Homeschool?

A small family at the park this morning made me seriously question the desire to ever/maybe/possibly home school my future young children. They were so unique. The children would NOT stop talking to me and Poland. I found out how old they were, what their names were, when their birthdays were, when their older siblings birthdays were, what they were doing there, etc. They didn't even pause to let me inject an "oh" or "uh huh." Then one of the young ones needed to go to the bathroom. Mom said to just go over behind that bush and carefully bend over. That was the bush that I chase Poland around sometimes. Never will again. I was really appalled because we were at a public park. Then to make matters worse, the child doesn't even hide behind the bush but just squatted near it. I really didn't want to see that. Poland was confused.

Now I know not all home schoolers are freak shows. I used to be one of them. I was home schooled until the sixth grade. Crazy, right? To my knowledge, my sister and I were pretty cool kids (at least I remember it that way). But regardless of being home schooled in our early elementary years, we blossomed into normal public school graduating stars. Just look at the senior superlatives, don't they say it all???* I got "Best Singer", "Most Musical" and "Best Hair" (but I could only be awarded one so they chose best singer) and my sis got "Best Looking" two years later. Come on now and tell me we weren't normal!

After working in the public schools, I sort of made a decision to try hard to home school my kids at least in kindergarten. I really didn't like the way the children were treated in school and thought that learning should happen in a way contrary to what was being taught. I certainly wouldn't home school them very long but while they are still small, tender hearted lil' creatures I thought I might try. But after today, I pretty much flushed all of that down the toilet. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

*Please be mindful of my sarcasm.

Thought of the moment

I think that I am learning a lot right now. I say "I think" because I don't know if all the little moments of truth will stick with me. Hopefully they will and then some day I can say that this was a period of deep spiritual growth and learning. I'm learning that I don't simply deserve good things and that I am owed nothing. That false reality is hard for me to let go of, but it does change my perspective quite a bit. Hopefully I will begin to see more of Christ in all this.

El Señor

My sweet Michael made his first and very own pot of Chili this weekend! He entered it in Portico's Chili Cook Off and guess what, he got first runner up! Holler! It was actually delicious and will become a staple in our family recipes. Two features that made his chili unique were Guinness and jalapeño puree. It had quite a kick to it. He named his chili recipe, you guessed it, "El Señor!"

It was a nice touch of positivity and fun added to a rather painful weekend. Thanks Lord.

I miss you and love you

See last sentence

I am so angry. I had to use these pictures to help curb my anger. It has nothing to do with her -I just like to look at her. Transparency is what I'm going for here folks and since I know a lot of my dearly beloved friends and family read this blog I feel no shame in telling you that I am angry, confused, upset, disillusioned, heartbroken, shocked, just plain angry. If you know me, you know why. I'd love to talk about it in person, I'll probably just cry. But I'm posting because if you can, pray for me. I need understanding.

My hair is soaking wet at the moment

It takes me 45 minutes to blow dry my hair. Only to make me look like Mufasa. So then I takes another 30 minutes to either flat iron (i love you chi) or curl it to not be so huge in public. Why even blow it dry you ask? Because my sister thinks I'm a rag doll when it's wavy and my husband says things like "had a rough day?" Enough pressure. I brake every ponytail holder that tries to fit around my hair and sometimes hair stylists tell me not to come back to them. That's why I stick to one person now. As a little girl, I could never look cute in pig tail braids because everyone told me it looked like two giant ropes where coming out of my head. It took me and Michael 30 minutes to take all the bobby pins out of my hair on our wedding night. If I cut it short, I'd look like Bozo the clown.

Oh and

This morning's post was not meant to seem sad or negative. It was just my thoughts streaming through. I was happy this morning, but sad that Michael was far away. And I'm happy now. Maybe my thoughts are a little less happy in the morning? I'll work on that. Here's something happy: I get to see Preston and Brianna on Saturday!

Rather than talk to myself...

So here I am, Wednesday morning October 21st. Alone in my kitchen. I'm not hungry, so I am not eating breakfast. I have to go watch Poland here soon. But I'm waiting till the last little bit of orange juice makes it's way down. I keep thinking to myself, "is it Christmas yet?" I just want to decorate and shop for gifts. I have tons of ideas for Christmas parties. But I don't have the house for it. So these ideas will have to fester for many years in my brain.

I also keep thinking that everyone is getting pregnant. I don't like to follow trends. Except in boots. I like to blaze my own trail. Does that make sense? Not sure because I don't feel like I've blazed very well.

Our cousin, Cathleen, is getting married soon in NC. We'll all be truckin' it down there for a nice rehearsal, wedding, and after brunch! I'm really excited but I'll be wearing the same dress I've worn to oh so many weddings. I'm just recycling and being a good steward of things.

I don't like it when Michael's not here. I think loneliness is the worst feeling in the world. Maybe that's why I talk to myself and pretend there's an audience. Ashleigh told me I've been doing that my whole life. Yikes. I really had no idea. Maybe if someone asked me to be a backup dancer in their music video I wouldn't have these issues.

Oops. It's 8:30 time to hit the road to Poland. Be back in a few!

Thankfulness

I want to be in the spirit of not taking things for granted. So besides the essentials like air, absence of pain, vision, hearing and sense of taste, I've come up with some things that I might be taking for granted if I weren't in Charlottesville. I would miss the following:

• Portico. And all that goes with it
• Every single person at Portico
• Our community group
• Singing in the band
• Sticks chicken platter with cilantro lime and hummus
• Christian's Avocado Feta pizza
• Running into a vineyard every time you turn around
• Belmont BBQ
• Cheap waxes
• The friendly cashiers at Giant
• Fashion Square Mall....just kidding.
• Really good doctors and hospitals
• Actually in a weird, twisted sort of way, The University of Virginia
• Great wedding venues
• Spudnuts
• The artichoke and goat cheese dip at Mas

Chocolate Covered Peanuts

We love our place but it really is too small for us. There is not room for everything we have. Currently there are 4 extra pieces of furniture in our master bedroom. That's not healthy. But these white boards are not healthy either. Michael was suppose to take them into his classroom and cut them up 2 years ago. They are still in the house:

The white boards even tried to communicate with us:

While I was cleaning out the second bedroom for our much awaited house guests (!!!), I saw this poor pink bear held hostage by the cruel blue car:

I am eating some delicious chocolate covered peanuts right now and I am guilt-free!

Apples and Puzzles

If you live in Charlottesville and have not yet checked out Cville Market, you really should. Most of the time, the produce is much cheaper than the g-store's which makes the extra trip well worth it. There's a coupon on the website for 50 (where is the cents sign?) off a 3lb bag of apples. Which makes the cost less than $3. I didn't actually see that coupon till just now.

More importantly, could someone let me in on the secret, what does LMAO mean?

It's still working

Michael loves the loofah. No turning back now! If I could only convince him to use an exfoliater......

No time to eat

Look how cute we all are! Be careful if you plan to invite the Daubert Family to your wedding, that's 8 people now. Michael's the stud.

This week is very busy for me, I am stressed that I haven't been able to get to posting a new wedding blog this week. But I am working hard on this weekend's wedding. I've had meetings and long, long phone convos with lots of different vendors. Things are coming together beautifully!

I'm also gonna run by Martha's Market on Friday at JPJ before the rehearsal festivities begin to do some Christmas shopping!

Leprechaun on the loose

I found an old Poet Tree book I made in 6th grade. There are many, many poems. Here's a Limerick I wrote:

There once lived a leprechaun in Ireland

Where his tricks and games never did end

He tricked people with pots of gold

And turned brand new things into old

Until one day they shipped him to Maryland