Down to Business

Back to life, back to reality (feel free to sing along). Well, Harper is all better. That means back to baby school for her and back to work for me. Although this is a short work week, I am feeling the crunch of work pressure. I like to set false deadlines for myself. I need goals to work toward. I set false deadlines and try my best to meet them. I have set a false deadline to get a paper written by Christmas. Writing a scientific paper is kind of involved. I have 99% of the experiments completed. I just have one more thing left to do, then I can write the whole thing up. I've been dragging my feet a little on this because the work I'm doing is kind of a big deal. My boss and I have decided to submit it to the best journal in my entire field. Never in my life did I think that I would do anything worthy of being published in this journal. Frankly, I'm a little nervous about taking on something this big. I don't like disappointment. It's probably my least favorite emotion. Most of the time I avoid situations that may result in disappointment. But this time, the reward greatly outweighs the cost. So today I am buckling down and working on this paper. I'll let you know how it all turns out. Keep your fingers crossed.

Feel Good Friday

So...I know it's Saturday, and technically, I missed Feel Good Friday. But, I have a good excuse. I've been home with a sick baby all week and time has become one big blur. And, this is a good story and I don't want to wait until next week to share it with you. And, it's my blog and I do what I want.

This is the Ohio State School for the Blind marching band. Yes, you read that right. It's a marching band. In fact, this band has been invited to march in the 2010 Tournament of Roses Parade. This is a big deal for any band, let alone the only blind marching band in the nation and probably the world. Thousands of bands apply to march in the parade, but only 21 are chosen to participate.

The band became a marching band in 2005 when the Ohio School for the Deaf revived its football program after a 30 year hiatus. There are currently 30 members in the band and about as many sighted marching assistant volunteers.

I am so inspired by these kids and their can do attitude. I think their director, Dan Kelly, put it best when he said, "My philosophy is - if it can't be done, let's do it anyway."

Tis The Season For The Sickness

Well, it's been an exciting couple of days. Actually, it hasn't been exciting at all. In fact, Harper and I have been pretty much glued to the couch since Sunday afternoon. She's sick. She's had a fever since Sunday and it hasn't broken yet. I took her to the pediatrician yesterday. She had a flu test that came back negative (thank goodness because she has had both the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines). Her ears aren't infected and she doesn't have strep. All of these are good things, but it doesn't explain what she has. Her doctor said that it is a flu-like virus. I can understand that diagnosis, but as a mom that just wants her kid to feel better, that's not very helpful. I continue to give her Tylenol, but it's not making that much of a difference. She really hasn't eaten much, but she is drinking juice. Not fun.

But, I will tell you about something cool that happened this morning. We are currently renting our house in Nashville (because we STILL haven't sold our house in Cincinnati.) The rental company that we are working with sends out an inspector 4 times a year to make sure that we are taking good care of the property. Our first inspection was this morning. Harper and I had spent most of the night on the couch, so I'm sure we were a fine sight for Roy, the inspector, when we answered the door at 8am. I explained to him that Harper wasn't feeling well. He said that he hoped she would feel better and continued his inspection. After he was done, he turned to Rob and said, would you mind if I prayed with you and your family? Of course Rob said yes and we all went in the living room and Roy prayed that Harper would be healed. It was beautiful. In fact, he specifically prayed that her fever would break (I hadn't told him anything specific about her symptoms). I was blown away that a complete stranger would be so bold to pray for my little girl. I know that prayer works and I am thankful that Roy came to our house this morning. All day I have been thinking that I need to be more like Roy and step out in faith when an opportunity to pray presents itself. I know that God hates that Harper is sick. But, even in her sickness, He was glorified.

Feel Good Friday

I'm starting a new thing. Each week on Friday, I am going to try to post a feel good news story. I hate watching the news right now. It's so dark and depressing. I know there are good things happening in our world. I'm amazed that news outlets and the public in general would rather focus on the negative instead of reporting on the positive. So...I am going to seek out the good news and share it with you. Here's the first installment:

Dan Stroup is an eighth grade teacher at Heritage Christian School in Indianapolis. What makes him unique is that he sends hand written birthday cards to each of his students every year. Not just the students he currently has in class, but every student he's ever had in the 30 years he's been teaching. He sends out approximately 2500 birthday cards a year. Each card is unique - no form letters and each one includes a Bible verse. This year's verse is from James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, but do what it says. Mr. Stroup is walking the walk. He says that he spends a portion of every evening writing out the cards. Some nights, he spends just a few minutes, but other nights he spends several hours. He jokes and says that November 4th is his day off - none of his students have birthdays on that day, yet. Many of his students have been profoundly touched by his small acts of kindness. They look forward to getting their card every year and many of them save each one. I would encourage you to read the original article on Mr. Stroup or watch the video below. I certainly didn't do his story justice here. But, the bottom line is that small acts of kindness can go a long way.

Name Game

I took this video this morning as we were filling the car up with gas. Here's the background: I have been trying to get Harper to say her name. Her real name. Not her nickname (Deets). Why does she think her name is Deets you may be wondering. Well, read this. For the past few months, every time we asked her what her name is, she said Deets. But now, I am happy (and relieved) to report that she can say her real name. Granted, the pronunciation (and the spitting) will take some more work (Harper is a tough name for a little kid to say), but she is on the right track. A couple other things I would like to point out... yes, my kid is already a hypochondriac. She has lots of imaginary booboos on her hands and she does like to hold the hand sanitizer in the car. We'll work on that.

Christmas Cards

Christmas, Christmas time is here. Well, not quite. But, I have already started preparing for it. I got an email this morning telling me that our Christmas cards have shipped. I cannot tell you how much fun I had designing our cards this year. I used this site and would highly recommend it. For the layout of the card, I used two pictures that my dear friend Andrea took. She is becoming quite the avid photographer. Check out her new website. And if you live in the Cincinnati area, you should schedule an appointment for Andrea or Kelly to take a family picture that you can use for your Christmas cards this year!

Monday Morning Pigtails

This post is basically for my mom. I realize that you probably don't care about my child's hair, but my mom does. So... I am posting this to show her how cute Harper's little pigtails are. I mean seriously - they are pretty cute. But, it's ok if you don't care.