Quick Takes - the Sunday Version

For blog writing ideas, there is a group that does "Quick Takes," which is 7 quick thoughts of what has been going on in life or what they are thinking about.  I'm too lazy to find it right now, but it's done on Fridays.  So, you can see what life has been like, when I'm doing one, my way, on a Sunday morning.

So, here goes:

1. Had a campfire with the neighbors last night.  It was the perfect night for it, even if it was a little too warm to enjoy the fire.  So, we hauled the chairs back a little and braved the heat to make campfire food.  We made pizza pudgy pies with the great homemade Italian turkey sausage they made. We made reuben pies with my Mom's homemade sauerkraut, their sausage, and thousand island dressing. Then, we made cherry cheesecake ones for dessert with some of the smores chocolate in there - cherry pie filling, a slather of cream cheese, and chocolate.  Might have had a few too many drinks, but just enough to feel good, and it was in our back yard.  Took a shower last night, but still have the campfire scratchy throat and stuffed up head this morning.

2. I've made the decision to take some classes at the local technical college. However, it's amazing how many hoops they make you jump through, even with a college degree.  Ok, most of it is me not deciding to do this until last week, when fall classes start on August 16.  But really? I have to get my high school to send them a copy of my transcript and have to go in for placement tests.  The program I want is either all online or self-paced, where I would only have to go in to the local center a couple of times.

3. Gack, I'm rethinking the program when I looked at how much books cost.  For this semester, courses for the 15 credits cost $2400, the darn books would cost $1006.  Seriously, that's how much books cost!  I realize that most people wouldn't even think twice about that, but I was lucky enough to attend college for my bachelor's degree at a school that rented us our textbooks for $100 total a semester, and you could buy them at the end of the semester, if you wanted to.  So, I was suffering some serious sticker shock.  And it would figure that the only books I could find online at Chegg.com to rent, are the ones that say I need them for future classes, so I would need to buy them.

4. Why, oh why, have I decided to do this, after 15 years of being out of school?  Well, I really love working for my Dad doing the farm audits.  However, to get my own contracts with the government, I have to have an accounting background.  It helps that I've done credit for 13 years and that I've been working with Dad doing the actual work for two years, but to get my own contracts, I need the classes.  I thought about University of Phoenix, but they irritated me.  I just wanted to go for the Accounting Certificate program, and they kept pushing me towards the Masters in Accounting.  That might be something I consider in the future, IF I like the Accounting classes.  So, the local Tech college it is.

5.  I've been reading The Hobbit aloud to the kids all summer.  We will probably finish it this week.  We haven't read it every night and sometimes it is only a couple of pages.  All three girls (usually) stop to listen to what happens to Bilgo Baggins and the dwarves.  I've read it before, but reading it to them is like reading it for the first time, since they just experiencing the magic.

6. December 14th, for Bob's birthday, we ARE going to opening day of the movie THE HOBBIT.  I even have been putting it in people's brains as an idea that they are going to babysit the girls that night.  I don't care that it's a Wednesday.  As soon as tickets are available, I will be online to get them.  We went to opening day for each installment of The Lord of The Rings, and we will do it for this movie.  Ditto for the 2nd half that opens December 13, 2013, right on Bob's 39th birthday.

7.  It's going to be a busy week for farm appointments.  Right now, I have one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and three on Thursday.  After supper tonight, I will try and call for at least one for Monday and one more for Tuesday.

There, I've been crazy busy and it's not going to slow down.