a blended life

In case I haven't talked to you recently, here is some updated news on my life: I was one recital short of a bachelor's degree in piano, which I've been spending copious amounts of time working on. I'll be doing my recital at the end of April...and while I'm on the subject, you are all invited to Logan to hear it :). I've decided to extend my degree a bit to include a Spanish teaching minor. I am taking a few extra classes this semester and some more in the summer and fall, so final graduation date will be in December. I'll be getting a secondary education teaching licensure *sometime* hopefully this year. My ultimate goal is to get a master's degree (probably in ESL or special ed) and teach middle school. This was a HUGE decision for me to make because it meant giving up a lot of dreams and pursuing something totally different. It makes sense, it feels right, and I'm really excited. I am doing it mainly for my kids, so they can have a secure, reliab...

The produce guy at the store said to me "If we didn't have Mondays, Tuesday would be a horrible day." I guess we have to have one rough day a week, right? I'm a little blue today, so I thought I'd write about something that made me happy-our most recent trip to Logan to celebrate Sam's birthday. We left Saturday morning and our first stop was the Riley house. Trisha has been my friend since I first moved to Logan 8 years ago, when we were both childless and still newlyweds. She introduced me to Harry Potter (I don't think she knows that!) so I hold her in high esteem. Here's Dahlia, her one month old baby girl, sleeping on my lap. And then waking up... We headed to the Walker house to spend some time with Sam. He turned 9 yesterday! We ate a Golden Corral, so here's Sam lovin' it: Leah hiding under the table. She had to go #2 and is scared of public toilets (because they're loud). She said "Don't worry mom. I pushed it back in....

I've started so many new posts that I haven't put on this blog this past few weeks and I've finally realized why-I'm having a hard time balancing being very superficial about my life with "TMI, dude." In other words, I want to be open about what's going on and how we're really doing, but I know that can make people uncomfortable. It's also not in my nature to sugar coat reality or pussyfoot around issues (and I know some of you just LOVE that about me!). Here's the thing about being separated as opposed to divorced or married: no one knows what the rules are. When you are married, you spend the holidays together. When you are divorced, you don't. What do you do if you're separated, you have kids and your spouse doesn't have family in the area? And you are tyring to orchestrate a holiday without awkwardness? I finally came to the solution- lower your expectations. Not every Christmas can be The Best Ever, right? So the schedule looke...

Here's a few pics of Hannah. I feel like turd right now-we are all sharing a lovely cold-so this will be short and a little dry. Hannah spends her mornings with Grandma while I practice for my recital. The arrangement is working out well-I am getting a lot done and Hannah is very attached to her 'gamma'. She got to sit on dad's lap during Leah's school program. Hannah takes a while to warm up to people, but once she decides she likes you, you are IT. I took the girls to the Festival of Trees-a fundraiser for Primary Children's Hospital. Families donate these trees, usually in honor of a child or loved one who has died. My favorite was a tree decorated in cowboy gear, for a little baby boy that passed away. A sign next to it said "Heroes aren't supposed to die." *sniffle* This picture is of Hannah's favorite tree (because it's orange, one of her favorite colors). Hannah wants to be just like her big sister. She keeps asking when she can go...

This post will be mostly about Leah, because she's providing the most interesting material these days. If someone reminds me I'll do a post about Hannah in the next day or two. *DAILY PONTIFICATORY MOMENT* They way I see it, there are different levels of interest regarding stories about other people's kids. Level One: The Grandma Level. Interest is high and they never get sick of pictures, stories, daily anecdotes, etc. Level Two: The Distant Cousin Level. Interest can be high if the story is good enough, but usually the listener is feigning interest and only wants occasional pictures and updates. Level Three: The Sean Day Level. No interest, and you can't even feign interest. Most people have enough tact to stay out of this category. There might be sublevels, too, but I don't have the patience to get into that. Okay, having said that, here is what Leah is up to lately: She decided that Hannah was no longer allowed in 'her' room (a broad term since Leah is s...

I'm having the same problem with blogging that I usually have with journal writing-I get behind and I don't want to take the time to revisit the past, so I don't do anything. Now that I said that in writing, it sounds really lame. So I'll start with what happened today, and if by some miracle I get post some pictures of previous events and whatnot...well, let's not get too excited. I'm one day at a time right now. So here's a small itinerary of how my Tuesday, December 8th looked: 5:00 am - Up with Hannah 6:00 am- Hannah asleep, up with Leah 9:00 am- schlep through a foot of snow to practice the piano at the church 10:30 am - leave church, previous tracks covered up with new snow 11:15 am- Piano lesson in north Provo 12:30 pm - Van stuck in piano teacher's driveway, in between an Audi and a hoity toity wrought iron fence. 1:00 pm - Get pushed out of sticky situation by two strange guys, run errands 1:30 pm- Van dies at Toys R Us. Get jumped by a strange ...

Hold your applause, but....I've decided to start blogging again. The past few months have a been slightly to moderately turbulent, but I love having a place to write down what's going on in an impersonal, candid and sometimes overdivulgent way. So here it is. Again. Rather that recap the past few months of pictures and events, I think I'll just start with Thanksgiving since it's recent and besides, who doesn't have some stories when family gatherings happen? This year was sort of monumental--ALL of my siblings and their families came. We had a surprise 40th anniversary party for my parents, who will celebrate 40 years on December 13. Okay, sort of a surprise since Mom sniffed out some info about it from someone's wall on Facebook.