Our son, the graduate

Yes, crazy I know, to be talking about a Kindergarten graduate. I always try to reminisce about how much my kid's age over the course of their year on their birthday. But I think it is almost more appropriate to look over the last school year and see how much they have grown.


For Trevor, Kindergarten was a HUGE change. He has a lot of confidence, so he sometimes thinks he can do it all without ever really knowing what is going on. Going to a new school, being the youngest at the school (relatively speaking), with a new-er teacher, so she was getting her footing as well, Monday through Friday, it was a huge change.


Wednesday was their ceremonial graduation, and besides a few songs, his teacher also made a dvd of all of the class pictures she took throughout the year. She had taken a picture of each of the kids on their first day of school and then closed it out with a picture of each of the kids in a cap and gown. The same cap and gown picture was our brochure picture with the note "Class of 2022."

It is kind of interesting that he happened to be wearing the exact same t-shirt the day of this picture, so it doesn't even look all that big on him. I'm not sure if these are the 5th grader's cap and gowns or not, but I really can see him 12 years from now at his High School Graduation.

Going through this year, it is amazing to me how much Kindergarten has become such an academic year for the kids. He did know how to read at the start of school, but now he is reading at a 3rd grade level. His math skills have also improved, but we have been studying more on reading. From about November of school on, he brought home a "book in a bag" every night. I required him to read it at least 3 times, unless the book was over 30 pages long. After the first time, he had to tell me what the book was about (developing reading comprehension). His learning goals were done after the first 2-3 for Kindergarten standards. By the end of the year, we were doing spelling tests. I still read to him as a nightly ritual, but now we have started to read chapter books. It was a little bit of a struggle to get him to agree to it, but I got him James and the Giant Peach, and after we were done, he said he really liked it. I took him to the library and he picked out a funny little comic-type book called The Boy Who Burped Too Much. It was too easy for him, but he read it on the way back from the library. He really likes to do reading activities. He loves science books as well. He likes to read about sharks, volcanoes, oceans, and whatever other books we can get.

He developed a few new friendships over the course of the year. It will be interesting to see what happens next year. There is a possibility (we will know for sure next Friday) that he will be in a multi-age class next year. Half first graders, half second graders. He learned all about the goings on of his school. They have news crews that broadcast every morning. They have crossing guards to help kids walking to and from school. He hasn't been able to learn about music or phy-ed classes, that will be next year. He loved his library day. He can't wait for lunch and recess time next year. They got to practice lunch last week. Through all his experiences, I think he might have his eye on the news crew. We'll have to see how it goes.

He still has his tough days, but I'm hoping that he is growing out of the tough behavior. The good thing about it is that his teacher can pass along things that worked well in helping him not get so frustrated so quickly. We asked him again if he is excited, happy, or sad about being done with school tomorrow. He said he was a little sad that he wouldn't get to see his friends anymore. I wonder if he is confusing preschool with Kindergarten. It is a new experience to be in a new class, yet have your old classmates in another class, so you would still get to see them. I'm interested to see what happens with this summer. It will be another adventure, I'm sure.

Way to go Trevor!

Big events

Well, after reflecting on what was going to be our 10 year anniversary, we decided to forgo huge recognitions and play it a little low key this year. But really, 10 years seems like a lifetime, in a wonderful way. Really, it is a lifetime for our kids. I've noticed that I'm not big on reminiscing, I prefer to picture our life in the future. I love to plan and enjoy the fruits of the planning. Our big trip to Disney World was great, and I'm looking forward to planning the next one in a few years. Trevor loves hearing about my love of Maui, so I think when the kids are MUCH older, we will have to head out there for a trip so I can show him what I mean.

Our actual anniversary date was spent with the kids out at dinner. We decided to priceline it for the Saturday evening that weekend. The kids went up to Grandmas house for the night and had a great time playing with their family. We got out golfing, then dinner, then a movie. It was SO weird. But nice to not have to feel rushed, or that we have to take care of the kids.

