enjoy this one Zach snagged of me on the swing. Has some movement to it. I love swinging!

Then, they took me down to their school park, where we just messed around a bit.

Andy's (Karena's boyfriend) parents came to town from Durant, IA for the house-warming party. We led them out to Karena's grandparents house in the country, where they would be sleeping for the weekend. Enjoyed some beautiful sunset colors and clouds in the sky over the fields of Otoe County and looked through some family photos at Grandma Bonnie's house.

Andy and his brother were sleeping down in the man cave (basement), Karena and I shared the master bedroom, and her sisters decided to sleepover on the couch. Rolled out of bed about 8am and decided to go on a run. Took my phone with me to snag some photos along the way. I made one of my runs around Newman Grove, Osmond, and Omaha, so why not? :-) The large nutcracker you see on the top-left was actually built by Karena's grandpa.

We girls baked some cookies in the morning for the upcoming afternoon house-warming party. I took this little artsy photo of Karena, Kandice, and Kaitlyn working on the cookies. I did help, too, and they all turned out great!

After sharing some cups of coffee together, Karena took Andy's mom and myself to the local thrift shop. She knew how we both liked doing that sort of thing. The thirft shop in Syracuse, NE is housed in the old doctor's office. It was a tad creepy walking around the rotunda and trying on some clothes in what used to be a patient room. haha Fun, though! We all scored a little pile of books each. 50 cents each for the ones I found. My little shelf of books is growing. ;-)

After a light lunch, we took Andy's parent and brother to the best ice cream place in town - Jo Bob's. I had been here once before when I came down with some friends for Karena's hometown Germanfest a few years ago. Good stuff. Karena and I were twins and ordered a small dish of vanilla ice cream with Krunch on top. This crunch mix is quite famous at this little dairiette. Mmmm.

After some finishing touches on setting up the house including running to her dad's shop for a table, some chairs, finding a table cloth, and setting out the food, the house-warming party began. Friends and family made their way by. Here is a photo of Karena and I with two of Karena's best friends from high school. I have hung out with both of these great ladies before - Alissa and Holly.

 There was a nice turn-out, it was fun to see the house, some good snackage, lots of conversation, and we even played some volleyball with the new set that had been gifted to Karena and Andy. One of her friends from work, the high school friends, the little siblings, Karena, and myself partook in 3 sets of 3-on-3 volleyball. We had a lot of fun with that in the front yard.

We headed back to the parents' house for supper again that evening. I had thought about heading back to Omaha after the party, but I decided to stay when Karen invited me over for supper again. No hurry to get back to Omaha, so I might as well take in all that I can with the Danner family - some good friends. Supper that night included more corn on the cob, some foil-packet grilled potatoes, Snicker and apple salad, and a caramel apple cake Karena's friend Alissa had made. Yum yum yum.

Then, a game of Monopoly took place on the kitchen table. Karena's parents, Andy's parents, Karena, and me. Quite the game that lasted a couple of hours and changed course like crazy. We had a good time with that. Karena's dad ended up winning. I made it longer than anyone would have guessed considering I owned three lame properties that weren't making any business and spent a lot of time in jail while others were building houses. haha

Time for sleepover #2. All of us girls were brushing our teeth at the same time, which was fun and pretty cute.

This time the girls slept on the floor in the master with Karena and me, so it was a true girl slumber party. Karena and I even laid in bed chatting for an hour or so, not going to sleep til after midnight.

Woke up around 8 again and went for a little 2.5 mile bike ride. This time I headed down around downtown Syracuse. Good little ride before enjoying a nice little breakfast. I had a few Crunch Wheaties with some leftover fruit in the cereal bowl. This actually worked out well. Playing around, trying new combinations, and finding some new likes.

