Quote of the day...

My allergy-ridden husband, upon getting in the car after being outside for awhile:

"The back of my throat feels like I've been sucking on a flower."

Nice, huh.

Ich bin gesegnet

If you were to come by my house today (which you are welcome to do anytime, by the way, unless you are a stalker in which case I'd prefer you stay away and, actually, stop reading my blog all together because stalking is weird..... Where was I? Never mind. I'll start over.

If you were to come by my house today, you would see the first true sign of warmer weather. This morning after getting the monkeys off to school, I hung he first load of the season on the line outside. Now, if you're a frequent reader, you may remember that I'm quite enamored with my clothesline. I love hanging things on it. It makes me feel all efficient and earthy and domestic and.. OK a little Amish. In any event, there are clothes drying on my line and I'm happy.

So the "real" quartet competition was last weekend in KY. How'd we do? Thanks for asking. we got 4th place out of 24 or so quartets. Not bad for our first time out. More importantly, we had a great time which included lots of laughs and very little sleep. We're going to go for it again next year with the hopes of winning and getting the chance to compete at International in Nashville in the fall of 2009.

Chattanooga was extremely fun as well. No pressure of competition but lots of good experience on stage. My sister's chorus (Tune Town Show Chorus) are a HOOT and did very well in the chorus competition, finishing first. Yeah, Tune Town! Also, big congrats to the two Tune Town quartets, Fiddlestix and Last Minute, which finished first and second respectively.

In between the two competitions, I came home, worked, had my MOPS friends over for board games, had a Saturday scrapbook day at my house, lead worship at Gospel Tabernacle and worked some more (then left for the second weekend). So once again, life is good and full and I am blessed (but tired!).

Tonight, Matt and I are taking 27 of our youth group kids along with about five other adults to Acquire the Fire downtown. I'm looking forward to it, having not been to an ATF since I was pregnant with Jacob. So I shouldn't even really be sitting here typing because I have a decent punch list of things to do before 3:00, but alas, I've missed blogging.

Please keep my aunt in your prayers. She's battling breast cancer. The scenarios are looking good, but she still has a long road ahead.

I hope the weather is as gorgeous wherever you are as it is here. I hope you take some time to think about how much God has blessed you today, despite your circumstances. I'll pop back on here when I can...

Be blessed! :-)

My life in bullets...

Life is...

Full. Busy. Good.

If you're interested, here's a glimpse, in no particular order, of what's been going on:

• I just got back from Ohio. We went to Sweet Adeline's Region 4 Winter Warmup. Though it was a bit overwhelming to not know anyone beside our quartet (my mom, her best friend and my sister) and a few faces from my mom's chorus, I feel like I really learned a lot about barbershop singing and even picked up some new warm ups and techniques for my voice students.
  

• I got very little sleep over said weekend so I feel like a bit of a zombie today

• Debbie Connelly is awesome. If you knew who she was, you'd be impressed that I had dinner with her. OK... I'll tell you. Debbie is the lead of "the BUZZ", the 2005 Queens of Harmony for Sweet Adelines International. They are hands down the best women's barbershop quartet ever. I already knew she had an incredible voice, but dinner with her allowed me to get to know her. She's a nut (like me) but an incredibly sweet and sensitive person at the same time. My sister and I had a wonderful time having dinner with her. Our quartet got to coach with her, too.

• We had about three inches of snow last Thursday. The boys and I had a blast. More on that later...

• I made a scrapbook for my sister for Christmas, but I just gave it to her this weekend. She LOVED it which subsequently made me happy because I worked really hard on it and it was kind of awesome.

• We're dog sitting for my BFF while she's out of town. Her dog is small and cute and I call her Claire Huxtable, though that is not her name.

• My husband leaves for New Orleans tomorrow to do some preliminary work on an event that's coming up in March. I will miss him, but will keep plenty busy while he is gone.

• I had a girls night out/MOPS reunion at my friend Heidi's house a couple of weeks ago. I got to see a lot of friends I haven't seen in awhile and it was wonderful We had so much fun.

That's it for now. I have to get ready for lessons. More later... I promise.

Thursday Thirteen #2

I know we're still fairly early into August, but my mind is already on school starting and all of the things in store for autumn. With the heat surge lately, it would be easy to be in a complaining mode so I thought I'd list...

