Tomorrow I'm going into Jesuit at lunchtime for a reunion of babies. Yes, most of the June & July babies will be at school with their moms & dads who (some) are taking the beginning of the school year off for maternity leave. It's an inservice day, actually today is too. I'm so glad I don't have to go to work. Brian & I have made it possible for me to stay home. Everyday when he goes to work I thank him (even if not out loud) for going to work so we (Claire & I) can both stay home! We are very lucky!!!

Last night at a women's group through our church Aloha UMC, I shared with the group and sort of realized as I was talking, that the end of this month is a painful anniversary of something I've written about before, but don't really want to go into again. I sent out a prayer request for compassion and love for us and the person who is most deeply affected by the anniversary. Sorry to be so vague, but those of you who have talked to us in the past year probably can figure out what I'm talking about. Anyway, I am grateful that I know God's love, forgiveness and can find peace through Him during the dreary days.

On a lighter note, we're going to Seaside, OR this weekend for the Hood-to-Coast festivities. My dad's running again (he's run it ever since I can remember). I wanted to run part of a leg with my husband, but neither of us were able to get into shape. My knee bummed out on my in early June and still isn't completely well (IT Band yuckiness). Oh well, there will be another year. This time we'll just play. My mom thankfully booked a room in Gearhart a long time ago so we could actually have a place to stay. The coast is a madhouse this weekend.

My uncle is playing in the headlining band on Saturday night, but I forgot the name of his band!!!
  ¶ 2:24 PM 0 comments

  I was reminded of my first year of teaching by an encounter with a neighbor. She lives two doors away from my parents' house and has a daughter. I taught her daughter one year and caught her plagerizing. Actually, what happened was her mom, thinking she was being helpful, edited a first draft to perfection. The girl turned it in without seeing all the changes her mom had made and I called her on it. The mother had taken French of course and was showing off for me disguised as helping her daughter. The mother is an English teacher at a different private catholic school. Why her daughter doesn't go there instead of where I taught makes me think she enjoys being away from her mother, but that's only a guess. So the mother thought I was too harsh on her daughter, of course, but attributed her punishment to the fact that I was a first-year teacher. Boy, did that bug me! What I couldn't believe is that another teacher thought it was okay to do her child's homework without consequence! I hope I'm not tempted to do the same!

Remembering this story and other adventures from my first-year teaching reminded me about what a great year personally I had despite having a tough professional year. That was the same year I met and wed Brian. Yes, we moved quickly into marriage. It was the year of 9-11 and we thought, life's too short, why put off our wedding. Fortunately for us it has worked out. We're happy, we have a baby, we're comfortable. Life is good. I'm glad it's 2004 and not 2001!
  ¶ 11:37 AM 0 comments

  Ahhh...the Olympics. They bring back memories of childhood when I was going to be the next Mary Lou Retton because really, how hard could it be? Now, when I watch gymnastics, I have knots in my stomach anticipating their falls, twists, broken arms, etc. Well, my dreams have changed, but I still do dream.

Tonight Brian & I are going to go on a date. His dad and wife are going to babysit while we go see a movie. I hope Claire goes to sleep or doesn't fuss too much for them. Sue, Claire's step-grandma I guess we'll call her, is going in for surgery tomorrow, a lumpectomy (sp?) for breast cancer, yet she's willing to come to babysit. What a lady! What movie will we see? Spiderman 2!

I'm working on the treasury stuff for our church. I inherited somewhat of a mess, but it's not as overwhelming today as it was Thursday night when the books/files were handed over to me. God give me strength! Amen.
  ¶ 9:59 AM 0 comments

  Claire can sit for long periods of time now, but I'm finding that she's no longer satisfied just to sit and be proud of that. Now she wants to move, bending over until she falls over. I love watching her lean over until she falls over on her stomach. Most of the time she cries even though falling seemed to be her goal! She's looking around now from the comfort of her boppy, trying to figure out where she wants to go. What a profound creature!

On Tuesday we had "Mommy & Me" swimming lessons with around fifteen mothers and children. Claire did well especially because she liked seeing all the other babies aged 6 months to 2 1/2 years. I'm glad she didn't care that the water was on the cool side!

