Yea! Weekend

Dear Blog Ladies,

I am so glad that the last Tax Day, Monday, April 17th passed and TAKS days (Texas Assessment of Knowledge Skills--three days of state student tests for 3rd-5th graders), Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are over. The library schedule was upended and because no one seemed to know the schedule details for the library, I scrambled to help teachers bring their classes in to check out before tests so the students had plenty to read if they finished the tests early. Anyone remember those kinds of school days, as a student or a teacher?

Our taxes went in again online--seems much easier, but still--never know if we would be better off and save more in the end by having a CPA do them like we used to.

Monday I was off work and drove to Decatur to do my civic duty at the county courhouse with about 40 others for jury duty. Our case was to decide if a man, about 40, dressed decently in good work clothes, and clean shaven was innocent or guilty on a DUI charge. After we were put in order that the DA and defense attorney liked (I was #6), we answered several rounds of questions about the DUI law and our perceptions. Next, we took a break. When we returned, the man decided to plead guilty and take whatever punishment the judge would give him. So-----, I guess the man decided the judge would be more lenient than we would have been in a jury trial. Who knows? Anyway, about half of the prospective jurors were workers. Most got paid by the hour, so he wasted half a day for them. I was glad to shop at Wal-Mart and have more time to finish our taxes.

Tuesday and Wednesday we endured 100 degree weather. I watched a TV documentary in the evening about the tornado that came through Bridge Creek, OK several years ago where Brandi went to high school.

Wednesday and Thursday nights we had thunderstorms after midnight. Our power was off Wednesday after midnight for about 1 and 1/4 hours.

The picture albums from Brandi and Kristen are so precious. I'll print some of the pictures and put them on the refrigerator alongside the ones I have there from my birthday greeting pictures from last month. Jennifer, one of our parent volunteers, brought her month-old son to see me yesterday. This is Jennifer's fifth child. The others are 5th, 6th, 8th, and 12th grade age. He is soooo cute. Anytime I hold someone else's baby or play with their toddlers or teach children, it make me want to be closer to my family. Maybe--some day.

On Llew's birthday Ken and I sang Happy Birthday. I got so tickled because I was trying to sing in Ken's key so we could keep it together, but we still ended up about a fourth apart (all you musicians out there know what I mean). It was hard to keep my act together. Oh well, calling at midnight CT, probably was a little late for us to try that.

Ken is so lucky to be retired. I hope to do that, with an outside chance for this year, more probably for next year, or most definitely for the following year. He gets phone calls that I can't enjoy by being at work, like from Nancy, Elizabeth, and Chuck this week. I am glad when our children can call their dad.

Today I will go to work some. Yes, it is Saturday. I must catalog, order, and get ready for the substitute before Ken and I go to Houston Monday for the Texas Library Conference from Tuesday-Friday.

Take care, and I love you. linsue

Busy, busy...

It was a busy weekend for us here this past week. Anna, Mom and I went to the zoo on Friday. It was a lot of fun. Hot, but fun. The nice thing was that even though the zoo closed at 5, they didn't kick us out. So we stayed until almost 6:30 just wandering around the animals and playing on the playgrounds with almost no one around! Anna had a ball. She only got startled twice: once when a seal we had been watching for almost 10 minutes barked loudly and then when another person at the gorilla exhibit made a loud noise trying to get his grandson to smile.

Sunday we went to my parent's for Easter dinner. I made a ham, deviled eggs and a lemon cake while mom did the potato salad, bread and a green salad. Mostly it was so Anna could "hunt" Easter eggs. Not much hunting this year but she had a lot of fun picking up the eggs and putting them in the wagon. Blake & Grant (my brother's sons) joined us later and all three had fun. Blake is starting to walk so it was fun to count his steps.

Anna is certainly getting ready for the "terrible twos," not that I think I'll ever believe she is terrible, maybe just a bit of a drama queen... ;-P She gets mad almost everytime we tell her "no" and can put on quite the show when she wants to. She certainly inherited her daddy's temper.

Hope all of you are doing well!

New Day in April

I am up at midnight, having sent in our taxes electronically. I hope I did everything correctly. It makes me feel uneasy about mistakes I can make and finding out about it later with the IRS.

Monday I have jury duty in Decatur. That's a new one. Hope it only lasts tomorrow. There is so much going on at school I feel I shouldn't be absent, but can't help it in this case.

I really enjoyed having Friday off. I (re)organized Ken's workshop better. That means basically that I tried to put everything back where it should be, or find a place that it can be. I would say that I was about 80% to the good. I also swept a lot. That is not Ken's forte. He got our mowers and weeders in great shape for the new season.

I'd better sign off for now. Hope all of your families had a lovely and safe Easter. Nice to hear from Llew, Elizabeth, Kristen, and Nancy this weekend. Love, linsue

More pets in Bellingham

Dear all, Well, Vonnie decided that Wanda Wak-Wak really needed another duck, since the ducks are, indeed, herd animals. So she went out to the friend's house where we originally got Wanda, and now we not only have Wanda a friend, but we also have a horse in the back yard, at least for now. We have divided off the yard with a rope fence, which seems to be working for now. The Duck's name is Quinten Quack-Quack, to match Wanda's name, of course. The horse is Found Fiana; her name was Lady, but we chose the new one. Things around here, as you can imagine are pretty busy, what with six pets now, and even more chores than before. And I had originally planned to send the message that this is an april fools bit of fun tomorrow, but decided that I should say that it is april fools today. We really still only have the three cats and a single, very spoiled ducky. Love, Llew