February

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it is already thursday. this week has gone by quickly, mainly because i have spent the last couple of days in bed! i was back to the doctor on wednesday, still with the same old junk, but feeling worse. so he put me back on antibiotics, and another pill of some sort, and hopefully i will start getting better. i can't believe i have spent five sick days on this one illness! it is unbelievable. i just can't seem to shake it.

tonight is our chuck e. cheese adventure! i hope everything runs smoothly. it isn't easy to watch that many kids at chuck e. cheese! hopefully we will keep everyone under control, and they will all have a good time.

so tomorrow i am back to work after two days off, and then it is another weekend. this will be our last sunday at our church. actually, i will be going alone, because keith has a seminar at school on sunday morning that he is required to attend. so he is officially homefree! and i only have one sunday left. so i am looking forward to trying some new churches, and experiencing some different places. it is nice to mix it up a little every now and then.

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wow, didn't realize i hadn't updated the page since last wednesday! there's just not much going on around here. saturday night we went with keith's grandpa to joe's crabshack, which was awesome. i am usually the anti-shrimp person, but i have discovered coconut shrimp, and now i have a new passion in life. so i had snowcrab and coconut shrimp. it was SO good. so that was a fun evening.

and church yesterday was just fine. it seemed to go by quickly. some of you may not know, but about 5 weeks ago, we gave our resignation at the church. we wanted to give them plenty of time to find someone else to take over. we decided to resign a bit earlier than we had planned, because we are going to be so busy. in march we will have company from arkansas for two sundays, and then be in key west for a sunday, and then we are into april, when keith will (hopefully) be flying/driving around the country to interviews. so with our schedule, this was the best time for us to step down. the pastor told us yesterday that he is talking with three people about taking over, so that is great. and i cannot WAIT to be back in a regular service. i feel like i run on empty so much of the time, because we never get to go to a worship service. it will be a nice rest for both of us.

starting another monday, and i am tired, and STILL cannot seem to beat this cold/cough junk, but feeling excited. we have a lot to look forward to!

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not much going on in orlando. we have just been hanging around the house with keith's grandpa. they went to new smyrna today to see the beach while i was at work. it is a yucky day, storming and raining, but they went anyway. they were going to grab some lunch there and head home, because keith has class tonight at 5PM. tomorrow we are going to go to the holy land tour, which is a big city, made to look like jerusalem. it is supposed to be really neat, so hopefully we will enjoy that. that should be our only outing tomorrow - i could use some rest. keith has been getting up at 3:30AM for class, meaning he only gets about 3 hours of sleep a night, and then he wakes me up when he gets up. so both of us are pretty tired!

wednesday, february 20

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what an incredible meal. oh man, it was incredible. we went out last night to manuel's on the 28th. it was so fun. keith had a new shirt and tie, and i was all dressed up. we rode the elevator up 28 floors, and had a wonderful view of orlando. we watched the sun set, and the lights come on. we had a waiter who actually spread our napkins out for us onto our laps. we had incredible meals - keith had a bison tenderloin with rosemary potatos and artichokes. i had asparagus-speared tuna with wild rice and lobster claw meat. we also had a fire-roasted lobster bisque. we had planned on dessert, but were way too full for that. we sat and watched the city and ate dinner for about 2 hours. it was so enjoyable. it was the best valentine's day ever.

well, i stayed home from work today. i think the bronchitis is back full-swing. the doctor told me if i didn't get over it soon, he was worried about the bronchitis turning into walking pneumonia. so i'm thinking i may be headed down that path. looks like another trip to the doctor is in my future. i am such a weakling.

keith's grandpa arrived safely. i picked him up just before five o'clock at the airport, and we ate at shell's seafood restaurant (dad, it was SO good). we brought keith a doggie bag. it was a good meal. keith just got home (it is about 8:45 EST), and they are downstairs chatting. i am feeling tired; i think it is my bedtime.

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what is up with 8-year olds, anyway? how can a child be so disagreeable? i had no idea. let me just say that my weekend with brandon was one that i would not like to repeat. i don't think he is badly behaved; i think i am against the idea of being 8 years old in general. ugh, he made me crazy all weekend. "are we home yet? how much longer? is it still a long ways? can i? (insert me, saying NO) please can i? (didn't i JUST. SAY. NO??!!) this is boring. can we leave? can i? why? why? WHY?" STOP THE MADNESS! needless to say, i was determined to drop him off at 5PM on the dot, don't be late! and then last night with only keith and me was a little bit of heaven, no screaming children. i took a nap.

yesterday we went for our portraits, along with the dogs. they aren't that well-behaved at home, and i expected no different at the photo shoot. dante' was just incredibly bored with the whole thing. he yawned and whined and laid down, couldn't have been more put out. how dare we wake him for this! gabriel, on the other hand, was his usual self, a bouncing ball of energy. up on the stool, down off the stool, around the photographer, into the windowsill, into the kitchen, around the table, through the office, and up the stairs. over and over and over. he wouldn't sit still at all. finally i hunted down an old valentine's cookie in the kitchen of the building, and used it to bribe him. wednesday night i am going to look at our proofs, and see which ones we want to order. i think some of them are going to be really cute. both of the dogs, especially dante', photograph beautifully.

tomorrow night is our big valentine's dinner. i am so excited! i will have to spend a couple of hours going through the primping ritual. i cannot wait. i have been looking forward to this for a while. and then wednesday evening keith's grandpa arrives. i will be picking him up from the airport, because keith has class that night. he will be staying for one week. we are busy, busy trying to get ready!

