Spring Break: Day 5

What I accomplished:
1. Washed the dog - he stunk
2. Played wii with the boy - tennis (1-1) and bowling (77 + 1 strike)
3. Ate bbq for lunch
4. Planted wildflower seeds
5. Mowed the front lawn
6. Went to Walmart
7. Picked up dinner and went to my parents
8. Did the 10 minute Pilate Abs video with Steve (very funny!!)

Only one of the things today was on my "official" spring break list. I will have to try to cram the rest in before we leave for Minnesota on Thursday.

Sad day....but glad day!!

So once again I am reminded that God is ultimately in control and he knows what is best for us and works it for our good. Originally, Steve and I were going to go to Minnesota to visit my grandmother this weekend. My Aunt Del and Uncle Wally from Arizona were going to be there and we were going to visit with them while and visit my grandmother in the nursing home. But back in February we got a phone call saying that my grandmother wasn't doing too well, so we decided to go right away instead of waiting. My dad was able to go with us at that time. We were so excited for her to be able to see Josiah. It wasn't the best visit. She was having a really hard time and couldn't move much. The last day we were there, she did visit with us for an hour and a half, doing the best that she could to communicate. She smiled several times and always asked for Josiah: "Where's that baby??" After we came home, my dad called the nursing home several times and they said that she seemed to be doing better after our visit.

My dad called last night to let me know that my grandma passed away. She died about 7:00 last night. It is ironic to think that we were going to be there then. It definitely would have been very traumatic for me. I want to remember my grandmother for the summer that I spent with her and my grandpa on the farm when I was 12. It was so much fun. I learned to drive the tractor, played countless games of Yahtzee with my grandpa, and followed my grandma around doing everything I could to help her.

During our visit in February, my grandma kept asking me about our new house. She called it "That big house". It probably seemed kind of incredible to her for me to talk about a house with five bedrooms and five bathrooms. They had a house with three small bedrooms upstairs and a porch that they turned into a master bedroom. For the longest time there was no bathroom in the house, but they did finally get one. It only had a tub, not a shower. They had 11 children too. I don't think that all of them lived there at the same time. I think the most they had were 9 living there at one time. But all the same, it is pretty amazing to me that they all fit. I was thinking this morning as I was cleaning that now she will have her own "Big house" in heaven and she is also reunited with my grandpa. I know that she missed him very much. It is sad to think that I now have no living grandparents, but I am rejoicing to know that they are all in heaven. I am also thankful to God for working it out for me to see her in February.

Spring Break: Days 3 and 4

Yesterday was day 3. I went to the mall in the morning to return the dress that I bought on day 2. After eating lunch at the food court, I walked around the mall for an hour and a half. Other than a lot of exercise, I came home with nothing. Once I got home, I alternated doing things around the house and working on my tennis ranking on the wii. I was finally able to get it up to pro level. Steve is still several hundred points ahead of me, so I still need some work before I will be able to beat him.

We dropped the boy off at my parent's house around 5:30 and we went to eat at Zeko's in Mocksville. Steve had a stromboli and I had chicken fettucine alfredo. Both were very good. That was the first time we had ever eaten there. I am sure we will go back again soon!! :)

After Zeko's we went to Food Lion to buy food for the boy. He eats seven, yes SEVEN, containers of baby food a day, not including cereal and formula/b-milk. He is definitely an expensive habit, but I think we will keep him! After Food Lion we decided to check out Peebles. We had never been there either. Once again, I walked around for a long time and found nothing. Steve, on the other hand, scored a jacket, jeans, shirt and a belt. We also bought one outfit for the boy.

Day 3 complete. Day 4 begins....

This morning I packed up Josiah and we went to Clayton, NC to visit my friend Becky that just had her baby last week. It was a lot of fun seeing her and her sweet little one. Josiah was good until we got there and then he started getting squealy, a sure sign that his teeth are bothering him. I gave him some tylenol at her house and he seemed to settle down. On the way home he slept for about the first hour. Then he screamed for 30 minutes straight and since I was driving on I-40 in rush hour traffic there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. Finally, traffic wasn't so heavy and I was able to feel around and find his pacifier and put it in his mouth. (Dangerous to do while driving, I know!! What other option did I have??) He went back to sleep but woke up screaming at least two more times before we got home. Granted, the screaming spells were not as long as the first one, but I was getting pretty tired of that sound by this time.

