One of those major things in life is happening that I have not written about it in the virtual world about yet because electronic messages can sometimes get in the wrong hands at the wrong time. As far as I know, all of my i's are dotted and my t's are crossed and it's time to tell the world! Our family has decided that the best situation right now is for me to be a Stay At Home Mom and not a "Mostly Stay At Home Mom". My official last day after 15 years is October 9th.
In my head there is a long blog post coming about what I will miss and what I won't miss. God is showing me how those needs that fall under the "will miss" part will be fulfilled in other means that don't include a publicly traded software company in the health care sector. It's really great to be leaving on good terms and not on a sour note at all. I've taken two years to transition from full-time to SAHM and the time is coming near. Next Thursday after our yearly Town Hall, my network access will be gone, my cell phone won't work anymore and my identify will not be as an associate.
Off to fulfill those other duties that will be coming on strong - Den leader for a Cub Scout Pack!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Ike in Missouri
The remnants of Ike ventured through Missouri Sunday morning! I was able to take full appreciation of what was left of the storm with wind and rain because I was running in the Lewis and Clark Half Marathon! Yes, while Ike was rumbling though the St. Louis area a bunch of crazy people including me and my friend Nikki were out running in it! For those of you who have been to races before, this was way different. Because of the storm is was darker than normal at 6am when we arrived to be dropped off. (Todd was a little apprehensive about us getting out of the car, but he wished us well and hung around for awhile in the car just to make sure.)
You can't put up banners and those nice balloon arches in 20 mph winds and driving rain and expect them to stay. The normal sound systems that would be used to communicate to 5,000 people don't quite work in those weather conditions either. Everything was very unassuming all around us with most people wearing trash bags. We honestly had no idea where the starting line actually was until we were there, we were a herd of people lining up (there were pace signs so we knew that we were somewhat in the right place.). There wasn't even a clock at the starting line that we could see. You will often see people wearing trash bags before a race to keep them warm to be discarded at the starting line. In this race, most people kept them on. I had a rain coat and a hat so I didn't do the trash bag thing but was still easily soaked through after a couple of minutes outside.
The first mile was pretty much into the wind and rain and running by cars with people who hadn't made it the starting line yet. I mostly remember feeling it pounding on my lips and some wind gusts that felt like I wasn't moving forward. When we were running with the rain it was quite bearable especially after being soaked completely already. The temperature was about 70 which wasn't bad because we were moving. We changed directions quite a few times through the course and so we were with and against the rain off and on and exposed and sheltered from it. It was very much about putting one foot in front of the other. The people manning the aid stations were wonderful mostly because of their cheers! I didn't know the course well enough to know that we were cutting off three miles because that loop was getting flooded by the greater amount of rain fall than we expected (about 5 inches in a couple of hours). They cut everyone (marathoners and 1/2 marathoners) off at 10 miles because of flooding and other deteriorating conditions.
It was kind of disappointing to not do a complete race, but because of the conditions, we have more of a story than a running race on a nice late summer day! The race was scheduled to start at 6:45. We started late and we finished after running about an hour and a half. By the time that we showered, there were sunny skies and it was a very pleasant day and Ike had moved on to visit my family in Ohio! So, we didn't have a full fledged hurricane force storm, but we did have a named storm here in the middle of the country during a memorable moment! I'm sorry that my cousins weren't here to experience it all with me! Hopefully our next race will be much better weather or another experience to share!
Some pictures of me are here. http://www.backprint.com/go.asp?38298957
Some great u-tube coverage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63jy8ihP0xc showing the conditions when we were getting out of the car!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Yet another...why we homeschool
We started home schooling a little over a year ago. It was not in the master plan at all, but it ended up being the right decision for us at the time. The year was good so we have decided to go for it again this year.
There was really one reasons that we chose this route over public or private school - his reading level was slightly above anything that the classrooms were ready to deal with and we didn't want him to learn to be complacent in his learning.
After making this decision, there have been more and more reasons as to why this continues to be a good decision for us right now. I was forwarded this article that I found interesting. http://www.newsweek.com/id/157898/page/1 "The parents of nearly one of every five boys in the United States were concerned enough about what they saw as their sons' emotional or behavioral problems that they consulted a doctor or a health-care professional."
Since we have not been in the school system, I cannot comment on how we would deal with the situation. I do think that I agree with the author that the kids need time to play. We get together with other families frequently and our boys still love to play together. It's really wonderful to see 7 boys out running around in a yard with some made-up game that they are playing!
