hello everyone--
just enjoying the brothers talents (justin's crutches page--yeah, we'll take a dvd; and michael's new song--so perfect! your lyrics are pure poetry-with all of your songs, not just this one).

yikes-scary rattlesnake stories from michelle and mary--did that incident make you really on guard for the rest of the hike? once i was hiking and i kept hearing rattling sounds, but i thought it was an insect, because it kept happening throughout my 3 mile hike. then when i got to the end, i saw a nature sign that said to beware of rattlesnakes. ignorance was bliss, for once.

i'm finally getting my hair cut today--time to chop the mop!

i met matt for lunch yesterday and his building is sweet--not to mention the building next door with the basketball courts up high on a hill. then we had lunch at the nearby mall and had a good chat. yay! it was cloudy so instead of hitting the beach, i came home and cleaned up the house. i also explored home depot for backyard ideas and i found some cool patio stones (some that look like cobblestone and some that look like pieces of slate). i love just wandering around in that place, getting ideas. then i made a fantastic dinner of shish kabobs, couscous, and bruschetta--so yummy i can hardly believe it!!! i know i've made a good dinner when matt can barely move afterwards :).

i'm pumped because snow patrol is going to be in san diego next month--and for only $8! usually matt and i will get into a band, only to find out that they just played in san diego a couple of weeks ago.

have a great day everyone!

just because i'm sorry
doesn't mean i didn't enjoy it at the time
-snow patrol

i just went out to water my plants and saw that my lime tree is blooming!
yay! hopefully that means we'll have limes by early fall!

i'm going up to meet matt for lunch at his new place of employment, so that should be fun.

and it was fun reading blogs from grammy, ryan, michelle and emily!!!

spring break is coming to a close, but that is okay with me. i ease back into it on monday, with an all-day training (every once in awhile it is so good to just receive from someone else instead of giving myself all day long) and then that friday off, to fly home for graig henry's wedding!
so my first week back from spring break is only a 3-day work week, which is not bad. then only 8 weeks left until summer break--yessssssss! can not wait!!!!

happy birthday mom edwards!!!
what a fun surprise present from dad!!
have fun on your camping trip.

oh yeah, i forgot to say that on our way home from mary and casey's we stopped in santa monica for some shopping and starbucks. which, that starbucks was so cool. a ton of (music) listening stations around and a cool bar up front where you could sit and make your own mix and then burn it on to a cd. very fun! i forgot for a second that we were actually in a starbucks.

yesterday, my first day home for spring break, i had a perfect day. first, i slept in until 9:15--yes!!! then i went for a great run on sunset cliffs and came home and tried to do some ab work, but very sadly, i was still sore from my workout with mare--ha! mary, please tell me you are too, so i don't feel quite so fat and lazy!!! then i went to encinitas for the afternoon and read my james michener book, hawaii. since it was the middle of the day on a tuesday, i nearly had the beach to myself. after a few hours, i went back up to the car and found that it wouldn't start so i called matt and he came to rescue me about an hour later. he instantly got the car to start, of course! then we decided to go into some surf shops around the area and got him some new shirts for work and some board shorts for me.

today i got up early with matt and we took the car back to the shop (a part was just loose, and no charge to fix it!). i had a great walk on sunset cliffs a little while ago and later i'll go to the farmer's market in OB. i probably should be cleaning this place (we always trash it when we get back from trips!) but i just don't feel like it, gosh darn it! maybe i'll get the bug later.

welp, i'm out!

wooo!
the slacker is back!

it's been awhile, but i suppose no one will accept the excuse that i've been busy.

i thought not.

