A Death in the Family

My children experienced their first taste of death today. Thankfully, they were somewhat prepared for it. Summer (our pet rat) had seemed poorly for the last week or two and yesterday her activity level dropped considerably. We told the kids we didn't think she'd last past the night. Noah woke up at 4:30 this morning and checked on her... by his report, she was still breathing. I didn't think to check her until I got back from taking Emily to school at 8. She was gone. Of all the kids, Noah took it the hardest. He talks a good game, but he has a sensitive heart.

We waited for Brian to come home in the afternoon and he and the kids took her to a quiet spot and buried her. I would have gone, but then I would have felt like I should have sung a funeral song for her and I wasn't sure what an appropriate one would have been: When All of God's Ratties Get Home, Precious Ratties, Cheese Perfect Cheese, Precious Lord Take My Paw....?

Anyhow, that's life here. Looking forward to hump day tomorrow. I've had a tough time getting back into the swing of things after that week off, but tomorrow is a new day and we *will* get back on track!

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.

Challenges ahead

I had thoroughly intended to post before this, but it has been an unusual week here. On Tuesday, Brian stayed home from work sick, and then on Wednesday, I was the bedridden one. (Thankfully, he was up to snuff and handled the house and kids for me.) I have no idea what I had, but I was just sapped of all energy and felt like I was drifting in and out of consciousness for the first half of the day. Ran a fever of 2-3 degrees, but by Thursday, I was pretty much OK. Good thing, because Brian had to go back to work!

Now with those challenges met, I have new ones to face. Brian leaves for San Antonio tomorrow and won't be back till the 8th. This leaves me to juggle baseball practices, choir practice, AWANA, etc. alone all week. Not usually that big of a deal, but we have something new thrown into the mix next week. Emily's choir instructor has called additional rehearsals in the evening to prepare the choir for Musicale, a big chorale event held up in Sac on Thursday and Friday. She has rehearsals on Mon/Tue from 5:30-7:30 and Wed. 4:30-6:30. Noah has moved to a new baseball team and his practices have shifted to 1/2 hour later, starting at 5:30 and ending at 6:30 now. Here's a picture of what my days look like next week, courtesy of my Entourage calendar (click to biggify):


What the schedule doesn't show is that Thursday and Friday, Emily is in Sac all day and I will need to pick her up from school in the evenings at some point. Most likely it will be after 7 on Thursday and then probably near the end of my Friday night commitment (which is very near the school, anyway).

I think I have all the conflicts worked out... just need to check with the neighbors whose son is on the same team as Noah, and with a coupla folks from church who could help get Halle to/from AWANA just to help life slow down a bit for me and save a little gas. (Now *there's* another post... gas prices here have jumped over 30 cents in the last week!) Still planning next week's menu, but have figured out what night will need to be a fast food night and which nights eating at home will be most doable.

I have a feeling by the time the week is over, I'll be wishing I had a hot tub (spa) to climb into.

What a weekend

This past weekend was no different than most of our weekends, plenty of things to keep us occupied. It began Friday afternoon with Noah's ball practice at 5 (for which he only stayed 40 minutes or so because of our regular Fri-night CR engagement that starts around 6), and ended with falling asleep to HGTV around 10:30 last night.

We had AWANA pinewood derby on Saturday (saw some very cool and original designs... Halle is already thinking of hers for next year), followed by a quick lunch at Wendy's. We got home around 3 and around 30 minutes later were reminded by neighbors of their daughter's birthday party at 4 at one of the local "jump houses" (for those not familiar with the term, they are large rooms filled with inflatable bounce houses/slides/mazes). Thankfully, we did already have a present and wrapping paper, so we were able to get ready to go and were on time for the festivities. All the families on our street with children under 13 were there, plus a few extra. I was able to get in a little visiting with the other moms, something I really don't do very often. We got home in time to put dinner in the oven.... Paula Deen's Baked French Toast. Joel said he gave it an "A." Guess that means I'll need to make it again. Watched Mr. Bean's Holiday with the kids and Brian before bedtime (it was as much torture for me the second time as the first) and ended the evening falling asleep while watching Two Weeks with Brian. The fact that I fell asleep had *nothing* to do with the movie; I was just too tired by that time to stay awake. I was up early enough yesterday morning to finish watching it before getting out of bed.

I cannot say enough about Two Weeks. I can not imagine a person who could watch it and not be affected by it. It is amazing the range of emotions one movie can provoke. The basic storyline surrounds four adult siblings whose mother is dying of ovarian cancer and what happens when they come together in her home for what they believe will be her last few days (turning into two weeks... thus the title). There are moments that will make you laugh, cry, feel like slapping someone... and make you think. Watch it. Let me know how it affected you.

