Where Did the Time Go? 4 Month Rewind

I know, I know, I know.  I'm sure no one thought I was coming back to the world of blogging after being gone nearly 4 months.  Well, it wasn't completely by choice.  Yes, I will admit that I had grown bored of blogging.  It was getting mundane and I had lost the spark to take photos and write.  A few people asked me if I was ever going to blog again.  My dad reminded me several times that I hadn't blogged in a long time.  I guess the time had come to get back into blogging.

I also was very sick this winter and spring.  If you remember in my last post way back when, I had just been diagnosed with pneumonia and it took me a very long time to get over it.  Typically it takes about 3 weeks to get over pneumonia.  Add in my complex heart history and it easily took me about 5 weeks.  I was finally feeling more like myself by the end of April.  My allergies are killing me now though.  I never had any problems for the first 21 years of my life living here in Indy.  Since moving back, it's been a whole other story and this spring especially has been brutal.  Lane's suffering more than he'd like this spring as well.  Most days he's OK, but when the allergies hit, they are really really bad.  Today is one of those days.

So here are the highlights of the past few months.

- Spring break was not all that exciting.  Neither child had it at the same time.  They don't have spring break at the same time next year either but I think Emi will be taking 2 weeks so that we can go somewhere.  Probably Florida.  Hopefully the weather down there will be fantastic.

- In April Eriks received his First Holy Communion.  It's hard to believe how quickly he is growing and changing.  The weather that day was horrible.  Rainy and cold.  Definitely not the weather I was expecting at the end of April.  Even though the weather was horrible, the day was so special and Eriks was surrounded by both sets of grandparents, his godparents and most of his aunts and uncles as well as almost all of his cousins.  One of my nieces was ill so she and her dad were unable to make it.

- Eriks finished his first year at Lumen Christi school and his first year of Latvian School.  He seemed to enjoy both but my guess is he's glad to have a break from both for awhile.  He has a very good year at Lumen Christi.  The smaller size class was a huge help for him as he benefitted from more one on one time with his teachers.  Latvian School was a little rough.  More so because he didn't know what to expect and it was a whole new world for him.  He caught on fairly quickly though and in my opinion did better than I thought he would his first year.  I only say that because it's hard to do something you've never done before.  Next year will go much better for him and my guess is he'll have different teachers that know him.

- Lane ran his 1st mini-marathon at the beginning of May.  He ran 13.1 miles in just over 2:01.  He was happy with his time but really would've liked to have finished it in under 2 hrs.  If he decides to run it again next year he'll work hard to do that.  He didn't train as much as he wanted to but was happy with his time.  His brother finished 17 minutes behind him.  He'll never finish it as fast as the Africans do.  I think the winner for the men's finished in just over 1 hr but was disappointed in his time because he said if it wasn't so humid, he would've finished in under an hour.  They were running about 5 minute miles. Sick.

- We attended 2 weddings in May.  One was on the 19th and the other was a week later on the 26th.  We had fun at both.  We have at least one more wedding that we know of to attend this year over Labor Day weekend.  This has been the busiest year for us for attending weddings in quite some time.

- Finally, I turned 37 last week.  Never thought I'd make it this long.  I wasn't even sure I'd make 20.  Now I'm very happily pushing 40.  It was a good birthday.  Nice and low key.  I totally expect the opposite for my 40th in 3 years.

One more small note.  I have always had a passion for photography.  For at least the past 5 years now, I have been talking about a career as a photographer.  Well, I am getting much more serious about it.  If you are friends with me on FB you have seen my photos.  I've shown off a lot here as well.  Anyhow, I'm trying to get my foot in the door now as a photographer.  I'm hoping in the next month or so, I'll have a website up and running in hopes of finding jobs.  I in no way see myself as a professional yet.  I'm still learning and have a lot to learn.  But several people have asked me recently upon seeing my photos if I've made it a profession yet.  Sadly the answer is no.  With that being said, if they think my work is good, why not give it a shot.  You never know what will happen if you don't try, right?

So here are some photos of activities over the past few months since I've been away.

