2nd Quarter

I continue to be proud of my kids. Last week they brought home their report cards and had great grades as usual. Our boy has straight A's, for the second quarter running. Last quarter, our girl had A's and A+'s. This quarter she has 2 A+'s, 3 A's, 1 B+ and 1 B. It seems odd to be concerned about the B's, but we kind of are. These are the first B's she's ever brought home, so we're not sure if these are areas that she is struggling in or if she is just not "applying" herself. So we are going to try to spend some time with her and see what happens.
But really - their grades are such to be proud of, and we are.

Yay for Friday!

I am SO glad that it's Friday. Although every week Friday comes around and I'm happy about it, and then Sunday afternoon is here and I realize that nothing that I wanted to happen over the weekend did. So do I think I'm going to accomplish lots this weekend? Of course. Will I? Probably not. This is what I know for sure about this weekend:

• We do not have to go to my parents house at 6am each morning.
• We are not going to Karate on Saturday. These two things mean I'm sleeping in!!
• We are going to have dinner at my parents on Sunday.
• Shell and I are going to watch last weeks L Word and this weeks - back to back.
• The kids don't have school on Monday, so I don't have to spend Sunday night making sure everything is ready for school Monday morning. This is going to be very nice.

So I have no lofty goals for this weekend. Well, ok I do. But I am not expecting to get them done. I am seriously entertaining the thought of taking a couple of days vacation just to get my house clean and organized. I could make dinner each night and spend time with my wife. I could pretend to be a stay-at-home mom & wife for a few days. This is very appealing. I should definitely do this.

Brief Update

Well Jenny went home on Saturday. I think she did have a stroke, which can only be verified through very expensive tests, which my parents have declined. What good would they be really? The outcome would probably be the same. Sure they might find something that is treatable - or more likely manageable - for X-amount of dollars for how long? Right now she is home. She sleeps a lot. She gets up to greet visitors upon arrival, to eat & drink and to go outside. But sometimes I think she gets lost on her way outside. She does circular laps - always to the left - and if someone doesn't help her remember she will have an accident in the house. I went over Monday morning before Mom left for her morning route (5:30am!) and stayed until Shell got there from dropping off the kids at the bus stop. She stayed until Mom got home at 8. Yesterday and today, and for as long as necessary, the kids and I went over at 6am to stay with her until Shell came from work. And then she waits until Mom gets home. I don't know how long we will do this. Either until Jenny starts to do better or Mom & Dad accept that whatever happens happens, or ??? Remains to be seen.
On Sunday Dad called and asked to borrow our dryer because theirs stopped working. And because when it rains it pours. When he came over to put his clothes in the dryer, he asked about our extra dryer. When we bought our house, it came with a washer & dryer. We had already purchased one for the first house we thought we were going to get, and I was in love with it. So we decided to keep it and try to sell the "free" ones. Well, it is now over a year and a half later and they are both still in my basement. So... long story short, we gave them the dryer. Well, in exchange for a swiss steak dinner. And they will probably take the washer too - in exchange for fried chicken. We can be bought! Shell and I agreed that it was really nice to finally be able to do something for them, after all that they have done for us. To be honest, we still owe them.

Begin Again

It's been over 3 weeks since I last posted. So much - and not much- has happened. I have written many posts in my head in this time. So so many. And then I think how it would be nice to post a picture too. I'm having some difficulty with the whole picture posting thing. I am going to have to play with it some more. Now I wonder... with all the time that has passed, should I recap or just start over from today? I think I will fill in the missing moments throughout a couple of posts. For now, I will write about the current. My parents have a greyhound named Jenny. She is such a great dog. Everyone loves her. They got her from the greyhound rescue a few years ago. My mom called me on my way home and said that she is at the animal hospital. Earlier today, she started walking in circles and was very restless when laying down. After being checked at the vet, they did some x-rays and said they couldn't do much for her and that she would need to go to the hospital. So she is there for a 24 hour watch. They said she may have had a stroke, but want to watch her for any other symptoms. Oh boy, here we go again.

Mom just called and said she checked on Jenny and she is "resting comfortably". She will call again in the morning to check on her. Please let there be good news.

