Brief Update

Sorry for the lapse in an update, but I don't feel like we have much to report.

Things are rolling along just fine for us this summer. I have already taken 3 workshops through my school district, for which I received 5 graduate credit hours. If I get 3 more this summer (which I will), then I can move up on the pay scale at work...woohoo!

Summer school starts this coming Monday (the 23rd). I don't have any workshops or obligations this week, so I'm soaking up the free-time before it all comes crashing to a sudden halt. Summer school is only 3 weeks long, but there are 23 kids on my roster right now, which seems very daunting to me. It goes from 8:30-1:15 each day, and that just seems like a really long time to spend with a bunch of high school students who are going into their senior year. They've already failed 11th grade language arts once, so I can't imagine they're going to be too excited about the material I'll be teaching. I'm sure I'll have some fun stories to post in the next 3 weeks.

I don't have anything to update about my sister-in-law, Amy, yet. My brother has always been a hard person to get in touch with, but since Amy's diagnosis with MS, it has been even harder. I just don't think they're ready to talk about it yet. I can only imagine that they are still in shock and disbelief, and chatting on the phone probably isn't on their top ten list of things to do.

That's about it on our end. How about you? How's your summer going so far? Today's a beautiful day in STL. If you're in town, I hope you're taking the opportunity to get outside and enjoy it!

Test Results

We've had a hard week in the Schaefer household. Lots of stuff getting thrown our way all at once. Isn't that how it always is? The smaller things, like a leaky air-conditioner, the spot on Rudy's nose, and general "busy-ness," all seem incredibly insignificant after we learned the results of an MRI for my sister-in-law. She was diagnosed on Thursday with Multiple Sclerosis. I can't begin to tell you how devastating this news has been for my family. My brother and his wife have 2 small children and lead a very active lifestyle. I can't imagine how painful and confusing this is for them in general, but they are not believers and I can't fathom what it must be like to go through this without the strength that only comes from God. Without saying too much in a public forum, please pray for them.

On a less serious note...For those of you read my March 20th post, titled, "Making a Mountain out of a Molehill," about Rudy's nose, this is for you:
We finally had "the spot" removed today. I'm actually going to leave in a bit here and go pick Rudy up from the vet. The vet recommended getting "the spot" tested for cancer, so they're sending it off to the labs. I'll let you all know the results of that when we hear.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Growing up my mother had what I thought at the time was a ridiculous rule: No air conditioning until June 1st and no heat until November 1st. I HATED this rule growing up! Everyone knows it gets insanely hot before June. The whole family would sit in the living room wearing as few articles of clothing as possible with fans going all around us, trying our hardest not to move. It didn't matter how hot it was before June, but when the first arrived it was this magical day where we could finally turn on the air. I didn't understand it at all. What's so special about June 1st? Does it really matter if it's May 25th? Come on, Mom!

I think you can guess what I'm about to say. It happens to the best of us.
I've turned into my mother!

When I graduated college and moved out on my own, I adopted the same rule that plagued my life as a child. The first year I made it to June 1st without air conditioning and I was so proud of myself that I called my mom right away. "Oh...I turned mine on a week or two ago," she said. "WHAT?!? You don't do that anymore?" "Well, I try to, but if it gets too hot..."
I felt duped. That never once happened when I was little.

Regardless, I still try to achieve this goal every year. I can usually make it longer than Matt, but sometimes, like my mother, I tend to cave in if the temperature gets too high.
So this year, we pretty much made it. Matt caved earlier in the spring and turned it on for a day or two, but that didn't last long. And I have to be honest that I turned in on for an hour or two this morning to get the house to a cooler temperature, then turned it off, so that hopefully it won't be 80 degrees in the house by the end of the day. I'm pretty proud for making it this long, but really it hasn't been very hot this spring.

I love the house all open and the breeze flowing through, so as long as the temperature is nice outside there still won't be any air conditioning.

I have definitely become more like my mother than I ever imagined I would....and I love it! My mom's great and I absolutely love that I catch pieces of who she is in myself every day.

24 Weeks

Some of you have been asking to see prego-pics. So...here they are. The first ones are from January 18, when I was only 6 weeks along. You can't really see much. We took the other ones yesterday (May 22), I'm 24 weeks pregnant. Sometimes I still wonder if people can tell I'm pregnant or just fat.

Sunshine makes me happy!

Have I mentioned that I love spring?! I LOVE spring weather! This past week has been really rainy and gross, but luckily it cleared up for the weekend and we've had the perfect weather!

Matt is doing an internship at the Zoo and has to work from 8am-5pm on Saturdays. It totally stinks to have him gone all day, but I go up and eat lunch with him for an hour. Today we had a picnic! I picked him up at the entrance to the zoo and we fought our way through the INSANE traffic at the zoo for about 20 minutes before we could find a place to park. We sat under a nice shade tree and enjoyed a little lunch together...with Rudy, too, of course!

After I dropped Matt back off, Rudy and I headed home to give him a bath. It's so funny, because he sees me walk into the backyard with towels, his scrub brush, and the soap and he literally runs the other direction. He absolutely abhors being bathed; it is a struggle the whole time. He does, however, love the drying off process, which I think it hilarious. He just loves towels. Then we took a little walk in the sun to make sure he was totally dry before coming back into the house.

Tonight, Matt and I grilled some burgers and ate outside. It was lovely. I just can't get enough of being out in the gorgeous weather, opening up the house and letting the breeze come through, and nothing tops it off like a delicious meal outside!

In other news...we're finally taking Rudy to the vet this week. In one of my earlier posts, I talked about my concerns about the spot on Rudy's nose. Well, it just keeps getting bigger and he's started messing with it more and more. We've been putting off the vet for a couple of reasons, the main one being that neither of us have had time to take off school or work to take him in. Now that Matt's done with school, he's going to take him into the vet this week. I know it's taken us too long, but I promise we're good parents to him in other ways!

Graduation

Congratulations, Matt!!

Matt graduated today from UMSL, and I couldn't be prouder of him! His hard work and dedication has paid off! He really worked diligently, especially this past year, and the day as finally come to see it all come to fruition!Matt is to the left-bottom of the picture above walking into the auditorium.

Now...the job hunt!! Let the search begin!

Stress levels are high!

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Sorry to anyone out there who actually reads my blog. Life at the Schaefer household has been a little hectic lately. School is winding down for both Matt and myself, and that means a little stress (okay, a LOT of stress) on both our parts. For me, there is a lot of grading to be done, tests to be written, recommendation letters to be completed, and finals to be printed off before the end of the year and I am MAJORLY behind in all of that! For Matt, well he's in the midst of writing 3 papers and studying for finals...all of which needs to be done by the end of this week! AHH! On top of that, he has started an internship at the zoo, so he works 20 hours a week. I'd be lying if I said we haven't had any melt downs in our household in the past couple of weeks.

But soon it will all be coming to an end. Matt graduates on Saturday after this crazy week is over, and I only have about a week and a half left of teaching before finals begin. We will both be able to exhale soon enough. For now, however...it's back to work.