When Eva was an infant and we were making bottles of formula everyday, we relied on a 20 year old steel kettle that heated up on the stove-top to boil our water. I'm ashamed to admit there was more than one occasion when I put the kettle on to boil and got busy doing other things only to realize I could smell METAL BURNING. I would run to the kitchen in a furry to discover a kettle that had boiled dry. The kettle was already old and decrepit, but I had now added "warped" to its list of characteristics which made it emit a long painful howl as water boiled. It was long overdue but we eventually threw it out and replaced it with an electric kettle that had the glorious feature of shutting off automatically after the water had boiled. This has been extremely helpful to me as I've been boiling water daily for Isabella's bottles.

Last night as I cleaned up the kitchen before I went to bed I put the kettle on to boil. It hadn't quite finished boiling yet, but I went upstairs anyway to brush my teeth. As I washed my face I could hear the bubbling of the boiling water and the "click" of the automatic shut off. I drifted off to sleep and didn't give it another thought. Two hours later as Bella woke up for her first feeding I stumbled my way downstairs, bleary eyed and baby in arms to make her a bottle....only to discover A DRY KETTLE. Apparently "the click" I had heard was purely imagined and the automatic shut off had failed. The electric kettle boiled completely dry. HOW DID THIS NOT START A FIRE?! I vibrated with horror as I imagined all the scenarios that could have happened. I have yet to shake the sick sinking feeling that has been in the pit of my stomach all morning. I'm furious with the makers of the kettle for making such an inferior product and I'm furious with myself for not monitoring the boiling process more closely.

I'm also extremely grateful we are all safe and I keep thanking God for keeping the crappy kettle from going up in flames. THANK YOU LORD!

Our second kettle in two years just hit the trash can. We will be getting a new one.

My day just keeps improving with more and more pleasant surprises and good news:

1. I went to my doctor today because I have been having bouts of dizzyness and light-headedness. I thought I had low blood pressure, and while it was not low, she said it probably drops once in a while throughout the day. So she told me to TAKE IT EASY and NOT WORK IF I DON'T HAVE TO. So I called my boss at the optical store and asked if it would be totally obnoxious if I didn't come in these last two Fridays....NO PROBLEM!! Yay! I get a break!!
2. I'm 2 cm's dilated already and 50% effaced. This is good news. I'm hoping to have the baby before the due date and this is very positive.
   
3. I lay down for a nap this afternoon, and my husband let me sleep way longer than I asked. He then went out and picked up dinner so I didn't have to cook. I'm starting to feel spoiled.
4. I got a little surprise in the mail. A friend just up and sent me a cute sewing book by Amy Butler called "Little Stitches For Little Ones". It has pretty much the cutest sewing projects for baby's I have ever seen. And it was just a random gift. Just for fun. Not even a Christmas present. I'm REALLY starting to feel spoiled now.

I was thoroughly looking forward to enjoying not only my weekend but Monday and Tuesday off from work as well...nice chance to get my house in order, rest, and go out for coffee with some friends. And then I go and come down with a cold. Sheesh! I've spent the entire day on the couch with a roll of toilet paper (we don't have kleenex), a box of Vick's lozenges, and a glass of orange juice by my side. Not fun. But I guess it's better that I have time off from teaching, otherwise they'd need to get a sub for the sub. Not cool. I want to keep this job right until December when the Kindergarten teacher comes back.

In other news, not only has my newly established housework routines fallen by the wayside, but my attempt to quit biting my fingernails has failed miserably. I'm back to having sore stubbs. No more cute black nails with white stars....just bloody hang nails and jagged edges. Are there any other horses I can fall off of? You wanna help me get a good thing going and then crush it for me? Actually I'm sure I can do the crushing all by myself.

One area I haven't dropped the ball on is our budgeting. Nope, still going strong there. (Thankfully). I posed a question on Meal Planning 101 for other's to share their grocery budget along with any reasons for that budget. I'm truly fascinated by that question since I do love to save money and be frugal but also love eat exciting, gourmet-ish meals. If you have any comments to make please do...I'd love to hear about your family's budget....because I'm nosey like that ;) I mean...it's for research purposes. Go here and leave your comments.

Alright I'm off to...to....to continue lying on the couch and whining about how much I feel like poo. And possibly summon Steve to get me another glass of juice.

Oh Steve!...

