Weekending and Amazoning

 Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

Friday, I subbed all day. It was the first time I'd subbed all day in over a week! It's sometimes hard to get back into the swing of it after a break. But everything worked out fine. I was subbing for the art teacher at the junior high which meant I did not have to worry about being the cause of students not learnin' nothing' 😉. My role was simply to tell each class of students that they had to work on the art projects that the teacher had previously assigned. Easy peasy lemon squeazy, right?

Well, there was a little wrench in the plan. It was statewide testing week in students' homeroom classrooms. And the art teacher had a homeroom class. But only licensed teachers can administer tests, and I am not a licensed teacher. So the first half of the day, a teacher was in the art room administering the test and I was asked to babysit assist in a large room where students who weren't taking the test were waiting for the testing to be over (these students are taking a high school course of the subject matter being tested; the state test covered 8th grade coursework of the subject). My role was very easy in the capacity of assistant student watcher and then when the testing was over, I went back to the art room and taught (wink wink) art class, which is to say, I told the students to work on their art projects.

I did have to use this bad boy to cut paper to size for students for their art projects. I have a much smaller version of a cutter like this for paper crafts. 

It was an odd day but that's one thing I like about subbing- each day is different. 

I came home and Alyssa had recently arrived home from her work. We watched one of the episodes of the series we're watching and then I read some. Donnie came home from a little bit early. We ordered pizza and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Saturday, I was gone from the house for fourteen hours, from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm. Of those hours, ten of them were in the car. Fortunately, of the ten hours that I was in the car, I only drove six of them. My Aunt Betty died a few months ago and her children decided to have a celebration of life ceremony to honor her. I was on the fence about attending. Of course, I wanted to attend but the ceremony was pretty far away. My aunt was sick the last few years of her life and I hadn't had much connection in several of the years preceding her sickness (one of the bad things about not having parents almost the entirety of your adult life, besides not having parents, is that you no longer have an easy connection to extended family members. It may not be a great excuse, but it was the biggest factor in me not staying in better touch with aunts/uncles/cousins over the years).

My brother in northern Indiana suggested that I drive to his place and then he'd drive us to the celebration of life in Michigan. It would mean less driving for me and I decided to take him up on his offer. So I left town Saturday morning at 7:30 and headed north and west to Indiana. Got to my brothers where we had about ten minutes to spare until we got into his minivan and headed due north to Michigan.

The celebration of life was such a great tribute to my aunt! I learned a few things that I didn't know about my aunt's (and my moms) parents' emigration from Germany and got to see other family members whom I don't see often. We stayed for over three hours then headed to back to my brother's house. Once at his house, I only stayed a few minutes because I had a three hour drive home! 

A few pics of the day:

I had to get gas before my trip so I stopped at a Sheetz station in town to get gas and a drink. Sheetz has light lemonade in its pop dispenser, so I made a combo drink of light lemonade and Coke Zero for an ersatz Spezi drink. And the guy at the check out counter didn't make me pay for my drink- I handed him a $20 and he told me that he wasn't going to make me break the $20 for the drink. Ok! Worked for me!

I didn't bore my row mate to tears but I may have helped lull her to sleep...

We did have some fun interactions when she woke up :)

In MI- to honor my aunt's love of sweets, attendees were encouraged to eat dessert before lunch- each table had sweets that my aunt really loved.

Church ladies provided a delicious meal

Some of my cousins, my aunt, SIL, brother and MG.

Two of my cousins, MG and my brother

The three hour drive home from my brother's house consisted of about an hour on the interstate and two hours of country roads and small towns. I enjoyed the scenic route when I was on it :)

Small towns dotted the landscape

and evidence of farming was everywhere (though these silos? (if that's what they are, look high tech)

Blurry, but I ran into (well, not literally, thankfully- those stories are always tragic) three different horse and buggyesque contraptions 

Sunday morning was church- it was a great service and I couldn't believe it when I saw a church ladies cook book for sale in the lobby. Of course I bought one, having just been thinking of the church ladies' delicious meal the day before at my aunt's celebration of life.  

In the afternoon, I went out and bought flowers and groceries. I planted some of the flowers. Made dinner and brought Alyssa's dinner to her work for her. 

Amazoning- Only got a few things from Amazon this month

R&M Florida State Cookie Cutter in Durable, Economical, Tinplated Steel

I had this in mind for a craft project. I've not used it yet but plan to.

Nikon D7500 DX-Format Digital SLR Body

I mentioned this before, but this is the fourth dSLR camerat that I've purchased. I've always bought them from photography stores. I struggled with being a good steward of our money (it was the cheapest on Amazon) with supporting an actual camera store. I guess it's obvious which way I went...

I used the camera and a lens that I already had to take some pictures of Abby in her gown, while holding her cap, at her campus this week. I love how many of the pictures turned out. Regarding the ones that I didn't love, it was the photographer's fault and not the subjects :).

BASS OUTDOOR Women's Field Slide Water Shoe

It's play in the mud(/clay) time in southern Ohio... Mud is all fun and games until your shoes are caked with it and the only solution is to get the whole shoe wet. Not a great option if you want to wear the shoes again soon. Enter the water shoe! My spring time garden shoe fit :)

Linking up with Andrea and Jill for Prime Purchases