Since we've been gone...

TAKS testing has come and gone.

My dreaded visit to the rheumatologist is over. By the grace of God, the battery of tests came back negative. That means the original test was either a false positive or I'm one of the very few people who have an elevated ANA {don't ask me what it means} for no reason at all. Fine with me; I can live with that. Thank you Lord for such a blessing!

The swine flu frenzy broke out; only now to find out it might not be as bad as they thought. Thank you media for all the unnecessary hype!

Our yard turned into a swamp. Fortunately, the boys didn't let the rain interfere w/their weekly yard maintenance.

I participated in our school Lighthouse program and received the most beautiful flowers from the sweet young lady I nominated for the award. She's absolutely precious and a constant reminder of why I chose this profession in the first place. I couldn't ask for a better career!

Kase turned into "Cheetah Boy" for his zoo research project.

This really should be it's own blog post b/c it was quite a calamity. I allowed Kase to be the designer of his own costume and I just did as I was told. "Mommy, you can go get me a peach {off-white} shirt and put cheetah spots on it." So, I went to Hobby Lobby, bought the t-shirt, cheetah felt and wonder-under. Then I diligently cut out five thousand 50 patches and ironed them onto the shirt. Well, did you know that cheetah's don't just have patches on the front of their bodies? Kase does but guess what? Mommy didn't have any more patches and it was time to get dressed for school. I scrambled around and found some old iron on letters and asked Kase what he thought about being a "Cheetah Boy". He likes the Cheetah girls so I knew there was a good chance that would work. For once, I was the smartest mom alive...he loved it! Now time to put on the pants. As I'm taking the khaki ones off the hanger, he says, "Mommy, you said I had brown pants. These are like brown Kase, let's put them on." Ohhhh no, here we go...meltdown #1 for the day. After telling him his choices were underwear, the pajama pants he had on, jeans or khaki pants; he decided the khaki ones would do. Thank goodness we did have brown converse.

Tony and I had a much needed and very enjoyed date night. We took a long nap on Saturday, went out for a yummy steak dinner and then spent 2 hours shopping at Target. We stopped on the way home to rent a movie but neither of us wanted to get out of the car b/c it was pouring down rain. After sitting and laughing at our silliness, we drove on home and ate brownie batter. Much better choice, in my opinion! We slept in on Sunday morning and then went to Breadwinners for breakfast. It was such a nice treat to spend an entire 24 hours together, all by ourselves.

I haven't had a diet coke, we don't listen to the radio in the car on the way to work and I'm only on the computer an hour a night. As part of our church worship series "Crave: What are you hungry for?", the teaching pastor challenged us to fast or give up something in order to find our "true hunger for God". The diet coke was an easy one and something I've wanted to do for a long time. The other two...well, let's just say that's been extremely difficult but well worth it. The time I used to spend on the computer and listening to the radio in the car is now spent reading scripture, talking to Him, listening to Him speak to me through my devotionals and watching for the things He is trying to show me. It's amazing how much deeper in love I am with Him today than I was just 2 weeks ago. The challenge was only for 4 weeks but I'm going to keep right on going with it!

My computer time is almost up and I still have a few blogs to read so I better sign off for now. Happy Wednesday...only 22 more days until summer vacation. Actually, 21 for me b/c I'm off on Friday to decorate for Prom. Hip-Hip-Hooray!