On a day to day basis, we definitely have more play time at our house than school time. I honestly cannot imagine that we could do the number of things that we do if school was an all day thing. I applaud our neighbors that do send their children to school for limiting the number of activities that their children can be involved in so they can have more unstructured and family time.
There was really one reasons that we chose this route over public or private school - his reading level was slightly above anything that the classrooms were ready to deal with and we didn't want him to learn to be complacent in his learning.
After making this decision, there have been more and more reasons as to why this continues to be a good decision for us right now. I was forwarded this article that I found interesting. http://www.newsweek.com/id/157898/page/1 "The parents of nearly one of every five boys in the United States were concerned enough about what they saw as their sons' emotional or behavioral problems that they consulted a doctor or a health-care professional."
Since we have not been in the school system, I cannot comment on how we would deal with the situation. I do think that I agree with the author that the kids need time to play. We get together with other families frequently and our boys still love to play together. It's really wonderful to see 7 boys out running around in a yard with some made-up game that they are playing!
On a day to day basis, we definitely have more play time at our house than school time. I honestly cannot imagine that we could do the number of things that we do if school was an all day thing. I applaud our neighbors that do send their children to school for limiting the number of activities that their children can be involved in so they can have more unstructured and family time.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
A Lovely 15 years
Not marriage yet, but years with my current employer! It was a month ago that I passed this milestone and at Cerner the longevity is reason for celebration. About the time of my anniversary I received an e-mail that asked if I wanted a surprise or if I wanted the details. Being that I like surprises, I passed along my husband's contact information.
He set Friday night at "the night" for the big event. I knew a little, but was excited about what the evening was to hold. My little guy runs in the house as I was getting ready and said your "Stop" was here. I still don't know what he meant, but this was waiting for me...
As I finished getting ready, the neighborhood kids were taken for a spin but then it was our turn. Next we to a friend's place. Before heading one we went into their house where I was presented with gifts from Cerner that my husband chose. My first gift was a new suitcase. I was in need a of a new one of those because the ball bearings on my current one are shot and the wheels are really loud!
My next gift was a major splurge! An Automatic Composter! Yes, we are gadget people and this is a green gadget!
We then went to Sybil's for dinner and had a lovely evening - a nice bottle of wine, spinach artichoke dip, gnocchi and peanut butter pie. There was enough time left on the limo that he even took the babysitter home in style.
I am very appreciative of my 15 years at Cerner. It's been a great career and afforded me experiences that I could not have imagined. It was a very nice evening to celebrate my anniversary!
He set Friday night at "the night" for the big event. I knew a little, but was excited about what the evening was to hold. My little guy runs in the house as I was getting ready and said your "Stop" was here. I still don't know what he meant, but this was waiting for me...
As I finished getting ready, the neighborhood kids were taken for a spin but then it was our turn. Next we to a friend's place. Before heading one we went into their house where I was presented with gifts from Cerner that my husband chose. My first gift was a new suitcase. I was in need a of a new one of those because the ball bearings on my current one are shot and the wheels are really loud!My next gift was a major splurge! An Automatic Composter! Yes, we are gadget people and this is a green gadget!
We then went to Sybil's for dinner and had a lovely evening - a nice bottle of wine, spinach artichoke dip, gnocchi and peanut butter pie. There was enough time left on the limo that he even took the babysitter home in style.
I am very appreciative of my 15 years at Cerner. It's been a great career and afforded me experiences that I could not have imagined. It was a very nice evening to celebrate my anniversary!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Mmmm Apples
We were invited on Friday to pick apples with our dairy farmer!
I said that I wanted a lot of them and I came home with a bunch after picking for a little more than an hour.
Last night we washed about half of them. We quartered apples until we had filled our largest four pots that we own (large pressure cooker, small pressure cooker, spaghetti cooker/stock pot, and a regular dutch oven). After cooking them down, we ended up with about 3 gallons of applesauce. It's in the frig this morning waiting to be canned for enjoyment for the next year.
Our three gallons of applesauce is about 1/3 of the apples that we picked!
This morning will be canning the apple sauce and making fillings for apple pies. It will be an apply fall for us!
I said that I wanted a lot of them and I came home with a bunch after picking for a little more than an hour.
Last night we washed about half of them. We quartered apples until we had filled our largest four pots that we own (large pressure cooker, small pressure cooker, spaghetti cooker/stock pot, and a regular dutch oven). After cooking them down, we ended up with about 3 gallons of applesauce. It's in the frig this morning waiting to be canned for enjoyment for the next year.
Our three gallons of applesauce is about 1/3 of the apples that we picked!
This morning will be canning the apple sauce and making fillings for apple pies. It will be an apply fall for us!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)