Report Cards

Third quarter report cards came home yesterday.

Straight A's for both Elijah and Isabel.

Yay for them. Yay for me and Joe, being the parents of such, ahem, prodigies.

Except for the fact that their Mamaw Kay has given them the idea that they should get money for those grades.

Seven A's, for each child, means fourteen A's to pay for. (See, they get their brains from me, obviously).

I feel the need to remind my kids that while we are very proud of their achievements, there is also a RECESSION going on out there, and A's just aren't worth what they used to be.

Which got me wondering (in true Kat-fashion)...how do fellow parents "reward" their children for good grades? Did you get money for your grades as a kid? Are you surviving the recession?

It's Official.

Yep, that's right.

It's official.

I am a runner.

Today I ran in (and finished) my very first race.

There were 1718 runners, 859 of those being women.

I was number 376 of the women (that's the top half, oh yeah!).

Despite the rain, the blustery wind, and the chilly temps.

Despite the fact that almost all of the other runners on our team didn't show up, due to said weather.

Thank God for Aly, my running partner in this race. We ran a steady 10 minute/mile pace, finishing in 32:07 minutes. Up three hills. Against the wind. Did I mention it was raining? Yeah, that part pretty much sucked.

Kudos to Kelly, our co-worker who finished in under 29 minutes (on her 38th birthday, at that). And Lindsay, who stuck it out and ran in the 15K (this girl has even run in the Flying Pig marathon!).

The best part for me? (Other than actually surviving the race...)

When I came home, wearing my medal around my neck, hearing Gabe say:

"When I get bigger, I'm gonna be a runner and get a medal, too, Mommy, like you."

Thanks to every single person (family and friends) who gave me their unconditional support. Even though you couldn't be on the sidelines cheering me on, I felt your prayers and well-wishes just the same.

Now to start training for the Flying Pig Relay in May (six miles this time :)...

ICU

Today my assignment put the "intense" in Intensive Care.

I worked thirteen hours yesterday, having a fairly busy day. Came home, dropped into bed, watched Lost, slept for a few hours, then got back up and did it again today. I had a feeling it was going to be a busy day.

Yep, looks like I was right.

Three different times I was thisclose to tears. My patient is only thirty-five years old. He is thisclose to dying. He is my age. His wife looks like my sweet sister-in-law. His mom loves to garden, and so does he. He served for two years in the Peace Corps. His body is failing. I hung onto him by my fingernails today, with the help of my unbelievable co-workers and doctors.

I am exhausted.

My kids are suffering from mommy withdrawal.

Sometimes this job is so hard.

There were a couple of bright spots to this day. My patient survived, although he is still in very critical condition. Gabe was a good boy for his Mamaw Kay. I know this, because I called her to check on him. She said so. She also said she was doing laundry. At my house.

Yep, my laundry. So I wouldn't have to do it tomorrow. How on earth did I get so blessed to have this woman for my mother-in-law, and one of my very best friends? Hell, even my best friends don't come and do my laundry...

Anyway, now I'm off to bed. I had to blog a little, to get this off of my mind. If I dream about work, I don't feel rested; I feel like I've just put in another shift. Wine may help with that, also.

God was faithful today. I can't tell you how much I prayed for my patient and his family in those thirteen hours, quietly and near tears. Now I am praying for peace, for all of them and for those of us taking care of him.

*sigh*

Please pray...

I've added a new button today, over there to the right.

I wish I didn't have to.

I've requested prayers for baby Stellan in the past, the youngest of the MckMama family.

Stellan was diagnosed with a heart condition in utero, and was thought not to make it to birth.

When he was born, he surprised everyone with his perfect health.

He has suffered a couple of setbacks, with respiratory problems, only to bounce right back.

He is now in the hospital with heart problems again.

Please, if you feel called to do so, visit MckMama's blog and leave a comment, praying for Stellan while doing so. His momma is having such a hard time right now; we need to lift the both of them up.

Thank you.

It's that time of year...

for preschool conferences.

I've had great experience with school conferences so far. I did well at school as a kid, never in any trouble, so those parent-teacher pow-wows never seemed like a big deal.

Then I had kids of my own.

Elijah is in fifth grade. He has always had great reports, and is well-liked by (most) of his teachers.

Every teacher on the planet loves Isabel. She is sweet, intelligent, and mature beyond her years. This year her teacher wondered if we even needed a conference at all...Of course, I said I wanted one (who doesn't want to hear great things about their kid?).

