Wow, how long has it been???

I have been away from blogging for so long that I almost forgot I had one! Terrible, huh? However, I am back, thanks to my brother starting a blog on his new life in Croatia. I decided I needed to get back to blogging, although my entries will be nowhere near as adventurous as his!

Matthew and I did make it to Europe this summer, though, and I want to thank everyone (again) who donated and participated in fundraisers to help make it happen. We had a wonderful time, although it was very rushed and whirlwind! Not to mention humid and sticky, with no air conditioning anywhere, or at least that's how it seemed. A few places had a/c, but not very many. It was glorious, though, and I cannot wait to return!

Life right now is at its busiest - the boys are back in school, I am teaching at the college, playing piano for dance classes at the university, plus teaching private lessons and performing in a show. Although I love performing, I will be relieved when this run is over on October 10. It will be nice to have my evenings back. Andrew is very unhappy that I have to be away so much right now. It's kind of funny and pitiful. This is the first show I have done since May, so it isn't as if I have spent every evening away from home for the last four months instead of the last two weeks. But he is acting as if I've been away forever. Makes me sad. So I will be glad to stay home when the time comes.

Gotta run now and teach a quick piano lesson, then I get to be home tonight! The theatre is dark on Mondays, so no show tonight! Woohoo!!

Hopefully it won't be another year (!) before I return! Ciao for now!

Italy, France and the Alps

We are doing some fundraising to help our son, Matthew, take an Education First Tour to Europe next summer! After telling him he could go, we had some difficulties and a pretty major crisis in our lives. However, he has been such a fabulous student and done such great work this year that we would still like for him to be able to take this trip. So, we are asking for sponsors! The trip breaks down into an approximate cost of $13 per hour. He will be touring Italy, France and the Alps, and it will be an incredible adventure for him. If you would like to sponsor Matthew, that would be an amazing and generous thing!

Just to brag a bit on Matthew, he earned high honors this year - NATION wide! On his Benchmark exam, he scored the highest math score in the NATION for his grade! Also, he beat the national average time for taking a timed translation test in Spanish by almost half! National average time was 17 minutes, he did it in 9 minutes! Hopefully, you can see why we are so proud and want him to experience this trip.

Thanks for reading this, if you did. Please pass it along to any of your friends who you think might like to help us out!

Back at last!

It has been a while! Truthfully, the last few months have been so crazy, busy, and crazy busy, that I sort of forgot I even had a blog! But things are starting to slow down for a while, which is both good and bad - more time at home, less money coming in. So, here I am...when I should be straightening up the clutter that has taken over my home.

Here is my question for the day: when husband asks if I am in a bad mood and I tell him yes and the reason, why is it then that I feel better and HE gets in a bad mood?? Vicious cycle....

Bye-bye, Bunny!

I think this will be the last year for the Easter Bunny to visit our house. Dying eggs was fun, but the morning of Easter baskets was nothing but the boys complaining about what they got (or didn't get), what candy they don't like, or how another boy found more eggs. The Easter Bunny chose to hide eggs with coins in them rather than put them in the baskets, like Mrs. Easter Bunny wanted to do, and one boy basically found every egg that had money in it. More arguing and complaining.

So, boys, hope you enjoy this last morning of Easter baskets. The Easter Bunny is retiring.

Oh, the irony!

One of our twins, Andrew, is accident-prone. There is no way to sugarcoat it. He is an accident waiting to happen, at any moment, any SECOND. If my phone rings around lunchtime (which happens right around recess time at school!) and the caller ID shows the school, I can pretty much bet it is the school nurse calling with the details of Andrew's latest injury. More often than not, he is fine. Thankfully.

Tonight, after dinner, we took a family walk. Andrew and Jacob chose to ride their bikes. Yes, they wore helmets. No, injury was not involved, although I know that is what you expect to read following my opening paragraph. Hopefully, you will see the irony that I saw when Andrew, riding lazy circles in the street, called back over his shoulder what he wanted to be when he grows up.

