Of course I answered them!

Robert, I thought that it would be fun to answer the questions you gave me. I hope you are too upset if my next few messages are short (not one-liners though). I have my math final today and three more finals tomorrow. My math final is really stressing me out. He covered new material Monday (stuff that I haven't done a lot of) and said that that is what the final will primarily be on. I hope that there won't be a lot to do at work today, I could use the study time. With my luck though, it'll be busier than ever. Being patient with money: It won't take much for me to "be patient." I am used to scrimping and saving, but . . . Can I have a slurpee? Garments: I believe you are right. They should be worn at all times (with the stated exceptions). I remember my mother telling me (long ago) that when the garments come off is when the trouble occurs. I believe she told me this because Maria and Jim stopped wearing theirs. House vs. Trip: I don't know. I think having the home paid off is nice, I really don't like to be in debt. However, sometimes circumstances permit a trip that is relatively inexpensive and not a common opportunity. Travelling can be done inexpensively, which brings me to the next question. Camping: I have always loved camping. This is how we always spent our family vacation. When our family got larger we had a big tent that mom and dad slept in, a dome tent for the boys and a dome tent for the girls. Before my sisters came along, there was a tent for mom and dad and a dome for the kids. When I was younger my dad went on a lot of TDY's to Idaho, Montana, Washington, and other northwestern states. He would always take us along and we would go camping. We would visit a lot of places too. Dinasour Park, Flaming Gorge, Yellowstone, Lewis & Clark Caverns, Earthquake Lake, etc. We always had a lot of fun. When we were in Germany we toured Europe this way. We went to Holland and France. We also went to many other places like Bertchesgarden and Austria (It is really expensive to use the restrooms in Austria). I would love to go camping this Fall, we will have lots of fun. I hope we will do it a lot with the kids too. Television: I like some shows too. I usually don't get to watch it much. Televisionism, kind of like alcoholism only with tv. When we lived in Germany we only got one station -- AFN. We didn't watch too much TV. We spent a lot of time out-of-doors with our friends. We built forts, toured the village, went to the park and Gasthaus, played baseball on the empty lot across the street, and many other things. We also read a lot. When we moved to South Carolina we had CABLE!!! Oh my, more than just one channel. If we didn't like what was on, we could just flip the station. They also had advertising commercials. I actually missed these. The first one I saw when we got back was for Piggly Wiggly. We watched television night and day. My parents began to worry about us, and should have. At one point in time they offered to pay us each $300 if we could go a year with just watching it on the weekends, starting at 5:00pm Friday and going to midnight Sunday. I was 12 at the time. None of us could do it. I lasted the longest at three months. My parents knew it was a sure thing. Because of this "bet" it moderated our television watching. I am just not that much impressed with television anymore. I watch it less and less as time goes by. This is good because I get a lot more done with my free time instead of sitting idle in front of the TV set. Books: I LOVE to read. My mother always read to us when we were younger. It does help children to speak sooner and teaches them proper English. I may not be able to write well and know all of the grammer laws, but I can sure tell you if something doesn't sound right. I have always read a lot and I tend to read a lot more when I am not in school. Kind of ironic, huh? My uncles always called me a bookworm and Chad used to say that I was a "peller-head," meaning like one of the nerds with a propeller on top of their hat. Technically, reading by bad light does not ruin your eyes, but I do agree that we should let our kids read at night if they desire to do so. I think that if we read to them when they are young we will be cultivating the desire to read. My mother still reads to my sisters. They read on their own as well. All of us kids could read and write before kindergarten. Felicia still struggles though (she will be starting 1st grade). However the card that she wrote for us, she did without help. Cherstin walked into her first grade class (that's when they teach kids to read nowadays) and read them the class rules. The teacher was extremely impressed. I still don't understand HOW you read to the light of the washing machine. Washing machines don't have lights, do they? Christmas: I think that Christmas is a good time to get something for our home. We can even do this bbefore we have a home of our own. It will be a nice way of accumulating nice furnishings. I am going to respond to one more message. That is all I really have time for. After I will be going to work and hopefully I will be able to study there. I am going to remain in the office after I get off. I will then go and take the test. I will probably be really stressed out at this point. After my test I am going to come back to the lab and finish responding to you. I will take as long as it takes (or until the lab closes, whichever comes first). Then I will head back to the Halls and call my mother with your DL expiration date (if you have sent it to me by then) and then I am going to call you. After I finish talking to you I will study for my finals tomorrow. I hope that I will get to sleep at a decent hour. I love you. I miss you a lot too. Love always, Wanda