Sunday, January 20, 2008

Where is the time going?

Hello everyone! I am so sorry I haven't updated lately. Things around here have been crazy. We had a great New Year's Eve. We had several families over for the evening. We played the DVD version of Family Feud, ate, and the kids played and hung out in the basement. We all made it up until the New Year, kids and all. Of course, the next day we were exhausted and happy to stay home and relax.

Suddenly, it was the 3rd, and time for me to go back to school. It has been a tough adjustment, as I enjoy my time at home with the boys. Maybe someday I will find a job that allows me more time at home. Who knows. Anyway, nothing exciting happened until we had the National Championship Party at our house. Of course, we were disappointed that Ohio State lost. It was fun, nonetheless, to have about twelve people in our garage, watching it on the "big screen" Derrick had rigged up with his stereo system and the projector. I guess it's all about the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, we have had two deaths since the New Year. First, baby Victoria Rodriguez was in recovery from another open heart surgery on the 7th, and she didn't make it. Derrick had come home from being at Children's Hospital all day to watch the game, and Victoria's grandma called him around 12:30 a.m. to ask if he could come back to be with the family because Victoria had died. As if God didn't think that was enough for Derrick to deal with, Pastor Dave Reiman from a neighboring church lost his battle with cancer this last week.

Just when we were hoping our lives would slow down, I am looking forward to this week and either Derrick or I or both of us have something several nights this week. At least I don't have school tomorrow. The boys are so cute lately! I can't believe they are going to be five next month. They came home from school last week acting like seals, barking and flapping flippers, since they are learning about artic animals in school lately. They are so into their trains again lately. We are looking forward to Wednesday when our new furniture will be delivered. Derrick has been wanting some new furniture for the basement, and we found some. We gave my cousin and her husband our used furniture for their house they are moving into this weekend, and now we are down to a couch and a recliner upstairs and a recliner downstairs. Good thing we all like each other, as we will be snuggling on the couch the next few nights before the furniture comes.

This weekend I took my seventh and eighth grade Power of the Pen teams to the district tournament in Tiffin. . Power of the Pen is an interscholastic writing tournament. The kids are given a prompt and forty minutes to develop it into a story. Then, they are judged and their writing is assigned points. There are about twelve schools that compete, so that's about a hundred kids or so. The seventh graders came in third in the team awards, and I had two girls come in second and third place amongst the seventh graders. It was very exciting! I am very proud of them.

Stay warm!