Thankful this morning

I haven't posted in a while and want to go back to listing 3 things each day that I am thankful for. So today I am thankful for:

1. My boys. Justin and Ryan make me happy everyday and I am very thankful that they were given to me.

2. Sunshine - I woke up to a room filled with light from outside and that made me smile.

3. Flavored tea - right now I'm sipping some hot raspberry tea and it is really yummy!

I'm going to try again to list these daily - we'll see how I do!

Noah James

Here are a couple of pictures of Noah, the new baby of my friends, Eric and Michelle. We've all waited for him for a very long time and are so happy he's finally here!

This one was dubbed, "Noah on full fall precautions" by one of our coworkers! A little nursing humor...

He looks like a green kolache stuffed between two fluffy biscuits ...

We love you baby Noah!

A Few Random Pictures

Here are a few random pictures.

This is one of me with the Bailey Middle School Band director and some of the Booster Board members. This was taken before the band performed at the University of Houston Moore's School of Music.

This is Justin, me and Ryan after the induction ceremony for the National Junior Honor Society in May. The boys each read a definition for a desirable character trait.

Here's Ryan during the Red, White & Blue swimming invitation at Cy-Springs High in June.

Here's Justin wearing his First Place Medal for IM.

Justin, their friend Rachel and Ryan goofing around today.

Updated at last!!

I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ll try and remember everything we’ve all been up to!

The last few weeks of school the Bailey Symphonic Band competed in a couple of band competitions. One was the Splashtown Fest which included many bands from all over the area (as far as Lufkin) and their band received a trophy for Best in Class! They also played for UIL and received a perfect score as well as the highest score in the district. One of the pieces they performed at these events is a march written by their band director specifically for the kids in this band. It’s called March of the Buccaneers and includes a duet with Justin playing flute and Ryan playing piccolo. It is the happiest song I’ve ever heard and the boys sound just great! The song is now being published and will be played by the high school band at a music conference in Chicago in December. More about that in the next paragraph.

Traditionally the high school band director goes to each of the middle schools during May and listens to all of the kids play scales to start determining which of the 4 bands each student will be placed in. This year Spring High Band was chosen as 1 of only 4 high schools in the country (and the world) to perform at Midwest Conference in Chicago. They will play 12 pieces in front of a couple of thousand people. Since there are many summer rehearsals involved and lots of preparation, the director went around and hand picked who he wanted to audition for his top band, the Wind Ensemble. Justin and Ryan and their friend Brittany (on the clarinet) are the only freshman asked to audition and all three made it! The best part for the boys is that they will be playing their original parts in March of the Buccaneers for the performance in Chicago. Their middle school director will be going on the trip and you can imagine how thrilled he is that his composition will be played there!

Now, they also have marching band which is very time consuming and seems to breed a negative attitude among most of the incoming freshman! They had a week of “marching camp” in June and you would have thought they were working in the fields from dawn till dusk with all the whining they did each night! “Mom, you don’t understand – I thought I was going to faint and die of heat stroke!” It’s obvious to me that I haven’t made them work hard enough and you know I whipped out the stories of growing up in foster homes and orphanages where I slaved for hours doing chores with little food and hand-me-down clothes … Okay, so it wasn’t THAT bad, but don’t tell my whiney teenagers!! They have about 3 weeks to do in August in addition to a week this month of Wind Ensemble rehearsal and I’ve forbidden them to bring up any of it until it actually gets here!

I’m going to Chicago with the band group and am so excited – I don’t usually go anywhere and am not even sure of the rules attached to flying on a plane these days.

Otherwise, I am working extra to pay for the trip and all of the stuff required for the marching band – VERY expensive. The boys just finished up their swim team season and their team came in first in their division. The boys also qualified to swim in the Red, White & Blue invitational – Justin got first place in IM and third place in Freestyle and Ryan won many ribbons in all of the categories. Ryan actually qualified to swim in a higher category than Justin and made better time than Justin in a couple of the events but because it’s a higher group, only got ribbons. They both did very well and had a good time with their friends.

