Glimpse into last week

I finally have some downtime, some breathing room, some time to think and blog.  Last week was entirely too crazy.  Three big events went on that required lots of logistics and planning and lots of running around.  Luckily, I was only in charge of two of them (as if that wasn't enough!).  The third I wasn't in charge of.  I just had to help with it.  So here's a little glimpse into that crazy week.

Monday was filled with last minute errands and decorating projects for Tuesday's big event, the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon at school.  While my kids were at school, I went to get some donated flowers from Kroger, vases at the dollar store, and a gift basket from the gift basket place to give to a retiring teacher. Oh and did I mention that our family was completely out of food, so a large grocery run happened somewhere in there too.  I also had to fit in a trip to school to talk to the substitute janitor about setting up tables and chairs for Tuesday and to pick up checks from PTA.

In the meantime, I double checked on catering, and made sure my flowers to be used as table decorations and teacher gifts were still alive.  I cut apart cheap leis and hot glued the ends and covered LOTS of flower pots with checked fabric to use as table decorations.  Since Tuesday's lunch wasn't my only event of the week, I also checked on the ice cream truck and inflatables for Wed night's event.  Then I took my kids to piano lessons after school, made dinner, helped with homework, and got the kids ready for bed.  More decoration preparation (say that 10 times fast), loaded up the van, then fell into bed.  Phew!

Tuesday was the big day.  It was Teacher Appreciation Luncheon day and I was in charge of the whole shebang.  Thankfully, it went off without a hitch.

The food was good and there was tons of it.  The tables were simple but pretty.  Most of my helpers showed up (I've been doing this long enough to know there's ALWAYS people who cancel at the last minute), and I didn't get a single complaint from anyone.  At the end of the day, I was completely worn out, but very happy that it went well.

Tuesday night David had a baseball game that I really hoped would get rained out.  But, alas, no, they just played in the pouring rain - boys!

He makes a cute catcher, doesn't he?

Wednesday was my second big event of the week.  Why I planned these for the same week, I don't know.

The day started out with a VBS craft workday.  Since I'm in charge of VBS crafts this summer, I had to be there and tell everyone what they needed to do - cutting, paper mache, sorting, etc.  That lasted all morning.  I came home, ate lunch and thought I would lay down for a quick nap.  I ended up sleeping an hour and a half.  I was that exhausted.

On to the evening activities...I have been our Awana Commander for the last two years and Wed evening was our big Awana end of the year party.  The kids rotated around between an ice cream truck, inflatables and a movie.  Originally they were supposed to play kickball instead of watch a movie, but, of course, it rained, so we had to do some last minute scrambling to bring everything inside.  Once again, besides the rain, everything went well.

Thursday - Ah, relaxation day.  And as everyone knows, there's no better way to relax than to get a little blonder.  Highlights for summer?  Check!

Friday was our school PTA's big event of the semester, Family Fun Night, and I spent pretty much all day helping to set up for it and helping to run it.  We had a lot of things going all at once.  Like every good children's event, we had inflatables and food.  There was also face painting, popcorn and a cake walk.  We added in there a Talent Show (I might be biased but my little girl did GREAT in the Talent Show, showing off her mad piano skills) and last, but not least, our newest event, an art auction.

For the art auction, everyone in school created a unique, very nice piece of artwork.  We displayed them all and allowed parents to buy their child's (and only their child's) artwork for any donation that they wanted.  We also had each class create one large piece of artwork as a class and we auctioned those off to the highest bidder.  Those big pieces turned out fabulous!  Unfortunately I didn't win either of my children's big pieces, but I did get pictures of a few of them.

A fifth grade class's painting.  I thought this one was the best!

Julie's class painting - loved it, but bidding against some fierce competitors and didn't win.

Between baseball, running errands and Mother's Day, our weekend was no less busy than our week.

But today and tomorrow I can relax.  And blog.  And breathe.

Week in Review: Jan 21-27

Last Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day, which meant a day off from school for the kids...after having 2 snow days and 2 half days (where they got out early for weather related things) last week.  Meaning, they had only been in school for the equivalent of 2 days last week.  Meaning Mommy needed a holiday, not the kids.

Did I get one?  Only if you count allergy testing as a holiday.  Since I hadn't been tested in 10 years and they have been giving me allergy shots for that entire time, they figured I was due.  What did we find out?  I'm allergic to the same stuff I was 10 years ago - trees, grass, mold and dust (the dust one was a lot more positive this time - I think that's a good reason for Tim to do all the dusting, don't you?).

Tuesday - It was back to school - Yay!!! While the kids were, thankfully, in school, I had an appointment with a new doctor, a rheumatologist.  I tried not to get my hopes up about this doctor but I have to admit, I was anticipating him helping me.  He's a doctor who deals with inflammation.  I have inflammation.  So he should be able to help me, right?

Wrong!  It was a total waste of a $40 copay.  He didn't even examine my abs/ribs, just said "Huh, I have no idea what that could be.  I'm at a loss.  I've never heard of that before."  And about my shoulder (which majorly started hurting during our flooding/snow last week), "The orthopedic doctor said that was your rotator cuff?  No, that's really your bicep tendon that attaches up there."  Um, do I care about specific medical jargon?  No.  All I know is that it hurts.  Stop trying to say every other doctor is wrong and just help me already! "I think you need to take Advil and do stretches and give it time."  I've been doing physical therapy, stretches, exercises and taking prescription anti-inflammatory meds for 6 months.  Isn't that giving it time?  "Well, maybe it will take another 3 months."  OK, what if 3 months rolls around and it's not better.  "Well, I don't know.  I guess you could come back and see me."  Um, no thank you.  Seeing as you were so helpful the first time.

So that was a lousy morning for me.  But that evening I did get to spend some one-on-one time with Julie while Tim and David went to Cub Scouts and build a bird feeder out of a milk jug.

Thursday turned out to be a much better day.  I went to get a massage.  I've been going to the same massage therapist for a while now, but I hadn't been in since before Christmas.  I left feeling pretty good but anticipating the soreness that usually follows these massages.  These aren't feel good, relaxation massages.  These are deep tissue, find all the trigger points where it hurts and press on those really hard massages.  Thankfully that good feeling lasted for about 2 1/2 days!  I had very little pain until Sunday morning.  It was a really nice 2 days.

We found out Thursday night that the kids were out of school on Friday because of an ice storm that was headed our way.  So we spent a lazy Thursday night and slept in on Friday morning (Tim had already decided that we was working from home on Friday).  Friday afternoon the kids got invited to sleepover at their friends' house, which happens to be in our neighborhood, so I didn't have to worry about driving far in the ice storm.  They went over there about 1:30 and stayed until Saturday morning.  Date night in for us!

What I'm watching:  Tim got the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-Ray for Christmas so we are making our way through watching those again.  I had forgotten how violent they are.  That must be why men like them so much.  When we want to take a break from the violence, we watch Smallville through Netflix.  Oh, wait, that has some violence too...but super hero violence doesn't count, right?

What I'm reading:  I just finished Where Treasure Hides by Johnnie Alexander Donley.  Great, but frustrating book.  My full review will be coming soon.  Now I'm reading Kisses From Katie, a true life account of the work that Katie Davis is doing in Uganda.  You can visit her blog here.

What I'm listening to:  I love, love, love this new song by Kutless.  I think it was written just for me.  Take a few moments and listen to it and read the lyrics while you're at it.

That was the highs and lows of my week.  How about yours?