Karena kept saying how I had been a big help this weekend with setting up and all. We finished cleaning up, did some dishes in the morning, and returned the chairs, table, and some dishes. Thought I might head back to Omaha, but then trip extended a bit more. The family invited us to join them on a little trip to Lincoln for some Menards shopping and a movie. Here you can see Karena and me in the middle seat (Andy not in photo) and the three little kids in the back. We ended up watching Despicable Me 2, which was okay. Funny parts, some good action, but once was enough. Was a fun family trip though. Funny watching all of us walk around Menards, Famous Footwear, and Dollar General. haha We also had some lucnh at PepperJax. The first time I went there was last summer, when I visited Andy and Karena at their Lincoln aparment a few weeks before heading off to American Samoa.

My time in Syracuse with Karena kept extending, but I am so glad I stayed for every minute of it. Not every day I get to spend this much time with one of my best friends. I was the Danner "adopted cousin" for the weekend. A great weekend in Syracuse with lots of Danner Family Fun. :-)

Last thing. On my way back into Omaha, I stopped at JC Penny's where I had a $15 coupon to spend before the end of the month. Walked in and started looking a bit. Next thing I know a voice is saying over the intercom that the store will be closing in 10 minutes. Ah man. I better hurry up. I don't wanna drive back tomorrow. Stumbled upon some straight blue fabric jeans/pants I had been looking at for a while. The clearance price read $2. "I sure hope they fit." Ran over to the dresses next and found a few I grabbed and took to the fitting room. 6pm, but I was on my way to the checkout with a pink dress and the blue pants in hand. Based on my calculations with the $15, off I intended on paying about $7 for the two items combined. Yes! As the lady is ringing me she said that I would be getting an extra percent off for using my JCP card. Oh boy, my lucky day! Total = $3.96. What a great end to my little adventure, all in 12 minutes in the store. :-)

The Bike Ride

7am and your alarm clock sounds. You know you should just get up and do your workout for the day, but part of you decides to just lay there after you've had a few shorter nights of sleep. You wake up, have some breakfast, and after a while you decide it's time to get outside and do something for the day.

Watching some Tour de France the night before reminded you that you had intentions of taking a bike down the trail Omaha dad had told you about. You had started with a different bike one other day, but had some gear issues. Today is a new day, you have energy, and adventure awaits you.

You suit up in your exercise clothes and add some sunscreen. Then, you head out to the garage, check the tires and gears, and add some air. Helmet on, you make your way out into the driveway closing the door behind you.

Down the hill you go just a short ways to the spot where you can hop onto the trail. It loops up and around the neighborhood and as you cross over 144th St, you have entered new territory. You see signs for Standing Bear Lake. This lake you can see from up on the hill at the Omaha house. Your friends had mentioned walking around it, and that the trail does not loop all the way back around to the parking lot you first see.

You peddle on feeling good, energized, and alive. You announce your presence to pedestrians in front of you before you pass them by. Each time you coast down a hill you think about how you will be pedaling back up those. You take in the nice view of the lake as you round it, enjoying every minjute of it, sweat dripping down your face. You realize you grip your hands on the handlebars rather tightly (poor habit) and loosen them a bit.

You see a family fishing at a spot, then up a curvy part you find yourself at the intersection of Fort and 144th, familiar territory. At first, you consdier hopping back over and cutting through the Saddlebrook neighborhood, but no... you are circling back around that lake. That's what you came here for and you have more than time to do it. "It will be worth it, you think." You pass that same family fishing to witness grandpa reeling in a little fish as mom grabs her camera for some photos as the grandkids cheer for him. :-)

Back around you go and as you cross the far East end you find yourself looking up the hill across the lake thinking about where exactly your house is in the distance. That's where you came from, and that's where you will be returning after this great ride through some trees, around a lake, through some neighborhoods - all on a nice trail.

You think about how you may have to walk this one day to take some photos on your way back. Crossing back over 144th Street, you know you are almost back home. Up a little hill you are tredging, and then your chain drops. Haha sure... Almost home, and it drops. No worries. You hop off, put it back on, and continue you do.

