Happy Leap Day!

It only comes around once every four years and this is my first one as a blogger.  For the most part, it was just another day.

I did get up and run before school today...that was a first in several months.  It felt good and I am easing back into it.  I have been running on the weekends and am now working on getting back to it during the week too!

My kindergartners got to enjoy some GUM today, since Leap Day doesn't come around very often.  Their teacher let them do something that they never get to do, since it was such a special day! :)

My second graders enjoyed a Dr. Seuss Leap Day (and I'm sure that there will be more celebrating in the other grades as the week continues!)

My classmates breezed through their presentations and then my professor breezed through her lesson tonight, which resulted in getting home at an earlier time tonight. Woo-hoo!

Luke has been asking each morning to go see Baby Kyle (instead of going to school), since our recent visit this weekend.  I'm not exactly sure if Baby Kyle is really the big draw or if it's the idea of seeing Uncle Neil and Aunt Beth and being able to visit their farm, basement, chickens, and swings that is actually the bigger draw (even though this isn't verbalized!)  Don't get me wrong, he loves Baby Kyle and he likes to say "I love Baby Kyle and Lucy", but I haven't seen him pay him THAT much attention to him as of yet either.

I can't say that life has been super exciting as of late, but it has been good for it to just be normal. :)

Hope your Leap Day was nice too!

2012 Book #2

I finished reading The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult last week.

It was okay.  Not one of my favorites of hers.  I borrowed it from the shelf in the teachers' workroom at school because I usually enjoy her books.  The comic book artwork in between each chapter was okay, but not my cup of tea.  The storyline itself was fairly predictable (maybe I've read too many of her books now...) and I had most parts of the ending figured out before I got there.  If you've been reading hear for awhile, you know I prefer most of my reading to be stories or biographish books that "make me think" rather than reading "fluff" or books that I can guess the ending of long before I get to it (because once I start a book...I have to finish it and it makes it seem to take that much longer when I think I have it figured out already.) Like I said, I thought this book was just okay...sorry for the random/"just okay"ish blog post about it. :)

Welcome to the World!

It's a girl BOY, my nephew! :)

Kyle Anthony

Congrats to my sister, Beth, and her husband, Neil, and the newest big sister, Lucy!

After 5 beautiful nieces on my side, I've got a nephew and Luke has a boy to join in the fun (well in a few years anyway ;)

Grand Total:  7 Nieces, 2 Nephews

(And, of course, as I have once again decided...I have the cutest nieces & nephews around! :)

We love you, Kyle, and can't wait to get to know you as you grow!

Welcome to our world!

A Good Dad!

Today is Valentine's Day and I did not get flowers today, but I did get something even better...a reminder of why I married him in the first place!

We finally got some snow today (about an inch), but the irony was that there was supposed to be a high of 38 degrees today so I knew that it would all be melted before we all ever even got back home to even enjoy it. :(

So I mentioned to Scott that maybe he could give Luke a ride in his sled since it might be his only chance with the way this winter is going.  He happily agreed to it and so before Scott fed all of the animals and while I loaded up the car, Luke got a ride around the yard in his brand new sled.

Yes, it may have only lasted a matter of minutes, but the smile on Luke's face said it all-pure joy!

What a good dad! :)

A Dream

Growing up, my sisters and I took piano lessons.  They began after I broke my arm during the summer before 5th grade.  Mom had heard that it would be a good way to keep the muscles in my arm strong while the bone was healing.  The bone eventually healed itself, the cast came off, but the lessons continued well on into high school.  I didn't always enjoy (or appreciate it for that matter), but looking back, I am so glad to have had it because nowadays there isn't much that compares to being able to sit down and play an old favorite on my piano.

Somewhere around junior high, my mom started throwing out a "wouldn't it be nice if one you girls could play the organ at church?" from time to time.  Maybe it's the "duty boundedness" or "people pleasing" traits of being the first born, but at some point I expressed interest in this.  My mom hooked me up with a lady for lessons and I learned a song or two.  And, eventually, I tried playing at a Saturday night mass.  Add nerves to trying to play with a singer, plus add in a bunch of other voices (several singing at their own rates) in the congregation and it was too much for my little perfectionisty brain to handle. I don't really remember if the song went that bad or not, but what I do remember is a feeling of never wanting to do that again!  It was too much.  And when neither of my sisters tried after that, well, there went mom's dream too.  Or has it...

Many years later, I have found myself a member of a smaller parish with a smaller parish family.  Instead of multiple organists, we now only have two.  One of whom is one of very best friends.  I have watched these two ladies in recent months struggle with having to split a very busy schedule of Masses between themselves while thinking...maybe I can help.  When they asked for anyone who could help with music for Masses in anyway, I stepped forward to at the very least try!  I learned the chords (not knowing my chords by letter name has been part of my hang up until recently) for two songs and made my debut this morning.