After a quick dinner with Steve and a change of clothes, we made Josiah a character on the wii and he played his first game of bowling. (He did try tennis the other night under a guest). Here are the pictures and him proudly pointing out his score of 43.

Spring Break: Day 2

So yesterday I went to the mall with Chris and Grace. We had a pretty good time shopping. The only problem is I am really hard to shop for. I have trouble finding pants that fit. I am very picky and then I have a husband who doesn't always like the things that I buy. That is okay. I want him to be "Wow" when he sees me in my new clothes, and if he isn't then I am not happy. I was one for two yesterday. First of all I bought a coral colored sweater from Old Navy. That was a hit! The dress from JC Penney....well, let's just say that I returned it this morning. That is okay. I am going to Concord Mills next week and maybe I will find something better. I liked the dress, but it wasn't really "WOW" for me either.

Lunch was Chipotle. I really like the vegetarian fajita burrito. I think I might be getting addicted. Since eating lunch at Chipotle several times is on my list of things to accomplish over Spring Break, I think I need to go at least two more times in the next week and a half. Isn't several at least three??? I hope so....I need an excuse!! :)

Last night some people from our Life Group at church came over. It was a lot of fun. We played the wii, foosball, pool and ate ice cream. I was able to give Sarah her "surprise" for Isaac. It was a pair of Nike tennis shoes. He looks so cute in them!! :)

Well, I had better go finish doing whatever Day 3 has for me....more updates later!

Spring Break: Day 1

So it is 4:30 of my first day of spring break. I have accomplished 25% of my goals already. I am thrilled. Of course, they were the easy ones to accomplish. Some of the others will take a little bit more work.

I went par 3 golfing this morning with Robin and Matt. It was a lot of fun. We pushed the little man around in his stroller. About halfway through, he just fell asleep. I think he had fun being out in the fresh air. As for the golf, I finished with an 84, just 2 strokes ahead of Matt. Robin had around 103 which I thought was good for her since she had never been golfing before.

After golf, we went to Sarah's for a little while to visit. Sarah played with Josiah while I got to hold sweet Isaac. The poor little guy had his shots yesterday so he wasn't feeling too good. Josiah had a great time meeting their dog Lucy! I didn't know I was going to go over there, so unfortunately the surprise for Isaac was here at home. Hopefully I will see them tomorrow night and be able to give it to Sarah then. I am about to POP!

After Sarah's we ran by the YMCA here in Mocksville and signed the boy up for swimming lessons. They start on April 7th. I can hardly wait. He is going to look so cute in his little Gap swimming trunks. I know, it isn't all about the fashion!! But he will be cute nonetheless.

Now I need to get busy getting the house straightened up!! I am enjoying the time off from school. We will see what tomorrow brings....more later!

Spring Break

It has officially begun....Spring Break. I get two whole weeks off from school. The Juniors and Seniors that are in my home ec. class are leaving in the morning for their class trips so I have no one to teach for the rest of the week. Next week is the official spring break and then I also have Easter Monday off. It is gonna be great!! What am I going to do with all my time, you ask?

Well, hopefully I will...

1. Go to Clayton, NC to visit my friend that just had a baby.
2. Get my wildflower seeds planted.
3. Go shopping at Concord Mills.
4. Get caught up on grading and lesson plans.
5. Go par 3 golfing at Tanglewood.
6. Go bike riding around Salem Lake.
7. See my friend Sarah who I have not seen in forever! (I especially need to see her since I have a special surprise for Isaac!!)
8. Cook a new dish that I have never made before.
9. Eat lunch at Chipotle several times.
10. Sign Josiah up for swimming lessons at the YMCA
11. Spend some quality time with my sweet hubby Steve
12. Clean out my closet

Anyway, as you can see, I have plans. Now we will have to see how much of it gets carried out. I will keep you informed.

Piano Prodigy

We had company for dinner tonight. After dinner and before going to bed Josiah gave his first public concert on the piano. He played a little bit sitting on my lap. His playing is more like pounding, but we call it playing nonetheless. After a couple of minutes, he had to pause to turn the page. Then he started playing again. After a round of applause, he switched and sat on daddy's lap for a while. He then proceeded to "play" up and down the keyboard as Steve slid across the bench. Then Steve began playing "Heart and Soul" and Josiah joined in for the closing duet! After another round of applause and a bow, Josiah headed to bed where he is now sleeping. One of these days I will get his piano playing on video and hopefully post it here. It is hilarious!!