Blog Neglect

I apologize to those of you who have been checking my blog for updates.  This crazy up and down weather has been wreaking havoc on my body.  One day it's 30 degrees and snowing, the next it's nearly 70 degrees and sunny.  The up and down craziness proved just how bad it was for my body when I ended up with a diagnosis of pneumonia a few days ago.  The doctor wanted to put me in the hospital and I said that I already spend enough time in hospitals because of my heart condition so no thank you.  I did promise to stay on fairly strict bed rest for the majority of my time on antibiotics.  So for the past 4 days, I have only gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom, shower and eat dinner.  The rest of the time I have been resting my body and lungs.  I'm beginning to feel better.  I'm getting more air into my lungs and the antibiotics are breaking up the pneumonia that is causing me to cough up the gunk that's in there.

Not much has happened over the past few months.  We had the Super Bowl come to town and Emi turned 4 last month.  All things I'd really like to blog about sometime in the upcoming week.  I wish we had more going on but Lane is consumed with school and I'm consumed with everyday life.  Boring. Boring. Boring.

Just wanted to pop in and say, 'hello'.  Be back soon.

When You Need a Laugh...

I know I've said it somewhere before but Emi is definitely the comedian in the family.  She will do anything to make you smile and get a laugh.  Well almost.  Her temper tantrums certainly don't make us smile but thankfully they only happen a few times a week and are mostly tolerable.

Two days after Christmas we got the snow I've been praying begging for since the beginning of December.  It would've been much nicer to have it on Christmas Day, but I took the 2-3 inches that fell anyway.  We spent the better part of the morning in PJ's that day.  The week before Christmas had been a flurry of activity and starting on the 26th, I wanted to spend a few days being a bum.

I was sitting on my bed doing some after Christmas research on my laptop when Emi ran in and started her antics.  She was super excited about something.  I asked her a question and she responded with, "I don't know!'  Lane was here too as he had followed her up.  That was the first time we had heard her make a coherent sentence like that.  I was floored.  Most of her responses have still been via ASL and 1 or 2 word utterances.  But clear as a bell it came out.  She said it a few times more and so the i.Phone came out and the video started rolling.  Her gestures with her response told me that she understood.  Lane and I spent the next few minutes giggling with delight.  She found something to make us laugh and kept on rolling with it.

Enjoy seeing it for yourself!

New Year's Resolutions

I used to make them when I was in my teens and early 20's and then I stopped somewhere around the time Eriks was born and they always get broken anyhow. What was the point of I didn't stick to them?

I'm not making any this year either.  However, I am making goals for myself this year and am going to do what I can to stick to them.  As outgoing as I am, I have very little self-confidence in accomplishing things.  I get frustrated and give up.  Then I get ticked at myself for getting both frustrated and giving up.  Not a very healthy relationship with myself in that sense.

My cardiologist has a stress test scheduled for me in just over 2 months.  I have never done one and I'm EXTREMELY nervous about it.  I don't exercise and I'm about 30-40 lbs overweight.  I carry my weight well but my pants size is about 6 sizes bigger than I want it to be.  So one of my goals starting next week is that I'm going to spend 20 minutes exercising 3 times a week and making healthier food choices.  Part of my issue is I tend to skip breakfast because I'm not a breakfast eater.  I hate eggs and often eggs/egg whites is what people who eat healthy have for breakfast.  I can't stand the texture, the taste or the smell.  So I've got to look at other filling options.  I'd like to be at least 10-15 lbs lighter in 2 months and be able to handle the stress test better.  I also think that if I blog about it, it makes me accountable.  So expect to be hearing about it here.

Another goal is patience.  Especially with my children.  A horrible quirk of mine is that I have pretty bad OCD issues on certain things.  I am meticulous about where things sit or are.  When my kids move things on end tables or wherever they are, I flip about them not being where I put them.  Lane gets to deal with this too.  More often if he puts something back on the wrong place and I go to find it and it's not there.  I hate disorder.  This stems from the the fact that so much in my life has not been in my control - my health, my husband's military job...that I've taken other things to the extreme.  I got better for awhile.  I used to clean house at 10 pm and it drove Lane crazy.  So much so that he'd take stuff out of my hands and tell me enough.  I haven't gone back to scrubbing the bathroom and toilets late at night but I'm definitely doing other things instead of unwinding.  I lose it when stuff isn't in its proper place.  So I'm going to work on not doing that.

