Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Its a good time to sit back and remember all of the things I am thankful for. There is a lot, so I will try to condense it a bit.

1. Family ~ I have TWO huge families to be thankful for. Parents and in laws that love me very much. Quite literally the best brother in the world. In law siblings who never make me feel like an "out law".

2. Friends ~ I am way blessed in the friendship department. I am lucky enough to have girlfriends who are always close, even if some live far away. I have high school friends and singing friends and work friends... its just great to know so many people that I can count on.

3. Jon ~ He falls into friends and family, but he is pretty special to me, so I tihnk he deserves his own category. He is pretty stinkin amazing and I am not sure where I would be without him.

4. Shelter ~ Its great to have a house! Of course, now I freak out about putting holes in the wall... but so far, our house has been great and rather energy-efficient. Happiness!

5. Work ~ Okay, so I spend a lot of time complaining about my two jobs... but really, I am so lucky in this economy to have two. And even though I had to work at the hospital on Thanksgiving this year... and Sat... and Sun... at least I have a place to go that pays me money to do something I like.

6. Lily ~ It might be silly to give my cat her own category... but I really strongly believe in pet therapy! She is doing phenomenally at our house and seems very content. Jon is a great cat daddy and she purrs more than I have heard in years. Looks like we will not have to take her back to my parent's place and I am super thankful for that.

7. Education ~ Its nice to keep learning. I am prone to falling into ruts where I feel stagnant and unmoving. Yet, I have not felt that in some years now. Its really really wonderful. Between new friends and becoming a wife and getting a house, I have had a lot of chances to grow and change and take in new experiences. I like that a lot. :)

8. Health ~ Okay, so my health is not stellar, and I need to do a post-Lupron update soon. But, on the whole, I am happy and reasonably healthy and very little holds me back right now. Since college, I have always had to worry about my stomach or my period preventing me from working and playing... but that is not the case in the past 8 or so months since I started Lupron. I am definitely having post-Lupron complications (hello hot flashes!) but overall, I feel pretty darn good. Its awesome.



I think that will suffice for now... I could go into details, but that would take forever.

Really, I can think of only one thing that is SUPER bugging me right now...

Hiccups. I have been hiccuping for about 3 hours now. Its frustrating and making me a bit ill to the stomach. If anyone knows a magical cure, let me know. Rawr.

time flies...

Well, yeah, it has been quite awhile since I have written. However, I have been justifiably busy. Here is a (hopefully) quick summary of what has been up since I last wrote....

1. Jon and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary with a night *in*. We made salmon and rice and broccoli and watched a movie. We were supposed to go out to Gilmore's in West Chester, courtesy of my mom, but with all that was going on (settling the house, packing, painting, flooring), a night in was much more of a delight.

2. Speaking of moving.... In the second half of September, we chose, bought, and put in about 480 sq ft of laminate flooring into the first floor of our townhome. When I say we, I mean Jon, my dad, my brother, Jon's dad, and Kris. It looks fantastic. Note to anyone putting in laminate flooring - get yourself some silicon spray to lube the joints, it goes much faster. Now on this flooring, everyone seemed to think it would take no time at all... but it ended up basically taking the WHOLE WEEK. So while Jon and crew were busily working nearly every night, I was home packing. Another note - don't use a table saw INSIDE your house because you will find sawdust where there is no business being sawdust.
Also, before you put down flooring, you have to rip up carpet. I think you can learn a lot from someone when you rip up their carpet... like how often their aggressive bulldog had "accidents". Gross. I have also never seen so many staples in my life. Jon, Chris, and I spent a fun 2 hours pulling up staples from the floor. So, yes, this was a huge project, but it really really really looks great. I am very proud, and I think it has definitely added value to the house.
We also painted. And painted. And painted more. Fortunately, I have lovely wonderful friends to help... Yassara, Dan, Kris, Krista, Nick, Josh. Jon's parents and my parents were a super huge help as well. We definitely could not have done it without them.

3. Actual moving day was Sept 28th. Thank goodness for friends. I cannot say that enough. Lauren, Dave, Mike, Mary, Josh, Nick, Steve, Jenn, Aaron, Yassara, Dan, KC, Emily, my brother most especially.... gosh, we are just super super blessed people to have friends like you! And we owe you all, big time. We filled up a HUGE uhaul with a lift. I got to drive it. I can say with confidence that I never ever want to be a truck driver. Scary! But we did it, and it was great.

