Not much to report

There is not much to report lately.  And that is really it. 

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Good food with the family.  My mom made a turkey and all of the trimmings.  They were great!  And there were so many.  After dinner and a walk around the neighborhood, the rest of the fam came over (we were only missing Emily...boooo), and we had some great pies.  I tried my hand at lemon meringue.  It was fine, but not like grandma's.  I will keep working on it and hope to find a recipe that I like. 

The rest of the weekend was nice.  We saw some family we don't get to see very often on Friday.  It is always nice to see them.  I also was able to pick out a couple more of my grandma's Christmas ornaments.  I will really enjoy seeing them on our tree this year.  Chuck put up the Christmas lights and I decorated the inside of the house.  And lots of relaxing.  Lots and lots of relaxing.  It was well needed.

I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to going back to work on Monday.  It is only a short busy stretch until Christmas, so I think I can handle it.  Which I guess means I should tell you what I have been up to regarding Christmas....

I am organized.  I mean really organized.  Sometimes I might go a little overboard.  My current lists look like this:  I have a list that has every person and what I would like to get them for Christmas (I know, not unusual).  It includes absolutely everybody I can think of:  bus drivers, aides, mailcarrier.  I try to be extremely thorough.  I have a list of things that I need to do everyday between now and Christmas.  Every appointment, lesson, shopping trip, program, or other event.  Listed, by the hour.  This may be overkill, but it keeps me sane.  I also have them highlighted in different colors based on the type of event it is.  Then I have the store lists.  All gifts broken down by stores.  And the order in which we have to go to them.  That way if I don't get things at one store, I have the possibility of going to another store without having to backtrack.  I hate to backtrack.  I have a list of things to order online, too.  And time set aside to do it.  Sadly, this is what I need to do in order to get through the season.

The thing is, Christmas sort of stresses me out.  Once the shopping is done, the baking is done, the cards are sent, and everything is wrapped, then I can enjoy.  So I need to get through to shopping and the cards and the baking and the wrapping.  This helps me do it.  The shopping is the toughest.  I mentally prepare myself for months (I'm not kidding), months to get ready.  That way I can get in, get what I need, and get out.  I spend a lot of time thinking about what to get people, so I am not one to look around.  This year I am more organized than ever.  And hopefully it will be the most stress free Christmas season ever.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love spending time with family, eating good food, and not having to worry about the stress of "did I get the right gift".  And I have a lot to be thankful for:

I am thankful for my family.  I have an amazing husband who is a great dad and a great husband.  He works hard for our family and picks up the slack around the house when I don't get things done. I have amazing children who are kind and thoughtful and super fun.  Calah and Gabe have blessed my life in ways I didn't know possible.

I am thankful for brothers, sisters, and in-laws who are great friends in addition to being family.  I am thankful for nieces and nephews who are adorable and fun to watch grow.  I am thankful for my mom and dad and all the support and love they have given me every day of my life.  I am thankful for a mother-in-law for raising such a wonderful man that I have had the privilege of marrying.  I am thankful to have grandparents that are healthy and active.

I am thankful for friends and the support network we have grown.  I am thankful for the kid's school and the families that we have met in the process.  I am thankful for their teachers who dedicate themselves so selflessly to the education of children.  I am thankful for our babysitter who loves and cares for my children and takes them whenever I need her to.  I am thankful for bus drivers who get my children to and from school safely every day.  I am thankful for parents of classmates who also will transport my children in times of need.

I am thankful that my husband and I are employed in our field of choice.  I am thankful that I get to spend my days teaching biology and trying to inspire young minds.  I am thankful, also, for four days off!

I am thankful that we have a home that keeps us sheltered from the cold and rain, and protected from the hot sun.  I am thankful that we can put food on our table and clothes on our bodies and gas in our cars.  I am thankful for all the material things that we have, but I am thankful that I know that material things are not what is important.  I am thankful that we are healthy, but if we needed to go to the doctor's we could. 

I am thankful that I live in a country where you can speak your mind without fear.  I am thankful for those that have give selflessly to protect our freedoms, whether that is giving of their time for service away from their families or with the ultimate sacrifice. 

I am thankful for my faith and my trust in God.  It may not always be easy, but it always leads me the right way.

I hope that you will think of all of the things that you are thankful for, too, on this wonderful holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Time to Relax

It has been a very busy week!  The highlight of the week was that Calah has now mastered her two-wheel bike.  She really was good last weekend, but this week she has practiced almost every day, and today she rode two miles with Chuck on the bike trail.  She is so proud of herself..and so are we.  She also got to finally start to learn cursive.  All is well in Calah's world!