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i love the weekends!

today was a fun day at work. our supervisor finally got around to taking us out for christmas lunch - we went to the cheesecake factory. it has got to be one of my favorite places. today i had crazy carrot cake cheesecake. it was awesome.

brandon's grandma called tonight. she needs us to keep brandon overnight saturday night, so that he has a ride to church sunday. i wouldn't mind, but it is such a long drive to pick him up. and he's insanely hyper. hopefully he will behave. we only have two more sundays to watch him, this one and one more. i gave my notice a couple of weeks ago to dr. tyler, so that he would have several weeks to find someone else. our last week will be the first sunday in march. i can't say that i'm not looking forward to it, but the experience has been invaluable. this is something that i really needed to do.

keith's grandpa will be arriving on wednesday. we have a lot to do before he arrives; namely, housecleaning, but also grocery shopping. it is such an ordeal for us, because we go so sporadically. we like to make our groceries stretch big time.

so aside from brandon, i am hoping to have a nice quiet weekend. keith only has one lab, sunday morning 5AM to 9AM. so i will get to see him! yay!

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tonight is our valentine's party in children's church. it's kind of getting down to the wire, and i haven't decided exactly what i want to do. i have some games and snacks in mind, and i think a devotion about God's love. the kids enjoy the parties so much. and i do, too, because i don't have to constantly be calling them down. last week i had kids in time out all night long, and i even hauled one kid off to his parents. that is my favorite part of the job. wednesdays are so hard, for two reasons. one, keith isn't there, so i am alone with the monsters. two, they are so wild on wednesdays. they are just awful. so it is very stressful.

we spoke with brandon's grandma sunday, and she told us that his story about the money actually checked out - a girl in his class gave it to him. how weird is that? i guess this particular little girl always has money, and gives a lot of it away. the classroom teacher was able to verify. she was so relieved, and she wanted keith and me to know he wasn't a thief. so i felt a lot better about that. i was afraid he was in serious trouble!

keith and i have been saving for so long so that we can go out for valentine's day. we are going to a restaurant called manuel's on the 28th. it is supposed to be one of the best restaurants, if not THE best restaurant, in orlando. it is way up in the top of a building, and every seat is a window seat. you watch the sunset, and then watch the city lights come one. everyone says it is so good. keith has to find a tie to wear, because ties are required! so you know it's fancy. i am really excited. we are going next tuesday night, because we didn't want to go when it was super-crowded, like right on valentine's day. i am looking forward to it.

p.s. i put a few pictures on the page (see links below). hopefully more will follow.

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what a nice weekend. i don't think we did a single thing worth mentioning. we only relaxed and rested. i didn't even clean anything! saturday i didn't get out of my pajamas until about 4PM, to go with keith to get his hair cut. he needs my guidance - last time he went by himself, he came back shaved. but after the haircut, we didn't leave the house again. and sunday was an easy day at church, and then straight home to rest again! keith had a lab at 5PM on sunday, but i took a nice long nap.

we are gearing up to go into the busy season here. the next few weeks/months should go by quickly. we are having lots of visitors, and we get to take a vacation! i can't wait for the vacation. we are going to key west in april. we live only 7 hours from the southernmost point of the continental u.s., which is in key west. so we are going to drive down and stay awhile. we are going to snorkel. i have never snorkeled, but supposedly the best snorkeling in the u.s. is in key west. i guess they have the only living coral reef in north america. so i am excited. it seems like it has been a while since i have taken a real live vacation. coming home for christmas was kind of a vacation, since i didn't have to work. but it was cold there! it is STILL cold there! it has been in the low 70s here. the weather has definitely been beautiful.

yesterday the clubhouse at our apartment complex had booked a photographer to come in and do portraits for the residents. so keith and i had booked our time slot, and we came home after church and got ready, even brushed the dogs, since they were going to get their pictures taken, too. but the photographer called at the last minute and was double-booked, so we had to cancel. i think we are going back next sunday. it will be fun to take our family pictures, with the whole family (puppies, too).