4. Since then, Jon and I have been moving in... except for the fact that he has been traveling nonstop. The Monday after we moved in, he went to Germany for a full week, up through Sunday. He has been to Vermont once, Arkansas twice, and I think one or two other places since then. That part has really sucked. While he was in Germany, me and his parents painted our new baseboards... which brings me to something else...

5. organization. We could not put stuff in their proper places until the furniture was in the right place. We could not put furniture in the right place until the baseboards were painted. AND until we actually bought furniture that we needed. IKEA made a fortune off of us as we bought a buffet table, a desk, two bookshelves, a side table for the kitchen, and a bunch of other odds and ends. Oh, and we had to then BUILD it. The buffet table took 3 hours. 3 hours!!! Sigh. Despite all of the work, things really are pulling together so this weekend we....

6. Moved Lily in! So far, so good. I am not sure it has really hit her yet that there is an "outside" to this place as well, but I think she will soon figure it out. I am just enjoying it day by day. She actually seems really happy so far, though she is relying on Jon and I a lot to comfort her. But she is totally lovey and purring and doing all the wonderful "Lily" things that she has not done in the year she has lived at home with Harvey and without me. Yay! This might put a slight kink in the works for Jon's future dog... but we were not going to address that for another year or so anyway, so we will see what happens.

7. In other good news, Leslie and Ben got married!!! The day was cold, to say the least, but the rain went away and it was sunny and gorgeous and the leaves were at the perfect level of change. Leslie looked gorgeous! I got to be the "matron" of honor, which is totally strange and makes me feel super old, but it was a lot of fun. We had a day at the spa and a night out at the bars. It just went really well and we had a blast catching up with high school friends. :) Good stuff. We are very happy for them both.

8. Probably the biggest thing that happened over the past two months is that my grandfather, Bud, passed away. His date was Spet 17th, 2009. Here is the obit.

Bud was a pretty cool guy. He served during WWII in the Navy and, as I found out at the funeral, was actually at D-Day. His job was to jump out of the boat on to the sand and open the doors for the troops storming the beach. He did this 6 times that day before an army officer commandeered him to be their radio operator. After that, he traveled across France and Germany with their unit. Note that he signed up to join the Navy shortly after my Aunt Pat was born, leaving his new wife and baby for nearly 2 years.
He loved dancing. He met my grandmother, Nan, at a wedding and from then on, they went to see every "big band" that came into the area. As the big band era died down, they turned to square dancing and joined the "Why Knots" group. They traveled quite extensively during this time.
My grandfather also started the Suburban Contractors Association. During this time, he also started Keller and Wolf Paving with his brother-in-law.

All that AND he had 8 kids.

In his later years, Bud loved to golf and play cards. He taught nearly all of us grandkids how to cheat and hide a few cards under your seat. :)

He is missed, though I absolutely believe that he is in Heaven and that this is but a short parting.

My mom is doing okay with it. There was a funeral in Florida as well as one up here two weekends ago. I was slated to sing Amazing Grace and I made it through the first verse. I then looked up to see my mom bawling. I could not make it through the rest. Although I am not incredibly sad about Bud's death (because, as I said, I know he is happy), it kills me to see my mom so sad. I just cannot deal with that. So I started crying, but I mostly reined it in at the end. Then, my cousin Pam and I were to do the intercessory prayers, and she started choking up, which got me too. I really hate seeing people sad... but the funeral was good overall.


Unfortunately, Nan is not doing so hot. She has been kinda sick and depressed. She has checked out, basically, and signs suggest that she will be gone soon too. Most likely, that will affect me more since I am closer to Nan and we have always had a link. My mom is down there this weekend visiting. I hope she makes it through Christmas just for my mom's sake. She is really not ready to lose both of her parents.



So that is what is up with me. I think I covered most of the majorly important events.

Time to work on the house again - we have rehearsal here tonight, so I want to make sure it is presentable!

new house

Okay, so life has been a little busy recently.

I know I did not finish summing up my alaska trip, so suffice it to say it was awesome and relaxing and I slept like the dead and it was absolutely wonderful.