50 minutes after leaving the driveway you find yourself back in the neighborhood that is currently your home. Sweaty and red in the face with legs that feel like jello but a BIG smile on your face. :-)

Weekend Adventures

We had a fun time at girls' craft night at Karena's house. Everyone completed at least one project, and some a few. This is a group photo we took at the end of the night as we were packing up with our little creations. One of mine has some bad reflection here, but I have a few more photos below that show you a close-up of my projects. Cassie covered some canvases with fabric that she is going to arrange on her wall. Courtney created some throw pillows starting with place mats. Sarah made a picture frame with some corks. Jessie painted wooden letters spelling her name and a picture frame with glittery paint. Karena painted two nice canvases. She's quite talented with the brush. She found things she liked online and recreated them.

This was my first project. I brought one of my old folders from school and cut out the main part. I stapled some scrap fabric with stars on it to a canvas. Then, I glued the Harry Potter picture on top. A slightly nerdy wall decor piece, but I like it.

As I finished the first one, I decided I'd try painting a little on a canvas. I'm not so talented, but I had seen a really cool canvas with some books painted on it while in Texas. This is a much simpler version, but not too shabby.

Been a crafty past couple of weeks. You may remember the crayon art project I worked on last week with Sarah and Cassie and my photo to canvas transfer. I worked on another photo transfer. I used a color photo this time and went for a more distressed look. I didn't paint the gel over the whole flat of the canvas this time. Pretty much how I envisioned it.

Spent much of my afternoon on Saturday transferring some files, final packing ideas, and helping Kyle set up his blog while he is Micronesia. If you are interested in checking out his blog, here is a link: Kyle In Chuuk. As I was helping set his up, I was reminded that I should add the little "follow by e-mail" thing to my blog. On the right hand side, you can type in your e-mail if you want notifications when new posts are made. This is also available on Kyle's blog. He is probably not going to post as much as I did while teaching abroad, but I think his goal is to maybe shoot for once a week for now. We shall see. Here's Kyle with his backpack loaded up. He also filled a huge duffle bag, weighing in at 48 lbs, and took his laptop bag.

We had a nice dinner Thursday night including some steak for them boys. Here you can see some caprice Sarah put together on fresh baguette with tomato, mozzarella, and basil. yummmy.

Here's my plate at dinner including some caprice, green beans, broccoli, fresh kale chips, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Mmm. I love me some sweet potatoes. All of it was great. This happened to be Joe's birthday dinner/supper and Kyle's last dinner.

We took some photos outside after dinner. Here's the Eagen family, including the dogs.

This was everyone at dinner including Cassie, myself, and Andy (another M'side swimmer). We took a funny photo, and I think it is hilarious.

We kept trying to get a ladies' picture, but the boys were struggling with my camera. The best one we got was this one where we are all laughing. I enjoy it, though.

We also enjoyed a little angel food cake and leftover homemade ice cream for dessert after while. I had baked the angel food cake around lunch time. Delightful.

We all woke up bright and early and loaded up at 4:30am to take Kyle to the airport. Our good friend Matt, who was Kyle's roommate for several years at Morningside had sent me a message the night before saying he was going to try and meet us at the airport, but I should not tell anyone. It was a nice surprise for the Kyle and his family. Gotta love having good friends like that. Kyle's plane took off at 6am. He flies Omaha to Denver to Honolulu to Guam to Chuuk, Micronesia. Crossing time zones, Kyle will be 13 hours ahead of us here in Central Time.

Went out for girls lunch with Sarah, Cassie, and Nancy at "Egg and I". The only one of us who had been there before was Sarah. Yay for new experiences. Cassie and I shared some french toast and an Athena scramble. After hanging out with the girls for a bit more, I headed East toward Iowa City to visit one of my mentors.

Dr. Rachel Robson was my Microbiology professor at Morningside, and I was so thankful for her challenging us the way she did in class. I learned a lot from her and really enjoyed getting to know her. She was also one of the professors that went along on the Ecuador trip in 2009. She has recently accepted a position teaching at Saba University of Medicine, which is located on a small island of the Netherlands. The island makes up 5 square miles of space in the Caribbean. Apparently this year is the year to go teach on small islands. ;-) Her husband has also taken a position to teach at the school, and they move on August 2nd. I am very excited for the two of them, and their students will be lucky to have them. I wanted to chat with her in person one more time before she left.

