Resumes, track meets, CPA and oh, yeah...we almost killed the dog

It's been an eventful week. Last weekend Paige and I almost killed Teddy when he got to the raisin bread we accidentally left out. He managed to grab it off of a side table. Did you know raisins and grapes are highly poisonous to dogs? Fortunately, we caught it in time and I managed to get online with a vet pretty quickly. He advised us to give him hydrogen peroxide to elicit vomiting so we could get the raisins out. Well, I didn't have any unexpired hydrogen peroxide so a trip to the close by Dollar General was in order. Of course, they were not functioning in the fastest mode so after telling people I was in a hurry, I managed to get to the front of the line, buy the stuff and get home to make Teddy barf. It worked! There was so much barf and we had to go through it all. So it was barf, sort, wipe, clean, repeat. We did get all of the raisin bread up and then we were supposed to give him 64 capsules of activated charcoal! I had to break the capsules up and put it in something he would eat. This was after having to run out and get it. So I broke all the capsules and mixed it into rice. Yeah, he ate maybe a quarter of it. Paige and I called it a win just as Anna and Patrick walked into the house from a track meet in NC. He's been fine ever since. Whew!

As for track, Anna stunk it up the meet last Saturday in NC. It was a big meet, but she just didn't run well and got a firm talking to from her coach. Anna tried to remind him that he was also her dad, and he replied with: not right now I'm not! She had a home meet on Wednesday and that went much better. She ran the 1600 and was going for a PR of sub 5:30, but she was the lead runner by a lot so that was hard to do. She just coasted in the 3200. Her last meet of the week was actually Friday night, although it was supposed to be Saturday. The rain moved it and it was a quick turnaround from competing just two days earlier. 

To put this in perspective, Anna left the high school Friday morning to go to CPA-Concert Performance Assessment-across town. This is the huge orchestra annual competition and it took all day as there are three groups from their school. Her group got to go first and they did great! They earned a superior which is the highest rating. The other groups earned superior too! After finishing late there, we drove all the way back to the high school to drop off some other kids who needed to return earlier and made it home around 4:45. Anna had a headache and was so tired. She napped for about 30 minutes and then I dropped her at the meet nearby. I warned Patrick she was not in a great mood or even felt like running. 

Well, I guess when she is tired or mad she runs well! I have a feeling it's because she's less in her head. She ran the 1600 at 5:34 and came in 3rd behind two much faster runners. The 3200 took forever to get started because one of our runners broke his leg severely when he ran the 400 and things were just backing up. She finally got to run it at 10:30pm and ended up earning a PR by 2 seconds. Patrick said she looked so good that she could have gone sub 12 on fresh legs. I was actually very surprised considering she was upset about her previous race, tired and it had been a long day. Who knew!? She came home to eat dinner and we all got into bed at midnight. 

It's the lean!

Paige has been a busy bee preparing for her musical in just two weeks. Lots of rehearsals these days. She went to a job fair at school this week and said it was really cool. That makes them mom happy! She was back at coaching her little soccer team this morning and did well despite the rain showers. I swear she's growing because she's always tired. We had a friend over after rehearsals on Tuesday so she could eat dinner with us and head home. It's been nice sharing rides with this friend's mom because we both have times where it's tough to get the girls and we just swap. 

Patrick and I have been working to the max this week. Resumes were due and I managed to edit 80 in 24 hours in addition to working with a private client. Now if only I could get my students to finish the process. This is a very needy group. I also presented about mental health issues in our students to the department heads. They seemed very receptive to hearing about my experiences. I was glad to put some face time in with them and talk about something I'm passionate about. I believe I might be invited back to present to another group. 

Patrick has been doing all the things lately: meeting with law makers, putting out fires, squelching rumors and even putting on a conference this morning. Poor guy had to leave early after getting to bed late last night. We'll make sure he can get some rest this afternoon. 

I'm happy to report all of our plants survived the frosts. I picked up some annuals to spruce up my pots as well as washed the 4 loads of sheets and towels used to cover things. My blueberries are on track to produce good fruit this year and I've got lettuce and snap peas sprouting. It's wonderful to see my garden come to life again! 

And last but not least, I got a chance to do some kitchen planning this week. It was fun to go with Erin to pick out some things for our kitchen reno. We're also sprucing up the main living areas as well. Lots of decisions. Most of them I'm good at, but right now I'm stuck on paint color. It's starting to come together and I'm excited!