I’m nervous and excited about their transition to high school. I’m glad that they are already meeting a lot of kids through the band and seem to be the most popular blonde-headed, identical-twin, flute-playing freshman at the school! Ha, Ha!

I’ve been working so much (and was sick for a couple of months earlier in the year) and am behind on my many projects! My bathroom STILL isn’t finished but I’m getting closer and hope to post some pictures of the final result soon.

That’s all for now (and plenty) but I’m determined to update more frequently over the summer.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Comer Duo Wins 1st Place for 2nd Year!!

Here is a more updated post!

The boys competed in the Area Competition for Science Olympiad last weekend and had a good time. Justin got 3rd place in Food Science and their school made it to the State Competition in April. I’m not sure that I’m fully excited about this because it means learning several new events in just a few weeks time! But I want my event (Disease Detectives) to do better so this gives us another chance!

Yesterday Justin & Ryan competed in the Houston Flute Fest competition and did very well. Their duet won 1st place, Justin’s solo won 1st place, Ryan’s solo received Honorable Mention (equivalent to 2nd place) and the quartet they did with Lea and Lindy also received Honorable Mention. First place winners get to play in an Honor’s Recital at University of St. Thomas on March 30th, so they will both be performing in that concert. I am so proud of them!! I will record the perfomance and hopefully figure out how to post it by then.

One of the music faculty of The University of Houston (the competition is held there) told them yesterday that they already have music scholarships waiting for them. Their flute teacher said that she thinks he is serious and that will make it possible for them to be competitive in choosing what school they want to go to. I was just thinking I won't have to work so much when the time comes to pay for college!!! Go Comer Duo!!

A couple of weeks ago I donated 2 diaper cakes to the High School Band Extravaganza for their silent auction. I usually just do these as gifts at baby showers so I was nervous that nobody would bid on them. They each did pretty well – the girl one went for $42.00 and the boy one went for $50.00. The woman who won the boy cake was nervous that she wasn’t going to win, managed to find me in the crowd and wanted to pay me to make one for her sister’s shower that same week! Although I don’t really have time for any more extra stuff, I was definitely flattered!

It is now time for me to catch up on my laundry, declutter my entire house and get the boys to finish the dusting, vacuuming and to clean their very dirty bathroom! I feel very lazy today and need to find some motivation to prepare for the week ahead!

Old News

I wrote this a few weeks ago and never posted it, so it's a little old:

It’s been a while since I’ve posted and we’ve all been very busy!

In January the boys competed in the District Science Olympiad competition and did very well. Justin won a 1st place medal for Triple E and 1st place in Food Science. He and Ryan received 2nd place in Trajectory competing with a machine they built. Ryan won 1st place in Disease Detectives which is the event I coach. They go to Regionals next weekend and hopefully will do just as well!

A few weeks ago they had Solo & Ensemble at their school where they play for judges and get individual/group ratings. The scale runs 1-4 with “One” being the best. The quartet they did with Lindy and Lea received a “One – Outstanding” which is even better than a One rating! Each of their solos also received this Outstanding rating as did their duet. The judge had many nice things to say about them and said that Spring High is lucky to be getting them next year. She may be a little partial since she also has identical twin boys, but she seemed sincere! In a few more weeks they will compete at the Houston Flute Fest and hopefully will do just as well. Last year their duet won 1st place in their age group.

A couple of weekends ago we had a party to celebrate Justin’s and Ryan’s 14th birthday. I counted 20 fourteen-year-olds and it felt like fifty!!! They were jumping on the trampoline in the rain, played pool in the garage and ping-pong on the patio. I bought a new disco ball with a motor and they played Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii in the living room and Guitar Hero 1 in the playroom on the PS 2. Some of the girls did each other’s hair, the boys played strategy games on the computer and everyone ate lots of Mexican food. My house was full of dirt and mud from all the running in and out in the rain, but the all had a great time. The last couple of girls went home around 1:00 a.m. and when I left for work on Sunday at 5:30 a.m. 4 of the boys were still awake! I tripped over about 7 boys while trying to get out of the house and found that all of the leftover food was still on the tables and countertops. It looked like the remnants of a rowdy frat party!