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this new direction for my food blog. I've been revamping and remodeling all morning, and came to the conclusion that my URL as well as my title had nothing to do with meal planning. So I made it simple:

New Name: Meal Planning 101

New URL: http://themealplanner.blogspot.com

If you've been checking out my new site, please update your bookmarks/feedburners. I hate to be obnoxious and change sites like that...but it just made sense.

P.S. Did I mention I'm really excited?!

I got over the grumpiness of last week, and this week is shaping up to be much better already. My Dad was here visiting all weekend, and as usual we filled our faces with delicious food, including homemade sushi and apple pie (with apples from my dad's garden). Visits with my Dad are always so enjoyable and I love to see Eva spending time with her Grandpa.

We spent some quality time with beautiful friends as well.

The icing on the cake has been the disappearance of Eva's Toddler 'Tude as well as her soother. We didn't even mean to wean her this weekend, but Saturday morning she awoke and we just...never gave it to her. She didn't even notice. I guess outta site outta mind. For some odd reason, the soother made her much more demanding as if she felt more entitled to stuff. Now that the soother is gone she is back to her happy go-lucky, babbly self.

Hey Week...I'm liking you already.

On top of working three days a week, I've been incredibly domestic lately. It feels kind of good to release the womanly/wifely/motherly side of myself. Here's what I've been up to:

1. Sewing - lots and lots of sewing. After sewing up some squares of flannel for a friend who is also a cloth diaperer, I decided that it was a brilliant idea and that I should jump on the homemade cloth wipes train. I cut up about 8 old receiving blankets, sewed them into lovely soft baby wipes and then put them in a cute basket on Eva's change table. The homemade wipe solution (1 cup of water, 1 tbsp baby wash and 1 tbsp baby oil) smells incredibly soft and deliciously baby with the lavender baby wash and aloe vera baby oil I used. I get freakishly excited to change a diaper now.

2. Cooking and Recipe Searching - I literally go searching for recipes everyday. I can't stop. I get a thrill out of cookbooks and recipes, and discovering a gem. I've enjoyed the new challenge of working until 6 pm three days a week and coming up with fast meals that can be done in minutes of getting home, or having a delicious smelling meal waiting for me in the slow cooker. I've discovered a slow cooker is good for more that just overcooked meat.

3. Organizing - I love being organized but I am such a DISORGANIZED person. It seems anything food related gets my engines revved up to organize though, and I created a personalized grocery list that all I have to do is check items off. I even arranged it so that each category is in the order that we walk through our regular grocery store. I've always been a meal planner, picking the meals for the week and making a grocery list based on the ingredients needed, but my new grocery list makes me even more anal and prepared. I've also scrubbed out my fridge and created specific areas for everything to go, including a snack drawer full of healthy grab-and-go snacks like yogurt, bags of carrot sticks and fruit that is washed and ready to go. My laundry isn't folded, the baby's toys are all over the floor and both my bathrooms need a good solid cleaning, but name anything food related and I'm all over it.

Hence, the lack of posting. I'm too busy being a dork.

1. I am a food whore. If I had to choose ONE last meal before I die, I couldn't do it. I LOVE a good bowl of pasta, a delicious medium rare steak with a lobster tail and butter, and if I could create the most perfect Indian meal it would be Karma's Chicken Korma, Taj Mahal's Papri-Chat, and Dan Kremer's homemade Naan bread.

2. I didn't have my first kiss until I was was 17, but it was with a boy I had had a crush on since I was 10 years old. It was pretty great. We made out in his car until 6am ;)

3. What I didn't tell you about my first kiss was that I had to get REALLY drunk to overcome my nerves. I puked later.

4. My husband totally one-upped me with his first kiss...he was 13, in Mexico, in an orchard, at midnight, under the stars with an exotic Mexican girl. And I puked after mine.

5. I was in dancing from grade 3 until the end of grade 12. I wish I could say I was as good as the SYTYCD crew....but alas...I was not. I did however get picked to be Belle in our Beauty and the Beast dance when I was 12. I felt awesome.



6. I strongly dislike raw onions, green and red peppers, pineapple that is cooked and cinnamon in savory dishes.

7. I was a geek in Jr. High.

8. I somehow became cool in Grade 10.

9. When I was a teenager I LOVED the Backstreet Boys. I had all their tapes (I didn't get a CD player until I was 15), I had posters of Nick and AJ up in my room, and I went to their concert when I was 15. My best friends mom accompanied us.

