Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone. I'm trying to figure out who really reads my blog!
It is true though. I really hope this isn't why I was queezy all day yesterday.

DRAMA MOMMA

Drama Momma.

That is what we are going to call you if you come into our office acting like a fool.

I've done it once before, I'm gonna do it again now.

Parents:  When your 'baby' grows up and goes away to college it is time to cut the apron strings.  Let them grow up and learn to be an adult.  Your son or daughter isn't going to appreciate you acting like an idiot 'in their behalf.'  They will simply be embarrassed, and you may be shocked to discover that Junior doesn't even share your opinions.  Just let them go.  They will come back.  I promise.

Okay.  Now that is over with.  This is going to be a long one, but the part at the end will be completely worth it...I PROMISE!!
Yesterday was a lot of fun.  I had my first GHD interview and it went very well.  I hope the young lady decides to come to ASU.  After work, Heath and I took the girls and Heath's parents to the mall for dinner.  Yeah, I know--we are BIG spenders!

After dinner we stopped by Build-A-Bear.  We have never been before because we didn't think we could leave without spending a couple hundred dollars.  Well, we only spent 60.  A lot better than we thought we would. 

Kalyn got "Curly Lamb" and named her "Mary" (as in Mary had a Little Lamb).  She dressed her in an adorable pink ballerina outfit.  Keali wanted a monkey.  There was a pink monkey for $12.00 or a brown monkey for $18.00.  I was pushing for the pink monkey (I like pink and it was less expensive).  Keali was adamant about the brown monkey. 

You see...Kalyn's color is pink and Keali doesn't want to have anything to do with pink.  She wanted the brown monkey.  Since Heath and I feel that Keali often 'gets the shaft,' we got the brown monkey.  Keali named it, "Ooh Ooh Aah Aah" and dressed her in a great track suit that has a little monkey on it.  Keali loves green.  And monkeys!  They were both so excited about their new dolls. 

I wish I had remembered to take pictures!!  I always forget!  The cutest part was when the girls had to fill the little hearts with love and make them warm before placing them inside their animals.  They took the whole process very seriously and even 'washed' the dolls after they had been sewn up.  Too cute.

Next we went to the play area.  Mamaw and Papaw watched the girls while Heath and I ran to a couple stores.  We bought the girls a little basketball for their net on our porch, a soccer ball for Kalyn (she loves kicking stuff) and a 'hairy' yellow ball for Keali. 

You should have seen Keali's face when I showed her the ball.  Her eyes got huge and her mouth formed an 'O.'  Then she smiled so big and grabbed it.  She loves the ball.

My Mom made a precious spring dress for Kalyn.  It came in the mail last week and Kalyn instantly fell in love.  She put it on and then wanted to wear it over to Mamaw and Papaw's house.  I told her she couldn't play outside with the dress on.  Her eyes got big and her voice got the most reverent it has ever been when she said, "I won't play outside."  And she didn't!  Thank you for the dress Mom--she loves it!

And now for the part you have all been waiting for...

This was taken at Heath's work a couple weeks ago.  One of Keali's favorite things is to do this.  SCARY!!

The cutest thing just happened.  I am in my home office helping my sis-in-law with her resume (by the way, Heath is delusional if he believes that he wrote his own resume...I totally did it!).  Suddenly I hear Kalyn sobbing in my bedroom.  What could be wrong...this time!  Heath went to check on her.  She was crying, "The baby is floating down the river!"  She was watching WILLOW that Shannon and Tim brought for her to watch.  She had never seen it before and her tender feelings couldn't handle the thought of a baby having to travel by basket on a raging river.  Poor baby!  It was super cute!

Now both my children are screaming at the top of their lungs.  I have my first candidate coming in tomorrow so I should probably go to be since I am meeting with her bright and early.  I ran out of time to clean my office, so I have just shoved everything in a rubbermaid container and placed it under my desk.  Pathetic I know, but what else can I do?!

I wish Kalyn would stop telling everyone that her Mommy is going to have another baby.  I'm not.

Yet.