As for me, I’m now working on a bridal shower for work, coordinating volunteers for the High School Band Extravaganza and trying to catch up on laundry and housework!

The Pain of Loss

I will post some good news in my next post, but want to talk about something that has me feeling very sad today.

A little over a year ago, the 21 year-old daughter of one of my nurse coworkers was diagnosed with Lymphoma (the specialty of the unit I work on). She has a 4 year-old son who the cutest, smartest little boy you'll ever meet. We've all been taking care of this girl (and her mom) off and on for the past year. Last week she was admitted to our unit more sick than ever before. I took care of her each day and held her mom's hand while we made plans for how to handle her end of life care. I have cried all day at work for 3 days straight. My other patients were worried about me while I fell apart caring for this family. This is the daughter of my friend and we have all grown so attached for the past year.

Friday was so hard. The patient was so weak but insisted on getting up to the commode when she needed to use the bathroom. During one of the times she was up, her mom asked her if she really understood what was happening. She stated very simply, "Yes, I'm going to die." Her mom hugged her from behind and while crying told her how much she loved her and would miss her. The patient responded, "I love you too, Mom." I cried so much I was having a hard time getting her cleaned up and back to bed. I won't put the details of her little boy laying in bed with her, but you can imagine. Listening to his grandmother explain to him that she will go live with Jesus, just like his dog Shadow did, hurts in ways I can't explain.

She was to go home with hospice care yesterday but died on our unit before she could be moved. I had dropped the boys of at 5:30 to ride the bus to the school science contest and was getting ready to head to the hospital to say my goodbye when her nurse called me. I have never been so attached to one of my patients and family and have never cried so much over the death of someone I've cared for as a nurse.

I think I feel that as nurses we often feel immune to the illnesses suffered by our patients because we are the caregivers. This has burst my "immunity" bubble and scares me that if this could happen to my friend, a nurse herself, that it could happen to me or my boys as well.

This only reinforces my belief that we should spend every possible moment with our kids because you never know how long we have together. So to those people who make fun of me for going on every field trip, sitting with my kids and their friends at the movies and working a job that gets me up at 4:00 a.m. so that I can be home when my boys get home from school - I give you something to think about.

My next post will be upbeat ...

Christmas & Comcast

The holidays are over but I finally managed to get some video onto my computer - I've tried twice to upload it but it gets stuck, so I'll just post a couple of pictures until I figure out what the problem is. The first one is the boys playing with their new table tennis table.

The boys are back in school and busy with preparations for Science Olympiad. They have to build one project and study for 3 or 4 other categories. I'm coaching one team called Disease Detectives and am behind as usual! The competition is in about 2 weeks and hopefully we'll all be ready!

Today we took Angel to the vet for her shots and enjoyed a waiting room full of every variety of dog. Our favorite was a carrier full of 4 Yorkie puppies - they were so small and so cute. All the other dogs were friendly and well behaved except for Angel (she's 7 lbs. now) who growled at anyone who stood too close (while she shook so hard she almost fell off of my lap).

After the vet we went to the mall and the boys had haircuts. I absolutely love how they look and Ryan does too but Justin is mourning the loss of his locks. It didn't curb his appetite however and we ate at Sweet Tomatoes afterward. I love their soup and bread and am still full hours later!

The only other thing I can think of that's been going on lately is my battle with Comcast. Just after Christmas I bought a new TV for the living room. I got a really good deal on an open-box 52" Sony DPL HDTV at Circuit City. Of course to fully enjoy the HDTV you need to have HDTV cable. I called and ordered what they are calling "triple play" which includes cable tv, high speed internet and digital phone service. After I had calculated what I was spending on all of the services separately from different companies I actually end up saving around $60 per month and that is with the upgraded cable with the Comcast DVR. Long story short, this past week is the first week that all of the services have worked without issue (after 4 different people have been out to install/repair/whatever) and I hate their DVR. I miss my TIVO am on the list to have the TIVO upgrade to their machine. I can't wait!!! I love the TV and have spent too many hours staring at how beautiful the picture is, especially on the HD channels.

Time to get off of the couch and make a dent in my laundry pile!!