welp, anyhoo, matt and i returned from a fun visit in chowchilla, with mary, casey, and mom and dad edwards!
(just and mikey, we missed you guys). i am very sore right now from a morning with mary involving running 3 miles and doing push-ups, crunches, soccer situps-ouch!, and walking lunges. hopefully, i'll be recovered enough tomorrow to do it all again. if i did that workout 3x/week for about 2 weeks, i bet i'd see a big difference! we'll see how the motivation goes, though...
let's see, highlights...
-an excellent dinner of freshly caught (thanks to casey!) salmon--so yummy.
-hilarious game of wiffle ball with a giant bat and ball-nonstop laughing (dad, matt, and bo whipped us girls!)
-cutie bo trying to run with a giant frisbee in his mouth
-just chatting and talking and shopping and eating with family...ahhh....

ryan! i'm so glad you had fun at the blackjack table--that is fun! sounds like you stayed in a sweet place, too!

yes! spring break time for me!!! hooray!
i'll spend as much time as possible at the beach, of course.
but also in the plans are: haircut, painting the kitchen, some spring cleaning, and boring finance stuff.

i'm looking forward to being in cleveland in a week and a half and seeing the good side of the family!

you're the only thing that i love
scares me more every day
on my knees i think clearer
--snow patrol

good morning.
i'm going to a class all day today to get a 1/2 of a graduate credit.
not too bad, eh? i don't have time or committment to do the "sit in class 3 times/week for an hour for 15 weeks" to get my credits so i'm slamming them out of the way like this. plus, it's only $15, which is not bad for college credit. yay! hopefully it will be an interesting class. if not, i'll cancel the other 2 that i'm signed up for by the end of this year.

the sun is shining already--i hope it doens't turn out to be a good beach day, or i'll be ticked!!!

matt got his first paycheck yesterday!!! hooray!!!
now we can breathe (and spend!) a little easier...

last night matt and i went out to walgreens, which was hoppin at 9 pm, surprisingly. anyways, we went to purchase a heating pad because unfortunately, i think i have a superficial blood clot in my leg again. so we brought it home and matt got it out of the wrapper for me and i picked it up without paying attention and then started gagging! ha! the material on the outside of it feels like the car ceiling interior (and the good family knows how they used to torment me by scratching their fingers on the ceilings of our cars and drive me crazy!!! i still have the emotional scars!). it was a rather funny scene, matt saying we could take it back and me saying i wanted to conquer it. i did end up conquering it, but not without squealing and gagging some more. we all have a little bit of sensory defensiveness, whether it be hearing nails on the chalkboard, touching cotton balls or cotton at the top of a vitamin jar (gag just thinking about), chewing yarn, chewing tin foil, hearing fork scrape on a plate (michelle good), etc. so in ryan style, i'm taking a survey of everyone's worst sensory overload nightmare.

have a good day everyone, i must be going!
tracey

yes!
it's wednesday!
seven more days until spring break, people!!!!
and we'll be seeing the sanford part of the family, as well as babu and mama matthew.
quality time will be spent (at sonic, i'm sure).
dad, make sure you bring all the stuff for your tanzania deal--i can't believe you haven't blogged about it yet!
we want details!!!!

i finally got to see new videos of sweet hannah! she is sitting up and being bald and cute!
i can't wait to see that girl in a few weeks!

nothing much new here, really.
just doing the norm things.
actually, i'm taking a "class" for graduate credit, which is a cool program for educators to research and implement new materials/techniques, etc. it requires 15 hours of out of work preparation, which is nothing, really. i have 5.5 hours logged already for this week, and it's something i've been wanting to do forever, but haven't been motivated. my project involves creating activities for children with language disorders based on children's literature (that corresponds with california literacy standards). i'm pretty pumped! plus, it adds up for salary advancement (which is a ways off, since i need 14 more credits to hop up to the next level). but either way, it feels good to be researching and being creative and using my brain instead of doing the same old same old.

i'm going to paint our kitchen this weekend. i've been wanting to forever, but haven't been able to decide on a color. i think i've finally settled on a deep red color (cherry cobbler, to paint freaks)--it was between that and purple, and matt preferred the red. it seems like it will be pretty bold, but the amount of wall actually being covered is not that much, with cupboards and appliances and all.