We went golfing, and while it was raining the entire time, I still enjoyed being able to get out and do it. Russ and I only get out maybe 3 or 4 times together. We then went to Redstone and again, didn't have to be rushed by kids. It is so hard to get out of the mind set. I was driving Russ's car the other day, or riding, I don't remember. We had the kids in the back seat with us because I had the car in for an oil change. When we stopped, I could not stop myself from reaching up by the rear view mirror where in the Relay, there are automatic door openers for the passenger seats. I feel like I'm automatically in my "mom" mode most of the time. Anyway, we had more time to ourselves because golf went by pretty quick. So we decided to brave a movie. Movies are always hard with us because we rarely see any, and I'm not much for serious movies, nor did I want to watch a kids movie, so that left us with limited options. We saw the movie Killers with Ashton Kutcher and Kathrine Heigl (excuse the spellings). For me it was perfect...light and I didn't have to really think about anything. They billed it as a movie about marriage, so it seemed to be the best choice. I don't know that Russ enjoyed it as much as I did, but like I said, I was happy.

So we stayed at a nearby hotel for the night. Poor Russ again, having to stay in a hotel. At least it was 4 star, and we brought our own pillows. And no kids or phone calls waking us up. The weekend was framed by Trevor's two baseball games on Saturday and Sunday morning. Trevor didn't get rained out either game which was I think one of the only teams to do so.

It has been a crazy few days for me. Trevor is "graduating" this week so more on that soon. But first, 10 years. Looking forward to many many more with our ever developing family.

Give me a D!

Holy Cow. The weather was unbelievable. The boat was in the water, and we were able to get down to the cabin by 3:00. Since Trevor was in AM Kindergarten, this will probably be the last time we can get there early on Friday. Unless we take him out of school. Regardless, we hit some traffic, while we were still in Minnesota, but otherwise smooth sailing out to the lake. The weather was mid-80's so the kids and I were in the water by 3:30. Gwen was a little confused at swimming with a life jacket on, since when we were in Florida, she was swimming with floaties. But it was interesting to watch her quickly learn when we took a quick boat ride to the creek and jumped in to the warm water there. Then, she enjoyed swimming around in the open water. Perhaps it was because if she thought she could touch the bottom, she wanted to.

So we got done with our swim and got ready to go to our dinner at the Stone's Throw. Eating out on their porch, having their good food was heaven again. I had to cut out of the evening festivities in order to finish my school work for the weekend. Then thinking I'd do well to go to sleep early that night too, I tried to head out for the night. Trevor had other ideas. I think he was revved up to be at the lake and swimming, so he woke up at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep until 4:30. I moved him into the other guest room so he could cool down but he was still up shortly after 7:00. So much for my trying to get ahead on sleep.

We woke up o Saturday to another unbelievable day. The guys went golfing, without Trevor, and the rest of us set up at the beach by around 11:00. It was warm enough in the sun to be in the water for most of the day. Gwen was ready to be done at 1:30 or so. Trevor was tired as well. I mistook Gwen being tired for actually wanting a nap. At about 2:30, I headed out expecting Gwen to sleep with Russ and Trevor to sleep with my mom (which he did) so we could head out for a boat ride. It was a great day to be in the sun. Lots and lots of my wonderful Vitamin D that I crave. We got back I think by 5? At this point I wasn't keeping track. We had a bbq style dinner and server Trevor helped take everyone's order. It is one of his current favorite things to do. That evening we played a game of dominoes, which I won somehow. It was a very fast game, and I was thankful to get to sleep "early"...at least for the lake.

Sunday again was a really warm day, but windy this time. Gwen and Trevor were in the water early, but it was obvious that Gwen wasn't going to make it much longer. So I decided to stay back with her to finish up my homework so she wouldn't bother anyone needing to come back to the house. We got out her little wading pool and I let her play with the little princess dolls that I figured wouldn't get too damaged. The tubes were out with the little kids and adults. Because it was so windy, I guess it wasn't too much fun for Trevor. But his turn came after about 4 hours of playing in the lake. I think he was a bit exhausted. We were able to go out to dinner again on Sunday evening, outside again, and very enjoyable. More dominoes and cards in the evening.

So we missed our yearly parade here in Bloomington, but with the weather what it was, I couldn't resist staying that extra day. I know the kids got their dose of fresh air, and if we can find the time to do it again with the same weather, we will be really lucky. Hopefully July will be wonderful too. We got so lucky this year, and I hope our luck doesn't run out!

A short thought on Field Day

Field Day at Lake Elmo Elementary was a yearly tradition. I wonder if we started it in First Grade or if it started in Kindergarten. Honestly, thinking back, I didn't remember much. I remember relay races, short races that got longer as we got older, long jump - standing usually, not the running long jump you see in the Olympics, and I remember getting ribbons. Of course I didn't usually get many, unless I was lucky enough to get onto some one's relay team that was good.