Thirteen Things I Like about Summer

1. No socks. If I've never mentioned it before, sock are my nemesis. Seriously, if I were a super hero, Dr. Sock would be my sworn enemy. Especially with kids, socks are the worst. if you do take the time to pair them up from a load of laundry, inevitably there are always about three that don't have mates. They end up in the "sock basket" (I hope I'm not the only person who has one of those!) and stay there until someone becomes desperate. In the summer, it's sandals, baby, or better yet, no shoes at all!

2. Popsicles. You don't have to be six years old to know that popsicles totally rock. Especially the orange ones!

3. Sleeping in. Boy, this one is going to be hard to give up once school resumes. It's so nice to be able to just chill in bed, snuggle with the boys, or better yet, go back to sleep. This one segues nicely to...

4. Staying in your pajamas most or even all of the day. Now, before you decide we're just all a bunch of bums, just let me tell you that this one applies to the boys more than Matt and myself. But if you're not going anywhere that particular day, why the heck not! It's always comical when I tell the boys, "OK, time to get your pajamas... oh. Never mind."

5. Free movies at the $3 theater. We haven't been home enough to take advantage of this one as much as we have in years past, but we're hoping to catch a couple before the end of the month. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, they show a free kid-friendly movie. It's usually one we've already seen, but it's fun all the same and a nice relief from the heat to sit in an air conditioned theater for 90 minutes.

6. My clothesline. There's something about using the clothesline that I really love. As soon as the weather starts to get nice, anything that's not socks, jeans, panties, briefs or towels hangs out in our backyard to be dried by God. The stuff smells so good and I'm saving energy to boot.

7. Open windows. The one perk about not having central air is that we get plenty of fresh air from having the windows open. The birds chirping through in the morning is a nice thing to hear when you wake up. Late spring/early summer this year we were blessed with some really perfect, beautiful days.

8. So You Think You Can Dance. OK. Stop snickering. I really LOVE this show. Last year, I was a die-hard Benji fan. This year my money is on either his sister, Lacey, or Sabra. We'll find out next week...

9. Dinner outside. Our grill gets a workout most of the year, but especially during the summer. We have our patio all set up with tables, a canopy and our nifty mosquito candle torchy thingies. There's nothing like eating steak and potatoes out there, cooked masterfully by my husband.

10. Rita's. I'm not sure how far the Rita's empire spans, but you really need to get your self there. They have frozen custard, Italian ice and, when they are put together, wonderful things called gelatis. Fortunately, the closest Rita's is just down the street and we frequent it whenever possible.

11. Sweet corn on the cob. How did I move into a food theme here? But, seriously... corn on the cob... need I say more?

12. Long days. I can remember when I was a kid my sister and I used to throw the softball back and forth until we couldn't see it anymore. We'd head inside, always surprised to find how late it was. I haven't touched a softball in years, but I still enjoy waking up to sunlight and enjoying it well into the evening.

13. Flip flops. How do they engineer a piece of foam and some plastic to be so comfortable? I have a pair of pink ones that I bought at Wal-mart over two years ago and they are my comfort footwear of choice to walk around New York City (Matt is actually insisting that I retire said pair because they are getting, in his words "nasty." OK. They are a little bit. I bought a new bright green pair this year). Seriously, flip flops are a fantastic invention. My mom still calls them "thongs", which makes my sister and I laugh very hard, of course.

Hope your summer has been happy!

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Shorts

I don't like to wear shorts. There's something about parading my 35-year-old alabaster legs around that is very unappealing to me. I would much prefer capris or even a skirt.

However, the last week or so has been so hot, that I feel I have had no recourse. I only have one pair of shorts that I really like -- a Old Navy jean pair that I got at Plato's Closet a few years ago. So I've been practically living in those for the last several days.

Truth be told, not having central air here at the house is not THAT bad. There are a few weeks out of the year that are pretty nasty, but I think we'll survive. Matt and I both grew up in houses that didn't have A/C and we made it. We have a window unit in the used-to-be-garage/ Matt's office/ our bedroom so we hole up there when we start to melt. As a matter of fact, I'm there right now :-)

So to everyone in Parkville, I apologize for that streak of glowing white you may see passing by. The weather will cool down soon and you life will return to normal.

Rain

I am SO glad it rained yesterday. We got a little smooch from tropical storm Barry. Everything was looking so dead and feeling so brittle, but now the grass, trees and flowers look refreshed and alive again. Not quite as green as they should yet, but more alive all the same. It's so nice. Plus, it's like ten degrees cooler than it was and the humidity is much more bearable.