Made my way over there and met up at her apartment. One of her current students from Morningside was working with her at the University of Iowa on a research project through a summer program there. It turns out it is actually a further extension of a project myself and a fellow student began working on my sophomore year of college. They've done some cool stuff with the phage therapy research. He was currently over working on their presentation to be delivered on Monday. Quinton became a member of the Biological Honor Society while I was still a student at Morningside and had participated in some SERVE projects.

All three of us headed to a Thai restaurant for dinner, where Robson ordered everything vegetarian style for me. Not only was this Quinton's first Thai experience, but he was getting everything veggie style. My favorite parts included the pad thai and the Thai iced tea. We also had some soup including mushrooms and curry with pineapple. All yummy. Cultural experiences! I may have had some Thai food in the past, but I can't put my finger on exactly where.

Heading on this visit, I knew my brain would be engaged in some intellectually stimulating conversations. That's how it is with Robson. I keep up for the most part, and I always learn something new. Intellectual conversations we sure did have and each minute was fun. Robson also gave me a little tour of the downtown area, where we hung out for a bit.

Woke up around 8am Sunday morning for a little coffee and some Greek yogurt as we had planned to attend service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon). Robson had met a few guys serving their mission in the area one day, and she told them how she admired what they did. It takes a lot of courage to knock on doors, get doors shut in your face, and try to tell people about your religion. Robson does not affiliate with any denomination, but she finds religious studies very interesting like myself. She had offered to take me, and of course I said yes. From discussions with her, I learned that the LDS church is a bit more progressive than I had pictured. The service was also very interesting. We also attended a little Gospel Principles class afterward. Glad I had the opportunity for this experience. If you are curious to learn more about it, just let me know.

I headed out of town after that and after I got going on the Interstate for a little while, I decided to have a little lunch. I ate at place called the Pine Cone Restaurant, where I enjoyed a few buttermilk pancakes and a couple glasses of ice tea. West I went and circled down around the East side of Des Moines down a road I traveled many times while living in Ankeny my first summer while working at the zoo. The zoo was my destined point in Des Moines. I worked as a summer camp counselor at The Blank Park Zoo the summer of 2011. I really enjoyed that job and had some great experiences. I had been following some updates on construction taking place at the zoo, and I wanted to see the changes.

Pulled in and gave myself a little one hour tour of the zoo. Saw the updated exhibits including the sea lion pool and the rhinos in the African pavilion. Lots of new signage had also gone up over the past few years. Lots of reminiscing as I made my way around the zoo. I also ran into one of my former co-workers, Paige. She also worked as a counselor the summer I did and actually was the camp coordinator this past year. She has been doing some volunteering with the zoo keepers, as well, in hopes of becoming on herself. She is particularly interested in small mammals.

After my zoo visit, I headed to Gray's Lake Park. It's pretty easy to get to, but I didn't need any directions. I may not have  een there in 2 years, but my general bearings were still intactI laid out on the beach for about an hour. Then, I decided to go on a run around the lake. I had walked around it in the past and went for the jog this time. Felt good.

Last adventure in Iowa for the weekend was to meet up with my Indianola summer family for dinner at Applebee's. Brad and Aimee, the parents of one of my coworkers, let me live the them for the remaining two months of the summer after my cousin moved from Ankeny. I had plans the previous summer to pay them a visit, but then I sort of decided to move to a small island before that trip happened. An overdue visit, but I had it back! Their good friend Tom and his son Brett also joined us for a while. I met Tom while helping on the balloon crew with the family. It was so great to see all of them and Charcot a few hours. Looking forward to another gathering in the future. I am so thankful for my "summer parents" while workin at the zoo.

Headed back to Omaha after that so I could sleep in my bed after a full weekend. Enjoyed every minute of it and glad I made the trip.