Pictured: Jenny

6 Days Until Christmas

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time. I have been so busy the last few weeks, I'm surprised I'm posting now. Hopefully I can make it coherent and not too rushed. I have been crazy-busy at work. Last week I trained the warehouse guy in our Utah office to use the computer system. He was here all week and I was dreading it every day leading up to it. It was all for naught. He was awesome. Caught on really fast and has a great attitude about it all. There is a lot of work to be done in that office and he has really taken on a lot, but I am very confident in his abilities. Yay for him!!
We took our Christmas card pictures on Sat. 12/8. Dad came over and took them for us. We were pretty and they turned out good. I uploaded them that night and we picked them up from the store the next day. They look great. I was ambivalent about having photo greeting cards, but I think I am a believer now. I mailed about half of them out last week and the last few that I needed confirmation on addresses went out yesterday.
The day after we took our pics, we got our Christmas tree. With our reduced budget this year, we ended up with a tree that we were not in love with at the lot. I think we are still not in love with it, but it is ours. We decorated it the following night with the ornaments we've collected through the years. It's good. And there were presents under it for awhile too. No, we didn't open them. I had only wrapped the gifts that were being shipped out, as they were a priority. I had planned to send them out last week, but we still needed a few more things. Shell and I went shopping over the weekend and picked up the last things, so I shipped everything out yesterday (Tuesday). I tracked them this morning and they should all arrive on Friday-just in time! Our tree looked bare, so I wrapped some of our kids things last night. They were VERY happy this morning to see gifts for them under the tree finally.
Last night we went to the high school choir concert, because the kids were chosen along with a few others in their choir to sing during one of the songs. It was very enjoyable. I love it so much that my kids are in choir. I have the best memories of being in choir, and I want that for them too.
Oh, I almost forgot!!! They both got speaking parts in the musical they auditioned for. They aren't the parts with the most lines, but they will be speaking pretty consistently throughout the show. I'm really proud of them. So now until the performance in March, they have rehearsal for the musical every Wednesday after school. Shell will pick them up and bring the boy to my work and take the girl home with her. The boy has Karate on Wed. nights, so I'll just take him there directly after work. Just one more reason I can't get my house cleaned, I'm never there!!
Pictured: Top - The kids singing in the choir concert, Middle - Our Tree, Bottom - The one we chose for the Christmas card.

I Stole It

I stole this from another blog that I read. Can you imagine?!

clipped from a214.ac-images.myspacecdn.com

Talent

My children make me proud. All the time.
They are in their school's elementary choir. They have choir practice on Mondays and Thursdays after school from 4:00-5:15. I go directly from work to pick them up. Well yesterday (Wednesday) there was an after school informational meeting about the musical being put on in the spring. The choir students automatically have a part in the choir in the musical, but if they want a speaking part they have to try out. That's what my kids want - speaking parts. For last years musical, they both tried out for speaking/solo parts but did not get them. They were disappointed (the girl mostly), but I think they finally understood that the younger kids don't usually get them, especially without some experience. So they have been looking forward to this years musical ever since. They sang in the choir during the last musical, so now they think they are qualified.
So the meeting was supposed to go until 5:15 yesterday, giving me the right amount of time to get there to pick them up. My boy called me at 4:45 to tell me that they were done. I told him that I couldn't leave until 5:00, and that I would be there as soon as I could. Just wait inside the doors for me, I told him. I left at 5:00 and of course there was construction on the street that I take to get to their school. The normally 5-7 minute drive took me almost 15 minutes. When I got to the school they came out with the choir teacher, who waited with them. I apologized for the delay and explained that I was under the understanding that it didn't get over until 5:15. She was nice about it and explained that she didn't feel comfortable leaving knowing they were still waiting. Then she said:

"You'll want to keep in mind that if your kids get speaking parts the rehearsals will only go until 4:45. And I'm sure they will, because they are so talented."

"Because they are so talented".
You heard it here folks. My children are talented. I know, it's only elementary school choir. And people and teachers have been telling me that they have various talents through the years. But this is the first time they've been called talented referring to music. And that makes me happier than I could have imagined.

And after telling Shell this, we agreed that if the speaking parts come to fruition, someone will pick them up at 4:45, come hell or high water!