Not much happening here

Well, I've not written anything in quite a while and although there have been things happening, not much that is really that exciting:

• Ahren turned 10 this month. She celebrated by ditching school for a day and going with Dad to NYC to see Tarzan on Broadway with 5th row seats!! The NYC trip was instead of a big birthday party. Her big birthday present will be a puppy (once school is out) - some kind of retriever or lab.
  
• Pete was denied life insurance - which really stinks and we are planning to talk with his cardiologist about exactly why, in the meantime, we will work on converting his term insurance to whole life - thankfully we got some initial life insurance about 7 years ago.
  
• Things are going well at school - classes filling up for next year and my wheels are spinning about what I want to change and update and rework.
  
• Me and the kids have been bike riding like crazy. It helps that they both got bigger bikes with gears and handbreaks. I've taken them both downtown individually and I'm hoping that by the time VBS starts we will all be able to ride each day back and forth (weather permitting). My goal this summer is to trick out my bike with some side baskets (for runs to the grocery store) and a light on the back and front for nighttime riding. I really want to get to the point where I don't jump in the car to make a quick trip to stop-n-shop, but ride there instead.
  

My good deed for the week.

After work, with kids in tow, I headed over to our church for the Red Cross Blood Mobile to donate blood. I'd been wanting to donate blood for a while, but the last time I did was oh, about 19 years ago (actually it was when I turned 20 - on my birthday!). Last year or so, a friend had told me that he had donated blood and it made me think that it really is an easy thing to do and yet, oh, so important.

We got there around 4:30 and I started with the waiting in line – first reading the information, then waiting to tell someone that I was healthy, then waiting for a bed, then waiting to get stuck, then waiting for the blood to drain. I was finally finished at 6:00 – whew! Carl, one of the men I know from church, said to me that my kids were the best behaved kids he had ever seen. He was really sweet. The kids were really patient. But looking at Sean, I could see that he was really exhausted and by the time we got to the hallway, he brokedown in tears and cried the whole way home. Poor little guy. He did recover, but is still exhausted.

Suna asked how the church meeting went. All was remarkably easy. Our former church's annual meetings would go on and on and on, all about tedious mistakes and typos. Our budgets got passed and the new slate of officers went through. Many people thanked me for taking on the role of VP. I also will be taking over as the 'point-person' for the accessibility stuff. Long time friends will recall that I was very involved in that project for a while - mainly getting a lift/elevator installed in the church. But with 2 (sometimes 3) meetings at the church a week, I was burning out (I was responsible for 3 sub committees along with the over sight committee). Now the current point-person is burned out and needs a break. Honestly, I think this job will take more of my time than the VP thing. I did step down from the other 2 committees that I was on (Communications and Open & Affirming/Reconciling). I will really miss the O&A/R work, but I know I can always show up at their meetings. :)

Another Year Older

Friday was my birthday. I've really never been a big birthday person. Kinda goes along with not being a big gift person, I suppose. It was a fairly relaxed day, which is what I needed after this week. In addition to the regular schedule of teaching 9 classes this week, I also had 10 parent/teacher conferences (each about a half-hour plus prep time). So on Thursday evening Pete asked if I wanted to go out to dinner or a movie or something. I told him the only thing I wanted to do when I get home from work on Friday is to cuddle up on the couch and not move! And that is just what I did! It was nice. Pete even dropped off and picked up Ahren from theater (which I usually do).

Today Ahren and Pete were volunteering at the Soup Kitchen in the afternoon and Sean got invited to the Children's Museum with a friend, so for most of the afternoon I've had the house to myself. I caught up on some knitting (now I'm almost finished with the shrug I've been working on) and watched a little tv. If I had known that Sean was going to be out, I would have gone to the Soup Kitchen too. Years ago, I volunteered at our former church's community dinners (like a soup kitchen) and did that for several years, but I had to stop when I had Ahren and it was difficult leaving her to go there. But now, Ahren and Pete have been going about once a month to help out, which is really nice. Once Sean is a little older we will encourage him to go along, too.

Pete was talking about going out to dinner tonight at the casino, but I'd really rather not, just a nice, easy evening at home sounds best to me. What a home-body I've turned into. Now if he'd suggested I take a trip to the yarn store, I'd be all over it. :)

Tomorrow is our big annual meeting at church, which will be the day that I get 'officially' voted (along with all the other officers) to be the Vice President of the church. It's not that big of a deal, Sean is excited because they will showing Madagascar for the kids to watch during the meeting.