Cross Country 2008

Well, Morgan's first cross country season has ended and I think she had a ball. It was a learning experience for all of us - Mike and I are much more accustomed to sporting events that take place in a gym with bleachers and round objects (volleyballs, basketballs). This really was fun, though! Morgan learned so much and improved from the first meet to the last. Her first meet was at Apollo for a 2400 meter course where she finished 15th out of 16 runners with a time of 11:18. This week she participated in the conference meet, finishing 4th out of 30+ runners with a time of 14:11 on a 3200 meter course. Throughout the season she surprised herself by breaking into the top 10 runners in several meets, placing a season best 2nd place in Sartell, tapering at the end of the season and finishing strong at conference. And, you can't find a nicer group of young women for her to learn from and hold up as role models. I think she'll run again next year! Enjoy the photos (if you click on the photo above it'll take you to a small album from the season)!

Good Luck?!

So, last week I went in to the clinic for my annual exam. I walked into the little (cold) room with the big (cold) piece of equipment that was going to compress my breasts. The very nice woman handed me a card, pulled a flimsy curtain partially shut and told me to undress to the waist and put the beautiful gown on, open to the front. Without a single question, I did as I was told and proceeded to approach the machine. Every man should have to do this . . . just once! Imagine having a relatively concealed part of your body placed on a cold piece of glass, one arm holding a bar above you, one holding onto a bar below you, a piece of plastic whirring down the column to press this relatively concealed part of your body into a pancake shape and then being told to put your chin up and hold your breath! Yeah, right!

Well, I managed to get through the few minutes of humiliation and get myself redressed, ready for my next appointment - the check of my nether regions. As I was waiting for the lab tech to come back, I decided to glance at the card she handed to me. As I turned it over, I noticed it was basically a business card with two words written on it that nearly made me laugh out loud . . . Good Luck!

Hello . . . was I supposed to read this before the compression process as good luck while she flattened each breast from into a vertical and horizontal pancake? Was I supposed to read this after the compression as her wishes for my patience as I wait a week or more for the results? Or was this simply her best wishes as I proceeded to have other, really concealed parts of my body probed and prodded? Perhaps she could have come up with a more appropriate two words that wouldn't leave me pondering the intent of her message: "Cozy compressions!" or "wishful waiting!" - or even "Pleasant Dreams!" But . . . Good Luck?!?!?!

Vacation over!

Okay, so the break was longer than I anticipated - thanks for making me aware of the need to get back on the blog roll, Harmonica Man! Life has been busy but I'll do my best to stay on top of this. We have a very slow, very bogged down computer at home that I need to get fixed but . . . we are getting a laptop soon! Like Harmonica Man, I look for deals and didn't really want to pay full-price for a laptop that will likely be obsolete before I post my first blog post. So, my employer has a little program where they will allow you to buy computers they have cycled out of offices (we are on a 3 year rotation for computers) - we were able to score the laptop my DH has had in his office for $75! Can't beat that . . . once it is cleaned up and in our hands I'll have little in the way of excuses for not blogging.

DD started 7th grade this week . . . 7TH GRADE!!!!! I'm quite certain I'm not getting any older so I'm not sure how she is. She also ran her first cross-country meet this week, placing 25th out of 61 runners. Her parents are darn proud of her! Of course, she followed this stellar performance with a team dinner at a location we thought we knew with an ending time we thought we knew - and that blasted cell phone we bought her for just these occasions just didn't seem to work. Darn kids!

Where in the world is . . . .

. . . okay, I've taken a bit of a vacation from the computer. Maybe I'm avoiding what my friend, Jeff, describes as blogging taking over your life. I promise I'll try to do better . . . after my vacation at the lake. Of course, if I can find wireless access at the lake maybe I'll even blog there! See ya after a week in the sun!

Time Flies!

Guess I've been away for a bit! Life has been a bit hectic around here with dd finishing up 6th grade, dh returning home from his trip to Greece, and getting the summer started. It sure doesn't feel like summer with the weather around here. We hosted 35 people at our house for a BBQ celebration last night. We ended up with all of the people in the house, and the grill in the garage. However, everyone had a wonderful time - our church music director is heading off to the Peace Corp so this was the adult choir send-off for him. We even pulled out a couple of octavos and held an impromptu rehearsal in the family room! And, thanks to the generosity of one of my student employees, he offered to come over and grill for us and I was able to truly play hostess for the gathering.

