Friendly Update

To My Dearest Girlfriends,

I am typing two-handed (something I do not take for granted – yet), but I am typing amid a HUGE pile of receipts and bills. And they call my name (albeit in a rather annoying, nasal voice). Yes, it is another exciting Friday night at the Glover’s. But actually, it is a bit exciting. Ryan has been working all day (over 12 hours now) alongside our construction guys, putting insulation and drywall up in our remodel project. We are re-doing a hideous bathroom in our basement, and converting a portion of our garage in order to add a mud/laundry room (as in, making our garage smaller in order to give a portion to the inside of the house). Following the completion of that, we will replace all the interior doors and trim, re-floor the basement common areas (we re-carpeted the bedrooms down there late last year) and that will conclude the near COMPLETE remodel of the entire basement. We bought this house with a lovely upstairs (well, some of it was lovely anyway) and a gross downstairs. Admitting all vanity, I was always embarrassed when a guest saw that portion of the house (sorry I made you to SLEEP down there Heidi…) but now it will be simple but updated and definitely not gross.


Kids are all good. Basketball season ends Saturday for Jackson, baseball season started last Thursday for D and J. I do a little jig when I remember that this year, the two big boys will be able to share the same team and the two little boys are too young for sports. I take a deep cleansing breath when I think about next year, when they will be separated again and we will re-live the chaos of Spring 2009. And I shudder to think of life when all four are participating in sports. I have already determined that T-Ball is outlawed (what a colossal waste of time) and that if you are too young (scared) to stay at practice without a parent there THE WHOLE TIME, you will likely be sitting on the grandstands with Mom, not the dugout with Dad. One mom cannot be in four places at once: sometimes she HAS TO go deliver another child somewhere in the span of your practice.

We have been in a really fulfilling small group this year. Our pastor and a friend of ours co-lead it. It has been good to get back into a small group after not participating for 3 years. This year has been The Year of Friendship Development and Enhancement for Ryan. He has established or deepened many relationships with other men, and spent a great deal of time with them. It has been wonderful to see this in his life, even if it has meant that I have had to be home alone with the kids a little more often here and there. One thing that has bonded these guys together the most has been “The Biggest Loser” competition that one of the guys has put together. It was offered up to the whole church and there are a couple dozen people participating. They all line up after service to get “weighed in” and there are prizes each week for the man and woman who lost the most weight (on a % basis). In the 13 years we have been married (actually all 17 years we have been together) Ryan has NEVER dieted. He is serious about it (grumpy, but serious). I am so proud of him for his discipline in eating and exercising. It ALMOST makes me want to exercise, too! Maybe I will when the remodel is over and we can uncover our fitness equipment from the piles of junk waiting to be put in their newly remodeled places.

We opened another clinic this year. This time we assisted another therapist in opening her own. That has been good but has added quite a load on to my plate. We are just about through the worst of it… perhaps just in time to add another one (that we would own). Ryan has two more “in the hopper.” Hopefully they won’t BOTH be in 2010. I might fall over.

Me, I am just balancing it all. And enjoying it, though I miss being able to just sit and do nothing from 8:30pm when the kids are all down until 10:30, when I fall into bed and do my Bible read-through daily assignment. I am enjoying this read-through. By the year’s end I will have read the OT once and the Psalms and NT twice. It does not take much time each night but it is wonderful to have the discipline back in my busy life!

I must sign off for now. (Those bills are STILL calling…can you hear them, too?)