I realized today how long this past week has been...and how not that long ago I was at home for Christmas. Gosh...it seems like a long time ago.
Here is a breakdown of how my last 2 and a half weeks have been.
First...just so you know...I hit a stressful time with basketball and club volleyball...so coming off of that, here's my grateful list.
Day 189...Grateful for my good college friends. I got to meet up with some girls from college while I was home for Christmas. I actually crashed their dinner plans...but I loved getting to visit with them. It was so great to get to see them and catch. We laughed a lot. It was good.
Day 190...Grateful for my family. I think my grandpa counted 25 people gathered in his house on Christmas Eve. It's always a fun time...I love visiting with everyone, hearing about the kids, and laughing and eating a lot. I realize that not everyone gets together with all of their extended family each year as we do...and I definitely feel blessed. Somehow we still all fit in one end of my grandparents living room for a picture. Here is the 2011 family Christmas picture.
Day 191
Day 191...Grateful for family...again. We spent Christmas day in pajamas, playing with new toys that Caleb received, and one at a time catching a cold from Caleb! It was a great relaxing at home.Day 192...Grateful for Dad! My dad's birthday is on New Years Eve....Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!
Day 193...Grateful for a New Start. A New Year means a new start...not that I feel like I need to start anything over...it just always kind of feels like you are turning and page, breathe a sigh of relief and start again on a brand new year. I'm grateful for that new start.
Day 194...Grateful for hot water. My hot water heater went out on the 31st. Because of the holidays, most people, other than teachers, were off on the first and the second of January. So, my apartment complex' office was closed. So...I submitted the maintenance request to be taken care of on that Tuesday. Well, somehow the message got sent to the maintenance guy that it was my heater. I received a voice-mail explaining how I need to turn the heater up higher than the temperature in my apartment in order for the heater to come on. Oh....THAT'S how it works. Duh! I called him back. He said he was going to fix it. I cried when I felt the water the next morning. Ice cold. Well, I immediately called the apt office...and needless to say...I had hot water when I got home. I was so thankful!
Day 195...Grateful for the fire department. It was actually the same night that I got hot water back...someone on the other end of my building broke the sprinkler on the walk-way. Fire alarms going off all over the building. We were only standing outside in our pajamas for about 10 minutes before 2 fire trucks showed up. Thank you fire men.
Day 196...Grateful for a sick day. I caught Caleb's cold while at home for Christmas. I couldn't shake it. Finally...the sinus head ache was too much. A sub picked up my sub request and I got a sick day! Steroid shot. Antibiotics, Steroid pack. A day to relax. And now I feel SO MUCH BETTER.
Day 197...Grateful for a Razorback win! I love watching the hogs. I love getting to tease all my students at school about how good my team is this year. Also, during the game, one of my former students posted something on Facebook about the hogs (WPS or something like that). Two of them kept doing that each game day. So I commented back and asked why they cheer for the hogs. Here's the dialogue.
Student: WPS
Me: Why do you and --- cheer for the Hogs?
Student: --- went to Arkansas because of you and I didn't go there because of my Multimedia teacher.
We continued to comment back and forth throughout half-time. I was the Multimedia teacher and they were some of my favorite students. It was fun to hear from them and then end the evening with a Razorback win.
Day 198...Grateful for a good run. I'm doing a half-marathon training program with a friend. We are doing a run-walk program for the Dallas Rock and Roll Half Marathon. We are only on week 3...and I was only able to do one of the runs during the week because I wasn't feeling well. However, Saturday morning we had a fabulous 4.5 mile run. We both felt great and I felt great afterwards.
Day 199...Grateful for Scott. I mentioned stress with Club Volleyball. The girl that I was supposed to be "assisting" on a team has been sick...really sick. She hasn't been there yet and we started the first week of December. I didn't want to be head coach, the parents didn't want me to be head coach (only because they love Amber so much), and they kept hoping Amber would be back each time they showed up to practice. Well, they had Scott take over the team for now until Amber gets back. Scott didn't know any of the kids or parents and is a great head coach. The girls were excited to have a "named head coach" and so were the parents. We had our first tournament this weekend. The girls played great for their first tournament...and Scott was great. There is no way that I want to be the head coach...and Scott is doing a great job with the girls. I'm pretty grateful for his help.
And there is my super long update on my last few weeks.