And Gabe is good.  He was sick last weekend, but I think he has finally kicked that bug.  He had a Thanksgiving feast at school on Friday and Mimi and Papa came to see it.  That made him very happy.  He loves the Native American headdress and necklace that he made.  And he made a drum at his other preschool, so he is all set!

Chuck is off to the train show tomorrow, so he will be gone all day, and Monday will be interesting for him.  He has his first blood drive as NHS adviser and he also has to pick up his wreath order for the German club.  Really busy day.  I hope that everything goes well for him.  By the time Thursday rolls around, he will have earned a little vacation!

As for me, we had a lock-in on Friday night for leukemia.  We raised about $250, so I was pretty happy.  The kids that came seemed to have fun, and that is what counts.  I have an incredible executive board this year and one of my officers planned and organized this event.  I did almost nothing, a few last minute details, signing paperwork, and showing up for the event.  And we all had a good time.  I even beat a couple of girls at the X-box Kinect dance game.  I know, I rock.....

Today I saw my sister-in-law and twin nieces on their way to a swim meet.  I hope Abby got her second metal today!  I am very proud of my nieces and nephews and all they do.

I also went shopping with my sister and my mom.  We had a really nice lunch at The Olive Garden (yummy...shrimp caprese!), and then to the mall for a little shopping.  The best part was really just hanging out with my mom and sister.  A good girls day.

So tomorrow is a time to relax, sort of.  With Chuck gone, it will be me and the kids and the laundry.  But there will some relaxing, absolutely, some relaxing!

Rough Day

So, yesterday I had a rough day at school.  I'm not going to get into the details, but I will say that when I got home, I just wanted to crawl into my bed and ignore the world.  This year I have made a real effort to not let things at work get to me.  I have gotten through almost every day feeling good.  I haven't complained about the extra work that we have been give, my class schedule, my students.  I have felt pretty good all and all. 

So yesterday was upsetting.  Calah came in to snuggle me and ask what was wrong.  I told her some people said mean things to me and it made me sad.  So she wrote me this note:

In case you can't read it, it says:  To: Mommy, tomorow at school tell the people that said mean things to you tell them this:  You should be ashamed of your selves!  I think you should have a bad day!

It made me smile.  I appreciate that she is sensitive to the feelings of others.  And it helped me put things in perspective.  So it was a rough day, big deal.  Tomorrow is another day and I need to suck it up and go back to doing what I do best, regardless of what anyone has to say.

Not Now....

I had every intention of posting tonight.  But some things happened today that I need to deal with and I am afraid if I post tonight, I may say somethings that could come back to bite me.  So, with that I will hope to post tomorrow.  Have a good day!

I have the best weekend plans....

I have the most wonderful plans this weekend!

Tomorrow I am going to go grocery shopping and then to the pool for a workout.  Then there is a day of cleaning my house, changing the sheets, and doing the laundry.  I will probably make a nice dinner and dessert.  And hopefully, after the kids have been bathed and put to bed, Chuck and I will watch a movie and relax.

Sunday will be more of the same.  I also hope to work on our Engaged Encounter talks and organize some cabinets.  And I have a couple of great projects planned to do with the kids.  I think that we will also have to pull out the play doh, fingerpaints, or markers (whatever they want to do), and get a little creative.  I think we should all go for a family walk and work with Calah on riding her bike.  There also needs to be a whole bunch of snuggling and reading stories!

By Sunday night, I will have packed lunches and bags and gotten everything around for the week.  Then I will get to start a short week ready to go.  Everyone but Calah is off on Tuesday for opening day of hunting, so that will be a day to get appointments and errands done. 

For tonight, we are going to have "snacky" dinner (chips and dip, veggies, crackers and cheese, bread and dip) and put on our jammies and watch a movie as a family.  Light some good scented candles get a couple of blankets to snuggle in and start off the weekend in style!

Engaged Encounter

Last weekend, Chuck and I had a great weekend with Engaged Encounter.  We are a presenting team, which means that every few months we open up ourselves and our marriage for engaged couples so they can get a look at marriage "from the inside".  We have written talks about a variety of topics from communication, to unity, to ministering our faith to others, to intimacy, to betrothal.  It is totally emotionally exhausting, but so worth it.  I think sometimes Chuck and I get just as much out of it as the couples.  It rejuvenates our marriage.

This weekend was very small and was held at the Weber Center in Adrian.  That is a fantastic facility!  They even had a fun little gift shop...I got a new advent wreath!  Our community recently had to find new places to hold weekends as our previously facility was re purposed. 

Just a note on that...Our previous location was St. Joseph's Home for Children, which hasn't been used as an orphanage in years, but was great.  I really miss it, if only for nostalgic purposes.  I can remember going there as a kid with my parents at the end of Marriage Encounter weekend.  I think we sometimes went as a family, and sometimes went down at the end of one of their weekends.  They were a presenting team for Marriage Encounter.  We would stand outside the doors of the chapel and line the halls singing as the couples came out.  I loved that.  Those are the memories I will miss about St. Joe's.

