A photo-less post, but picture this...

I was too tired to get my camera, but Tyler fell asleep last night in the floor of the living room on his tummy in the perfect shape of an X. All of us, with the exception of Thomas, had fallen asleep while watching School of Rock-- too funny how tired we all must be. Emeril, our dog, had crept over and had fell asleep with his head on Tyler's arm. That was the first thing I saw when I woke up-- too cute.

We were worn out I suppose. Took Tyler to the dr. yesterday, and we have finally determined that Tyler has asthma. Good thing is that it has not been the "can't breathe, scary" type, but it has been the "can't stop coughing and wake up in the middle of the night, and always have a cough" type. We have already seen a HUGE difference in just one day with the inhaler-- good sign I think. AND, his behavior has even been better-- I think he is relieved to feel better. Poor thing also has had an ear infection, which was missed completely by the new Ped. we saw a couple of weeks ago-- he is now on my list of all of TWO Peds. we will not see again.

Anyway, did most of my Christmas shopping for extended family all in one day on Wed. (the first day off from school) and just have a little left now. Andrew will be off with us for the duration of break starting at 3:00 today-- yay!!! He has some exciting things going on at work, so he's a happy camper right now! :) We're supposed to take the kiddos to my MIL's tonight, too, so we can have a date for the first time in a least a year. Looking forward to it and finishing shopping at last.

Going to try and make some mini gingerbread houses and cookies today-- if I can get to the store to get a cookie cutter-- car starting issues... if it works out, maybe I'll get some pics. of something finally-- LOL.

Lynn

Wow-- twice in one month!

I'm going to post again-- weird!

I've been doing some online searching for Christmas, so I'm actually "here" and thought I'd swing by.

Life is nuts. I mean nuts. Too much work, still finding my footing and lots of things to take care of there. Field trip tomorrow to the Nutcracker. Today, I pulled out some more of my scrapping tools with the kids-- took me long enough, but there you go. Nervous about getting everything done before Christmas and there's all the other things still going on, too, like work evaluations and school politics. Just swirling around up there and no time to process before reacting to things these days. Anyway, just 5 days to go before break-- yee-haw!

So, Andrew found out who this was for me (thanks, dear)... yes, it's from another JC Penney Commercial-- I guess their marketing people have good taste. :) It's "The Weepies"... what a name for a band-- LOL.



Merry Christmas,
L

Playing "catch-up" well, in photos anyway...

Tried to get these on here last night, but my computer had a hiccup... don't have much time before out the door to shop for Christmas... I really just want to go to sleep... shhhh... LOL... anyway, just thought I'd share a few pics and will catch up in words soon I hope. I know it's been a while...















Hopefully sooner than later...
L

So, okay, finally ready for the rambling post of things that have been going on inside my head...

Life has been busy before, but these last few months have gone beyond that. People say they are busy all the time-- we all think we are-- but this has been ridiculous-- seriously. No time to breathe ridiculous. A couple of people keep asking me if I've "gotten adjusted to working all day again"-- um, offensive question number 1-- like I wasn't "working all day" before-- whatever. But, that is not the "adjustment" part of it. For some reason, God has changed my life by a complete 180 over the past few months-- that is where the adjustment factor comes in-- and that would be the appropriate question to ask me.

Learning how to work within the perimeters of a school that is still developing has been... shall we say, hard. Learning and building curriculum, waiting and working for things to come together... that has been beyond hard. Trying to make life work-- also hard. Trying to somehow do all those other things I'm supposed to do-- almost impossible. Trying to be a good wife and mom... paying attention to life outside my schedule-- to family-- to friends-- I feel like I've been in a cave. Then you have other commitments I'm supposed to be giving to and Andrew's new job and his responsibilities as an asst. for scouts... I'm rambling, I know, but all of this to say it's hard.

And, my feet hurt-- LOL. I am going to have to invest in some shoes. I quit taking my meds for the neuropathy. Dumb? Don't know. I was having some scary side-effects and they seem to have subsided since I quit those meds. I have to re-schedule my dr. appts.-- just haven't had TIME.

