Crazy busy

We took a little too much on yesterday, but muddled through.
It's been a great week all-in-all!  I got paid, plus two interviews set up (for tomorrow and Tuesday)!
Monday Kira and I ran further!
Tuesday, the school kids and I went for a run.  Then we went to see the spot where I was going to take pictures at and my kids dutifully posed.  I have some silly geese!
Wednesday Ben and Scott helped clean up Leavenworth!
Thursday Scott worked for his mom, so we drove into Olathe after school and didn't have time to run before my meeting.  Bummer!  After my meeting I picked up stuff at the Dollar Store to work on teacher and student end-of-year presents.  I'm super excited!  Then I picked up the kids and went over to see my family for a few minutes.  Dad's Stairclimber is in!  It's awesome!  I'm so excited!  We left pretty soon to head home.
Friday wasn't too bad, but I was exhausted all day.  Then I had to make Emma's friend's birthday presents, so I was up way too late.  My Cricut stinks!  It won't even cut vinyl and I put a brand new blade in!  Gggrrr!
Saturday I slept in, because we had nothing going on that morning, but the rest of the day was CRAZY!!!  I thought Scott wasn't going to take long doing grout, but I was super mistaken!  I dropped Emma and Leah off at a party and then headed back to town, got gas and snacks and the kids watched a movie and ate as I took Prom pictures.  They turned out fantastic!  Scott couldn't get away from the grout, so I picked the girls up an hour late.  :(  Yikes!  We headed into town and had dinner and celebrated Kim's birthday.  I love spending time with my family!  I'm super excited for my brother and his family to come in this week!  Then my Mamaw and aunt are going to be in this weekend!  Awesomeness!  Next Saturday is going to be pretty crazy too with all the Temple runs, a wedding reception for Scott's cousin, my sister's baby shower, and I'm pretty sure I'm making Leah skip her friend's party, because that would be too much.  As it is, we're probably going to divide and conquer!  I doubt the run is going to go well, since we haven't trained well at all.  I'm sure the kids' run will be great though!

 My class book, I was pretty excited!

 My amazing school lunch!  That's a pulled pork sandwich in aluminum foil!

 The bows I made.

 This one is my favorite!

Feeling led

A lot is going on in our lives and we're doing our best to make the best out of everything.  After Time out for Women, I've been doing a lot of thinking and I'm going to be working hard to find a job as a teacher, but I'm also going to work harder to be a better mom and person.  Part of that is following where I feel led.  I felt as though I needed to start a blog on ALS.  There is so much going on with my Dad and so much we don't know fast enough.  I want to give someone else the opportunity to have the help they need in a timelier manner and still keep it upbeat.  No matter what happens, it will be okay.  I may cry a lot, but it's okay!  I just barely put the first post on and it had twelve views.  Craziness!  I'm hoping that all of my family will contribute to it, so that others can really see what happens to the whole family!  Since we're all doing something to help, I thought it would be great!  If we help just one person to be okay with the craziness in their life, that would be fantastic!
I also feel led to work on the children's book ideas that I've been needing to do for awhile now.  We'll see how it goes.  Must. Get. Procrastination. Gene. Out. Of. My. Body.
In the meantime, we are so very blessed.  We got the mail on Monday and there was an envelope with money in it!  Someone loves us so much that they sent us money!  It was so sweet!  I was able to go see five of my 3rd Grade boys play baseball, because I could afford the gas!  I brought four of my kids with me and they had a blast.  I think they'll want to go again tomorrow.

Tuesday night I went to the Temple,  What a great place to find rest and peace in this crazy world!

 And there was tulips, my very favorite flower!

 Playing outside on this beautiful day!

 Hanging out with my family on Thursday night.

 I redid the backsplash with contact paper, which we'll see how it goes.

 He's so funny first thing in the morning!

 Rocking my shirt from Walgreen's that I got a lot of compliments on!  Thanks Mom!

My very first decorated Tea towel.  I'm pretty excited!

Time Out

We started exercising this week!  We all went for a walk on Monday!  On Tuesday we went for a run (just Kira, Emma-on her bike and I).  On Wednesday the school kids and I went on a short run/walk.  We're getting there!  We're running in an actual run in less than a month.  Gulp!
This week I was counting down the days to Time Out for Women this weekend (Kira was counting down to her birthday).  Wednesday was my students' field trip to Science City, which was fun, but exhausting.  That night I had to stay up late getting cupcakes made with huge divinity (instead of frosting) and almond bark colored and flavored (with a nice sour kick) and piped out into individual letters that were placed on top of the divinity.  It was a work of heart!  Kira was super excited about the result and said her classmates liked it! Thursday was a day off for Leah and Kira brought four friends to eat with her in my classroom for lunch.  Friday all the kids had off and it was Kira's 11th birthday, while I had a workday.  I woke Kira up before I left, so she was able to open her presents before I left.  She loved her new hand-me-downs and owl earrings and she's been loving her Kindle for awhile.  I headed to work and I finished early and headed to get groceries and home.  I was running later than I wanted to be, so I hurried and packed and sang Happy Birthday to Kira, so she got her cupcake on her birthday. I took Kira and Samuel with me to Overland Park and dropped Kira off with my mom and Samuel got to hang out with my sister's friend until my work for Time Out for Women was done.  I just stood there for about an hour and a half telling people where to go.  Not bad!  And I got to see my friends that came!  Kim bought me a bag from 2 years ago for $3 and a fantastic book "ites,"  I was pretty excited!  She's so sweet!  I took pictures with most of the presenters and Samuel.  Pretty cool!  I also got their autographs in the journal that we were given.  Mary Ellen Edmunds gave out magnets too (I need to remember to get that back from Kim)!  Saturday went about the same.  Except so much earlier! I actually saw Kalee Reed before everything started, but didn't ask for a picture and autograph until later.  I got all but two autographs!  Not bad!

 She didn't want to walk, she wanted to bike.

 We took turns pushing the stroller.  I got uphill.

 After our first run

 Leah's ladybug

 Ben on a scooter

 Happy Leah

 The work of heart

 Emma loves to draw on my whiteboard!

 Kira and her friends at lunch in my classroom

 Ben made this in honor of his Grandpa, who died of Leukemia.

 Kira's early morning birthday presents.

 She loves her hand-me-downs!

 Before TOFW

 With Jenny Oaks Baker and her daughter Hannah.

 With Brad Wilcox.  Samuel wanted his pen!

 With a friend from Young Women in the Netherlands more than ten years ago...  We haven't seen each other in a long time!

 With the Sistas in Zion-Tamu and Zandra.

 With Mary Ellen Edmunds (MEE)

 With Meg Johnson

 My busy little guy

 My sister trying to keep him somewhat still.

 He was out when we met Calee Reed.  She is awesome!

Ben loves carting Samuel around like this!