Proud of my girl

One of the things I love about small towns is that we know LOTS of people, and in turn, LOTS of people know us.  For instance, last week at Thomas's basketball practice, I was talking to someone who works as an aide in the school.  I had been off that day, but she mentioned to me that Catherine had been in trouble at lunch and was weeping.  She said apparently Catherine had been throwing grapes during lunch, but was clearly remorseful for her actions.  When I got home, I mentioned to Catherine that it's a small town and that I heard someone had been in trouble at lunch.  Tears began to fill her eyes when she mentioned it was her.  I asked what had happened and she said that she had been throwing food.  I asked why, and she said that Tracy (name changed) was making fun of Catherine's friend Lexi because Lexi had to go to court involving a family situation.  Lexi was crying and Catherine told Tracy to stop, but when she wouldn't, Catherine threw grapes at her.  I'll be honest, my eyes began to tear up as well.  I hugged her and told her that I was SO proud that she stuck up for her friend.  I was so proud that had stood up to Tracy (who is well known to not be a nice person) but that in the future, she needed to find a different way to express herself.  Catherine was crying again and kept nodding.

And I meant what I said, I was SO PROUD of my girl for standing up for Lexi.  Don't get me wrong...Lexi is not exactly who I would choose for my daughter's friend, but I don't get to choose.  And NO ONE deserves to be treated meanly, especially over what is undoubtedly a painful family situation if the courts are involved.  With everything mean and awful that seems to happen in schools every day, I was so proud of Catherine for trying to make it stop.

Wedding video

Earlier this month, my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary.  About a week later, we decided to get out our wedding video and watch it.  The kids had never seen it, and I thought they would enjoy it.  It was really neat to watch it, and of course it brought back so many memories.  There were definitely some bittersweet parts.  At the time, my father didn't require oxygen 24/7.  And of course, we got to see some people who have passed on...my grandfather who died about 18 months after my wedding, my cousin Gary who died about three years ago, and several friends of my parents who are no longer with us.  At the same time, it was amazing to realize how much more I love my husband than I did that day.  Of course a wedding is fun (and I've been told by many that we threw a great party!), but it was just a day...our first day as husband and wife.  Now, all these years later, my husband and I have been through so much.  I'm very grateful for the fact that our good times outweigh our bad times what seems to be nine-to-one...and we are very blessed for it.  It made me proud of the life we've built together, and I'm also very grateful for the friends and family who help share our life with us!

A rest from our weekend is needed

We've had an absolutely exhausting weekend, although it certainly didn't start that way!  Friday was a great day!  We had an ice storm come through at exactly the right time and pretty much every school was shut down.  Andrew celebrated by walking the kids over to the little diner in town and having breakfast, and we all just kind of hung out for the day.  Yesterday my sister brought both of my grandmothers down to watch Catherine and Thomas play basketball.  Catherine had her best game of the season!  She received several comments that she had played so well.  Thomas also had a good game, but he had hurt his finger (more on that later) in practice on Thursday and was in a little bit of pain.  He had a really good steal right in front of us though, and we all enjoyed that.  In between the games we all went out to lunch, then after the games we headed north to my parent's house for dinner.  Dad is still really low on energy, but his spirits over all are pretty good.  My aunt joined us for a bit at dinner, and we also stopped by my cousin's house on the way home.  Everyone tumbled into bed last night to get some sleep before our day today.

This morning the Methodist church in town was having a pancake breakfast.  Andrew is committed to Sunday School at our church, and Robert is not "allowed" to miss his religious ed classes because next year is his confirmation year.  I took Catherine and Thomas to breakfast and then to the service at that church.  Upon returning home we decided to make a quick trip to urgent care to make sure Thomas's pinky finger wasn't broken.  We had discussed that there wasn't really much that could be done even if it was broken, but yesterday a friend had told us about her son.  His finger was broken and they hadn't done anything about it for over a month...of course now he's having surgery to fix the damage!  As it turns out, the pinky is not broken, just severely sprained.  It turned into a 3 hour and 45 minute trip to urgent care, and it completely screwed up the plans for the rest of our day.  In the meantime, after Mass at our regular church, Andrew took Robert to his baseball hitting camp and then straight to his two hour baseball practice.

