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I Made Her Laugh!!!

Some of you know how much I'm in love with Kelle Hampton's blog. Here is a post I wrote this summer about her blog and how much joy I get from experiencing it. I love her spirit. I love her babies. I love her photography. I love how she puts herself out there for the world, for better or for worse. I hardly ever comment because she has about a million fans who follow her on a regular basis. I never think I have anything earth shattering to say. But this week, when she asked for her readers to share 5 things from their bucket lists, I did. I pulled 5 things off my list (you can find it along the left margin here, down toward the bottom). Well... she actually chose one of the things off my list to highlight on her blog today, and she said I made her laugh!!! Wheeeeeee!!! This might seem lame to you, but this woman gives me so much joy through her blog... it made me so freaking happy to know that I gave her a tiny big of joy back. You can see the post where she mentioned my Sound of Music bucket list item if you click here. It's toward the bottom of the post, but slow down and take in everything you see before you get to my little moment of glory. You won't be sorry.

On a wonderful side note, I picked up my love tonight at the airport. Andrew had been in Japan seeing his daughter. I was missing him like I couldn't even believe, and now HE'S HOME!!!! All is right with the world. Sigh...

First Day Back

Well, I survived the first day back to school. I was kind of crabby though. The kids' brains were still on holiday break, so I had to use my teacher voice on more than one occasion. I can't believe that Thursday is the end of the semester. Our principal told us today that last year, the last day of the semester was January 27 because of all the snow days we had. Right now, we are scheduled to get out of school on May 24. It would be insanely wonderful if that happened. I'm all for an occasional snow day, but I need them to happen in December. Now play practice has started after school with my kids every day, and we need NO snow days to make this musical work!

Total randomness here, but I got the game Scrabble Flash from my Secret Santa before break. It is awesome. I have no idea how these tiles "talk" to each other, but the game is super fun. I let my 7th grade GOAL kids mess around with it today in class up on the ELMO projector so the whole class could watch. They played in teams and just loved it. I highly recommend it!

Goodbye, 2010

2010 has been a good year. I think the high points outweighed the low points by a long shot this year. I have many blessings to count. I don't know what 2011 will bring, but I hope I'll be able to meet its challenges with a fighting spirit. Blessings to you all in 2011.

Christmas in a Nutshell

Dec. 22: Last day of school. Kids dismissed at 2:30.

Dec. 23: Frantic cleaning, shopping, wrapping, and cooking.

Dec. 24: Snowed all day... the perfect Christmas snow. Finished last minute things around the house. Repairman tried to fix fridge... still leaking and not dispensing water. Part ordered. Was smart enough not to drive down into the cemetery, but hiked down in the snow to take flowers, diet coke, and chocolate covered cherries. Matt & Omara got here around 8:30. Andrew joined us for dinner (pickled ham, shrimp, chili, cheese bread, Christmas goodies, and cranberry tea). I went to church at the 11:00 service at the Methodist Church. It was the perfect Christmas Eve feeling.

Dec. 25: Matt & Omara & I went out to Dad's. We took a breakfast pizza. Opened gifts and had a fantastic lunch. Andrew & I had our Christmas that night. Watched The Departed and got a wonderful call from the McLeods.

Dec. 26: Took Andrew to the airport and exchanged a gift at the mall in Coralville. Found good deals on next year's Christmas cards and a few other things.

Dec. 27: Tracy arrived! Had a long talk, exchanged gifts, and went to Vivo for dinner.

Dec. 28: Tracy & I putzed around town, checking out all the stores around the square. Coffee at Revelations. Watched Eat, Pray, Love and had a snack. Played Mario Kart and Dance on Broadway on the Wii. Went to see the Rock Paper Scissors concert at Cafe Paradiso. Had pizza at Torino's.

Dec. 29: Tracy went home. Quiet, lonely house. Going to take it easy today before digging into a month's worth of school work that needs to be done in 4 days. :)

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday... I know I have so far!

Real Intimacy

I was sitting wrapping presents today and turned on the TV. I watched an older episode of Oprah with Jane Fonda as the guest. She was talking about intimacy, and her words really made me think. Maybe my relationship with Andrew is the first time I've had true intimacy in a relationship. It's about so much more than physical closeness. It's about being able to really be yourself with someone without holding anything back. I'm so lucky to have found someone who loves me for being myself. I know I don't have to hold anything back and that I can say whatever is in my heart, even if it's scary. That's an amazing blessing. And I highly recommend it. :)

Fridge Joy

So, it's NOT a Christmas present, but my spectacular boyfriend is getting me a refrigerator which will be delivered on Wednesday. My ice maker went kaput a few months ago, and it's not worth getting fixed. Generally, my current fridge is kind of a piece of crap. It's just old, and it's done its time. Andrew has been keeping an eye out, and he found a used side-by-side fridge with ice & water in the door. I'm excited to get it installed before Christmas!!!