Buttered Noodles

Do you know what happens when 40 inches of snow melts? You go from snow drifts over your head, to water up to your knees. It's been a hard winter in Iowa, my family has lost 6 cows total, 3 mommas 3 babies, and an unfathomable amount of corn. But even with conditions that leave most depressed, we've still had a lot of good memories this winter.

Being around 16 children under the age of 12 makes me realize I never want children. Ha well, maybe I will reconsider, but I definitely don't want 16.

But the days I have spent around these kids have taught me good babysitting skills.

For Example:

When I was 16 I took my 4 years old twin cousins for a ride on the golf cart on the farm. One was in the front beside me, one was in the back. I got a little bit out of control, ramped it, and sent the twin beside me flying, only to crash land on her neck. Well she didn't respond for a minute, then she just jumped back up in the golf cart, we rode back to the house and she took a little nap....To her mother: I am sorry.

But thankfully, both twins are beautiful and completely alive, not to mention 7 now!!

On tuesday I was watching my little cousin Colton, almost 2. Well he wanted to go feed the cows hay, so after feeding him 4 cupcakes I walked to the screened-in porch with him. He wasn't wearing a coat or shoes but I let him go outside onto the cement sidewalk anyway. He kept saying "lets go lets go (down to the barn)" but I didn't feel like getting dirty so I just kept saying "You go you go". After about 10 minutes I was tired of listening to him holler so I made a quick evaluation and decided he probably wouldn't wander past the front sidewalk so I felt it was safe to leave him. I wandered back into the kitchen only to be greeted by 7 adults "Where's Colton?!" I explained I had carefully observed him and thought he wouldn't leave the front of the house. His mother, Megan, felt differently. She jumped up, ran out there, and came back a few minutes later with a crying baby. Apparently, he ran all the way down to the gate, he didn't even slow down when he crossed the gravel in bare feet. And all the babysitter's are crossing off my phone number. But at least he'll remember me as the cousin who gives him cupcakes and lets him play outside!

I was explaining to Ethan some of the foods we eat in Iowa. The only thing my little cousins eat is buttered noodles. Yeah, as in boiled noodles with a little bit of butter and salt. I love them, they're one of my favorite things to eat (next to fish) but he thinks it's boring. Whatever.

Jack (3) is my "boyfriend." Well, according to him he is. Over Christmas break I had him convinced he wanted to be a haircutter when he grows up. Imagine him running up to his dad saying he wants to be a haircutter! (His dad is working very hard to have a farm ready for him). It got even better this time when he told me he wanted to be a "MEAN FARMER" !! haha! Sometimes I'll tease him and say him and I are on a team and we can be mean to all the other kids, I guess he is taking it seriously.

The highlight of the trip is usually going into town and stopping at the gas station for snacks. This time, I picked up my 12 and 9 yr old cousins from school and told them we were going to do something awesome, that they'd never done before. In the gas station there's a bin of 15cent year old Little Debbie's. Just the kind of thing clueless little kids love. So I grabbed a couple bucks went in there with them and let them have at it. We got a big bag full of nasty cupcakes, donuts, and danishes. When we got back to the truck and opened all the treats the kids quickly realized why they were so cheap. I mean, we had to drive with the windows down the whole way back to the farm they smelled so rank! But, I dared them to eat the danishes, and told them I'd give 3 bucks to eat an oatmeal cream pie. They wouldn't do it.

All in all, it was awesome and I can't wait to go back, Memorial Day!

Dog Joy

Good news! I got unsubscribed from the Papa John's email list! That is probably the best thing that's happened to me all day. But I'm not planning on telling Ethan how to do it, he can suffer for a little while. >:-/

Last night he took me to the Peyton Creek Fish House, fish buffet. Pretty much my new favorite restaurant. Whenever we were at the buffet I asked him what a Hushpuppy was and he got all tense and whispered "Be quiet we're gonna get shot"
We don't have "Hushpuppies" in the North. Or gumbo or sweet tea or cajun filets. It was quite an experience.

I don't know how to follow other blogs, I really want to follow my friends, and I accidently followed myself whenever I was trying to figure it out..sooo if anyone could tell me how to unfollow myself, that would be great.