We tent camped this weekend and boy was it cold in Lapine State Park near Bend. Fortunately, we spent the second night in a cabin a couple from church shared with us. It had two queen beds and a heater! Both nights it froze so we were glad to have a real roof over our heads night two. Next time we tent camp we'll be at the beach so the temperatures won't be so extreme!
  ¶ 8:37 AM 0 comments

  Drinking coffee, enjoying the cool August morning (for a change) while Claire sleeps, I realized I've been reading mainly religious Blogs because of my husband's influence in that Blog circle. If anyone knows any Blogs out there I might like, pass them along, and leave a comment...please...

On the Today show yesterday, Dr. Laura was interviewed by Campbell Brown (sp?). She wrote the book The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands that I read and now has a new workbook out, I forget the name. She said their's a section in it called "the proper care and feeding of wives" probably to appease all the woman out there who just read the title of the book and thought it must be a ploy to get women to become lower than dirt so their husbands can walk all over them. Campbell said as much when she commented that the book is trying to get women to become more traditional. I didn't think so...I thought the book made a lot of sense... If you want a happy husband don't try to change him, or ask him a million times if he remembered to do something (life won't end if he doesn't do it on our schedule) or make him think you're really unhappy about everything!!! I liked what she said that men want their wives to be happy so any complaining we do really doesn't show that we're happy. The chapter on sex wasn't that significant compared to the other ideas in the book. I thought it was funny that Campbell interviewed her (guess it was better than Matt Lauer) because I doubt that lady has any time for any kind of relationship with anyone other than her job--poor gal!

I love being married and want to stay that way.

Go Dr. Laura! I read her website occasionally and sometimes try to win a free book. I mainly like to listen to her talk to unfortunates on the phone and try to make their lives a little easier. She doesn't talk about God or her religion really, but she does encourage good values, that I appreciate.

Off to Sandy to visit a Grandma & Aunt of Claire's and then a little two month old baby girl of a former colleague. Can't wait! I made her soup so hopefully she'll enjoy it. We had some soup made for us by a family at church after Claire was born (I'm going to organize more people to do that in the future if any babies are born in our small church community). It was so nice to not have to think about food for a couple days...
  ¶ 8:18 AM 1 comments

  Yesterday and today Claire talked the most ever! Yesterday at one set of grandparents' house, she held long, sustained exclamations about what, we'll never know. This morning in her high chair she did the same. Whenever she does this, I feel as though she's singing and the song "Sing a song of six pence, a pocket full of rye..." comes into my head so I sing it. Yes, random, but she seems to like to listen to the song!

I think I gave her too much food too fast today because she threw up again... She's almost six months. For awhile I thought the food was going okay, but then, she started gagging, usually well after mealtime, and then upchucked. We took a break from food for several days and she threw up anyway, but two days did pass recently without event, so I started food again last night. Today, all over the couch...Yuck! Poor girl, another break from food may be in store. I think, by her facial expressions during feedings, that she prefers veggies to fruits... Good girl!

I photocopied recommendation letters and my teaching license to get ready to send to the school districts (only 2). I'm debating whether or not I really want to sub this school year, but at least I can say no if I decide I absolutely will not, and if we want a few extra bucks, I can always say yes. I will probably tutor too, but not too much!!!

It's nice to have a day at home for a change. Claire's napping again, I baked cookies, a chicken's roasting in the oven... That doesn't happen everyday. Maybe I'll write my grandma a letter. I have one faithful hand-writing penpal, and it is refreshing to put pen to paper at times. Peace.  ¶ 3:18 PM 0 comments

  August already! Our July was toooooo busy!

My husband forwarded me a link to Jen Lemen's blog. She gets a lot of traffic probably because she has a lot more time to write than I! Who knows?

Tuesday I'm having lunch with a two former colleagues, one who just had a baby girl and the other's daughter just had a daughter, same age as Claire. I'm excited to meet the daughter and her daughter here from Japan, but I'm sure Claire is cuter :).


  ¶ 9:28 PM 0 comments