And then there's Gabe. My exuberant, enthusiastic, energetic bundle of boy.

I worry about Gabe's school career. He has a hard time staying on task, unless it's something he's interested in. He is very social (wonder where he gets that?). He can be a bit stubborn. Not the ideal student on paper, for sure.

Starting preschool after just turning four was a big decision for us. I was afraid he wasn't ready...



I prayed a lot. For guidance, for God's help, for Gabe to have the right teacher.

As is His way, God was faithful.

He sent this sweet woman our way...

I could not have hand-picked a better teacher for my baby boy. Mrs. Edwards loves Gabe, and actually enjoys having him in her class. Despite his refusal to learn how to write his name. Despite the fact that he sometimes "likes to tackle friends". Despite his stubborn dislike of clean-up time.

She loves his personality. His zest for life. His love of Legos and Hot Wheels and recess. Sometimes she has to lay down the law, but mostly she builds him up and encourages him to try again when he fails to master a task.

We had parent-teacher conferences today. Even though preschool doesn't go on your permanent record, I was a little nervous. I know Gabe loves school; I just wasn't sure if the feeling was mutual.

I had no reason to fear. Although Gabe is still "working" on many skills, he has made "good progress" on many others, thanks to Mrs. Edwards. He has grown two inches, gained four pounds, learned how NOT to tackle friends and most importantly, has developed a love for education.

Yes, God is faithful. I hope He doesn't get too tired of hearing my constant prayers for my kiddos, which are mixed in with many prayers of thanks for all He has done so far.

Mrs. Edwards, thank you for loving Gabe, and for not comparing him (out loud) to his big sister. You are truly heaven-sent.

March 20th

Ahh, spring.



Flowers, sunny days, warm weather.


The difficult decision: Panama City vs Ft Lauderdale.


(significant pause)


(sudden jolt to reality)


Who am I kidding?


The decision now: Mr. Clean vs Clorox.


You know you're getting old when March 20th signifies spring cleaning instead of spring break.

*sigh*

Optimism

(Wanna play along with Tiffany's "Optimism: Let's get linky with it"? Click here.)

It's not too hard for me to be optimistic.

Thanks to my mom, I was wired that way. While my dad was the scrooge-y, glass-half-empty kind of guy, mom was the every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining kind of gal.

I'm so blessed to have inherited that particular gene, let me tell you. I think my kids would think so, too. What a great gift to give to your children: the power of positive thinking.

My sweet sister, Rhonda (who still doesn't blog, and rarely reads mine unless prompted...ahem), sent me this email the other day. Perfect timing for a post about optimism...

"Any day I'm vertical is a good day"...that's what I always say.
If you ask me,"How are you?"
I'll answer, "GREAT!" because in saying so, I make it so.
When Life gives me dark clouds and rain, I appreciate the moisture that brings a soft curl to my hair.
When Life gives me sunshine, I gratefully turn my face up to feel its warmth on my cheeks.
When Life brings fog, I hug my sweater around me and give thanks for the cool shroud of mystery that makes the familiar seem different and intriguing.
When Life brings snow, I dash outside to catch the first flakes on my tongue, relishing the icy miracle that is a snowflake.
Life's events and experiences are like the weather - they come and go, no matter what my preference.
So, what the heck?!I might as well decide to enjoy them.
For indeed, there IS a time for every purpose under Heaven.
And each season brings its own unique blessings."

excerpt from Mac Anderson's book "Learning to Dance in the Rain"

Slow down.

My friend, Catherine, wrote a post yesterday that got me thinking...

Are you a Martha or a Mary?

Are you the type of person who always has to be busy, thinking you are serving the Lord but not really taking the time to appreciate all He has blessed you with?

Or are you able to sit down, take a breath, and truly enjoy the time He has given you on this earth?

I strive to be a Mary, but I often find myself being a Martha. Running from here to there, tending to kids, working, and squeezing time for the Lord in between all of that. When really, He should be first, and the rest would fall into place with ease and purpose.

Easier said than done, right?

With the weather being so warm and sunny today, I made myself sit and enjoy it. When there were about a hundred tasks I could be doing. Instead, I soaked up some rays on my deck, taking time to notice the plants and flowers coming back to life all around me. Reflecting on the hundreds of happy days and moments I have had, not even thinking of the not-so-great ones at all. Wondering at how quickly the time passes (already time to go get Gabe from preschool and go to the store and get dinner started...), not only that one hour I had to myself, but life in general.