Then, I actually spent some time in my "studio" this week-- doing report cards-- HA! I really need to find a way to scrap-- do I still even know how? Anyway... I have been following all the things that have been going on in the industry (from a distance)-- and let me just say-- whoa! Not sure what else to say except as someone who feels like a current "outsider", I can now objectively see where a problem bloomed. It's hard to give it words except to say that there are three (possibly more) segments of this industry now and it's difficult to see where that is going. Snapshots are not quite as publishable as they used to be and photography skills are of predominate importance. Scrapbooking has truly become photo-journaling in a way it never has been before. Because of this, artistic photography is weighing heavily in choices for publishing, and this has created struggles for both sides... and competition is not only stiff, but ugly. Photos are more important than good "design"... or even the thoughts behind the page. Don't know where it goes from here, and I'm not saying that this has to be a bad thing... but right now, it just is. It will be interesting to see where this takes things. I miss my creative space and all, but gotta say-- I don't miss this... ya know.

Enough rambling, just some thoughts. Just hoping for some balance someday. :) I'll be around.

Lynn

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Just had to get that out of my system... we're halfway through fall break... 'nuff said?

The bickering is driving me up a wall... I love 'em, but oiy... enough already! We've gone to the library, cleaned their rooms, went to Pizza Hut, got milk shakes... worked a few hours in my classroom... shopped a little... they have had some form of entertainment every single day. Why do boys need to be entertained? I used to spend hours by myself-- just playing. Was I abnormal? OR is it the "instant" society we live in now? What happened to imagination?

Anyway, they're going camping this weekend with scouts. And see, the thing about that is that I will miss them terribly. Moms can't win; can we? Hrmph...

L

Dumped my pictures

Just went through my pictures on my digital, looking for some things to post here to catch up on the last couple of months, but there's not a lot I can post. Lots of pictures from a field trip to the apple orchard... some from a "show and tell" visit from one of my kid's grandparents-- they drive a merch semi for a race car driver... not a lot there of MY kiddos or my life outside the classroom. Think that shows pretty well where I've been. I did find this one of Tyler from his first day of preschool:



And, this one from Thomas' first day of 3rd grade (he started the week before us):



Gotta love the snaggle-tooth look... he lost yet another after this DURING a festival parade-- while on a float! LOL He's always got such great stories in regards to losing his teeth. :)

and then... this one was from that same bunch, and just begs the question-- what is wrong with them anyway? LOL



IN AWESOME NEWS...
Thomas will be getting baptized sometime within the next couple of weeks. :) He has started the process at church-- all on his own-- spoke up in church in his class. He is ready. We worked on some of the packet they gave him from church and had a looonnnnggg talk about it. God has His hand on this child. I am so humbled by it-- I truly am. His understanding of our Lord is astounding. Proud is not the word... blessed is much closer... God is so good.

To get a little selfish in my thoughts... Now that I've had a nap every day for the past three days... I find myself longing to reconnect with myself. I miss scrapping, but didn't know it... I miss sleeping-- did know that-- miss a clean house and even cooking. Is it possible to do it all? Doesn't seem so, but I sure would like to make it fit. I miss music... and I need to go out on a date. I need a haircut-- well, a makeover really-- LOL... you get the point. Don't feel much like a girl these days-- that would be nice. :)

On the health-front-- still in limbo. I have discovered that when you are in constant motion, pains are not as noticeable. They're not better, just ignored. Good thing? Bad thing? Not sure...

On a cool note... this was so awesome... triple over-time, people...



Who knew I like football? ha....

Lynn

exhausted and on fall break

So, yes, I have been more than MIA around here... and I'd be surprised if anyone is actually reading this at this point. Life has been interesting to say the least and a total blur as well. Going back to teaching has been a huge change and I really haven't had anytime to really process any of it. Being still today has been all I have been and I am so happy to have the next week off... hopefully, I'll pull myself together to do more than just the dishes-- LOL. I'd love to get back into the swing here.

Tyler has been sick this week and he also had a field trip in the cold (we are having a cold snap here), so last night, he fell asleep at a cub scout meeting (sick) while I was at a MOPS meeting (I'm a steering committee person) and I had to leave to go get him. Today, we're just resting-- except they are also in there bickering-- I really need a break from bickering kids. It's hard to enjoy being home when that's going on, ya know... kids bicker everywhere-- just a fact.

Anyway, I decided-- or I should I say I had to make the decision to take a writing hiatus-- just cannot keep up right now. There is no time (or energy) with all of the recent life changes in our family.

Just recouping at home today and I just feel like this is blah, blah, blah... I'm so not cool-- nothing cool to say-- sorry-- LOL. I'll be around.

Lynn