It's February already?! What happened to January? Didn't we just start back to school after Christmas break? What do you mean we only have 15 weeks of school left!?

Sadly, I don't think I'm the only person in this predicament. By setting some goals for myself (exercise more and eat less; take a few self-enrichment classes) I've let blogging and some of my reading (GASP!) go by the way side. (What does that phrase mean anyway?)

Never fear--new schedule do require some juggling of responsibilities, and I almost have the juggling down pat.

I've started getting up a bit earlier (YUCK!), much to the chagrin of all who know me, as I am NOT a morning person and am usually ready to crash by about 10 am. (I still think we should have nap time for adults. Don't they call them siestas in Mexico? I wonder if the new Pres. would jump on board that bandwagon? After all, if would save companies millions by having production jump because everyone would be rested and refreshed after their nap. Hmmmm....what's the email for the White House again?) As you can read, my thoughts tend to jump from random thought to random thought when I don't have much sleep, which leads me to my second change.

I'm starting to go to bed earlier. I must admit, I usually crawl into bed when the light is still shining, but because I'm taking a class once a week that doesn't get out until 9pm, and I'm going to a Bible Study which lets out at the same time, I try to "catch up" on my sleep the other days of the week.

Reading tends to happen right before bed--usually after I've gone out for a walk and taken a nice steamy shower. Eating dinner has been interesting the last couple of weeks because it's been almost impossible to eat before 6pm. (My self-imposed deadline for dinner.) Needless to say, I've had to stock up on "healthier" foods like yogurt and fruit to eat instead of my usual cheese lasagna or spaghetti. (Yes, Garfield and I could be twins--with the exception of the whole cat/human thing.)

After reading over what I've written so far, I've decided that I am in desperate need of caffeine. Have a great day!

I'm Still Standing...

but it sure has been a whirlwind week and weekend!

Sunday, my aunt and I decided to go see Phantom. It was fabulous!

Monday, I decided to take a personal day off of work to try and get some things done for Christmas. (I'm trying to make my presents this year.)

Tuesday was Veteran's Day, so we had the day off of work too. I used this day to finish reading A Thousand Splendid Suns for our book club. Thank you to those who served and are still serving our country so that I am able to do all of the things I enjoy with my freedom!

Wednesday was a crazy day at work. I don't even think we stopped for lunch. Then, I had to leave half way through the day to attend a Media Meeting across town for the remainder of the day. Most of it was with a conference call with a sales rep who wasn't interested in answering our questions, she just wanted to sell her product. Quite annoying, really.

Thursday was a crazy day as well, but it was also our Faculty Thanksgiving Luncheon. Our Culinary department made the food--I wonder if they're free for Thanksgiving? The chorus group-Special Request-performed while we were eating, and the Art Department had artwork displayed like a gallery. It was wonderful to actually sit down and talk with the teachers because we only see them if they set foot in the library.

Once I finished with lunch, I had to type up notes for our Reading Leadership Meeting that afternoon. Since my cohort was attending so I could go to our Book Club, I had to type up the things we needed to discuss and to beg for money for programs we want to have in the library.

After school, we had our Book Club meeting to discuss A Thousand Splendid Suns. It was actually a great look into the life that women live in the Middle East. There were moments when I couldn't put the book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next to the main characters.--Don't worry, there's a happy ending. :)

Friday was awesome! Maybe because it was the end of the week, I don't know, but the day flew by. Of course we were extremely busy--I had to eat my soup while checking email--so that may have helped.

After work, I came home and changed so that we could go to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) Concert! My aunt came over after she got off of work, so we (my aunt, dad, and I) had to wait for my Mom to get home. I actually made sure I had the tickets before we left (I almost forgot the Phantom tickets last Sunday) and we braved traffic to get the what was formerly known as the Ice Palace.

Since we were supposed to meet several of my friends from work at the local watering hole, I hopped on the cell phone to see where they happened to be. Since they were around the corner from us, I sent the rest of my family to The Hut to grab a table for all of us. While waiting for Mary and her husband to round the corner, I decided to put my money and cards together so that I wouldn't lose them out of my pockets, when lo and behold, I realized that I no longer had the concert tickets. Trying not to completely lose it, I ran to get the car keys from my dad and high-tailed it back to the car. Thankfully they had fallen in the seat when I pulled out money to pay for parking. So, thanking God that they were still there, I ran back to The Hut to grab a bite to eat.