matt is out returning a video and picking up postage stamps (and hopefully some cookie dough!). and i'm listening to the song matt and i danced to at our wedding, which i loved, because everyone was silent (and doesn't it seem like people rudely chat throughout the dances at weddings nowadays?) and the world stopped and the best lyrics of all (which have nearly been fulfilled) filled the place:

we don't need a lot of money
we'll be sleeping on the beach
keeping oceans within reach
(whatever private oceans conjure up for free)
i will stumble there with you
and you'll be laughing close with me
trying not to make a scene
etcetera whatever
i guess all i really mean
is we're gonna be alright
yeah, we're gonna be alright
you can close your eyes tonight
cause we're gonna be alright...

-over the rhine

and God is always good, because we are alright! :)

yay! lots of blogs to read today!

i stayed late at work (5:00) so i could get my office rearranged. i forgot how heavy office furniture is. hmm. no matter, i'm a professional heavy item lifter after our riduculous concrete-moving weekend! it felt really good to get it all done and have the space look bigger and more organized.

matt is a basketball zombie now. but he made skyline dip, so i'm going to go invade his space!

some messages to fellow bloggers:
michelle-i too, am watching american idol. however, i have nothing to compare it to, since i only caught about 2 total episodes before. i also like the pen salesman kid. a lot of them of pretty good! i agree, leah is horrible--i'm so glad she got voted off last night--she never should have made it as far as she did. i like fantasia's personality more than her voice (although her voice is good, it's not my personal favorite style--but most of them aren't!). i love that redhead's voice but there's no way he's going to win... unless the only people voting are middle-aged women!!! anyhoo, it should be interesting.
mike- you go ahead and grow that hair out, girlfriend!
mare-such a great picture of casey and his doggy friend bo in front of that lake! that's a frame-it-and-put-it-on-your-desk type of picture. i can't wait to get a real dog (funny enough, we also have an ipod dog!).

i would write more but i'm hungry.
so farewell people!

why must we clean every single day???
that's one of the major things i am looking forward to in heaven--never having to clean again! also, seeing jesus is going to be good, too. :)

i enjoyed reading the new blogs today--michelle-nice one!
i wish i could hear baby hannah sqealing as she puts herself to sleep!
i'll get to see her soon enough. hopefully uncle matt will, too!

matt and i have been researching wood floors, since his allergist recommended them. i think we would have installed them someday anyways (they look so nice and they increase the resale value of your house), but it's more motivating to do something about it now. well, not now. but as soon as we have some cash saved up and as soon as we have a more permanent status for matt's job. so apparently i've had wood floors on the brain because i had a dream about them last night. such a weirdo!!!

anyhoo, i've been running again. i've been working it in slowly, a couple of miles, 2x/week. and i feel really good! i'm still going to my physical therapy appt on march 30th, though. but my next goal is the mission bay triathlon (500meter swim, 15k bike, 5k run) in october--anyone else want to join in on that one??? i thought about doing something in cincy this summer, michelle, if you want to get in on that. i'll do some more research.

i think we're going camping in joshua tree this weekend, so that should be great. we went about this time last year with joel and the andy's and had such a fun time. joshua tree was pretty desolate, but it had some amazing rock formations that i'm looking forward to climbing on (not hardcore, though). oh yeah, i had a graduation party for one of my girls today (when i met her last year, she couldn't say her "r" sounds so she said, "my name is tewwa nova (terra nova). my mommy says it's special because it means 'new ewth' (new earth)." ha! total drama queen in a way that entertains me every time!!! anyways, her parents came to her graduation party and we started chatting about things and they were saying that they bought property up in joshua tree. very cool. but even better is that they have a buffalo that lives there, too! apparently, he is wild but he just hangs around their yard, chewing on plants and staring at them with giant eyes! i hope i see him when we go!

welp, i must get back to the neverending lifelong job of housework.
have a great rest of the week everyone!

hello gang!
and happy belated birthday to justin!!!