But coming back to reality was been very rough.

The week after vacation was hard. We ended up driving home Friday night after we flew back. Got in at 3 am,but we were AWAKE! Sat was our hs reunion. Sunday I worked. I basically had Monday and Tuesday, but I ran around like a mad woman. Wednesday night we had auditions for Project Philly. Thursday, school started. We had inservices all day Thursday and Friday.... which any teacher knows are mind-numbingly exhausting. Why I need to listen to a local politician (who is on our board) discuss what he has done in office is beyond me.


Also, the allergy I have to this stupid apartment has come back in FULL. I have NO IDEA what it is that I am allergic to. The doc says some kind of wood. I think it might be the carpet. But I had it when I moved in (which was about this time of year) and I have it now. So I dont know if something flowers right now or if it came from the apt being shut up for a week and half. But DEAR LORD its come back with a vengence. :( Itchy eyes, itchy mouth, itchy tongue. I hate it.


The week after that (the week before labor day) had a few inservices, but was mostly time for us to work. It was busy. I have 4 classes this year and a total (so far) of about 200, maybe a bit less. I am creating new lessons for a Conceptual Biology class for students who have already failed Biology once. I am trying to amp up my Honors course. They have also upgraded our program this year so that its a bit different from last. The result is a bevy of technical issues that make it hard to do my job. Everything runs slowly, which is a problem.

Labor day weekend was... working. And shopping for flooring. Sigh. Labor Day Weekend we got to sleep in a bit, and we tried looking for flooring again, but apparently all floor shops observe Labor Day.

This week saw the return of the students. Moodle was incredibly lethargic, so it was tough to get any real work done. Every year, the kids seem younger to me. I held a chat and was amazed at the hormone-inspired hyperactivity. Sheer madness. The kids seem cool though and a lot of them are coming in with a really positive attitude, which helps. I love teaching, but I am feeling burnt out. I am pretty sure it is just the school environment. I am tired of my cube. I am tired of the isolation. When you teach kids in a classroom, you can sort of suck energy off of them when you are feeling tired. Not so online!

On Thursday, we settled on our house. It was flawless for the most part. It cost less than we thought it would, and we have more money than I thought we would when it was all over. THAT makes me feel very very comfortable. SoI am really pleased with that.



So with the convergence of all of these events... jet lag, allergies, school starting, buying a house, getting stuff done associated with moving.... my stomach is an absolute mess.

Tonight, in fact, I am supposed to be with Jon and our friends and family starting to paint. But no, I am here at home, feeling awful. I basically have not eaten much in the past three days, but everything is going straight through me. It sucks. I HATE knowing that people are helping us on our house and I am not there. Its a terrible feeling. :(


But I am doing my best to try not to stress. As usual, my brain does not feel stress, but my body does. I would much rather my brain be miserable than my stupid body. :(


Anyway, tomorrow we will hopefuly finish up the painting and at least that will be done. After that is just moving and organizing, which I am much more okay with. Oh, and the floors. But I think Jon picked out one that will work, we just have to see what the price ends up as. I keep telling myself it will get done, it will get done, it will get done. All in good time.


Deep breaths.

Alaska

Well, we made it to Alaska and back.

Apparently the weather last week was around 80 and sunny. During our trip, however, it was cold (like 55), rainy, foggy, and occassionally "sleety". Despite the less than perfect weather, it ended up being a really great trip. I will give you a brief summary of our days...

Wednesday: Jon and I drove to Baltimore for our flight at 8. It was a 5 hour flight with no problems, and though in our time we got there around midnight or so, on their time it was only 9:30. We probably got to the actual hotel around 11 and went to bed!

Thursday: Jon and I walked over to the Space Needle and took a look, then went into the Science Fiction Museum where they actually had a Jim Henson exhibit that ended two days afterwards! Lucky us! It was really awesome. We met up with Jon's parents and walked to Pike Place Market (in the rain) where we got dinner and gaped at the sights in the market itself. My parents arrived around 11 pm to the hotel room, but I was pretty much already asleep.

Friday: We took the fam to the Space Needle and all went up in it, then dropped our bags off at the ship. We then walked the Market a bit more and picked up some souvenirs. We got on the ship around 2:30. Jon and I quickly walked the whole ship, then at night we met up with everyone for dinner at 8:30.

