In late-August, Mom's boss announced that his wife had cancer and that he was no longer planning to retire soon because of the expense of her treatments. Two days later, Mom got a call from Kearney Regional Medical Center (KRMC). They offered her an even better job with a salary that she could not refuse. Not only would she be the Director of Pharmacy, she would also be the Clinical Director. She accepted the position. We had already set the closing date for our house in Unadilla, so we moved into that house in mid-September.
Mom had to start working for KRMC in October. She would go out to Kearney and stay there during the week and then come home for the weekends. This was a very stressful time. My parents were expecting me to be Mom's "substitute" while she was away during the week, but it got to be extremely difficult because I was really busy and almost never home. How was I supposed to prepare a meal for my family when I was at Encore rehearsal? or dance team practice? or pep band? It was difficult. Mom and I started making frozen meals on the weekends when she was home so that all I had to do was put them in the crock pot before I left in the morning. This was very helpful. One problem that was rather difficult was laundry. Laundry had been a combination effort between my mother and I before she moved to Kearney, and even then it was difficult to get it all done, so when she was gone, getting laundry done was a rather difficult task. I realized rather quickly just how much we needed Mom around. Overnight I suddenly became the Stofer family chef, maid, and chauffeur. Dad would leave at 5 in the morning for work and not get home until 7 or 8 at night. We lived like this up until Christmas. We survived, there were a lot of meltdowns and fights along the way, but we survived.
The moving company showed up at our house with a huge semi-trailer to start packing on December 26th. They left the trailer in front of our house overnight and came back on the 27th to finish packing everything. They loaded everything in the semi trailer except for garage tools and all of the farm machinery that Dad thinks we need to keep even though we don't live on a farm anymore. On the 27th after the house was packed, loaded up and went to Yutan to stay with my Grandpa and Grandma Dreessen overnight. (That is where they moved when they sold their house in Ogallala.) In the morning, our caravan of 7 vehicles departed. Dad, Rudy, and our beloved dog, Reagan, were in the pick-up pulling our moving trailer. Mom, Elle, and the dumb cat were in the Excursion with a bunch of laundry and other such items packed full. Grandma Dreessen and Izzy were in their Explorer. Grandma Stofer was driving her car. Grandpa Stofer was driving my pick-up. Grandpa Dreessen was driving our silver car, and I was driving the red car. It turns out that having 5 vehicles and only 3 people that could drive was a tricky situation, so we had to recruit drivers. That was the first time that I had driven on the Interstate by myself, it was honestly a little scary, especially when we were going through Lincoln.
School is going alright. It is just a really weird transition. The school is HUGE! There are so many people! There are about 400 kids in my class alone... it's insane! They have block scheduling, which means rather than having eight 45-minute periods, they have four 90 minute blocks. I really don't like this. It makes it really hard to fit things into my schedule. I had to drop band and Spanish this semester, which really made me mad because I really enjoy both of those classes.