Freezing temps, birthday parties and more

Some might call me a crazy plant mom, but I don't care! Because of the warm temps two weeks ago, everything started blooming. Unfortunately, winter wasn't quit done and it decided to freeze over night for three nights. We'll actually have another round of freeze watches in the next few days too! Thank you, March. Not to fear! I basically emptied are our linen closet and covered everything I could. My biggest concern was the blueberry bush which has a great crop of blueberries formed. We lost them last year and I wasn't about to go down that path again. So, I dug out our outdoor Christmas lights and put them over the bush. Then I covered the blueberry box with sheets to make a nice warm greenhouse. It worked! They are doing great. I'm also thankful the girls have been helping me wrangle the azaleas which put out their blooms. I have no idea how they are keeping things together at the Master's course, but here at the Kelly house, we've managed to save them so far. 

When I'm not running around covering and uncovering my babies, I've been teaching. This was my first week back with my new group and it's been good except that I caught a head cold on Tuesday. I almost made it through all three classes on Wednesday, but had a coughing attack in the middle of my third class. Not fun. I'm on the mend now thankfully. 

In between medicating and trying to rest (ha!), I managed to pick up the Kia from the service department. This car has been so crazy! I called last week and could never get a straight answer from them, nor did they return my phone calls. Finally, somebody said it "could probably, maybe, definitely be picked up on Monday because they thought they had fixed it." What they did to fix the problem was anybody's guess. When I finally went to pick it up on Tuesday, their systems were down and it took them 45 minutes to get my key! In between all of this, I was trying to see if the dealership would make me an offer and they lowballed us. So, I returned the rental, picked up the Kia and Patrick got Carvana to make us an offer. We got our new Honda licensed and insured which allowed me to move everything over to the new car that's been in our garage for two weeks. Once that was done, we waited two days before the Kia was picked up by Carvana. Good riddance! It certainly wasn't my first choice to have to spend the money to buy a new car, but I know we all feel better about being done with the Kia. I still don't even know if the brake issue was fixed because I didn't pull it into our garage to see. Part of me just didn't even want to know!

We've also had birthday celebrations this week. Ashley and I celebrated our friend, Megan's, 40th with some cake and presents. Paige got invited to a ballet which I also attended for a friend's birthday and then she'll attend another party today. It's been fun meeting all these friends she keeps talking about and their mamas too. I'm glad to see she has a good friend group. 

And of course, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day! The girls had the day off school. they chilled while I caught up on all the things that got back-burnered while I was sick. I've also been helping a private client so that's been fun. For dinner I made our traditional Colcannon soup, Irish soda bread and mint chip lasagna. Yummy!

Now Patrick and Anna are off to NC for a track meet, while Paige and I hang in town. Anna qualified for the fastest heat in both of her races in this elite meet. That's exciting! She's hoping to PR because she will be running with some FAST girls! And we're off....well maybe not Teddy. 

My Spring Break

It's been really nice to have my Spring Break this past week. Whil everybody was working or going to school, I tackled some things around the house and yard. In fact, most of my time was spent outside getting the garden and yard in shape for the spring. We had warm temps for two weeks at the end of February and everything started blooming. I just hope a night of cold temps this Tuesday doesn't zap all our flowers and fruit. My sweet blueberry bush has put out so many berries, so I'll have to cover her up to make her nice and cozy. I've even told Patrick I might just stretch the heater out there. Ha! The bushes at least have their bird boxes reassembled so the birds don't pick the bushes clean. This was one of the best projects I did a few years ago and I'm still using them!

After many rounds with the leaves, I think I'm finally done collecting them all. I also did a good weeding in most of the beds to get them ready for pine straw. Of course, my favorite outside job is getting the garden prepped for spring planting. After getting out all the leaves, I put in the new soil and added new mulch. It sure spruces the place up. I've planted some lettuce and kale as well as some snap peas. We'll see how they do with this wacky weather. Paige and I might plant out my pots and add a few more verbena to the flower garden this coming weekend when the cold snap passes. 

Other spring break items included getting my classes in order (they start tomorrow), planning out Easter Weekend when we have lots of family in town, doing various things inside the house that I've put off for a bit, running errands and of course managing the regular routines of my people. I got to watch Anna run in a 1600 for their first home meet on Wednesday. I've noticed she's not stepping up to the line with the best mental attitude and I believe this past meet helped kick her into gear. She has the training to do well but is shooting herself in the foot with poor mental readiness. Hopefully, she shows up ready to compete in the next meet this coming Wednesday. 