"There's a new world somewhere, they call the promised land.  And I'll be there some day, if you will hold my hand......"

At any rate, Chuck and I haven't done any weekends since the move, so this was our first weekend in a a different facility.  We had a small weekend, only 10 couples.  I don't know if it was the distance or the time of year, but I hope that in the future we get more couples at that facility.  These couples were AMAZING!  Very faithful, very attentive, really nice.  Sometimes we don't get such nice groups.  Sometimes they are really mean to us on our evaluations.  We are volunteers and doing the best we can, there is no need to be nasty.  Anyway, this group was very nice and really wants God to be part of their relationship. 

We also had a married couple on the weekend that are going to write their talks and become a presenting team, too.  Yippee!  This couple are friends from church and they are really wonderful and faithful people.  They contributed to the weekend in a way that Chuck and I couldn't do on our own.  The small amount of sharing they did really impacted the couples, it was great!  As a community, we are very happy to have new blood.  We are in need of more presenting teams.  Currently we can only offer about 5 weekends a year, and we have only four presenting teams, needing two teams per weekend.  That makes it tough.  Everyone has busy schedules and committing to two or three full weekends a year is a challenge.  Plus, we typically have a lot of couples that want to come, and space is limited.  We really would like to add a couple more weekends.

The other thing going on right now is we are in a stage of transition.  The National Board for EE came out with a revised outline and we need to rewrite all our talks.  The outline is very important because it keeps us on point and gives a lot of information about faith that we need to share with the couples.  It also keeps us on time.  Our goal is to give the couples the information and give them as much time as possible to reflect on their feelings and share that with their partner.  We don't do large group discussions of topics, the marriage is going to be between the couple and God, they need to work out things between them. 

So, I did spend a fair amount of time this weekend working on our talks.  Chuck and I have finished three, and I am working on one now.  We have one more after that.  Then it is on to easy ones, like the introduction.  We are set to start presenting with them the first of January, so I need to get it in gear!  They still need to be checked by National and workshopped (that's like a trial run with another couple to make sure everything sounds right and you got all the points across).  Guess I know what I'll be doing next weekend, too!

I always miss my kids while I am gone, but they got to spend some quality time with Mimi and Papa.  They were pretty happy with that.  Although being gone for the weekend means that I have mountains of laundry and other things to do, I am happy to be home.  Is it possible to feel rejuvenated and exhausted at the same time?

Songs I am Currently Addicted To

Someone Like You..Adele

I love her voice!  I love Rolling in the Deep, too, but for some reason this song resonates with me.  I think it is nostalgic of bad break-ups.  I have a couple in particular in mind, I won't air them here.  But it brings back a little of the pain.  The fact that I have a wonderful marriage and loving husband makes those feelings feel safe.  I think it is good to remember some of the things that have hurt us in the past and how we have moved past them.  On to better things.  It is true what they say...whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

If I Die Young...The Band Perry

This is such a tragic song!  I am actually slightly appalled with myself for liking it so much.  It is so sad, who wants to think of themselves dying young, or their daughter dying young.  But it is such a beautiful song and I love the singer's voice.

Despicable Me..Pharrell

Yes, the song from the movie.  It's funny, and when I am having a bad day, it is perfect.  It's like all the "bad guy" things of the movies (using a chain saw, using a heat ray) he "poo poo"s and thinks his way (using a freeze gun) is better.  I feel that way sometimes.  Why do people do things the hard way when my way would be sooooo much easier?  I do believe that if the world ran according my rules and wishes it would run much better and everyone would be much happier.

I am a Rock...Simon and Garfunkel

This is my "I am not going to let little things get to me" song.  I am a rock, I am an island!  Little irritating things are not going to penetrate my emotional barrier.  And it is going to be hard to get to me, anyway, because I am an island....I am way out there!  I like to listen to this to psych me up for a tough day.

Edge of Glory...Lady Gaga

Why not?  I'm on the edge of something.  Sanity, maybe?  It's just and upbeat fun song that makes me happy.  And I need a song that makes me happy.  I am noticing a trend in this post of depressives....not cool.  I like a lot of happy songs too.  But happy songs don't tug at your emotional heartstrings as much.  I think that is why they don't stick with me as much.  But I do like a lot of upbeat happy music...Pink, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, NKOTB (love my New Kids!), and a lot from Glee.

I love music.  I play it constantly and I turn up every great song that I hear.  And that is a lot of them.  My kids love music, too.  Gabe told me the other day.."Aerosmith is awesome!"  And Calah loves Taylor Swift.  At least they have good taste!