The first song...well, let's just say...meh.  I was not pleased.  I had been practicing it faster at home than people were wanting to sing it and then I let my brain get involved.  That is the first rule of playing for me-don't let my mind get involved, just let my hands do what they need to do, but my brain started thinking about it and then my fingers couldn't seem to find the right chords.  I think I managed to keep the melody going most of the time, but there were several gaps and just out right wrong notes. UGH!

The second song went much better.  I kept my mind at bay and let the fingers do the playing on their own and somehow the singing matched up with how I had practiced at home! Yippee! :)  I was much more pleased!

So, it is going to take quite a bit of getting used to, but being older and wiser now, I am not giving up just yet!  It will take some time and patience and if after several attempts, I don't feel it getting better, well then, we'll see.  But for now, I will keep trying and maybe mom will get an "organ" player just yet. ;)

Today's Random List of Events

*This morning...I was perturbed to hear the radio guy talking about the weather.  He reported that areas to the north of us received between 2-10 inches of snow.  Then he had the gall to say that our area was LUCKY to have only received a dusting of snow.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Bring It!  I (er, I mean Luke) want some snow!  Just dump it on us already.  The sled from Santa, snowsuit from grandma, and snow tube from Aunt Beth are all feeling quite neglected this winter and a dusting of snow is just CRAP!  Ugh, that weather guy...

*This morning...was also quite COLD, but I bundled myself up and headed out to the 5K in town that I had signed up for awhile back.  I am proud to say that I have now (finally) completed my first official 5K by running the entire thing.  Now my time was not the greatest-36:30, but I am still so proud of that time!  Why? See the next bullet for that answer :)

*We will make it!  Every single one of us here in the Faith, Hope & Poop household was knocked out by the flu during the course of the week.  It struck Scott on Saturday (at this point he still thought it was just the beginnings of the cold Luke came down with during the previous week), but by Sunday Scott had developed a fever with it and stayed home while Luke and I went to help grandpa celebrate his birthday (still thinking it was just a bad cold.)  On Monday morning, Luke woke up with a fever (& we figured out that this was indeed something different) and he stayed home with Scott (who worked from home) so they could rest together.  By the time I made it home from school that day, I was 99% sure that I had a fever as well and sure enough, I did. Tuesday brought Scott feeling better just weak and he decided to work from home another day, as well as, watch over us other two sickies.  Wednesday brought Scott going back to work and Luke trying to go back to school with me staying home to make sure that my fever was actually gone for good and to rest.  I did go to class that night, but by the time I got home, my fever did rare its ugly head again for a couple of hours.  Thursday brought Luke and I heading back to school together, but then leaving just a few hours later due to his fever having returned.  Friday brought my first full day back to work, since Monday and Scott once again working from home to stay home with Luke (who seemed to be feeling much better for most of the day according to his dad.)  It was a LONG week and we all took very good care of each other!  Unfortunately, the little guy has still been very worn out from all of it..he's been sleeping 12 hours each night 6:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. along with a 1-2 hour nap during the day too.  This child NEVER sleeps this much...he's a tired little dude!

*If you were keeping a running total there, then you know Luke only made it 1 1/2 days of school, Scott made it out of the house for work 2 days, and I was the grand winner with 2 1/2 days of work.  Yes, technically, Scott was the only one who worked every single day, but we're talking about actually having to get yourself showered and changed here people! :)  We've had quite a bit of quality time together, maybe not quite your Christmas break type of quality time, but in some respects it was kind of nice because we didn't have to worry about parties, plans, gifts, etc just being with each other and getting well.  (Lots of naps helped too!)  It will be fabulous to get back into routine next week though! (AND stay healthy too, hopefully!)

*Luke and I did remember to call our dear girl, Rachel, on Thursday too!  Even though, he insisted that she "doesn't talk" when I asked him if he wanted to call her, I knew better!  And talk she did.  Now it may only have been "yes" to each question I asked her, but that "yes" is one of the sounds I most cherish (as I know her mom and dad do as well.)  This child who was only guaranteed a 50% chance of even surviving after birth is a walking, TALKING miracle and her smile is more precious than gold!  Made even better by the fact that she smiles almost all of the time too!
Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Girl!  Can't believe you're such a big girl like your sisters now! :)

*Stay tuned for a report about a long time dream of my mother's attempting to come true tomorrow!

65

My dad turned 65 yesterday!

I can't quite believe it...it seems hard to wrap my brain around that.  Of course, many people would never guess that he is that age because he doesn't look it and he doesn't act "old."  It does for some strange reason, however, make me feel old. :)

It was nice getting to celebrate with him, my mom, and my sisters' and their families.  I hope we get to do that for many, many more years to come!

Happy Birthday Dad!