I hope he says yes

{Totally cheesy - I know}

 They asked me to help at Prom. I said, "OK" then got all gitty trying to think of a way to ask my man. I googled it and even asked my students and this is the best I came up with (quick and low budget). Kinda lame but I am pretty sure he will say yes anyway. Not many people get to go to Prom with their hubs. Sweet.

A shout out to my old man

This weekend my dad (aka Lieutenant Colonel Kupfer) officially retired from the Air Force. (Which is why it is OK that I just referred to him as my old man even though he really isn’t that old.) While I didn’t get to go, it was in California and on a school day, I was thinking about it all day. Weird. He has been in the military since I was 4. Ten years ago he switched from active duty to the reserve and has used every vacation day from his civilian job, every day off, and lots of weekends away from home doing Air Force stuff to protect our great country. I am happy for him but a little sad too. Here are a few of my feelings.

Dear dad,
I love how you have to report to the military whenever you leave the country because it’s a matter of ‘national security’. I am glad that will continue even though you are retired.

It was fun that Christmas when you had to go on alert and we got to celebrate Christmas a few days early.

I loved coming with you on ‘take your daughter to work day’ at Cornell. It was there I learned how to play minesweeper on the computer. And how to yell at cadets to get in a straight line.

Sorry that you had to deal with your boss when our base neighbors complained that my friends and I kept throwing plums over their fence onto their trampoline. They were mean and totally deserved it.

Thanks for trusting me enough to let me babysit for the base commander’s kids. They were really nice and had good food.

Sorry about teasing you that your job sounded like a video game. Space Command? Come on, that one was just too easy.

Thank you for teaching our family that keeping our wonderful country free takes a lot of sacrifice, time, and energy. Thank you for giving up your vacation time, your breaks, many of your holidays, and your life to be ready to launch missiles, monitor satellites, and keep us all safe in our country. We all owe you big time. Now go take a vacation.

Love your military brat daughter,
Karen

One of them days

Some days are hard for me. I feel under appreciated, overworked, underpaid, never listened to, stressed out…you get the picture. Yesterday I was having one of these days. By the end of the day it took just about everything I had to not walk myself up to the principle and tell him that I was done. Yes, done. Done with all crap that goes with being a teacher. I went home hoping that a good night sleep would make it better. Today didn’t start out good. 1^st hour I went into another classroom and as I walked out a student said, ‘she looks mean’. Apparently my frustration was showing through. I asked for a sign. Any sign. Something that told me I was supposed to be there. That what I am doing is worth something.  That I wasn’t completely wasting my time. Well I got it. After lunch I went into my room and found this written on my board.

 

Someone sneaked in and wrote it. I was humbled. After lunch I saw signs all around me. I am lucky to be doing what I do. I hate how sometimes I forget just how lucky. I have the power to be an influence in 157 young teenage lives. Yeah, lucky.

p.s. Keep the signs coming.

By golly, it works!

Somewhere I heard that if you put a bar of soap in your bed it helps with crampy and restless legs. Yes, I thought the same thing you just did. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard."  Friday night I had the worst restless legs.  Friday night I was dreading going to bed cause I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. Friday night Bryan was out of town camping. So I tried it. No one was there to point and laugh at me. Friday night was the best night of sleep I have had in a long time. Was it all mental? Probably. Placebo effect? Probably. But hey, it worked. Next time I might have to take it out of the box though cause those corners are a little pointy...

So when does the work start?

2 years ago today I got married. I remember many people telling me that marriage is great but you have to really work at it. "It's hard work but worth it", "If you work at it everyday you will have a great marriage", "Whatever you do, keep working to have a better marriage". I was ready to work. I was determined and was fired up to work really hard at my marriage so that it would last forever. Did I miss something? Do they call this work? If so then I LOVE WORK! Maybe the trick is being married to your best friend. Or laughing everyday. Or texting during lunch. Or holding hands during church. Whatever it is I wouldn't call it work. I would call it blessed.

There once was a man who lived with a slob

Things have been a little busy around here. Not complaining, just stating the obvious.  Apparently when I am busy certain things get neglected (ok, I am talking about my house -it is a DISASTER) I hadn’t realized how bad it was getting until I got a picture message from Bryan the other day. It was a picture he had on his phone of our room when it was freshly painted, dusted, organized, with the bed made and the pillows perfectly arranged. The caption he wrote said, “Remember when our room looked like this?” I was not offended; in fact I thought he brought up a good point. Late that night before we got into bed I had a mom moment and said “Ok, we both have to clean up 5 things before we can go to bed.” I started picking up some clothes but Bryan just stood there. I urged him to hurry up but he didn’t do anything. I looked around on the floor to find something of his to give him to put away…looking…looking. “What? You mean all this crap is mine?!?!” He just smiled. He does that a lot. Even though he lives with a busy slob. Even though the busy slob “lets” him do the laundry, vacuum, unload the dishwasher, and make dinner many nights of the week. Sheesh, this girl is one lucky slob.

Happy Valentines Day

Picnics are cool.