Paige orchestra and Nashville

I think I've mentioned that Paige was moved up to 8th grade orchestra, along with some other 7th grade orchestra students. Her teacher wanted to do Concert Performance Assessment this year, but the groups are so small alone that they really needed to be combined in order to do anything meaningful. After all, Paige is the only bass player in the 7th and 8th grade! So they have been practicing after school on Thursdays. Along with soccer assisting/coaching and rehearsing for the musical, it's a pretty busy life for Paige. 

On Tuesday, Paige got to participate in Pre-CPA which is a practice round where the kids get fully dressed and do their pieces for judges to see where they could improve. Paige was pretty nervous and to be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. This is a group that really hasn't been together for very long at all and the teachers is only in his 2nd year. But I was pleasantly surprised at what I heard! They sounded pretty good to me (an untrained ear) and Patrick thought so too. I'm not sure Paige played with full commitment as she was a bit overwhelmed, but I know she knows what to expect now and with her continued practice she will be great for the real thing next week. By the way, I volunteered to chaperone as I've been on a few of these and know what to expect.

I also finished up with my first Spring classes on Wednesday. It wasn't without incident as I had a student's grandmother pass away that morning and was trying to help her. I also had another student meet with me regarding some mental health issues which I was glad for since we had just talked about it on Monday. Even with all the extras, I was able to give the exams and enter final grades, minus one student who has the flu and can't take his final until Friday. Fortunately, I am not on spring break and have all my stuff lined up for my next classes. 

Patrick has also been busy juggling all the things. He's now in Nashville with NAGB staying at a nice hotel and visiting statues of famous Americans while also hearing from a political idol, Lamar Alexander. He's such a dork, but at least he's my dork. He'll return Friday and then head out the door with Anna on Saturday morning for the first track meet of the season. Now if I could only get Anna to improve from her head cold. At least she got her 1st place trophy for the Hilton Head race in the mail to make her feel better. 

I'll leave you with the best convo that made me smile:

Morgan (my 3 year old niece talking to her mom): Is it Saint....Uncle Patrick's Day?

Jessi: It's not St. Patrick's Day. 

Morgan: Oh, how bout it be Aunt Heather Day?

Jessi: that could work!

I declare February 27th officially as Aunt Heather Day. Great idea Morgan!! Now what kinds of foods and traditions should Aunt Heather Day have.....

Room reno and garden upgrade

What's a Heather without a project?! I've had a bit more time on my hands this week. My class load has been light in terms of grading and my students were at the Expo on Wednesday, meaning I didn't have to teach. I'll be wrapping up with them next week and then I have my Spring Break. That got me thinking about the projects I wanted to tackle while I had the time off. 

First up, the garden. It needed some TLC from wintering relaxation. I removed all the leaves that had gathered and then straightened up some things while also fixing a bed that had gone a little askew. The big thing I'm updating now is the netting. I had some great double layered netting to prevent small animals from getting into it. But last year, the baby rabbits found their way in by chewing through my netting. No matter how many times I repaired it, there was a new hole and nibbled veggies. The girls found my stomping and loud displays of anger rather amusing, but I was not amused in the least. So this year, I've upped my game. After a trip to Lowe's, I got a 20 gauge small wire fencing that I will attach to the garden posts and will dig in under the soil just a bit. If those bunnies get in this time, so help me, I will electrify it. I'll need Patrick's help with this process so stay tuned for the end result. 

My blueberry bushes are blooming, so I am watching them carefully in order to build my boxes to protect them from birds, animals and Teddy. He seems to like licking them at this point. Weirdo! I also did a large leaf blowing which I wish were the end of this process, but there are still leaves on the darn scrub oaks. And as much as I love my azaleas up front, they needed a good prune. I know I cut off a ton of blooms, but they will look great next year. 

I also had the opportunity to be the deliverer of some long awaited goodies I had wanted to get to some special people. Parker is my high school friend's son who attends USC. I've been meaning to get him some homemade pumpkin muffins. So I whipped those up and then headed to Trader Joe's to pick up a fun snack for him as well as two high school friends who I serve on the School Improvement Council with. These two young ladies are the sweetest and I made it my mission to encourage them this year. Also, Anna's math teacher had the WORST week last week with flu that hit his entire family, several ER trips and a dead cat. So a couple of mama's gave me some money and we went in on a gift card and some more Trader Joe's goodies. I was able to deliver all of those in one day AND get to my doctor's appointment. I'd say that was productive and fun!

With a lot of outside chores tackled, I moved on to Paige's room. She's wanting to update her look in there now that she's a teenager. It's been tough for her to lock down what she thinks she wants, but I think we've got a better vision for the space now. I knew no matter what, I wanted to remove her chair rail which I have never liked. So, I did some research and figured out how to remove it without damaging the walls. You have to score it first and then wiggle it free. It definitely takes some arm strength believe it or not. Plus, this chair rail had been secured heavily with long nails that did not come out with the molding. 