For those of you who think I am busy...I forgot to mention that I am also in the middle of a hall director search and I am bringing candidates to campus for interviews (that I have to coordinate/schedule/design) this week and next. Yes. I am busy.
We had a wonderful weekend as a family. I did the check and discovered this was the first weekend in six weeks that we were able to spend as a family! Six weeks! I am so happy we were able to be together.
Saturday we slept in (8:30!) then I made pancakes for breakfast. Kalyn wanted pink, Keali wanted green so we mixed the two and had pink & green marbled pancakes for breakfast. Then Heath and I did a good clean up of the apartment (at least the living room/kitchen, and we headed out.
We washed/vaccumed Heath's car, did some needed shopping, then spent a little while with Heath's parents. Oh, I forgot. Heath came home extra early Friday night and took me on a date! We had a nice dinner, then a somewhat embarrassing trip to the store, but I won't talk about that here. Okay, back to Saturday. We played with our dogs (when I say we, I mean Heath and the girls) then went home.
Sunday morning we woke up and got to church a little late, but not too late. I had a visitor in my primary class who wouldn't stop trying to play with my purse and bag of supplies. I didn't want to get on to her, because I think her family is investigating the church and I didn't want to offend them or hurt a 4-year old's feelings, but I also didn't want the child pilfering through my stuff. At last the class ended and her mom picked her up. In all, a good lesson though.
I made a roast with veggies for lunch/dinner and Heath's family came over to share our meal. It was pretty good. Heath went out with the missionaries, and when he came home we spent time together as a family again. The girls didn't want to go to bed at all, but that's okay because Kalyn is on spring break this week.
Now, I am at work and clearly I am procrastinating. I need to stop...I have so much to do!

Did you know April 1st is only 7 working days away?!  I am PANICKED!!

2009 is my school's (Arkansas State University) Centennial year.  Because of this we are having a year long celebration--why shouldn't we?  We are 100!  Anywho...

I am responsible for my department's Centennial Celebration Hoopla (yes, that is a technical term) including a display board featuring all of the past residence halls (it's really hard to find photos of res halls from 100 years ago), and the Centennial Celebration Parade float which I am ridiculously excited about.

Why am I excited about this float?  Because this will be the first REAL parade ASU has had in almost 40 years!  For some reason, for the past 40 years organizations have made floats for homecoming and such, then just displayed them in front of buildings.  There hasn't been a real parade.  This year...we are doing a real parade complete with candy-passing-out (we can't throw it from the float for safety reasons).  I am very excited.

Until today.  I was in the office describing the super cool t-shirt design we have for the celebrations when somebody put the timeline in perspective for me.  The week after spring break.  What? W H A T !!  Spring break is next week!  I quickly did the math in my head and completely freaked out.  I thought I still had 3-4 weeks until April 1st!  Now...next week I have to finish finding pictures from ten decades ago, finish the design (actually, a CA designed the float, but it needs tweaking) for the float and purchase supplies.  On top of this I have on-campus interviews for graduate hall directors.  I don't have time...but never fear.  It will all get done and it will be spectacular!

I hope.

I get attached to people.  Family, friends, co-workers, people I supervise.  Last weekend was fairly emotional for me.  One of the people I supervise will be graduating in August and he is job searching.  I've only known him for about six months, but I am really happy with everything he has accomplished and I'm sad he is leaving.  He will do very well.

My babies are growing up.  Kalyn is practically grown up.  Not really, but it feels that way.  I remember when I could cradle her in one arm.  Keali is a talker--always something to say.  Yesterday on the way home she smiled at me and said, "Mommy, I'm so cute!"  And she is.

I just finished cleaning the girls room.  It took 2 hours.  They have too many clothes and toys.  I've been saying that for years though!

I don't have much to say, but I feel bad about not blogging as much as I used to.

I fired one of the women I supervise yesterday.  She screwed up big time and was already on probation so I had to let her go.  I attended the staff meeting she had last night to tell her RAs she would no longer supervise them.  Of course she wasn't completely honest when she told them what happened, so I came off looking like the bad guy.  Oh well.  I sort of knew that would happen so I was prepared, but it annoys me that I am too professional to dog her out to everyone and set the record straight.  I guess in the grand scheme of things though it doesn't matter at all.  Life will go on.

I feel like crud today--I am so tired.  And I know why.  Anyone care to know?

I am a classic 'I.'  As in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator I.  I am a complete introvert--99% actually.  I am completely exhausted when I have to be around a large group of people I don't know very well.  I spent the entire weekend with tons of people I didn't know, having to carry on conversations with all of them.  I was totally out of my comfort zone.  Why then did I choose a profession that requires me to spend time with people?  Because I hate that I am an I.  I want to be more extroverted so I force myself to be.  As a result I get worn out easily and it takes a while to bounce back.  I have been sleeping so much, but I am always tired and exhausted.  I even came home for lunch today at took a nap.  I'm sure Heath wasn't happy that I didn't spend much time with him, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. 

No...I am not pregnant.

