A Million Plus Reasons

 I love my husband for a gazillion different reasons.  One of those reasons among the long list is from our little adventure this past weekend.  The short story version is that we had tickets to the Hawkeye game.  We hadn't been to a game together since our marching band days, so we were pretty excited to get to a game.  When we left C.R., the sun was partly shining and it was NOT raining.  So as you can expect when that rain started falling in the first quarter...we were "poncho-less" and armed only with my hot cocoa and B's pop.  Now I will admit that I might have been a bit crabby as I started getting wetter and wetter, but I was not going to mention leaving early from the game because I knew how excited B gets from the Hawkeyes and in addition we had pretty good seats!  However, by the middle of the second quarter Braedan looked at me and to my great relief mentioned that he thought we should go to M-town to pick up Taffy (a story for another day) and listen to the game as we drove in a dry car.  I don't know if it was the fact that it looked like we had taken showers in the middle of Kinnick during a football game, or the fact that we were shivering, but I couldn't have loved Braedan more at that moment!  It was one of those moments where I was trying to be tough to stay at the game for Braedan and Braedan was noticing how chilled I was...I think that those are the moments where you grow as a couple.  Now I didn't mean to make this a mushy post...but I love my husband!  And by the end of the day we were dry, warm and the Hawkeyes won :)

--M

As Life Speeds Up

It seems like summer went so fast!  All of the sudden the nights are cooler and geese can be seen flying south.  We love summer and this summer will always be a special memory for us...but we can't wait for fall!  After spending a very humid and hot summer in our apartment, we are glad to have some cool relief.  Fall is such a short season, but it is always exciting to see the beautiful colors that appear in the trees.  It seems like so many people love fall also...the change of seasons always are welcome!

Once school started and July ended, life sped up all of the sudden.  It wasn't that the days were busier, but since I teach mainly in the evenings and Braedan officiates in the evenings, the days fly by! 

As many of you know, I've had a challenge finding a music teaching position in the schools.  Right now in our area, there are no positions open.  Partly because of the budget cuts and I think partly because of the cycle of teachers retiring, etc.   In the meantime, I am going to start my substitute teaching adventure up again and that will hopefully (cross your fingers) keep my quite busy and maybe lead me to a permanent position.  I have been working as a (for lack of a better title) marching band assistant/ coach.  The district is small with only one director who needed another set of hands to work with her pit percussion section.  It has given me an opportunity to make some music connections in the area and I totally enjoy working with the students! 

In addition to working full time at the station, Braedan began his adventure in officiating local high school and middle school football games.  He had quite a few meetings and a couple tests to pass, but he did with flying colors and has three games under his belt already!  Though I don't understand that much about football, I like to go and watch him officiate--he does a great job!  I am kind of like his paparazzi; I try to take pictures while the parents of football players around me aren't paying attention.  I don't want to seem creepy...  My only problem with football is that the past few games I have watched have produced very chilly-windy rain during the 2nd and 3rd quarters...I guess I need to start dressing more appropriately...my flip-flops might need to retire for the season very soon :(

This past weekend brought more football and family visits.  I went to Aurora with my mom and visited Mimi and Gramps.  It was great to see them, I miss them already!  Braedan spent Saturday tailgating with his brothers and visited his parents.  We have said it before, but I'll say it again--we have been blessed with wonderful families!