Friends

So school has been going well. I love my class and I have great parents. It's been weird because as much as I love teaching, I really felt like I was supposed to go into administration, and that just isn't happening . I know i have to be patient and things will work out in God's time, so that's what I'm trying to do. T's job is going well too- we both just still really wish he could find a job here instead of commuting so far.

Life's been weird lately, but good at the same time. I've learned some hard lessons about friendship that I was pretty sure I had already learned years and years ago, but apparently, I'm always learning. You know that saying about friends coming into your life for a reason, season, or lifetime? Well, it's funny how friends you think are only going to be there for a reason, end up being in your life for a season or a lifetime. And friends you think are lifetime friends, actually turn out to be otherwise. Sigh. But, being a forever optimist, I look for the positives. I drew my husband even closer to me, and count my true friends as even bigger blessings. One day, someone will look back and realize the mistakes they made, but it will be too late. Friends just don't come that easily. Not real ones anyway.

Kids are doing great and make me so proud everyday. They are so smart, cute, outgoing, lovable, energetic, fun kids..... :-)

It's time...or is it?

After 17 years, I believe it's time to put my sweet kitty to sleep. For the last 2 months or so, she has been forgetting where the litter box is. She will wander around and meow until I pick her up and take her to it. Last week, she started sneezing blood. I already have to give her pills twice a day for her thyroid, so it just seems like her quality of life is declining. I'm so sad about it, and just very torn about whether this is the right decision. With people, this is not an issue, so I am left wondering why I am given the power to make this decision with my pet. Shouldn't she just go naturally as well? Am I assuming a power that God should have? I'm just so torn and sad.......

Let's try again....

I blink and six months has gone by. I'm not sure how that happens. I don't like it! I try to be one of those people that lives in the moment and enjoys every day, but still somehow, the days disappear.

So, tomorrow is my 2 year anniversary. Thought it would be a good time to update.

I am still teaching, although this year, I'm taking the leap from first grade to 2nd grade. I'm looping with my class, keeping all of the same students. I truly loved my class and was super sad (for about 5 minutes) on the last day of school. As much as I love the lazier days of summer, I am looking forward to seeing them all again. Many of their parents have become friends, so I've gotten to see many of them over the summer, but I miss them all the same. I would still love to get an AP job someday, but I know that has to happen in someone else's timeframe, not mine, so I'm trying to be patient.

Tony is still working in DC, still getting up at 3 am every day. I miss him so much over the summer when I'm home. I love keeping things straight and going around here though so he can rest when he's at home. During the school year, he definitely doesn't get to do that enough. He works so hard and I'm so thankful and blessed.

We are celebrating our two year anniversary tomorrow! We aren't going to do much though because we are currently planning (and paying for) a trip to Dallas in December. We are going to see the Cowboys play in their new stadium, and have 10 others going with us. I'm soooo excited!

Kids are awesome- they both just finished a 4 day run of a play, a musical adaptation of Pinocchio. Mason was Gepetto and Abbie played a child and a donkey.
:-) They did an amazing job and I got all teary every time I watched it. I can't believe Abbie is starting 5th grade, her last year at work with me! :-( She is into soccer and about to start flag football, but don't let that fool you- she's as girly as they come. Nails, hair, and anything girly--- loves it all. Mason is still in band, and is the only bari sax player in his band. He made all-district band, first chair, and loves theatre as well. He's really social these days...I guess that's what being a teenager is all about. He's always got a friend over, or he's at a friend's house. Lots of fun, and never a dull moment.

All in all, life is just really good. Sure, we have our stressers day to day, but at the end of the day, I am just truly blessed.

Gosh time flies!

It's been so long since I updated. One day recently, I wrote an update on everyone, and when I hit "publish", it disappeared! I couldn't bring myself to type it all again. So, I'll attempt it again now!

Tony is still working in DC, and I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been a strain on our family. He gets very little sleep, as he gets up at 3 am every day to go to work. He gets home about 5:30 or 6 pm, and after dinner, and time with the kids, a little time for me, and a little time for himself, he's rarely in bed before 11. More than anything, I wish (and he wishes) he could find a job here, but there is no market here at the moment for what he does. DC is where all the jobs are, and his phone is ringing every day with job offers for up there! I offered to move to Fredericksburg and have done so repeatedly, but he just doesn't want to. I am hoping that 2010 will be the year he can find something here. He has a lot to look forward to this year- he will graduate in May from VCU with his Masters, and is going to Poland for a week before that to culminate his program. I am very happy for him, and proud of how hard he works to provide for us.

