GBB Spring Program

It's been a whole year since last year's Spring Program.


I still needed a hanky, but this time for a little different reasons.
Besides being big pregnant, uncomfortable and frustrated with the boy for not sleeping exactly when and how long I had planned on him to sleep, all I could do was think about how 5 years ago I had an infant just a week old. And now I'm sitting in the church watching her sing in front of hundreds. She just seemed so much bigger than last year.
She wasn't nervous or anxious or scared. Just singing like she had been taught and practiced many times. She was a year older, a year cooler, a year wiser, a year bigger and a year smarter. And it all showed in her confidence walking up onto the stage, ready to perform.
Nathan did better than I thought he would have, thanks to the Job-like patience of Daddy.
There was one incident where my tears were caught by a family member's video camera and I had to quickly hold up the crinkled up tissue to hide my red-splotchy face. It's all so embarrassing, can you imagine how my husband feels and how my kids will feel?

After the performance, Katherine got to hang out with the cousins and friends and play in the grassy area.
These girls have become good friends: A, AC & Katherine. All blue-eyed cutie-patooties.
That night was a little harder than usual also because of the National Exam I was scheduled to take the next morning. After the performance, the kids went with Bamah & Papa to stay the night and Daddy and I went home to finalize the packing of my books, pencils, protractors, erasers, snacks, calculators, etc. We woke up bright and early the next morning at 3:45 and we were out the door by 4:45. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Perkins before we got to the testing facility, and I was checked in by 7am.

Everybody keeps asking, "How do you think you did?" and my answer is:

I have no idea.

There was about half an hour where I was fighting sleep, but soon the York Peppermint Patties kicked in and my sugar rush perked me up. There were many moments of doubt, "Why am I doing this again? Who in their right mind would go to this much trouble to do this?" There were moments of confidence, which must have happened right after the sugar high because I was flying through the questions then.

My first 4-hour test I finished in a little over 3 hours. The sweet 80-year-old proctor lady declared me a genius and told me when to come back after lunch. And the second 2-hour test I finished in a little less time.

The highlight of the whole test-taking experience was when the sweet 80-year-old proctor lady fell asleep in her chair sitting in the back of the class. She fell out of her chair with a loud thud, unharmed thankfully, but I started my giggle fit and couldn't stop. Reminded me of when I'd get in trouble in Mrs. Brydon's Honors Biology class for laughing at other classmates for nodding off in her class. Something about people sleeping, including myself, cracks me up and I can't stop.

I've got enough going on to worry about this test. I'm guessing just about the time when I truly forget about it, the results will come in the mail and my heart will fall into my toes.

Lemonade anyone?

Well, this week was meant for me to make lemonade, I guess. The good news is that Nathan's fussiness from teething is better, Katherine has learned that there are consequences for emptying the bookshelf without putting the books back and my husband has still found a way to tolerate me when I'm in a bad mood. The bad news: It will take at least $5000 to fix just the pool and I did not pass the National Surveying Exam. I could go on and on about the negatives concerning my exam, because the devil has had soooo much fun planting horrible thoughts in my head. So I won't, I'll remind myself of the positives attached to this license-receiving endeavor:

• I passed 3 of 4 tests the first time I took them
• The guy sitting next to me in April was taking it for the 5th time; my next try will only be the 3rd
• It's only $120 to take the test
• I only have to re-take the portion I didn't pass
• God has a plan and he knows the desires of my heart (and my skill level)

When I lost my job in January, I chose to look at it as a blessing. I was going to stay home with our children, which is what I wanted the whole time. Jim and I were just forced into it. I still consider it a blessing (even when the days are bad). So this, I've decided, is just another way that God's almighty plan is taking a path that I never would have chosen. But, is better than anything I could have ever planned myself. I might not understand it, but I trust Him.

It gave me the opportunity to explain to Katherine that sometimes Mommy's have bad days too, and when Nathan pulls my hair, it hurts just as bad. She was a real trooper this afternoon, since I got the results in the mail. Nathan, on the other hand, decided to "reward" me with taking a late AM nap and a 20 minute PM nap. I'm afraid he truly takes after his father, who wasn't and still isn't a big fan of napping. Oh well. He laughs hysterically when I gum his ribs, throw him in the air, play peek-a-boo, poof air in his face and has decided that crawling EVERYWHERE is his newest passion. Gonna have to buy some cheapy pants to protect his knees from the tile floors. He's seriously on the move.

Better rest up for tomorrow. There's no telling what it will bring.

p.s. On one of the other blogs I follow, I found this paragraph describing a woman and her husband in the kitchen and thought it was hilarious enough to share. I've switched the names and some of the traits around, but you'll get the idea:

"Whenever Jim and I are in the kitchen it's like this dueling dance of power. He's the cook and I'm just basically a hack that fakes her way through a meal. However, our approach to cooking sometimes reveals our approach to life and our levels of optimism about the world around us.
For example, he's a recipe skimmer, basically he actually comprehends the recipe the first time he reads it and his cooking-intuition is 99% right. I'm a recipe studier, analyzer, follower (to a fault) which has not worked in my favor. His attention span is long when it comes to cooking. He's fast and adept and flings food around while he's stirring. I am slow and agonizing, taking twice as long to do everything, frequently do it the hard way and always keep everything inside the pan. He does not wash as he goes. I take too long washing, inevitably messing up something cooking because I wasn't paying attention to the food. I assume it's all going to work out fine, and it usually doesn't; he's certain it will and it does."