It seems like these moments were just yesterday:

But really, they were a few years ago.

Today I am trying to be a Mary.

Which one are you?

(Go visit Catherine's blog for the verses about these two women).

Recovering...

You know vacation is over when:

You work a twelve (thirteen) hour day shift, getting your boo-tay kicked while there, only to arrive home and find that you still have to put all the kids to bed, not have any dinner, and see that the puppy-peed-on-sheets are still on your bed from an afternoon accident.

You know vacation is over when:

No one is coming in to tidy up, provide fresh towels, and leave chocolates on the pillow while you are out.

You know vacation is over when:

You have to punch in to the timeclock to earn some money, rather than buy that lovely margarita at the pool to sip on while you read a good smut book.

Yes, I realized sadly that vacation is over this past Monday, working two long 12-hour day shifts in a row and sinking down to reality.

All good things must come to an end.

At least the weather has improved. Nothing like tulips and daffodils poking their heads up out of the ground to cheer a girl up.

Now it's back to the routine of work, school, exercise, Bible studies, blogging...all good things, just not vacation things.

*Sigh*

If a Picture is Worth a thousand words...

then what's a thousand pictures worth?



'Cause that's what I've got here: a thousand pictures from our Disney va-cay.



Well, actually only 262.



Wait, don't go! I'm not posting all 262 of them. Really, I'm not. But even hitting only the highlights, there are a lot of pics, I won't lie. Are you ready?



We left for Disney on Wednesday, March 4th at 4pm. We decided to drive, and honestly, it was all good. Gas was only $1.85 a gallon, there was very little traffic, and the kids did great.



Gabe, are you excited?



We pulled into Orlando around 8:30am on Thursday. Ate some breakfast at IHOP (yum), then headed over to our resort, where we explored and swam and stretched out those cramped muscles. After unpacking, we took a boat to Downtown Disney and shopped and played to our hearts' content.

Legoland was a big hit with the whole family! We promised to come back at the end of our trip to buy some cool stuff.

We had two character meals planned: Mickey's Backyard BBQ was the first. All you can drink beer and wine for the adults. Characters and alcohol? Say no more: we are there!

Can you tell we're glad to be here?

Remember, I did say ALL you can drink. That fourth glass of wine was tasting goooood.

Gabe was loving the Mickey ice cream treats. I think he ate about a hundred over the course of the week!

Sunny and 82 degrees was the forecast for the whole week. We couldn't have paid for better weather! Friday was our first day at the parks, and we kicked it off at Magic Kingdom with a character breakfast with Pooh and friends.

(I made these matching shirts before we left. Isabel has Pooh, Elijah has Pirates of the Caribbean, and Gabe has the Mouse.)

The food at the Crystal Palace was phenomenal! And getting to see Pooh and his friends without standing in line was even better.

The crowds were light this time of year, so we got to ride every single thing we wanted without much waiting in line. It was a great day!

That night, however, Gabe woke with a fever. We rented a stroller for our Epcot day on Saturday, and Gabe slept most of the day. Lots of Tylenol and grape water later, he was on the mend. Just a bug, I guess.

Poor little guy...

Elijah and Isabel loved Epcot. Definitely a place for the older kids. All of the different countries to explore in World Showcase, with authentic food and employees who were from those countries here on scholarship. Other than worrying about Gabe's fever, we had an interesting day here.

Isabel wanted this beret from France for her souvenier. I couldn't resist, she looked so darn cute.

Sunday, we went to Animal Kingdom, along with the rest of the Orlando crowd. This was our "crabby" day, in which I didn't even take many pictures. Gabe got to dig dino bones and we went on a safari. Then we went back early and swam at our pool. Ahh, much better.

Monday was Hollywood Studios. The day we got to meet the Mouse. And Bolt. And Lightning McQueen. A good day indeed, except for the end...

Oh, and some Storm Troopers at the Star Tours ride. Love the expression on Gabe's face!