Sat: At Sea. I spent a good two hours laying in the sun under two wool blankets soaking up the warmth. It was beautiful but around 63 and windy... still, very enjoyable. It was our formal night so we got all dressed up and went to specialty dining. It was delicious. I will post a pic of dessert at the end. MMmmmm.

Sunday: Ketchikan, AK and now 4 hours behind Philly. I sleep wonderfully on the ship, so it was great from that perspective. We zip lined through part of Tongass National Forest - a temperate rainforest. Beautiful. We did not see any bears or moose or anything unfortunately. Zip lining was a BLAST.

....

I think I will have to finish this later... there is a lot of packing and cleaning to do!

three weeks

And now, quite literally, there are 3 weeks left to summer. Why does time pass so quickly when you get older? When I was young, summer felt endless. And trust me, I loved going back to school. I anxiously awaited it. It always felt so far away. And now.... ugh. Back to work.

This summer has been the quickest in memory. I am not sure what exactly I did every day, but all of a sudden it was time for rehearsal again or time for working at the hospital again.

Our concert for project philly was last night. It went swimmingly. :) I am pretty sure it was the largest audience we have had in our 4 years. We also had a lot more going on than we have in years past. A guy from the Walnut Street Theatre came out and spoke to the audience about the scholarship fund we raise money for. Our lighting was cool. We webcasted it on our website. We sold ringer t shirts to the crowd. It was just neat to see how our organization is becoming... organized. Since I am on the board as membership manager (I screen interest calls, interview potentials, and send/track invites), its neat to feel like our dreadful once-a-month 3 hour board meetings are actually doing something. I am excited to hear how much money we raised. It is very cool that something which started out of our love for singing has turned into a sustainable group which will live on after we retire and is raising money for an awesome cause. Its great to be a part of that and a founding member, even if it makes me feel old. :)

The concert itself was great. I felt really good about Pink's sets. I had a solo... a song called Gravity by Sara Berellis (like I can spell her name!) and I felt so good and relaxed about it. That is the best - when you are confident that you can carry something off. I mean, I was nervously excited, but I was not worried about forgetting the lyrics or whether I could hit the high note. I was mostly concerned with making sure that I was showing emotion in my face and drawing the audience in to the lyrics. The song itself is about a girl who keeps going back to this guy that she knows is bad for her, but she thinks she is in love and in need, and she just cannot break away even though she knows he hurts her and is wrong for her. Yeah... you could say I empathized with the feeling. I was really lucky to get the solo because the girls in Pink are really talented. It was neat too because we had a lot of friends and family come out who have not heard me really sing before... let along something I felt comfortable singing. :) It felt really good. I was glad to be able to do it.

Music is a very wonderful gift. I can honestly say that my life has been shaped by it, and without it, absolutely everything would be different. I would be a completely different person.

In other news, I have been watching the interest rates fluxuate daily in the hope that it miraculously goes down again. Last week it was 5.375, but this week it jumped up to 5.625. Sigh. Its a gambling game, and if everyone could say a short prayer that it goes back down, I would appreciate it. ;)

We leave for Alaska on Wednesday. Technically, to Seattle, and our cruise leaves Friday. We are very excited and very happy to bring our parents along with us for the journey. For both sets, this is their first vacation in a very long time, and we think they will enjoy it. We were glad we could convince them to go. :) I am looking forward to the brisk weather and the ecology. I know that sounds totally nerdy... but I like seeing different biomes. Shrug.

Speaking of weather... its been beautiful the past two days and my brother says that this summer is in the top 5 for coolest PA summers ever. I do not mind. Yesterday I felt the spark of autumn, and that got me energized because I LOVE the fall. I mean, yes, going back to school is not fantastic, though it will be great to be with my work buddies again... but I just LOVE fall weather. I love the crispness and how blue the sky is and how the leaves turn and pumpkins and sweaters and mums and hay bales and apple pies and oooooh I just love it. :)

So anyway, thats kinda what has been going on. Now that Project is over, it feels like summer is kind of here... for three days at least, until we leave for vacation. :) Last week did not help the feeling that summer was missing - I worked every day. Boo.

And for today...... working at the hospital. Sigh. I guess summer will have to wait until Monday.