I am plugging along. With the recent budget announced, I am glad that I didn't get one of those AP jobs I applied for, as it looks like the last 4 APs hired may lose their jobs. I have more free time now than I have ever had, and am looking for the "next thing" I want to work on or accomplish. For right now, it's exercise, specifically running. I am trying very hard to get back into it as I would love to lose about 20 lbs. I really need to do it.

Mason is doing great in school and likes it more than he did last year. He auditioned for the school play and didn't get a great part, but he's happy to have gotten a part at all. He is so smart and I'm so proud of him. He is doing great on the sax and his teacher tells me all the time how talented he is. He is very excited about a Spring trip to Tennessee for a competition.

Abbie is also doing well....she just got contacts and looks so much older to me. I call her my shadow because she is around me all of the time. I love it. I keep telling myself she won't do so for much longer! She is all signed up for soccer and can't wait to play again. She's also very into music right now and art and can draw just about anything!

I'm hoping this is going to be a great year. We are going to the beach for a week in the Spring, and hopefully getting back out to Vegas at some point. Tony has a big birthday this year (30!!!) too so that will be fun to plan for.

SO that's where we are in a nutshell. Hopefully it won't be 6 months before I update again!

Where has the time gone???

I can't believe I haven't written anything on here since July 29th. Where did the time go? I guess I post my updates on Facebook now instead. I also wonder sometimes since very few people read this, why do I even write it? It's not like I don't know what's goin on in my own life! :-) But, I'll do it anyway. Maybe one day I will want to look back and this and remember what was going on.

Kids are great. They are both doing really well in school. They are learning a lot and getting good grades. I have to say, I've been pleasantly surprised by the middle school. I've discovered it gets a bad "rep", I think mainly because it's not as new and shiny as the other middle schools, but we've had a good experience. I worry ALL THE TIME about Mason and his grades though. He always ends up with As or Bs, but man, it's a fight. He's so forgetful and unorganized, and at his age, I feel like I can't hand hold so much anymore. I know parents that still do, but I feel like he is smart enough to know what to do and how to do it, and he has to want to get the grades, and realize the consequences if he doesn't. It's super stressful though. Abbie is just my little social butterfly, happy as she can be, and smart as well. She's doing great, and seems to have a lot of friends. She's still a vegetarian, which I've gotten used to, but it's frustrating because she's also super picky about veggies. We are running out of options. I am having to force her to try a lot of new things, with not much success.

Tony is still working on his Masters- one semester to go- which culminates in May with a trip to Poland, which I'm not allowed to go on. I wish I could- what an opportunity. He is working in DC and I won't lie- it's super stressful on our family. He gets up at 3 am, and gets home about 5:30, very, very tired. WIth me working too, it's tough. I try my hardest to manage as much of the housework and kids stuff as possible, and sometimes I feel like a single mom again. He tries very hard to pitch in, but I know he's tired. He would love a job here, but there is just no market here for what he does. I totally envision us moving to the DC area once the kids are out of high school or in college. One day.....

I'm good- trying desperately to motivate myself to get back in the gym. I have managed to gain back all 10 pounds I had lost. I haven't been running, and football season means lots of beer and munchies for us, and all day on Sundays watching football. I have definitely brought this on myself, but it is really surprising to me sometimes how down I can get on myself over 10 lbs. I have less energy and find myself just really sad about how I look. But then I don't work out. So I feel like I can't complain. I made it 2 times this week to the gym to run, so that's a start. Hopefully I can keep it up. Work is going great- good class- excellent class actually.

I am hoping to get back here again.....soon!

Well, it's been almost a year. This time last year, I was actually pretty relaxed. Everything was pretty much done and I was just waiting!I was 2 days away from the rehearsal dinner and 3 days from the wedding. I soooo wish I could do it again. I loved it so much more this time around. I did things exactly how I wanted, regardless of what anyone else thought or what I "should" have done.

