Current Events

And probably a few not-so-current events.  I have been wanting to blog for a while but time is one thing that I truly lack.  In fact it's pretty late right now and I feel like I could and should prop my eyelids open with toothpicks-I am so.....t.i.r.e.d!  That being said, here are some highlights from our lives the last little while-in no particular order:

~Kate and Justin had a great daddy-daughter-date last Saturday night.  No, we are not one of those cool families that have a regularly scheduled dad-date-time.  But when an opportunity comes up like buy-one-get-one free minor league hockey tickets and your kindergartner already has hers, it's a no-brainer.  I'm hoping that Justin will post a little about this, because he remembers the cute moments better, and is definitely better at re-telling it than I am.

~On our wonderful Monday off we spent some family time talking to our kids about Martin Luther King, and his "I have a dream..." speech.  And following a great idea that a club is doing at the school where I work, we made a dream tree for our house.  It truly was an awesome activity to talk with them about their goals and dreams.  Using some construction paper, tape and the small amount of creativity and artistic ability that I have, we made a big tree for a wall upstairs and everyone took time writing down their dreams and putting them on the tree.  My plan is to have more leaves available and to just keep adding leaves.  I really hope that having the visual reminder will inspire all of us to keep working towards our dreams.  I will definitely put some pictures up, (once I take them).

~Kelly was recently chosen as the Assistant Director for an upcoming UIL Academic Drama competition.  It's quite an honor for her to be chosen as a 7th grader--usually it goes to an 8th grader.  The competition is also a pretty big deal.  They are performing a drama set during the time period of the French Revolution entitled, "The Secrets of Madame DeFarge."  She also just found out that she landed another role in a second production that they will perform a few weeks after their competition.  So she's pretty busy to say the least!

~I have yet to get up early on Saturdays to sew.  I knew I would have a hard time getting up.  Oh well.  However, I did take some time to sew this last Sat. afternoon.  Kelly had been invited to a birthday party and wanted to make her friend a bag/purse sort of thing.  Out of respect for Kelly I will just say that it was a project that I really didn't want to do.  And I am telling you the teenage attitude that we are seeing more and more is U-G-L-Y!  It was a frustrating project that we didn't finish in time for the party.  The good thing about it was that I was able to practice French Seams, which was cool.  I had not ever heard about them before, but it's a way to sew a seam so that when you're done, all of the unfinished edges are tucked neatly inside.  Since I don't have a serger, I'm pretty excited to learn this technique.  I'm not sure if it will work in every situation--but I'm looking forward to trying it on some clothes.  I also spent some time on Mon. afternoon making these great, and super easy ribbon headbands for Kate and Kelly.  And, like everything else in this post--I will get some pictures and post them another day.  Sorry.  Also, I will post the link for the headband directions.  My mom sent me the link--thanks mom!  So no, they were not my idea.  I'm trying to get more creative, but it takes a lot of work for me.

~On a very sad note, I found out yesterday that a good friend of mine's husband was just diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer.  He had been sick since about Thanksgiving, but the doctors were having a hard time making a conclusive diagnosis until late last week.  Thankfully he is healthy enough to be a candidate for surgery which will take place this Friday.  My heart goes out to her and her family.  It's just one of those things that is difficult to understand.  I hope things go well for them.


So that's about it.  I'm doing my best to hang in there while Justin is very busy with travel this month.  It's definitely not my favorite, but I do feel the love and support of friends and family.  And like so many things these days, (living in a small place, 2 year old craziness, teenage drama melt downs) I just tell myself that it won't last forever! :)