somehow i have mustard on my shirt and i know i didn't eat mustard today. hmmm... maybe it was transferred in a messy child hug!

anyhoo, glad to see that mary is not joining the ranks of ryan good- blogwise, i mean!
also, i must know how the clay aiken concert was! ha! that's got to be worse than hootie, seriously!!!

this past weekend matt and i helped our friends transfer concrete from their back yard to a uhaul. we were machines!!! by the time we were done loading, the uhaul was seriously lowered and the top portion of the tires were nowhere to be seen. so the four of us hopped in the front of the uhaul, ready to ride to the city dump. as we were driving away, we heard a horrible sound of tires scraping on the bottom of the truck. this would be our background noise for the rest of the trip. our excursion also involved hitting a giant pothole, having a guy pull up and tell us that our axle was about to snap, and having the lady at the dump weigh our vehicle and say, "oh my god!" apparently, we had 6 thousand pounds of concrete in that deal! we really were praying the whole way that we would make it unharmed and that the truck would be unharmed. which was what happened, thankfully. after burning the brakes and the tires, of course!

we're still so sore!!!! i've got to get a workout like that in more often!

welp, i have a dentist appt to pick up my nightguard so i don't grind my teeth into oblivion. farewell.

14 more days of work until spring break!
(let the school countdowns begin, mare...)
tracey

hello there everyone!
it's been a good week.
first of all, we made it through the 2nd week in march!
only 3 weeks to go until spring break-yeah!
hopefully up to chow town by then. but we sorta have to wait and see how flexible matt's job will be about letting him have a day off only 3 weeks into his employment.

this week was full.
the other night we watched "american splendor", which i loved.
definitely on my top 10 in my year in review.
great acting, very witty, different, interesting, and so weird that it was true!

i got to talk to rydogg also, since his family left him for clay aiken! :)

then on thursday night, matt got the fever for shuffleboard (bar shuffleboard, that is!) so we called up our friends sue and tom and asked if they wanted to join us. which, of course, they did. so we grabbed a bite to eat at this mexican restaurant that they just fixed up in OB--yummy and cheap! and then we just walked across the street to a place called bullfrogs, where we played shuffleboard. unfortunately, my teams lost both games. mostly due to me. darn it!

then last night, matt and i were able to do what we've been wanting to do since he was laid off in november!
we went out to dinner at ortega's and then went to a real movie in a theater! :)
we finally saw mystic river, by which i was unfortunately depressed and disappointed.
only in the story line and expansion of some events, though---the acting was fantastic.

so today we're going to help our friends marni and ed with their backyard. apparently, they had a huge concrete slab in part of their backyard, where the former owners parked their boat. so our friends rented a jackhammer and went to town on it. and today we're going to help them clean up the thousands of pounds of concrete--yikes!

we had a nice 80 degree day today so we went to the beach and relaxed!
everyone was out, all pumped up that it was so warm...
there was such a great, summer-carefree-feeling all day long.
supposedly it is going to be in the 80s this week so now i'm really going to feel like working!!!
oh well. poor me. ha!!!

last night we went to our friends house and made homemade pizzas and played games (scene it and catch phrase). we now have our own version of catchphrase, which started after matt began yelling, "monkey" for his answer every time. so now we have monkey catchphrase, where you have to make up a scenario involving a monkey for each of your clues. it's quite hilarious, actually.

i think our pilot light went out because we have no hot water, so matt's trying to wrangle with it upstairs.
we both need to take showers before we go to church tonight, which starts in 40 minutes. hmmmm...
and then we're having dinner (italian, of course!) at our friend desiree's house while we watch the season premiere of "the sopranos".
so it should be a great evening...
have a great week everybody!

wow, what a week!
God had the perfect job waiting for matt this month!
he went in for an interview on monday and was hired on tuesday!
hooray! it's a 3-month contract, with possibility for permanent, depending on the higher-ups.
whatever it ends up being, it's a very prestigious company that will look great on his resume.

