Spring break

We're all on spring break here in the Pass the Prozac house (well, everyone except Brian...). Emily is getting plenty of driving practice. She drove a bit over the weekend (to church and back, to the BX, the shoppette) and has taken every chance she can get to get behind the wheel this week. I think she will be a fine driver once she has a few more miles under her belt. She hasn't been out on the highway yet ... I think I'll let her dad handle that!

Sunday was a rather long day... it began with me waking up a bit later than I had intended. I didn't set an alarm, and my usually reliable internal alarm didn't wake me up until 6:22. Wouldn't have been too bad if I wasn't supposed to be at church at 6:45 for rehearsal before the 8am worship. BUT... I managed to shower, dry my hair (mostly), throw on foundation and clothes, and be driving out the main gate of the base as the clock read 6:45. I hit every light on green except for 1, never exceeded the speed limit, and made it to church by 6:55 (I even put on my blush and lip color while I drove. Anyone know the new term for that?? You can see it here.). There were others not there yet (although most were) and they hadn't started. Can you say "lucky?" Anyhow, sang for 3 services and left church a little after 12:45. Brian was busy at work grilling steaks for our Easter dinner. My legs were killing me from standing so much at church... counting rehearsal time, probably 3 hours or so. I'm still working out the soreness.

Had fun tonight chatting with John Dobbs tonight while he was doing a live u-stream during American Idol. I was able to get a little preview of what I would get to see out here on the left coast by listening/watching the broadcast on his tv when he turned his webcam to show me. I'm hoping more of his regular readers will come and chat with us next week. (Hey Terri, Donna... I'm talking to you! And anyone else who comes here that also reads John.)

And about AI, I know I haven't said much about it this year. I'm not as thrilled with the top 10 as I was last year's.... can't see myself going to the tour concert with Emily this year unless she is just dying to go, but even she isn't as into it this year as she was last year. My favorites are David Archuleta, Brooke White, Michael Johns, and David Cook. For some reason, I don't want to like David Cook... but I can't deny he has talent.

In other news.... who has/hasn't heard Chris Sligh's new single??? (Remember Chris?? AI top 10 from last year?) Go. Get. It. Now. It is titled Empty Me, and is great. Ask John... he took my advice. If you want to hear it first, I found what I think is the entire song in streaming media here.

No big plans for the week... just keeping up with the house and laundry and watching the kids enjoy their free time. They've been having a blast playing with their friends who are also on break this week. Friday night is a big 6-month celebration for Celebrate Recovery at church; we're having a barbecue dinner before the usual start time. I'm on worship team and will have to arrive an hour earlier to get in a little rehearsal time. Of course, I don't mind, since I like singing.

I'm ready to kick back with a little HGTV before turning out the lights... hopefully I'll have more to tell soon.

Who turned out the lights?

We spent the better part of yesterday without power here... someone hit a power pole just outside one of the base gates and took out 2 more. We were dark from 12:30 pm till just before midnight last night. Made for an interesting day with no way to cook (electric ignition on the gas stove) or do our usual things (computer, tv). We had some errands to run in the early evening and when we came back, our next-door neighbor had an outdoor fireplace going, and a propane camping lantern hanging in the doorway of his garage. Across the street, another neighbor had his telescope out, trained on Saturn. We all had a chance to look through the telescope... it was very cool; we could even see Saturn's rings! It wasn't an extremely close-up view; our neighbor said he had stronger lenses, but they were more sensitive to wind, so it would have been harder to see. At any rate, it was a great night for stargazing, since there was very little light to be had anywhere around.

It's course selection time at Emily's school. I was able to log onto the school website just a few minutes after registration was opened up, so I am hoping she is able to get all the courses she wanted. Not sure when we will hear about it.

Next week is Spring Break. No major plans except chillaxin'.

Baseball and birthdays

It was a great opening day yesterday, despite the iffy weather. The sun played hide-and-seek for most of the day, but thankfully the rain held off until our last game was ending. Noah's team won its first game of the season 12-4; he played 3rd base and made some good catches, including one in which he made a throw to 1st to get someone out. His next game is this Thursday.

This picture is of Noah on 2nd base. The one I took just before this was of him rubbing his upper right arm, where he had taken a hit from a pitch a few moments before.




