I just realized...

that I haven't updated my blog in a week!

I guess there have not been too many interesting things to talk about. Jamie and I are both back at work now after the holidays, so we are tired and getting readjusted to our early mornings. We have just about another month until baseball season will be in full swing (no pun intended).

This is the time of year that is the toughest for me. I'm a great football wife, but I struggle a bit with baseball. Jamie is the JV coach and he does not have an assistant. Also, they maintain the field themselves (football has a grounds crew that takes care of basic maintenance). That means that the hours are a bit longer during baseball season, because after the kids go home from practice there is work to be done on the field. Games are twice a week instead of once, and Jamie coaches the JV game, then assists with the varsity game when possible. That means he's coaching from around 4:30 until close to 10:00 many nights. I do enjoy the games, but it's hard to make it up there for most of them - half of them are on school nights, and Elise gets tired. I try to make it to the varsity games when I can, because they are more exciting than the JV games. Also, when I attend the JV games, I sit by myself since there are no other JV wives to chat with. So, I guess I am feeling a bit "blah" about the start of baseball being around the corner. The positive thing is that Jamie truly loves the game and enjoys coaching a lot. I'm happy that it makes him happy.

There have been a ton of changes at work lately! I met my new boss after the holiday. She seems great so far, and we are all adjusting yet again. This is my third manager in less than 2 years. It seems that each time I get used to one person and their leadership style, they are moving on and we are going through a transition all over again. We've also had a lot of turnover among our staff, and I am missing some of our old colleagues as they have moved on to better opportunities elsewhere.

Here is a picture of our old group taken at our manager's farewell luncheon:

This past weekend was nice. We really didn't do much at all. Jamie and Wes have been working on a huge project in our back yard, so Jamie spent some time outside dealing with that. We are basically attempting to raise a huge portion of our back yard. We have some issues with standing water, etc. They are using sand to elevate the yard, then we will add new sod this spring. As of now we still have a mountain of sand waiting to be used. It is a LOT of work and will take some time to complete. While elevating portions of the yard, Jamie also decided to raise our porch. That has proved to be quite a task as well! He is moving aside each individual paving stone and elevating the ground beneath it with sand, then replacing the stones. Wes also helped him build a nice fence around our air conditioning unit. The fence was very needed in order to keep 2 dogs who will remain nameless from chewing the cords to bits and wiping out our air conditioning!

Other than those projects, we just stayed home and spent time together. I made some ranch chicken that Jamie loved on Saturday night, and my homemade vegetable beef stew on Sunday. I am trying to do more cooking - just one of my several New Year's resolutions! If anyone has any great crock pot recipes, please feel free to post them!