A Whole Lotta Nothin'

I can't really explain my recent blogging drought ... just busy, I guess.  It's not that I have much to report tonight, but I do feel overdue for an update.  If you're looking for pictures, you won't find any here.  I haven't been keeping up in that area of my life (add it to the list) recently.  Sorry.

Probably the most excitement happening in our lives right now is that fact that the Mavs swept the Lakers in the latest play-off series.  My prediction going into this round was that the Lakers would pound the Mavs, so you can imagine my pleasant surprise when the opposite occurred.  I even opted for a Mavs t-shirt on Mother's Day over the more appropriate spring dress I had originally picked to wear. 

Speaking of Mother's Day, I had a nice day (and hope you did, too).  Sara made me a bookmark with her little fingerprints on it, which you all know I'll use.  She did wish me a Happy Mother's Day; it sounded more like, "Happy Mother's" ... but close enough.  We enjoyed the weather at a local outdoor mall where we perused the book store, of course, ate on the patio at Gloria's (oh-yes-I-did enjoy Mother's Day mojitos), and Sara rode on the train.  It was a really peaceful, relaxing, and enjoyable day with my little family.  I'm so thankful for them.

Today we had a blood drive at school in honor of one of our students who is undergoing twenty-eight weeks of chemo.  I was the lucky organizer of the event, and although the organization itself wasn't hard, I was just so hopeful that the drive would be a success.  Obviously middle school kids can't donate, so the drive was just open to faculty and community members.  We had about sixty people donate between 8:00 and 3:00 today, which turned out to be about twice as many as the drive staff had anticipated.  Huge success!  There was a time in the not-so-distant past when I didn't weigh enough to donate blood, but the years have taken care of that for me, so today I gladly offered up my veins for poking and prodding for a good cause.

Tomorrow night at Sara's school is the spring open house.  In addition to regular open house festivities, they will be offering bounce houses, a petting zoo, and more train rides.  So much excitement on a Tuesday night!  Next week Sara officially moves up to the next class, but she's been doing half days for the past week or so to get used to the new teachers and environment.  Four kids from her current class are moving up, and Sara's teachers said she is doing well with the transition.  While other kids in similar situations may cry about having to spend half days in a new and unfamiliar room, apparently Sara has been crying when it's not her half of the day.  I'm so proud of her independent and confident spirit.  Sara and her three friends, including Audrey, will be the only four in the new class who aren't potty-trained, but I'm hoping that won't be the case for long.

My parents are coming to town this weekend!  There's no particular event happening, but they had some ticket vouchers that needed to be used, so they are spending a long weekend with us.  I plan to make a yummy belated Mother's Day brunch, but beyond that we really have no plans.  Everybody is usually on board for grilling, so that'll probably end up happening at some point (or at more than one point).  I don't really care; I'm just glad they are coming.

I cannot believe this school year is in the home stretch.  My to-do list is growing, but somehow the days are disappearing more quickly than ever.  My goal is just not to stress unnecessarily, and I'm working on taking the end-of-year rush and the inevitable the-sky-is-falling panic in stride (if you have ever worked in a school, you likely know what I mean).  Speaking of school, I have to give a huge shout-out to my sister who just accepted a job for next year.  She'll be teaching 9th and 10th grade Civics and US History.  She'll be so good at this job, and she's so deserving of it.  I couldn't be prouder of her.  In fact, I take back my earlier paragraph about the Mavs being the most exciting part of the past week.  The call from my sister with her job news was by far the best phone call I've gotten in a long time.  Three cheers for Melvy!