But Trevor had his Field Day, and I had no idea if it was going to be anything similar. All I knew was that their school's gym teacher ran it. Which, if I remember correctly, ours did as well. Wow...our gym teacher, even that brings back memories. ANYWAY, I digress. I guess I should have volunteered to really see what it was all about. But I didn't. I had been volunteering a lot at school for other things, and the last event I was at was outside anyway. I posted a status on Facebook, trying to ask my Lake Elmo friends if they remembered our Field Day. Yep, got a lot of responses. It was at that time that I remembered a few more events we had: shoe toss and bean bag balancing races. It sounds like those events were more of what Trevor did. And maybe because it was Kindergarten, not the older kids. He said they played two different games of "tag" as well as having Popsicles (it was a warm day, which was nice for them). Get this, one of the games they played was called Toilet Tag. Of course the kids love that game. He played it in one of his summer classes and loved it then. The idea is if you are "it", you need to go around and try to tag people. If you are tagged, you need to freeze and hold your hand out as if it is a handle. If you are trying to rescue your frozen friend, you need to flush their handle, and the now unfrozen friend swirls around as if they are being flushed down the toilet and gets to play again.

So we are now in the last two weeks of Kindergarten. His big field trip to Como Zoo is coming up, with graduation (yes, I know, Kindergarten graduation is a bit ridiculous) and then his last day of school is a week from Friday. We had a wonderful time for Memorial Weekend (post to come) and hopefully the weather is as great this summer as it was this weekend. Change is coming! There is much to celebrate!

Not meant to jinx anything...

I'm going to be very very thankful that things are going the way that they are with both of the kids right now. I know it was only a short time ago, as it always happens, where I was ready to throw in the towel. It is how parenting can be. And then we turn a corner, and I get a glimpse at how my kids are going to turn out, as good human beings and sigh and think that maybe I'm not such a bad parent.

It was only a few weeks ago when one of our substitute teachers asked me if my Kindergartner had started to be less argumentative. I gave a firm, NO, and wondered if he was the odd child. It was something that he had been working on at school since at least 2nd quarter of school on. And then, within the last few weeks, a light bulb has come on. He isn't perfect, but it has been a huge difference. He is being much more respectful to his teacher, and I think is trusting his parents a little bit more that we might know what we are talking about. He plays with his friends nicer, and is trying to teach Gwen things not necessarily to be mean to her, and really it is so much easier to sit back and remark at how much he has changed over this last school year. I'm guessing that it was a lot of little changes and a lot of big changes that were hard to take at once. But now, it is a lot easier.

And now, my little girl seems to be following suit. She definitely has a different personality than Trevor does. She is all about being independent. If she can do it herself, she wants to. Which has lead me to have to plan out extra time to allow her to do it all by herself. I think it is partially an inner struggle with her because she does love to do things herself, but also loves to have us treat her like a little baby. I had been waiting to do the potty training boot camp like I did with Trevor until June. Unfortunately, Gwen had different plans. We have been starting to introduce things slowly, and at her interest level. Now this morning, she is all about doing it all herself. Getting off and on the chair, washing her hands, telling me she has to go, but yet still being afraid to go. It is obvious she does understand her signs that she has to go, but she hasn't controlled the actual having to go yet. She is very excited to wear her big girl underwear, but I still think she needs a few days of either being outside or not having to go anywhere for long periods of time before we can really get it down. But already this is so much easier then with Trevor. I'm not pushing anything, and she just wants to do it. Lucky for me Russ is home this week so I can have her stay around if I need to. Tomorrow is her last day of her ECFE class. We might have to take the morning off of not wearing a diaper, but otherwise, we'll just have to see where this goes.

Ya-HOO

What wonderful weather we have had this past week. I mean really! The only complaint I have is how dry the air is. I'm used to Minnesota warm weather being humid. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to put away the lotion for anyone. I HAVE been able to keep the windows open all day, and the heat off! Our house does heat up really quick in the warm sun and I close the windows because 50 degrees is too cold for the nighttime for me. And since Russ hasn't been home this week, I seriously have been loving the upper 70 degree temperature the house gets for a few hours during the day. It's May for goodness sake, why the heck would I want to turn on the air now?

