I had promised myself that I would try to blog more often, and yet time has gotten away from me again. It's been an adjustment to get used to the new school schedule, but we're getting there. Alison loves school. She get so excited when it's a school day. And she gets excited when it's swimming lesson day. And she gets excited when it's PT and dance class day. I guess you could say she's excited just about every day. :)

I'm getting used to having free time on school days (at least the days that I'm not co-oping). I've been trying to use that free time to exercise...either running, when the weather permits, or doing an exercise video. I was doing really well for the first few weeks and then ended up with a cold, or something, and got out of the habit for a week or so. So now I'm struggling to get back in the groove. But I'm getting there.

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weekends and I'm looking forward to a break. Two weeks ago we had a pot luck at church for our couples group. It was a huge success. It was our first meeting of the year and we doubled the size of our group. Hopefully the new couples will keep coming. We had church and UMYF the next day, and for Alison it seemed like she was at church every day that week.

Last weekend we helped out at a pancake breakfast benefit for our friend Dylan on Saturday. He's three years old and has leukemia. It was a long day, but we raised a good amount of money for him. The best news is that he was healthy enough to be there, running around and playing with the kids of the other volunteers. On Sunday, was the annual CROP Walk. We were the only middle school UMYF counselors that could be there that day, so that meant Alison had to be there, too. We decided to make it worth her while this year. We signed her up as a walker and got to work raising money -- figuring the people we knew would be more willing to donate to a (disabled) 4 year old than to either one of us -- in an effort to get enough to get her a t-shirt. Between people in the neighborhood and online contributions from out-of-town family and friends, she raised $165. That was enough for a t-shirt and a pin.

This weekend, we have nothing specific on our agenda. I am so glad. :) I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning, especially since Alison hasn't been sleeping well for the last couple of nights. Wednesday night we had some really bad thunderstorms, which, of course, woke her up (but not until about half an hour after they woke me up -- I laid there awake, waiting for her to wake up and was just about back to sleep when she did end up waking up). Last night a bad dream woke her up. And when she wakes up, I wake up. She has been taking great naps, but I haven't had that luxury. I've been forcing myself to stay awake so that I won't be wide awake until all hours of the night. So I'm tired. And it doesn't help that I'm sitting here in a recliner, in the very warm sun. I guess I should get up and go do something worthwhile, or I'll be asleep before I know it!