Observations on a Thursday Evening.....

1. There is only so much blogging one can do about storms, and more snow, and the bitter damn cold and breaking ice off one's roof. I didn't want to blather on about it, in the same sense that I'm sure you all didn't want to hear it. If all goes well, we will hit our 90th day of school Monday. That is 6 days later than we should've. It's only the end of January. I'd be an idiot to think we are done with snow days and I'm already dreading being in school at the end of June.

2. I have only run 15 miles this month. To some of you, that might seem like a lot. To me, however, it's pathetic. I run 2.5 miles at a time. My goal for January was to run 3x a week. Some quick math will tell you I've gotten out and run 6x this month. Once this week (so far) and only once last week. Before that I did good and got 2x a week in. The weather is killing me. Between the cold, the bitter wind and the storms I'm lucky to have logged 15 miles. I haven't had a single day this month on dry, bare pavement. (I started a log on the first) I figure all this hellish snowy/sloppy road work will make my legs stronger and I'll be like a rocket when the roads get better. Right? Right?!?

In Which We Find A Blessing-UPDATED with PHOTOS

At 1:33 this afternoon, my beautiful little niece Victoria Grace (who will be called Tori in the future, but not just yet.. she's still new) came into the world at an impressive 21 inches and 7lbs 14 ozs. She has blondish-redish hair and dark eyes and is the most adorable little thing ever. I am truly and madly in love with her already. My sister in law and her husband are sooooooooo very happy and relieved that she is finally here safe in their arms. The past 9 months have been both joyous and stress filled for them and this day couldn't get here soon enough. I know that I paced trails in the floor of our classroom this morning so I can't begin to imagine how they were feeling. Needless to say it was a bittersweet blessing and there is some sadness all around as we still mourn the loss of my nephew, but this little angel's arrival will bring a little more healing to us all. I have more pictures but they are all huge files and I haven't re-sized them yet.. and I'm not sure how my SIL and her husband would feel about me plastering them up on my blog (they don't know about it anyhow) so I think I'll upload just a few more and we'll call it done. I just wanted to share my good news as I know my faithful-longtime readers were all blessing us with their continued prayers. We thank you all very much.

Let's Get Together.. And Feel All Right

I won't get into one of the politicky type blog posts about today and history making and blah blah blah. But I did want to share my amazing afternoon. Someone at school asked a week or so ago about setting up a TV so the teachers who wanted to could bring their classes to watch parts of the ceremonies today. My principal replied with a commitment to set up the projector in the multipurpose room and stream coverage from 10-2 for those who wished to stop in. I popped in during my break and learned about 95 people who were hard at working cleaning out the old at the white house and moving in the new. At 11:20 I went to lunch. On my way down to get my lunch out of the teachers room fridge, I noticed someone had set up long tables in the mpr for the teachers to have lunch at and watch. I joined some coworkers and the younger students came in to eat their lunch, as the older ones filed in to watch in front of us on the floor. The kids cheered when Obama was introduced. They clapped when Joe Biden was sworn in. One stood up and saluted as Aretha sang. They were so full of enthusiasm at being able to watch a new president take office, it was awesome. The best part was... when they asked the crowd to stand up before the presidential oath, all the primary kids who were still eating (we switched lunch groups before the speech and the kids were even quiet while they did that) all stood up and there wasn't a peep to be heard until the whole school cheered at the end. To me that is what it's all about. Happy Inauguration Day.

No One's Got Much To Say...............

20 Things You Probably Already Know About Me:
(cuz right now, it's all I've got)

1. I have 4 brothers (all younger) and 3 step sisters (that I've never met). Number 4 out of the 5 of us is turning 30 next week and tomorrow we will all converge at S's house for some merry making and Rock Band and craziness. I've spent some quality time with my brothers as of late, but it's all been in sadness, and it will be nice to let loose and laugh for a change.
2. I have Chronic Headache Syndrome(seriously, that's what they call it). I've suffered from headaches almost daily since my big car accident in 1993. Don't do the math, it will make you sad too.
3. I don't often take anything for the headaches unless they are really bad, because I'd like to keep my liver a bit longer. Really, I'm tired of the headaches. I'd like to just be normal.

Arctic What?!?

"I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood." ~Bill Watterson

So, yah, it's been a while. I can't say that I have felt much like blogging this past week, so I chose not too. I didn't know what I might come and write about that would come remotely close to how I was feeling, and thought it would just be better to stay quiet. The services for my grandmother were held over the past 2 days, and it was beautiful and horrible all at the same time. I am exhausted, emotionally and physically and think in hindsight if I were smarter I would've taken the day off today to recover. Thank you all for your good wishes.

We are getting ready to head into something horrible that involves the words arctic, and bone chilling, and frostbite. As we all know how much I love winter and being cold, this does not make me happy. In honor of the impending awfulness.. I give you a photo of my poor birdbath the day after the big ice-storm. Right now, it's buried under snow. Up Yours winter.

In Which We Find Sadness..................

One of the most amazing people I've even known passed away today. She was 88 years old, married for 60 years, raised 3 children, had 13 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. She lived to see wars, depressions, the invention of cars, the Wall coming down, the invention of Monopoly and a million other different ups and downs. She never drove one mile, nor did she have a drivers license. If she wanted to get somewhere she walked, took the bus or someone drove her. She never worked, as far as I am aware, a day in her life. She took care of her children, and her house, and her husband, and when her children were all raised and grown... she babysat my cousins so that my aunt and uncle could work. She enjoyed every minute of it and I never heard her complain. I used to stay with them for a week every summer for a bunch of years when I was growing up. We always had hot dogs on Saturday evening, went to church first thing on Sunday and we would always go to Maine for a day. We drove up, went outlet shopping and then went out for seafood on the harbor. I always got to have lobster and my grandmother never said "No". Until the Alzheimer's changed her personality I never heard her raise her voice one time in my life. She never argued, she never yelled and I never heard her say an unkind word. She was, without fail, one of the best people I've ever had the privileged of knowing and I will miss her more than I can express. Arrivederci nonna. Riposi bene e vada con il dio.

Refresh. Renew. Rejuvenate. Revive.

So simple. The longest part of the whole project was waiting for the paint to dry. I took a 6x6 canvas and painted it with acrylic paints (burnt sienna and green-blue) and then used cardstock and ribbon and stamps and brads to make the rest. The quote on the inner most part reads, "Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy." Guillaume Apollinaire

I have hung it on the wall behind my desk, in the space that is cut out for a large monitor to go (my desk has cubbyholes in an upside down u shape sitting on top of it.

Today is the last day of vacation (weekends don't count) and it's only 16 degrees out which is too cold to run (ask me how I know this.. my new "too cold temperature" is 20. My cheeks have finally recovered from running in the bitter cold last Monday before Christmas) and so I'm going to go snuggle under my blanket and knit a sweater for that little niece who will be here in less than 3 weeks.

Start As You Mean To Go

I decided that one of the things I wanted to do this year was make an artsy reminder of my word. Something I could look at and remember, "Oh yeah, you were focusing on this this year." Something I intended to do last year and never got around to. We know how well last year's word work out now, so I planned to do my creating today. Start the new year out on the right foot.

There was one little problem. The more I thought about my word, and what I wanted to create to showcase the word, the more I realized that I picked the wrong word. I did some soul searching while I rummaged through my art supplies, looking for just the right things I wanted to use, and decided what I really want to do this year.. what I really want my focus to be on.. what my word should be.. is revive.