Joel's team had fun with their first game. This being our first time with coach-pitch, we are pretty new to how they do things.... it appears that there is no score-keeping with it. At any rate, Joel had a great time, especially since he was playing 1st base and caught several throws to tag kids out. Joel has to wait until Saturday for his next game.




This is Joel, just seconds before he caught a throw and tagged a player out.



Today was Brian's birthday... we celebrated by driving up to Sacramento to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, doing a little shopping at the mall there, and then grabbing some cheesecake to go from The Cheesecake Factory. Emily and I went grocery shopping after we got home, and then we all settled down for some homework. I helped Brian edit and proof some recommendation letters he needed done for tomorrow and Emily finished up her schoolwork for tomorrow.

This week is the last week of school before Spring Break.... and Emily will have her first driving lesson on Friday. I forgot to mention earlier that she passed her driver's test on Friday. Now we are 6 months away from having 3 drivers in the family!

Party on

I am uncharacteristically late to the party, but at last I have arrived! Loved last year's party and am looking forward to this year's.... just hope I have time to mix and mingle, what with all the goings-on around here. Forgive me if I have to step out for a bit, but I seem to have lost the remote control to life and cannot hit "pause" so that I can relax and enjoy the fun as much as I'd like.

For newbies here, I'll point you to my 100 things post, newly updated. As a quick intro, I'll let you know that I'm a full-time mom to 4 kids ages 7-16, plus 2 dogs, ages 11 months and almost 5 years. The beautiful face looking at you in the header is Rory, our Great Dane puppy. She is mentored by our spazztastic Wire Fox Terrier, Campbell. I've been married nearly 22 years to a great guy who is a nurse anesthetist in the US Air Force. I homeschool our 3 youngest kids, while the oldest is a sophomore at the local Christian high school.

Two big events coming up this week for us:

1. My 16yo is taking her driver's permit test on Friday.
   
2. Opening day for baseball here on base. The boys both have games, thankfully not at the same time (although that will happen a few times later this season).

Grab a Diet Mt. Dew and relax... I'll be back to check on you eventually (unless I fall asleep watching HGTV).

The week in review

Obviously I haven't had a lot of time on my hands this past week. It went fairly smoothly, even with all the running back and forth and here and there. Best part of the week was Brian coming home on Saturday. Everyone was very happy to have him back. He got home just in time to see the last half of a scrimmage baseball game between Noah's team and another team. Noah even got to pitch and didn't do half bad.

Today was a full day. Despite turning the clock forward, we went to early service rather than our usual late service (9am vs. 10:45). I had put a half-ham in the oven before we left, so that all I needed to do once we got home was make the mashed potatoes. We finished lunch just in time for me to run to a birthday party with Halle.

While I was gone, Brian and the boys did a LOT of yard work. The boys did the dirty work of cleaning up after the dogs... something that hadn't been done in a while since it is a nearly impossible thing to do during the rainy season. Our yard is slick and muddy when it is wet out, so there is no way to take care of the "stuff" they leave behind. Once they finished their job, Brian was able to mow the yard. They also cleaned out the front flowerbed. And when I say "cleaned out," I mean it. They removed everything. Not sure yet what we'll fill it back up with. It's a very sunny location, so we'll have to find something that does well in full sun.

I ended up going out again for various things... dog food for Rory, a CostCo run for stock-up items from the coupon sale that ended today, and to return movies to Blockbuster. Got home with enough sunlight left to play ball with Rory in the back yard.

Speaking of Rory, Brian said he took both dogs for walks while I was gone (separately), and said his walk with Rory took twice as long as the one with Campbell because of all the people who wanted to meet them. She does draw a lot of attention and gets many compliments because of her gentle temperament. People also notice how calmly she walks with us, rather than trying to take us for a walk.

Oh, one other cool thing from the week: Emily's select choir from school received a "command performance" at the music festival they attended this week. Only the groups that receive a superior rating from the adjudicator get to sing at the concert at the close of the festival. Emily text-messaged me to let me know and thought it was quite funny that I wasn't there to hear them sing (she had a descant duet with a tenor on their performance piece). Hopefully someone videotaped it and I will get to see/hear it.