Thursday, February 28, 2008

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

I have not been in much of the mood to blog lately. Sometimes I have days in a row where I think - I have to blog about that, and that, and that. I would constantly be updating, but I don't want to overload my blog with nonsense. So I just don't blog about it here. I try to update a few times a week instead of every day. Or more than once a day. But lately, my mind has been blank when it comes to blogging. Not that it's been blank in general, just when it comes to blogging.

Soren's basketball tournament starts this weekend. He plays on Saturday morning. That should be fun! They are 5th in the league right now and have steadily improved each week. We'll see how things go - but either way, it's been a great season. Alan is ready for a break, though, which I understand completely having asst. coached Soren's soccer team for quite a few sessions.

Dress rehearsals begin for me on Saturday. Another is on Monday. Then there is an all-call rehearsal on Tuesday. However, by Mar. 10th, both shows will be over and I will have some time to rest and recoup before another round of crazy begins on Mar. 24 and Mar. 31. I am ready to be done with the shows, but there is still work to be done.

Due to personal issues, I have decided to set aside one of my web design jobs for the time being. I can't do it all, so I've got to pick what I can handle. And at this point, I can only handle the one web design job and the stuff I freelance on the side. And the teaching stuff. Maybe in a few months, but right now - no. It just isn't happening. I feel a lot more sane knowing that I'm either done today or done after my current project is complete. I'd rather just be done today, though.

See, there isn't really anything exciting to report. I mean, there might be, but if there is, I'm at a loss of what to say about it.

Your continued prayers on our behalf, however, would be hugely appreciated. We are in the midst of some possible changes and we have some big decisions to make. Please remember us!

Friday, February 22, 2008

If you are going to walk on thin ice, you may as well dance....

Another winter storm has come through the area. Ice is everywhere, school is canceled, and I'm not too keen on the idea of leaving my house any time soon. It's cold and I'm sort of getting tired of it being so cold! But, I have to remind myself, it could be worse. We could be in the middle of a hot, humid, sticky summer. I'll put up with the cold a bit longer and hope that we have a very lengthy spring this year. I love the spring!

Life seems to continue to be busy, but I am not feeling the stress of it anymore. It just is what it is. I am making time for friends and for my family because I realize that that helps me handle the stress. If I just lock myself in the office and try and finish every single project I have, I just end up more stressed and I get less accomplished. So I am scattering my day with different things and trying only to work on web design in the morning hours, when possible.

This week hasn't been too exciting, so I haven't felt the overwhelming urge to update. Alan has a bit of a cold, Soren is recovering from a bit of a cold and, once again, I have managed to get through it all unscathed. Apparently my immune system DOES work, so that's a plus.

Monday was President's day, so both my boys were home. We spent the day relaxing. I don't think we even left the house. I did some work in the morning, but the rest of the day was spent chilling out. We have started watching movies as a family in the evening. This week we tackled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2-3 nights. I am not sure what is next on our agenda, but it's been nice to turn off all the lights and cuddle up together as a family.

I am in the final weeks of preparation for the performances of both my musical theatre and straight theatre classes. Musical theatre has their performance (2 of them) on March 8th. They are actually quite prepared for this and I feel confident that my kiddos will do fantastic. My straight theatre class performs on March 10th. I am not feeling nearly as confident, but they have a lot less time to prepare, so that would explain the reasoning there. I am looking forward to the week of March 17th. Spring break! Woot!

What else... what else... Soren has his last basketball game of the season on Saturday. After that, it's the tournament. We have no idea how that is working or what that will mean for him in the end, but he has had a great experience, has learned a lot, and has enjoyed having his dad as the coach. It's been a learning experience for them both, but a good one.

Ok, now I just feel like I'm trying to fill space. I'm going to have lunch now!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Winners!

Just got back from Soren's basketball team. They won their game for the second week in a row. And honestly? They are really improving. I was impressed with their speed, their defense, their passing, rebounding... and impressed with the fact that I know what these things are! Haha! Anyway, it was a good game! And even if they hadn't won, they all played hard.

There isn't a whole lot to report on aside from the big specialist appointment we went to yesterday. I couldn't eat, I could barely focus actually - I was really worried about what the doctor would say and whether or not there was any hope for us. My appointment wasn't until 1:45pm and I spent all morning trying NOT to think about it and trying not to throw up. I did manage to keep down 2 pieces of toast.

The appointment actually went really well. Our test results from our other doctor were interpreted incorrectly (thank goodness). We have options and we are trying to decide which way to go. So, who knows. We're going to give it the good ol' fashion college try. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts/prayers while we determine what the best course of action is for us and our little family.

