Sing Like Nobody’s Listening

Tonight is the long-awaited event…Ryley’s school play. Why am I sitting at home writing, only two hours before the show? Well, it’s because Ryley is fine. She insisted I not come down to the school early unless she calls me, needing help with her hair. I’m still going to show up early, of course, because I’m her mother, and she may need the pizza wiped off her face before she takes the stage. But I’m trying not to hover too much. I’m trying to allow her some independence. I’m really trying. :-)

Last Friday was the talent show. Remember the hula-hooping act that Ryley and her friends came up with? Well, Ryley started coming down with a nasty cough on Thursday, and by Friday morning she had a 102-degree fever. She felt pretty lousy. We kept her home, and we told her that if she felt better by the evening, she could still perform with her friends. She rested all day, trying so hard to get better. But at 4:00, I received both an e-mail and a voicemail from the school saying that Ryley would not be allowed to participate since she was absent. She and I both sat on the bed and just cried in disappointment (and maybe a little anger on my part)! After the play had been canceled due to weather the week before, she felt like so much was going wrong in her life. Poor girl. We tried to look on the bright side…that she had made it into the talent show in the first place, while other friends didn’t…that she had also performed last year…that her friends still got to perform the act that she had worked so hard to organize…and that in reality, it’s just a stupid talent show. :-) We were actually really proud of how she shook off her disappointment so quickly.

This plaque came in the mail from my Aunt Gail that very hour…

It was perfect timing to cheer up our girl. She promptly hung it outside her bedroom, above her horseshoe doorbell.  I love the message too, which I found appropriate. ;-)

She has been so loved on by all our family in the past few weeks, and we so appreciate every bit of it!

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We’ve been passing sickness back and forth in the last week, trying hard to stay healthy. I’ve been feeding Ryley with EmergenC packets, and Ryan and I have been downing Wellness Formula, which is absolutely miraculous and worth every bit of the money it costs. A friend at work introduced it to me five years ago, but I was never willing to shell out the money for a vitamin. But in the last year, I’ve become a believer in taking things that heal your body, as opposed to just treating the symptoms, and this stuff does the trick. It just keeps you trucking. Ryan’s a believer too, and he hardly gets impressed by anything. :-)

We had a nice Valentine’s Day. Ryan took me to a fancy restaurant in the Cherry Creek area last Saturday, and then all three of us went out together on Tuesday night. Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to come up with some fun stuff to do. I know it’s crazy, but I’m a bit of a sucker for Valentine’s Day; I always say I won’t do anything, but then I always get into it at the last minute.

So here is our heart-shaped bacon!

Raw:

And baked:

It didn’t look quite as good when it was cooked. But it was still tasty! :-)

And thanks to another blog I read, I lined a pink heart-shaped pool of yogurt with raspberries, which was actually pretty delicious!

And then, again, thanks to Pinterest, Ryley’s hair:

Her school does not allow the exchange of valentines (don’t get me started!), so I wanted to send her to school with a little reminder of Valentine’s Day and how much we love her. I wasn’t sure what the teachers would think, but I was prepared to defend. To our surprise, she received lots of compliments!

Fun, fun!

Tuesday was also Ryan’s last day at his restaurant in Cherry Creek. After approximately seven years in that neighborhood, it was a bittersweet move. He is still with Noodles and is actually a little closer to our house now. The challenge of managing a larger, busier location will be good for his growth.

His employees made him this going-away cake, which they intended to resemble him:

I think it’s a pretty accurate depiction. How ’bout you? :-)