Sorry this is so late, but this is really the first time I’ve been in front of a computer all day.  I babysat Kelly & Holly for Debbie while she went to MOPS this morning, so I had to leave at my normal time for Cedarville.  My mom actually relieved me for an hour so I could go to a dept. meeting at ten, then I went back and stayed until Deb got home.  Then I lunch with my mom and came back to Columbus.  I decided to run errands before going home, so I went and picked up my contacts (they came in last week), got my car washed (it was getting gross!), and picked up my dry cleaning (ready on Monday).  Now I’m home!

Tonight I have to clean my house and do laundry – all of it!  We are leaving for the farm (my in-law’s dairy farm) as soon as possible tomorrow night and staying until Sunday afternoon.  But we are hosting small group on Sunday night, so the house has to be cleaned before we leave.  And I need to do laundry or we’ll run out of clothes before the next day I’ll have time to do it!  So…my evening will be full.

Thankfully, I am feeling better.  I seem to have these “speed colds” anymore.  They last about a week and I get a sore throat, head cold, cough, and chest congestion one right after the other.  Then they’re all gone and I don’t get sick again for a long while.  So, there’s still a bit of a cough/chest thing left, but mostly I’m MUCH better.  Also, my grandpa seems to have come through surgery well.  He has his first PT appointment tomorrow morning, so my dad (whose still up there) is waiting to take him to that before he comes home.  So hopefully, the news from that will be good.

Just a short one today…sorry!  Mostly, I don’t have that much
exciting to say.  I graded all evening (interrupted by nose
blowing, coughing and sneezing).  Eric has started calling me
“Sniffy” since that’s pretty much all I’ve done since the
weekend!  Today, the congestion seems to be a little better in my
head, a little worse in my chest.  And my students were telling me
that the campus is really being hit hard: strep, mono, hacking coughs,
etc.  Hopefully, I can keep from getting any of that!

Anyway, enough of my whining.  I did get all my papers read, so
that was nice.  I need to do some prep for my Basic English class
before noon, and I have a meeting at 11:00 with a student for the paper
we’re working on now.  Unfortunately, my voice was starting to
give out in my 9:00 workshops, so hopefully, I can ease it through my
afternoon stuff!

Tonight we have drama as usual.  I’d consider cancelling it, but
we’re supposed to be having some new people come to see what we
do.  At least I think we are.  Anyway, we are only playing
theatre games tonight, so that is easier to plan for, and we’re already
set to end early tonight as well.  That’s good because I’ve been
wearing down fast in the evenings.  Should be interesting, anyway!

I’ve gotten some grading done.  I haven’t done any laundry.  My grandpa came through surgery well (he had a partial knee replacement) and will probably go home tomorrow. He thinks that he’ll be pretty much ready to go back to normal life tomorrow just because this is a newer surgery that’s better than a full replacement.  I think he’ll be a bit surprised!

Dang this cold!  It’s just getting worse, but it’s a head cold.  So I don’t feel bad, but I can’t breathe and I keep sneezing and coughing.  I’m glad it’s a Tuesday, though, since I don’t have to teach today.  I was thinking of heading to CU for a dean interview at 10:00 today, but now I’m not sure if I’ll go.  I am also scheduled to meet with my pastor this afternoon, but I think I’ll cancel because I see no need to pass this around (especially to the pastor!).

So that sort of changes the plan for the day.  I must read some papers for Wednesday’s classes, so that will be a priority.  And I should probably focus on getting that done before evening when I sort of fuzz out from the cold!  Other than that…maybe some cleaning and maybe I’ll wash the clothes I got for my birthday so that I can wear them soon!

Other than that…not such an exciting life really.  I met a former student for coffee (I had a vanilla steamer since I think coffee is GROSS!) yesterday afternoon, so I didn’t get home until 5:00, but Eric didn’t get home until 6:00.  My dad left yesterday to go to my grandparents’ house. My grandpa is having surgery today, and my grandma can’t be left alone.  Of course, my grandpa doesn’t really think it’s necessary for anyone to come, but he’s also not good about facing reality.  He really thinks that he won’t be that restricted from the knee surgery he’s having today.  I’m sure he’ll be surprised how restricted he’ss be for a while…though I doubt he’ll take it easy!