My last goal (because I think 3 is enough) is to find a love of something.  I don't do anything for myself.  It's all about taking care of my family.  I need to get myself out of the house at least once a week and do something for myself.  Pottery, painting, photography...something.  I think if I did more for myself, I'd be a better wife and mother.  I wouldn't resent all the other things I do as a wife and mom if I did something that makes me happy.  Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be looking for something that gets me time for myself and makes me happy.

So do any of my readers have an goals or resolutions they'd like to share?

Christmas

We spent both Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day at my parents' house.  We went to Mass with my mom and sister while my dad went to his church service where he attends church.  Afterwards we headed over for heavy appetizers, games and just spending time with the family.  We had a good time and the kids got to open a gift that my great-aunt sent over to them since she and her family decided not to spend Christmas Eve with our family this year.  We were able to get some very good photos of the kids together.  Last year and the year before it wasn't such a great experience but as they're getting older, they seem to be getting a little more cooperative.  My parents were very pleased with the outcome of the photos.  Maybe this spring we'll try to get some good outdoor shots of the 3 grandkids together.

Christmas morning the kids thankfully not up at the crack of dawn.  They got up at 8 am and I got up 30 minutes later.  I was up until around 1 stuffing stockings and required a few more minutes of sleep.  It took several hours to get through our gifts.  The kids took time to look at their gifts and we also opened gifts from Lane's parents and Lane's sister's family that she had sent for the kids.  The kids enjoyed their gifts but have yet to play with some of them.  We didn't get them that much but they got a lot from everyone else.  Eriks still has boxes that haven't been opened yet.  Much of Em's stuff was put away because it was stuff we asked for that went with other stuff she already had (ie more stuff for her American.Girl Bitty.Baby doll, furniture for her Loving.Family dollhouse, etc).

Lane did well this year when it came to getting me gifts even though I yelled at him for procrastinating.  I procrastinated a bit this year too which I never do and I regretted it.  It will not happen again.  I'm just going to start picking up stuff on clearance for all the kids I know if I think they'll like it through the year and stash it away.  I was miserable and completely exhausted by Christmas Eve and although as I said it was relaxing, I didn't enjoy it as much if I hadn't been out running errands earlier that day trying to finish up.  So back to the 2 really cool gifts he got me.  He and I are going to go see Shen.Yun the Chinese Performing Arts show.  I have friends who have seen it and say that the majority of the show is beautiful but there is one very controversial part that they wish was not included.  I still want to see it for myself.  We are also seeing Ron.White perform too.  We are huge comedy junkies.  We love it, especially good comedians.  Unfortunately with kids and the fact that it can be expensive, we don't do it as often as we'd like.  Granted we could go to our local comedy club and see stand-up instead of the big name comics.  Both performances occur during Lane's spring break in March so we'll have a busy week.

Christmas Day afternoon we headed back to my parents' house for dinner and opening gifts from my parents and siblings.  My mom and dad are so generous and honestly should've not gotten everything they did.  I got a bunch of the Rachael.Ray stuff I wanted since some of my cookware is starting to become unusable as I've worn it thin.  I actually had to throw away a beloved non-stick pan a few months ago.  I also got my badly wanted blue Colts sweatshirt.  The kids got more stuff than they know what to do with.  The dinner was fabulous as always.  I was blessed with a mother who is a fantastic cook and has done a very good job teaching me.  For dinner we had beef tenderloin, hassleback potatoes, Caesar salad with homemade dressing, roasted asparagus and rolls.  I was stuffed but managed to eat a piece of to-die-for Red Velvet cheesecake.