A professional stunt man.

A Love Story - Our Beginning

Since today is Valentine's Day, I thought I would post how my husband and I met.

I was 13 years old, and it was Good Friday. My church youth group was meeting at our church, and then all going to a church member's lake house for a Good Friday service. Those of us who were already at the church were playing softball while we waited for everyone else to arrive. I was on third base, waiting to run home, and noticed a friend walking up with a strange boy I had never seen. I thought to myself that he was kinda cute, then finished the ball game.

Our mutual friend introduced everyone to his best friend from high school. It was Gilbert - my unknown-to-me-at-the-time future husband! He was 16 at the time, and a sophomore in high school. He came along with us to the Good Friday service, and we got to chat and get to know each other a bit. He started attending our church the very next Sunday, and went every Sunday after that.

For the next year or so, Gilbert followed me around like a sick puppy, obviously had a crush on me, and became one of my closest friends. He eventually asked me to a dance after a high school football game. I said yes, but I was so nervous that I made myself sick. After the football game, he had to take me home. I was young and oh, so nervous!!

I think he tried to ask me out a few times after that, but my dad wouldn't let me go. Finally, his senior year of high school, he gave up and began dating someone else. He brought her to church a few times, and I quickly realized that I was very upset at this turn of events! I kept it to myself though. At least, for a while.

Gilbert was (and is) highly intelligent, and received a Congressional appointment to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The day before he was scheduled to leave, our youth group all went to the lake. I worked up the courage to tell him, just as we were gathering up to go home, that I really liked him much more than a friend, and I was very sad to see him leave. I forget his exact words, but the gist was along the lines of - "You're telling me this NOW?!!"

Right after he left for Colorado Springs, my parents divorced and we moved to Atlanta, GA. Gilbert and I had a long-distance telephone and letter relationship for about a year, at which point I moved back to Arkansas. He was home for the summer, and we finally went on our first real date. We went to the movies to see "Romancing the Stone." That movie has had a special place in our hearts ever since!

Gilbert went back to the Air Force Academy for another year, then decided at that point that he didn't want a military life. He came home, finished his aviation degree at the university where I was beginning a music degree. Long story short, we dated for about 6 years, and were married in 1990. The rest is, as they say, history!

And that is the story of our beginning. The beginning of our ongoing love story.

Truly - we are not alone.

There is a song that Michael Buble sings, one that I love. It makes me cry every time I hear it, but I listen anyway. The lyrics are so appropriate for our lives right now. Things are going wrong, and falling apart in certain aspects of our lives, but it has shown us that we are truly not alone. Not only do Gilbert and I have each other, but we have been reminded over and over that we are truly blessed with the love and support of friends and family.

"Lost"

I can't believe it's over

I watched the whole thing fall

And I never saw the writing that was on the wall

If I'd only knew

The days were slipping past

That the good things never last

That you were crying

Summer turned to winter

And the snow it turned to rain

And the rain turned into tears upon your face

I hardly recognized the girl you are today

And god I hope it's not too late

It's not too late

'Cause you are not alone

I'm always there with you

And we'll get lost together

Till the light comes pouring through

'Cause when you feel like you're done

And the darkness has won

Babe, you're not lost

When your worlds crashing down

And you can't bear the thought

I said, babe, you're not lost

Life can show no mercy

It can tear your soul apart

It can make you feel like you've gone crazy

But you're not

Things have seem to changed

There's one thing that's still the same

In my heart you have remained

And we can fly fly fly away

'Cause you are not alone

And I am there with you

And we'll get lost together

Till the light comes pouring through

'Cause when you feel like you're done

And the darkness has won

Babe, you're not lost

When the worlds crashing down

And you can not bear the cross

I said, baby, you're not lost

I said, baby, you're not lost

I said, baby, you're not lost

I said, baby, you're not lost