Christmas Time's the Only Time

Well this fall/winter season has been quite a whirlwind. September was starting school, Genni's Birthday, Scrooge auditions, Scrooge rehearsals, football games and drumline rehearsals. October was more football games, Scrooge and drumline rehearsals as well as Parades and Dr. appointments and a trip to the Pumpkin patch. November marked the Fall show Love Rides the Rails as well as a continuation of Scrooge and drumline rehearsals, Area All State and Thanksgiving. So far December has been Scrooge performances, NYSSMA conference, basketball games, concerts and Christmas parties. Not to mention all of the Band Aides and London meetings my husband has been to. Through it all I have been going through my first trimester of pregnancy. Anyone else tired yet!

Recently we did finish all of the Scrooge performances, and it went very well, as well as Eric's and my concert last night - both successful. After these next two days of school the only thing left in December is vacation - oh I am so happy we made it this far!

I'm about 16 weeks pregnant now - almost half way there. None of my normal clothes except long shirts fit me now - I'm wondering how on earth I will find enough maternity black dress clothes for the Spring show?!? I'll certainly be waddling by then and need a stool to sit on! Nasuea is mostly gone, it recurs occasionally at the most inopportune moments, but in general my appetite is back and if I didn't have so much going on I would certainly have more energy at this point too. Daily Genni asks when the baby is coming and if she is a big sister yet. She is SO excited about the baby and I really hope that it lasts after the baby is born too! I am looking forward to not having to go through all of the end of the year stuff in June, though I will have to be diligent so that everything is ready for when I come back in September.

Recently Genni was in the Children's Christmas program at church - we do have pictures that I will post just as soon as I remember to bring the camera with me! She was an angel - the littlest angel to be specific - it was so cute to watch the bigger girls help her and lead her around. I was very surprised when I left her that morning with the kids to practice and then didn't see her till their part in the service that she didn't put up any fight and just went with them. Annie was there of course, and she knows her well, but still - usually she isn't quite that eager to let go of mommy and I have to admit though I was proud of her it stung a little that she didn't need me....they grow up too fast. Anyway, the kids where all waiting in the lobby for their part, which was right after the pastoral prayer, and they had been waiting there for about half an hour so I'm sure the kids where restless. Well Gary gets to the part of the prayer where we are all praying silently and all of a sudden we all hear giggles from the lobby - and then the person next to me leans over with a smile and says "I think that's yours" hehe - yup my daughter was giggling up a storm, but at least she wasn't crying so I was happy. She looked super cute in her costume and stood very well with the rest of the angels during the program. This is the first year that we didn't just push her up there at the last minute with an animal costume on so that she could get her picture taken. Such a big girl!

Well Thursday is Eric's birthday and the family is coming over after church for lasagna dinner and such, which means that I need to clean the house - wouldn't it be nice if I could just keep the house clean every time I did it...why is it that I can't seem to do that? I also have an enormous pile of laundry that I'm going to have to take to a laundry mat to get caught up since our dryer is still broken. At least I'll get all of that stuff out of the way this week so next week we can just RELAX! I really can't wait! Pictures coming soon.....

NYSSMA

I can't believe I haven't written in so long! There is no excuse....

So we went to the NYSSMA conference last week, and it was really a great time. It was good to see other teachers in NY that I haven't seen in awhile, get myself inspired to teach again, and spend some time with my family. Eric and Genni both came too - since both our school's sent us she tagged a long too. This is actually Genni's 3rd NYSSMA conference, we only missed last years. It was funny, some people would just smile and say how cute she was and say how well she was behaveng (sometimes true, sometimes not, believe me!). But I did get a few looks that were like "What were you thinking?" and someone actually said to us "I did that one year and I'll never do it again, you'll never get to sit through anything!" Well, we attended, together, every single workshop we were interested in and Genni sat next to us watching her favorite movie (UP) on the laptop with headphones and everything worked out just fine. She definately had her moments over the course of a few days. Once we were in the exhibit hall and Genni didn't want to have anything to do with walking around and was throwing a fit, but we were all hungry so I'm sure that was part of it.

Two side notes on Genni - one, she has learned to pout. When we reprimand her for something (especially if daddy yells at her!) she will sometimes walk off and pout and sulk for awhile and will not talk to us till she's done (which can take awhile) or we tickle it out of her. two - her skin was doing so well we decided to try some milk with her, and then since we were at the conference and Breakfast and Dinner where a buffet included in the room price (I felt bad asking for special food for her since technically we weren't paying for her meal) she definately had milk and some soy, well between the two things we discovered that she is definately still allergic to both, and her skin is all itchy again :(. Poor girl! Back on the diet we go....

Anyway, we did have a nice, relaxing, informative trip, but it's good to be home! Now we prepare for two weeks of musical chaos!