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I don’t have any grading to do.  I hardly know what to do with myself.  Eric and I had lunch and looked at cell phone plans.  He’s with Sprint and I’m with Verizon, so we were thinking to combine into a family plan.  But after looking, it seems that it will be much cheaper to just stay with our individual plans, but reduce our number of minutes. We haven’t done it yet, but I think that will be the next step.

I seem to be getting sick.  My throat has hurt for two days now, and I think it’s because of drainage.  It’s not bad enough to hold me back, but I’m not exactly right either.  I hope it’s not winding up for a big illness in a couple of days!  Thankfully, I don’t have much lecturing to do this week, anyway…

Yesterday, we had my birthday party at Mom’s house.  Kelly is still pretty puny (and has one nasty cough), but it was a good time.  Everyone was a bit subdued, so it was actually more relaxing than family gatherings have a tendency to be.  I got some lovely clothes which was great because I’ve stopped liking most of the stuff in my closet.  Overall, I thought it was a good time.

The best part of the evening was watching Holly.  She’s a lot different than Kelly was in some ways. She’s almost mobile (and it’s killing her that she can’t figure out how to actually crawl!).  She also LOVES to be thrown into the air and danced around…a few seconds after you stop, she starts bouncing in your arms or swinging her body to make you do it again.  And just before they left, all the girls were in the kitchen watching the VeggieTales Silly Song Countdown.  Debbie said Kelly could watch two more and then they had to go home.  So after the second one, she turned it off.  Mom was holding Holly, who’d been absolutely enthralled by the whole thing.  As soon as the screen went blank, she swung around to look at Mom like “Hey…I was watching that…where’d it go?”  It was really quite cute.  I think we’re all going to be in trouble when that one learns to talk!

So it was a really good birthday in some ways…not so good in others.

Eric came home early from work, so I got to spend the day with
him.  He even ran errands with me, which he never does.  I
got my new sweater cleaned yesterday, so I am wearing it today (it’s
really cute!).  I got lots of cards, emails from friends…it’s so
nice to be remembered on your birthday!  I did have to spend a lot
of the day reading papers, but I did get most of them done, so that was
also good.

Unfortunately, I also found out that I was denied admission to OSU’s
English program and that Kelly is too sick to have my birthday party
tonight.  It’s been postponed until Saturday, but it all depends
on how she’s recovering by then (she had a BAD cough and 102 degree
fever, poor little kid!).  So those two bigger issues sort of cast
a pall over the day for me, but I guess that’s just how it goes
sometimes. 

Anyway, my parents are in Columbus today for a meeting, so I don’t know
what I’ll do for lunch.  But I think I have my classes mostly
ready to go.  So it shouldn’t be an overwhelming day.  But
since I graded all evening last night, and it wasn’t a thrilling
birthday (and there won’t be a party tonight), maybe I should just make
tonight fun somehow.  Any suggestions or ideas?

Eric already gave me his present this morning: a cashmere sweater and a gc for a massage.  I am way pumped about both of them.  In fact, I think I’m going to have to make a trip to the dry cleaners so that I can wear my new sweater tomorrow!

Other than that, the morning hasn’t been too exciting.  I exercised outside (it only rained on me a little bit), and I put the garbage out when I got back from my walk.  Then I got ready, had breakfast, loaded the dishwasher, did my bible study, and read my email.  Now I’m here! 

I do think I’m going to run some errands later this morning, but I think that I’m going to take my grading to the library to do.  Sometimes it helps me focus if I don’t have such distractions like the tv and easy internet access.  But I’m also planning to go to the dry cleaners (see above) and WalMart sometime today.