Fearrington House

Steve's work hit a milestone. I can't remember what milestone it is, but to celebrate they took us to the Fearrington House in Chapel Hill last night. It is the only five star restaurant and hotel in North Carolina. We arrived around 5:30, checked in and quickly headed to a cocktail reception in the "Garden House". They had some hors d'orves there. One was salmon with a dill sauce on a cracker and the other was duck and some kind of sauce on the cracker. My favorite was the salmon. I tried not to eat too many because dinner was coming and I didn't want to ruin my appetite. At 7:00 we moved to the Fearrington House restaurant where the 14 of us were escorted to an upstairs room. When we sat down at the table, I took a good look at my place setting. There were four different glasses to drink out of and three different sets of silverware. It was pretty amazing. I am glad we studied table setting in Home Ec. this year and hoped that I remembered what everything was for! We started off with a roll, either white or cheddar and chive. I opted for the cheddar and chive. It was delicious! Then we all had a small, and I do mean small, cup of potato and leek soup with diced apple on top. It was absolutely fabulous. That was definitely one of my favorite courses of the evening, along with dessert. The next course we had a choice of Ceasar Salad or poached trout with horseradish potato salad and caviar dressing. I opted to try the trout. I decided since I wasn't paying for it, I should taste things that I wouldn't ordinarily try. Besides, Steve was not feeling too well, so he only ate a few bites of each of his courses. So I not only got to taste mine, but his as well. Each time he ordered the opposite from me so it worked out well. Anyway, back to the trout. It definitely wasn't my favorite, but I did like the horseradish potato salad. I decided I wasn't up for trying the caviar dressing that was put around the plate as a garnish. Some things are a little bit too much for me. The next course was quite tasty. It was a seared scallop on top of a bed of risotto and goat cheese with a rhubarb sauce around it. That was followed by a stew made with salmon and mussels. Once again, I opted out of tasting the mussels. Steve had some asparagus with an egg on top and some hollandaise sauce. For the main dish I had Sea Bass with some kind of corn cake or polenta thing in the middle and vegetables around it. Steve had beef filets and a potato cake. By this time, Steve really wasn't feeling well, so he left to go back to the room to lay down. Carolina was playing at 10:00 and he wanted to be able to stay up and watch the game with all of us. I decided not to let the waiter know that Steve had left because I wanted to try his dessert when it came. I am glad I did!! I ordered the chocolate lava cake with pistachio ice cream on it. It was very good. But then I tasted Steve's banana tart with rum ice cream. It was out of this world! I ate every bite of it! I told Steve later that I was sorry he didn't feel well, but I was very thankful he left because I loved his dessert!! After we were finished with this two and a half hour meal, we all went back to our rooms and changed quickly. We then met in the "Red Room" to watch Carolina play. I have to admit I was really worried most of the game, but fortunately they were able to pull it off in the end! After the game, we said goodnight and headed off to bed.
This morning, we woke up around 8:3o and started getting ready. Breakfast ended at 9:30 and we wanted to make sure we were going to make it. We got there with 10 minutes to spare. Steve had the usual, eggs, bacon(only I ate the bacon) and hashbrowns with a side of fruit. I had pancakes with caramel bananas on top. Yummy! I am sure that I probably weigh a few pounds more than I did before this weekend. Although, the scale in our room actually said I was about 4 pounds lighter than I was before I came!! Hmmm....sounds suspicious to me!!
Anyway, after a quick trip to the bookstore to buy a puzzle for little man, we headed home! It was so nice to see Josiah again. This was our first night away from him! I think he was excited to see us too. He thought the puzzle was very tasty and that made us happy!
We have company coming tonight and then tomorrow is Steve's dad's birthday so the family will all be here for that. Squeeze in church and then school Monday and I am going to be ready for a break!! Fortunately, starting Tuesday I have two weeks off. Maybe, just maybe, I will get a chance to stop and breathe...or at least post a blog every now and then! :)

Baby Free

This is a totally weird experience. I am here in the house with just the dog. No Baby. Josiah is with my parents at the moment. I dropped him off with my mom when I went to school. I had talked with her last night about watching him this evening while Steve and I go to get our hair cut. She said that she and my dad would be happy to watch him. I asked her if she wanted to keep him all afternoon or if she wanted me to drop him off at six when we left. She said she wanted him all afternoon. So here I am, all alone. With the dog. I don't know what to do with myself. I might take a walk out to the mailbox. I might try to improve my tennis ranking on the wii. Who knows. What a strange feeling.