I taught my class today and then seriously contemplated going home to sleep for another hour until I had to pick up the girls, but I figured I was being paid to work so I went back to my office and wrapped up some stuff.  I left a bit early due to a headache, but I enjoyed the extra time I got to spend with Kalyn and Keali this evening.

I went this last weekend to the Southern Placement Exchange. It is a placement exchange for Student Affairs. I went to interview for our grad. assistant positions in our department. We had a really good and fruitful weekend. The girls missed me. Keali punished me by not talking again, but when I saw them last night they were both so happy to see me. They both ended up sleeping in our bed with us last night which translates roughly into me not sleeping much at all. I got tired of trying around 5 so I went to Walmart and picked up some stuff I needed, then went home and got ready for work and got Kalyn ready for school.
Heath got to be a juror on a murder case last week. Yeah. Murder. It only took 3 days and they found the guy guilty in the end. Because of the nature of the case, Heath and the other jurors were excused from the rest of their duration as jury-duty people.

I am usually at work by 8:12 am.  I just can't make myself get ready this morning...Darn Time Change!  This is a long post because I am wasting time not getting ready for work.  I got Kalyn to school this morning, then came home and I am still not showered or ready!

This last weekend was wonderful.  I was able to forget about everything that had been bogging me down and just enjoy time with my family.  Thank you for the supportive comments.

Saturday, Heath had to go to work very early for a softball tournament.  The girls and I slept in until 8 then were up and cleaning!  Kalyn helped me clean the bathroom--insisting on scrubbing out the sink.  She did a great job!  I made pancakes for breakfast.  I love pancakes and the girls usually do too, but this day they just couldn't seem to eat them so we decided to visit Daddy at work.

We drove to Paragould and met Heath there.  We hung out and played for awhile in the field house.  I love watching Heath and the girls play.  He loves them so much and they absolutely adore him.  I got up and played a bit too, then took Keali to good old Wal Mart to pick up some special stuff for Kalyn and some ordinary stuff we actually needed. 

Keali and I picked out a pink t-ball bat and pink glove for Kalyn who is signed up to play t-ball this summer!  We actually missed the sign up dates for t-ball.  It's good to have family and friends in high places because my bro-in-law Brad got Kalyn signed up anyway and we didn't even have to pay for it!

Kalyn is SO EXCITED!  We set up a T in the field house and Heath started teaching Kalyn how to hit.  She did NOT want to be taught.  She is 4 years old so of course she knows better than everyone else!  She eventually started listening though and did a great job batting.  Then Heath pulled out the glove and she wasn't interested in batting anymore.  She had to throw. 

We played t-ball for a while and Kalyn is going to be great!  Keali was such a good helper too, always replacing the softball on the t as soon as Kalyn hit one.  It was a bit unnerving that Kalyn didn't really want to wait until Keali was out of the way to hit, but we managed to not have any accidents.

After a while we left Daddy and drove to Mamaw and Papaw's house.  They were out to lunch with some aunts, so I pulled out a special surprise for the girls--Kites!

Growing up we always tried to fly kites but I don't think we were ever successful.  NE Arkansas has been under a wind advisory for a few days now and let me tell you--a wind advisory is exactly the type of weather you need for flying kites!  It was awesome!!  I am sure I had more fun than the girls, but we all had a good time together.  I'll post pictures later.

Heath didn't get home until almost 11 pm.  He was at work for 16 hours! 

And then the time changed.

:0

And we got up to go to church.

Early.

Sacrament Meeting was a bit of a chore this week.  The girls didn't want to be reverent and Heath didn't want to take them out into the hall.  Primary sharing time was unbearable.  There is no structure to it!  The Primary presidency just sits there and doesn't do a whole lot of anything to stop the chaos.  My kids were being okay (I teach the 5-6 yr olds), but overall it was a nightmare.  I was dreading class time. 

Primary is NOT my favorite calling.  I don't like it much at all.  I wasn't happy when I took the calling, but I took it so I could hopefully learn to enjoy it.

We walked into our classroom and all the chairs were stacked up.  I was not in the mood to arrange the room so I suggested we just sit on the floor.  It was the best idea ever!  The kids were so attentive and participated so well.  The lesson was on repentance.  I was able to share a story from my childhood and I think it really hit home.  It was about me stealing some tic-tacs from the store when I was 5 or 6, and the consequences of my actions.  The best part was when I explained that after apologizing to the store manager and my Mom paying for the tic-tacs, I wasn't allowed to eat a single one of them!  I had to watch my family enjoy the candy while I contemplated what I had done wrong.  As I was telling this I realized that I had some tic-tacs in my purse so as I explained how the family got to eat them, I passed them around. 

