Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Weekly Update

Well, it's been a while since I blogged!! Here's a short list of what I've been up to:

1. Women of Faith conference in Hartford, CT: great trip, Yankee Candle again, awesome HUGE hotel room at the Residence Inn in Hartford, excellent conference. When we arrived at the convention center early and decided to do a little "shopping" we were stopped by an employee and asked it we wanted to meet Avalon! I'll write more about that later!!

2. Brought my mom back from CT so my sister and her husband could whisk her away to Lancaster for a couple days and then return with her to my house. I had no idea this was the plan until I arrived in CT Friday night!! Needless to say, my house was in no condition for guests!

3. Cleaned my house!

We had a wonderful but short visit with everyone. I was able to spend some time with my niece, Skyler, and the rest of my family.

4. Shopping with my mom - that's always fun. After my sister left, my mom hung around until yesterday when my Aunt and Uncle returned her to CT. That will be a great trip for my mom, as my Uncle will be getting a lot of work done around my mom's house for her. She has been keeping a running list for him for an entire year!

5. Dr. Pepper Party: My Uncle is a Dr. Pepper collector and often hosts parties at his home. As a founding member of the JOY group at our church, Just Older Youth, he hosts a party each year for this group. This year, 68 people signed up!! I went along to help with food and clean-up. The menu this year included Dr. Pepper chicken (which is delicious!), Dr. Pepper potatoes, salad with Dr. Pepper dressing, Dr. Pepper slushies, Dr. Pepper milkshakes and Dr. Pepper brownies. He always has games, and this year those included a scavenger hunt, the Dr. Pepper trivia test and a bit of entertainment. I think other than the downpour at the onset of the party, the entire event was a success!

I am now trying to enjoy our last week before school starts. Our new puppy has been a chore, mostly because I'm not really a dog person. I'm trying to figure out how I could have ended up with another! I have most of the school supplies taken care of and am now trying to figure out how to survive without my children.. I'm not really ready to have no kids all day long - I know I will miss them, so I need to find something to fill that time!

On a wonderful note, we received a newsletter from the girl's school yesterday and they have decided to add a fourth kindergarten class!! I'm very excited that they actually did that, that it was done before school starts and that the class sizes will be reasonable! Yeah!! The bad news - the county is short 5 kindergarten teachers!! So far, with teachers all back in school this week getting rooms ready and having meetings, we are without that fourth teacher. Should be interesting!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So you decided to send your daughter to school in Howard County all day, I didn't think you were going to do that. I'll pray that it all works out and you adjust to the empty nest during the day. It's only preparing you for the empty nest I have, well almost empty nest, might as well be empty since M is never home.
Joyce

Anonymous said...

You don't know what to do with your time....be the fourth teacher! ;)

Oh and I met old school Avalon in 1998.

deanna said...

Joyce - we decided in July - long story, but I'm happy we did it. Just still not thrilled with full day kindergarten!! I can't wait to see them try to make Em take a nap - she stopped taking those when she was 18 months old!! LOL

Deana - I wish I could! With the No Child Left Behind, I'm not nearly qualified enough! I'm not even certified anymore and for any "preschool" grade, you need to be fingerprinted, polygraphed, and specially qualified from what I understand. No way we're doing that in the next 3 days!!

I met the two guys in Avalon. One woman is on maternity leave, the other is very pregnant and their 5am flight had been cancelled, so they finally arrived in Hartford at 4:30! Crazy day for them, but fun meeting them. I also got their new CD for free! And I like it!

Anonymous said...

Deanna,

I can't see anyone trying to make Em do something she doesn't want to do!! I can't wait to hear the stories!!

Joyce

Anonymous said...

When my youngest one started school all day for the first time I thought it would be hard to fill the time too. I quickly got used to the freedom however and now the time flies by so fast I wonder where it has gone. I still thoroughly enjoy having them home but the time that they are at school is not so bad either!