I am taking Advanced Placement Language and Composition (APLaC), Chemistry, and Honors Advanced Math for my first 3 blocks. My fourth block is split in half because Chorale is only a 45 minute period, and then I have study hall in the cafeteria until the end of the day. APLaC is way more difficult than I thought it would be, but I love my teacher! Chemistry is easy, but my teacher is a little disorganized. I had a bit of a bad experience with him on my first day. "Raise your hand if you are planning on going to college." The whole class raised their hands. "Raise your hand if you know what you want your career to be." There were about 5 of us who raised our hands. He pointed at me, "You, what career do you want to pursue?" I cleared my throat, "I want to be a CRNA which is a Nurse Anesthetist." He nodded his ahead and said, "Alright, I just have one question, why would you settle for a CRNA and not just become an Anesthesiologist?" That question caught me off guard a little bit. I answered, "Well, Anesthesiologists are very busy and have to be practically married to their careers. CRNA's have less busy schedules, and I would like to be able to work a flexible schedule because I want to be a Mom when the time comes." He rolled his eyes and then pointed his finger in my face and yelled, "That is BS! I have a friend who is an Anesthesiologist. He has three of the little CRNAs working for him. He calls all the shots, and he makes a lot of money. With money like that, you wouldn't need to stay home with your kids." I was so pissed off. Some people just don't get it. The whole class was in disbelief. "See class, I will help you make wise decisions about your future in this class as well as teach you Chemistry." Let's just say I dread walking into that class everyday. He isn't very organized and it drives me CRAZY! Choir is going really, REALLY well! I absolutely love how talented Mr. Moyer is. Again, it's just a weird transition. I came from a school with a choir of a little under 100, and Mrs. Rodgers was very strict about rules and people shutting up when she asks them to. Now I am in a choir of about 60, and Mr. Moyer lets people talk and be crazy. Maybe I am just super sensitive to it, but I cannot stand it. One day we got completely through the Conversion of Saul and everyone started yelling and cheering and talking. I sat there quietly as a force of habit. I sit in the front row, and Mr. Moyer smiled at me and said, "I am really glad you are singing with us! Do like this piece?". I absolutely LOVE The Conversion of Saul. It is 8 part acapella, and it is absolutely amazing!
We have found a church, but it is not in the church form that you would expect. The name of my church is Living Faith Fellowship, and from what I understand it resulted from a split from Kearney Berean. There is not an actual church building, for now we meet in the Merryman Performing Arts Center. We weren't sure about that church right away, we were worried about some issues that they had with women leading prayer and worship, but that was all resolved. It's amazing how the Lord provides solutions for problems like this. I was just in awe that this issue was worked out.
Last Sunday and Monday, I attended Doane Honor Choir. It started out rather hectic. Mr. Moyer forgot to have the transportation people leave our suburban outside of the bus barn, so he couldn't get to it right away. We ended up leaving almost 45 minutes late. We showed up 1 minute before the conclusion of registration. We keep it classy here in K-Town. I saw Ms. Poe (Mrs. Rodgers...), and she is pregnant! I am so happy for her, and I am absolutely convinced that it is a baby girl! I also found out that she knew about it during All State and she didn't tell me! We were even sharing a room! Anyway, I also saw my wonderful friends Byron and Micah for the first time in like forever. It was so great to see them! I miss those guys so much! Sunday night I was blessed with a surprise MUIOF gift... so that was fun... NOT! Monday was difficult. I lost my appetite at lunch. I am never one to skip a meal, but I just felt crappy. I started feeling a little better after some chick from North Platte gave me some Motrin, that helped A LOT! Before supper, I was walking across the parking lot, and I saw my Grandparents drive up! Both sets of them! I hadn't seen them since we had moved, so I was so glad when I saw them! I also saw Byron's Mom! That woman is so sweet. I had been telling Byron all day that I couldn't wait to get to talk to his mom that night, he probably got annoyed with it rather quickly. On the way home, I was able to experience a little bit of my director's driving abilities... he missed the turn to get out of Crete like twice. I swear he was trying to kill us. We pulled into Kearney around 10, and I was home a little before 10:30. I was so tired, and I felt crappy, so mom let me stay home from school on Tuesday. It was a day of well deserved rest; I have been so busy.
Yesterday was my first Tri-M meeting with the Kearney Music Department. They literally JUST started their Tri-M. Mr. Michell asked me if I had been in Tri-M before, and I told him that I was inducted in Ogallala, but then moved to a school that didn't have one. He said something about how I must be crazy for putting up with moving so many times. Not really my choice, dude. When he introduced me to the group, he said, "This Annastazia, she is a legitimate, inducted member of Tri-M, so hopefully she is going to help us out a lot." I had to point out to him later that I had only ever been to one meeting because of moving, and he said, "Oh, well you're still an official member." I also found out that I will be able to do band as an independent study this semester since I do not have room for it in my schedule! So that's exciting....
Anyway, that's just a little bit about what is going on in my rather busy life right now. I'll try to more diligent about writing, in fact, that's one of my goals this year.
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