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yesterday keith's grandpa was able to book a flight to orlando. he will be arriving february 20th and staying a week. so that will be a change from the norm. i do not know what the plans are while he is here, but hopefully keith will be able to spend a lot of time with him. keith's school schedule isn't that heavy right now, so it is a pretty good time for his grandpa to come.

we are gearing up for spring break week, when we will be having three house guests. kyle is coming to spend the week, and not long ago two of keith's high school friends asked if they could stay here over spring break, as well. so we will have a full house! five people and two doggies. i am going to take a few days off that week so that keith, kyle and i can do some stuff together during the day. then at nights we will probably go to some concerts or shows. we are definitely going to hit saks, the comedy club. i think we are going to have a nice time.

i talked with mom, dad and kyle on the webcam last night. we figured out how to get the voice conferencing to work, so we can talk back and forth, as well as see each other. it was wild. everyone will need to ask mom about her valentine's gift. it is really something! i saw it on the webcam last night, and let me just say that dad scored some points with that one.

brandon's grandma called me last night (brandon is the boy we watch every other sunday). i guess brandon got in some trouble at school. apparently he was flashing around some big bucks, and his teacher was wondering where he got them. his grandma called us to see if we were missing any money, since we kept him on sunday. we aren't, and she said she didn't give him the money, but he won't tell her where he got it. it's an unsolvable mystery. actually, if you ask brandon, it just appeared in his backpack. so that was our excitement for last night. she said brandon was crying his eyes out, but wouldn't tell her the truth. i feel a lesson learned coming on.

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i guess keith is sick. he appears to have all the same symptoms that i had. he is feverish and coughing and just plain old not feeling good. i can never talk him into going to the doctor, but i am willing to bet he has the bronchitis. he is still trooping off to class, though. he really is focused on his goal of perfect attendance. he said if he has to roll to class in a wheelchair, he will be there. he just started two new classes this week, midi and music history. he has quite a few labs with the midi class. he had one monday night from 1 AM to 5 AM, then he rushed home and slept a few hours, then was back to class at 9 AM. pretty hectic! he is in and out all hours of the day and night. but he still enjoys every bit of it. he has taken to walking to school now, even though we own two perfectly good cars. the school is about a mile from our apartment complex, a little less if you cut through the woods and the complex next door. so he and one of our neighbors who is in his class walk to school every day. however, i have vetoed the walking to night classes. it is not that safe to be walking around at 1 AM. so he walks in the daylight and drives at night, to appease me. he has classes monday/wednesday/friday evenings, so this month i am flying solo at church on wednesday nights. i am going to go mad, i can just feel it.

dad sent us a webcam, and we got it all hooked up. it is the neatest thing. mom and dad have one, too, so we can see each other while we "chat." it also takes still picturse. i will have to take a picture of keith and myself and put it on the webpage. it is a very fun little toy. it is hilarious to talk to mom and dad because they always pretend to fall down the stairs, or do other entertaining things. and it is good to see their faces.

we have planned our chuck e. cheese party for february 28th. i wanted to have the party on a saturday, but chuck e. cheese doesn't allow church parties on the weekends. they said that church parties don't bring in enough revenue. i was kind of ticked off. so we are having it on a thursday evening instead. i think it will be fun.

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the pressure is on! on the rams, i mean. we are currently in the midst of super bowl glory. keith loves to watch football, and so the tv has been tied up all evening with the super bowl. i was taking a nap, and i wanted him to wake me up for the halftime show. but what a disappointment! i can't believe i woke up for two songs from U2. i thought at least britney was performing! i am not impressed by super bowl hoopla. i thought my time would be better spent on the computer, so here i am. since i had some time, i added an archives page and links page on this site. you can see them below. they're coming along nicely.

today was an average sunday. we had low attendance today, but i can't complain. the kids were good, and i got a lot accomplished. after service, we had brandon, so we took him to the mount dora art festival. it was incredible. it is this huge festival in downtown mount dora, which is a town close to our church. the downtown area is very americana, looks like a 'leave it to beaver' neighborhood. the festival is huge, with food and art and all kinds of interesting things. i loved it. i am definitely an art lover. brandon didn't have that great of a time, but today was the only day we could go, so we had to drag him along. i bought a big bag of kettle corn, and coke in a glass bottle. i felt happy.

yesterday was our teaching training. i spent a couple of serious days preparing everything. i typed up books and put them in little folders, and set up snacks. it was so nice. and then nobody showed up. angela, the lady who helps us now, stopped by, but i wasn't really worried about putting her through the training. she has been with us long enough that she knows everything i have to say. it was nice of her to stop by, but i was disappointed. i didn't have high hopes, really - i have come to expect next to nothing from the people of this church, and they meet my expectations every time. you've heard the old saying that football is 40,000 people who need exercise sitting around watching 11 men who really need a rest. well, church is about the same principle. a core group do all the work, and the rest of the people sit around and enjoy the benefits. isn't that pitiful that people are like that? what happened to being a servant? it is hard for me to imagine not serving somewhere in the church. after all, i have grown up with the ultimate servant family. mom in worship, dad as a deacon/drummer/everything, aunts and uncles doing everything from sunday school to worship team to greeting, you name it. i am lucky to have such an attitude, though - being a servant is where it's at. i learned that much from master's commission!

i have thought a lot about moving to london. i don't think i can do it. how would dante' get there? that is too long of a flight for him. i would worry about him the entire time. gabe could go as carry-on, but i don't think i could stand to think of dante' in the luggage hold for that many hours. dante' only travels by car, thank you very much.

tomorrow is back to work. i am really enjoying our new unit at work. i feel good about all the things i have learned. i am the insurance queen. nothing special happening this week. well, rent is due, does that count?

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