March Madness Volume 1

Thursday night I went to the NCAA tournament games at the Coliseum. My brother Sam went with me because for some reason we couldn't find a babysitter to come stay until 1:00 in the morning! :) Steve decided to stay home with the boy and he spent the evening watching the games and playing the wii with some friends from church.
I started the evening off right with a double dip of cookies and cream in a waffle cone followed by a large mountain dew. Yes, the diet went out the window. Sam nicely shared his nachos and cheese with me later and I knew I was doomed.
The first game was very interesting. Marquette and Michigan State were playing. Marquette did not score for the first nine and a half minutes of the game. When they finally did score, everyone cheered. I felt kind of bad for them. Then one of the Michigan State players dislocated his elbow. He wasn't too far away from where we were sitting. It kind of made me sick to my stomach to see him squirming on the floor and screaming in pain. They covered his arm with a towel and then escorted him off the court to a round of applause.
The best part of the evening was whenever they would show the score to the Duke/VCU game. If Duke was winning, everyone would boo. If VCU was ahead everyone would cheer. They stopped updating the score when there was 15 seconds left. They guys behind me were desperately trying to get the play by play on their cell phones. I finally called Steve and he told me there was 1.8 seconds left and Duke, down by two, had called time out. I told the guys behind me and they got excited. "She's got it live!" they kept saying. Steve gave me the play by play down to "They missed their shot. Game over!" I was so excited. By this time the mountain dew had kicked in and I was jumping up and down. When they finally announced the score over the loud speaker the crowd erupted in one great cheer! It was incredible.
Then Carolina came out to play. They played great the first half, but seemed to lose some of their intensity the second half. This was proved by the fact that EKU got within four points. Not to worry though, the Tarheels finally stepped it up and ended up winning the game convincingly. There was a lady from EKU that kind of looked like a body builder. She screamed and screamed at the referees the entire game. She kept telling them to get in the game. She went through a multiple amount of water bottles. I was surprised she could even talk at the end. Then there were the guys that were painted burgundy with the cut out basketballs on their heads. All in all, there were several amusing people to watch near us.
After a great night, I came home wired from the caffeine. I stayed up til 2:30 working on notes for school on how to do your laundry. Was it worth it? I would definitely say yes.

My Vegetarian Diet

Okay, so today is Tuesday. I decided last Wednesday that I was going to eat vegetarian for a week. I have done very good. I haven't had dairy products except for a little bit of sour cream and cheese at Qdoba twice. I have also not had any meat. Duh! That is the whole idea of being vegetarian. I have lost about 3 pounds during this process and really, other than being hungry more often than I normally am, it hasn't been all that bad. Tomorrow I am free. I can choose whether or not I will eat meat again. What will I do?? I will eat meat and cheese. I love them too much to give them up completely. But I am sure I will be eating healthier from now on out. Especially if it will help me to get back to my pre-Josiah weight. I only have 4 more pounds to go!! :)

8 months

Josiah was 8 months old yesterday. It is so hard to believe. Just last year at this time, I was just starting to really show. Now my little man is two-thirds of a year old. He is cute as a button though and quite entertaining. We are definitely blessed of God to have him as our child. Here is his cute eight month picture for his photo frame.

Mug Shot

We are going to Alaska on a cruise in July. Because we are stopping in Canada, we all have to have passports. Steve and I already have one, so we just needed to get one for Josiah. We went today to Kinkos and had his passport picture made. They didn't even want to try because he was a baby and they said they didn't think that it would turn out right. Steve convinced them to try and told them that we would pay for it even if it was bad. It actually turned out okay. It looked a little bit like a mug shot. Pretty funny considering he is only 8 months old. He looked a little bit yellow in the picture too. I guess I have been feeding him too much squash and carrots. We finally got everything sent off and it should be back in about 10 weeks. Pretty silly considering that in a year or two from now he isn't going to look anything like his picture!! Oh well, as the lady in the passport office said, if the government requires infants to have passports and make them good for five years, then it is their responsibility to honor them even when the kids don't look the same anymore!! :)

So maybe it is believable

I decided to measure the distance between my mailbox and our front door today. I used the odometer in the truck as I was coming home. It wasn't quite as far as I thought. It is only a quarter mile (maybe a little shy of that). So, yesterday I really only ran a half a mile. It seemed a lot longer than that, maybe because it was so cold out and my lungs were burning. I guess you would really be impressed if I ran it twice without stopping. I will have to get working on that!! :)

I don't believe it

I can hardly believe it, and you might not either. I actually got myself out of bed this morning and ran all the way to the mailbox and back. I only stopped for a break when I was getting the mail out of the box. I thought I was going to die when I got home because my lungs hurt so bad. My breathing is definitely horrible and I need to work on it a bit. Hopefully I will get better at it and more in shape and before long be able to run the whole loop of our driveway a couple of times without stopping. The beach is coming in June and I need to be ready for it!!