It was a very good Christmas this year.  Albeit a little weird since this is the first time we spent it with family without having to travel more than 8 hours to spend it with them.  One of these days we would like to get back to San Antonio to spend Christmas with Lane's parents but driving is not an option as with my health I don't do well in cars for long periods of time anymore (edema aka swelling in my legs and very poor circulation) and Emi hates being strapped in a car seat for more than 3 or 4 hours.  Currently the drive between here and there where they live is about 20 hrs.  While Lane is in law school, we just can't afford to put 4 people on a plane.  I'm hoping that the year he graduates we'll be able to do it because I fell bad that we can't do it anytime soon and I'd like to visit with family and friends down that way.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah depending on which you celebrate!  I still can't believe it's 2012!

Latvian School Play

It's that time of year and I've had no time to blog.  Please accept my sincere apology.  Over the next couple days, I am going to work on catching up on the events of the past few weeks and I am going to work hard in the new year to blog more.

So nearly 2 weeks ago Eriks had his last day of Latvian school before Christmas break.  Latvian school is once a week.  In the fall and spring it takes place on Friday nights and during the winter it's on Saturdays. In the younger grades the kids learn Latvian songs, Latvian folk dances, reading, writing and grammar.  When Eriks is older, he will learn Latvian history and geography.  I am a Latvian school graduate and although I hated the homework and giving up my Saturdays as a kids, I am very thankful I had that kind of opportunity to learn about the country my family came from.

On the last day of Latvian school the students put on a Latvian Christmas play.  As a kid the majority of the time they include animals, elves, evergreen trees...typical Christmas stuff.  Eriks was an elf this year in the play.  He had one line to deliver and did it with style.  The kids also sang some Latvian Christmas songs and did some dancing.  It was very cute and we enjoyed it.  After the play Santa made a visit to the kids and gave them presents.

 My little goofball!

 Christmas music being played on traditional Latvian instruments.  

 My niece L was a rabbit in the play.

 My other two school age nieces B and A were also elves like Eriks.  B is standing right next 

to Eriks and A is in a dress that matches her sisters (second from left).

This is the photo I took of the kids and used for our Christmas cards this year.  

Random Thoughts

Not a whole lot going on right now.  Gearing up for a 3 hour drive to Columbus, OH on Thursday for a Cardiology appointment with the new doctors.  Wish they weren't that far away but I've been told they are some of the best around and when there are no specialists in the area that take your insurance, you have to go where you can, even if it's 3 hours away.

Thanksgiving was very good.  My mom is a wonderful cook and did a fabulous job feeding her kids and grandkids.  I am so thankful that she is in my life not only because she still takes care of me, but because she has taught me how to cook and I'm figuring I may be doing Thanksgiving at my house next year for everyone.  I did make the chocolate bourbon pecan pie that my family, especially my sister loves so much.    Good grief was it good.  We finished it off last night.

I did do some shopping online Thursday night to get in on some early Black Friday deals and did some shopping on Friday as well.  My nieces L & B both had their birthdays on Saturday - sisters born exactly 2 yrs to the day apart.  I had to get them their birthday gifts.  I didn't purposefully wait until the last minute, I just had way too much going on over the past few weeks.  They loved their gifts which I'm glad and now I need to worry about Christmas gifts.  I've got Emi finished and Eriks has one more gift that needs to be bought for him.  All but 1 of my nieces has been bought for.  When my in-laws drove back to TX on Sunday, I sent back with them their gifts as well as our nephew M's gift.  I still have to buy for Lane's sister, Marla but she's so hard to buy for because she has what she needs and says she'll appreciate whatever she gets.  I'm going to have to bug her for ideas.  Lane is another person that I'm going to have a terribly difficult time buying for.  He has pretty much everything he wants or needs other than Starbucks gift cards and gift cards to buy stuff for his e-readers.  He has both the Kindle and the Nook.  I bought him the Kindle for Christmas last year and he won the Nook in a raffle this fall.  I'm just glad I've made a good dent in my shopping.

Not much else has been going on with us.  Lane is studying for finals and going back and forth between, "I can handle this," and panic, "I'm never going to learn and remember it all before the exams!"  His first final is next Monday.  On the bright side, he is looking forward to them being over with so that he has a month to relax before Spring semester starts.

