Combining Soybeans

When I first moved to Illinois, I wondered why they called the machine that cuts down the corn stalks a combine. After riding my first one last weekend, I learned why. A combine is one machine that does the job of 3 separate machines. For example, in order to harvest soy beans and corn, a farmer used to need a mower, a raker, and a separater. Now, one machine (a combine) does it all. Most combines now even run on GPS, so you don't really even have to steer anymore. One of the teachers I work with has a large soy bean and corn farm. She invited Bruce and I out to ride the combine with Pat since we have never been on one before. It was a fun experience. Contrary to popular belief, farming is not a boring job. I've learned from experience. I was amazed at how many beans they actually harvest. What looks like a small field probably averages about 3600 bushels of soy beans. Some field are even bigger than that. The combine essentially mows up the plants, separates the crop from the stalk and shakes all the beans into the back where they pile up until they are emptied into the truck. We look forward to getting back on the combine when he starts to harvest corn.
Here is a picture of Bruce on the combine.


The air conditioning and radio made it so Pat could enjoy the game while harvesting before we got there. Farming isn't like it used to be.

In case you are wondering about the proportion of the combine machine. Here is a picture of me standing straight up against the wheel.

The head of the combine is too big to drive down the road to the next field. Farmers would have to take the head off the combine, attach it to a trailor on a truck, and pull it to the next field just to put it back on again. Pat said it used to take him half a day to unload and load the head back on. Now, due to the new hydralic system on the combine, it takes him about 5 minutes. Most of that time is spent lining it up right. Combines used to be complicated to fix, but most problems now can be fixed with a couple of nuts and bolts. Not only that, but this combine actually measures the moisture content of the bean and corn. It is pretty neat.

This particular day, Bruce and I sure got our fill of farming. Before the combine experience, Bruce gave a tour of the University dairy to members of our ward. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, people are fasinated with cows. He took them to the milking parlor, the feed bins, the calf pin, and let them milk a cow and stick their arm inside a fistualted cow. The primary children liked the calves the best. That is where they spent the most time. The funny thing is that just because I married a dairy farmer, doesn't necessarily make me an expert on cows. Although I certainly know more than the average person. There are also some things about animals that I don't necessarily like to verbalize that I know. (I know some things mostly because I help Bruce grade tests and assignments from animal science students). I have learned a lot about those dairy animals, and I know more than I ever imagined I would know or need to know. I was asked a lot of questions, and Bruce was quite proud that I knew the answers to most of them. I am getting used to working on a farm, and although it isn't my favorite thing in the world, it does kind of change up my routine to go out there. When Bruce is doing an experiment, I go to the farm quite often. Last week was the first time I have been there in a long time. I am certainly not fasinated with cows, but I sure do like dairy products. Milk fat is definitely a friend, not a foe.

Musical DVD Dinners

As Bruce mentioned in my birthday post, he gave me a collection of musicals on DVD for my birthday. Since then, I have been actively engaged in watching all of them over dinner. A TV dinner is a frozen tray that you put in the microwave on high for 2-3 minutes and eat in front of the TV. I don't have any TV dinners, but I have resorted to DVD dinners. I make my own dinner, take it to the living room, plop down in front of our laptop, and turn on a musical while we gorge down our dinner. On Saturday nights for the past couple of weeks, this has been our routine. With our dinners, we travel to exotic places like Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and even the South Pacific. (It's kind of funny how most musicals take place in the Midwest. I wonder why that is!) Musicals are one of the happy things in life. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all lived in a musical? Not only could we go around town doing tap dances at train stations, but everyone would join in, and everyone would know all the words to all the songs. The world would be a much better place if we lived in a musical. Occasionally when I try to make life a musical, I am answered with odd stares and people I know trying to avoid me. I usually try to keep my dancing and singing for the kitchen in these instances. I often tell others that if I were more talented, I would love to be on broadway performing in these great musicals.

I've never seen a musical that I haven't liked (at least there is always something good about them); however I like some more than others.
I enjoy watching "The Music Man". My Grandma Porter used to put it in quite often at her house when I was younger. Plus, isn't there something grand about "76 trombones in a big parade with 104 Clarinets right behind." I remember walking around singing "Mariam, Madame Libraian when I was younger." At one time, it inspired me to become a librarian, and I started to make a card catalog for the books I had on my shelf at the time. Now, my card catalog is probably lost and completely out of date seeing as how I have added immensly to my collection since then.
I love "The Sound of Music" because: 1) Julie Andrews is amazing, 2) I've been to Salzburg Austria, and 3)it just plain rocks.
I recently saw "State Fair" for the first time. The 1940's version is by far better than the 1960's version. The old farmer in the bib overalls completely makes that show, and he is reason enough to watch it.
"7 Brides for 7 Brothers" is probably my favorite one. I don't really know why, just that there is something so great about a woman kicking a house full of scraggly, onery man into the shed until they can act civilized.
My 6th grade choir director was a musical nut, although I didn't know it at the time. Every song we sang came from a musical. It wasn't until I started watching musicals and becoming more "cultured" that I realized how many songs off of the musicals I knew. This must have contributed to the love of musicals I have deep down inside.

