Draft weekend

Andrew and Thomas have been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time.  The draft is in Pittsburgh, and the guys have gone over to partake.  They left last night after Andrew finished parent conferences so they weren't at the first round.  But, they have spent the day in the city today doing draft things, they are at the draft tonight, and they'll be in the city again tomorrow before heading home on Sunday.

Honestly, I've been looking forward to this weekend as well.  Since it isn't fair to the dog to be alone for an entire day, I stay home with Janey.  This means I don't have to leave the house if I don't want to!  I can get the house picked up, and maybe even doing some photo digitizing.  I can also sleep as much as I want!  I'm very excited about a weekend with no obligations...other than making sure Janey gets four walks a day!

Right now we are receiving a soaking rain which makes it even more lovely to just get to hang out at home.  It's bringing a cool front through, and I'm happy that we won't be having more 80's right now.  Have I mentioned our house stinks?  I'm not going to get into it, but we need to be able to leave the house open to air out, so cooler weather is beneficial.  And tomorrow it is supposed to be very cold, and I'm so very excited about that!

We have 18 days of school remaining.  It's hard to fathom that I have to tolerate some of these parents for another 18 schools days.  It's also a little hard to believe that in four weeks it will be Memorial Day weekend.  I am 100% not sad about seeing this school year come to an end.

What a week!

This was a heck of a week.  Andrew regained his voice by the end of the week, so we are grateful for that.  He also had cataract surgery Thursday morning.  We are very grateful that also went well.  He jokes that he will be going back to work tomorrow as a whole new person!  Having some extra time off has helped him to get ahead on the classes he'll be teaching next year, but that is a post of its own.

Thomas also managed to land himself in the hospital Thursday evening.  We aren't entirely certain exactly what happened, but our best guess is that there was a medicine interaction that proved problematic.  His system is just sensitive and fragile.  We left to drive the hour to the hospital and got there at 9:30 Thursday night, then I had to drive the hour home and let the dog out, thinking I'd be going back in the morning, but Thomas ended up being released and I was on my way back up in the middle of the night, so it was 3am before I was in bed.  I went to work later in the day than normal, but needed to make sure I got there because we had to fire a teacher that day.  That was just a really long two days.  Holy moly.

The good news is that Thomas is doing okay, and Andrew and I were able to meet him and Lyndi for dinner this evening.  Yesterday, Andrew and I made a trip to Columbus to visit our friends we hadn't seen since last summer.  It was such a needed visit, although the two hour trip each way was an exhausting drive.

Today before dinner, I spent the day at my mom's working on her house.  It was a actually a little bit fun as we came across some old memories and things we had forgotten about.  Next week Andrew will be gone all weekend, and I'm looking forward to getting some pictures digitized and organized.

I'm exhausted and we are headed into the busiest part of the school year.  But, there are only 23 more school days to go, and then we are going to have a wonderfully carefree summer!

This past week

Andrew's mom went home today.  I miss her already!  I so wished she lived closer, but then if she did she wouldn't need to stay here for long visits, and I love having her.  At the same time, I'm always ready to regain my space after her visit.

Andrew ended up being sick all week.  He has completely lost his voice.  There is absolutely nothing there.  This is day five, and part of him is panicking.  He went back to urgent care, but it seems to still be just a virus.  He feels so much better, but the voice is not returning at all.  As someone who totally relies on his voice for his job, he is growing concerned.  I suspect it he just needs some more time.  

Catherine has also been sick this weekend.  Everyone was going to come over for dinner, but we didn't want her to share her germs, and she didn't need to be exposed to Andrew's germs either.  Thomas and Lyndi did come over and spend the night.  We ordered some food and had a blast (pun!!) watching Artemis splash down.  I love sharing historical events with my kids, and especially Thomas.

We are down to 28 days of school to go.  Can't wait for summer!

Easter 2026

Today was a very nice day, in spite of Andrew being sick.  He started running a fever last night, and felt lousy.  I slept in a different room.  Today he has not had much of a fever, but his throat really hurts and he is achy.  The rapid test came back negative, so they are doing the throat culture but are treating it as just a virus and he'll have to ride it out.

My mom and the kids were here.  Fortunately, we were having a fairly simply meal, so Andrew being unavailable didn't really affect anything.  My cleaning is a different story, but I still got it done.  None of us slept overly well last night, and I suspect it will be an early night tonight.

It's a chilly day, and although cloudy earlier, the sun came out laster in the day.  It feels like the "official" beginning of spring now.  I'm so grateful that our family spent the day together, I'm so grateful I took lots of pictures, and I'm so grateful that the house is mostly cleaned up and put back together!  Tomorrow is another day off as well.  So grateful.

The Easter baskets are ready

Easter is happening here tomorrow.  If I'm totally honest, this holiday has always been a struggle for me.  We never particularly had set traditions as a kid, although as I became a teenager we always spent the holiday with my Dad's side.  Because my family wasn't religious, it was just more of a "whatever" holiday.

When I got married, it generally made more sense to spend the holiday with my in-laws.  After all, they are very religious.  At the same time, there were years when that caused resentment because sometimes I wanted to be with my family, or just not have to travel.  Now, my MIL, whom I adore, comes and spends a week or two with us each year for Easter.  It's still tough to balance my MIL's religious devotion with my mother's anti-religious feelings. 

And now our kids are on their own.  Thomas and Lyndi have her side to visit as well, and Catherine and Zeke just kind of "do" whatever.  I was never good about coloring eggs or doing egg hunts when the kids were little so it's not like we are missing any traditions in that regard, but I do still miss them being little.

Life feels really, really heavy right now, but I'm grateful for a few days of quiet and peace!

Listening to a Cincinnati legend

A couple of weeks ago, that Marty Brennaman, the very long-time announcer of the Cincinnati Reds, was doing a fundraiser and speaking at the high school in the next community over.  I find these kinds of events are normally way over-priced, but this was very reasonable.  Andrew agreed it sounded like fun so I purchased two tickets.  I was sure it would be packed, but there were only about 70 people in attendance.  He talked for nearly an hour and then answered questions for another 30 minutes.  We had such a good time!  He talked about how his favorite team was the 1990 Reds that went wire-to-wire (the first team in MLB history to do so), and he talked about his many, many years announcing with Joe Nuxhall, he talked about the Griffeys, and so many other wonderful things.  In some ways, being that close to him was a life-long dream come true.  I'm so grateful that Andrew is a big baseball fan, and I'm so very glad that he became a Reds fan.  It was such a great evening!

It's time to go back to work again

My week of being sick...I mean, my week off (hmph) has come to an end.  I didn't start functioning until Tuesday, and I didn't actually feel well until Thursday evening.  I'm trying to be grateful that I wasn't supposed to be working while I was so icky, but there is a small part of me that is a little bitter that my week wasn't as productive as I had hoped it would be.  Andrew's mom arrives on Tuesday, so I'll be spending tomorrow evening doing LOTS of housework.

One thing I did manage was to see my grandmother both on Tuesday and again this afternoon.  I'll be honest, it's really awful seeing her this way.  She isn't suffering greatly, but this is never how she would want to be living her life.  This isn't really her.  She will be much happier when she is reunited with my grandfather and my dad.

Only 36 more days of school.  We can do this!