Zippidy Doo Dah!

Zippidy Ay! Today was Solo and Ensemble contest, and praise the Lord, its over!!! I have not ever gone into this contest filled with apathy like I did today! But in true form, our students rose above my fatigue and just did GREAT! We had 21 students qualify for State Solo and Ensemble in May. Yee Haw! So, while I am very proud of them, I more excited about the next 6 weeks. I DON'T HAVE TO TEACH A LESSON FOR 6 WEEKS!!! During that time, I get a professional 'vacation' with Jared to San Antonio and a trip to New York. Its gonna be a great break. You all know how much I LOVE my job and my students, but I am SO excited to be able to be at home with my family in time for dinner each night...let's be honest, I'll be home by 4:30 with time for a nap! So, hopefully, I'll have time to hook up my camera now and finally upload those Christmas pictures! Happy Super Bowl weekend, all! Go Cardinals!!!

Whole New Generation

Jakob is still running a slight fever, so I took him to work with me yet again. While I was working at the computer, he looked up at me and asked very politely, "Mommy, go to playhouse disney dot com, please." I kid you not...that is EXACTLY what he said. I laughed so hard!

Its bAAAAAA-AAACK!

Well, the fever has returned this afternoon, high as ever. I am about to hurt someone or something if this stuff does not follow orders and GET OUT OF MY SON!!! I am kind of a grammar nerd. I don't like spelling, and I don't always follow all of the rules, but it bothers me when people use the wrong part of speech or incorrect punctuation. So, it made my entire day when Jakob just looked up at me through those all-too-familiar feverish eyes and said to me, "Mommy, I feel badly." Look at the adverb usage! Atta boy!!!

Downhill?

Well, Liz came to the rescue again! Jared got in touch with her yesterday, where she was on-call at the hospital where, in fact, lots of toddlers were being checked in with this awful stuff! Fantastic! As of today, we are on the mend, I think! Last night he slept better until about 3, and then all hell broke loose. Sorry if that's crude, but there is no better word for it! Jakob couldn't open his eyes and panicked, absolutely panicked. He stumbled into our room freaking out, trying to pry his eyes open with his sweet little hands. It was horrible. After holding him down while I let the warm rag lay on his eyes to loosen the goo so I could wipe it away, we gave him yet more medicine on the 4 hour regimen of Motrin/Tylenol for the fever that just will NOT go away! Jakob eased up on the crying long enough to ask us to pray to Jesus. It melted my heart. I had either a sleep-deprived or pregnant moment and lost it. I sobbed like a fool in our bed as we asked Jesus to take away the eye boogers for good. Jakob has had a much better day, with only minor hiccups here and there. His fever has come back up tonight, but I'm hoping and praying that is just the toddler way! He has said some incredibly cute moments through all of this. During one of the dreading eye-wiping sagas, he looked up at me through tears and said, "You're sweet, mommy." Break my heart! Tonight, he asked if we could have ice cream for dinner, so we went straight to Baskin Robbins, sat in the corner, and enjoyed good ole waffle bowls and ice cream for dinner! Anyway, please keep him in your prayers if you've been praying for us. We have felt them and still cherish them. Good night, all!

Quarantine

What a week!? (I wonder if I looked back over my posts, how many would start with that sentence!?) You know, last week we all had the stomach junk for 24 hours a piece. Frustrating, but predictable, right?! This week, however, totally different story. Before I continue, you must know that Jakob has been the most well baby. He has not even had an ear infection. The only antibiotic he has ever been on was for thrush when he was nursing. So, we aren't accustomed to dove-tailed sickness around here. We have Solo and Ensemble contest next weekend, which I am in charge of at good ole FHS. While a much shorter process than the All-State game, it involves MANY more kids, and I am one of two accompanists. We have had three weeks to prepare over 70 kids to perform and compete individually next Saturday. Work is a must right now. On Thursday morning, though, Jakob felt warm to me. Nothing crazy, just a little on the flushed side of things. I decided he shouldn't go to PDO that day, no matter how minor the fever was. So, I took the morning off, prepared to go in at normal choir time. By choir, Jakob's fever had spiked, and he was showing all signs of going downhill, fast. I took him anyway to the high school, where he slept in my office throughout choir...not normal. Thursday night, his fever spiked to just over 103, which, of course, made my heart stop. We decided that if the fever didn't come down after all of our 'tricks,' we would be making a trip to the ER. Praise God, it did come down with more Motrin and warm water baths. Needless to say, not much sleep has been going on around here. Yesterday, he was still running fever, and his eyes had begun to 'weep.' After another day of Motrin around the clock, we settled at home yesterday afternoon, where Jakob just was not himself. His eyes got worse and worse, finally matting shut with swelling to boot! He looks like he has been in a great fight, and mopes around asking us to fix his eyes. We have learned that at least 4 others that were in his Sunday School class on Sunday each started with the fever and such on Thursday. Yee Haw. Problem: I just assumed it was a weird toddler thing that he was running fever. Surely it would be gone within 24 hours, right?! Wrong!!! We are now over 72 hours into this thing...still with fever and nasty eyes. So, I didn't get him to Dr. Liz before I realized this might be more that just a fever. Jared may stalk you tomorrow at church, Liz, if we don't call you first! These are the hard times people warn you of, when your work responsibilities take a serious back seat to your child. So, our scores may really stink next weekend, but hopefully Jakob will be well! Hope your week was great and that your weekend is better!