Yesterday we went to church and then out for lunch at Tahoe Joe's. Brian and I split a ribeye (really, should anyone eat a 14 oz. steak?). Halle and Noah both ordered the kids' steak, which has always been very good in the past. Unfortunately, the same could not be said yesterday. Apparently they changed the cut of meat they use for it and instead of a small sirloin, it was a big thick unidentifiable chunk of meat. Halle's was so tough I couldn't cut it, and Noah's was so tasteless, he barely ate 1/4 of it. Our server disappeared on us after serving the food so that we couldn't even tell her to take it back.... we had to ask the hostess to tell our server about it. Saw her do that, but the server never came back to the table (she even walked right past us to start chatting up a new table full of guys). Everyone else finished eating, and we finally asked to talk to the manager. We politely and calmly explained our dissatisfaction with the food and service (Brian's glass sat empty for 20 minutes). The manager wound up comping us the entire meal, plus gave us a card good for 3 free kids' meals on our next visit. We *will* go back, mostly because yesterday was quite atypical for that restaurant, and also because of the way the manager responded. There have been times we have had issues or questions in a restaurant and the managerial staff has responded defensively or made excuses; he did neither of those, but just apologized and asked for a chance to make it right. I appreciated that.

Came home and finished making this week's menu/shopping list, then headed to the commissary. Came home, put away groceries, then folded a couple of loads of laundry while watching the Oscars. There will be MUCH more laundry to do today. Brian helped the boys clean their room while I was shopping (and after I got back... and they still aren't done) and discovered a huge amount of clothing that hadn't been making its way to the laundry.

On the agenda this week in the evenings:

• a ball practice every evening from 5-6ish Mon-Fri, plus at least one on Saturday morning.
• Easter choir rehearsal for me tonight
  
• play rehearsals for Emily after school a couple days (not sure which)
• Tuesday night AWANA for Halle, growth group meeting for me and Brian
• Brian's regular Wed. evening group meeting
• Fri. night CR
  

Thursdays are happy nights; only Joel's ball practice to worry about (unless I have praise choir rehearsal...)

Good stuff

Maybe I am one of the last people to hear about this guy, but I have to mention Dr. Randy Pausch and his "Last Lecture". Randy is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in his last weeks of life; he has been fighting pancreatic cancer since Sept. 2006 and was told late last summer that he had about 3-6 months of good health left. Amazingly enough, the latest update at his website 2 days ago shows him still enjoying good health. At any rate, you owe it to yourself to watch the video of his lecture (also available with closed captioning), or at least read the transcript. Personally, I preferred watching him. He has a remarkable outlook on life, and I guarantee you that what you will hear is not what you'd expect from a man who is dying and is the father of three young children. It is a little over an hour long, but worth it. He did do a very condensed version (around 10 minutes) on Oprah, which can be found at YouTube if you search for his name and Oprah.

Newest favorite song: In Your Presence, by Charity Von. Actually, until I looked for it at iTunes, I had no idea who sang it. It is one we've done a couple of times at church. Simple song, simple melody, easy to harmonize with. Check out the lyrics (and then get yourself a copy):

In your presence
I find comfort
In your presence I find peace.
In your presence
I surrender
Lord, I give you all of me.

And in your presence
I fall on my knees.
For you are worthy
In your presence
I hear angels sing,
"Holy! Holy! Is the Lamb of God!"

Forgot to mention that last weekend was our ladies' retreat/conference at church. We were blessed to hear from Renee Swope, from Proverbs 31 Ministries. Can't say enough nice things about her. She was so transparent with us about her life and what God has brought her through. The weekend left us all renewed and refreshed.

The mother of all bulleted lists

My infrequency of posting has left many to wonder if I am still alive. The answer is unequivocally yes.... although with the schedule we'll be keeping this spring, that may not hold true for long! There is much I haven't mentioned here, but not for lack of wanting to; I just haven't found the time. But here I sit, hubby out of town, oldest daughter spending the night away, and the other three happily entertaining themselves a few steps away. This may just be the perfect time to get everything all out in the open. What better way to do it than with bullets???

