Random Thoughts for the Day

I can't seem to get my brain worked up enough at 7:30 AM to post anything too intellectual; so here's a few things happening around here:

--Kellyn has been pretty sick the past few days. High fever, runny nose, extremely irritable. It might have something to do with the play area at the mall that I took the kids to last week. It sure didn't help when she licked the steering wheel on the play ambulance. Yikes.

--We're hoping to buy a van in the next few weeks. Both of our cars are very high in mileage and we'd like to get rid of one before it gives out. My Intrepid is the likely candidate since the A/C is pretty well shot on it. My neighbors are looking to sell theirs which is a 2000 Plymouth Voyager with only 68, 000 miles on it. As our luck would have it though, their A/C doesn't work either. :) We're going to take it for a test drive tomorrow and then maybe talk about price.

--The van purchase is imperative because our clan and my folks will be taking a road trip to Washington D.C. in the middle of June. I'll be attending a week long Sacred Music Colloquium out there and we decided to make a vacation out of it. It should be a great time, but we can't fit 6 people in anything short of a mini-van. We need to get on it . . .

--I'm almost done with my first school year here at St. John's. I can't believe that the students are going home next week; I feel like they just got back from Christmas break! Why does time seem to move so much faster as you get older? I remember when I was very young and the week before Christmas and your birthday felt like an eternity; now I always lament the fact that Christmas seemed to pass me by without my noticing it. Anyways, it's been a very good school year from my end of it, though I made some rookie mistakes that won't happen in the future. Live and learn.

--Usually summers will be a time for me to recoup and catch up with various projects at work; this summer probably will be different. We're having a St. John's Choir Alumni weekend at the end of June where we've invited all the folks who have ever sang in a choir here (some people have responded who sang in the '70's!!) and we'll all get together and record a CD. Also, Bishop Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria will be celebrating our Vigil mass. It will be lots of fun, but it's been a pain to plan, and there's still much to do. I really wish I had put it off until next summer, when I had a better handle on things around here, but it's too late to turn back now. It'll be great . . .

--We're trying very hard to teach our son good manners, and it seems to be paying off. He's started to say "thank you" unprompted about 70 percent of the time I would estimate. His exact phrase is usually, "Oh, feng you" said with a hint of pleasant surprise in the word "oh." He still needs quite a bit of reminding on please, but we're getting there.