Random Things in Omaha

First, I have a little shout out for my good friend, Kyle. He is boarding a plane this Saturday morning for Micronesia, where he will be serving with WorldTeach this year. I already put this up on my Facebook after asking his permission, of course. "This guy right here is one of the best friends I have and originally told me about WorldTeach. After returning from a year as a volunteer teacher myself, he is heading off for his year of teaching. Federated States of Micronesia, be good to him. You will be lucky to have him. Go get 'em, Mr. Eagen!" I know he is looking into starting a blog, and when he does I can post the link on mine. May not write as much as I did while I was on the island, but it may interest some of you.

Went with Cassie and Kyle to "Half-Price Books", which was super fun for me. I bought 5 books for an average of $2 each. Woot! I added them to my shelf with the books I had picked up thrifting with my parents last weekend. I have a whole bookshelf at home that is pretty much full, but these are just a few to last me for a while. I'm really trying to put some reading from a book back into my daily activities. I slacked off for a while in that department.

I was looking through the photography section in the bookstore, and my eye was caught by this book. I recognized the author mentioned "Louis L'Amour". He is famous for some short stories, poems, and novels. This actually is a non-fiction book he wrote about the American Frontier accompanied by some beautiful photographs. I will definitely be perusing the text of the book one of these days, but I started by flipping through most of the photographs.

I hung a few pictures up on these tree and leaf wall hangings that are currently in the room I am staying at in the Omaha house with the Eagens. Having many pictures on the wall is just something I do.

We girls are funny some times when we try to figure out what everyone else is wearing to a gathering. Are we wearing dresses? Just going in shorts? Are we going to be taking lots of pictures together while there? This is one with Sarah. We went for the dresses that night.

I joined Jessie and Tyler to help Cassie organize some of her books in her classroom. She wanted to put little library cards in all of them so she could keep track of which books students were using more. We spent a couple of hours in there. The night before Kyle and I helped fold the little card holders. Wednesday morning, then, I wrote titles and authors on cards as Jessie and Tyler taped the card holders into the books. We had a good little system, and the time went by pretty quickly. It was also fun to be a part of the teacher discussion. All three of them teach here in the area. Cassie's classroom is actually in Council Bluffs.

Cassie treated us to lunch afterward for helping out. She took us to this little place called Cellar19, where she recommended their sandwiches and salads. I went for the veggie crisp sandwich on a baguette. Pretty good, but there was some sauce in there that was quite potent and strong. Woo doggy. I tried avoiding it on the second half of the sandwich. Good stuff, though. Nice little sophisticated feeling place, too.

We are off to Syracuse tonight, where Karena lives, for a little ladies' craft night. After the little craft project with Cassie and Sarah the other day, I had to start looking up ideas for what to make while at this party. While I was doing such, I stumbled upon this way of transfering my own photos to canvases. I've always wanted to buy one, but I haven't ever decided which one to spend the money on. I gave this method a trick, and I'm pretty happy with the results. This is just a 5x7" original photo by Jessica Boschen. You don't quite get the full effect looking at this photo, but it turned out well. Been in this crafty mood. We shall see how my project goes Thursday night.

I've been pretty good about doing at least a 30-minute workout 5 days a week these past few weeks. I did my 99-workout on Monday morning while incorporating some jump rope, after my mom sent me home with one from home that hasn't been used much. Past couple of days, I've pulled out the Insanity Cardio Recovery workout, which focuses on some strength. Still break a little sweat, and it sure has made my muscles sore. Working them in ways I haven't in a while. I think I'm going to try that out for a few weeks.

Spent two afternoons at the pool over at Cassie's apartment complex. Tuesday, Kyle and I spent 3 hours over there with her. Wednesday, Sarah and I joined her for about an hour and a half. I've got a little tan going on. Most wouldn't think so, but I have some pretty white skin to begin with. haha. Hanging out at the pool all afternoon has never really been my thing, but this has been fun and relaxing. I usually read my book while there and chat some. Wasn't as warm out Wednesday afternoon as it was Tuesday.

Hope you all are having a good week!