Following Up

I really need to go to bed, but I wanted to follow up with a few things and not leave you hanging. I am sure many of you (well, the two or three of you out there :) are just on the edges of your seats waiting for the rest of the story. :) Oh, by the way, I know it is late, but I want to say I have been making a remarkable effort to go to bed earliER. Not early, just earlier. And it is late, but this is still early for me. :) Hopefully in a few weeks, once life settles down, or as much as it can around here, I will actually get to bed before midnight...maybe. :)

The loft...it is finished! Well, it could use a little sanding (volunteers? :), but otherwise, it is done. Mark took some time today to build the ladder for it. It is just amazing for me to see. I just casually threw out that wish (for a loft) at the beginning of the summer and he completely designed and built it just by looking at others in the building. I had NO idea he could build with wood. Mark gave a lot of time and effort, and I will always be grateful. He is a good guy!

This isn't really a follow up but we had a bit of good news in the mail, which is somewhat unusual since we typically just receive bills. We received a letter saying that Mark's student loan (we have been paying on it ever since we married) is paid in full. We had NO idea. Honestly I won't believe it until I see that another payment is not taken out, but the letter seems pretty legit. It is just a little money in our budget we can assign to new things (like paying for three kids' lunches at school :).

I had a pretty good day. It was not a good "watch what I eat and exercise" kind of day, but today was really busy, so I had to make do. We had a breakfast at the Chamber of Commerce for "teacher appreciation". I had the privilege of seeing my very own Daddy there...I always feel proud to see him serving me sausage biscuit. I did not win any prizes, but that isn't really unusual... Afterwards, I came home for a quick lunch then headed over to a district wide meeting...there are a LOT of teachers in our city! After the meeting, we had our Back to School social. I conducted a couple of kindergarten information meetings for parents. Somehow, me, the one who avoided any kind of public speaking class, is the kindergarten spokesman. :) Afterwards, the teachers got together at a nearby Mexican restaurant for a little back to school "bash". Then it was off to the store (which ironically Mark had gone to but I didn't realize, so our milk supply is GOOD) and home to get the house cleaned up. Busy day.

Final follow up then I go to bed...

Bonnie.

I don't remember who visited whose blog first. I think maybe Bonnie visited mine first. I don't remember. I do remember the first (and only time pre-accident) that I met her. She was teaching kindergarten in our district at the time, and she came up to introduce herself at a teacher in-service since she recognized me from my blog. It took me a minute to realize who she was because her blog is named after her daughter; I didn't make the connection at first.

It was in January, our first in-service back, that Bonnie's husband Thomas was on his way to work...our in-service. He was a teacher at our local high school. I never had the privilege of meeting Thomas though I look forward to that one day. I remember standing in the hallway and hearing the whispered news of an accident. Again, it took a minute for the name to sink in, and when it did...my heart was crushed. Along with learning that Thomas had passed away, we (the local viewing area) learned from the news that Bonnie was pregnant at the time with their second child. (Their daughter is just a few weeks older than Joshua)

Since then I have had the pleasure of spending more time with Bonnie; she is an amazing woman. What you see on her blog is what you get with her. She is genuine and truly has a caring heart for others.

As I have mentioned, her doctor noticed that Bonnie was measuring bigger than expected in her pregnancy. She (the dr.) made the decision to induce Bonnie today (or rather yesterday), the 17th. Unbeknownst to the dr, that day had significant meaning...Thomas (the father) would have celebrated his 30th birthday that day. Now that birthday will be shared by baby Thomas.

It seems only fitting that we started hearing news at the in-service. I was a wreck...jumpy, fidgety, emotional. You would think I was personally involved in the delivery...nope. Just a bystander, waiting for a word. During our afternoon in-service, a group of high school students shared an arrangement of the Phil Collins song, "You'll Be in my Heart". I just teared up as I heard the words of the song thinking about her, wondering how her day had gone, knowing Thomas was not here (in person) to join the celebration.

What was even more fitting...just as we were being dismissed for the day, our superintendent made his way to the podium, paper in hand. He proudly announced that Baby Thomas had been born...just moments before. Cheers and applause (and probably a few tears) erupted in the auditorium.

From her website, I have learned that he was 7 pounds 15 ounces. He and mommy are doing well. If you click on the link above, you can see a picture of Bonnie, Thomas, and big sister Caroline.

God is good. All of the time.

More later,

Reba