Remember When I Used to Write Blogs?

I have to confess that I'm not a very good blogger. Caleb keeps promising to post some blogs, but he sits down, tries to figure out the pictures, says some fake cuss words, and then gives up.

I will say that we have been very busy, and we're all looking forward to spending 3 weeks in Idaho this summer, although I'm not sure how excited my parents are to have us visit for that long. We haven't been to Idaho in a year and a half, so I felt like we needed to have as long of a visit as we could. Hopefully, we won't all drive each other crazy. But our lives have been very crazy lately, so that wouldn't be unusual.

After many, many years, I have finally graduated. So here's a big WOO-HOO to me. After I had Reed, there were many days that everyone (myself included) thought it wouldn't happen, and I'm glad to be able to prove us all wrong.

In the fall, I will be going to graduate school to get my MFA in Creative Nonfiction at West Virginia University. I was initially very euphoric as I was awarded a full teaching assistantship and told by the director on the phone that I was their "top candidate," but now that the reality that this is really happening has sunk in, I'm terrified. If I'm the top candidate, then doesn't that mean that I can only go down from here?

I'm working on lots of positive self-talk here, but I'm really, really nervous.

Caleb, as usual, is working far too hard. I won't even write here how many classes he's teaching, but let's just say that it's far too many. Hopefully, I can share some of that burden now that I'll be teaching, so he can have more time to write.

And Reed, as usual, is just a joy. His language problems from his ear infections are almost fully resolved, and he says the funniest things now. He's really into counting and math, so he likes to add everything. The other night, I put him to bed, and I went into the bathroom across the hall to brush my teeth.

Reed heard me, and he peeked out the door and said "Mommy, I have to go to the potty." Well, he had just pottied about 10 minutes prior to that, so I said, "No you don't; you're just stalling." To this, he replied:

"Well, I went potty once, and now I have to potty again, so that's 2 potties!"

We also discovered, quite by accident, that Reed knows how to wipe his own bum. We've been earnestly doing that for him for some time now--only to discover that his excellent preschool had already taught him how to do that on his own.

Life just keeps getting better and better.

His favorite phrase is "Remember when?" He frequently says "Remember when you, and me, and Mama Kathy went up in the High Tower? That was fun!" (The High Tower was a hotel in Pittsburgh when my mom came to visit over spring break, and he mentions it at least once a day).

Sometimes, he says "Remember when we ate lunch?--right after we've finished lunch.

He also says "Remember when Randy ate a DOG BONE?" This refers to when Caleb's friend Randy stayed with us for a while and ate a dog bone on a dare (it's a long story).

Reed thinks that's so funny. Today, he said "That's gross! DOGS eat those." Then he chuckled and said "We all laughed at him."