Well, here I am....back for another school year. This year is starting off a whole lot differently than last or any of the other years since moving to Cave Creek Schools. I am at the high school and I am loving it. It feels so much like "coming home" to me. I love high school kids. I love interacting with them and helping them to see the potential in themselves. I love their bright faces and high optimism. I love their high hopes for the future. Sometimes life gets them down. Doesn't it get all of us down sometimes? But if they look around they find their hope again. I love watching them solve their problems and come out on the other side stronger for it.
I'm also lead speech therapist this year. I am enjoying that. It feels natural for me to be in front of a group again. I like all of the ladies and I think we make a really good team together. Our new gals are bright, energetic,and eager to be doing the right thing. Its such a nice spot to be in.
My summer vacation was too short, as always, but I had a blast. I love being at home and doing my home things the way I want; whether that is cross stitching, reading, being in the pool, or cleaning my house. As always I had a plan to exercise and did for about three weeks but then vacation came around and then it was too hot to get back to it....um hum.....if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you!!...I loved going back to Missouri with Judy. We talked and talked and talked. We are such good traveling companions!! I loved spending time with the grandkids and kids. Alyssa and Colin are growing so fast and are so much fun. Unfortunately, while I was there, Colin got pneumonia and hand, foot and mouth disease. He ended up in the hospital for a few days but was out before I left to go back to Arizona. While Colin was in the hospital, Duane and I looked after Alyssa. She was such a trooper but before the end of the second day, she also came down with hand, foot, and mouth disease. I don't think I will ever forget her standing in the middle of the garage with huge tears running down her face saying, "Grandma, I wanted to go to the store!" I didn't know what store she wanted to go to and with my heart breaking because of her tears, I asked her which store she wanted to go to. She repeated very strongly, "The STORE". I felt like such a bad grandma because I didn't know which store she was talking about. Suddenly and without any warning she threw up all over her shoes, my shoes and everything. This bad grandma could only think, "Thank Heavens! We are in the garage and we can hose it down!" I didn't rush to get her inside and thank goodness I didn't. After several heaves, she was finally done enough that I could get her upstairs without any problems on the carpet!! Come to find out later, the store she wanted to go to was Walmart. I was able to take her to Walmart before I left and we had a great time and didn't spend too much money.
Spending time with Dad was also wonderful. He is a very lonely man and will probably be that way until the day he dies. He lived for Mom and without her, he is kind of a loner. He loves my brother in law's visits and counts on them. Charla and Brad take such good care of Dad and its a relief to know they are nearby. I was able to clean his windows and his house. I watched baseball with him and we talked. I cooked meals for him and for him to put away for Brad's visits. The next week I brought Steve in from St. Louis and the week after that Duane and I visited with Dad for about two hours as we headed back to Arizona. Charla and I went through one of the closets that held Mom's clothes and her jewelry. That was tougher than I expected but not as tough as it could have been. Charla and I are in agreement about so much and so there were no conflicts over items or anything at all.
As I write this Duane is in South Carolina for business. He and I are doing well and I love it that after almost 10 years together (not married...just together) he can still make me laugh. I do believe we are so good for each other!
Well, I guess I should get up and let the dogs inside the house. I'll re read this to make sure I've got it all down and then I'll post. Who knows when I'll write again...but I will....someday. Maybe in that blog I'll talk about how proud of Shannon, Chris and Michael I am....but I'm out of blogging energy right now! :)