On that note, I'm going to share a video I took of Emi with her cousin L at my mom's house last Wednesday when we went over there to hang out so Lane could have some quiet study time in the house.  The girls has a blast!  It's only about a minute long but enjoy it anyway!

I Am NOT Super Woman

But gawd how I wish I was.  You know how they say you are your own worst critic?  They're right. I'm having a hard time accepting that I can't do it all.  I blame my mother for this (sorry mom).  Not only did my mom work a full-time job, she took care of the house, the laundry, the cooking, the yard work and us kids.  And she rocked it!  In my opinion at least.  She wasn't always in the best of moods at the end of the day.  Being an inner-city school teacher and all - dealing with parents who sent their kids to school because it was the law but cared less if they actually got an education and kids who knew this.  Granted there were a handful of kids she had through her teaching career who were good students, hard workers and were taught to treat others with kindness and respect, but this was not the majority.  I'm getting off track here.  She still managed to try and muster enough patience with us to help us with homework we couldn't figure out on our own while making dinner.

I'm very much overwhelmed, overworked, overtired and under appreciated right now.  Not to mention I've been sick for almost 2 months and because of my responsibilities, I've really put taking care of myself on the back-burner.  Some of what I think I'm dealing with is now allergies not the sickness I had.  Moving back to Indiana there's something in the air my system just doesn't like.  Less than 2 weeks ago I started a 2nd round of antibiotics to get rid of the gunk that wouldn't go away with the 1st round and I ended up getting pink eye to boot.  It's been lots of fun.  Thankfully, I'm the only one dealing with it.  Emi has had a runny nose off and on too but so have all the kids in her class and she's never complained that she feels bad.  I'd like love to get over this and feel like myself again.  I think that would drastically help because I'd have the energy I'd need to get most of my stuff done.  It doesn't help that my 3 kids (it includes the hubby) aren't helping any by leaving their stuff all over the house no matter how often I ask them nicely to pick up after themselves.  So then my work becomes double.

I know Lane is doing what's best for our family but how can part of me not be jealous?  I know it's not all fun and games.  There's a lot of hard work he's putting in on a daily basis, but it's been a passion and fascination for over 4 yrs ago.  He doesn't even stop talking about law when he's away from it.  That's the kind of person that really deserves to be a lawyer.  I don't like the fact that I can't work a full-time job outside of the home because I can't be on my feet all day long and I just don't have the energy to work all day and then come home and take care of all the at home responsibilities.  I am envious of anyone who is able to do this.

I've all but given up on crafting or anything else I love doing.  I just don't have the time or energy to.  Not completely true but by the time the kids are in bed and asleep, I'm wrapping up stuff and then moving myself towards bed because I'm just that dang tired.  It drives me nuts!

I know, I know, I know.  I need to make time for myself.  My mom  in a conversation earlier today asked me if I was depressed because I was crying about not having enough time to get stuff done and complaining about life in general.  The answer is a firm NO!  I'm just a bit lost right now.  I look at my husband, my adult friends and family members and see that they are doing things they love and want to be doing with their lives.  I love being a wife, mother & caregiver but I'm by no means content in that defining who I am.  I know there are people out there that are OK with that defining them, but I'm not.

I have a fire in my belly telling me that there's more to who I am than just that.

I just need her to show up.

If any of you see her walking down the street tell her I'm looking for her.

Oh, and if you see Super Woman and she's available, tell her I'd like to hire her for a few days.

Indiana Wine Trail Fall Haul

Saturday was a beautiful warm Fall day for Indiana.  It was a perfect day to head to Southern Indiana for visiting some wineries.  There are 6 wineries on Indiana's Wine Trail (although there are about 50 total wineries in Indiana) that do special events periodically throughout the year.  In the Fall, they all do something called Fall Haul - they feature wines either in recipes or pair them with recipes.  They feature the food and the wine.  It sounded like fun and a good time for Lane and I to have some adult time without the kids.

We invited my sister, Edite along for the ride.  In all my years as an Indiana resident before I moved away, I have spent very little time venturing to other areas of the state.  Besides spending time in Bloomington during college and the Indiana metroplex, I haven't seen much of Indiana.  Completely disappointing since I'm proud to call myself a Hoosier.  Upon moving back I made the decision that I wanted to take more day or weekend trips to areas undiscovered.

