Adventures in one parent land...

Summer has arrived! Or at least that is what the calendar says. Sam is off to drum corps. We are only 5 days away from getting him home for one night and I can't wait! I can honestly say that I don't know how single-parents do it. God bless them! David and I have been on our own for just over a week now and while we have definitely gotten into a groove (and discovered how I can take a shower with him awake - quite the accomplishment!), it is definitely a test!

Since Sam has been gone, I got pulled over for the first time (thankfully only because we forgot to put the new tabs on...didn't even get a warning ticket - phew!), cleaned up a gigantic mess from an upset/angry Dawg missing his dad, endured a night of sick Dawg - probably from the trashcan he devoured, have miraculously kept up on laundry and watering the lawn, and dealt with a scary solicitor. David is now sick and has a fever, and we are about to have record setting temperatures for the second time this year, forcing us to vacate our house because we do not have air conditioning.

But, despite all of that ;-), we did drive up to the camp to see Sam for a couple of hours and have lunch, which was awesome! This morning, before David showed a temp., we went with Leslie and the canines for a hike, and I am getting to spend a TON of quality time with him. I am LOVING that part! This is what summer is about! This is why being a teacher is awesome! Even though I have to go into work on Monday, and again on Wednesday for a couple of hours, I am getting to spend hours upon hours with our fun, sweet, energetic, absolutely amazing son. He is learning new things everyday and his sense of humor is just the best. I am so excited and thankful that we will always have summers together and that our schedules will continue to line up when he starts school in a few years (what?!). We are so blessed.

Even though I cannot wait for drum corps to be over so we can spend a few days as a family having all this fun before school starts back up, I have to say that I am enjoying the adventure we are currently on - David and I are becoming quite the team! But I also do not envy single parents. David and I are also blessed to have Sam in our lives and we really can't do it (well) without him.

*On a side note, our neighbor brought up the trashcan today. I can't even begin to describe how thankful I was for what seems like such a little thing, but was such a big help!

End of the Year Chaos!

Sam's principal made a comment to him the other day during his annual evaluation that really made me think about how blessed we are in the midst of the end of year chaos. She told him that she was wondering how we were still married after a year like this one. Between Sam teaching K-12 music (totally unheard of...he is literally doing the work of two teachers right now), my ever-growing music program at school, being in school this year, and having a toddler at home...I suppose looking in from the outside someone might wonder that. And it will only be crazier next year with my internship and applying for jobs again.

But coming from where we are, it doesn't seem so crazy to me. I mean...our lives are crazy, but being married still? It's because we understand and have understood from the beginning. Living the music life through middle and high school, we both saw the lives our our directors. And we signed up for it anyway. In college, our dates revolved around concerts we were performing, volunteering together, working marching bands together, and doing homework together. We established that from the beginning. I knew when I married Sam that he would have concerts, professional development, and lesson planning to do. As he knew about me. We are still married because we get it. I could never be married to someone who didn't. It just wouldn't work. We are passionate about what we do. It makes work/our job so much better - loving what we do.

Now throw into the mix a 19 month old toddler...the love of our lives. We treasure every moment with David. He is our everything. We work for him, we play for him...he is amazing. This weekend we left him with my parents so that I could help Sam drive 11 kids to a music festival in Portland. While we know we both needed the time together (after we dropped the kids off the weekend was ours), and it is important for us to have the time to reconnect, we missed David terribly. It was a little bit of extra sleep, a little bit of freedom, but a lot a bit of missing and talking about him. It is so hard to leave him, but we really do appreciate the extra time to reconnect.

So, as we enter the most busy season of the school year (two and a half more weeks!), it is with great pride that we say we are still married and that this is just our life. We are lucky enough to get to spend the summer, majority of evenings and weekends with our family. It just seems crazy for a couple weeks at a time, a few times a year.

Looking forward -
Heather