I don’t have any big plans for my birthday, though.  We’ve been out to eat every night this week, and I’m tired of take-out/eat-out.  So I think I’m just going to have dinner here tonight.  My family is coming up here tomorrow night for a small party (and Kelly thinks I’m going to have a Dora cake…I think she’s going to be disappointed!).  Other than that, it’s a grown-up birthday, so it won’t be that exciting.  Wait…maybe I’ll get my car washed today! That will add lost of birthday excitement!

Okay, so it’s Wednesday.  As I left this morning, I almost put the
garbage out…but then I remembered, garbage day is tomorrow (there’s
your reminder, Trisha!).

I have a very busy day today.  Class, prep time, lunch with a
student, class, lunch with my mom (I probably won’t eat twice, but I’ll
go home and talk to her!), class, meeting with my chairman, then
home.  Then I have to go to the church for a dinner thing with the
music/arts ministry which the drama people volunteered to help
organize, then drama rehearsal, then home.  Wow…I’m tired just
looking at that!

Yesterday was good.  Eric sent me flowers (birthday/valentine’s
combined) and he made me a “card” at work.  He etched real gold
onto a small piece of glass to say “Happy Valentine’s Day” – it was
cute!   In honor of our tradition,
we ordered chinese take-out from PF Chang’s, but ended up waiting in a
30-35 minute line to get our food (they were crazy busy)!  After
dinner, I gave Eric his present (2 movies) and he relaxed while I set
up a romantic “love nest” (sorry Kim) to watch the movie.  I’ve
never really decorated much for Valentine’s, so I had candles,
sparkling juice, comfy pillows, various chocolates and we watched The
Italian Job (one of my favorites).  All in all, a successful
evening, I thought. 

It was probably overkill, but I like to do Valentines Day up for him
since he has to turn around and celebrate my birthday so quickly.
Anyway it was fun, and it looked really pretty!  Unfortunately, I
couldn’t find our digital camera, so I couldn’t get any pictures of
it.  Oh well!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Only two days until my birthday (the really important part!).

Today I think we’re doing our “normal” romantic evening: Chinese food and a movie.  Of course, I intend to spice things up a little bit so it won’t be exactly like every other year.  But it is nice to have a non-pressured date all ready to go…and we have a gift card to PF Chang’s to use, so we’ll get really good chinese!

Other than that, it probably won’t be so exciting today.  I have some errands to run (some of them are -day related).  I need to create and send our small group’s newsletter for the week, and I need to prep for drama group tomorrow.  I also have some papers to read and respond to, but I won’t put actual grades on them this round.  Not doing that does make it somewhat easier to do.  I do not have any laundry to do today, though!

It’s Sunday afternoon. We had a friend over for dinner today.  I made a pork roast, which turned out beautifully!  We had it with bbq sauce (my favorite!) and I made herbed potatoes, rolls, jello and green beans.  There were cookies and ice cream for dessert.  Hmmm, so far all I’ve mentioned is food.  Gee…maybe my posts will be as exciting as Kim’s now!

I also had to run to WalMart this afternoon and then I cleaned up the kitchen.  Eric is now napping, but we haven’t done our “homework” for small group yet, so I’m going to have to wake him up soon so we’ll look prepared!  Of course, he just started snoring a little bit, so maybe I’ll have to start on my own.

Yesterday was not that exciting.  Eric worked for most of the day (he left at 7:15 and got home around 2:30 or so).  I made cookies and did some laundry.  I also went shopping up on Sawmill, but didn’t find too much worth getting.  I also forgot that I was supposed to be at the church for a bit (at 4:30).  One of my drama group was part of the service this weekend, and I just like to show up to run interference for them (get mics, make sure of the order of service, make sure no one forgot there was drama scheduled, etc.).  Thankfully, things went fine without me, but I was greatly annoyed with myself for forgetting. Teach me to make cookies, I guess!

Oh…and Eric and I went to see The Pink Panther on Saturday.  It is a light, funny, not complicated movie.  It’s not great, but it’s not bad either.  And we did both laugh regularly during the show.  Oh…and it’s only 1:30 long, which is a very nice change of pace from 3 hour movies!  So, if you just need a light bit of entertainment…try that.  Just don’t expect more than that!