In my Bio class today we got back our tests from last week. Graded in record time. The grades were as follows:

A-3
B-12
C-16
D-18
F-17

51/66 were C or below. Seriously? So who holds the problem here, the 51 students or the professor? She kept saying that there were people who studied and did the work and knew it all, uh you mean there were 3 people. Everybody else was out partying. I would say at least 15 of those 51 actually put forth effort. Something is very wrong with the Bio department but I just can't seem to figure it out.

Today I came home to my precious dog wagging her tail. While I was unloading my stuff into the foyer I left the front door wide open. Any normal dog would be half way across town. But my dog just stood there and watched me carry stuff in. This is probably because: she is 13 years old, she loves us, and we give her these Tyson dog treats. Caution: they will turn your dog into a crackhead. She actually drools for these treats. They're made out of real beef and you have to keep them in the fridge. They're called Dog Joy and I don't even think they're sold in the central part of the US.

Papa Johns

I work in the Writing Center. I help tons of UCA students write papers everyday. I should keep up with a blog. (And I have brown hair).

The stories are at the bottom, I just had to ramble for the first part.

Awesome things that have happened to me this week:

I MOVED!! Yay! Finally I am free!! I now have my own room and bathroom, and I can go to bed at 8:30pm every night if I want to. No more getting attacked in the night by a rotten cat, finally just peace and solitude.

I feel like I might've actually dominated the Organic test on tuesday. Andrew Brooks looked over my test before he turned his in (ha) and said it looked like we had the same answers and he's pretty smart so hopefully we both got A's. Which would call for some serious ice cream AND cake. We will see tomorrow.

Brooke Burgin is helping me with an upcoming pageant. She is the coolest person I know by far, her and her husband Jonathan both. If you don't know them, you should!

Ethan is taking me on a date to a fish house tonight. Hello! Fish is my all time favorite type of food, I even take little pills that say "Fish" on them, because I just love fish so much. If only there was fish flavored ice cream, I'll present that idea to ColdStone next time I'm there.

OH YEAH, I almost forgot. I'm going to Iowa in less than 48 hours! Anddd my aunt wants me to move up there for the summer and watch her kids. Umm can you say, best job ever?!?! Like getting paid to have fun!

Things I don't like/understand:

Drama? In college. Come on guys, you gotta grow up sometime! Might as well start when you're 20. Seriously, this year I have been surrounded by so much I'm beginning to wonder if I accidentally went back to high school. If you know me, you know that I am pretty much emotionless (IT TAKES A LOTTT TO HURT MY FEELINGS), calm cool and collected, AND non-confrontational. So obviously, I am NOT the problem!! Seriously just stop, go away, just stop stop stop. STOP. It's annoying.

Carbon only has 4 bonds? Come one, how much easier would life be if it could make 5. Or if electrons didn't matter, nucleophiles and electrophiles could just come and go as they please.

A funny story (or 2):

The other day Ethan and I were eating ice cream (in cones) on his bed. Now, I like to save all the little pieces of cookie dough for the end, soo if I find one in my mouth, I just spit it back onto the cone. Anyway, I was teasing Ethan and telling him he wasn't American because he didn't like cookie dough and he reached up and smacked my hand (yes he hit me). Well I wasn't expecting it so I didn't have a good grip on the cone and it went flying across the room. Into a corner under a bunch of furniture. Nice. All my hard work saving the cookie doughs and I didn't even get to enjoy them.

Last night Ethan and I were trying to order a pizza. But for some reason he didn't want to pay full price, which I wouldn't understand because I have no concept of money. So we get online to look up coupons and deals and such for Papa Johns. While he is distracted (which he is most of the time) I quickly sign him up to receive emails about promotions and deals. I was just trying to be a thoughtful considerate girlfriend. :) Apparently he didn't think so. This morning whenever I opened my email I had a couple from Papa Johns and one from Ethan saying

"haha, here you go! >:)"

Yes, that is an evil smiley face. So now we're both signed up for these dumb emails and we can't figure out how to get off the list and they send 2 a week. :(