That's about it from me this morning! I've got to tidy up downstairs, do some laundry, and then await the arrival of my high school friend, Kate. We have failed at seeing each other for the past year even though she lives less than 15 miles away. I'm excited to hang out with her today, see what she's up to, and catch up!

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!

*blows kisses*

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Dark and Dreary

Into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and dreary. . .
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Such was my day yesterday. It began sometime in the early mornings hours. The power started going on and off, on and off . . . that was annoying, since it woke me up a few times. But I was finally able to settle back down to sleep. When I woke up, the world was covered in a thin sheet of ice and the freezing rain was still falling. I turned on the TV to find that school was delayed by 2 hours. Fabulous. I was planning on babysitting for a friend that morning, so that made things a little tight, especially if I was planning on doing any work. I decided to set Soren the task of getting his Valentine's Day box put together while I got some work done. A good plan, right?

Except the power kept going on and off.

Anyone who knows anything about computers knows that it really is best if they are shut off the correct way. My computer experienced a dozen unexpected shut downs yesterday. I gave up for a bit and got Soren set for school. Then my friend called and said that it was so bad outside her house (ice) that she canceled her stuff and she didn't need me. I was relieved because that meant I could get some work done. So off Soren went to school and off I went, pajama clad, back to the computer.

Then the power went off again. Twice. So I decided to email my bosses and let the know that, until I had a more stable power situation, I would not be working. Except that when I was right in the middle of contacting one of them, the power went off again. Only this time, it did not go back on.

I was mildly stressed about this. You see, I don't think we truly realize how dependent we are on something until it goes away. My computer stores so much information that I would be very lost without it. Very. I had no way to contact my employers. But there was literally nothing I could do about it. The weather was still horrible outside, so I wasn't about to venture out. Instead, I grabbed my cell phone, a list of phone numbers, a book, and a flashlight and made some phone calls. Then I read for a while. Then I realized I should be GRATEFUL that the power was out and that is when I started enjoying myself. I just sat on the couch, snuggled up in my blankie, and read for an hour or so - relishing the freedom I was feeling.

But then it started to get really cold. Haha!

Soren got home about 4 1/2 hours after the power went out and we played cards by candlelight and then, after my toes started turning into ice, we got a hold of Alan and decided to take up the invite from my friend, Jen, to have dinner at their house. So we all headed over there, ate a yummy meal of soup and bread, and then the boys went to basketball. Jen and I went to a spa party which was actually not too bad. I got to soak my feet in warm water that had some sort of . . . stuff in it. This was very, very nice. Then there was lots of product being passed around to sooth, tighten, and do all kinds of other things to your skin.

I will save you all from my rant about anti-aging products and the cosmetic industry in general.

However, there were a few cool things. We'll see what happens.

By the time the boys were back from b'ball and I was back from the spa thing, we had power again. I was so glad we didn't have to sleep in the freezing cold.

I am, however, realizing how grateful I am for electricity. On so many levels.

Maybe now I will be motivated to take info from my computer off and put it on paper somewhere.

Ok, I've got to catch up on all the work I didn't get done yesterday.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

I'm Popular!

Good evening.

I figured that while I was still awake and thinking about it I would blog about our wonderful weekend. Alan had a fabulous birthday (so far as he's letting on) that lasted 3 days.

Friday night we celebrated by heading out to Tyson's Corner for dinner and a bit of mall wandering. We went to this amazing place called Brio Tuscan Grille. Oh. my. yum. I think they may have actually put crack in their lasagna. No kidding. Plus it could have fed a small country. They bring out this PLATTER and put it in front of me and I'm like - uh, lasagna for family of 4? Dang. Alan had a nice veal marsala or something. He enjoyed it and ate the entire thing. I managed 1/3 of my lasagna.

After eating we tried to walk it off by wondering the mall. There were some shady characters in various locations that made us a little nervous and then the stores started closing so we headed off for a romantic trip to Walmart! When we finally got home there was so much sleeping.

On Saturday the boys got up and headed off for basketball business while I went grocery shopping, since that just never happened on Friday. My visit with April lasted longer than anticipated because she and I can't stop talking when we are in a room together. Hee hee! So, the grocery shopping happened. Then we headed off to lunch as a family at Logan's Roadhouse where I had a disappointing serving of ribs (I'm still crying about that), but the boys had shrimp and other fishy nonsense and enjoyed that. We then did a quick Target trip before heading home to put Soren to bed and watch Transformers. Fun movie! But not for young audiences..... I told Soren he has to wait to see that one. And to avoid any temptation, it is already zipped up in the Netflix envelope and in the mailbox.

Today was SO BUSY! But really fun. I feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside because I have friends. Friends are so important to me. And having friends who want to spend time with me just makes me happy. And by me I also mean us - our family. So here's a brief run down of the day.