• We joined the ranks of Wii owners this Christmas. It was the surprise hit of the day. As a testimony to its appeal, I saw more of Emily in the 3 days following Christmas Day than I did in the 3 weeks prior! Favorite games are Wii Sports (Joel has actually bowled a perfect 300!), Wii Play, and Carnival Games. Emily is lobbying to get Guitar Hero III after playing it on a friend's PlayStation; she says she RULES it. That probably means I would *not* rule it. I would like to wait and see if Rock Band is going to be made for Wii; my sister says it is a lot of fun. According to Wikipedia, EA announced plans for a Wii version on Jan. 31, so we'll have to wait and see if that plays out.
  
• I think I mentioned that the boys will be playing baseball this spring. Noah started practice this week. He had practice Monday and Wednesday from 5-6, Friday for about 1/2 of that, but only because we had to leave early for Celebrate Recovery, and today from 9-11. So far, it looks like the same schedule for next week, but it may change. Got the call from Joel's coach today, and his first practice is this Thursday from 5-6, with a 15-min parent meeting before that. This will be very interesting, having 2 in sports at the same time; it's a first for us. No word yet on what days the actual games will be. To complicate matters, Noah's team will have to travel to some surrounding towns 30 minutes or so away to play, and possibly even to one about 2 hours away. And then there is coordinating all this with Emily's play rehearsals, which for now are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school until around 4. Thankfully, many of Noah's team members live here in our neighborhood, less than a block away, even.
  
• During the sports physicals the boys had to prepare for Little League, we found out Noah needed a more thorough vision exam. So now he is sporting glasses. Overall, his vision isn't too bad, but it seems that his right eye had been doing most of the work.
• 
• Halle finished up her first AWANA book this past week. She is starting on the second one now. She probably won't be able to finish it this year, but should get far enough along in it so that she will be able to get through both it and book 3 next year, which will put her right on track with where she should be.
• Still making it to the movies on occasion. Emily and I went to see 27 Dresses a few weeks ago. Just goes to show I cannot listen to any professional movie reviewers. I loved it. Don't want to give anything away for those who haven't seen it, but for those who have, I totally was in tears in the bridal shop scene with the sister. I was feeling Jane's pain.
  
• Halle and I went to see the Hannah Montana 3D movie. I actually missed the Super Bowl to take her. We got home just moments after the last play. Ah well, I think it was worth it.
  
• Tonight, the kids and I went to the base theater to catch The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Halle hadn't been all that keen on seeing it, but even she said it was better than she thought it would be. I appreciated the message of the story: Heroes don't have to be the biggest, bravest, or strongest. They just have to do what's right, even when it isn't easy. Good lesson for our kids to learn, and I can think of a lot of us adults who would do well to learn it as well.
• The dog training is going well. What I find almost inconceivable is how much the dogs actually like wearing their training collars/leashes. This training is not the typical food reward kind of training, so they aren't acting all happy because they know they're getting treats, that's for sure. But when they see me go get the leashes from the leash rack, they both get very excited. One thing we are working on right now is the down stay. They're both pretty good with it; one funny thing is that when I am working with Rory, Campbell will often put himself in a down stay at the same time. Then when he hears me give her the "clear" signal, he'll get up as well. What I really like doing is seeing how softly I can give the command and get a response. I can really almost whisper it. What we really need to work on now is practicing in places away from home (the park, stores... there are a few around here that are dog-friendly, like Home Depot/Lowes). I took Rory to the duck pond park here on base a few days ago and she was quite distracted by the sea gulls! the ducks! the geese! She actually pulled on the leash for the first time in literally months. She was acting more like a Pointer (not June, Anita, or Ruth) than a Great Dane.
• We have a family outing planned for Monday to go to Sacramento to see the Bodies Revealed exhibit. Unfortunately, no picture-taking is allowed. Bummer. I think it is going to be very cool. Halle really doesn't want to see it ("Mom, I'm a girl... I don't want to see dead bodies!"), but she is still coming along; Emily just plain doesn't want to go anywhere with her family unless it is to buy stuff for her, so we'll see if she goes or not.
  
• I never wrote a wrap-up post for the fall reading challenge. Suffice it to say that I did manage to read all that was on my list with the exception of one book that I traded in early on, plus several more. Since the end of the challenge, I haven't had as much opportunity to read; I'm missing it.
• To that end, I am looking forward to the unified study we are starting at church this week. As a church, we will be reading a book by Bill Hybels, Just Walk Across the Room: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith. This will continue through to Easter; the sermons will relate to the book, as will our small group meetings. I've read the first chapter so far and liked what I read.
• Speaking of Easter, rehearsals for Easter choir started this past Monday night. Oops, one more thing to juggle on baseball practice night.
  

There... that's about it, I think. Hopefully you are still awake after all that. If I've left anything of importance out, it will probably come to me around 2am.