Bye Bye, March!

Wow, look at my fabulous postings for March. Not only have I not written anything, I have barely taken any photos. In fact, this month I have taken fewer photos than in any previous month since Alex has been born. Can you tell March has totally kicked us in the butt?

It started off well. My mom and brother Mike were able to come spend a week with us. Let me ask you, if you had a week of vacation, would you choose to spend it at our house? I'm not sure it was as relaxing as a true vacation would be. I think my brother left realizing that he and Susan are NOT ready for kids yet! But seriously, we had a great time. Mike and I ran in the Shiver by the River 5K in Reading, which was his first race. We enjoyed running through showers and a flood warning! Every night, we stayed up late playing games together. We truly loved having them here, and it was sort of like a mini-vacation for us, a little break in routine. We had so much fun that the day they left we were EXHAUSTED and pretty much became couch potatoes for a day.

And 2 days later, Erik got sick. We thought it was just a cold, but was something else -- the flu, maybe? -- that lasted over 2 weeks! He is just now starting to feel better, but really, after 18 days, is not completely normal yet. He has been existing in this cloud of exhaustion,and with a sore throat, trying to make it through school, trying to come home and be with the family, in the midst of leading guitar ensemble and teaching private lessons. It has just been way too much. I, fortunately, just got a cold which didn't last too long. I am feeling pretty good.

We are always slightly on edge with budget cuts looming in Erik's school. 5 teachers in his district have already been cut, with the threat of 10-15 more coming soon. We are fairly confident that his job is safe, but there are no guarantees. And it looks like this stress will continue in the coming years, as we keep hearing that Pennsylvania's school budget crisis is far from over.

My half marathon is 10 days away. I think I'm ready, I've certainly put in lots and lots of training. I am not at all confident that I'll beat my previous time, due to the fact that I've slowed down a bit lately and have been training more on the treadmill and not outside as much as I was in the fall. But still, I'll have 2 half marathons under my belt, and that's pretty cool.

So we are done, done, DONE, with March, winter, sickness, all of it! We are SO ready for spring, outside time, parks, and sunshine. I'm hoping that April is much, much better for us!

And that's what's happening on Boomerang Drive!

-- Holly