One year later

One year ago today, my dear friends lost their six month old son. It's almost impossible to believe. I was able to talk to Tommy's father a few weeks ago, and they continue to amaze me with their strength and grace. RIP Tommy.

Unexpected snow day

Today the kids and I are home with an unexpected snow day. We really didn't get that much snow at all, but I think it was the timing of it that made things complicated. I have to say, although I'm missing out on an opportunity to work at school today, the timing of today is kind of nice. The last two weeks have been really crazy, and for all of us to have a completely unscheduled day is very nice. Of course this school day has to be made up somewhere along the line, but for today, we are enjoying the gift of time!

Space shuttle launch

I had totally forgotten that today was the space shuttle launch, but my this afternoon my brother-in-law sent a text suggesting that I have the kids watch it if we had a chance. I'll be honest, to say that I haven't exactly followed the space program would be an understatement. It's just not my thing. I knew, however, that the shuttle program is nearing the end, and I also knew that my kids had never seen a launch before. HT especially loves all things related to any form of travel, either on the ground or in the sky, so I found it on the TV and called the kids to gather around the TV. Strangely enough, I found it somewhat difficult to watch. I was 12 when Challenger exploded, and for me it was really the first national catastrophe that I truly understood. Twenty five years later, I still vividly remember watching the TV for hours that evening, watching the launch and subsequent explosion over and over and over again. I found myself praying for the safety and well being of the crew, and also for my kids...that they wouldn't see what I had seen all those years ago. I was so relieved that all seemed to be a success, and I was really able to see it with new excitement through the eyes of my kids. Every day I find myself amazed (and grateful) for the perspective my kids bring to my life!

Things to write down

Occasionally I tell a story about my kids and people ask if I write these things down...that's what this blog is sometimes about!

Last Thursday, the kids were eating a very quick dinner between conferences and scout meetings, and we also had an extra little guest to help out a friend. JR mentioned that at school that day they had discussed "Mary" and "Johnna". I was perplexed. I asked JR to repeat again what he had said. He again repeated, "Mary" and "Johnna". I looked at him and asked, "Do you mean marijuana?" He excitedly replied that was it. I then said, "Please tell me that this was in DARE class." JR said that it was. JC then asked, "Who are they?" I so wish she could always stay that innocent!

Dulcimer concert

Tonight was the third grade dulcimer concert for JC at her school. She did a nice job and was very excited and pleased with herself. My sister, mother, and grandmother all made the trip down to watch. I'm very grateful for them coming down...it's a 40 minute trip and the weather is icky. I was also very proud of the boys for being good listeners at their sister's concert. My amazing kids are growing up so fast!

Busy as ever!

Things continue to be crazy here, but a good crazy I suppose! I spent two full days cleaning and scrubbing our house before the appraiser came yesterday. It felt good to have things really clean again, but it was definitely exhausting to tackle EVERY room of the house in two days. My parents came down Sunday evening for a quick visit and also brought additional supplies for the project I'm working on for my father in my "spare time"...which has quickly diminished the last couple of weeks between cleaning the house and all the days I've been subbing. He also mentioned that they would like to have it as quickly as I can get it to them. Yesterday, I was scheduled to work in the morning, and then had this vision of happily sitting on the couch yesterday afternoon, watching the pouring rain come down, as I was toiling away on the project. As soon as I got to school though, they asked if I could stay all day. I HATE to turn down the opportunity for the extra money, and I really, really enjoy subbing and getting to know the kids. So of course I said yes. My husband was wonderful yesterday. His school chose not to use yesterday as a make up day for all the "over" snow days we've used and so he was home and took complete charge of dinner and helped with the kids' homework. I was able to get another four hours in on the project, and I was really able to get a lot accomplished. Today I ran to the grocery, and I'll be babysitting this afternoon. Hopefully I'll also get a chance to work on the boys' scouts shirts because this Saturday is our annual banquet. We also have karate and girl scouts this evening and my wonderful husband has conferences so I'm soloing. We'll get through though, and I might even remember to breathe!

Feeling refreshed

A good night sleep was exactly what we all needed in this house, and generally speaking, I'm happy to report that's exactly what we all received. It's so nice to wake up and actually feel rested and not quite so overwhelmed by the day's events. And I'm sure that is also helped by the fact that there is nothing on our calendar today. We had some invitations but decided that our family needed time to re-connect and just relax, and I'm so glad we made that decision. Today there is lots and lots of cleaning and laundry to do, but with the sun shining so brightly even that seems like a pleasant task today!

Exhausted

It's been a long time since I've been this ready to crash on a Friday evening. This is the longest week we've had since I can't remember when...but I know it was years ago! The good news is that it was nothing terribly dramatic, just a whole bunch of things that needed to be accomplished. Even though we still have many things to get done this weekend, we have almost no scheduled plans and I'm really excited about that. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

So much to do...