look it up here at: www.illumina.com

and then he has two more interviews this week, that he's going to for the practice/for if this really is temporary and he can look these companies after the contract is over.

so God is good, as usual!!!

march is always my most difficult month at school, mostly because there are no days off or holidays to look forward to (unless you count st. patrick's day, which i don't, because it's in the middle of the week and we don't even get a day off school--waaaah!!!!).
but i've made it through the first week, so that's not so bad!

so i'm going to graig henry's wedding in cleveland on april 17th! yay!
matt made me get the ticket, because even though we're broke, it is a really important event to me.
graig is like family. for those of you who don't know, his mom, mary, was my mom's best friend. and she went to be with the Lord a few years ago.
and i've grown up with the henry family and considered them family, and i have a personal day yet to take, so i'm going, gosh darn it!
and it is going to be such a PAR-TAY! i really am excited. plus, i get to see my baby hannah, too!!!!

welp, i'd better get going to school.
have a great day, people!!!

i just won a free lunch at fred's mexican restaurant!
yay! i entered a contest a long time ago and i actually won.
now i'm going to try to win TLC's home sweep, where one winner will get their whole mortgage paid off--yeah!!!

i had an insane day of cleaning and laundry. one nice thing about having kids is that someday they will be old enough to have chores and they can help me...

matt and i went to the beach today to relax and read. we do that all the time but hardly ever end up reading. we just start chatting and looking at people and watching the ocean. the ocean never gets old! no matter how many times i've seen it, it still draws me in.

we also ended up looking at all the pups at dog beach, like we usually do when we're down that way. i get pumped up for when we have a dog someday and can take him there to swim and play. we saw a dog who looked like reeces but was black and had a little more of a beard! we always see bo bear dogs there (and i'm now noticing them in a ton of commercials, too!). someday. me. doggie. happy.

we're going to rancho's tonight (my favorite: lentil, avacado, and cheese burrito) with some friends and then back to our house to play some games. we may try to bust out catan, but we'll see what the mood is like. if everyone is horsing around, it's not really the game to be learning or explaining, eh?

matt has an interview on monday, so that's good news. he had a phone interview last week and now they want him for a face-to-face. everyone keep him in your prayers!!! it's a temporary position but temporary $ is better than unemployment $. plus, scantron started out as just contract work as well, and that turned to permanent. apparently a normal practice of hiring in the tech writing field.

it's march on monday--how did that happen??? march is not my favorite month, mostly because we have zero school holidays during those 4 1/2 weeks. today i found an old calendar (2002) and was laughing because it was when i worked at wauseon and i had recorded every day that we had a 2-hour delay or snow day! so fun, waking up in the morning and turning on that TV to see wauseon and evergreen (for mare!) were cancelled! this past week we had quite a bit of rain for several days in a row. one morning it was particularly heavy rain and one of the teachers said to the secretaries, "shouldn't school be cancelled by now?" ha! she was joking, but i was thinking the same thing as i was driving in...

welp, i've got to get ready for our night out on the town!

yes, i know i love little people, but that guy who was the littlest groom was, in true form to all other reality tv bachelors, not the brightest penny in the bank. oh well. matt explained that those are the only kind of people they can get to do those shows, anyways...

well, we had our first "winter storm" of the year! we went to bed sat night and it was pouring and it continued off and on through monday afternoon. so of course, it has been all over the news. but now everything is nice and green and pretty! always amazing how that happens!

here's the so simple recipe for fruit pizza:
1. get a pkg of pillsbury sugar cookie dough and roll it out to about 1/4 inch thickness on a cookie sheet (sprinkle flour on the cookie sheet and the dough, so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin--or sometimes, i just push it out with a big spoon or my hands). it will most likely take the shape of a large oval or tapered rectangle, so don't stress if it doesn't look like a perfectly squared off rectangle.
2. bake as directed
3. stir together 8 oz of cream cheese (softened) and 1/2 cup of sugar. then spread it evenly on the cooled cookie.
4. top with any kind of fruit you want.
5. snarf it down wildly!