Yesterday after lunch, I was going to start pulling weeds that may turn into prickly plants in our yard for this weekend. It is supposed to be mid-80s which is warm enough to break out the sprinkler. I told Trevor why I wanted to do it, and he really wanted me to break out the sprinkler anyway. It did get to the upper 70's and I figured a few minutes in the sprinkler wouldn't hurt anyone. I even filled up the really small, inflatable pool for Gwen to play in. Well, filled up really only consisted of 3 buckets full of warm water. It was SO nice to be at this point in the season. If this is a joke, played on us by mother nature, I am not going to be a happy camper. I know there were not that many days that we could break out the sprinkler because of my 80 degree temperature to bring out the sprinkler.

Today, I decided to bring Gwen along and we would search garage sales. While I have my garage sale stuff down, where I tag and save things to sell at a garage sale, I'm not actually very good at garage sale shopping. Maybe my problem is I don't like shopping in general, so when I do I try to make it as short and sweet as possible. But when garage sales are involved, there really isn't a good way to plan out anything. You never know what you are going to get until you get there. My mission this season is to find white furniture for Gwen's room, a 20" not weathered bike for Trevor, a hard-sided pool for the kids, a push-trike for Gwen, and other misc. clothes or toys that are good deals for either kid. Gwen of course wants anything she can play with, but actually I was surprised that she didn't scream or get upset when we didn't take the toys she wanted. We did find a dancing Cinderella toy that she really loves to play with and a frilly wand for a total of $2.50. And then, I did score when I happened upon a garage sale that was selling a really nice white storage compartment. It probably should be used for toys in a toy room, but it could take maybe some clothes, or at least the books that are all over her room. $10 price. Yippee! I'll still look out for more, but I'm glad I found something I was looking for.

Two baseball games this week for Trevor. He has been quick to hit his pitched balls and they sail out there. I think it is hard for any kid to play in the field at this level since so many of the kids have a hard time hitting the ball. I was able to golf on Tuesday, and the weather was wonderful. Russ is coming back for the next three weeks, which is always a welcome treat! So again, I say YA-HOO!!!

You would think this week would be bad....

But it was really good. Really, really good. I know I'm going to forget like half of the stuff that went on this week, so I may have to come back and rewrite a few things. We'll have to see how that goes.

Going all the way back to Monday. It seems like forever ago. It was Trevor's first baseball game. It was raining and cold and windy. Not exactly good weather for watching baseball. It reminded me of 13 years ago, watching Russ pitch in the pouring rain. This time, I at least remembered an umbrella, and thankfully I didn't bring Gwen with me, or else we would have had to sit in the car. Gwen was able to stay at home with Grandma and Amy. She was perfectly happy doing so.

Tuesday, instead of going to golf, there were two meetings I was attending at school. One was on a new multi-age class set up for next year that will have half 1st graders, and half 2nd graders. My brothers participated in these types of classes growing up, but I didn't get the chance. Before going to the meeting on the subject, I was actually turned off to the idea. The more I thought about it, and listened to the arguments, the more I thought it might be a good fit for Trevor. After discussing it with Russ, and Trevor's current teacher, the more it made sense. So right now, we have tossed his name into the ring. We will have to see if it works out, but for now, it may.

Wednesday, we decided to go out and bring Trevor to the science museum while Gwen hung out with my mom. My dad, my brothers and I all would go to the science museum at least once a year, sometimes more depending on what the exhibits were. The last time we were at the Children's Museum, it was obvious that Trevor was getting a little too old for it. We had also been at the Science Museum when the Star Wars exhibit had been there. At the time, it was a little too old for him, but there was still a lot to do. So this time, my dad came with us, and decided to go on all the attractions. We did the omnitheater, and saw the exhibit which was the "Dead Sea Scrolls". We got there almost at 2:00 which turned out to be great because while there could have been schools there, they had left at that time to get back to school. So Trevor had his run of the place. The places that excited him the most were the human body, specifically the girl that when you opened a door of her face, she "sneezed" and blew out water. But there was also a lot of time at the microscope looking at different things like muscles, bones, and other small objects. He also loved the weather part, where they created a smoke tornado that you could break up. I think it might have helped him feel a little bit better about tornadoes, seeing as how we always seem to talk about how dangerous and destructive they can be. He also made it through the omnitheater performance of "Arabia". Yeah, not my choice of fun for a young kid, and there wasn't enough cool feeling when they did the scenery to keep him interested. But to his credit, he made it through without much complaining. Then on to the Dead Sea Scrolls. I think what saved this was that they had a cell phone-like automated tour guide that you entered numbers on a sign that talked about what you did. They had a "family" guide and an "adult" guide. I decided to go on the family guide to keep up with Trevor. We simply played the who can find the next number first. I think the historical significance was lost on me. Again, I was glad that Trevor survived through it without much complaining. The other thing that Trevor enjoyed doing while we were there was that right at the entrance to the exhibits, they had a "newscaster" place where someone could sit in front of a teleprompter and try to become a newscaster. Can you imagine how much time Trevor wanted to do this? If you know him, he was right at home doing this. So overall, I think it was perfectly age appropriate, and it still gave him exposure to things that he may not understand or appreciate, but at least I didn't think he would outgrow it anytime soon.

