School Schmool!

I'm having a bad attitude right now and I can't even help myself. My brain is simply not on school and it really needs to be! This end of the semester time frame is for the birds...I feel thoroughly overwhelmed. Normally this anxiety would light a fire under me, but instead it's making me shut down and not want to do anything at all...this is NOT good. It's going to be a long week ahead with severely limited sleep until I get myself caught up.

With the excitement of my school visitation day on Tuesday and our home visit on Thursday last week I really couldn't focus on school and now I'm paying the price for that. Oh well...in the long run it will all be okay but I'll be stressed for the next little while.

What can you do?

Easter Already

Hard to believe it's the end of March already! We had Easter dinner with the family today and we had a good time. Despite the big snow storm we had on Friday, we still had our 8th annual outdoor egg hunt at Mom and Dad's. This year was extra special since it was the first year Ava could really participate. We had a great time...and much to my chagrin...the boys won the egg hunt again. :( Oh well though, it was still a great day with excellent company and awesome food - I certainly can't complain!

Longer Days

We "sprang forward" much earlier than normal this year. Even though it's a tad hard to get used to the time change, I love the longer days. Normally in March it's still getting dark at like 5:30 or 6:00 but now it's almost 8:00 before it's really dark! You wouldn't think the extra daylight hours would make that big a difference to the body but oh man do they!

With the exception of Monday (as the first real day of activity after the time change) I've been in a better mood this week than I have in a long time. More energy overall and just happier to exist. This is a welcome change and even though it's still cold out there I can feel spring in the air. So can the birds and they are chirping cheerfully on our front porch, even on the bitterly cold mornings!

I love the changing of the seasons, there's so much anticipation in the world right now. And soon the snow will melt and the baby flowers will begin to show their tiny buds...oh how I long for spring and warmer days!

Sick again...

Lately I feel like I've been sick more than I've been healthy. This has been a hard winter. Yesterday I was throwing up again and it wasn't fun. My tummy is still jippy today so I'm not eating much but I'm feeling a lot better than I was. It seems like everyone I know has had more colds/flu/whatever this year than in years past. I'm SO ready for spring but we got another huge 5-inch snow storm last night!

I had a day off today because Ava's sick (throwing up too) and Becca is visiting with her grandparents. and so far I've used it very productively. First I caught up on my sleep, which was much needed and then I put the finishing touches on all our adoption paperwork and got that all printed and ready to go. Now I'm about to go start my Educational Psychology research project, which is due this coming Saturday. Who knows - I might even have some extra me-time later today! :)

It feels good to be getting things done!

Niece in Boots

Ava was adorable today - pretending to be all grown up and try on my boots! We had a lot of fun and she's at such an exciting stage right now. She's saying so many words and even beginning to make small phrases with her vocabulary. I love this girl so much and I am truly blessed to be able to share so much of my time with her.

Ava M., 14 months old

Scrapbooking Nerd

I had an opportunity to go away to a "crop around the clock" event in Ohio this weekend and not only did I go...I also had a great time! I fully acknowledge and accept my status as a top scrapbooking NERD, yep that's me! I completed 28 pages in less than two days, which is quite an accomplishment.

It was lots of fun and I also really enjoyed the time with my baby sister and one of my best pals, Molly. One of the coolest aspects of being a scrapbooking nerd is that I also get the benefit of companionship and great conversations while I'm doing something meaningful to me. Yay!!

Snow People are Cool!

Meet Sam, the snow person we built this week. This makes me happy!

Lunar Eclipse

Michael and I took pictures of the moon's eclipse tonight. This is the last one until 2010. Of course these photos are limited by the equipment we have but they're actually not bad considering. It's a neat looking moon and thanks to the bitter cold we're experiencing right now we had a beautifully clear sky in which to see it! When we came inside there was actually ice on my tripod and we were freezing! Our results were well worth the effort though and we had fun!!

The one below (with the tree branches) is my favorite, it was taken by Michael!

A Promise of Spring?

There comes a turning point every winter - when the world suddenly comes to life again and there is knowledge (or maybe just awareness) that spring will come. Even if winter invades again there is a subtle promise that spring will eventually prevail.




We had some interesting skies today after the rain. First ominous looking clouds then fluffy blue ones, and of course the rainbow was somewhere in there too.




The world seemed to magically come back to life - even the air smelled different, fresher and somehow more vibrant. Ice is melting, winter is retreating...my spirit responds and I feel like a kid again.








Even the dogs seem to have a different sense about them today, they know things have changed too. They know spring isn't too far off.

Peanut Butter Toast with Heart Centers...

Sometimes it's the little things that count. Today is Valentine's Day and this is the breakfast my sweetie made for me this morning. The picture is bad because it was taken with my cell phone with very minimal lighting (there's only so much that can be forgiven by photoshop) but Michael's gesture made my morning special and I figured it was blog worthy, bad photo and all. Simple gestures can go a long way...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!