We ate dinner at the Sci-Fi Drive-in restaurant. Steak. Which didn't sit well with my stomach at.all. By the time we were heading back to the buses, I knew I needed a bathroom. Right now. Unfortunately, so did the rest of the damn women at the park. Did you see those white pants I was wearing? If I ever wanted to wear them again, I needed to run. So I left Joe with the kids near a fountain and took off in search of an out-of-the-way potty. Got there in the nick of time, if you know what I mean. Went back to the fountain to get the family, only to find that Elijah had tried to follow me to the bathroom and was now LOST. Two minutes later, a Disney employee brought him back to the fountain, calm but in tears the moment I grabbed him into a huge hug. On this trip, I just knew it would be Gabe that would get lost at some point. I never thought it would be Elijah. Thank goodness he doesn't seem to be too scarred from the whole experience.

On Tuesday, we let the kids pick their favorite rides to re-visit. We had had such a great day at Magic Kingdom, it was no surprise that they wanted to go back.

I love this pic of Gabe on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Priceless. He kept screaming "We're gonna die! Ahhhh!!!".

The Tomorrowland speedway was a fave for Elijah and Isabel. Visions of drivers' licenses swimming in their little heads. Thank God we have a few years left for that!

In the late afternoon, we took the monorail over to Epcot, where we just had to go back to these cool "jumping" fountains to cool off. The kids loved "catching" the water and getting soaked.

Epcot also had a cool Kim Impossible adventure, where you got to solve a mystery using this cell phone and following clues in the different countries in World Showcase. Our country was Norway, full of Viking ghosts and shape-shifting bad guys. Elijah and Isabel loved this!

Back to Animal Kingdom for our last day at the parks. Much less crowded, much more fun. Gabe and Joe in their matching safari hats made a cute pair, and Elijah's pirate Mickey ears rocked! Isabel made the decision to ride the Everest roller coaster, which you can see in the distance.

Gabe was content to play with his little dinosaur figures while the big kids rode the "scary ride". Everest has a scary Yeti monster in one of the tunnels, and Gabe was NOT interested in seeing that.

They conquered Mt. Everest!

By the end of each day, Gabe was exhausted. If we walked one mile, we walked fifty. Thank goodness for a sweet sister sharing her lap...

One of our favorite places to hang out was our resort, Port Orleans Riverside. The room was clean and big enough for the five of us, and the grounds were gorgeous. Little paths, bridges, restaurants, pools, an arcade, ponds and waterways, frogs and geckos and ducks and squirrels...a fun escape from the intensity of the theme parks.

And then, like all good things do, our vacation was at an end.

Poor Gabe, he cried when he realized we were leaving. "I want to stay to Disney, Mommmmy!" he sobbed, as we loaded him into the van. And although I was ready to sleep in my own bed and get back home, I kind of felt the same way. This had been our best family vacation yet, and it was sad that it was over.

Six movies, 940 miles, an icestorm and many coffees later, we were home. My Friday the 13th was spent unpacking, cleaning, doing laundry...

and generally recovering from the adventure known as a Disney vacation.

I missed you guys! Once my head is up out of the water, I'll be over to visit.

Disney-fied

By now, I am sure we are utterly Disney-fied. I'm posting this ahead of time (as in, we haven't even left yet, I'm still in my pj's, procrastinating about packing, blogging while I should be loading up the van...).

I'm assuming we survived the 14-plus hour drive to Orlando. With three kids. Thirty Disney movies. Hundreds of snacks. Three tanks of gas. God-only-knows how many grams of caffeine.

I'm assuming all of our reservations were in order. Booking a trip online makes me a tad-bit nervous. (We used Small World Vacations to plan our trip. Got a great deal.)

If all this is true, then we have already had two character meals, a day at each park, and three more days to go...

I'm sure I am suffering from computer withdrawal a tiny bit at this point. Both Joe and I swore that we would not Blog or World of Warcraft for our entire vacay. This might require medication.

My hope is that we are making tons of great memories, not only for our kids, for us as well. This is the vacation of a lifetime for so many kids. I can still remember my first trip to Disney, when I was ten years old.

I promise to share when we get back.

Kori, I'm sad that we'll miss you by only a couple of days. I can't wait to hear about your trip! We can get all Disney-fied together!

TTFN

My to-do list is a mile long.

I pulled a muscle in my thigh taking ten flights of stairs at work this weekend.

My kids are bouncing off the walls.

I have little more than 24 hours to accomplish every thing I need to.

I don't know who's more excited about this vacation: me and Joe, or the kids.

I'll be missing you, bloggy friends. See you next week!

"TTFN", as Tigger likes to say :)