Thursday, Kyrsten came over to watch the kids for me while I did some accountant stuff. You should see how much Gwen enjoys having girls over to play. Especially ones that are willing to pay her a lot of attention. Russ also came home around dinner time so the kids had some time with him as well. Today, I did Trevor's Friday stations at school, for the last time. Russ will be doing it next Friday, but after that, Trevor will be done with them! He only has 4 weeks left of school as a Kindergartner. I asked him today how he felt about that, and he said he was a little excited, but also a little sad. I am happy to say that he seems to be heading down ending it on a good note. We haven't had nearly as many issues recently as in the past, and I think he just needed more direction to help him figure out how to better behave.

While the weather here this week, until today, has been rainy and cold, we have had so much going on, it has been not even on my mind. Also, I have been asked to look at a start-up company's accounting records which has REALLY pumped me up. It is so clear, by how much I enjoy doing this sort of thing, that it really is the right career for me to get in to.

So that's all I can remember for now. Whew! Hopefully I don't have much more to report for now. Bring on the hot weather!!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's another Mother's Day! I cannot believe I have been a mother for 7 years now. 8 if you count when I was pregnant. It is really starting to get fun to talk to Trevor about these special days and see what he decides to do with them. I do admit, I try to play it up a little bit by saying he has to be really nice to me on Mother's Day. Hey, with my birthday on Christmas, what other day do I really get? So after I said that, he continued by asking me what my favorite breakfast and lunch was. We already had dinner plans to eat at my favorite restaurant, so he knew that dinner was taken care of. My choice for breakfast was an omelet. My choice for lunch was a salami sandwich. This was pretty early on Saturday morning, but he proceeded to run upstairs after he asked me what went into making my favorite meals and asked Russ how to make them. He was still asleep, but he woke up and humored him by asking him to check to see if we had what we needed to make my meals. We actually didn't have everything, so closer to noon, the kids headed out to the grocery store. As with a lot of Trevor's ideas, I could see him getting more and more excited.

Well, last night he switched his sleepover because he had to stay home from school on Friday. He had a fever in the middle of the night, that although it went away by the morning, I couldn't send him to school. I told his friend that it would be better to come over the next night. The kids don't have school on Monday, so it was a long weekend anyway. Trevor had a blast playing with his friend last night and this morning, and after he left he was very nice to me. I was served my requested breakfast, of course by Russ, and Trevor didn't seem to notice, but afterwards asked me if I liked it. I think I'm going to postpone my lunch for the rest of the week because I had to run to talk about my favorite thing (accounting!) to a potential fun project in the coming weeks. I also got my grades back from my last session, and those were what I had hoped for, so things are really going well for me today. Although our first floor does not look much different, I spent most of my time cleaning this week on the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs.

My cleaning project is a story by itself. I knew I was going to have to get the kids involved or at least keep them occupied because the work was upstairs and they can't be by themselves un-entertained for long periods of time. Unfortunately, I cannot have Gwen cleaning with anything that might actually be used for cleaning. I tried having her wiping, but she got some cleaning stuff on that and tried to put it in her mouth. I tried giving her a wet washcloth to stick in her mouth, and of course that was a bad idea. So the bathroom project was wiping down an already clean whirlpool bathtub. They could both fit in the tub and clean it for a good 20 minutes because they had to take the toys out first. Then when I moved downstairs, I had them wipe down their kitchen set toys with a wet paper towel. Again, that ended up in Gwen's mouth, but I knew at least that wasn't harmful. She was wiping off the table.