So, then I had to figure out how to remove the nails without damaging the drywall. First up, the hammer in one hand and a spackle spatula in the other seemed to work well. The spatula helped to guard against wall damage where the hammer got it's leverage. Of course, some nails in the corner did not fit the hammer and a few of them had lost their heads or snapped while I tried to remove them. Enter the vice grips with the spatula. I used the vice grips to grab the nail and then the spatula was again a protector of the wall as I pried back the nail. I was good until the last two nails which were tiny nubs and gave me the hardest time. But I got them eventually-whew!

Next up was scraping and sanding to get all the extra junk off. I'll need to do some spackling and mudding to get it ready before we paint, but I feel like that was a big part of the job. I even managed to move all the furniture and clean up before I had to go get Paige. She was definitely surprised and I think this might force her to make a decision on paint color. I'm proud of my progress and determination to figure it out. YouTube is a helpful tool and I love learning new things. 

In other news, Anna got her free shoe swag today. So fancy! And I forgot to mention that I had the best time hanging out with these ladies (plus Emily who we didn't get a picture with) last weekend. We closed the Chili's down laughing, talking and catching up. I hate that it took us two years, but it's always a blessing to my soul when we get together. 

Fun with friends

I forgot to mention we got together with some friends for Super Bowl Sunday. It was lots of fun and we even played bingo! There was so much good food and I ended up leaving feeling more than full. Maybe my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach. 

The girls had short week this week. Paige had a half day on Thursday so we went to lunch and to Sams. It was nice to have some time with just her. She's had a tough go of it lately and my heart is broken for her as she works through a deep wound and broken relationship which was no fault of her own. I continue to pray the Lord uses this to draw her closer to Him. 

Both girls had a day off on Friday. Anna got a babysitting job for the day and then another one for the night. I thought it would be fun to take Paige to the zoo so we invited Jonathan to tag along with us. Those two always make me laugh and smile. They named all the animals and pretended to be in State Farm commercials. The zoo was packed as a ton of school districts had a four day weekend and it was Free Friday. But they didn't seem to mind and happily chatted the entire time. 

After the zoo, I took Anna to the DMV and we FINALLY got her license with a waiver that allows her to drive at night. It only took three times because every time we went, they told us some new thing that we needed. Thankfully, it finally got done and now I'm set for another two years before Paige starts driving. 

And then on Friday night, Patrick and I went to a fun little concert at a coffee shop downtown. Our friends, Ashley and Travis, were playing and tons of our other friends were in attendance. It was a fun night out, but I felt a little lame since we were both so tired and hadn't slept well the night before. I'm pretty sure I passed out as soon as we got home. Kinda like Teddy passed out this entire week...

Valentine's Day

After all the celebrating of birthdays lately and being out of town the last two weekends in a row, I was not gung-ho about celebrating V-day in some sort of huge fashion. It was also a work day so it wasn't like I had a bunch of time to whip up special things. Fortunately, I had been picking up a few small things for my people over the last couple of weeks and managed to put those out for them on the table for breakfast. On Tuesday, I had a little bit of time so I painted the girls some original watercolor cards. I didn't even get pics! The day before, I went to breakfast with a friend's daughter who needed a ride to a special event and her mama wasn't able to take her. So, we ate at Chick-fil-A and visited and I picked up some chicken minis to warm up for the girls for breakfast. Done. 

Later that night, I prepared some heart shaped pasta which ended up being less heart shaped when I cooked it. I added some homemade meatballs, sauce and a salad to call it a festive meal. My big finish was dessert. I had purchased double chocolate croissants but missed the one line in the directions that said they needed to sit out to thaw for 9 hours. Ooops! Patrick got us milkshakes instead and Paige went to youth to enjoy brownies. The good news was the croissants were delicious for breakfast this morning. 

There you have it. Valentine's Day. Woot woot. Meanwhile, life goes on and grading and school and work and running and activities and laundry and grocery shopping and basically all the things still have to get done. I find it's better to show the ones you love that you love them throughout the entire year, not just one day. But at least I got a few special things in. Mom/wife win!

Hilton Head Runners

For a LONG while now, Patrick has had it on his bucket list to complete a marathon. He's done a few half marathons, but has always wanted to try his hand at this longer distance. This year he finally plunked down his money on a race in Hilton Head and then started training. He really has done a great job for the last few months making time to do training runs. The girls join him for parts of it in order to get their training in too. I feel like the consistent running has been good for Patrick's mental health and health overall. It really does lower his stress which reduces headaches and other stomach symptoms. It's like this stuff is all related-ha!

