Hi There!

I am still here... are you? I hope that I have not lost all of my readers due to my lack of posts! I have been...... fill in the blank, I dare you!

You are so very smart! Yes, I have been busy! Student teaching in the second grade is going well, I will have 3 weeks more to do when I return after Spring Break. I had a couple of amazing teaching days that I am very proud of and I am enjoying the enthusiasm of these younger kids. I am on "break" right now and working diligently to complete the two sided, single spaced "To Do" list!

I went to Arizona for my annual scrapbooking weekend with my best college bud. She lives in Tucson and so we "meet in the middle" which happens to be Yuma. This year we were super lucky and got to stay at my Dad's "second home" there. NO HOTEL BILL!!! We scrapped, slept, rested, walked, shopped, ate and TALKED for 3 days. As always, it was great to get away but even greater to come back home!

I have a new nephew! Andy's brother and wife brought Micah Vardiman into the world on March 29th! We have not met him in person yet, but hope to make the long drive out to Arizona in the next month or so. For now, pictures will have to suffice.

We had a wonderful Easter weekend in San Diego with family and were close enough to the latest earthquakes that we got a little adrenaline rush to go with it. No damage so we were thankful for that. We also got another visit to Sea World wedged in there and even though it rained, we had a great time!

Spent the day with good friends yesterday and had a field trip to the biggest Whole Foods market on the planet. We had lunch with 5 kids and three adults... ratio not too bad. Then we went back to the house and cooked up an amazing multicultural meal including a yummy chocolaty dessert. It was a really fun day!

Andy has spent the week working on finishing painting the kitchen cabinets. This was a challenging project that he started 2 years ago and then I went back to school and it made a good reason to put it off. The majority of the kitchen is done, it is just the bar at the end of the room that did not get done. Today, we will stain the top and he will hang the doors and we can call this one, wrapped up. Feels and looks great.

I am going to take my car for a long overdue car wash and Ella and I will be getting mani/pedis later! She has never been and it has been two years for me. Should be fun, girly bonding time! Tonight we will visit with friends that we have not seen in a while so we are looking forward to that.

Life is good and full of joy... hope that you are enjoying Spring and all that it has to offer.

Calming Down

Well, the painters came back and fixed the little things that we were unhappy with and my Mother In Law and a dear friend came and helped me to put all of my "stuff" back where it belongs (mostly) and I have cleaned off most of the dust and found most of the lost items and we are feeling much more "normal". This picture is of the new chair that Gavin and I just put together and that I am currently sitting in! The school nurse called while I was working on this post. He is home from school with a head cold.

We hosted a big party for my nieces' blessing and a celebration for her 2nd, Ella's 4th and Gavin's 8th birthdays on the 7th which gave me the greatest push to put the house back together. The house was packed full of people and love and the kids had a great time visiting, playing, and enjoying the festivities. Even though it was a crazy mad dash to get this place "presentable"... we did not have door handles, floor or outlet/switch covers.. but we had fun.

I started back to school with classes twice a week and next week I will start my field work, hopefully at the school of my choice and in a 5th grade classroom. Work has been more regular, meaning that I am actually getting there (I missed A LOT with all of the work being done) and I have returned to a somewhat normal work out routine at the gym. I am again, the weight that I was last year at this time, so I have 15 pounds to drop (notice I am not going to "lose" them... I DO NOT want to "find" them, again) and have already begun counting points and am watching the numbers on the scale go down.

Right after the party, Ella got really sick with a terrible head cold (again) and was feeling terrible. She shared and last week the stress and exhaustion caught up with me and I went down. I went into work on Thursday and couldn't even read the forms that I was working on so I packed up, headed home, changed into my p.j.'s and collapsed onto the couch. I am still battling the remnants of that cold, but feeling much better. Gavin and Ella both have ear infections and Gavin now has pink eye. It is becoming more and more apparent to me that this family needs to SLOW DOWN and figure out how to DO LESS! If I could just figure out HOW!

After that being said.. we continue on with the month's adventures! We had some good friends, Giacomo & Kate Bono, over for a special Valentine's dinner and had a wonderful evening. We had a teen neighbor come over and watch the kids and sit with them at dinner while the grown ups had a candlelit dinner in the dining room. We made roast beef with homemade gravy, roasted potatoes, asparagus, salad and chocolate bread pudding for dessert. I was not feeling well all day and was on cold medicine that made me loopy. Andy went to the store twice, we messed up the potatoes and had to make them twice (and didn't make enough the second time), I ruined the dip that we threw into the trash and I burned the chocolate on the first go round. I also over cooked the meat (I like it RARE), but amazingly the meal came out wonderfully and it was super yummy. We were honored, surprised and completely flattered when Giac (is that the way you should spell that when it is shortened?) & Kate asked us to be the Godparents for their new little one, Alex. He is four months old and is just a smiley ball of love! We are so excited that we get to have our third baby (without sleepless nights)!

The house is still in a pretty bad state of disarray with boxes here and there, some new furniture that has been purchased and not assembled in several rooms and little piles of "stuff" that have not found a new home. Gavin's new loft bed still needs some tweaking to stop the creaks and wiggles that it is suffering and Ella's room is a complete mess. The flooring is not in yet, but my new cabinet in the laundry room is, but it needs to be painted. I am looking at the pile of paperwork and wondering how much of it is really important and how much can wait until later.

My new laundry room cabinet with cubby for my "dream" trashcans. Simple Human, white, step cans with butterfly lids. Who knew that someday I would have a dream trashcan!

Really big box in the living room containing our new bookshelves for the family room, maybe we will put them together...next weekend?

And, more big boxes in the family room. These contain the new desk armoire that we might put together...next weekend?

This is my plywood floor... the tiles have been ordered, but have not come in yet...maybe next weekend? (you see where I am going with this, right? )
I still feel like I am recovering from everything that has been going on, but I am not sure if the best way to take care of myself is to work on it, or rest some more. I am always torn on this. I know that I will be able to relax when the work is finished, but I am learning that owning a home and raising a family means that the work is NEVER finished. I am learning that life is a project with no end but "The End" and that I will keep on working until I reach that finale. I am learning to enjoy the journey without focusing too much on the destination. I am learning to love the Trek without worrying about seeing the peak, and I am learning to ignore the dirty laundry strewn along the trail!