Happy birthday, Keegan!

A year ago today, Keegan Lee Johnson was born. Wow, has my life changed since then! Keegan has been a big part of it, of course, but when he was born, I did not have a clear direction of where I was going. I wanted to stay home with him really bad! At the same time, we were struggling mightily with our finances. So as I began to recover from my first c-section, about four months, I started looking at master's programs. I registered at LaGrange College where my friend Lisa had also registered. We decided if we got in, we'd carpool together, which took a big load off of my mind because the family van just wasn't the carpooling type of car!

Today, Keegan has a full year under his belt, by the grace of God! He is the cutest sweetest little man. And I'm half way through my master's program. I've gained more confidence and a more professional wardrobe. Our family has been adjusting to life with mom gone part of the time. However, if I have to work, the teaching profession is the way to go. We'll all be off together.

Today, on this fine Saturday, I wanted to take a moment to give a snippet of a "normal" Saturday.

I am sitting in our dining room turned office pounding away on my laptop when I should be working on a diversity paper for my January class. The smells wafting through the house are really irritating me in that our "beloved" dog has decided to sneak around and use said dining room for his bathroom area ever since we had the snow and ice for a full week outside where he has been going properly for YEARS. I am about ready to KILL HIM> But then he looks at me with those sweet brown eyes pleading forgiveness, and I let him live a little longer.

Kathleen is at the high school preparing for her final performance of her first drama production. She got some juicy roles for her first time and has done really well, especially for being a freshman. She was born a drama queen. After dinner, I'll be taking Kristofer and Kylie with me to see the performance. It will be the third time I've seen it, and I don't mind at all. It's fun to go to the theater!

Keith is sitting in the family room watching football, enjoying some free time before he heads back to his project at work on Monday. He's been working long days to meet his goals. In a few weeks, he'll be doing some traveling, which will be playing some havoc on our family life because it will be just about then that I'll be fully entrenched in my second student teaching gig.

Kristofer has been working on college applications. I'm having a hard time with the idea of another bird leaving the nest. Once again I am in denial.

Keegan is laying in his crib fussing a bit while I ignore him. I need to go find some more clean clothes for him, but I know I'm not going to find anything that will keep him warm enough! Kathleen made his birthday cake for him earlier today, but we decided that we will have it tomorrow when we're all home and can take pictures of all of us gathered around him. That way, it will look like we had a nice big birthday party for him, just like we had for Keri Lynn so many years ago when she turned one year! Hahahahaha! By the way, our family is a terrific "Rent a Party" if you ever want to invite a crowd over that can come eat your food, play your games and then go home at the same time!

Keva is also in her room. I am also ignoring her. I know she needs her pull-up changed. I could get Keith to do it, I suppose, but I'm not doing anything productive either besides typing this little missive. So I will wrap things up, take care of poor Keva and Keegan and start making dinner before heading off to see Kathleen's play. The paper can wait one more day.

Casting Crowns #6 Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)

Snow Day #2

Tomorrow will be another snow day. We've gotten into a nice pattern of winter fun. Kylie, Kade and Konner eat something for breakfast and then I don't see them for the rest of the day, except if they can't find someone to mooch lunch off of. They go off to play with neighborhood friends. The sub-freezing temperatures don't seem to bother them a bit. The dog, however, is having a hard time dealing with all of the ice, especially when he goes out to do his business. He waited all day yesterday before he finally gave up and took care of things on the ice. Poor dog.

Kristofer spends his time numbing his brain with video games. Kathleen bemoans the fact that she can't get to school and practice for her upcoming stage production. She also misses seeing her friends. Even church events were canceled for this Wednesday night because of icy road conditions, so now she's really bummed!

Keri Lynn has been back at school since Saturday, leaving a day early to beat the weather. However, she still hasn't started classes yet, as Georgia College has also had to postpone classes because of the weather.

I may be coming down with a cold. My throat has been hurting all day. I'm hoping it's just irritated by the smoke from our nonstop fire in fireplace, but I have a feeling I'm going to be miserable with a cough and cold very soon. I've already started popping a bunch of Vitamin C and drinking a ton of water. The air is very dry because of the cold. Everywhere I go, I keep shocking myself because of all the static electricity.

