A happy accident

Last weekend, I texted our good friends and asked if they were available the middle of March to have dinner.  It's been since early January that we were able to hang out.  No one responded, and I was just moving on with things.  Last night, our good friend pointed out that our dear friend in KC. MO was part of that group and jokingly suggested we meet in western IL for dinner.  She actually responded that she could do that, and we have three rooms booked for a night in the middle of March for dinner and hanging out on a Saturday night.  It will be about a four hour drive for us.  It will be so great to hang out together, even if only for about 18 hours!  What a blessing, and what an wonderfully happy accident!

I need more daylight and sunshine

We are reaching the time of year where I'm really starting to need more daylight and definitely needing sunshine.  My motivation in the evenings has completely tanked.  I feel like I just come home and do absolutely nothing.  It doesn't help that our work is exploding again.  I'm so tired of parents who are being so incredibly difficult.  They are being completely unreasonable, but our enrollment is down, and we need the students.  I know I'm taking it more personally than I should, because my head just needs a pick-me-up.  In a couple of weeks, our time change will have happened and I'm hoping that helps my mood. 

In 85 days it will be the last day of school.  This year, more than any other, it is much needed!

It's almost jelly bean season

As we are six weeks away from Easter, I have realized that it is almost time for jelly bean season.  Yum!  I love jelly beans.  Totally not healthy, but I love jelly beans!

Another sign that the end of winter is nearing is the fact that the Reds spring training game was on TV yesterday.  I didn't get to watch much, but it was on!  We have already purchased our season package so we'll have access to watch the games.  Yes, spring is just around the corner!

Today was a busy day with lots of family.  I spent most of the day at my mom's as we continue to try to get her house together.  I brought home a bunch of photos from my childhood and can't wait to get them digitized.  Most of them I don't recall seeing before.  It's been fun looking through them.  When I got home, Thomas and Lyndi had come by.  Thomas hadn't met our sweet Janey girl yet, and they were thrilled to meet each other.  Andrew had decided to make meatloaf for dinner and they decided to stay.  It was lovely having them here for a while.  I enjoy being an empty-nester, but I miss my kiddos.

Six days left in February!  It will be a busy week and an incredibly busy weekend next weekend, but then it's March!

This week has felt heavy

Earlier this week, there was a murder in my hometown.  It appeared to be a random home invasion.  To be honest, things seemed odd from the start, and I mentioned to Andrew that I couldn't remember the last time there was a killing in my hometown that didn't involve the deceased knowing their killer.  And sadly, this is no exception.  Her husband has been charged with the murder.  There are now two little girls who have lost both parents.  It is truly tragic.

There is also a local young woman whose story I follow.  She has a chronic autoimmune disease, but has accomplished amazing things, but right now she needs to fight again.  So many prayers for all of these situations.

I've been taking our pup over to our neighbor's house so she can run around her yard.  Our neighbor passed away right after Christmas, and her daughter is my co-worker and friend.  I miss her so much.  I've realized that I haven't allowed myself to be sad because it is really her daughter's grief.  But that doesn't mean I'm not sad about it.  And Lent started this week, which is not meant to be a celebratory time, so there's that.  And if I'm being honest, there are emotions about being empty nesters, somewhat unexpectedly.  But I don't really have time to think about that because Andrew and I are swamped.

Truly things, are fine.  I know that, and as the days get longer it helps to alleviate sadness.  But I have to be honest, things have felt heavy.  It will feel better soon, I'm sure.

Another long weekend comes to an end

Monday evening and time to go back to work tomorrow.  I'm ready.  As longer days come around, it's easier not to feel as though my day is over as soon as I get home.  I might have also counted and realized that we have 60 school days remaining this year. 😁

Our weekend was fun overall.  On Friday, I slept in and spent the day picking up the house.  We had frozen pizza for dinner and watched Olympics.  Andrew had to work most of the day Saturday, and I spent the day working at my mom's house.  My sister and I were able to get some furniture cleaned and moved around.  I also made a visit over to my grandmother.  I'll be honest, it's a little heartbreaking to see her like she is.  She just lies in bed all day.  She doesn't really know what day, or even what month or what season it is.  When they brought dinner, she wasn't sure what meal it was.  Grandma was "with it" for about 92 years, and it's hard to see how much it has changed.  Andrew and I spent the evening with soup for dinner and watching a movie.  Not a very exciting Valentine's Day, but not our least exciting either!