All-in-all, it's been a very long couple of days.  I know that this is really only the beginning, and I know that people keep telling me I'm going to miss it.  Seems hard to believe, but I do know that I don't want to wish life away!

He's on his way home

Just talked to Mom, and she is on her way to the hospital to get Dad.  Hopefully, that , combined with the fact that I will most likely not work tomorrow due to parent teacher conferences, means I'll be able to sleep well tonight!!!!

Not sleeping

Last night was another night of not being able to sleep.  The really strange thing is that I don't even feel tired right now, although I'm scheduled to be work in first grade this afternoon so that's bound to change quickly!  I just couldn't fall asleep last night.  I tried all of my normal relaxation tips, but nothing seemed to work.  This morning when Andrew's alarm went off, I was awake for another hour because I couldn't fall back to sleep (that was aided by some cats not getting along so well), and then I still woke up before my alarm went off.  I just can't help but feel unsettled and I'm not entirely sure I know why, although Dad being in the hospital might have something to do with it.  There is also just something about this time of year...February has just never been a fun month!

It's almost eerie

Two years ago, I wrote about my father being ill and how I was convinced I sensed it, even before I knew.  It's eerie, but sometimes, I really think I just know.  For instance, I didn't sleep well at all last night.  For absolutely no reason, my mind was racing and I felt jittery.  At times it even felt as though my heart was pounding.  I was somewhat grateful to be off work today, although when I look at the scouting camps and select baseball fees, I'm well aware that I NEED to work.  I decided that this would be a very good day to really dive into a project I've been working on for my father.  When my dad's days at the company are over, so are this work-from-home gig, and I just felt a sense that I needed to get to work...and of course the kids' activity bills are also a reminder!  Anyway, my mom called mid-morning to discuss our dinner plans for Saturday, and then mentioned nonchalantly that Dad was in the e/r.  He'd been experiencing a rapid heart rate since yesterday, and although the rest of his vital signs appear to be good, they are keeping him for observation given all of his other health issues.  Yes again, I just couldn't help but feel that somehow I just knew something was wrong with my dad.  Hopefully though, the next 24 hours will bring good news!

Another week in the books

Another week has just flown by.  We had a total of one quiet evening last week, and when I mean quiet I really only mean that no one had any place specific to be that evening, but we still had plenty of things to do!  Monday evening Catherine had scouts and Thomas had basketball practice.  Tuesday was our one evening free.  Wednesday I had my day all planned to do some shopping and get some specific items I'd been searching for, but of course I got called into work, literally at the last minute.  That meant that I wasn't able to pick Robert up from school, and he had to spend the afternoon/early evening at an academic challenge meet with his dad.  Andrew has agreed to help out with this group because their regular adviser has been very ill.  Thursday was supposed to be a day where I was off and able to get some things done.  Instead, I spent the morning with Catherine at the doctor, because she has a virus on her hand it was very swollen and starting to turn purple.  I was able to run a quick errand, but as I was returning to town I was texted by a friend asking if I could help out at school.  I spent the next two hours at school with her working on preparing and delivering Valentine's cards for classes.  My mom came down that afternoon, and when Catherine and Thomas were done with school, we headed to my husband's school.  He had parent teacher conferences that evening, so we picked Robert up and ate dinner before dropping him back at the school for his band concert.  I was really impressed with how nice they sounded!  Andrew and Robert didn't have school Friday, but I had to work.  Lots of sugared up kids running around!  That evening Andrew and I finally took an opportunity to go out to dinner, just the two of us. We were looking forward to a belated Valentine's Day dinner, and while we very much enjoyed dinner, the fact that we had both come down with colds dampened the fun a bit.  Yesterday we decided that Robert was going to skip his scout hike in the morning so we were all able to sleep in!  Catherine and Thomas had basketball games in the afternoon, then we had to quickly get ready for Thomas's blue & gold banquet for scouts.  Our friends picked up Robert and took him to church with them, then we met up afterwards for the jr. high quiz bowl at this church.  Our junior high students brought home the trophy!  Today has been Sunday School, Mass, baseball camp, baseball practice, and a girl scout function.  THANK GOODNESS there is no school for anyone tomorrow...we need another day to try to get rid of these colds!

I'm pretty sure I understand why I'm so tired, but I'm so grateful for all of these opportunities!