Organization

Spent some time today cleaning the kitchen in preparation for our little fish fry tomorrow! 

My biggest goal was to get all my new pampered chef stuff put away and find it homes! I succeeded! We have an ok size kitchen, with a fair amount of storage but some of it is slightly unusuable. (High shelves, corner cabinets) but I am happy to say that for the first time in far too long I removed everything and started over. Now just to see how long it all lasts!!

Weekends don't get much better!

Well one thing is for sure, I am bad about writing daily during the weekends. But yet again another great weekend with friends. I feel like I am getting repetitive! So I will try to focus on some newer topics. 

Friday, I had an indoor workout planned with the girls, but we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and do a run outside first. I am thankful for sunshine!! Friday was one of those "glorious" spring days! Weather was up to 45, sun was shining! It was a great change to the cold cloudy days we have had so much of. (Personally I love winter, but I won't complain about warmer weather either!)

Saturday, after a tough swim practice, I headed to a new brunch place. I am thankful for where I live. I absolutely love living on the west side of Cleveland. There is always stuff going on (saw the irish band Gaelic storm later that night) and there are endless options for GREAT food! This brunch took us to the new "jack flaps" which as the name may suggest, specializes in pancakes (and wonderful waffles). I am lucky enough to have great friends who share their food so we all got to sample a little of each other's choices! So good!!

Today was a swim meet and house stuff. Meet went well, got to travel there with the same girls I spent all weekend with, and we cheered each other on. We all did respectably and were super supportive of each other no matter whether the race was a personal best or not! Came home to relax and meal plan for the week. 

Today I am thankful for my new kitchen gadgets from pampered chef! From the party I hosted 2 weeks ago, I scored some great stuff, and got to use it for the first time tonight. Loving my deep covered baker and garlic press!! Can't wait to make some awesome meals! 

This week is promising to be busy, but hopefully rewarding!

change of pace

Today I had the first day all week I could relax after work. Went to walk my friends dog, and then came home to have some dinner and lo and behold, a NAP! A glorious nap!! I haven't had one of those in weeks! Things have been so non stop for a while now. And next week will probably be similar. Luckily spring break is only 2 more weeks away! Today I am thankful for a different day. For a day that was not as crazy as some of the days I've had. For a split second tonight, I even debated on going to swimming. But once I really woke up, I realized "of course i need to go to swimming!" What made swim practice even better... we played a little modified Water Polo! We did a workout for the first 30 min or so, then the coach invited anyone who wanted to, to play some polo in the dive pool. Now, I know very little about the rules, but I get the basics, and we just play for fun, so of course I was one of the first people to switch pools. It's fun to change it up at practice once in a while! I was also able to get some advice from one of our coaches on an event I am swimming sunday at a meet, that is not a normal event for me. So hopefully I can make him happy! As long as I finish respectably, I will make myself happy!

Family dinners

I had all intention of catching up 100% last night on the blog, but I think I might have actually fallen asleep WHILE typing on my phone! Oops!! We had a visit from one of Corey's brothers. We haven't seen him in over a year, and he was in town for work. We went to one of my favorite restaurants for some great food and beer, then headed to a nearby bar for a bit. Although it was a late night, it was wonderful catching up with him. It makes me realize how important family and friends are. Even as I am typing this, I am realizing that so many of my posts this year have been about family and friends. Having those people near and far, sometimes next door, sometimes a phone call away can make all the difference. I have been pretty fortunate to be fairly close to my own extended family. Uncles and Aunts, cousins and beyond have been a fairly large part of my growing up. And when I lost my mom 2 years ago some of those family members became even more important to me! I also am glad that I get along with corey's family. From day one, his parents and brother seemed to like me, and we have had good times, even if its not often.

The highlight of today was signing up and starting the plans for a girls weekend in Chicago for a 5k swim! I have met some incredible girls from swimming, and we have started to really enjoy time together. Even just this weekend we have some great workouts, eating and a swim meet planned! Along with my family, these friends have helped keep me sane! Just when I thought I was going to fall asleep during a staff meeting, I rallied and hit the pool with these girls, and finished the night out with a great workout!! Can't wait to travel with them this summer!!

Busy days make me tired

I have been lazy in posting, mostly because I have collapsed into bed each night and not remembered till the next morning that I did not post. And at that time, I am usually driving and can't do anything about it! So although my goal was not to do this, I am gonna combine a few days into one post.

Sunday: during the day, I helped Corey finish his ice shanty. We endeded up having more work to do than we thought. In a way, I am thankful for the island life. When we weren't sure about our finish time, I was able to text message the airplane pilots wife and see about a later flight. Only on PIB are plane flights that easy to schedule!! She was able to bump us back 30 min and we had just enough time to pack and relax before heading home! 

Monday: made it through a school day pretty uneventfully. I feel like in order to point out a happy/thankful moment I need to explain that I really dislike lunch duty first. Now, this is not about the complaint, I recognize it's something I can't change, but I hate the loudness, the unstructured environment. On the plus side, I deal with 6-8th graders so ours is maybe a little more controlled than others, but I feel we rule with iron fists in order to keep our sanity. So.... My thankful thought is yet again about my students. To be specific, my band students. Often times when lunch duty ends I am in an awful mood, but lately, 15 min later when my class strolls on, I an able to push away the bad mood! My students help me keep my sanity after I feel like I am losing my mind after the loud lunch duty. So thank you students for helping me!

Ice shanty construction

I am not exactly the most handy person when it comes to building things, but I can get around a workshop and measure, hold, pass whatever may be needed. Corey is working on an ice shanty. So he enlisted my help this weekend. Although I probably spent more time being frustrated all of Saturday. I am trying to find the positive. So my result is that I am thankful I can be handy enough to help out when needed. I stay away from the circular saw, but at least I can help in other ways. 

Dads birthday

Friday was my fathers 73rd birthday. So I came up to the island to visit him. I believe it's his first birthday ever on this tiny island! Arrived in the evening and Corey was working on his ice shanty. But I was able to sit down and have a casual nice dinner with dad. It's nice that he enjoys cooking and is excited when he has people to cook for. If you know me well, you know that I take any good days with my dad! He and I have gone through a lot losing my mom almost 2 years ago. And I think we have learned how to best put up with each other! :-) I am thankful for those moments where I can just sit and relax with him. Unfortunatly, due to Corey's ice shanty project, I didn't get to hang out with dad as much as possible. I was needed to help with construction.