10. I read almost every single Sweet Valley Twins book and owned a huge collection of Babysitter's Club books.

11. #9 and #10 probably contributed to my geekiness in Jr. High.

12. I married the love of my life. He too was a geek in school. Kindred Spirits.

13. I've worked in customer service jobs for the last 8 years and I secretly hate it. I can't wait to teach.

14. I have 3 piercings and I used to have my ears stretched to a size 2.

15. I am a great cook and make new recipes every week.

16. I suck at baking. I always forget ingredients.

17. I've read 16 books this year.


18. I've never read the whole Bible, but I am working my way through a One-Year Bible. I've almost made it through January, and it's taken me over a year to do it. Shameful.

19. I can sew, cross-stitch, make hook and latch rugs, but I've never been able to crochet or knit. My fingers are useless that way.

20. I'm not sure how I ever thought I had enough art talent to go to art school, since all we ever did in high school art class was enter poster contests. I got Honorable Mentions once.

21. My best friends mom always called me her "adopted daughter" as a kid, and to this day I still feel like she's a mom to me. My husband sometimes thinks of her as his mother-in-law.

22. I married a musical genius, but I'm completely tone deaf and can't sing for crap. We make fun of my singing all the time. I won't sing in church if the music isn't loud enough to drown me out.

23. I used to think the sexiest part of my body was my stomach. But now I'm too busy makin' babies, so it's probably my eyes. Or my hair.....somedays.
24. My husband became REALLY good friends with my ex-boyfriend who was my only serious boyfriend besides my husband. I became REALLY good friends with my husbands best friend - turned crush - turned fell in love with her. We all have quite healthy fruitful friendships now.

25. I'm deathly afraid of spiders, tarantulas, bee's and snakes. I would NEVER go on Fear Factor.

A Word of Advice:

Don't assume that your baby's 50 SPF sunscreen is preventing you from getting a tan, and then put on Tan Accelerator meant for tanning beds that has NO SPF and then stay outside for 3 hours.

It will hurt later.

Scorching heat + Flash Flood = the last two days.

Monday was a fabulous day and at 34 degrees a bunch of us mom's decided to get together with the kids and cool off. We headed to the outdoor spray park here in town. My baby is still freakishly afraid of water, so we didn't go into the spraying water much, but sitting in the grass catchin' some sun and chatting with the ladies was so relaxing.
There you can see the beginning of my almost 14 week baby belly hanging over my bathing suit...classy. I am determined to not be pasty white this year, so I figured it was perfect time to bust out the ol' bikini.

My baby also looked ridiculously cute in her little summer hat.
I love how she can barely see under the ruffles of her hat.

Our gorgeous (albeit sweaty) summer day was then turned to rain clouds today. We had booming thunder and then an absolute downpour of rain for probably an hour. It rained so hard the sky was white....and then became a flood. This is what our street looked like.




In our condominium complex there are probably around 20 units, and we were one of the ONLY lucky ones to not get a flooded basement. It got so bad that sewage was backing up into peoples basements. Looking out onto the lake of a street you could see the sewer bubbling and geisering every few minutes (that's what that ripple in the water is from in the last pic). Our city was eventually declared to be in a state of emergency and everyone was advised to not flush their toilets or run water. I watched people wade through the river of water on the street while my stomach churned thinking about all the sewage they were swimming through. I heard of some people in town busting out their canoes and canoeing down the street even! It was a crazy Canada Day.

We weren't sure if we should drive anywhere, but we were invited to a friends house for a Canada Day party. Luckily it was later in the evening and a lot of the water was gone from the streets already. It was a nice relaxing time with friends.

All in all, a soggy but nice Canada Day.

I've spent bits and pieces of my morning reading blogs about what a great Mother's Day people had. I've also seen pics of friends Mother's Days on facebook....but I have to say mine wasn't so great.

A bit of a bomb was dropped at our church yesterday about changes in leadership. The pastor who started our church 7 years ago was let go....can you imagine? Being fired from something you started. There is much confusion, hurt feelings, anger and sadness. I'm not saying it was the wrong decision, I'm just saying both sides are hurting and it's a very confusing time. My husband is very close to the pastor who was fired....he has been my husband's pastor in some form or another for about 15 years. His feelings are strong in this situation and the hurt runs deep. We spent much of Mother's Day crying and talking about these changes and what it means.