Scarfing down my food, we made it to the "Ice Palace" (now called the St. Pete Times Forum--which is STUPID since St. Pete is across the Bay, but, whatever....) and found our seats. Let me tell you--I've followed TSO since their Savatage days--when they were pretty much born here in the Tampa Bay area. This is the first concert I've actually been too and it ROCKED! It had the music, laser lights, fire, and fireworks! Plus, gorgeous singers with outstanding voices!

With 22 people in your band--you know there's going to be a lot of things happening onstage at once. They even took some of our local talent to play with them on the stage. (How cool is that?!)

If you ever get a chance to see TSO--definitely go! You will not be disappointed by their performance!

After getting home REALLY late Friday, I had to get up early on Saturday for my PNE class. I also had a test that I had to pass so that I can officially evaluate new teachers. YIKES! No pressure there...Thankfully, I find out the results on Tuesday, and since it's one of our teachers teaching the class, I'm going to try hard not to bug her until then.

When I finally finished my exam Saturday afternoon, I came home prepared to take a nap before searching for items for the Poetry Jam this coming Friday. Instead, I was so exhausted, that I decided to change into my jammies and curl up with a good book. However, my niece burst in a while later and said that she was learning to knit and that she wanted to make Nanny something for Christmas. So, I was up and in the other room, cheering her on while she learned to knit--something I have no idea how to do!

I think she's doing rather well, considering she hasn't done it before. We'll see how long it takes for her to "make Nanny's present."

Today was church. Since she was dressed in her "princess" dress, people kept stopping us all afternoon when we went to Sam's Club to pick up stuff for the Poetry Jam. I think we would have been in and out in under an hour, but with all of the stops and the "free samples" that she wanted to try, we were there for almost three hours! (No wonder we were famished when we came out!) Our plan was to eat at Chic-fil-a since they're right there in the same parking lot, but when we went to pull through the drive-through, we realized that they were closed since it's Sunday. Oops! We went to Mickey D's instead because it was close as well. We had both wolfed down half of our lunch before we made it the mile back to the house.

While it was a roller coaster of a week, I'm glad to know that I'm still standing...so far. :)

Look Out! She's Got a Gun!

And I'm not afraid to use it! (At least on the target range at the farm.)


Yesterday was our bi-annual family reunion up at the farm. It was overcast and cloudy for most of the day, but God held the rain off until after everyone left and we were headed home.

As we said the blessing for the food we had about 32 people there, but about 15 more people showed up later in the day.

You see, our family is all about the food. If there's food around, we're there! My mom made her famous Calico Beans and her yummy Pasta Salad! (Who says she can't cook?!) My uncle Charlie drove over from Texas and made his spicy chili--which a lot of people stayed away from because he made it "too spicy." (Is that even possible?) There were some people that even made a couple batches of deviled eggs--YUM! The best part for me however, were the desserts! Brownies, cake, cookies, doughnuts...the list goes on and on. Yep--I ate way too much (as usual), but it was nice to see everyone again.

Even the people that aren't related, but decided to stop by and enjoy the food. Does anyone know who these people are? (Just kidding--they're friends of my parents!--I think. )

There was a zip line for the kids (think James Bond, only close to the ground), water balloons (supposedly a toss, but it was really a time to chase the little ones with water balloons), rides in the golf cart and the mule (of which I almost fell out of), volleyball games, finding money in the haystack, and of course, when everyone left--the gun range.

(My 7 y.o. niece also learned how to drive the golf cart--pretty scary if you're trying to hang on the back and not drop your camera, or fall off.)

Hayley decided that she wanted to shoot a gun at the targets, so after a brief safety training with Grandpa, she was able to shoot a couple of rounds. While she doesn't quite understand the concept of looking through the scope to line up your shot, she was still happy to have pinged the metal targets a couple times--with Grandpa's help.