We have been working on finishing up some landscaping around our ponds in the backyard - most of the black landscape fabric is down but do you know how hard it is to find cedar chips in bulk! And, wouldn't you know that the pond seems to have a leak in it! Unbelievable.

'Tis also the season for graduation parties - we had one last weekend, have 3 this weekend (including my nephew's), 3 next weekend and one the weekend after that. I'll be partied out!

Oh, what a week!

Wow! Am I happy to be nearing the long weekend! My DH has been out of the country since last Thursday and will be home in just over 24 hours. While he's been gone I've schlepped my DD to her first boy/girl party, attended a Confirmation mass as a sponsor, raced from that to a piano recital and then back to the Confirmation party, and then home so I could greet my mom who was spending the night. I've also spent the better part of 3 mornings rehearsing with 5th and 6th graders for a choir concert, played the concert, interviewed someone for a position at my church, and am heading to the all-school picnic shortly. In the meantime, I got locked out of my own house and had to break in so have also replaced a door with the help of a friend only to have it not be installed quite correctly meaning I had to find someone to come in and reinstall it (and pay them!). Can I breathe yet?!

Mother's Day

What was the best part of celebrating Mother's Day? Better than having my daughter (the reason I am a mother) snuggle up to me this morning and tell me she loved me? Better than having my husband tell me he loved me? Better than telling my own mother I loved her?

The best part was watching my grandmother open up her book - her story, really - and start to read it, with tears in her eyes. As she read each page, you could just see her reliving each memory, and recalling many, many more. What a wonderful way to spend Mother's Day - with my daughter, sister (who is a mother), mom and grandmother and our families, and watching ou grandmother relive all of her life stories. It is truly a gift to have her share these stories, especially all that she remembers at 91 years old (or is it 90? or 92?). Seems her birth year is in question - even after checking the 1920 and 1930 census pages, each listing a different year for her!

I hope all of the other mothers out there had a wonderful day, and had the chance to begin making new memories with their families - but also had the chance to relive some old memories and stories as well!

And a prayerful end to the week!

I had an opportunity to attend our graduate school banquet last night with a friend receiving his MA in Lit. Music. What fun! It started with a beautiful prayer service and delicious banquet and ended with thank you's by the grads and many inside jokes/stories. Sort of made me wonder if I should look at pursuing my grad degree . . . ummm, someday! Thanks to JM for inviting me to be his pseudo-family as he was honored as a graduate.

I also had the chance to accompany at the middle school mass this morning - with tons of instruments and a full church due to grandparent's day. We rocked with lots of student favorites (Never Too Young, Lord I Lift Your Name On High, I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, etc.). Maybe a liturgical musician's nightmare but it really was fun and uplifting.

It's cold and wet here again . . . and we have more snow to look forward to. I can't wait for summer! My tulips are trying to poke their way out of the soil but, so far, just a couple of inches of green leaves. Who ever decided to live in MN?!?!

A Prayerful Start to the Week

We ended last week with Morgan singing at her school's talent show. She sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow a capella and did it beautifully. So beautifully it sent tears down my face (and the face of the church music director!). Today I went from cantoring a song at church to participating in the Women's Walk at the College of Saint Benedict to facilitating a Companions on a Journey spiritual companioning group. This almost felt like coming full circle - using my voice to praise and worship then talking about the difference between my inner voice and God's voice and how they harmonize. Sort of a nice way to head into a new (and hopefully warmer) week!

Where's the Knitting?!

So, after my last post i was looking forward to the opportunity to get back to some knitting. Yeah, right! I did get my daughter started on a hat for herself. She's pretty good at the whole scarf knitting thing, and even has the knit and purl stitches down. So, now she's learning how to knit in the round! I got the first few rows started for her and got the itch to get moving on my own stuff but other tasks called and I got sidetracked. Soon!

I'll have to post some pictures of my "works in progress" or "on the needles" projects. As is typical with me, they are too numerous to keep track of. Every few months, I make a decision to not start anything new . . . and promptly break that promise within a few days! I'll post photos or link to my Ravelry page sometime soon (of coruse, that would mean putting photos up on my Ravelry page, wouldn't it!).

