fun weekend

Life got going again (my excuse for not writing), and there was a lot of it this weekend.

We had Dave's brother and sister-in-law as well as another couple come up to visit. His brother has two 4-wheelers that everyone got to try out and one of which I drove into a small group of trees. His brother (M) was a great teacher, going over the most important things to know and addressing issues as they came up. I just needed to practice driving on a slope without trees before going into slightly more difficult terrain. I tried to keep the steering straight, but it seems that you need to be turning up the hill in order to continue straight. When I started heading into the woods I panicked and actually gave it more gas until I was so close to the trees that death actually crossed my mind as a possible outcome (I may have been thinking over-dramatically, but it happened kind of fast and the only protective gear I had on was a helmet and goggles). At the last minute I let off the gas and squeezed the handle brakes. I still hit a group of very small trees but I didn't fly off the vehicle and seemed unhurt. M was good about looking back periodically and (to my dismay) realized pretty quickly that I had disappeared from view. He came back and pushed me out of the mess I had gotten into (I was now STUCK on the baby trees). Soon enough we were on our way out to the mine pit. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful and I became more cautious and more experienced. There was a very frightening hill I went down, but no other mishaps on the 4-wheeler. There was a fantastic view of the mine pit (which has filled with crystal clear water) and even a 22 foot cliff to jump off... which I'm incredibly proud to say I did. I didn't plan on swimming but there were four people jumping off and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't give it a try. It was incredibly scary once I had decided and was standing at the top, but the scare made the water temperature nothing to deal with. It wasn't really cold in the first place, but I don't know that I would have noticed since I had the adrenaline going. M decided that he'd better try too, very exhilarating experience. We finally made our way back to the house where we bragged to the others of our amazing feat (yes, I'm still oozing pride, sorry).

This morning I took the canoe out on my own for a couple hours. It was very peaceful and I was able to take a few photos of a crane. Unfortunately it kept flying away so none are very detailed. I will add some photos later, I need to charge my camera.

I'm already sad that our guests are gone. There was lots of eating/snacking, and a fun game of Settlers (of Catan). Dave pointed out that I sure like to be around people for someone who's semi-anti-social. The truth is that I'm not so much anti-social as I am a homebody. I don't necessarily like to go into town unless I really need something.

Jobs... I've been putting this off for a long time so I want to at least give some details. Dave found out that rather than teaching 4th-12th graders, he will actually be teaching kindergarten through 12th grade. Everyone. He also found out that his high school band has less than 15 kids and there is a pep band performance/game every week. The good news is that he likes most of the kids, the school is pretty laid back and friendly, and it's more experience.

I am working at a pharmacy in town. Currently I work on the sales floor ringing people up, starting to fit them for braces/boots/slings, and doing paperwork. I really enjoy it because I am busy (no time to be thinking about other things I could be doing with my time) and I love the people I work with. They are good people and most have a great sense of humor which is always a good thing.

That's all I have for now, but I will hopefully add those pictures soon.