have a great day everyone!!!

just a quick one to vote on my favorite pics of hannah for the contest:
i like the one of her in the basket and the one of her on the counter the best (where she has that little toy in her hand). (but it's hard to choose, they're all so cute!)

have a great day everyone!!!

yay!
grammy and ryan and michelle ALL blogged! congratulations ryan, on becoming VICE PRESIDENT! wow, and way before the age of 30, too--that is so fantastic!!!! and new pictures of hannah on michelle's page made me laugh! and in answer to ryan's question, my favorite dessert is fruit pizza (which i tend to only make for parties or on hilton head vacations!). i made this dessert for valentine's day that was actually a parfait of layers of chocolate cake, chocolate syrup, vanilla pudding, cool whip, and oreos and matt was really into it. in fact, we had a funny incident where he really wanted to eat it while he watched a show on TV, and somehow i was (unknowingly) inhibiting this from happening so it became a funny fight, where matt later apologized for "becoming obsessed with his dessert". HA!!! i don't think i know anyone more passionate about food than matt.

tonight we're having a few friends over for dinner, so i'm going to go prepare for that! thankfully, we've kept this place pretty darn clean for the past couple of weeks (i'd even say since christmas, we've been good), so there's not much work to do in that respect. i'm going to start a new project soon that may ruin the nice, decluttered space we've been living in! i've been wanting to do it since we moved out here but i just haven't been on the ball. i've been wanting to have a guest book in our guest room that each person signs/writes a message as they come to visit. since i've been late and we've had a ton of visitors, i'm just going to print out a picture of each visitor and write the dates of their visit. sounds simple, but once i get going, who knows what that could turn into???

welp, i'm off! enjoy your weekends, everyone!

in response to matt's comment about me watching "the littlest groom":
what can i say? i'm obsessed with little people.

it's monday and i'm not working!
hooray!
it's beautiful, so i'm going to take a hike pretty soon.
maybe by the time i get back, matt will be up.
this is the fun part of his unemployment: when he's home on my vacation days!

summer plans are filling up fast--
i'm doing a cincy/lexington/maybe columbus circuit from june 15-july 4.
then my parents are coming out aug 7-14ish, and ryan, michelle, and hannah will be out for a week sometime, and mare sometime as well! by the way mary--can you believe our campsite is booked for every day in august? i checked awhile ago (when we were emailing about it) and not one day in the whole month was open. ridiculous! it makes me feel like booking for next summer right now! so anyhoo, the summer is filling up! and happily! i love having people here anytime, but especially in the summer when i'm not working!

dad edwards, i loved the crab audio quote on your blog!
and mary, those pictures of bo are so cute! what a silly, sweet dog, with silly, sweet ears!
i can't wait to meet him in person!

i think i might go to our borders to see if their calendars are $1.00 as well, seeing as it is mid-february and we are still without one.
i was lazy all day yesterday, reading and lounging around... so today i want to get out and get moving!
so i'm off!

happy valentine's day everyone!!!

ah, saturday morning after a friday off!
it feels so good!
nevermind that i've woken up at 6:45 (the exact time my alarm goes off on weekdays) today and yesterday.
welcome to the world of being an adult, eh?
it's not that i don't get enough sleep when i get up this early, it's just sort of depressing---you know, saying goodbye to an era (of consistent staying up late, sleeping in late, being younger).

i'm listening to belle and sebastian and getting partly excited for coachella music festival (and partly not, because what if matt doesn't have a job by then..) but it would be so great to see ash, deathcab, flaming lips (i need to see what has matt so excited, but i could give or take the actual music--sorry), basement jaxx (just for where's your head at--the ultimate pump up song for me a few years ago), you will know us by the trail of dead, the pixies (of course), the cure (yes!), and belle and sebastian.