In our adventures on Saturday we found that Indiana tends to produce wines that are either on the semi-sweet or sweet side or are fairly dry.  Not that I mind sweet wines, but they are not necessarily my first pick.  There were some wineries that we really liked, others we'll never buy wines from.  One thing I'd like to see is some Indiana wineries maybe import some grapes to blend with the sweeter grapes.  I think one of the reasons Indiana wines are sweeter is because the soil is more conducive to growing a sweeter grape variety.  By far my favorite Indiana winery is still Oliver Winery.  Their wines are sweeter but unlike the majority of the wines we tasted on Saturday from the 5 wineries we visited are that they're not overly/sickly sweet to me.

We came home with 4 bottles of wine.  There were others we would've liked to have bought but it just wasn't in our budget right now.  So we'll start looking for them in local groceries.  One winery we visited that was my 2nd favorite of the day doesn't sell in stores because they can't keep up with the demand.  So we'll have to get in touch with them directly to ship to us or make another trip.  We're hoping to visit other Indiana wineries and maybe even start making trips to Illinois since they have quite a few wineries there too that I've been told are pretty good.

Some of my photos are from a few of the wineries.  Unfortunately, the wineries around here aren't the typical wineries with tasting rooms in California that we encountered.  And yes, one of the wineries had already started decorating for Christmas but their decorations were pretty cool.  A few of the photos are from downtown Madison.  I wish I would've had more time to walk around and take photos of the amazing older buildings and homes.  I guess that's one thing I love about this state - the smaller towns have so much history and character.  My other slight disappointment was that I had hoped So. Indiana still had quite a few leaves on their trees but most of the color was gone.  Actually, I think more trees were missing leaves there than up here in the Indy area.  Oh well, might just have to see Fall down their earlier next year!  I can't wait to keep exploring around the state.

Grandparents Come for a Visit and Halloween

Last Thursday, Lane's parents came into town to spend some time with all of their Indiana grandkids.  With our house being about 98% put together we had the guest bedroom all set up for them and were very much looking forward to them spending a few nights with us.

The kids really enjoyed their time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Emi and Eriks got to read with Grandma Thursday afternoon.

Later that evening my nieces came over with their parents and we all hung out together eating pizza and watching the World.Series.  There was also a skit that the girls and Eriks put on for us that involved Medieval knights and sword fighting.

Friday we headed to the Children's Museum for the haunted house.  We walked through with the lights on because I knew none of the kids would've enjoyed it with lights out.  They would've been too frightened.  I don't know how many of the adults would've enjoyed lights out either.  The person in our family who really likes haunted houses is my sister-in-law Marla.  Eriks was a little scared even with the lights on.  I think he was afraid something was going to jump out at him.  The two smallest girls going through, Emi and my niece A were the least scared and enjoyed it a lot.

Grandma and Grandpa left for TX Saturday afternoon.  It was a short visit but we were glad they were here with us.  We'll see them again at Thanksgiving.

The weather for Halloween couldn't have been more perfect.  We ended up going over to my mom and dad's house for dinner and the kids put on their costumes there.  That way they could trick-or-treat at Omi and Opi's house before heading home to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood.  I even got a chance to take a picture of my niece Laila in her panda costume which she at first refused to put on, but after my brother took her next door to visit a neighbor for trick-or-treating and she got candy, she was happy to have the costume on.

 Our jack-o-lantern.  I did a quick carving.  Usually I use a pattern but this year I had no time so I free-handed.  We still got a lot of compliments on it from our neighbors.

Eriks and Emi with their candy loot.  

Tomorrow Lane and I are heading to Southern Indiana to take part in the Indiana Wine Trail's Fall Haul.  Six wineries will showcase wines for tasting as well as used them in cooking.  They will share the recipes for the food they make using their wines.  We are so looking forward to this.  The fall colors in Southern Indiana should be amazing and we can't wait to try some more Indiana wines.  Best part is we are going without our kids (although we will miss them dearly).  This is some very much needed adult time!