Sharin' the love

That's right. I have shared something lately with Chris. He may not view it as love however since he's currently lying on the couch sweating profusely and basically feeling like.......well, use your imagination to come up with a word that describes something bad! He's sick. I asked my mom if she'd come back, but she seemed to think I could take care of him. I was hoping if I asked nicely she would come, but I suppose she's right! Please, oh please let the girls be spared from this sickness! I have to admit it was a little validating when Chris said, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize how bad you felt last week." Our symptoms are slightly different but I think basically stem from the same thing. Poor thing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have a meeting at church planned for tomorrow morning. 8:00 breakfast, 8:30 meeting. Who scheduled this thing? Not me, I can assure you. Chris will be staying home, and I'm tempted, but I really want to have input so the girls & I will be going. They're providing childcare, so the girls will have fun. It'll be like playgroup for them.

Gracie's school is having a "bake & yard sale" tomorrow morning also. The proceeds will benefit the family of the little girl who had the brain tumor. She is doing better and is back at home, but I'm not sure of her long term prognosis. I know the latest I heard was that the tumor had shrunk and they were stopping the chemo and only doing radiation. (I think that's what I remember.) So, it was good news. They had sold some cookbooks earlier in the year that also benefited the family and we got those this week. The book is really great and very heartfelt in some of the letters written to her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris & I were supposed to go out tonight...on a real date. However, since he was sick we decided not to. He actually said he thought he could at least make it just going out to eat. I was like, "um, no." I didn't want him sitting across from me shaking from chills on our date!

I had already told Gracie that she & Katie were going to stay with her friend "A" and I knew she would be disappointed. When I called my friend Melissa to tell her, we were discussing how sad the kids would be. Almost as if on cue, I heard "A" in the background say, " "K"can't wait until Gracie comes over!" (K is his sister.) Melissa gently brought up the subject about Mr. Chris being sick so we couldn't go out. "A" said, "Well, Miss Jacinda could bring her." Melissa said, "Well, she might need to stay home to take care of Mr. Chris." "A" said, "Well, we could go get her." Needless to say, I ended up taking her over there to play & eat dinner for a bit tonight. I actually was able to run a few errands while Katie stayed home with Chris. He seemed to be feeling a little better. Of course, now he's not feeling good again but for a little bit he seemed to.

When "A"'s daddy brought Gracie home, he mentioned a little road rage with "A"'s 4 wheeler (a kid size one). Apparently, Gracie was driving (which always makes me nervous) and she ran over "A"! Not only that, but I guess she got nervous & confused so she didn't let up on the gas when she did it, so she just kept revving the engine on top of him! He's okay and it was an accident, but still! I'm so glad he wasn't really hurt. Gracie seemed quite embarrassed about it and didn't really want to talk about it. I could tell by her nervous little laugh when Shawn was telling me about it then when I was talking to her about it, she said she didn't want to talk about it because she was just too embarrassed.

Shawn said that after "A" calmed down, she was driving it again and "A" was even riding with her! Brave kid!

I hope this isn't a preview of what her real driving record will look like!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wednesday, I turned the big 33! Chris gave me a very nice birthday this year along with my parents, in-laws and friends. I got petit fours....yummy! Love those things from Publix!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have stolen a few ideas from Stephanie's blog about Teacher Appreciation week. It is next week (although her school recognized it this week.) Having been a teacher and having many days when I felt anything but appreciated, I really want to make Gracie's teachers feel special next week. I have tried to show my appreciation throughout the year, but I really want to do fun things next week. My friend Mary Beth & I came up with some ideas that we were going to do on our own, but I mentioned it to another mom and she really thought others would want to help, so she took the job of asking and we got a good amount of help. Yea!

I think someone on the PTA is doing a really nice catered luncheon one day next week for all the teachers at the school. Probably Friday because next week is testing week in South Carolina (fun, fun) so I imagine the luncheon will be on Friday because there will be no testing that day.

Gracie's class has Miss S~the teacher, Mrs. H~the teacher's aide and Mrs. T~the shadow aide for one little girl. It's great to have 3 adults in the class although it does make it a little harder when it comes to gifts because you don't want to leave any of them out. Mrs. H does such a tremendous amount for the kids and while Mrs. T is officially only there for 1 specific child, she also does alot for all of them. Here is what we are doing:

Monday, "K"'s mom is bringing them breakfast pastries and "their" drink. (diet dr. pepper for Mrs. H, diet coke for Mrs. T and diet mt. dew for Miss S.)

Tuesday, "S"'s mom is bringing a rose bush for each of them.

Wednesday, "C"'s mom is bringing something, possibly a nice dessert for their lunch.

Thursday, "H"'s mom is bringing self pedicure kits.

Friday, we're presenting each of them with a book that I'm putting together with work that the kids are giving me.

For Miss S, I sent home special paper that has a blank space at the top for a picture then lines at the bottom. I sent home a letter asking them to write a story or a letter for Miss S showing why they appreciate her. I'm going to take all of them (that I actually get back!) and bind them into a book with bright colored paper. I asked them to send it in by Monday. So far, I don't have too many. I'm really hoping to get at least close to 100% participation. For Mrs. H and Mrs. T, I traced all of the kids' hands on Wednesday when I went to volunteer. They each wrote their name inside the hand and told me something they liked about each of them. I'm putting those all together on colored paper and will make a book for each of them. I hope they'll turn out okay.

Mary Beth & I are also giving Miss S a gift certificate to a local teacher store.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had some company spend the night last night. When we lived in Uvalde, there was a couple who went to church with us and I taught with her. She retired after I'd been teaching there just 1 year. She still teaches 1 day a week in Dallas. When Chris was out of town, I'd pack up and go spend the night at their house because I was too chicken to stay by myself! She was a mentor to me with teaching. Very special people.

They moved away from Uvalde about a month before Gracie was born. They had seen her but not since she was less than a year old. Obviously, they'd never seen Katie...except in pictures. The girls took to them like ducks take to water! Katie loved Harold! She is always so much more attracted to grandfathers than grandmothers. She loves both of course, but there's something about her & men. We're going to have to watch this one!

Gracie & Ruane sat & read and talked. Ruane was so impressed at how Gracie is reading which of course pleased me to no end. We all had a really nice time together!