but thanks to grandpa's christmas money, that i actually carried around in my purse until now (aren't you proud of me??? 2 months almost, without spending it!), we're going to see the strokes! you can read in matt's blog how the deal went down. it's one of those shows that we would regret missing. like U2, i know we were poor, but i wish we could have scraped together the money somehow to see that epic performance.

i agree with mom edwards, i love hearing about the little everyday things that people are doing-- i love picturing mom making bread in her bread machine, mary sitting at her desk in her classroom with her journal open in front of her, casey chasing after silly bo, mike and justin in the basement recording, dad with headphones in, listening to the bros music. it makes me feel like i don't miss much between the times that we all see each other. when i go home and catch up with family and friends, i'll start telling a story and someone will say, "oh yeah, i read that on your blog." huh? oh. then i don't need to talk....:)

by the way, dad, are you giving any cs lewis talks in ohio/BG/cleveland/or pittsburgh areas anytime in the future (because ken wants to see you talk sometime)? i looked on your website and didn't see any ohio engagements, but--man! you are a famous speaker, eh? nationally and internationally known! when you first started reading cs lewis works, did you ever imagine yourself in this position?

oh yeah, dad! yesterday i got a letter from my grammy, who has a friend who lives in the assisted living home where you spoke at in columbus. apparently, this woman is 90 years old and also an accomplished quilter. grammy told her that mom edwards was also a quilter and the lady said she knew and that she had her picture taken with mom. do you all remember that??? what a fun, small world!

welp, i must be going-- pilates is calling my name!
have a fantastic weekend everyone!

hello everyone!
short week this week!
tomorrow is a cake day of a conference, so i get to just RECEIVE instead of giving!
then monday and friday we have off-hooray! this time last year we were on our way up to san fran to hang out with the andys and joel and have one of the most fun weekends of our lives! good memories.

oh michelle-i say ditto to what mary said about tossing/donating the wedding paraphanalia. it sounds like you nearly had yourself convinced anyways. plus, it always helps me when i visualize myself in a few months, a year, etc. down the road. will i miss that item because i have a need to use it? or can i make someone else happy with it (by donating it to charity)? because i buy good stuff, gosh darn it! :) plus, this almost seems like a no-brainer, since you surely already have a picture of your cake-topper (and everything else), if you need the memory of it, you can look at the photo. ooh, it makes me feel so good to think of even other people's clutter going!!!! i'm sick, i know! the end.

after 6 years of my harrassment, matt finally gave in and went to get allergy tested, so we could identify and avoid whatever is causing him to be so miserable. which will be nearly impossible, apparently. poor guy had welts all over his little arms!!! he's allergic to every kind of pollen in nearly every kind of tree, weed, or grass. but apparently by living on the coast we have the best possible location to avoid that, because no allergens blow in off the ocean. the only time it causes problems is if we get a santa ana wind from the desert, which kicks up everything. AND that poor guy is allergic to dust mites, which make him the most miserable. so we're doing the affordable accommodations first: covering mattresses and pillows and stuff with dust mite protectors, and washing bedding/curtains every two weeks. the allergist said that carpets are the worst place for housing dust mites, so we'll eventually get wood floors. but that is in the distant future. michelle and ry, can you believe matt is NOT allergic to dogs? the dr. said he's allergic to whatever dogs bring in from outside and spread inside. either way, the dude said that did not give us permission to get a dog. so i'm sad. but who knows? in a couple of years matt may get miraculously healed and we'll be able to get a pup!

last night i went to my kids' opera production of "rip van winkle". they were so cute and the production was so fantastic! people from the san diego opera came and directed and practiced with them every day for 2 hours. i would have loved to have had something like that when i was a kid. i think the best part was seeing some of the rougher kids or kids who have learning disabilities really get to tap into other gifts and talents that they have. also, i have a student who is a severe stutterer, who was able to participate because his part was all singing (stutterers typically do not stutter at all when they sing).

too much valentine's candy for me! i've been bouncing off the walls all day!
happy valentine's day to everyone! i love you all!
have fun in vegas, mare and casey! and bo!