I like weather. God is smart.

(PS - only 4 more days until my birthday!)

Happiness is...

All of the beautiful, colorful things growing in my yard right now!!

Hey! I'm blogging again...

Wow.

I kind of missed the whole month of April, huh.

For those of you who have still been checking in and seeing the SAME DARN POSTS -- sorry.

I recently contacted a friend on myspace to ask him how he was doing and his respose was as follows:

Life is pretty good right now. I feel this tendency to say life is busy, but that's not it. Life is full. Which is a good thing. It's not overly exciting, but it's purposeful.

I decided that I really like that response. It sums up very well how I feel about our life lately. Things have been so busy that I feel like someone hit me on the head on New Years Day and I just now woke up and discovered that it's May! When did time get to galloping along so fast?

In the past month, we've celebrated Easter, dyed hard-boiled eggs and discovered our yard is perfect for an easter egg hunt, enjoyed a trip to Ohio to see family and friends over spring break, mourned the senseless death of 32 innocent people in the Virginia Tech shootings, lead worship twice at Emmanuel Christian Fellowship in York, PA, took on three new students, did four scrapbook pages, made another trip to Ohio (this time just me :-) for a Women of Faith conference and to see family and friends, met some great new friends, got the boys' 3rd quarter report cards and celebrated my husband's 38th birthday (he's old! hee hee).

No excuse not to blog, mind you, but busy all the same.

So I've got pictures and stories to share, but not tonight. I will leave you with a thought, though (and will get back to my Happiness is... Fridays tomorrow).

I flew out of BWI airport a week ago today. It was an overcast day. The half-filled plane took off in a fairly smooth manner and I began to settle into my window seat and enjoy the flight. I was tired, having gotten only about four and a half hours of sleep the night before in my preparation for leaving my boys for four days.

I must tell you that I'm the type of person whose mood is affected by the weather. On sunny days, I tend to be more productive and just in a beter mood overall. When it is rainy or overcast, I would be better off just going back to bed!

It wasn't raining, but the sky was gray. As the plane rose higher, I watched the houses, roads and cars get smaller. Soon, we were in the middle of a cloud, surrounded by it's white/gray fuzz. I got bored and considered closing my eyes and trying to get some sleep (not that I ever sleep well in airplanes).

Then, all of the sudden, it was sunny. As much as I hate to admit my stupidity, my first thought was, "I thought today was supposed to be overcast," but then I realized the sun was shining because we were over the clouds now. The day, or every day for that matter, was already sunny -- just covered by clouds.

My thought quickly turned to my life and some things I've walked through in the past few years. On my "cloudiest" days -- layers of grieving for my son, staying silent when lies were being told about me and my husband, even the intense pain of a kidney stone -- the sun was always shining. It just didn't feel sunny.

The thought literally brought tears to my eyes. I was brought to a realization that God is always there. I know that sounds really simple, but I think I forget that sometimes. It's so easy to focus on the fact that the sun isn't shining and forget that God is just on the other side of the clouds.

I hope you wake up and see the sun tomorrow -- whether it's behind the clouds or not!

(and thanks for sticking in there during my absence!)

Hace frio

Waiting for the bus this morning was reminiscent of freezing my butt off doing the same growing up in Ohio.

Monday thoughts...

I noticed something this morning. I had just put the boys on the bus and was letting Tucker out in the back yard (did I mention I LOVE my backyard?) and I noticed the trees.

The leaves on the trees in the backyard are starting to change color.

You're probably thinking, "Katy, you do know the leaves change color every year, don't you?"

Yes. I know that.

Last year, though, I missed a lot of things. Last September in my mind was a fuzz of greiving, and when I wasn't doing that, teaching school. I completely missed fall last year. I didn't notice it until they had already fallen off the trees.

I also realized I was home alone (Matt is in Denver doing a CR weekend) and was OK with that. See, I'm not the kind of person that does as well alone as I do with others and, after Caleb died, I had really issues with being home alone.

I'm just very aware today of God's healing. We have been through a season of intense mourning. Not that we don't still miss him. He's talked about every day in our home. It seems now that we are in a season of enjoying and appreciating God's grace, blessings and goodness.

I like it.

My final thought for the day. A bathroom shared by two little boys, five and seven, can get really disgusting. I cleaned it today. They're like little heathens. YUCK!

Have a good week :-D