Thank you Veterans!

As a child I looked forward to Veterans Day as not only a day off from school, but usually spending some time with my grandfather. He was an American Hero in every sense of the word... and a hero to this little girl. I miss his wisdom and guidance so very much and hope that I have become the kind of woman he wanted me to be.

I am so very grateful for all of the Veterans... from many years past to more recent veterans. As we recently saw with the presidential election, we are so very blessed to live in America where the rights and freedoms of all are protected. I am grateful for our forefathers who fought to give us the democracy we often take for granted. I am grateful for all who have gone to war to support our way of life and the security of this great nation. While I may not agree with the current war, I to support our military who are putting their lives on the line each and every day. I pray for their safe return to their families here in the United States.

I vividly remember the days after September 11th. I remember wondering if WAR was going to come to our soil... to American soil. I remember being terrified of that thought. My generation has never seen war like my grandparent's generation. Even our parent's Vietnam was different than anything my generation has been exposed to. We are so very lucky that seven years later, we are still safe in our own country. I am sure much of that has to be due to the vigilance of the military. And for that I will be forever grateful!

I have very limited military knowledge... and am not from a military family. But I am able to step back on a day like to day and say THANK YOU.

Remembering Wilson

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since Laurie Wilson... known to most as just Wilson, left this Earth. I think of her often and miss seeing her each and every day. She was one of the most amazing women ever to come into my life. She overcame so much in her life to become a strong passionate woman who had so many gifts. She was a talented teacher and coach and an amazing friend. She could make me laugh harder than I thought possible and always had time to talk. She opened my eyes to many things and for that I am forever grateful. We shared many moments and memories at school and there are days that I expect to see her walking down the hall.


I know that she is at peace now and pray that she is able to see what a HUGE impact she had on my life and the lives of so many. Today I remember Wilson by making sure all of the people who matter in my life know just that... that they matter to me.

You are missed, Wilson...

Happy Birthday Bridget!

I have lots of thoughts about the election... but will share those in another post.  I wanted to share a creative project I did... something that I haven't done in a LONG time.  Wednesday was my good friend Bridget's birthday.  She shares my passion and love of office supplies.  We wanted to create something special for her birthday.  After trying to come up with something for weeks, I suddenly came up with the idea to create a cake out of office supplies... you know, like the diaper cakes made for baby showers...

So I wandered around Office Max until I could come up with some kind of an idea.  Came home and played with my goodies... I must admit I kept a few pens for myself.  I just couldn't resist!  :-)


I am pretty happy with the end result!

The bottom layer is post-its, rolled up into circles.  The top "layers" are made from pens and mechanical pencils.  Decorations include correction tapes and erasers.  Bridget is a math teacher, so the erasers and pencils are very appropriate.  She loves bright colors and purple... so this was a perfect combo.  I got an extra cake box from the bakery and placed it in the box to add to the overall effect.  She was thrilled with it... makes it all worth while!

Reflections on Being an American Today...

I am excited at the prospect of change for our country.  I am proud to be an American today.

I got up nice and early to hit the polls close to when they opened at 6 a.m.  Little did I know that everyone else had the same idea!  But as I was standing in line, I had time to reflect on what a true privelege it is to live in America. 

At first I was annoyed that I would have to wait to vote.  And then I thought about how blessed we are to live in a country where we are given the chance to vote without fear for our lives.  We were able to wait in a comfortable location with free coffee.  In the end I waited a mere 30 minutes... nothing compared to people in other nations who wait for DAYS in order to vote in an election.

As I looked around all those in line with me, I was truly touched with the ideal that we are all part of this amazing nation... and that all of these people took their responsibility to vote seriously.  In my humble opinion, voting is not only a privilege, but also a responsibility.  One of my students did Susan B Anthony as her biography project.  If it weren't for the hard work of women so many years ago, I would not have had the chance to vote.  Don't we owe it to them... and to ourselves to exercise our right to vote?  It was nice to look around and see that more than half of the people in line this morning were women.

As a midle school teacher, I have had the opportunity to teach the election process over the past few weeks.  It has been enlightening on my part to realize that my vote does in fact count.. electoral college or not.  It was refreshing to hear these young minds discuss why people should vote and what they want to see in our next president.  Of course, I am a mere observer in all discussions and pride myself in being able to keep my own personal political thoughts out of the mix.

I am hopeful... this is the 4th time I have had the chance to vote for president.  My last two candidates were not successful.  I feel it is time for change in this country and hope that after tonight, we will in fact have a winner.  I don't want to live through another 2000!  :-)

Regardless of the end result tonight, I hope that we can become one nation.  I fear that will not be the case and we will continue to see a great divide among our people.  I hope that celebrations are just that... celebrations and no violence comes of any of it.  The reality is that history will be made with this election... no matter who wins.  And I am proud to say that I took part in it...

Am I the Only One?

I am struggling right now. It seems that I am surrounded by people who are excited to announce that they are expecting. You would think that I would develop a thick skin, but that just isn't the case. Recently, there have been more announcements than I can even believe myself...