Keegan is enjoying everyone's attention during these snow days. Kylie has been walking him all over the house. He walks with minimal support but isn't quite ready to break out on his own yet. I've also started cutting out his formula by slowly adding whole milk to his bottle. He may not be totally ready for it, but he's going to have to be because I can't get to the store on these roads to get him more formula.

After his adventures getting to work yesterday, Keith decided to stay home today. He was only one of 25 that came to work out of 400 employees. So he's been hanging out slightly bored like the rest of us. (Except for Kylie, Kade and Konner.) I think we all need our routines back soon!

Snow Day!

We are snowed in today. At least the kids and I are. We ended up maybe getting about an inch of snow and then a little ice to top it all off, just enough to make the roads very slippery. The news footage of Atlanta freeways show just a few brave travelers actually on the road. Keith went into work today. He left at 8:30 when I was still in bed snoozing. I couldn't get back to sleep after he left, though, for fear of getting that phone call about some terrible accident. But he made it to work in less than an hour! Now I'm just glad I wasn't in the car with him. In fact, I'm sure he may have actually enjoyed slipping and sliding down the roads. Yikes!

I am going to attempt to actually be productive today. Yesterday, I needed to be a little closer to the bathroom than normal. I may have eaten a little too much of my own refried beans. Or maybe I got Keva's bug. Or maybe Keva had a little too much of my refried beans! At any rate, we stayed home from church and pretty much sat around being couch potatotes watching Doctor Who. It was borderline pathetic. Except that at least I made another pair of some really fun fingerless mittens. I'm trying to get a bunch done as late Christmas presents for Keva's bus driver and her assistant. They're going to need them this month particularly!

Before you know it, though, the cold weather will be done, but not soon enough for me. I think I've decided that I'd rather have hot weather. I may change my mind come August, but for now, I really dislike the cold. The snow makes it all very pretty, and I know a lot of people really enjoy it, but I'd just as soon have a nice medium weather day. Goldilocks. Not too hot and not too cold. This time last year, was slipping and sliding all over the place going to my OB appointment. We had some crazy cold weather last January! But I was not too cold, at least when I was pregant, since I was carrying around my own thermal unit. After Keegan was born, I spent a great deal of time in his little room, the warmest room in the house, snuggling him and keeping warm under a couple of blankets! Hormones are might powerful!

On the docket today: A few phone calls, get ahead on some laundry, make another pair of fingerless mittens, do some research for my diversity paper. Maybe some dishes. All while trying to stay warm!

Should be cleaning

I am sitting at my computer knowing that I should be at the kitchen sink instead but enjoying a little downtime to write. My friend Ginny and her youngest daughter Ginger are coming in just about an hour for the second time in as many weeks. Most of the family came last week to come celebrate the new year, but two are back again for Ginny's uncle's funeral. His family lives just about an hour from us.

I'm also supposed to be getting ready for a research project for my January class. The teacher just went over expectations with us last night. I had thought that it would be fairly easy to put together until she went over what she wants in the paper! Ack! It's going to take the entire two weeks she's given to us to write it.

The job situation looks like a very unjob situation. Any jobs that are available are going to the teachers already credentialed, which only makes sense, but I was really hoping more jobs would open up by now. I am going to make a few calls to some of the private schools this coming week and see what might be available that way. I would so much rather teach in a private school anyway, but economics won't allow that. However, if there's a choice between no job and a lower paying job, I'll take the lower paying job!

Keri Lynn is heading back to college today! This is so sad. I have such a hard time with it every time she leaves, particularly because she's so rarely at home for the whole vacation time. She's been ironing out details for her second summer internship in Japan. I am so excited for these opportunities for her.

Keegan has been cruising along the couches in the family room and is starting to branch out and take a step or two out. It won't be long before he's walking! I can't believe that Little Man is getting so big! He likes to babble quite a bit. In the morning, he calls for me, "Mammamamamamamamamam . . ." which means he wants a bottle. When he sees Keith, it's "DA!" which means fun. Keith throws him way up in the air just like he did for the other kids. It's funny to see the older kids get nervous about it. I just don't look, and I'm fine and listen to Keegan giggle like crazy. As long as he stays busy picking up and putting every last piece of trash and stuff off our carpet into his mouth, he's perfectly happy. I can't tell you how many things I've fished out of that boy's mouth.