Just curious...

Did you know that if you make and butter a piece of cinnamon/raisin toast on one morning, and leave it, uneaten, next to your bed until the next day, (I know, I'm disgusting, but that's not the point right now!) it will smell like incredibly strong beer? Well, it does, and I'm not liking it so much. Happy Monday evening!

Too big for his britches!

Our friend, Jared, has these great boots that Jakob is pretty infatuated with. Last night as Kristin and I were leaving for a pedicure, Jakob donned the boots, which came so close to giving him diaper wedgie like no other! So funny!

Groundhog Day!

I know that Groundhog Day isn't until February, but it certainly feels like Bill Murray's Groundhog Day around here! I mentioned in my last post that one of students got sick in Abilene on Saturday morning. She learned that her dad had been sick the morning before. When we got Jakob home on Sunday, he acted great! Then, he woke up around 12:30 puking everywhere...it was absolutely disgusting. Jared and I cleaned it up in shifts, depending on whose stomach was strongest at the moment! We figured he had just eaten way too much that day because he had no fever, hadn't acted funny, and went right back to sleep. So, we were careful to wash our hands really well, and went back to sleep ourselves. Wednesday, Jared felt great until about 2:00. He called me at work to let me know he had just started throwing up. So, in true form, he was on the couch when I got home. Poor thing. He felt awful. I didn't feel great on Wednesday, but figured it was just pregnancy stuff. However, as the night went on, I began to wonder! Lo and behold, around 3 am, it was my turn. Seriously, this is ridiculous. We are generally a very well family, luckily skipping things like flu and stomach bugs that fly through the air! Not this year. Oh well. Jakob is CERTAINLY feeling better. Jared is doing well today, and I am going to put one foot in front of the other! Here's to a better day tomorrow.

still alive...

Well, believe it or not, I am still with the living. We had our final audition in the All-State process this past weekend, and I could not be happier to have it all over with for one more year! By now, you all know that I tend to get entirely too involved with my students and their successes or failures. It floors me when they are hurt from this process. I guess it comes when you spend so much time working on something so distinctly personal. The biggest difference between the voice and any other instrument is that your voice resides within you. You can't really blame it on a sticking key or valve or whatever. If there is a problem, it is so hard to just have to admit, "They're better." The great news is that we had more kids make it this far than we have ever had before! The problem with that: guaranteed more heartbreak! We are SO proud to have three students make the choir!!!!

Denisha, 6th Chair, Alto 2

Kandra, 10th Chair, Alto 2

Kashif, 7th Chair, Bass 1

WooHoo!!! Denisha and Kashif are both seniors and had never made the choir before. It was such a great moment to see them succeed and all their hard work pay off! We also had 4 alternates to the choir! This is the greatest number of students placing in the final audition that Frenship has ever had!

Namanda, 1st alternate, Alto 2

Molly, 2nd alternate, Alto 2

Brooke, 2nd alternate, Soprano 2

Kelsie, 2nd alternate, Soprano 1

As proud as we are of these four, there is no harder place to land in the end than just outside of the choir. SO hard! You know, this year, our kids had a lot to overcome through the end of this process. Without gory details, one of our student's brothers was paralyzed from the neck down week before last. A junior at our high school, a friend of several of our juniors, was killed in a car accident week before last. A 12 year old family friend was removed from life support the morning of the audition. Our hopeful 4-year all-stater woke up vomiting the morning of the audition. You can imagine what stomach acids do to your voice. I say all of that to say this: I could not be more proud of my students. They teach me new things all of the time. This weekend, I saw first hand perseverance, dignity, teamwork, pride, and class. They ALL have made me so incredibly proud this season. I really do have the greatest job in the world with the greatest students. I wouldn't trade you guys...

Behind is my middle name!

Wow. I am behind on the blogging...way behind! I have great pictures to share with all of you from our most fun Christmas ever! However, I haven't unpacked yet from our trip, so I don't know where my camera is! That's right...the trip we returned from 2 weeks ago. I've decided to just let the suitcase sit until it is empty! Our Christmas decorations are also still decking our halls. I probably won't be bringing them down until after this weekend, at least! Who knows? It may be later! Our final audition in the All-State process is this weekend. We have 14 students in this final audition. They are all working so hard this week to put the final polish on their pieces. Scratch that. WE are working so hard! I have done roughly 30 lessons since Monday. I'm tired. I love it though. I love them, and I am so proud. Here's to hoping that they are incredibly successful! They are up against some incredibly tough competition. If you think about them on Saturday, pray for still nerves and strong voices!

Jakob has had a pretty funny vacation. He is continuing to say the absolute funniest things I have ever heard! Thought you might enjoy a couple of them! Over the holidays, Jakob began really coming into his fit-throwing stage. Yuck. So, I said, "Chill out!" probably several hundred times! The other day, Jakob was in the other room and heard me in the kitchen on the phone with Jared. I was re-telling a story that needed a certain tone, you know!? Jakob comes running into the kitchen and says very sternly, "Freeze down, Momma!" I lost it!

We have also started having bedtime issues with Jakob. He just doesn't want to stay there at night. So, two nights ago, Jared was in Jakob's room 'encouraging' him to stay in bed with the rod of discipline, if you know what I mean! I was in the living room when I heard Jakob say through sobs, "Daddy! Spankings is not what Christmas is all about!" Needless to say, that little disciplinary time was over! Good grief, he is funny!