Hello again/ work

Congratulations! If you are reading this then you are a loyal visitor to my blog and have come here to check for a post even though, yes, it has been over a month since I've posted anything, even though I have had and still have lots and lots of things to tell you about! So I'll attempt to catch you all up, starting around where I left off...

As far as my job, my employers the Schmidts are very, very nice, they're almost like relatives. Mr. Schmidt Sr. gives me free bags of sweet cherries cuz he knows how much I love them and he's so nice like that.:) (not to mention I get an on-the-house cold can of soda after work every day... mmm A-treat brand frosty cream soda is now my favorite soda flavor!) Cherries are probably my favorite fruit, at least one of my favorites. He gave me a really big bag once and I really wanted to try making a fresh cherry pie out of them, which I'm sure would have been delish, but not surprisingly the cherries were so good they got eaten up by all of us but probably mostly me before I got around to actually making a pie.

Strawberry season has been over for a few weeks now, and I made my last fresh strawberry pie several days ago (fresh fruit pies made out of any fruit are so delicious, but I suppose every fresh pie is delicious, except of course for cow pies, LOL :P XX). I'll be posting the recipe I use for fresh fruit pies on my cooking blog when I get a chance. I made a fresh strawberry pie and entered it in a contest at a fairly small local fair, Kempton Fair. I didn't get to visit the fair after the judging took place so I didn't get to see whether I won anything or not. I haven't heard anything back from them yet about it either so idrk what's become of that, I'm still hoping that I won something and that maybe they just are slow in letting me know...

anywhoo yeah so now I'm picking blueberries instead of strawberries, I think it's a little slower way to earn money that picking strawberries (I guess it depends though). I get paid by the pint instead of the quart, I get 60 cents per pint instead of 80 cents (oh, it turned out I got 80 cents a quart for picking strawberries instead of 75 cents) so since a pint is half a quart I basically get $1.20 a quart for blueberries if ya wanna compare, but blueberries are usually harder to accumulate since they're smaller, a lot of the blueberries are huge and juicy though, and very tasty (yes I do eat some while I work :D )!!! I usually work around 4-5 hours each morning (anywhere starting at 7:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. and ending at noon - around 1:30 p.m.) I usually pick around 30-some pints each day. My record for blueberry picking is 41 pints in a day (I want to break that record sometime, I tried once but I was 4 pints away from breaking it :), and my record for strawberry picking is 43 quarts in a day. With blueberry picking it's a lot more comfortable picking position since you're standing up, instead of having to bend over the short strawberry plants and get stiff and sore. I did get used to that though after my first week of strawberry picking, I must have stretched my muscles and gotten them stronger. Plus they eventually had me pick on the strawberry picker, same idea as a cherry picker, except it's like a tractor that creeps along v-e-e-e-e-r-r-y slowly and has cushioned platforms close to the ground attached to it that you and the other pickers lay on it on your stomach with just your head and arms dangling off and each person goes over their row and picks from it, and it's a lot more comfortable and faster and more fun (especially if you're talking with the other pickers) than just picking normally. Hope that explains/describes well enough what a strawberry picker is like...

I wish I had pictures of things from my job but I never take my camera along to work, I can't think of a good reason why I don't but yeah maybe I should sometime before the summer is over.

Alyssa is doing really well with her job as a lifeguard at Wildwater Kingdom at Dorney Park, she will be rich, lol!!! She got each of us a free day ticket to go to DP/WWK, so our whole family will be going there together sometime this summer and we also got some discount tickets from someone so we'll also be going a few more times this summer, I can hardly wait, it's going to be SO MUCH FUN!!! :D
This post has gotten pretty long so I guess I'll break up all my newz into several posts instead... you'll probably see this post last though since the blog puts the most recent posts closer to the top of the page, so thanks for reading!!!

Update

Thought it was about time I posted on here again! Things as of late for the most part have been great (hey that rhymed!). Yeah sooo... I do actually have some significant news this time! And no, you don't have to guess, I'll tell.

:D We're actually moving!!! To that place in the picture right up there ^^^, it's a place in the country not far from here (about three miles or so). You probably already saw that on Alyssa's blog, but I wanted to announce it anyway. I love the place!!! It has a little bit more than 1 1/2 acres of land (partly wooded). The house itself (on the right in the pic) is very nice plus there is a seperate apartment over the garage (see that on the left) to rent out (it already has renters, so that's good). We're supposed to move there the end of July. In the garage is a seperate little room that we could keep rabbits in. It's going to be sooo fun to be able to keep more pets again! Besides getting more rabbits, I want to get guinea pigs and birds (at least, LOL). We might even eventually get another border collie puppy to keep Guy company! Across the street is a dog kennel, we found out they hire teenagers to help out so I'm hoping to get a job there possibly. Oh and speaking of animals, our next-door neighbors-to-be have horses (yay!!)! Alyssa wants to get chickens... I don't eat eggs so I don't really care for that idea quite so much, but they're going to eat eggs anyway so why not let them have free, organic, free-range eggs? Anyway, I'm getting so Off Topic!!! So I might as well get on to the next bit of wonderful news...

I passed 9th grade yesterday!!!! YIPPPEEEEEEE!!! And for my sophomore year, I'm planning on doing Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School.

AND I got a job yesterday! Picking strawberries (hence the celebratatious new background)! It's at a family-owned farm called Schmidt Farm. I started this morning (early (well, 8:30-ish) ), and worked up until 1:00. My employers are very very nice and I had fun working there! I get paid 75 cents for every quart I pick and today I picked 37 quarts (9.25 gallons), which added up to almost $30. I hope I do that well every day! It is very tiring in that your legs and back get sore and burn from bending and crouching while you pick (if you've ever picked strawberries before, you probably know what I mean). I'm thankful it was rainy/overcast and cool for my first day of work so I didn't get too warm! After strawberry season ends, I'll be working picking blueberries. That should be easier on me because I will get to stand up while I pick. I'll be working there all summer. Well, I'd better go... Peace out!

~Mandy~