Ummmmm....?!

It's like I don't even know where to start!  To say that I have been beyond busy is an understatement, I hate that I haven't posted in over a week, but the truth is, I haven't found any time to do anything but grade papers (for three hours after I get home from working)!  Mid-terms were already due this week!  Can't believe that!  I am already getting observed this week too!  Crazy!  Time is very much flying already this school year and the countdown is on for fourth quarter and Romeo and Juliet (wink, wink)!

The kids are LOVING school!  Homework started this month for Kyan and he continues to bring a long sleeve shirt every single day to school even though it is 115 degrees outside.  His teacher's classroom is freezing!    And there isn't a day (almost) that goes by that I don't receive some word from Lola's teachers about something silly and sassy that she is doing at school!  Recently, she broke up with one boyfriend who stuck his tongue out at her (probably got sick of her bossiness), while another boy swooped in about 10 minutes later to steal her heart!  She just giggles when she talks or is asked about it!  She did do PE last week, but there was a substitute, go figure!

LOVING the three day weekend and while I took ZERO pictures, I do feel like I have a lot to say about it!  Lemme break it down for you:  Friday night we went to meet my parents at the club at Estrella.  Chad's mom and dad went too!  It was so much fun, just visiting and catching up!  Something about that place is so peaceful.  We were having a blast, until Lola stood in a red ant pile and had her feet tore up by them!  She was so scared and it hurt so bad.  I stood in them for all of 2.5 seconds and they bit me good too!  Kids came home with us that night, since they had spent the night the night before with Grandpa Jerry (they didn't have school on Friday) so they could run to Grandma Julie when they picked her up at the airport that morning!  Saturday was a dream come true for me.  My parents picked me (love spending time with just them) up about 8 am and we just drove and stopped at every garage sale we spotted!  I scored some deals for sure (OLD glass baby food jars, an entire box for $2, a huge mason jar for $1.50, air fresheners for $3 a pop {the ones that cost like $5 at the store}, a vintage camera & lunch pail, and a very old scale!  After we finished up at a major estate sale, we headed to sun city, where I scored lots of fabric and some pinking shears (which I have wanted for a long time)!  Something about old scissors makes me happy, they just work better!  I could have shopped garage/estate sales the rest of the day, but my mom was getting cranking and hungry, so we headed to the mall, where she is the most happy!  I scored two new pairs of shoes and a pretty new dress!  I had so much fun just getting to be with them!  But all good things must end and when my dad's car was finished at the shop (it had been there for almost a week), our time had to end too!  I was dumped at home, only to turn around and get ready for my date with my mother in law!  I was cashing in on my birthday present, movie and dinner!  We had talked about going to see "The Help" as soon as we knew it was being made into a movie!  I had read the book as soon as it came out, but that is a book that sticks to your guts during and after you read it and I knew that I needed to see how the book was made into a movie.  It was beautifully done and one that will make you laugh out loud and cry like a baby.  Bring tissues, for real.  After the movie ended, we ate dinner at a little sandwich shop called Which Wich?  We talked about the movie and what we thought, but more than that, we talked about life.  I think it was one of my most favorite talks I have ever had with Donna (did I mention how much I love my in-laws yet, because I do, I love them all).  I can't even really explain how the conversation went, just that it touched on the phrase, "if you really knew me".  Like, we see people every day, just living, but do we really know them and know what is behind closed doors?!  No.  Not like secrets, but their struggles.  I thought about my students, what they come to school with each day that I have no idea about, I thought about my friends that I don't always find the time to talk to each of them every day to see how they really are, and I thought about myself and the fronts sometimes even I put up (professional and personal) to guard how I really feel.  Sometimes people have no idea what is going on, but it makes a difference in understanding someone.  We don't need to know details, but just need to be sensitive and aware that we aren't perfect.  Did that even make sense?  Hope so, it made sense to me on Saturday with Donna :) I brought Chad home some dinner and we enjoyed an episode of True Blood, while the kids were sleeping away at grandma and grandpa Nebraska's house (where they would rather be anyway)!  Sunday I met my parents for church and breakfast and then we slaved away on the single car garage!  It was a disaster and a place where we store a lot of things, but it was getting to the point where we couldn't walk through it!  My dad is bananas and while my mom and I thought we were pulling only the stuff off of the shelves and the ground and going through it, my dad pulled out all of the toys too!  We have a jet ski and quad that take up way to much space, but with the help of my pops, he figured out a way for them to take up less!  He went and picked up even more shelves and hooks (so much stuff got hung, praise the Lord) while everything was out in the blistering sun!  Six hours later, the garages (we cleaned out the garage where our cars sleep too) look stunning and is now walk through-able!  THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!!  Chad had a draft out in the east valley, so I spent the evening with the kids and my parents out at their place!  It was a fun way to end the evening!  Monday (today) we spent the day again up at Estrella, bbqing with family and friends before we headed to the waterpark for one last round this summer!  Fun times as always were had!  Kyan pretty much slid down the slide the entire time, although this time he did manage to play on the Big Dipper for quite awhile!  He is finally not afraid of the water bucket dumping on him!  Lola went down both little slides, but spent most of her time swimming without her floaties in the little pool!  Her confidence in the water is awesome to see!  After saying a very sad goodbye to grandpa and grandma Nebraska, we headed down the mountain.  Lola has been asleep ever since (4:30ish), I think the four day weekend has caught up with her, poor girl!  We sure are going to miss them BIG!

I am off to have sweet dreams of another weekend like this very soon!   I promise to not let almost a week and a half go by without posting again!  You know how life goes sometimes....just kinda gets in the way!


 PS-so excited.  Not sure if you remember me mentioning in my last birthday post, but I hired my sis-in-law to clean my house and this week is cleaning week!  So happy a clean house makes me!