Birthday/anniversary/retirement

I had an amazing birthday, perfect. When I got up and went in the kitchen, Scott had written me a card and left it by the coffee pot. We got up and got around and left for Lake Wabaunsee. It was a breezy, hazy, warm day but not hot. We all (the kids, Scott, Larry, Jo and I) lolled around on the dock and the patio and chatted. We ate a great meal (probably ate too much but that is a lake tradition). Scott and I stayed later and rode home together. I turned 49 and it was our 27th wedding anniversary.
Then yesterday, I got up and had some quiet time and got started getting ready for the party. The kids and Scott soon pitched in and we all worked for a couple of hours. The house shaped up quickly. We had food left from the lake yesterday and more.
The retirement reception at the fire department was really nice and touching. So many of the family came and more later to the house. Scott was presented with several plaques and folks from the department said nice things about him. Scott's speech was good, saying how it was a God thing that he got the job and then met me and how what he really wanted was to be a good dad. When he was done, everyone clapped and then the fire fighters gave him a standing ovation.
We came back to the house and more people came and I had a really good time. There was so much good conversation and people stuck around for a long time. Ian and Shari were here and Jon and Dave and Roni came and Jackie and TJ and a bunch of Hannah's friends and Joel's friends. At the end of the evening, someof Joel's friends, Leah and David, Hannah, Rob and Sarah and Scott and I played some fun games in the living room--The valley of the green glass doors and Black magic. It was relaxing and fun.
They all leave today. I will feel sad and a little lost but I'm looking a bit forward to the quiet. I will get Adelle tomorrow and go see Scott at the FD for one of the last times to do that. Then my water class starts Monday! Tuesday will be a long quiet day. I'm looking forward to getting back on track with my eating and getting back to the gym and being active. Then Wednesday I'll go stay the night with Leah. Joel comes back on Friday:)

summer

Its starting to dawn on me that it is summer and I am off work. I am sitting in the livingroom with a wonderful breeze blowing through the room. Scott is home from the FD and the kids are asleep. We are in vacation mode as we do fun things each day--tuttle yesterday, lawrence tomorrow, lake thursday, party friday...But after that, on saturday I do have a conference to go to for the morning and part of the afternoon, then take the kids to the airport and stay probably at mom's and take joel to the airport sunday. He'll be in LA for a week. I start teaching my jog clas that monday. Wednesday Leah wants me to go to newton through friday morning. Then friday night back to kc to pick up joel. Doesn't sound relaxing but there will be lots of quiet times and time at home. Scott said in a few weeks we will actuall start the repairs on the house! Yipee! I am so ready. But that's going to get crazy. Summer is here!

kids home

Yesterday enjoyed just hangin out with the kids! Got up and ate breakfast then went to target and the grocery store together. All three kids and Rob! Hung out at the house and fixed a great dinner--homemade tortillas, grilled chicken, fixin's. Today got up and went to church then sat around together. Walked to aggieville for some shopping at dusty bookshelf, acme gifts, rock star and rogers, then coffee at bluestem. Walked home and decided to go get frozen yogurt at orange leaf then head out to the beach at tuttle puddle. We all took over an hour nap on the beach! Came home and fixed steak with feta cheese, pasta salad and sweet potato fries and for dessert, blueberry slump! It was all delicious! Fixed Scotty a plate and took it to the FD. He entertained us for awhile. Now we're sitting around again and it is lovely. We are watching Harry Potter. more later!

Home

The kids are home and I'm having such a good time! Picking them up from the airport was a little stressful. Hannah's flight was delayed for 3 1/2 hours! Rob's flight got in early (11pm) and Hannah's got in at 2:00 am! It was incredibly foggy and I was so tired driving home! We slept in and are just hanging out today! The weather is perfect! I love spending time with Rob to get to know him better. I love having the kids here and Scott will be home soon to join us! Good times!