First tooth (teeth) shot

So today the boy is eating his dinner. He was making silly faces so of course I had to pull out the camera. I took this picture and it is the first official picture we have with his teeth showing, so I thought I would share it.

In other news, we went on a playdate with Sarah and Isaac to the mall. The boys were a little bit shy around each other. I think they just need a little bit of time to get to know each other and they will feel a bit more comfortable. Before you know it they will be running around acting like a couple of heathens! (Whatever heathens act like.) It was a fun time and both boys were pretty well behaved.

Did I ever tell you that I don't like Duke??

All I have to say here is this: Maybe my mom has been right all these years when she has told me that Duke practices trying to make dirty plays look accidental. Whether Henderson knocking Hansbrough in the face was "accidental" or not, I think that they were right to eject him from the game and suspend him from the next one. Players should do their best to be responsible and not let themselves get out of control in a way that they could hurt others. I know that they can get frustrated sometimes at the end of games when things aren't going they way they are supposed to, but everything should be done to keep people safe on the court. Those are my thoughts....right or wrong.

Old Friends

Saturday night Steve and I drove to Mebane to see a friend of mine that I had not seen in 8 years. She is a Hungarian girl that is from Romania. I met her when she had come to the States to learn some English. This was probably around 13 years ago. When I was in Romania one summer I saw her there and spent some time with her. There was an American guy who was a missionary there that was interested in her. She was interested in him too, but her parents were not for the relationship, so she called it off. The guy came back home and she started dating someone else. She was almost engaged to the Hungarian guy, and the American guy heard that she WAS engaged. He got on a plane and went over there to convince her that she should not marry the Hungarian guy, but him instead. Her parents finally agreed to this, and they had a civil ceremony in Hungary. They flew back here to the States. She called me on a Wednesday and asked me to be in her wedding that Saturday. That was 10 years ago in December.

Steve, Josiah and I had a nice visit with Erika and her husband and two kids. Hopefully they will be coming here soon to visit us. Then we will have more time to catch up.

And we have cake!! (Finally!!)

So, I am way behind on my blog, so I am going to attempt to go back and recreate the events of the last few days since some of the things that have happened are quite significant. This is the post that should have been on Friday. I made icing once more and took it to school. The kids finished decorating their cakes and then everyone voted for their favorites. Take a look at the cakes. The kids did a wonderful job!! The winner will be posted below.

After the cakes were judged we tore into them. The fish cake went the fastest. I think because it was strawberry. We had so much cake we were handing it out to whoever would walk by. At the end a couple of kids took home at least a half a cake each. Unfortunately though, I will have to make icing one more time on Monday for those who have not finished their decorating practice. But after that, it will be no more and I will be one happy home ec. teacher.

The winner was: Spongebob!!

Today has been....well, today.

The day was just another ordinary day. Getting up, feeding the boy, giving him a bath, eating lunch, etc. .... I went to school this afternoon and I ended up running out of icing for the cakes. That meant that once again tonight I had to break out the Crisco and powdered sugar and hopefully for the last time mix three batches of icing. Tomorrow they are supposed to finish their cakes and then some of them have some practicing they have to finish which I am hoping will be done by Monday. I was so tired after school I came home and took a nap. I am not sure if it was because I stayed out til 11:00 last night or if it is due to other things. The boy has been grumpy tonight. We put him in bed a little bit after 8:00 and every 15 minutes or so he starts whining. We go check on him and his eyes are closed. I think he must be teething or something. It could be a really long night. And there he goes again....

Helmet Update

Yesterday we decided to update Josiah's helmet. Ashley from church brought us some Carolina stickers for him so we finally put them on his helmet. I think he likes wearing it even more now. He is a proud Tarheel fan. He can hardly wait until Sunday to wear all of his Carolina stuff with his helmet for the UNC/Duke game. (okay, okay, it is me that can hardly wait....I admit it!!) :)