There's Bad News, and There's Good News...

The BAD news is that Madeline has been sick for the last couple of days. Normally she is so active I can hardly keep up with her, but yesterday she literally laid in bed from 10:30 am until 6 pm when I finally made her get up to try to eat some dinner. No luck. She would not even take one bite. Her temperature was up to 102.5 at one point, and I felt so bad for her. After she wouldn't eat dinner I decided to give up and let her go back to bed for the night. We just read some stories on the couch, and then I managed to get her to eat a few bites before she went to sleep early.

This morning she seemed to be doing better; the fever was virtually gone and she was eager to eat breakfast. I considered going to church, even though I had already arranged for a substitute to teach singing, but thought better of it. I was having flashbacks of the last time I took Madeline to church when she had been sick... The minute I sat down in the pew, she threw up everywhere - all over me, herself, the pew, the carpet. And we were visiting family in Utah so I walked through half the church building before I could find the bathroom to clean us up. Well, it is a good thing I opted out of church today. By 11:00 am her fever was back up to 102 and all she wanted was to lay on the couch and read books and then fall asleep. Poor girl. I hope she gets feeling better soon. Good thing I have lots of sugar-free drinks and fruit popsicles on hand.

However, the GOOD news is that it is "officially" less than a week until Joe is here! "Officially" has to be in quotes, because with the Army, nothing is ever official. But I am sooo excited to see him, and spend time with him, and watch him and Madeline playing together. We are into our 11th month since he left, and this break is long overdue. He will be here for 18 days, and I have several fun and exciting things lined up for us to do (though not too many, because I know all he really wants to do is relax with his family). I think I am most looking forward to our romantic getaway that I have planned for us. We are leaving Madeline with someone from church for a couple days and taking off. I can't disclose any details yet, because it is a surprise, but I am STOKED for what I have planned. So, if you don't hear from me for awhile, just know that I am having a fabulous time with my husband, off the grid.

Oh, and don't bother calling me from July 5 until July 24. I'm unavailable. :)

Be a Part of the Solution

Just call me Mary Poppins

At church I have officially been called to the job of my worst nightmare. Primary Chorister. This means that each and every week I get to spend a total of about an hour and 15 minutes teaching the children in our church how to sing songs from our Children's Songbook. Now, for a lot of you, this may not seem like a big deal. Obviously you haven't heard me sing or tried to watch me learn anything having to do with music. The Lord has blessed me with many talents, but music is not on the list.

They asked me if I would take this calling last week, and since then I have been a nervous wreck. I literally could not read music to save my life. Music terms? Forget it. I have no idea how to conduct (for the longest time I didn't even know that was an official procedure - I thought you just waved your arm around during the song and then when it was over you stopped). Being a convert to the church, I know a total of about 2 Primary songs. Admittedly, I am not the worst singer in the world, but don't ask me to sing a solo. All this boils down to me having no idea what I am doing as I stand up there trying to mold and develop these children and help them gain an appreciation for these gospel songs.

Thank God for the internet and the fabulous organization of our church. Turns out there is a whole church website devoted to music. You can download any song from our Hymnbook or the Children's Songbook, and you can either listen to just the music, or the music and the words, and it has the sheet music there so if you are learning to play the song on piano or organ it can help with that too. I guess I can be thankful they didn't call me to play the piano, because that would be a total disaster waiting to happen. Anyway, they also have other resources on this site, including instruction on conducting, with videos and everything.

I also found several other websites that people have put together with ideas for games to play and creative ways to teach the songs and help the children memorize the words. This was such a relief to me. Needless to say, I have spent hours online this past week searching for ideas and playing songs over and over trying to learn them.

The Primary Presidency has been of great assistance too, and they gave me 2 CDs with the songs for this year's program on them - 1 for home, 1 for the car. This CD has practically been playing non-stop, especially in the car.

The good news is, today was my first attempt at it, and I think it went fairly well. I even got a few compliments (although everyone knew I was going crazy so maybe they were pity compliments, but I prefer to think they were sincere).

The way I look at it, I do enjoy a good challenge. And they are only kids; I know they don't care if I screw up conducting or if my voice is not the best. The best part is that I will learn all these children's songs so I can sing them with my kids at home. I always want to sing the Primary songs with Madeline, and she loves singing, so we literally sing the same 2 songs, every single day.

All in all, now that I have one round under my belt, I guess it's not so bad. I'll be Julie Andrews in no time.

Run for Hope... Save Darfur

This past Saturday Madeline and I participated in a run/walk put on at a local school to benefit the victims in Darfur. We opted to run the 1 mile race, and actually ended up coming in first for females 15-25. Madeline also came in first for participants under 2 - in fact, she beat me! The weather was nice and we had a good time, even coming away with a valuable participants ribbon and a t-shirt.

Here's the proof:

In case you are unfamiliar with the situation in Darfur, I have included some excerpts from the pamphlet the students put out:

After the Holocaust, the nations of the world agreed that “never again” would a genocide occur, that being the most terrible of all crimes. However, it has occurred.. “again and again.” Darfur, a region in the Western Sudan of Africa, has been labeled the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded in 2003 that genocide has been committed in Darfur.

Here are some startling statistics:

o Since February of 2003, over 500,000 people have been killed and 2 million have been forced from their homes.

o There are only 12 refugee camps to shelter near 230,000 refugees.

o Only 40% of the people living in Darfurhave adequate sanitation.

For more information visit http://www.savedarfur.org/ or http://www.millionvoicesfordarfur.org/

Big Girl Bed

Since I had no idea how to set up Madeline's crib when we returned home, I made the executive decision to move her up to a toddler bed. This is yet another step that has forced me to come to terms with the fact that my precious baby is now a full-blown toddler (although still precious if you ask me). She was so excited when we went to pick it up, and all the way home I heard "Bed! Bed!" floating up from the back seat. She helped me push it into place in her room, all the while giggling and bursting with excitement. I think it was the right decision; she has done so well sleeping in it. She loves feeling like a big girl, and when she is not sleeping in it, inevitably one of her babies is tired so she has to tuck it in with a "Night night" and a kiss... then I usually get to kiss the baby too before we can move on.

Home Sweet Home

We made it back to New York safely, and I have to say I am so glad to be back. I had really mixed feelings about returning to New York because I had a wonderful time in Washington with all of our family and friends, but it sure is nice to be home. I had forgotten how much I really love northern New York. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to miss the 10 feet of snow and -20 degree weather, but I can't say a whole lot for the congestion of western Washington either. It is great to be back out in the country with all the beautiful scenery and the fresh air. It is amazing how different the "feel" is out here. Of course, being in the boonies has a different feel all to itself, but there is something to be said about neighborhoods where no 2 houses look the same and everything is so established with tremendous amounts of history.