1. Good friend and co-worker of mine. Adore her and she was the sweetest when she called to tell me.
2. and 3. Chris' coaches- one was an announcement some time ago, the other more recently. My favorite part- the actual statement "Why aren't you excited for me?" Yep, that was actually said to Chris. He later called and told her we were in fact excited. (Not sure that is the word I would use... but I am bitter)
4. This week- Another coworker's wife. Now, he hasn't actually told me. One of my amazing friends told me so that I had the time to adjust before the "big announcement"
5. I walked into class last week... new professor, new class. Professor is VERY pregnant and likes to talk about it all through class. Good fun!
6. A friend of a friend... not sure if this even really counts, but seriously, am I the only woman in the world who wants to get pregnant and can't? Did I miss some meeting about how this all works? I really thought I was well versed on how babies are made...


Of course, I am happy for each and every one of these families to be. (Some I am more happy for than others...) But I can feel the sadness deepening too. All but one of these women are younger than me... most by SEVERAL years. Have I lost my chance? Am I really just too old?

What if I really am the only one that never has children? What if I am the only one who is not part of this secret society? What if I am the only one who has NO plans for Halloween... too old to go to a party myself and don't have any children to worry about trick or treating. What if I am the only woman who doesn't have to go to Toy's R Us for the must have toy? What if I lose touch with my friends because I simply can't relate to potty training stories day after day? What if I am the only one at the millionth baby shower who has nothing of any value to add to the conversation because I have never given birth or spent any more than 8 consecutive hours with an infant? What if I am the only one who sees what an amazing father my husband could have been but never got the chance?

Ok... enough melodrama. Must prepare for an entire day in one room with twelve 12 year-olds who have both Trick-or-Treating and a Dance to be excited for. Will be a LONG day tomorrow....

Another Monday

Where does the weekend go?  Before I know it, it's Monday again!  Of course our weekends are usually busy, so that doesn't help at all.  I did get some time to work around the house on Saturday, so that was nice.  There is just a sense of accomplishment that comes from having all of the laundry done. That only lasts for about 30 minutes, but hey... it is something to be happy about!

Nothing new here.  Chris bought a new car.  I don't have a picture of it to show you, but it looks a little like this:

 

Except ours is more green that this one.  He is happy, it has what he wanted so I am slowly getting over the concept of a car payment again!  We rented one of these (its a Chrysler 300) in Florida once and Chris has been in love with the car since.  The one he bought has a hemi, which I am told is a good thing.  :-)

School is good... finished the 2nd class this week, so I am now officially 18% done with my master's degree!  :)  The next class is content area literature which is focused on middle and high school so that will be a nice change.  I should be doing reading right now...

Chris bought me an early Christmas present... a Wii... and I am in love!  We have a playstation 3, but the games are just too hard for me!  We also bought the Wii fit, and I love that too.  I have worked out on it a few times.  I hate that they make your Mii reflect your BMI.  While I know that I am overweight, I have never agreed that my BMI put me in the obese category.  I hate that my Mii looks like a weeble.  I suppose it is supposed to motivate you, right?!  We'll see.

Must go grade notecards for Biography Day.  That is a big deal in 6th grade.  Each student selects a famous person and reads a biography about this person.  They then dress up as this person on Halloween and give an informational speech.  I do enjoy it... but it is a lot of work on my part.  My students are just not independent enough at this time of the year. So now I must look over 12 sets of notecards before tomorrow.  

Chicago Marathon 2008

Once again Chris made me very proud...

 

Once again the weather was less than ideal... this time way too hot to run 26.2 miles, but he did it!  He had really hoped to finish under four hours, but ended up finishing in 4 hours, 10 minutes.  He is happy with his time considering the heat and the many people who didn't even finish.

I was lucky enough to have some friends with me through the day chasing him across the city!  

 

We were able to see him at 3 miles, 11 miles, and the finish.  I had really hoped to see him one more time, but we wanted to see Steph, one of his swimmers that he has trained with.  Her pace was slower than Chris' so I ended up missing him at 16.5 where I had hoped to see him.  But it was fun, and HOT for us as well.  I didn't plan well and wore jeans... way too hot for the day!  I intended to put on my Nike+ on my ipod to track how much walking I did, but forgot.  I figure I walked at least 10 miles over the course of the day.  Not 26.2, and not running, but still a lot of walking for me!  :-)

Chris gave me a little scare at the finish as he couldn't keep anything down... not even water. 

 

He is must better today and is only moderatly sore...not nearly what he was last time he ran it.  He trained really hard this time, so I think it all paid off.

Here he is coming up to the finish.  I think this is my favorite photo of the day:

Last time he ran, I didn't take more than a single photo.  This time I handed off my camera to a friend who took almost all of these photos.  I am so thankful!

My fall break is just about over... It has been nice to have some time with Chris, but now I must go back to reality.  I am glad that I had Thursday, Friday, and Today off... Saturday and Sunday were packed with the Marathon and there is no way that I would have been able to jump right back into work.  Now I need to go write a paper and grade some papers...