I was surprised at how much Trevor wanted to help and do everything that I did. Maybe I can get him to do the bathrooms by showing him how much "fun" they are and he'll never even know that it is a chore. Wouldn't that be nice for me!

So anyway, although it may not seem like a fun-filled day for some, I am really happy with where I'm act, especially today. So wonderfully blessed to have such great children, and a wonderful husband to help support us all. I wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day!

Bad timing

Or maybe it is a blessing in disguise. I finished my final on Tuesday evening, with the plans to go nuts cleaning this week and weekend. Especially since the weather was not going to be nice. Well, that was before Trevor, Gwen and I all came down with a cold. It was interesting to note that Trevor seems to always have an issue with drainage when he gets a cold. When he was younger, he got ear infections. I think it was a drainage issue. The only time it was bad was when he got one cold on top of another one, so the antibiotics didn't work. Gwen has only had 2-3 ear infections. She fights colds pretty good. She gets crabby (like most of us) but doesn't really show many symptoms. Now, Trevor gets a bad cough, and nothing helps. No cough medicine, nor sudafed, or moisture. He has always been able to fall asleep, it's just when he stirs enough to wake up in the middle of the night that is difficult because he starts coughing and can't fall back asleep.

So that's what has happened the last few nights. Two nights ago, he was up for good at 5 am. It was enough to knock me out and have a wonderful sinus congestion. Usually, I can fight them off with sleep. Probably would have, except for the early wake-ups. Last night, Trevor was thrown off by a fever. His cough was already better, although not completely gone, yet he had a fever. So I gave him some tylenol and kept him warm while he fell back asleep. Then, he slept the rest of the night. He's not going to school today, so we'll have the day to disinfect the house, hopefully to keep Russ from getting it. I can tell already, Trevor is looking forward to a more relaxing day. Of course he doesn't have school on Monday, so it's going to be a long weekend for him!

What a weekend!

Really, it was a weekend in terms of the number of hours, but it felt so much shorter since we tried to jam so much into it. Last Thursday and Friday I participated in an annual garage sale that my mom friends had. We got rid of a bunch of stuff, which always feels really good. It went on during the day on Thursday and Friday. So we were able to hang out over at their house during the morning and into the afternoon on both days. We had decent weather, although it could have been nicer. The weather has been strange lately. As I'm writing it is almost 80 degrees, but forecasted to be a high in the 50's for the next 4 days or so.

Although it was Kentucky Derby weekend, it was also Trevor's school carnival on Friday evening. They had been advertising it since March, so it would have been hard for him to not go to it. I also wanted to see what it is all about since chances are I'm going to have to help out at it at some point through PTA. They used the entire school. The library was set up for silent auction stuff. The cafeteria was set up for a rock band/karaoke prize game thing with raffle things going on and food as well. The gym had a bounce house, inflatable slide, and race car computer games. I think there were close to 30 games that the kids could play, and almost any age could do it. Trevor saw two of his classmates have a fake broken arm, and that made him want to check out the hospital room. He got a "cut" on his forehead which he loved to show off. Trevor's pediatrician has two kids that also go to the same school, so when we ran into him, his doctor was the first to notice and say, "You look like you need a doctor!" Of course Trevor doesn't really get the irony and explains that it isn't real. He also got to show it off to Bubba when he saw her that evening. I guess he played the part and got her pretty good.

So we headed off to Hatfield as soon as we could tear the kids away from the school party. It was about an hour that we were there. We missed our usual Stone's Throw dinner, but we were happy to be there, nonetheless. The kids played well with their (what are they again?) second cousins. The exciting Derby was run. I again did not win, although my horse placed second, which I think might be my closest finish yet. I cannot claim to have broken my maiden yet. We played our card games and dominoes, and came home early afternoon on Sunday.

Ever since graduating from High School, I have always looked forward to our annual Kentucky Derby races as the start of our season of trips to the lake. Unfortunately, this was my last week of classes before my week off, and I had a paper to submit by Sunday evening and a 50 question final exam for Accounting due the end of day Tuesday. Ever since around the trip to Florida in March, my cleaning has gone down the tubes. I need to get through this day before I can start my crazy cleaning again. Now, if the weather would just be nicer, I could deal with it better!