Having signed up for the marathon, Patrick checked with the girls to see if they wanted to run in the shorter races. Anna said yes to the half-marathon, thinking a lot of her teammates were going to run it too, but that changed as these things have a tendency to do. So she bumped down to the 5K and Paige agreed to also run the 5K. Since Anna has been training for track, this wasn't a big deal for her. Meanwhile, Paige has taken it upon herself to do her own training after school. She's so diligent and disciplined! Even if she's not feeling it, she still puts in the miles. 

We packed up on Friday and headed down to the beach after school, arriving at the hotel around 8:30. It was a long day for sure and none of us got great sleep, but we were at the start line and ready to go by 8am the next morning. Patrick took off first and we saw him just a couple of times before he left the state park for one loop (half of the marathon). It's an out and back course that he does twice. Because we parked a half mile away and a lot of the course was on a smaller highway, it wasn't ideal to leave and go to different spots to watch him. We just followed him on our phones as he had his location turned on. 

At 8:30, the girls cued up for their race. I told them to both be up front and our expectation was that it would be a smaller race since the marathon would attract a lot more people. Turns out I was wrong and there were nearly 600 people in the 5K! They got boxed in at the start and I cheered for them just a bit away from the start line. Again, it was an out and back so there wasn't much for me to do but wait. Sure enough the first couple of guys around and then I saw Anna off in the distance. I yelled her into the finish line as the first female and 4th overall. Then I waited for Paige. A few ladies came in and then she popped up not far behind. She finished at 18th, 6th female overall, but 2nd in her age division of 19 and under. They were both happy with their results and claimed their end of the race gummy bears with cheer. 

I had to laugh that people around me while I was cheering for the girls were looking very quizzical. Somebody said, "how do you know all the runners?" I said, "I don't! Those two just happen to be mine!" Another guys told me he was really impressed with my girls as I walked by. I guess I might have been That Mom who was cheering/yelling. Ha! That's fine. I totally claim my role as cheerleader, wagon puller and overall organizer of all activities. 

The girls and I posted up to see Patrick again at the half way point. He needed a snack that we were supposed to deliver to him as he came into the state park again. We followed him on the phone and sure enough he showed up about the time he was expecting to. Unfortunately, he didn't look great and was shaking his head no. He walked while eating the snack and then took off again. That's all we knew and could only provide encouragement as he left. 

The girls and I then headed off to the awards which we had just missed. They called the last of the age divisions and then they announced the overall winners again. Woohoo! We got to hear Anna's named called and claimed her prize as well as Paige's prize. Turns out though that Anna got more than a winner's medal. She also would be sent a runners kit from ON, a fancy brand that costs a lot of money. They are sending her shoes, a shirt and shorts! We'll see what turns up when it gets here. 

After that, we claimed some donuts and lemonade as well as a quiet spot along the lake. It was a beautiful day, although I was glad when the clouds settled back in as I knew Patrick would be dying with the warmth and sun. While chilling by the water, we noticed none other than several ALLIGATORS! The runners had no idea they were so close to them because they couldn't see them down by the bank, but we could see them run right past these beasts. Crazy!

Finally, we moved toward the finish line to wait for Patrick. He was still moving and we expected him at a certain time, but the minutes kept ticking. Turns out he hit some major cramping at mile marker 25 and that last mile was 15 minutes. We spotted him and cheered him to the finish line as he limped across, followed closely by a chair to sit in. We were all proud he had accomplished his bucket list item in just over 4 hours. He has decided that for him, anything after 15 miles of running is just not his jam. So I think half marathons and 5Ks are in his future. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent with a quick trip to the beach to fill Anna's bucket. The girls ran around (yes, I know more running) while Patrick and I chilled. Then we headed for a quick trip to Target in order to pick up something Anna needs this week as well as a coffee for me since I was driving home and had only slept 4 broken hours. Ugh. Then we landed at Jim N' Nick's BBQ. I think everybody was so hungry that we devoured everything in sight including some of the most amazing cheesy biscuits. Two and a half hours later, we were home and reunited with Teddy who had spent his 24 hours with best pal, CC. 

We're super proud of our runners and enjoyed our adventurous weekend. I'm also glad that despite having a head cold this week, I didn't get any of them sick. I even managed to grade all 120 mock interviews, teach, go to two school meetings and make arrangements with another playground vendor. No rest for the weary! 

First Fruits Community Park and Garden

I haven't talked much about a new project I'm working on, but I wanted to document this process as I know it will be a multi-year endeavor. A while back somebody mentioned putting a playground on our property at Blythewood Pres. I might have told our pastor something to the effect of: Oh! That's cool! The girls and I went to so many really neat playgrounds up in DC. I bet our church could do something really cool and different that isn't offered around here. I would hate for us to stick another playground that looks the same when we have one right next door at the school. 