First of all, the kids have been begging me to bring them a treat--and apparently tic-tacs count as that.  Secondly, they felt they were actually taking part in the story.  It was great!  I can't explain it too well here, but I think they got the point.  I had been gone for about 3 weeks and they had a substitute.  Before she left, Jenna told me she was happy I was her teacher again!  Awww!

After church the girls and I went over to the in-laws to hang out.  They played a lot outside--we flew kites again, and we enjoyed a yummy meal my FIL made.  We were exhausted by the end of the day, but it was a great weekend!

Kalyn did the sweetest thing this morning.  I was getting ready for my shower and I put out a towel.  Kalyn said, "Mommy, I'll get you another towel."   I explained that I already had a towel.  She said that I needed one for my hair and one for my body.  I told her no, I didn't.  I took my shower.  When I was done, I saw two towels instead of the one I placed nearby.  I looked for Kalyn.  She was crouched in a corner grinning at me!  So what if I said I only needed one towel.  She wanted to do something nice for me.  She is such a sweetie!

Kalyn actually slept all last night in her own bed.  Keali of course slept all night in my bed.  She never used to like sleeping with anyone around.  She had to be completely alone.  Not any more.  It is like pulling teeth to get her to sleep in her own bed.  Not that I'm complaining too much.  I love snuggling with my baby!

I'm getting ready to go to another conference this next weekend.  I told Kalyn about it late this last week; just to get her used to the idea of me being gone again.  She burst into tears and begged me not to go.  She would miss me too much.  Well--I have to go.  She will have fun with her Daddy and this conference isn't nearly as long as the last one. 

Work is going well.  I spend all of yesterday working on one project and it isn't even done yet.  It was very detail oriented and I took my time to make sure it was perfect.  I think I'll do pretty well with it.

This last week has been very difficult for me emotionally.  I have a scheduled appointment with my psychiatrist Monday afternoon.  I've been contemplating asking for a larger dose of my medication.  I don't think I will though.  Anti-depressants shouldn't be used to numb someone.  They should be used to help a person get to the point they can rationally deal with their emotions.  That is where I am right now.  I can rationally deal with my thoughts and emotions.  I have just had such a sad week.  I don't like feeling bad.  Who does though?

What a strange few days!  Last Thursday we had a 70+ degree day.  It was B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!  Wonderful weather.  Friday...not so much.

Saturday, the girls and I accompanied Heath to a high school soccer game.  It was F.R.I.G.I.D!  About a quarter into the game, it began to sleet.  The girls and I were in the field house--still subjected to the cold but at least 'out' of the elements.  Poor Heath was on the field.  After a while it started to snow.  The girls and I went to the heated car and waited for our brave husband/Daddy.  By the time we got home it was snowing pretty good. 

Keali and I were exhausted so we took a nap while Kalyn and Heath went on a Daddy/Daughter Date.  Then I heard banging.  Apparently I had been sleeping through all of Heath's phone calls.  I looked out my window and the world was white. 

Kalyn loved the snow!  Keali loved the idea of snow, not so much the actual feel of it.  Kalyn hit Keali with a snowball and (according to Heath) Keali reacted as though she had just been shot.  Then Keali somehow and for some reason decided to walk through the middle of the ditch in front of my in-laws house.  She was up to her knees in icy water and snow.  She just froze there screaming, "I got cold!"  I got her out of the water while Papaw tried not to roll in the snow with laughter.  It was pretty funny.

When we got home, Kalyn ran with abandon into the snow between our car and the apartment.  Keali got six feet into it and got stuck.  I heard her screaming, "I'm stuck!"  They made snow angels and we had fun for a few minutes.  I swear snow wasn't so cold when I was a kid!

Here are some pics of the girls, Heath, and I as well as some pics from my conference last week.

Kalyn in the middle of the most perfect snow angel.

The most perfect snow angel.  Well...it was until Kalyn stepped in it!

Keali 'Stuck.'

They love each other!

Isn't that mischievous smile the best?!

The professional staff delegation from ASU.

L-R, Kelly, Jimmi, Adonis, Me, April, Shereka, Justin, Mark, Patrick.

Me and the Grad Students

L-R, Justin, Me, Adonis, Shereka, Jimmi.

Jimmi, Me, April on West Mountain.  It was cold!

All of the Host Committee for the conference--I am not naming everyone.

All of the ASU Delegation.

Top left to right going down.

Patrick, Me, Will, Kelly, Allie, Shereka, Viquetta, Jimmi, Mark, Michael, April, Adonis, Justin.