Also this time last year, we were getting ready for a trip to Jamaica. We were going to go to Jamaica again this year, but the economy kept us from going, and the 3-4 other couples cancelled as well. I'm ok with that. I LOVED Jamaica, but if I'm going to travel out of the country, I'd like to go somewhere I haven't been. Instead, we took the money we had put down as a deposit and got the entire trip to Vegas instead. Tony's never been, so I'm excited to share that with him. We paid for it awhile back, thankfully, because otherwise, we probably wouldn't be going. We are hoping to rent a car while we are there and just ride around- I want to show him Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam and a few things to see other than the casinos.

It's been a year of ups and downs, but I'd marry that man all over again. He makes me very happy and I love the family we've made together. I'm sure we have many adventures ahead.

A few notes on a few Richmond sites...

So, the other night, my friend and I decide to have a girls night out. It was quite eventful, and speaks volumes to some of the reasons why Shockoe Bottom is nosediving. At the end of the night, i was chatting with one of the bartenders, and telling him my comments, and at his suggestion, I'm putting it out there in blog form!

We started our night right here by our houses. Except for the good ol Riverbound Cafe, there really isn't anywhere to go. And as great as RBC is, they aren't known for their happy hours. It's really a more family kind of place. So, we decided to venture downtown.

We started at The Hard Shell. Great place to start because they validate parking and parking is a major issue down there. We had a glass of wine and a few appetizers. Everything was amazing, except for the service was a little.....hmmmm..... unpersonable? The guy was there to take our order, write it down, turn it in, and deliver it. That was it. No small talk. No witty comments.

We left and headed up to Tobacco Company. YUCK. Cheesy music playing (live) and smoke so thick you can't breathe. And it's still early. I can only imagine what it would have been like later. Seriously, I know it's the "tobacco" company, but that doesn't mean the place has to smell like an ashtray. We were in, and out, and never sat down.

Walk back down the cobblestones to Cha Cha's Cantina. I've been here many times and always had fun, but I haven't been there in a year or so. We go in and instantly feel like we are in Mexico, but not in a good way. Either the AC was broken, or they were seriously going for the Mexican feel. It was soooo hot. We decided to sit at the bar and have a drink, just to cool down from the walk from Tobacco. Granted, I know we were at a Mexican place, so we probably should have had tequila/margaritas, or a Corona, but we wanted wine. They had it on the menu, so figured we should be safe. We both order a Pinot Grigio, and as I take my 2nd sip, I see that there is some nasty dried brown stuff all over the stem and base of the glass. I'm guessing it was refried beans??? vomit. I point it out to the bartender chick, and she says "Oh it's just from hitting the sdfih asdf (don't know what that word was)... and it's fine". Fine for you maybe. I'm not drinking out of that. So, I tell her I don't want it, and she says ok, and hands us the check. The check?! Are you kidding me? Despite feeling like I definitely shouldn't pay for that, we do, and we leave.

We go next to Stool Pigeons. Another place I really used to like. We walk in, lots of AC going, and have a seat at the bar under their really cool fans. We even tell the bartender what just happened. We order Pinot again, and ask him if we can just get a bottle. He pours one glass, and goes off to ask if he can sell us a bottle. Apparently this is not a place where people order bottles as opposed to glasses. While he's gone, I go to take a sip of wine, and smell cheeseburgers. I pause and look around to see if the people around me ordered cheeseburgers, but there is no one around! I put the glass back up to my lips and again smell cheeseburgers. I quickly realized it is the wine, but for some reason, took a sip anyway. If my manners were not what they are, I would have spit it back in the glass. It was sooo disgusting. I swallowed it, just as my friend was taking her glass to her lips. I didn't stop her in time, and she just about got sick. Who knows how long this wine had been open, but lets just say it had taken in just about every food smell possible. About this time, the bartender comes back to tell us he can sell us the bottle, to which he ends up saying to our backs as we walk out. It was so disgusting, and I am not sure I can ever step foot in there. What kind of bar manager doesn't keep an eye on things like that?

We decide that we are going back to Hard Shell, but before we do, decide to try one last place, The Lucky Buddha. I'm so glad we did. Not only was the food great, but the wine was freshly opened for us to sample. The bartender (Jimmy) was full of personality and took care of us all night, even as the restaurant turned into a club, complete with an awesome dj. We spent the evening chatting and having a great time. I highly recommend this place if you are into that type of food. (Sushi, asian, etc)

It will be awhile before another girls night, but we'll likely end up there again!