I was kind of hoping with it being my first Mother's Day and all, that my husband would surprise me with a picnic in the park or something....or at least some good family time. But we were kind of caught off guard with all the happenings at our church. Instead we cried, we napped, we had a Big Mac picnic on our living room floor, and then the rest of the evening was spent talking about these huge changes with family and friends.

There is so much to figure out now....what is the root of all the changes? We just started our couples bible study and are supposed to be discussing yesterdays sermon tonight over dinner....I don't think anyone actually heard or remembers what our pastor preached about, and no one really wants to discuss the big elephant in the room either. So even though we just began our bible study last week, it may be put on hold for awhile. So many changes, so many things to figure out.

Oh and just to top off my sad mother's day post, I thought I'd add in a little "bad mommy-ism". We drove up north on Friday night because a friend was getting married Saturday. Eva is usually such a great traveler, waking up only to play for a bit and eat. We took Greg with us, and when we were about half way to our destination we stopped for a pee break. I switched Greg and sat in the back with Eva. I had taken her out of her car seat to stretch her legs, and when Steve was ready to go, I popped her back in and buckled her up. She was surprisingly really unhappy about this, and kept whining and crying. I thought she was just sick of being in a car seat for hours on end. It was really late (around 11pm) and she was still awake and making a fuss. I figured she was fighting off sleep and being really crabby about it. She cried and finally fell asleep only to wake again to whine for a couple minutes. She did this off and on for about half an hour, and it seemed she always woke to cry when Steve hit a bump in the road. After this had continued I started to realize that maybe something really was wrong. Then it hit me...."I haven't been able to find her little plastic doll for awhile...let me just check", and I reached in behind Eva (who was strapped in tight to her car seat) to find this plastic doll with a big red plastic head sticking into the middle of her back! My poor baby. As soon as the unpleasant obstruction was removed from her back she fell asleep and slept the rest of the way. Bad mommy! When we got to our destination, she still had a big round red mark in the middle of her lower back. She was fine, and she forgave me by giving me a sloppy baby kiss, but that didn't make me feel any less like poo.

Yep...a bad mommy and a pooey mother's day. Sorry to write such a depressing post. Mondays are bad enough as it.

My only excuse is that we've had a ridiculously crazy last week and a half. No Photo Challenge Friday today, because I didn't even get to the photo challenge for last week. Dang! Here's been the happenings for the last week or so:

Thursday - Our awesome friends Tara and Jon, drove down to visit us. They had never been here, and just decided they needed some brown rolling coulee's action. Or possibly they thought the 4 hour round trip would be relaxing. Or maybe they just wanted to see their favorite new friends...that's probably it. We took the babes for a walk around the lake, ate delicious food, and then capped the night off with the best show ever invented: The Office.

Sunday - We were the ones driving up to to see Tara and Jon. Tara had planned a surprise birthday for Jon, complete with AMAZING party food. Tara is my culinary partner in crime, and each time we see each other we try to make great food to impress each other with. We got into a rousing game of Settler's of Catan, and by midnight realized we were way too tired to go home. We stayed overnight, but Eva decided since she was sleeping with us, that it would be AWESOME to wake up at 6:30am. Oh you better believe it was... Just. Awesome.

Tuesday - We started a women's bible study with 4 other women from our church. Most of us are mom's so we are meeting in the afternoon's for tea and scones. Or coffee and cookies. Or something totally less dorky, like chips and pop. This week was our first bible study and I'm really excited to see where it will go. I'm more excited for the fellowship and encouragement. We had it at Audrey's place, and after it was over, I stayed to help Audrey get ready for Greg's birthday party. It was a big poker party, women at one poker table, men at the other. Lucky us, we got to take care of the chitlins while trying to play a masterful game of poker. Let's just say it wasn't easy.

Wednesday - More Settler's with friends from out of town who were here for Greg's party. We started playing around 4:30 in the afternoon and went till somewhere around 6:30pm. Before we knew it we had consumed a large bag of chips, a large bag of Doritos, a huge pack of Twizzlers and Wine Gums...and it was all chugged down with many a' Pepsi. Needless to say I wanted to puke. Steve leaned over to me when our game was over and was like "So.....are we having supper?" Ah...yeah...no.

Thursday - My first day back at work! Crazy. I'm working 5 hours a week on Thursdays back at an optical store to bring in a little extra cash. I'm still able to collect maternity benefits this way. It was bizarre being away from my baby for that long. I then rushed home to make Prime Rib roast (someone was generous enough to give us one, and I was looking for an excuse to use it) with an Asparagus Potato Tart, but by the time I found phyllo pastry I didn't have the time to let it thaw on the counter for 5 hours. I resorted to twice baked potatoes and a salad. Two other couples came for supper, and we had our first couples bible study (two bible study's in one week! We is some bible lovin' folk) Oh and how could we forget to cap off bible study with The Office.