In closing, if any one is ever up for a musical DVD dinner, I'll make the dinner, you bring the treats, and together we'll share "a wonderful night for singing!" (State Fair).

Pudding Pictionary

A couple of week ago for family night, Bruce and I decided that it would be fun if we invited some other families over for dinner and FHE. We made most of the dinner preparations on Sunday (like chopping meat and veggies) so we could be sure to have enough time to get dinner ready after I got home from basketball practice. Dinner was great, the lesson was short, and our activity was one of the highlights of the evening. We played pudding pictionary. This is a game I came up with when I helped plan a P party in college. At a P party, you must only wear things that start with the letter P, eat things that start with the letter P, and do things that start with the letter P. Hence the idea of playing Pudding pictionary.
The rules are very similar to real pictionary. Except, instead of drawing a picture with paper and pencil, you use your finger and pudding.




It can get kind of messy, but it is also more tasty for some than for others.

I'm not saying you have to eat the pudding that every one else has stuck their finger in, but for some that is participation enough.
If anyone ever feels the urge to play pictionary in pudding, let me know and we can certainly hook you up.

Springfield

About 3 weeks ago (September 24), we took our 8th grade students to the Lincoln Memorial museum in Springfield. They are studying American History and are at the time period of Lincoln's assassination. I was lucky enough to be one of the chaperones on this particular field trip. It was a lot of fun. I learned some thing about Lincoln, and the best part about this museum is that it is very interactive. I know there are a lot of people who don't care too much for museums, but if you have never been, this is surely one that anyone can enjoy. They have some 3D movies that really get you into the show. If you have never been, I urge you to try and go. I will have to go back another time and actually see everything there is to see there. I spent most of my time keeping my group of kids together and running after them as they rushed through the museums. I really didn't see much. We only had the opportunity to go to the Lincoln memorial museum, and from what I understand, there is a lot more to see there about Lincoln and Springfield history in general. In the museum though, be weary of the wax figures. They look so real. At times, real people stand next to the wax figures and begin to talk. We had some really freaked out kids our hands at times as I am sure you can imagine. As you can see from these pictures, my students thought that the kids' play house was the best part about the whole trip. Here they had time period toys and clothing. Funny how it seems to be only the boys who got into the dress up game.

School is going pretty well for me considering the age group at hand. Of course, we have some issues with immaturity which have resulted in a change of rules and policied at our school. I still enjoy the kids most of the time, and feel like I have a much better sense of what I am doing than I did last year.
Basketball on the other hand is going better than first anticipated. If you would have told us (Coach Richards and I Coach Richards)(yes, both the head and assistant coach have the last name of Richards) at the beginning of the season that we would be 6-2 for our first 8 games, we probably would have laughed. However, as stated above, our 8th grade team is 6-2. Our 7th grade team is 5-3. Two of the games we lost, we really should have won if we would have played better. We went 4 for 11 from the free throw line and missed about 10 layups in a row. Small things like that come back to bite you when you lose first by 1 and then by 2. However, we really are proud of the girls, they are improving with every game, and some girls have stepped up when we needed them to. Although things keep me very busy (3 games a week both home and away), I enjoy what I do. Time seems to slip away from me too fast, so sorry about the long overdue posts and what not.
I promise I will eventually catch up with the numerous tags that have come my way.

General Conference and related thoughts

This last weekend was the general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As usual it was very uplifting, motivating, and wonderful. How blessed we are to be guided through these troubled times by living apostles and prophets! Two of the themes I picked up from conference were hope and unity.

Our Elders' Quroum can relate very well to President Uchtdorf's talk on moving pianos. We have moved a couple of pianos and many other items in the last couple of months. Hopefully we can stand close and lift where we are in all aspects of our quorum service. My friend Akbar came with me to the Priesthood session of conference. I realized it may have been more appropiate to invite him to a different session. Priesthood was directed specifically to Priesthood bearers and I was concerned how he would take Elder Scott's condemnation of cultures that treat their wives poorly. I am not sure how they treat women in the culture Akbar comes from.

With my sister, Rachel in the MTC preparing to go to Lithuania, it was neat to hear the son of Lithuanian parents speak in general conference about his father. And with my brother, Clay just arriving in Mexico to serve his mission, it was fun to hear President Monson tell the missionary choir about a missionary who was in the MTC that was convinced that he could not learn Spanish. President Monson suggested that he be sent to the Japanese class for a day. He quickley decided it was possible to learn Spanish. I'm posting a picture of Rachel and Clay in the MTC standing in front of a picture of Legrand Richards

5 new Temples were announced, including Kansas City and Rome, Italy. I found out today that the Kansas City Temple will actually be in Missouri, near Liberty Jail, that will be neat. I am excited for our brethren at the St. Louis Temple from Kansas City, however we will miss them. We will have to lengthen our stride to fill the Temple back up. While in Spain on my mission, several people mentioned their surprise that "the Mormons" had a Temple right in the middle of Catholism (Madrid, Spain). Imagine their surprise when they learn we will have a Temple in Rome! It's a miracle!