I was excited to see her perform in her pre-CPA orchestra concert on Thursday. They will do that competition in a couple of weeks and I'm chaperoning. I do love to watch her play and I'm sad that she won't be doing orchestra next year, but I understand the decision. 

Over the weekend, Patrick and I got to go out on a triple date with the Powells and Soongs. It was fun to do an escape room together and then go out to dinner. The kids all hung out and ate pizza while watching a movie. I think they had a blast too. 

And on Saturday, I watched Paige do her coaching thing which was so sweet, even if she had to try and handle a tackler/hitter/not-listener. She's mostly been busy with musical rehearsals which means this mama Uber has been busy. Too bad I kinda forgot to pick her up on Saturday afternoon and ended up being late. Ooops! Anna and I also snuck in some driving practice and we're both getting more comfortable with her behind the wheel. 

So there you have it! Spring Break is over. I'm back to work at USC as well as helping a new client who was referred to me. I only have 6.5 weeks with this next group which feels a lot like a firehose, especially when there are 121 of them and the spring is so busy for us, but I'll wrangle them. I'm also assisting as an admin for the Belize Mission Trip in July. Basically-lots of irons in the fire, but we're full and fun here this spring! Just to make you laugh....here are the girls in my old cheerleading uniforms from middle school. Ha!

Weekend of fun and sports

Well, we are in full spring mode which means full weekends of sports and such. The unusually warm weather has really made it feel like spring too. I'm not quite sure I was ready to do all the yard work yet, but I guess the timing is good considering I finished classes on Wednesday, entered final grades on Thursday, prepped for my next classes on Friday and then started my Spring Break. 

Before I get to our weekend happenings, I have to report on Patrick who was in DC for four days. He left town on Tuesday just hours after we finalized buying a new car. We are ready to sell the Kia, but need to wait for it to be repaired. No luck yet and they don't seem to be in a hurry. Meanwhile, we can't drive the new to us Honda Pilot because we need the license plate. Now worries, I have the Kia rental. It's turning into a car lot around here! So Patrick left to do NAGB things including meeting with the Democrat whip in the Capital Building and Bernie Sanders' office. No Bernie though. He is now a committee chair which meant lots of things for him to do. The girls and I managed all the things (including taking Teddy to the groomer) while here and we were glad to have him return. I just don't think we sleep well when he's gone!

The night he returned, the girls and I headed to see Shrek Jr. which was put on by Blythewood Middle. We had some friends in it and it was fun to watch them perform. I picked up Paige from school after her musical rehearsals at 5:30PM, drove straight to the high school where the show was at, shoveled out homemade pasta dinner to the girls and then we watched the show. I think both of them were about to fall asleep by the time we got home. Anna had been at the school for 12 hours straight! 

Saturday morning was bright and early. I took Paige to BPC soccer where she stepped into her Coach Paige role with her 4 and 5 year olds. I loved being able to visit with all my friends who have kids playing and watching Paige do her thing. At one point a little girl who was upset came up to Paige in a huddle, leaned her head on her side and then Paige reached around and started rubbing her back. It was so sweet and she didn't even think twice about it! She ran the kids around, encouraged them, broke up fights, gave high fives and overall did a great job. I'm super proud of her and her selflessness. 

I got home just in time for Patrick to drive me to the dealership to pick up the Pilot. They spiffed it up for us and I needed to get it from the lot. Patrick and Anna went straight to her first track meet at Lower Richland. It looks like she is focused on running the 1600 and 3200 this year. Paige and I watched her for first race and she came in 5th place in the fast heat, running faster than she had last year. Paige and I left the meet to do a bit of spring shopping and go to the library. She picked out some cute things. I dropped her back off at home and then saw Anna run her 3200 race. She was poised to be 2nd place the entire time and then the girl who was trailing her made a move in the last lap and beat Anna. Overall, she said it was a good first meet and the girls team dominated winning over double the amount of points as the 2nd place team. 

We were all beat Saturday evening! Church, more shopping, studying and prepping for the week ahead occupied our Sunday. I'm going to try and get as much done as I possibly can this week while I have time off. It's going to be pedal to the metal for the next several weeks!