Growing babies!!

Busy life down here with the twins! Lots of feeding/changing/rocking/holding. :) They are wonderful! and growing every day. I was looking at pictures from when they were a day old and they've already changed so much. It's fun to be here to see it.

• Katz and I checked out some trails the other day. Walked/ran a couple of miles. It was on one of those days that wasn't 99 degrees and humid.
• Katz and I babysat tonight so mom and dad could go on a date. The babies slept the whole time.
• I haven't gotten lost at all :) There's construction here and there but I'm managing to find my way around anyway.
  

Life is good!

Keeping up

At this point I might be making up for being so sporadic with my postings during the school year. Yes, I realize I just wrote last night but why not two days in a row?

• I went to school to get some work done this morning. It was SO fun!!! This summer break is really good for me. It's helping me remember that I love teaching and I love history.
• An unexpected surprise in my classroom today: some sample books from a publisher, including some instructional materials. YEA! I love free stuff! The wheels are turning in my head about how I'm going to use them.
• I also finished filling out my (yearly) supply order form. After all of the pens, markers, papers, etc. I still had some money left for some sweet posters, maps, and other "fun" stuff. Now I can't wait until it all comes in so I can make my mark on my classroom. All year I had posters that the students made up all over. That's good and all, but this year my classroom is going to look like the idea I've had in my mind for the past few years. (I will leave some room for the students' posters.)
• The CAMP today!!! At one point there were fifteen girls there but by the time I was ready to go sauna, everyone else was gone. Weird. So I ate dinner and went sauna/swimming alone. It was peaceful being there by myself. It started to rain so I closed myself up inside and read some more of my book.
• Now I'm home and I'm supposed to be packing. I'll be gone for ten days so that's a lot of packing. I don't like packing. I'm not looking forward to it. I think I'm procrastinating. What do I need to bring? Did I mention I'm not fond of packing?
• I wake up a lot during the night (every hour and a half - or so) and last night I decided that everytime I woke up during the night, I'd get something done. So my room got semi-cleaned during the night hours. The only problem is now I don't know where everything is. Shoot.
• I get to go and see the babies tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

Life is good

I find myself saying that a lot lately. To myself or out loud to my friends. For the most part they agree with me. How great is it when this phrase goes through your mind/pops into your head multiple times a day?

Today was one of my favorite days of the whole year (and it is every year). I think I'm going hoarse from singing so much. It's so comforting and such an amazing feeling when people come from all over, the church is packed and hundreds of people are singing together. It's such a safe place - physically and mentally.



I'm trying to enjoy the sun without the harmful effects and be more cognizant of what the sun can do to me and my skin. I've been okay with sunscreen in the past, but definitely not where I should be. This is definitely high on my list of priorities for the summer. Today was a good start for me - my first beach day and I reapplied SPF 30 three times. I still got a little bit of color but didn't get burnt and I didn't stay in the sun for too long. Only about three hours. I'm thinking that by the end of the summer it'll be second nature (remembering to reapply, don't stay out for too long, etc), but I'm going to have to work to make it that way.

Happy Father's Day!!

This is kind of late, but a very HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all of you Dads out there! And a very special Happy Father's Day to my papa :)

Currently

• I'm heading back to see M & E and the babies on Tuesday.
• I'll be there for ~10 days to help out.
• Reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It was recommended to me by a friend and so far I'm really enjoying it. I usually stay away from historical fiction that is from a time period before the 1800s. This one's from the Middle Ages and it's GOOD!
• I volunteered this morning at a bike race.
• Had a wonderful bonfire last night. I'm not always excited about them because sometimes you don't have the best wood and the fires are smoky and not warm. Last night's was hot and the smoke went in one direction so I was happy :)
• Less than four hours of sleep last night. I'm not so young anymore but I'm actually doing pretty well!
• Going camping for the fourth of July. I know that's pretty far off but I'm packing for it this weekend since I'll be out of town until the day we go camping.
• Life is good!!

Dad

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you're enjoying your day today with your brand new grandsons!

Katie!

If you see her or check out her blog, wish this special girl a HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY!!

Hope it's a good one, Katie!

Happy Sweet 26th!!

I know it's late, but it is still the 16th and I've been thinking about this girl all day today. If you have a chance, wish her a HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY!!

Love you, Kel! Hope it was a great one!

Wonderful, wonderful!

Michelle and Ed had twin baby boys yesterday morning! Mom and babies are doing well. :)

I got to meet them this morning and they take my breath away. I am in such wonder of them!

Six cousins at the beautiful lake!

Getting a good self-timer picture, it turns out, wasn't that easy. See?

Marcia moved home from Colorado, so we celebrated her homecoming by going to our favorite place in the world.

There we go. Not even that great because we aren't really in focus. But I still like it. What a beautiful lake, hey?! We're so lucky!! We went sauna and swimming (my second time of the summer) and it made me want to sing. So my sister Kristin and I sang. :)

Goals - A working list for this month

• Start master's degree (I've been accepted and assigned an advisor, chosen a program) - actually, take a step back: map out my master's degree, then I can start.
• Get serious about house-hunting!
• Work on scrapbooks that have been neglected since last summer
• Plan my Connecticut trip ~ June 22 - 27. Not sure if I'm going to fly or drive. Going around and around on that. It's cheaper to drive but obviously takes a lot more time. And it's not cheaper by much. Thoughts?
• Purge! Go through my collections and get rid of things. This one is going to feel really good.
• Get some work done at school. As you can see, this isn't high on my list... I'm not ready to do anything serious there yet.

Figuring out a schedule

As you can probably tell from the recent onslaught of new posts, I'm definitely on vacation. The first week was really nice. Lots of relaxation, errands, things from my to-do list that were put off since March (I'm exaggerating. a little bit.), some exercise, a trip; "anything goes" type of thing.

Now I'm back, it's week 2 of 14 weeks off, and I'm craving a schedule. I definitely haven't been sitting around; I've gotten lots accomplished. But now I'm kind of unbalanced thinking about 12 weeks without a (daily) schedule.

Any ideas for me?

A few more for fun

On the road again.... :)

Our trip home today (which took 8.5 hours on the way there) took about 12.5 hours. It wasn't a "drive home." It was an adventure. We stopped to shop. To eat. To zip-line. To climb a 40-foot climbing wall. To hike in the woods. To cross a hanging bridge. To explore a waterfall and some caves. To go out for coffee. To enjoy some outdoor parks.

One of the best trips home I've ever had! What a great Sunday :)

Tigers 1, Angels 2

Just a few of the many, many pictures I took at the Tigers game on Friday night. They lost 2-1 but it was a great game!!

Hoping this guy will be playing tonight!

My favorite subject

Maybe I should rename my blog "Life with Wesley" ... or something like that.

Evidence

After work one day last week a few of us were outside ripsticking. I'm pretty proud that I mastered it!! Now I just want to learn how to do something cool on it - like jump.

Let me know if you want a free lesson sometime.