Just ordered a memory book for Mother's Day - my grandmother's stories from when she was young along with several photos. What a fun project! If you haven't checked out www.Picaboo.com, give it a try - easy to use, free software for book publishing!

When Volunteering Becomes Exhausting!

After a full night volunteering at church I am exhausted! It started with accompanying the children's choir practice - this was probably the most "fun" thing I did! The kids are great to work with and really sounded good singing. They are always so enthusiastic about what they are doing and really want to sing well. Just telling them "good job" puts big smiles on their faces!

From their I moved to a joint board meeting for Faith Formation. We were recently twinned with another parish and have been going through the pains of this process. While much of what we are doing is still separate, we decided to come together to get to know each other and see if there are areas in which we can collaborate. Our programs for grades 1 - 10 are still separate but we offered the adult sessions jointly for the first time this year. The meeting started out very tense but did become much better as it went on. It does take alot of energy, though, and I was already tired when I left early from that meeting to go to adult choir practice 30 minutes late! By 9:00 I was ready for a good glass of wine - only to be stopped by one FF director on my way out of the church, and the other FF director in the parking lot. An hour later I was finally home!

Through all of this, along with a long phone conversation this morning with one of the FF directors, I have determined that many people in each of the parishes are listening and making decisions and/or judgements with a particular filter over their lenses rather than truly listening and trying to work together to make a really positive environment. It is really very frustrating! And, everybody thinks someone else is the problem! Yikes - I'm ready to just step away but I feel very vested in my church and it would kill me to do this. I'm hoping a little R & R will help me see things through fresh eyes. Or, it is time to step away from some of my volunteer activities with the church and just be a parishioner!

Looking forward to a quiet weekend - maybe I'll finally get back to that knitting.

That's Entertainment

Well, we are 2/3 of the way through our annual ice show and it looks like it will be a hit once again. With US Novice Men's Champion Danny O'Shea as the guest skater and all of our club members skating beautifully! My DD skated in 2 different numbers, looking like a young star (to a proud mom, of course!).

Of course, there is still lots of snow on the ground but I'm told it will be 60 degrees by Tuesday so it will soon be gone. Maybe spring will actually arrive sometime this year. I hate those years when we go straight from winter into summer - no crisp spring mornings, no days of 60 degrees and evenings of 40s. Instead we go right to 85! Complain, complain, complain . . . .

Once we get through the ice show I'm hoping to get back to some knitting. I have the yarn ready to start the Masters Level I program, need to finish some leg warmers for my little skater, have a wonderful cotton sweater on another set of needles for my sister, and my own Crayon Box Jacket just begging to be picked up again. I'm also ready to start a good book I have on my desk - Savo Helveta's Not My Turn To Die - about life growing up in Bosnia. Someday these activities will become the regular part of my day and not the "if I have time" portion!

Hey - it's the sun!

So, we've been experiencing quite the unusual spring - 2 feet of snow in the northern part of the state on April 7th! And, now I'm told we're supposed to get up to 1 foot of snow on Friday in the central part of the state. Is spring ever going to come?!?!

As I look out my window today, at least I see the sun shining - and I better enjoy it since it might not be back for awhile. At least it's cold and crummy out during a week in which I have no free time - I won't feel like I'm missing out on any beautiful days. Now, starting next week when the ice show is done, I'm certainly hoping we'll see more sunshine!

I haven't really thought of a particular motive for creating a blog - or a purpose for the blog. Perhaps it is just a chance to record my thoughts for the day or week. I'm hoping to track some of my knitting through this blog (and keep my Ravelry page going), as well as simply sharing information about raising my beautiful 12 year old daughter! Life as a working mother with her own set of interests and hobbies - life is never dull!

It's a start!

I've thought of blogging off and on for a few years now - guess it's time to take the plunge! According to Blogger, I've been a member since October of 2005! I'm not certain how regularly I'll do this, or even what I'll talk about . . . but at least I've started!

I was challenged to cantor once again at church this weekend - and I passed the test of my husband (I won't call him a critic but I knew he'd be honest!). Although I was nervous, it was actually kind of fun. One problem - when I was lying awake at 3:00 this morning all I had running through my head was Sweet Refreshment!

Did you ever wonder what was on television at 3 am? The answer . . . NOT MUCH! Little House on the Prairie, Designing Women, Brady Bunch and a whole lot of Paid Programming! Enough to put a person back to sleep.