Lately

Sorry bloggerites (or whatever you readers call yourselves). Sorry I haven't written in awhile. Not that my life has been all that crazy busy or anything, just seems that way. Last weekend Joel and I took Professor to Leah and saw her new apartment. I loved it! Its in the basement apartment of her roommate Emma's parents' house. Its an older home with a homey feel and the apartment itself is deocrated modern. The livingroom/kitchen has a wall of windows that go to the ceiling! It has a dining room right there where they can eat at the table! Both girls have a large bedroom with walk in closets! It is right next to Dillons, too, so handy. So its a little sad not having Professor around but relaxing. The dog is high maintainance for sure! Leah is so excited to have him. School is going well, we only have a day and a half left! Tomorrow all the kids have field trips so I will be doing paperwork and getting my office ready to shut down for the summer. Then Wednesday is lots of supervision and some meetings and the big goodbye, wave off! Thursday is more time to get work done and more meetings. Friday I have a funeral to go to (the husband of a former co worker and friend). Then Friday night Leah comes home and we go pick up Hannah and Rob at the airport! Its been so good to have Joel home. I am excited to have them all home and to spend more time with Rob. It'll be a whirlwind of a week, for sure. The next Friday is Scott's retirement party at the Fire Department and a celebration at the house. Then Saturday I have an autism conference at k state and then take Hannah and Rob back to the airport. Then summer begins. Scott is going to Ecuador and I am teaching water aerobics mon-wed-fri at city pool. Scott said we will start the house renovations this summer so that could be crazy busy! I hope we start this summer because it will be really crazy this fall with Professor back and Scott's new team in full swing. I am hoping to go to many of those away trips with the girls and spend lots of time hanging out, having the girls over, etc. I continue to spend time each week with Adelle. I went with her to her special olympics track meet a few weekends ago and that was fun. This week we just hung out, she went with me to the grocery store then we checked her facebook and she watched her Around the Horn episodes at the house. So that's what is up with me lately. I'm really happy. :)

sick day

Sometimes when i push myself emotionally and mentally, my body says, "enough!" I started feeling this on wednesday. i blogged about all the emotions i was feeling with the end of the year stuff. I took the night off exercise and just took it easy. I got some prayer support. Thursday went fine at work and then I forgot scott had a game. I'd planned to work out then meet adelle and rose to figure out the track meet plans for saturday but ended up going to the game and talking to rose on the phone. I felt pooped. really pooped. People at work said I looked really tired. a three hour iep meeting didn't help any. and the crises keep rolling in at work. so i went to bed when I got home from the game. I knew my body was done. so I rolled around in bed deciding if I could call in sick to work. i decided i had to get up and take the dogs to the groomer then went to work for an hour. I made some calls that had to get made, took care of two new crises, one larger and one smaller, set up some things for monday, brought some paperwork home, handed off the rest of the crisis to nancy, greg, and marvin, got out of the iep meeting, went ahead and let the intern observe me doing all this so she didn't have to reschedule her observation, and came home. I'm still having trouble shutting down completely but I am working/ etc from bed and dozing in between. it means i won't get to go to chipotle or my friday night workout but i need to rest. Before I get up tomorrow and go to topeka and watch a track meet most of the day and then get adelle home. rest. rest. ok, im trying!

what to do?

Holidays make me freeze up in indecision. I never know what plans to go with or end up making no plans then the big day comes and I wish we were celebrating with someone. So all along I had plans to go to bethel to hear leah's mid kansas united orchestra concert on mother's day. My mom was coming here to do the skit with my middle schoolers today so we were going to spend mother's day tonight. Then she got feeling icky and canceled. Now I'm feeling icky too and stayed home. Leah called this week and said I really need to come to her school orchestra on tuesday instead of the one on sunday. now I will be with neither my mom or my kids on mother's day. I'm doing so much driving tomorrow to topeka, tuesday to newton and wednesday to kc pick up joel that i dont think i can take a quick trip to lv to see mom on sunday. so i guess ill just talk on the phone all day to my mama and each of my children.