1 - Church. Church is very busy for me. I spend one hour sitting listening to talks and what not (and usually cutting things out for singing time haha) and then it's 2 hours of running around entertaining kids. This is usually exhausting, especially in the shoes I wore today, but for some reason my feet weren't killing me at the end and I still had my voice and energy! Which was REALLY good.

2 - After church I started putting Alan's cake together. We got the layers stacked (Alan had to help make the cake all even cuz I fail at cutting things) and then I frosted it. After that I put it in the fridge and then we were off.....

3 - To our friend's (Alison and Mike's) house for an early dinner! We had a DELICIOUS roast with potatoes and rolls and other yummy things. SO good! Plus Alison and Mike are cool people so the visit was fun! We also played Fluxx, which we are still loving! I think they liked it, too. the kids also played really well (and crazy, cuz they all are nuts). I was bummed we couldn't stay that long, but I'm sure we'll get together again soon.

4 - So after that we ran home and threw a bunch of stuff in baggies, grabbed the cake, and headed over to Tom and April's house for dessert, Wii playing, and just general visiting. It was the first time Tom and Alan really had a chance to visit, so that was good for them. And of course Soren just schooled everyone on the Wii. It was good times.

5 - And now I present pictures of the cake! And of the birthday boys. I am very proud of the cake. I've never done anything like this before.






Yes, Tom's face is blurred out. For copyright reasons. (I hope you show him this, April! HEE HEE!)

Anyway, we are now home. Alan has talked to his parents and now it is getting late. Tomorrow is, of course, another day full of many things. I've got water aerobics, web design work to pump out, On Stage Class to teach, a voice lesson to teach, and then family stuffs in the dark time. And then the rest of my week is pretty full as well.

However, it is nice in a lot of ways. Being busy, I mean. In other ways, however, it stresses me out. Hopefully this week will be the enjoyable busy.

So far, so good!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Birthday Boy!

Yay for Birthdays and Ikea!

Alan's birthday is tomorrow. There was debate about the actual gift and, even after I found that KitchenAid mixer for almost $150 below retail (coupons + rebates rock), he still wanted the hall decorated.

So yesterday my friend Jen and I headed off to the Ikea to buy the thingies. I present to you - my husband's birthday gifts!!!!


















Hooray!

I don't have any before pictures . . . but really, there was NOTHING there. Nothing. It was naked and cold and lonely. Now it is full of love. And shoes. And coats. And even scarves! Maybe, just maybe, this new arrangement will prevent Mt. Pile-O-Shoes from forming in my entry way as well as the City of Flung Coats from populating my front room. This is my hope and Alan's as well. I shall let you all play "guess the owner of the coat." I'm sure it will be REALLY difficult.

So that was the big project yesterday - Ikea and building all of the stuff. I managed to get all of that done before I ran off to work in the afternoon. Now Alan and I shall go on a HOT BIRTHDAY DATE tonight. Yeah, we are planning a crazy romantic time that involves another trip to Target. That's how we roll, peeps. Alan is just grateful that one day a year I will accompany him to a seafood place. I think we are going to Coastal Flats - which I just discovered is a very local thing. So, those of you not local to me.... um... I got nothing but a link for you. I've never been so I have no opinion. If it smells of fish, I will be very put out. (Bonus Question - What movie did I just steal a portion of that quote from??) We might also go catch a movie, but not many good ones are playing right now. We might just wander the mall and come home. Who knows? I don't, that's for sure.

Today is a busy day (SHOCKING, I know!!!). I just got back from Water Aerobics (yes, I'm still in my suit and smell of chlorine... mmmmm) and need to shower, get dressed, and attempt to hit the store. I've got to pick up Birthday Cake Fixings! I'm making a Black Forest Cake for Alan and our friend who shares a birthday with him (Tom). If it ends up looking anything like the picture, I shall be shocked. I'm not a cook, I'm not a fan of the kitchen, and I just generally don't try anything that I haven't already made before. We'll see what the end result of this experiment is. I hope it isn't an emergency trip to the grocery store. HAHA!

After the shopping and what not I have a bit of work to do and then it is off to my friend April's for a nice visit and movie swap. April's husband is the aforementioned birthday sharer. We shall be wrapping presents for him (SHHHH DON'T TELL!). I'm looking forward to another visit with April and hope to be able to make visits with her a regular occurrence, especially while she is trapped in her bed! Ugh, I can not even imagine. I would lose my mind as I hate sitting still for too long. I can barely make it through church - and I'm up and moving for 2/3 of it!

When I get back from April's house (which will probably coincide with the arrival of Soren if it's anything like last time) I shall make sure Soren is all settled with his homework and piano practicing and await Alan's arrival. Then it's off on our HOT DATE. And that will take up the remainder of my day.

So, yes. Busy, busy, busy!