Today I got together with a friend and fellow blogger Carla whom I hadn't seen in awhile, and we had coffee while our used-to-be-tiny baby girls crawled and walked and played. I can't get over how they have changed. Carla's already done maternity leave and back to work. I'm back to work! Yeesh. So that's my busy week at a glance. It won't be stopping anytime soon, since we are headed up north this evening for a friends wedding this weekend.

And since I didn't blog for a week, and then gave you an incredibly lame post on what I did all week, here are some pics from Tara and Jon's visit and our stroll at the lake to make up for it.

Steve and I had an absolutely fabulous weekend. A friend that Steve went to bible college with is part of a band called Jacob & Lily and they are just incredible. They are touring Canada right now, and Steve contacted Karla ("Lily" of Jacob and Lily) and asked if they would come to our town. So Steve put on a house concert in a friends unfinished basement, and about 20 of our friends came and it was so intimate and wonderful and perfect. Their music is folk...Karla plays guitar and sings and her voice will blow you away, and Caleb is the drummer and he plays this awesome box drum that is called a Cajon.

We offered to cook them supper. I was excited to put my cooking skills to use and whip up an amazing dinner, but early on (while cutting up potatoes), I got a little carried away and just about chopped the tip of my thumb off. Yep...it was pretty gross. It probably could use a stitch or two, but I've got my trusty band-aids and they seem to be doing the trick. Needless to say, I didn't cook....just barked orders at my husband and friend Richelle. Well, not so much "barked" as "told them nicely". Luckily I had chosen an easy meal (Roasted Salmon with Sweet 'n' Hot Mustard Glaze), so it was easy to explain what to do next.

After dinner, our friends started filtering in and we all piled into Scott and Richelle's basement and took over their couches, chairs and cement floor.

It was perfect. Jacob & Lily were amazing.

My baby thoroughly enjoyed the music, and even though it was WAY past her bedtime, she was happy, tapping her feet, bouncing up and down and waving her arms to the music.


We were lucky enough to have Karla and her husband Gary, and Caleb stay in our driveway in their 35 foot motorhome. My husband cooked them a big delicious breakfast in the morning and we had a Dr. Mario showdown and Karla kicked all our asses. I'm usually the butt-whipper at that game, but was seriously sucking with my nasty severed thumb. Not really severed...just "cut really bad". So it made me suck. That's my excuse.

Jacob and Lily are making their way around west and central Canada and should be back through our area in August. We will DEFINITELY host another show for them when they are in our neck of the woods again. Check out their tour schedule on Myspace and go see them if they are in your area. Just incredible. You won't be disappointed.

Welp, we are almost off. The last two days have been hectic getting all our laundry washed, folded and packed, the house cleaned (first time ever before leaving on a trip!), and my pregnant friend Heather coming over for a family photo shoot. It's been crazy, but now that the dust has settled, our bags are packed, our house is clean and we will be driving to our friends place for the night...we will be in Vancouver by tomorrow morning!

A pleasant surprise came for me in the mail this morning...my new digital SLR camera! I'm so excited to use it, yet have no idea how :) The camera came just in time for our trip. I like it when things work out like that.

We will see y'all in a week!

Wow. You really are bashful about revealing yourselves. In two days, my stat counter tells me I had 70 visitors...yet two of my regular commenters were the only ones who commented. Not exactly an epic de-lurking experience. Is it the term lurk? Vanessa said that "lurk" sounded too creepy, and preferred "peruse". So are you a peruser of this blog? It's okay. I don't mind. You can tell me. Would my own de-lurking experience help you feel less bashful?

I too was once was a lurker of sorts. I was on Myspace about a year and a half ago, and was killing time by searching through random profiles. I would click on my friend’s profile, and then I clicked on one of their friends, and then one of their friends, and then one of their friends. Eventually I ended up at girl’s profile named Brooke. I was surprised to see that she actually had a blog. Not many people do on Myspace, so I decided to take a gander. I was 6 weeks pregnant at the time and lo and behold! So was she. No one else around me was pregnant, so she and I were a bit of a kindred spirit of sorts. I thought she was hilarious and enjoyed even just her meandering posts. That girl found a way to make surveys of all things funny. I checked back often, continuing to read her blogs.