Well, that got my name on some sort of invisible list of people who would now make up a playground committee. Ha! That's ok, I don't mind as I enjoy this type of project and was looking for a new way to use my gifts at the church since stepping down as Parish Leaders back in the fall. 

Our first meeting as a group determined that we actually had a lot more questions than answers. I pushed the group to think broader about what our goals were and then we could filter our decisions through those. Finally, we all agreed on some items we just weren't willing to budge on and that resulted in a much larger project than just slapping a playground out there. In fact, we quickly figured out we were out of our league and needed some more advanced planning to come up with something that met the church's overall long-term goals. 

So, we hired a landscape architect who met with us and drew up some amazing plans. The First Fruits Community Park and Garden was born. Our exiting garden used to be a large working farm in which we sold veggies and donated produce to food pantries. That eventually became a community garden in which people could rent plots of prepared soil to plant things in and they would be regularly watered. It's been a successful program, but a lot of the land has gone unused. With our goal of being a church for the community, we wanted to do something a little different that would attract people to come to our property and we could develop relationships with them. Of course, our own people would also use the space too. 

I'm excited about the plan the architect came up with which currently involved a consolidated community garden, playgrounds divided by age, a smaller pavilion we could potentially enclose for year-round use, pickleball courts, signage and sidewalks. We would also add a walking path around the property with exercise equipment for adults. It's all so awesome! And costly! 

With that decided upon and approved by our Session, we broke down into smaller groups. I landed as head of the playground committee. As we began to research what this would look like, it became clear that we knew very little! I've been working hard to gain intel and we've even broached the topic of creating a 501(c)(3) to separate our finances and allow for more public funding to enter. Meanwhile, I'm meeting with playground equipment suppliers to tell them our mission and get quotes/designs. We're vetting two companies right now. 

I have an overall vision and it seems like we are all in unison in our group which is such a blessing. But the specifics are still lost on us as we try to combine accessibility with a natural aesthetic. It's a good thing I'm stubborn and won't give up until we find just the right thing! 

This whole thing really gets my project management wheels and experience turning. I love learning about what I don't know and then seeing that slowly come together overtime as we work together to create an end product. For instance, I don't know much about grant writing, but I have a feeling I'm about to find out! I'm really not sure how any of this will turn out, but I'm trusting the Lord will continue to guide and bless our efforts to be a church for the community. Between this project and being on three School Improvement Councils, I think my hands are pretty full with community projects. Ha Like they say: if you give a mouse a cookie....

Happy 70th Birthday, Gary!

This weekend we ducked out of town early on Friday afternoon to head to TN for the weekend. We were excited to celebrate Gary/Grandpa who turned 70. He had never had a birthday party and we knew that's exactly what we wanted to do for him to celebrate this momentous milestone. The planning started way back last summer when we were all together. Thank goodness for Google Documents where we could share ideas and keep track of what needed to be done/was complete while we went about our lives in separate states. I did most of the prep over Christmas break and stored items in my closet until it was time to go. I used lots of decorations from the XC banquet we threw in the fall and everything came together pretty easy before I started my classes for the term. 

The theme was blue and silver with classy but casual decorations and little touches that would mean something to Gary. We also choose foods that were his favorites and invited close family members that Gary was close to. Because we never knew what the weather would be like in February, we decided to rent the visitor center room at Frozen Head State Park just ten minutes up the road. It was the perfect size and location for people to gather, although I have to admit we had an absolutely beautiful day outside. Who knew it would be 60 and sunny in February! 

Patrick was sweet to gather videos from immediate family members which he put together into one video that we played at the party. It was sweet and funny! We also ate a giant birthday cake that looked exactly like the invitations Paige made. Jessi was sweet to order that so I could pick it up on Saturday morning with the other food. The funniest part was that the blue frosting turned everybody's mouths really blue! 

Mostly we were able to talk, visit and share memories of the Kelly family with all that were there. I don't think I realized the importance of the family reunion aspect of this particular party, but it very much served that purpose. I know that was meaningful for Gary and I'm glad for it. Overall, I know he felt loved and celebrated, the party wasn't over the top and he was able to gather with most of his favorite people. 

While we didn't have much time in TN, I was happy to spend the morning with my sweet nephews and nieces. The weather made for lots of great outside time. The kids found a fallen over tree and asked Grandpa to make a fort out of it which kept them busy raking and sweeping and carrying stones. They had time for go-carts, cow watching, creek walking and generally running amuck before the party. I'm pretty sure this was one of Gary's highlights. 

Because Teddy stayed at home and the party supplies had been used, we were able to fit the stump table Gary made me into the trunk of our car and bring it home. I'm excited to see it in our space! It's going to compliment our other table he made us years ago. 

Now we're back and in another school/work week running full speed ahead. Speaking of running, next weekend we head to Hilton Head Island for the marathon and 5K. I've also got my mock interviews in and am spending lots of time grading. Fun and full weeks!