...and so little time in which to do it! I've been wanting to post on here for days, but there just hasn't been the time to do so. I had a wonderful visit with my dear friend on Saturday. It had been so long since we had been able to visit with each other, and the fact that we spent the afternoon just the two of us made it even more special. Unfortunately, I started feeling ill on the way home, and totally screwed up our evening plans. My husband went ahead and took the kids to our friends' house for dinner anyway, and I stayed home on the couch. He brought the kids home around 9PM, and shortly after his parents called to tell us his great aunt had passed away. She was a very sweet lady and we will miss her greatly, but she was 93 and she'd told us before she'd had a good life. Sunday my husband took the kids to Sunday School and mass, then JR had his very first baseball camp. He had a great time! I think this will be a great experience for him. My husband was really glad to see that JR matched up well with the other kids in his grade level. Starting Monday, I've worked every day this week up until today, which is awesome! My husband left Monday evening to be with his family for the funeral Tuesday morning, and didn't get home until after bedtime Tuesday night. It was a tough adjustment for me to not only be soloing with the kids in the evenings, but to be a working mom during the day. In addition to all of this, I've been working a second job by doing a project for my dad's office. I'm feeling completely overwhelmed and fried right now, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to earn some extra money. Today I managed to finally make it to the grocery, and I'm also babysitting a friend's daughter this afternoon while continuing to work on the project again. This evening we have parent/teacher conferences and two scout meetings, and tomorrow I'm working at the school again. We had some invitations for the weekend, but we decided that we needed to stay home together as a family and not only get some things accomplished, but just kind of reconnect together. One other really nice thing has happened this week...it's actually been hitting 50 degrees! Loving the nice weather!

Same old, same old

Nothing exciting is happening here, and to be honest, that is perfectly fine with me. Some of our close friends here in town are having enough drama in their lives for all of us, and I'm happy to be able to support them "from the sidelines". Kids are still doing well in school, I've been working a little, it's still cold, although on the upside the sun is making more appearances and it might even hit 50 tomorrow! I'll take that for the middle of February! A very dear friend is visiting from out of town, and I can't wait to spend the afternoon with him. I've been looking forward to it for weeks. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Today

My husband and I are celebrating our anniversary today. I'm not a hugely romantic person...the thrifty, practical side of me often wins out when it comes to things such as that. For instance, my anniversary gift is the new love seat that we purchased and is being delivered today. Instead of a lovely romantic dinner out, we ate lunch out yesterday, while the kids were in school (meaning no $$$ for babysitting!) and ate at a place where we had a gift card. I know that some might think I'm a little "bah humbug" about the day, but that's not at all true. In many ways, just the opposite. I love my husband more than I can put into words, and I'm so blessed and grateful to share my life with him. I'm pretty sure he feels the same way. But the thing is, we tell each other this OFTEN. We don't wait until our anniversary or Valentine's Day or any other day to let each other know how important the other one is. Life isn't perfect, neither of us is perfect, our marriage isn't perfect. But ultimately, I get to share every day with my best friend, ups, downs, and everything in between. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND!

Maybe next year

So our Steelers came up a little short last night. Such is life. I had thought for about, uhm, 30 seconds, of letting the kids stay up until the end. After all, this doesn't happen every year, being able to cheer your team in the Super Bowl. So glad I didn't, since they couldn't quite pull it out in the end. I loved the fact that the game was close, and if I have to watch my team lose, there is literally not another team I would want to lose to...I really think the Packers deserve the championship. So football season has officially come to an end (as an aside, let's hope that the negotiators do a good job and get their rears in gear so that we can have another fun season next year), and now baseball players report in just 11 days!

The big game

Only about an hour until kick off for the Super Bowl! I've been feeling really lousy this weekend, so my wonderful husband took the kids and headed over to our friends where we were all supposed to watch the game, and I'm enjoying the quiet time. I feel like all I've really done all day is sleep, but I'm still happy to have the quiet house. We are all dressed in our Steeler clothes, and my in-laws even sent new ones in a package this week to make sure we were prepared. Being superstitious though, I'll wear my new one tomorrow...got to go with what has worked so far! I'm convinced this is going to be a great game. In fact, if the Packers were playing any of the other 30 teams in the NFL, I would probably be rooting for them. But I'm not...Go Steelers!

Still at home

Yep, we are home again, although my husband had to make the drive to his school district this morning. They were on a two hour delay so at least it was daylight when he had to drive over, and he called to let me know that he had arrived safely. Our school district closed about 9:00 last night, and I'm not sure really what to think about tomorrow...the roads are still very ice covered, and today's frigid temps aren't going to help much. I'm hopeful that there is nothing more than a 2 hour delay, because not only do I not treasure the thought of four days in a row, I am scheduled to work tomorrow. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the day brings though!

Ice, ice, baby!

We have been experiencing a major winter storm, although not the blizzard that is wreaking havoc on many parts of the country. Not to sound flippant, but I'm a little jealous of the blizzard folks with all of their snow. We had ICE. Lots, and lots, and a lot more, ice. No school yesterday or today, and frankly not terribly optimistic about tomorrow either. It started coming down as freezing rain Monday evening and everything was covered, but they kept telling us that wasn't the worst of it. I'll be honest, I didn't believe them. Sadly, they were indeed correct. It started again last evening, and was coming down even heavier. School was closed for the kids at 8:00, and our power went out just before 9. We put the kids to bed and bundled them up for a long, cold night. We were very lucky though, in that the power came back on at 1AM. During the night, the wind picked up, and many times during the night we were awakened by the sound of the frozen trees hitting the house. The strong winds have continued into today and now there are a few snow flurries. Apparently we could receive up to an inch of snow today, but the wind is supposed to subside by tonight. We are so grateful to have the power back on, and to be safe in our warm home!