When I was 10 weeks pregnant I miscarried and lost the baby. It was a huge loss and devastation to my husband and I. I was going through so many emotions and thoughts and feelings. After a month or so of letting my heart heal, I went back to Brooke’s blog. In a strange way it was a bit cathartic for me hearing about her journeys through pregnancy. I mean yes, it did make me a bit sad, but it also made me really excited to be pregnant again. I went through some bitterness in my heart and had thought “Well, if this is what pregnancy and having a child is about – pain and loss – then I don’t want it.” But reading Brooke’s blog affirmed to me that pregnancy and having a child was a miracle, and I could hope and be excited for it to happen to me again one day.

I continued to read her blog. Viewing her pictures of her growing belly, reading about her cravings, the baby’s movements and each and every ache and pain she was experiencing. This whole time I never came clean and told her I read her blog. I never asked her to become my myspace friend. I was too shy. I just couldn’t do it.

Then she had the baby. She posted pictures of the labor, the newborn baby and all the crazy things that come along with being a new mother. Just as I started to feel sorry for myself and pine over the loss of my own baby which would have been born at the same time, we were blessed. We found out we were pregnant again! The whole journey I had viewed from Brooke’s blog made me all the more excited to go through it again this time around.

Last year around fall, Brooke’s blogs started coming less and less frequently. I missed her wit and journey’s of motherhood. A couple months passed. I searched for her and found her on Facebook since I was no longer a Myspace member. I got up the courage, messaged her, told her my whole story and DE-LURKED! I thought she would write me off as some crazy person, but she didn’t. She was touched that I cared enough to read her “silly little blog” she called it. We have since become Facebook friends, and soon-to-be real friends (more on that another time).


So there you have it. Do you feel any better about commenting yet? The only other thing I can think of is bribery...but I won't succumb to that :)

Lurk: [lurk]
–verb (used without object)
1. to lie or wait in concealment, as a person in ambush; remain in or around a place secretly or furtively.
2. to go furtively; slink; steal.
3. to exist unperceived or unsuspected.
4. Chiefly Computers - to read or observe an ongoing discussion without participating in it, as in an Internet forum.

Other forms:
lurker, noun
lurk•ing•ly, adverb



Hey You! Lurker! I know you are out there...you read and never comment. I really appreciate the random comments from people who read this thing. It’s nice. It may not be National De-Lurking Week (yes there is such a thing), but I’m going to do it anyway. I’m calling all you Lurkers out there that read this blog and never comment to comment. Drop me a line. Tell me how you’re doing. Tell me a funny story. You know…whatevs. The funny thing is I have lots of family and friends out there who I KNOW read my blog, yet have never commented. It’s time for you all to bite the bullet and do it. Love you guys!

And just to give you a little topic of interest for commenting, our fam is heading to Vancouver for a little family vacation. Have you been to Vancouver? What did you think of it? Any places you recommend going to or eating at? If you haven’t been there, where would you like to go on a vacation?

Happy De-Lurking!

...So here's the reason I told that story.

My husband asked me back in November how I could get into substitute teaching. Without giving it much thought I answered that I probably just had to apply to the school board and get on the subbing list. He said at the beginning of January he needed me to do that.

December came and went in a blur and I received news on my thyroid problem. In January it became a struggle to even get off the couch. I told my husband that there was no way I could teach in the condition I was in. He suggested I do whatever it took to get on the sub-list, so when I was feeling better I could start teaching.

I found out that not only did I have to apply to the school board, but I ALSO had to fill out some forms to get a teaching certificate before I could do anything else. With all the paperwork and stuff I had to do, it could take a month or more to get on the list. Did I fill out the forms?...What do you think?

February I was feeling better, so Steve kept getting on my case to fill out the forms...Every week he would ask "Did you fill out your paperwork?" I always forgot....Did I fill out the forms? On February 28th. Was I done yet? What do you think?

I filled out the forms online, but I had to still print them off, sign them and send them in. Day after day, Steve would ask "Did you sign and send those forms in yet?" He was beginning to sound like my Dad. I can't believe I'm still doing the things I did when I was 12!

So did I finally send them in? The answer is...YES! It only took 3 months. But I did it. With much prodding and nagging from my loving husband. So it could be another month or so before I get to teach, but hey....I got to it eventually didn't I?