What a Relaxing Week

I had a wonderfully relaxing week. It feels good to not be going 90 to nothing the whole week long with papers to grade (and by papers, I mean essays, etc., not worksheets) and a million other things to get done.

A shot of my parents' house. Mom, the Sil and I spent some time sitting in the yard on Saturday, just enjoying the day and watching the kids play.

Here was my week:

Monday (Memorial Day)

• Really didn't do much that I can remember. This may sound boring, but I love to sit around and do nothing. By 'nothing', I mean: watch TV/Movies, surf the interweb, read and take naps.
  
• The power went off for awhile and that sucked, but came back in an hour.
• Took a nap at some point.
  

Tuesday

• Went to work for a teachers' meeting that only lasted until noon.
• Went out to church camp to take pictures, and got to visit with people I haven't seen since camp last year (I love going out to church camp).
• Can't remember if there was a nap or not...
  

Wednesday

• Went to work for another teachers' meeting...this one lasted less than an hour. We were contracted to work that day, so we had to come in, even though we could have gotten that done Tuesday afternoon instead of going home after lunch. Really it was a waste.
  
• Made a few copies in preparation for Summer School.
• Went to town to get camp pictures printed.
• Took a Nap.
• Sorted through yard sale stuff and priced clothes for the yard sale.

Thursday

• Helped Mom tile the kitchen most of the day. It was actually fun. See pictures here and here.
• Took a break around noon to go out to camp to deliver pictures and check kids out.
• No nap.

Friday

• Went to discount grocery store mid morning, and got some good buys. I love that place, although they were out of the jalapeno poppers I like (stuffed with cheese! mmm...).
• Did some weed eating...broke weed eater.
• Did some spraying of weeds...ran out of spray.
• Went to Mom's to hang out with the kids. This included going with Mom to do chores because both boys went to go and someone had to hold NJ during the two-hour adventure that included moving cattle.
• It was a really fun and relaxing day just hanging out on the farm.
  
• No nap.

Saturday

• Played on the internet most of the morning before going to Mom's to hang out with the family again.
• Got the air-conditioner in my car fixed.
  
• Took a nap.
  
• Taught my niece how to suck on honeysuckles.
• Picked a tick out of NJ's ear.
• Played on the internet some more.
• Finished watching season one of 24. Didn't see it coming...

Sunday

• Went to church no.1, where I run the sound booth. Was, unfortunately, unimpressed with today's service...
• Went to church no. 2. This is my brother's church. Enjoyed the sermon, even though I had to spend a lot of time keeping my niece from getting too wound up (her mom had to stay home with NL because he was sick).
• Took nap.
• Spent some time discussing (arguing?) the finer points of stuff like women wearing head coverings and eating "Kosher" with my friend Ben...through texting! Go to his blog for some great religious discussions.
• Now I'm doing this...
  

Overall, I woke up at a decent hour every morning. No sleeping in until late in the morning (except on Saturday, when I woke up after 8am). This meant I had plenty of time to do what I wanted, but at the same time, I was able to wake up on my own without that pesky alarm clock.

I hope I get some more weeks like this before summer is over. For the next 2 1/2 weeks, I'll be teaching summer school (much lower stress levels than regular school days). One of those weeks I will spend every day from the time I leave work until after 10pm at church camp for high school week (my favorite...wish it wasn't during summer school). I should have a few weeks without having to be at camp every day (not that I HAVE to be there, but I like to lend a hand), or having to work every day on one thing or another. I'm looking forward to those. Then my bff comes home sometime in July. I'm really looking forward to getting to spend time with her. She hasn't been home since January.

All-in-all it should be a good summer.

Tick Heads and Tweezers

We live in the country, so ticks are an every day summer occurrence. Tick checks are a must. These are usually more affective if you have a tick-checking partner, but alas...I am single.

My SiL decided she must do a tick check on the kids during their baths because they had spent a lot of time outside today. Oh, and there was the moment when a rather large tick was crawling around on NJ's forehead. As she brought each kid down, my SiL would let us know the status of the tick-check. NJ was the first and she had, oddly enough, found a seed tick (so named because they are the size of a small seed, although they can be much smaller than this one was) in his ear. I volunteered to remove said tick with tweezers.

NJ happily followed me into the bathroom and sat on my lap. Then I got out the tweezers and cocked back his head for a little tick extraction. The crying started almost immediately. I wasn't hurting him, but he is only a year and a half and I'm sure his understanding of a metal instrument coming at his head was beyond his grasp. I think the tick was already dead and still hanging on (they usually do that), because when I pulled on the tick, he came apart, with the head still attached to NJ.

Picture of a small tick, sometimes referred to as a seed tick

Now here is where I would like to dispell some tick rumors. I am constantly amused at how ridiculous people will react to ticks. I've seen several reality shows where they find a tick on a dog and freak out! There are calls to vets, Google searches and, for some reason, usually a match that they light and then blow out in order to stick the match head on the tick. This is done in order to get the tick to release. There's always this big deal about how you are not supposed to pull the tick out because it might leave part of the head in and that would be bad. There is usually a discussion about what terrifying things would happen if the tick's head remained in the skin. I once even heard someone say that the head could chew its way through the skin and into the body and then eventually make its way up to the brain. SERIOUSLY??? Where do people come up with these things. The worst thing that could happen is you might get an infection, but I doubt it.

I've never resorted to any of the ridiculous schemes I've seen...we just pull the tick out. 99 times out of a 100, they come out whole. And that one time, you just have to get the tweezers out.

Anyway, the tick head was still in NJ's ear and I had to get it out, but the tweezers just weren't working. My brother came in when I told him what was up and we discovered that Mom's tweezers didn't quite come together at the very tip and they were making it impossible to grab onto the tick's head. My brother ends up pulling out his Swiss army knife (I'm not sure it was actually a Swiss army knife, or just like one) and using the tweezers on it to remove the rest of the tick. Crisis diverted. No brain eating. No infections.

So next time you find a tick on you or your beloved pet, just pull it out.

For more small-town moments like these, check out On the Front Porch.