Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts

Saturday, April 24, 2010

200th Rambling

I will spare you from 101 - 200 of my random thoughts, although some other night I may do that. However, here's what's been happening since the last post.

After being sick so many times with terrible colds and pneumonia over the past couple of years, I finally took Cate to see a pediatric pulminologist. We had an extensive appointment, but it proved to be very educational and we have a new treatment plan. Additionally, Cate was able to get tested for allergies, although I had to pay her back big time for the unexpected blood-draw with a treat from Dairy Queen. Boy, did she milk that cotton swab and band-aid for sympathy!

The kids are very much settled in their own rooms. We moved our room to the basement--our family room is now a master bedroom / rec room / clothes folding room. This move occurred in February (if I recall correctly) and Max's bedtime habits have significantly improved. When the kids were sharing a room, it was a big slumber party every night. Surprisingly, they haven't figured out to run from room to room after we go downstairs for the night.

The winter thaw came in the earliest I think I can ever recall. We had no new snowfall in March and the snow cover was gone by the time spring was officially ushered in. We've been so blessed; I think I will have to remind myself of the one spring we actually got when we have snow on the ground this time next year.

This was the first time that the Easter egg hunt was outside at my parents' house. It hit almost 70 degrees that day. Cate was able to wear her sleeveless dress without her sweater for a good part of the day. It was such a gorgeous day. And yes, we were color coordinated for Easter this year.

Work is interesting these days. It's review time and this year seems to be particularly difficult. I thought last year was tough because we knew in advance we were not receiving any merit increase and our 401K match had been suspended. I don't recall when dental was pulled from us. We still don't have dental and haven't gotten our 401K match back yet. We will get a merit increase if / when we make goal numbers by the end of the fiscal year. Our merit increase should we be eligible for one, will be retro to the beginning of the fiscal year. It's a difficult message to share with my direct reports. But I will do my best to remain positive. Because it can always be much, much worse.


As I type, I've got laundry in rotation while Kyle puts primer on the dining room walls. Mom is coming over tomorrow to help Kyle paint in time to have a beautiful dining room for Max's birthday dinner on Monday.

Max turns 4 on Monday--I can't believe it! He doesn't seem as grown-up as Cate was at four years old. I have the day off so we can have a Mommy and Max day. I'm looking forward to having one special day with my little guy.

I'm sure a lot of other mundane things have been going on in our lives, but I sure can't remember it at the moment. Oh well, if things get interesting or at the very least, I think they're interesting, perhaps you'll see another blog post again in the near future.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter 2008

I am sad to say this year, I didn't attend an Easter Mass for the first time in my entire thirty-four year old life.

Darn Catholic guilt.

Yesterday, Max started getting sick. So I stayed home with the kids and Kyle sang in choir for the two and a half hour Vigil Mass. The Easter Vigil in my mind, is the most wonderful Mass celebrated in the entire church season. In addition to Max being ill, I also chose to stay home partly for selfish reasons--I find no joy in attending Mass right now. We have a sacramental minister priest who is currently assigned to our parish and he really, really enjoys preaching. So the homily is minimum twenty minutes long. I know it's a terrible reason to not find joy in attending Mass, the homily is such a small part of the entire celebration. But, in the past, there have been many a Sunday where I swear the message in the homily was being delivered to me and me alone. Sadly though, I can't remember any of the messages from any of the homilies he has delivered in the past year-plus he has been at our church. I get so distracted, irritated actually, that I can't focus then on the rest of the liturgy.

I did half-heartedly intend to go to another local parish's Sunday 6pm Youth Mass. But as I was online with a dear friend, I noticed the time was already seven past the hour. Shucks.

But, whether or not I went to Mass today, Easter is here...Jesus Christ has Risen Today--Alleluia!

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On a more secular note from Easter celebrations...

This morning, we got our Easter outfits on and headed over to my parents' house for the kids' egg hunt followed by Easter dinner. You can tell in the photo that Max was still feeling a bit punk. It was a laid back occasion. We were the last ones there and the first ones to leave this year, which is quite unusual. We are usually the ones who remain until supper. In addition to Max being sick, Kyle was dealing with a cold as well. I just wanted to get my family home.


This is a photo of all the local "Iverson" grandchildren:

From left to right: Max, Jack (13), Henry (4), Charlie (10), Millie (2-1/2), Nick (11), Cate. Missing: Miles (1-1/2) lives in Houston, TX. We look forward to seeing him this June.



Here's a cute Easter dinner table story. Max is truly coming along with word comprehension. And after each meal, we grab a wipe to clean hands and face. Today, Max got hold of a wipe and wouldn't let anyone help him. So I talked him through it:


"Can you wipe your mouth?" (Max pats his mouth)

"Can you wipe your nose?" (Max dabs his nose)

"Can you wipe your cheeks?" (Max reaches around to his bottom and wipes the butt of his pants)

Apparently, we didn't know that someone refers to his bottom as cheeks or butt-cheeks...

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I got another run in today to keep on task with my 5K training program. Today was a 44 minute run: 10 min walk, 10 min run, 1 min walk, 8 min run, 15 min walk. I started out at the parents' house and it took me 10 minutes to walk down to the lake. Sweet! Then I started my run (jog). I made it around the lake despite the slippery, uneven conditions, so I kept on running all the way home. I finished the 3.32 miles route in 41.29 minutes. I was so pleased!