Yesterday was our day to celebrate our love...a combined anniversary and Valentine's day.  I slept in much later than I even thought possible.  We left early afternoon as I wanted to do some antiquing before our incredible dinner.  It was kind of disappointing that only one of the shops we wanted to visit was open, and we had hoped to hit a wine store after, but it closed early.  Our dinner was delicious, but holy moly, the prices!  I'm accustomed to paying for fine dining, but this was a lot more than I expected to pay, and that was before we added the tip.  Yikes!  Andrew had wondered why we don't eat there more often because we love it so much, and I pointed out that would be why!

Today was a productive day of working in the garage and accomplishing a few other things.  Life with children around is certainly uneventful.  I read back over my years of posting and there was often something funny to write about or at least a lot happening, but now it's just about Andrew and I and the boring lives we lead.  That's okay though.  Boring is better than dramatic!

The beginning of our four day weekend

It is always a treat to be at the very beginning of a long weekend!  Woohoo!!

I have to be honest, this has been a heavy week.  I've been incredibly emotional.  I was watching figure skating the other day, and the American man who lost both parents in the big plane crash was skating.  After watching, my emotions were so out of whack and I felt inconsolable.  I recognize I have some grief I've been holding onto.  And the emotions about our world are even heavier.  I've become more involved in our community with serving meals, and Andrew has been at the homeless shelter a few times.  I don't really understand how this is all okay.

And James Van Der Beek passed away yesterday.  I was truly so sad to see that.  He had six young kids, and was so young himself.  Although I was in my 20's when Dawson's Creek was on TV, it was so impactful.  You can't grow up in a small town with the same set of people and not have drama.  That is the way it works.

Andrew is at a meeting this evening and I'm enjoying some quiet.  And I hope to relax and take in every second of this amazing long weekend!

Another wedding anniversary

Today is another wedding anniversary for Andrew and me.  I'm ALWAYS grateful for the man I married and the life we created together, but it is fun to have a day where we can say it over and over again!  Since today is the Super Bowl, we decided we would go out next Sunday.  With Saturday being Valentine's, we decided to try for Sunday since we'll have that Monday off work.  Today consisted of church commitments, watching the Olympics all day, exchanging cards, and then watching the game we absolutely don't care about, but eating fun "game" foods for dinner.

This week's temps might actually be normal, and no school Friday.  It's always awesome to have a four day weekend.  Life feels so very blessed.

Our fourth full day of parenting

Twenty years ago today, I woke up feeling absolutely miserable.  My in-laws were leaving, and since it was Super Bowl weekend (and the Steelers were playing), extending their stay wasn't an option.  As a sports fan, I get it.  I was able to get into the doctor before they left, and he confirmed I was definitely sick.  When I got home, I started my antibiotics, and then I called my mom and told her she was going to need to come down to help with dinner because I was sick and needed to be in bed.  There was no way Andrew could handle dinner by himself when it had taken the four adults in the house to accomplish it up to that point.  My mom agreed to come and help, and I told her to bring Aunt Cathy with her.  Dad was already sick, and I couldn't take the chance to expose him to my germs.  It was bad enough my mom could possibly carry germs home, but we were desperate!  I know that Aunt Cathy was thrilled to come down and be helpful, because that is exactly who she was.  She loved her family deeply, and was especially happy to spend time with the youngest family members.

This is the end of the really crazy beginning, but I'll probably tell several more "Twenty years ago" stories throughout the year.  It's why I was asked to teach at our adoption agency for many years talking about our first year!

Day three of parenting

Twwenty years ago today was our third full day of parenting and it began very early...at 6am when we could hear a child vomiting in the bathroom.  It was Robert.  He said he hadn't felt well and the mentioned he had told us that Nonie's dinner was going to make him sick!  It was awful.  After we got him and things cleaned up, Andrew and I stood in the bathroom clinging to each other and crying, thinking we had ruined our lives.  I know that sounds ridiculous and dramatic, but we were completely exhausted.  When Thomas awoke, it was time to give him the suppository so we could give him his medication.  I opened the fridge, and the suppositories were no where to be found!  It turns out, the way they were wrapped made Robert think they were candy, and he had eaten them.  I had to call the doctor not only to make sure Robert would be okay, but to request that we receive more suppositories.  The doctor wanted to give me a bit of a lecture on medicine safety, but I pointed out that it needed to be refrigerated.  I know the staff was getting a kick out of our story!  Wowzers!