That's okay, though. That's how I like it, yo.

Usually.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

It's so early... I'm so tired....

Stolen from Jill:



I don't know about the news reading, but pancakes are yummy! Yay pancakes! Don't forget to celebrate National Pancake Day on Feb. 12th, 2008 (the actual date was yesterday - Fat Tuesday - but IHOP is celebrating a week late due to Super Tuesday - gah, what is with all the Tuesday love? I prefer Friday. Or Saturday.). You can get a free stack of pancakes at IHOP. So, if you like 'em - eat 'em! I prefer to eat them at home, though. Hubby makes delish whole wheat pancakes for me. Yay!

Wow - tangent!

So it's stupid early. I was up at 4am and just unable to sleep. This is what I get for falling asleep at 10:30pm. My body is like - uh, what's up with trying to get more sleep? I was getting used to the 5.5-6 hours you usually allow. Don't mess with that, yo! And I was like - UGH, I wanna sleep! And Alan was like - why are you awake? And I was like shuddup and go back to sleep. Fun, huh?

Hey, when you don't have kids to wake you up all night (mine sleeps through the night and has for quite some time now, you see), it really sucks when your body just randomly decides to be awake at stupid-o'clock in the morning. Especially as tonight is girl's night and I have to have energy in the dark time. Looks like a mid-afternoon nap is needed!

Right, where was I?

See, this is why I shouldn't try and post an entry when I'm not fully coherent.

Latest news.... Ooh pictures! Pardon me while I scramble to download a few photos from my camera.

*loud noises*

Ok, first off - Thursday was Soren's Pinewood Derby. Hoozah! He went for a more car looking car this year and didn't really think about aerodynamics. That's okay, though. Here he is with his car:



As you can see, he doesn't look very pleased. He was in a foul mood that night because he wasn't winning. He's already started with the teenage attitude of, "I don't care, it was stupid anyway." Let me just say - I'm thrilled about that. Mmhmm.

The same attitude prevailed at his basketball game when they lost. It was a very close game and they all played really well, but that didn't matter. He was a total crab at the end of the game and I growled at him about it.


That's my boys. Basketball fools. Seriously, though. It was a good game. I didn't even get out my book at all! I think the score was 27 to 24 or something. They really played hard.

That was Saturday. Basketball and grumps. We also did some shopping on Saturday. So, exciting.

I have no more thrilling pictures. I know, huge disappointment, but there you go.

Saturday is Alan's birthday. I was going to get him a Kitchenaid Mixer (recent development that involved a promise about cooking dinner every night for a year if he got it), but we decided that decorating the hall was more important. I will be going to Ikea on Thursday and buying a shoe rack thingie and a hat rack thingie. Happy birthday, Alan! Poor guy. I'm still debating this, though. The selfish part of me is like - dinner every night for a year? No complaining? Gah - I hate cooking. HAHA! We'll see what the final verdict is later today.

Just a little update on the fertility front - we have an appointment with a specialist on the 15th. If you could remember us in your prayers, that'd be super! :)

Friday, February 1, 2008

FOR REAL!?!?!?!?

HOUSE BILL NO. 282

An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act; and for related purposes. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi

SECTION 1.

(1) The provisions of this section shall apply to any food establishment that is required to obtain a permit from the State Department of Health under Section 41-3-15(4)(f), that operates primarily in an enclosed facility and that has five (5) or more seats for customers.

(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

(3) The State Department of Health shall monitor the food establishments to which this section applies for compliance with the provisions of this section, and may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008.

In case you didn't want to read through all of that - the State of Mississippi is seriously trying to pass a law (it's not a joke) that will keep people who are obese (according to some standard set by some people somewhere) from eating out.

I am more than a little annoyed by this. An no, it is not a joke or some internet rumor. This is real.

I would love to be 5'9" and 125lbs (no, not really - I've seen myself as a size 6 and it wasn't pretty. I looked like bones trying to up and walk by themselves). Alas, I am 5'9 and much, much more than 125lbs. However, I am healthy and happy! I exercise because it feels good, not because I have some desire to magically shed pounds. I eat healthy because it makes me feel good! I have more energy and am happier when I'm putting good things into my body. Oddly enough, this has not made me stick thin. I doubt it ever will. I honestly doubt I will ever fall into the "normal" range for my height. But that is because the BMI we use is a bunch of hoo-ha based on height and weight and not taking into consideration the myriad of other factors that make us different and unique. (I could go on about my feelings relating to BMI, but I'll save you all the trouble)

At any rate, I just needed to rant about the stupidity of people. This law would just be yet another tactic in the "Shame War" against obesity. Shaming people will not help them. It will only make them feel worse about themselves. How's about we stop judging people? Kae? Cuz seriously.....