Answer Me This

When driving, are you more likely to listen to the radio, to CDs or an iPod, or nothing at all?

Normally, I enjoy listening to CDs because the radio always seems to be either one of five popular songs or commercials. However, I've been extremely lazy and not changed out the CDs in my car since Christmas, so my CD changer is still full of Christmas music. So it's been the radio for awhile now. I'd change out the CDs, but I took all my CDs in the house and always forget until I want to listen to something other than the radio.

Do you prefer window or aisle?

I prefer aisle. I get motion sickness prettily easily especially when reading, but I can avoid it if I can't see out the window easily. It's not usually bad on planes, but I'll do anything to avoid feeling sick.

Do you fall asleep on your side, back, or stomach? What position are you in when you wake up?

I fall asleep on my side. I cannot sleep on my stomach at all. I usually wake up on my back unless the cat is sleeping against me and then I seem to know not to roll over in my sleep.

When is the last time you attended a zoo, circus, carnival, county fair, or parade?

I went to the zoo 2 weekends ago with the family. I wrote a blog post about it.

We also went to our county fair 2 weekends ago. I'm working on a post about that. (i.e. I haven't uploaded the pictures from my phone yet.)

I've never been to a circus.

The last parade I remember watching was on our honeymoon at Disney World. That was 4 years ago.

Do you have a favorite quote or inspirational saying?

These are mine for work...

This one is especially helpful to remember when you see children you are not responsible for acting in a way of which you don't approve.

What's the best thing about summer?

This summer, the best thing was my summer job. I absolutely loved day camp this year. My group was great, my co-workers were awesome, and we had lots of fun. I was really sad when camp ended.

The best part of every summer in the county fair. I have lots of fond memories of spending time at the county fair as a kid, so I love going every year. It's so much fun to see the animals, eat lots of great fair food, and look at the 4-H projects.

 

Family Trip to Binder Park Zoo

I mentioned before that my 3 youngest nieces came down from Wisconsin to visit for a few weeks. They did this last summer and we took a trip to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. This year, I wanted to take them to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, we weren't able to make our trip until their last day in town. But the good news was that their dad was in town too and we made it a big family trip!

Our group consisted of me, my husband, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law, our oldest nephew (age 25) and all our nieces (ages 20, 13, 11, and 8.) Even though we had a large group, we were able to stay together easily despite the crowds. (We had to go on a Saturday and it was super busy.) And we managed to see everything during our trip.

The zoo has a new black bear exhibit which I thought was great. My youngest nieces were less impressed as they see them all the time in Wisconsin. But the young bears were super cute. (No pictures because you have to view them through glass & I knew it wouldn't turn out well.)

My favorite part of visiting Binder Park Zoo is feeding the giraffes. Because the zoo was so busy, the giraffe feeding area was super crowded. I highly recommend going during the week if you want to feed the giraffes. It's less busy and you won't feel rushed to get through the experience.

The zoo had 2 baby giraffes born in June and this was the first week they were on display. They were adorable!

My 11-year-old niece loves cheetahs, so she was excited when we came upon the cheetah exhibit. Luckily for her, today the cheetah was prowling about the enclosure and even make cute meow noises. It was so funny to hear a noise that sounded more like a house cat coming from this wild creature.

We all had a great time at Binder Park Zoo and I can't wait for our next visit. If the budget allowed, I'd love to go up again this weekend for their Reptile Weekend. I know my reptile-loving husband would enjoy that!

 

Weeks in Review

I can't believe that six weeks have flown by and now camp is over for the summer. We had a fun-filled 3 weeks since I last updated.

We continued to work hard on our talent show routine and ended up winning the talent show. I'm really proud of our kids for pulling that off. They did a great job!

We took a couple trips to the local spray park and visited the beach again. We had a water day with water games and had a big water balloon fight. We did more fun crafts and games and just generally had a lot of fun.

I'm really going to miss spending time with my campers. As I was saying goodbye on the last day, I found myself having to hold back some tears. It was a great summer and I'm looking forward to next year.

Last weekend was our nieces' last weekend in town, so we took a big family trip up to Binder Park Zoo. I'll share some pictures and more details about that in a separate post.

The fair was last week and we went on Sunday with our oldest nephew and niece. I'll post about that as well.

Our usual Sunday Mass was special this week because our parochial vicar was installed as pastor. This Bishop came and did a special rite during the mass. It was the first time I've been to a Mass celebrated by our current Bishop. (He's been our Bishop for 4 years.) I was even lucky enough to receive communion from him.

Our new pastor's brother is also a priest, so he came to celebrate Mass with him in addition to our new parochial vicar. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we had 3 priests and a Bishop at the altar. I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere.

Now that I'm off work for a little while, I've got plans to do some cleaning and work on a few hobby projects I've started.

How was your week?

Answer Me This

What’s your favorite thing on YouTube?

I tend to like a bunch of really random things on YouTube. Mostly, things related to Sherlock or Doctor Who. I'll share my current favorite Benedict Cumberbatch video.



Who taught you to drive?

I never learned anything about driving until I took Driver's Ed when I was 15. I took it through my school in the summer and my instructor was horrible. He didn't actually teach much, just made me get behind the wheel and expected me to know what to do. And he wasn't shy about telling me how bad I was. So, my confidence was shot and I didn't even want to practice. So, I didn't get my license when I was 16 because I wanted nothing to do with driving.

When I was 19, I knew I couldn't put it off any longer, so I took Driver's Ed again through a local driving school. They had just opened and my brother learned to drive from them. It was so much better that time! The instructors were nice and encouraging and I felt confident in my driving. And I got my license!

What’s your favorite thing to cook? 

I don't really like cooking. Cooking leads to having to clean things up. I hate making a mess and having to turn around and clean it up. I'd much rather just have the food made for me. :) However, my favorite thing to make is homemade pizza. It's really easy and so delicious.

Are you a hugger or a non-hugger? Why?

It depends on how I know the other person. I don't like hugging strangers because that's awkward. I have no problem hugging people I know. I often hug people if I haven't seen them in a while as a greeting. I also don't mind when kids see me at school and hug me. It's nice to feel appreciated.

Where do you pray best?

At church. I usually pray every night when I first get into bed, but I admit that sometimes I'm so tired, that I get distracted or fall asleep while praying. So, I probably do my best praying in church when I can concentrate on the task. After receiving communion works really well for me.

When is the last time you saw/spoke to your grandparents?

I only have one grandmother still alive, so it's been awhile for most of them. I saw and spoke to my grandmother in May when we went flower shopping. Her birthday is coming up, so I'll see her again soon.

Me, my mom, and my grandma at my wedding 4 years ago.