I was headed out to get the mail and heard some trickling water. The kids are asleep and Jason is at work, so I figured it must be the ice machine...until I looked outside. It's pouring down rain, so i decided to put my mail-getting plans on hold and sit down here instead.

It's very peaceful here right now. The house is quiet except for the sound of the rain and the clicking of the keys on the keyboard. It's not like this often around here. Mostly because I make myself so busy and fill my world with noise, without taking the time to just be. A nice thing to do every now and then :-).

My job is going very well. I'm starting to relax and enjoy myself and my boss is appreciating my work. I made a display for my classroom a couple weeks ago. It took me about 30 hours, so most of it was "pro-bono" work, since I only get paid $25 for my story boards. Yesterday, my manager asked me how many hours I spent on it. When I told her, she was floored! I don't think people who don't do cakes realize how much goes in to making them. Anyway, she came up to me a couple hours later while I was doing my demo and went over some paperwork with me. She told me that she wanted to make sure that I was getting compensated adequately because, in her words, "we really like you here, and we want to make sure that six months down the road, you don't look at your husband and say, honey it's not worth it." She gave me another display to do. This one pays $46, she provides the supplies AND I get to do it at home. SWEET! I was going to do a display cake for practice anyway and now she'll provide the supplies and I get paid for it. Free money!

I'm also really enjoying seeing people feel successful. One of my students sent me an email last week around 11pm of a cake she had done. A cute teddy bear she was practicing for her cousin's baby shower. She was soooo excited and it just warmed my heart that she would want to share it with me, and that I had played a part in her happiness. In my Saturday class, I have a student who joined because her friend wanted her to. She informed me the day they signed up that she would never be able to do it. I told her that yes, she would, and even if she never got the hang of the rose, she could at least do stars. She told me that as a kindergarten teacher, she could probably do stars, but that was it :-). Last week, she made some really cute cupcakes, with teddy bears, piped figures and flowers. She was so excited! She took pictures to show her dad in Florida. Now mind you, this woman has to be around 50 :-).

Another student on Saturday came into class and informed us that this was just not her thing. By the end of class, she was beaming as we all ooed and aaed over her cake with cascading flowers down the side. Now, my students' technique and execution sometimes leaves something to be desired, but the joy they get from creating something that they've never been able to do before makes me realize that it's not about perfection. My job has more to do with bringing people joy than it has to do with mastering the Wilton technique and to me, that just makes it all worthwhile.

Gabby has definitely developed a creative side as well. She spends literally hours coloring and/or painting nearly every day. She takes her coloring books and her crayons to bed with her and has almost learned to color within the lines. She loves to sing, as she always has. Her latest favorite song is "No one" by Alicia Keyes. She's so adorable in her little cutie voice, singing "No one. No one. No one!" at the top of her voice. Her beautiful blond hair is getting really long and she informed me today that she wants to grow it down to her feet ;-). She's also been growing like a weed. We measured her at 39" last week. Only one more inch to go before she can ride the bumper boats at Boomers!!! YAY!

She had her first kiss this weekend. My friend Kelli from church has a little boy who is almost 3. We went to pick up our kids from the kids program after church Saturday night and Kelli asked Drew if he wanted to give Gabby a hug. He walks up to her, gives her a hug, walks away, then turns around, walks back over to her and plants one on her lips. Too cute!! Kelli told me that maybe they would get married someday ;-). Whatever happened to arranged marriages anyway? I like this family :-).

James is growing up so fast! He's getting really excited for Kindergarten. We get to register him the first week of March. He's excited to go to school every day that Daddy goes to work. He is learning to count to 100, colors within the lines and is starting to sound out words. He's also learned how to tie his shoes. Both he and Gabby have been begging to do play dates with their friends and I've decided that I liked it much better when I got to choose their friends because it made play dates a lot easier.

Jason, poor guy, has to get a tooth pulled this week and an implant put in. One of his molars broke and unfortunately, it's at the very end of his mouth, so it's not possible to bridge it. We discovered through all this that dental insurance hardly ever covers implants and won't in this case. $2000 out of pocket. Thankfully, we have money left over from last year in an HSA, so it won't affect our day to day finances. Thank you, Lord!

Well, there seems to be a lull in the rain. I think I'll run out to the mail box.