That afternoon we registered our children for school.  Robert was in Kindergarten, and because Catherine had an IEP, she qualified for the public school special needs preschool program.  That evening, my sweet MIL made us another dinner, and they would be leaving in the morning.  Meanwhile, I was starting to feel quite poorly, but day four is tomorrow's story!

The next day of parenting

When we had taken Thomas to the hospital, they had explained to us that he had an upper respiratory infection and and needed to be seen by his primary physician.  Given that we'd been parents for about 12 hours, we didn't have one, and didn't really have the capability of finding one.  Our doctor treated children and we were fine with it.  We weren't entirely certain how we were going to get him to the doctor as the day before it had taken us all day to get the kids dressed, bathed, and fed.  Looking back that wasn't entirely true, as there were grocery trips and naps involved as well.

Since my in-laws had arrived, they were going to keep the older kids while we took Thomas.  Sure enough, an antibiotic was given, and Andrew picked it up at the cute little small-town pharmacy that was two blocks away.  We gave the dose to Thomas, and it immediately all came back up just as his foster mother had warned us would probably happen.  I called the doctor, and he explained that was a "learned" reaction rather than an allergy, and sent us to get another prescription.  Of suppositories.  Oh boy.  That first time it took three of us to get the suppository in.  This was all literally the first 36 hours of parenting!

Things began to settle in the afternoon. My MIL made a roast for dinner and it was nice to have a home cooked meal.  Robert complained and told us that he didn't like the roast and he shouldn't eat it.  That will come into play about 12 hours later, as this story continues into the next day.  The adoption worker came for her first visit, and twenty years ago today we had survived our second full day of parenting.

Always glad when that is over

Today was our annual meeting at the church.  It is always the least favorite Sunday of the entire year for me.  When I first started in this role, there was a couple there who made it their mission to point out any errors that were made or to question just about everything, and it was questioned in a tone that made it feel like we hadn't done our jobs correctly.  There was also to be a new church constitution voted on, and there were some people unhappy about that.  Overall though, it was very positive and I'm pleased with how it went.  I wasn't at all sad when it was postponed from last week due to the snow storm, but I sure am glad to have that finished for another year!

Our first full day of parenting

I am going to share our first full day of parenting.  Andrew and I had finally gone to bed about 2:00am.  Our bodies were still on west coast time!  Thomas was struggling with the asthma a bit, and we knew we needed to check on him every two hours or so.  I finally fell asleep sometime between 2:30 & 3.  I awoke  around 4 to check on Thomas, and knew he needed a nebulizer treatment.  About 1/2 hour later, I woke Andrew because I was pretty sure we needed to take him to the hospital.  Oh boy, here we go!  I called my mom around 5am because we didn't want to wake the other kids.  She needed to shower and dress, and then it was a 45 minute drive to out house.  We were finally on our way out the door at 6:30 and at the hospital by 7.  I was horrified that Robert and Catherine were going to wake up the very first morning with their new parents and we weren't going to be there!

I vividly remember how kind everyone was at the hospital.  We went to the nearest hospital because this did not require a specific children's hospital.  And of course, we pretty much couldn't answer a single question they asked of us because we had only been responsible for parenting him for about 12 hours!   Truly though, they were so kind and helpful, and gratefully, we were back home a little after 9am.  Because the kids were also still on west coast time, they were still asleep when we got home. 

My mom left shortly after the kids awoke, and it was then we realized how many things we didn't have that we needed, including diapers!  I volunteered (or ran out the door, haha) to go to the grocery, leaving my poor, sweet hubby at home with all three kiddos.  The house was a disaster.  The kids had taken every box of toys and toys on the shelves and dumped absolutely everything on to the floor.  Our dear neighbors called and wanted to come over and meet the kids.  At first Andrew refused, but then realized they had raised five children and could probably be helpful!  They came over and kept an eye on the kids while Andrew got some food made, and even cleared a path through our home so we could walk.  

Andrew's parents were scheduled to arrive late afternoon.  Thankfully, they were staying at a bed & breakfast in town and not with us at the house!  They called and mentioned they were stopping to do some shopping, and Andrew begged them not to...we needed help!  I'll never forget them walking in and being so excited to see the kids (Thomas was napping).  Shortly after arrival, they offered to let Andrew and I take a nap.  BEST OFFER EVER!

I remember coming down the stairs after napping and my FIL asking what was for dinner.  My response was to ask what he was going to go get us.  It had taken us all day to get the kids bathed and dressed and eating breakfast and lunch.  I.  Was. Done.  We finally fell into bed that evening, but there was more to come in the next few days!