General Conference time is also mission reunion time. Missing my mission reunions is really one of the hardest parts about living in Illinois for me. I had the great blessing in my life of serving under President Mask and President Bowen, both of which had reunions last week. Sunday night one of my mission buddies, Elder Furse, called and told me all about them. President Bowen is serving as an area president in Argentina and Elder Mask is serving in the missionary department in Salt Lake City. All mission presidents are good, but I got to serve under exceptional mission presidents.

My sadness at missing mission reunions was partially eased by participating in a zone conference here in Champaign. Dale Kirby was baptized last Friday in our ward. The mission president was doing a zone conference on "eyes to baptize" and also wanted to be present for Dale's baptism, so he asked that the baptism be part of zone conference. I got to welcome Dale to the quorum, so I got to speak at zone conference, something I didn't expect to do again so soon after my mission.

Ahoy Matie!

Last Friday, September 19th was national talk like a pirate day. We decided to celebrate at our school by having a contest for who could dress up like the best pirate. Because of my numerous basketball games, I wasn't able to find the time to sew me some wicked pirate pants, but some of the kids at our school sure looked great. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures so sorry, but I did give extra credit to every kid who dresses up. One of my students made a stuffed parrot to prop up on his shoulder. Others had authentic vests, pants, hats, and plastic swords. They won prizes for being the best dressed. It was a lot of fun. Our student council this year is doing a great job getting us excited for every random holiday found in our student planner.
We had a half day, and the other half was meant for teacher inservice. During that time, we created webpages for our students. In 2 hours time, I actually made quite a bit of progress, and it is up for viewing. Unfortunately, I don't have the right program on my school computer to update it or change it. So, it hasn't been touched since last Friday. My principal is working on getting me the software so I can maintain my website and use it as a resource for the students. You can check it out though. Go to: www.pvo.k12.il.us. Click on the junior high building. Scroll down and find my name and click on my webpage. It should come up. Hopefully soon I will have a chance to update it.
So... I thought I would put a plug in about my school year this year. Things are going A LOT better this year. Not only do I already have a lot of planning done already (thanks to all the time I spent doing it last year), I also have a new batch of students. My students this year (7th graders) are a great class. Most of the time, they are respectful and best of all, they actually listen. This is the first year that I know what it is like to teach a lesson without being interrupted all the time. At the beginning of the year, I found that I have to plan more for my lessons, because I always ended with time to spare. It's only because they are better behaved than others. Lately, I can tell that they are getting used to junior high because they have become a little more chatty. However, it's nothing to freak out about - they are a good group of kids, and I don't have to be the police man or whipping task master when they are supposed to be working independantly or in groups. They usually take care of that themselves.
Basketball season is as busy as ever and is going about as well as it could. Our team so far has done better than we predicted, but still not as great as we would like. We are really short on girls and even more so on girls who are athletic and skilled. We have seen a lot of improvment in the girls since the beginning of the season, and hopefully we will continue to do so. So far this season in 7th grade, we have had about the same amount of success we had all season with them last year as 6th graders. We won our first game. Last year, we only won one game. We've lost two since then, but we play again on Tuesday, so we will see if we can get back on a winning streak or not.

Don't ever be afraid to talk like a pirate now and then - it could turn out to be quite fun.

Happy Birthday Brittney!

One week and one day ago was Brittney's birthday. I ordered her present a week before her birthday on-line from Amazon. To my great disappointment, it had still not arrived on her birthday, so I took her to dinner at Biaggi's (a really good Italian restaurant) and told her we could go anywhere she wanted afterwards and buy whatever she wanted. She wanted to go to Wal-mart and buy some shirts she had seen on sale there a few days earlier. When we got home we invited some friends over (Wes and Lesli Peter and Steve and Jessica Gutke, no one with kids because it was past 8:30pm) for ice cream and brownies. Brittney, Lesli, and Jessica are all school teachers, so guess what we talked about. It was fun to have our friends over.

The next day the package finally arrived - nine musicals on DVD - "The sound of music" "The king and I" "Oklahoma" "Carousel" "South Pacific" "State Fair" "Meet me in St. Louis" "The music man" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". Brittney had a basketball game and I had Elders' Quorum visits that night. Before I left I hid the DVDs in various places around the house. When we both got home that night, I sang a song from each of the musicals and had Brittney figure out based on the song where the DVD was hidden. It was so much fun. She got so excited. Instead of seeing her excitement once when she opened the packaged set, I got to see it for each of the DVDs, and Brittney does get excited.

I love Brittney. She is the sunshine of my life. I strive to be the husband that she deserves. She is so talented, currently she is coaching basketball and preparing for a musical Stake Women's Conference and teaching school and being a wonderful wife and being my new running buddy. She has beautiful dark curly hair and a radiant smile. "Somewhere in my...childhood, I must have done something good." She is a few of my favorite things.