Image courtesy of http://www.brothersoft.com/

Something fun!

Our local paper - the Omaha World Herald - is launching a new site for Omaha moms. It's going to be up and running by the end of the year, possibly as early as Thanksgiving, and it's called Momaha. Cool name, huh?!

An editor from the World Herald, Veronica Stickney, found me here and we started emailing about the site. I'm joining the blogging moms team. I have no idea yet what that may end up looking like, but am excited about the possibilities.

So you can find it here and if you are interested in applying to join the team, you can find more information here. I think it's really exciting because the information will be so specific to our local needs and will reflect our particular Nebraska flavor that I am so particularly fond of. Bland to many, yes, but what can I say, I am a Nebraska girl and always will be.

So check out momaha.com. You know you want to.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the Phone

Have you ever talked mean to the sweet computer-voice lady at the mortgage company?

Maybe called her a mean name?

Then pressed zero and zero and zero, desperately trying to talk to a REAL person?

Yeah. Me too.

Probably best not to handle these things in a feverish flu haze.

Maybe I'll write her a nice apology note while I wait to talk to that REAL person!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Creepy In a Good Way

We interrupt this fever and cough to share with you some fun Halloween reading. Beck has been writing this great Halloween series that twists popular children's tales. When Max & Ruby came on this evening, I am still creeped out!

Check it out!


~~~~~~~~~~~

On to the Weekend!

It's conferences week here, so tomorrow is a comp day after having worked well over 40 hours already this week.

Tomorrow we are off to the pumpkin patch, weather permitting, for some well earned family fun.
Time to get the camera battery charged and comfy warm clothes laid out for the trip.

It all feels better today.

Time is a wonderful antidote for melancholy.


~~~~~~~~~~

A Day For Wallowing, Apparently

I wonder how many years it will take.
How many years until this time of year doesn't leaving me feeling sad.

The time of year that my friend found out her cancer had returned three years ago. The time of year that my nephew began his fight with leukemia two years ago. The time of year that the wheels fell off, almost literally when I crashed my van into a cement wall leaving the children's hospital. The time of year when I mourned the deaths of two really good friends, both having lost their fights with cancer. The time of year when chaos reigned and I had no choice but to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other. The time of year that I lost a student to a car accident.

The time of year when the weather turns and we are waiting again for spring.

There is so much good now. My nephew, he beat leukemia and is healthy! My kids are great.
We are doing well.

Yet this darkness swells in me. The tears flow.
I can't shake the sadness.

How long until I realize that I am okay. We are okay.
This time of year shouldn't leave me feeling so broken.

Yet it does.

It's times like these I am so grateful for my faith in God.
He is all that holds me up.

I will feel better tomorrow and am thankful for that too.

But tonight. Well tonight it's all a little too real.

Thank goodness tomorrow is another day.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's so STRANGE. I just checked out October of last year, to see if I was feeling this way. And sheesh, I wrote this post on October 11th last year. I have goose bumps. It must be cyclical. Oddly enough, finding that post made me smile. Knowing I was in this boat last year and made it through just fine. Who knew my own blog could be my therapy. Oh wait, I did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Making Her Blush

We pulled up a little early for volleyball practice. It's a school in our district, but not our neighborhood school. New playgrounds are so exciting! I told them they could play for a few minutes before going in.

The boys were there before us, playing basketball. They're older than mine, maybe fourth graders. One boy was standing up on the frame behind the backboard, 10 feet off the ground. I watched them for a while, then told the kids we needed to get going.

As I walked away, saying nothing, I pictured seeing a newspaper article the next day about a local boy getting smooshed after falling off the basketball hoop.

So I said bravely, looking up, "You know what. I'm a teacher and I need to tell you that you shouldn't be up there. If you would fall, it would kill you. I need to you come down safely now and do not get back up there." I wasn't angry. He didn't disagree. His friends laughed at him a little, but he got down. Safely.

I breathed a sigh of relief and felt so much better as we walked away.

I waited to celebrate with my B, she's always Ms. Safety Patrol.

Instead of the high five I was expecting, I got this, "You know what mom. That was actually pretty embarrassing. And you don't even work here!"

That last bit I think she said a little louder so they might hear her disapproval.

Sigh.

I'm still glad I did it.
My daughter just wasn't.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Loss

Goodbye Uncle Melvin.

You will be missed.

You made an impact on my life and for that I will always be grateful.

I will miss being your pen pal.

But I know that we will meet again one day.

Please save me a spot and a popcorn ball.

xo




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11: 25-26

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~