Finally...an update

So, I think we have earned the title of terrible bloggers. It's not that we haven't had things to blog about--it's a matter of finding time to do it. So, here are a few highlights of the last few months:

February:

• School continued, and the plethora of snow days ended.
  
• Ben began planning for the beginning of track and field season, and kept plugging away with the 2nd grade curriculum
• Charissa began planning for 'track widow' season, and her curriculum job became a lot busier with the beginning of state education grant/funding application season. Trying to make sense of the education 'stimulus' package also takes up a lot of her time, as well as dealing with being increasingly more pregnant and tired
• Violet continued to be Violet--amazing us more and more everyday--and visibly becoming a little girl, and not a 'big baby'.
  

March:

• A few glimpses of spring appeared, but generally we were reminded that 'spring' does not really come to northern Michigan until AT LEAST April
• Track season started on March 9, and Ben is very excited about the potential of his athletes--especially on the boys' side.
• Charissa continues to plug away in solving what exactly the state wants schools to spend grant money on
• Work begins on Violet's big girl room in preparation for the arrival of 'Baby Sammy' (Violet's name for the baby, not necessarily the chosen name). This results in the downstairs of our house looking like a storage facility, as everything in that room must find a new place. Also results in us probably using more than our fair share of landfill space (but we did try to repurpose and recycle as much as we could). No one wants old plaster, though. It is currently a shell of a room, patiently waiting for either the planting in Iowa to be finished, or for a week of rainy weather which prevents Charissa's dad from being in the field (ideally, the former, rather than the latter).
  
• Violet began swimming lessons at Ferris State University. These lessons are a little more intense than the summer program at the community pool, but after the first couple of lessons, our little fish reappears. This makes our weeks tremendously busy as lessons are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings--many weeks we are not home in the evening until Friday.
  

April

• Spring break is a welcome week of respite from the day-to-day efforts of teaching; however, it is replaced by MAJOR cleaning of the house. By the end of the week, the downstairs no longer resembled a warehouse of odds and ends, and Charissa's scrap-booking stuff was organized into a closet. The weather even cooperated towards the end of the week, showing us that winter is NOT eternal in Michigan. Easter found us not going to any organized egg-hunts, but having our own in our backyard.
  
• Track season is going strong, and Ben's athlete's post some great early season performances. For the most part, weather is cooperating, and the team and Track Force One (the track booster club) pull off a successful pancake breakfast. Unfortunately, the accompanying club meet is cut short by a monsoon...
• Grant proposals and state funding applications are coming together, and planning for next year has begun. Charissa would prefer knowing a little more concretely what her job is going to be next year, but has chosen not to devote too much worry to that quite yet. She is perpetually exhausted, and has a hard time believing it's still 6-8 weeks before Baby Boy Talsma makes his appearance.
  
• Violet continues to flourish at swimming lessons--paddling to the deep end and back with the assistance of the floaty barbell on her own (25 meters), and willingly and under her own power, going under the water. Her bravery and comfort with the water makes mom and dad proud, yet a little concerned, as we've had multiple occurrences where Violet decides it's time to 'swim' and Mom and Dad weren't quite ready. We'll have to keep a very close eye on her at the beach this summer. She has also started 'reading' to her stuffed animals (pointing to the words and everything) and her favorite 'activity' right now is telling us she has to go to a meeting, and that she'll be back in a "few minutes". Hmm...wonder where she got that....

Well, that takes us pretty much to the present. Hopefully, as things begin 'winding down' for the year, we'll be able to post more frequently. The good news is, that if we haven't posted, there hasn't been anything major to share--just the regular old stuff. But, it's the regular old stuff that makes life interesting and worth it all. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures, and I'll post more later; this afternoon, I was able to get the annual Violet in the violet's picture...and it struck me today just how much of a girl Violet is--she's really not my 'baby' anymore.

Violet 2007

Violet 2008

Violet 2009