The Author

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I am a high school English teacher, and mother of two charming little ones of my own. I teach in a high poverty urban charter school, while I live in a typical American suburb that has frequently been rated one of the safest cities in the country. It is a paradox I struggle with constantly, but it is my life.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Spring Break Spring Break Spring Break

It feels good to be on Spring Break. I had promised myself I would get done some schoolwork during this break so I don't go back feeling just as stressed as I did when I left, and I haven't gotten any work done yet, but the week is young. I will try to force myself to start pulling stuff out of bags tomorrow.

It has been a good week. Saturday I did some shopping and had dinner with the in-laws. Sunday I sang in Discovery Kidz (a show at church) and then we decided to hit the beach after church. It was overcast, but still hot, and we had a beautiful time. Tiana was maybe the happiest I have ever seen her. She just loved the  sun and sand and everything. It was like she couldn't stop smiling and laughing the whole time. So CUTE.

I set myself a goal of hitting the gym every day this week, and so far so good, even if it hasn't been for a super long time each time, but it has been nice. I also bought myself a new Macbook to replace the laptop that will now not turn on. The possibility of all the lost information that didn't end up on the back-up hard drive could be really getting to me, but I am taking solace in that I just have no idea what I am doing yet on this computer, so it is probably all here somewhere, right?  Haha.

I had lunch with a friend on Monday and she commented that I must have really been stressed since I hadn't blogged in a while, which is funny, because that is what a friend/mentor I saw last week said too. It is interesting to think that my friends know my life is really turned upside down if I DON'T blog. Most people blog if something IS going on to write about, I blog all the time, EXCEPT, when I am really, truly, losing my mind with busyness. Seriously... the amount of "busy" in my life lately really has gotten out of control.

Anyhow... back on track now. Let's see if I can hold on. There is actually so much going on- I have to remember all of it long enough to blog about.

Monday night our Bible study group had Seder. One of the guys in our Bible study has a Jewish background, so he narrated the ceremony. His super awesome girlfriend did a great job preparing all of it, and he did a good job of leading it and connecting it to Christ. It was a a cool experience. We didn't really do the traditional dinner (sorry- no lamb here, I made tri trip and chicken), but we did the ceremony. It was actually WAY awesome. I'm not gonna lie; I kind of expected it to be informative, but boring. It was informative, but actually a lot of fun. Did you know the tradition of hiding Easter eggs actually generated in a Passover tradition of hiding the unleavened bread? Overall, it was a good time. Any religious/cultural ceremony that involves drinking four glasses of wine and repeatedly thanking God for making the fruit of the vine is my kind of ceremony!   :-)   Plus, it was, outside of the elements of the night, just a beautiful reminder of how wonderful it is to have this group. I genuinely care about these wonderful young people, and I have not felt this fantastic level of fellowship since I was 18 and had a Bible study with a bunch of people from Axis where we were going through the whole Bible. That was an awesome group, and I have always missed the type of fellowship we had there, but this feels very much like that vibe. It is such a privilege to host it every week, even if I do often miss like an hour of it taking care of the kids. :-(

Today I had some dental work done, which really sucked. I've never had a single cavity before, so this was my first filling, but since pregnancy does awful things to your teeth, I had 4. Yes, 4. I can't believe I am even admitting that, but I guess getting to this age without a single cavity is not too bad. Since I don't have a lot of time off though, I decided to do them all at once. I didn't realize how painful it was going to be. Not during... after. I think it partially just IS painful getting 4 fillings, and I also kind of just have sensitive teeth, and I am having some weirdo reaction in my cheek too. Only on one side, but for some reason, it is all swollen. It is even bruised- I can see it on the outside- and really tender to touch. I've been putting ice on it and taking Motrin which is helping, but this just sucks. I better feel better by our Vegas trip at the end of the week.

Other than that, I made the best of the day. Since I was bringing Tiana to school for my dentist appointment, I decided to leave her there for a bit and take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with my son alone. It was really special. He is really becoming great company. I picked him up from school and took him to lunch and a movie. He loved picking out his own sandwich at Subway and chatting with me while we ate. He was so cute at the movies. He wanted to sit at the very top. When I whispered a few things to him at the beginning of the movie, he kept telling me to be quiet. He is so funny. I think it is important that I do stuff like that once in a while, especially now that it is not just him. I was shocked that when we were at lunch he asked where Tiana was, and I said at school, and he told me he was glad it was just us, and then he actually asked if I remembered when I took him to Disneyland just me and him. That was 2 YEARS ago! I can't believe he remembers that. He said, "That was fun, Mom."  :-)  When we got back to the house after picking up Tiana, he looked at me as he was getting out of the car and said, "I'm so glad you picked me up at lunch today and took me to the movies." He even helped me cook dinner tonight too. :-) When you work 60+ hours a week... this kind of stuff is really very necessary. I don't know how I would keep going without moments like that.

So, tomorrow my kitchen and bathroom will be thrown into a relative state of upheaval, as we are replacing all of our plumbing with copper and doing some remodeling, and tomorrow is the big "removal" day. Out comes the bathtub (yea! could not be happier about this- getting one with an actual slope!), the tile,  and the toilet in my bathroom (Marc's bathroom will be spared), as well as the dishwasher (which is broken and nearly caught our house on fire a few weeks ago). I do not know how long the whole process will take, but I should eventually have a beautifully remodeled bathroom and working kitchen plumbing. Our plumbing situation is really such a joke. We can't even turn our faucet on without using two hands to manhandle it- not even kidding. We are also installing a reverse osmosis system, which I am so, so excited about.

I should take before and after pictures!

What else... oh yes, a Tiana update is  a must! She is SO, SO, SO almost crawling. She gets around very easily on the shag carpet in both the kids' bedrooms, but not as easily on the hard carpet in the living room or at all on the hardwood floors. In other news, she did wave for the first time today. I was hanging out with my friend Janelle tonight and Tiana totally clearly waved at her. I was so excited. You could just SEE the thought process there as she looked at Janelle, looked at her hand, and then slowly raised her hand to wave back. Oh my big girl!  I am one lucky mommy.

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