i'm BAAA-aaack!

Whew! I finally have a chance to sit down and blog again. I love doing the MSU summer choir, but going to Springfield every week from Tues.-Thurs. does have its drawbacks. I can't seem to catch myself coming or going. Only two more weeks of that, though, and then the rest of the summer will calm down a bit.

Actually, it will calm down a bit more than we even thought, because we have made the tough decision to cancel our trip to the D.C. area to visit Brian's parents. We have been watching the news with trepidation during the past week, as Homeland Security is now indicating that a terrorist attack could be imminent this summer. After discussing it ad nauseam, and then talking to Brian's parents, we have decided that it's not worth the risk to fly Nick in and out of D.C. right now. We realize that this makes us seem overly paranoid and cautious, and maybe we are. But, we just have a bad feeling about going, and no matter how we slice it, it doesn't make sense to do something optional that could put Nick in mortal peril. It looks like, at least for the foreseeable future, we will only go to visit them by car. Before you comment and say "But, don't you know that driving is more dangerous than flying?", just let me point out that we realize that this is statistically true, but we simply don't feel good about flying in and out of D.C. in particular, given the current climate. If they lived in, say, Alaska, we would not have cancelled. We do realize that the chances of something happening are infinitesimally small, but for our own reasons, we are not willing to go. And, even if we were willing to go, Brian's parents told us point blank that they don't want us to. So, it's been decided, and we will try to drive up there in the fall, perhaps. We drove last fall, and actually ended up enjoying the heck out of the trip! We stayed in hotels for two nights each way, and it all went very smoothly. In all honesty, we had thought we'd always drive there from then on, but this trip came up very suddenly and impulsively, and due to schedule conflicts, we simply didn't have enough time to drive. If we plan ahead for the next visit, though, that won't be a problem.

I have all manner of mixed emotions about our cancelled trip - sadness, disappointment, anger, resignation, hopelessness - but honestly, I just don't feel like expanding on that right now.

What else is new in my life? I will be singing a solo in the upcoming choir concert ("I Know that my Redeemer Liveth" from Handel's Messiah), so I really need to get my butt in gear rehearsing it! I've been so lazy lately, and need a kick in the pants. I'm sure it will go fine, though.

Since we are going to have some unexpected free time during Brian's summer leave, we are thinking of taking a day-trip or two to keep ourselves occupied. Any ideas?

Something else going on (that some of you will undoubtedly not care one bit about, but, hey, it's MY blog!) is some progress on the potty-training front!!! Nick has actually been giving the toilet some action during the past couple of days, and we're pleased as punch. We think we still have a long way to go, but this is a good start. It's about time! Please wish us luck. I'm still skeptical that he'll potty-train in time to start preschool in the fall, as I'd hoped, but I guess that stranger things have happened!

In other news (and you have to realize that for me, this is a really big deal), I have made the huge decision this summer that I don't care how fat my upper arms look - I'm going to wear tank tops! This is a major breakthrough. WHOO HOO!!!!!! :) I'm sure that some of you ladies will totally understand where I'm coming from here. The funny thing is that now that I have embraced tank tops, I've gone whole hog and pretty much wear one every day now. I tend to be a very all-or-nothing sort of person. Of course, I had to go shopping to support my new habit.

This just in: My husband just came into the room and told me that Nick said "The last time I got married, I was born in the brown hospital." He kills me! I don't know what we did before we had him - he sure makes life interesting.

As you can tell by now, I'm totally rambling! And you know what? I don't care! I'm a little punchy today. I think I'll be done soon, so just stay with me. Actually, I think I'm done NOW. Over and out.