Cat's Litterbox

Sorry I haven't been following my goal of "A Post A Day In May." Things happen...

We drive up to Michigan on Thursday, May 7th to surprise my mom for her graduation and for Mother's Day. The plan started out with the intentions of us surprising Scott and my parents, but then my dad decided to go up north to the cottage and Christie (Scott's fiance) found out-- she was a little worried that if someone didn't tell him that we were coming, he'd miss out on our visit. So I ended up telling my dad, and then it became really hard for Christie to keep it from Scott.

We stopped in Olmstead Falls, Ohio to have dinner with Kevin and Greta and their boys Ben and Ayden. They are two of the cutest kids! Ben is getting so big!! Ayden is just about to turn one, so I helped make a few pages for his birthday book. We were able to hand-deliver them and they loved how they turned out.

From Greta's, we headed to Scott's place. We got in after midnight, so we didn't stay up too late visiting. On Friday, my Aunt Margie had helped me with a surprise for my mom, and told her she'd meet her for lunch at Applebee's. Scott and Steve and I went to Applebee's at noon, and there was my mom. She was expecting to have lunch with my aunt, so when we walked in, she did a double-take, but then thought it couldn't be us. Then when we started walking towards her, she realized that we were there for her graduation, and she started to cry. It made me cry and I was so excited to see her and to know that we surprised her!

It was one of the best moments ever. Once we got to the table I hugged her and we both cried. The only "bad" thing was that Steve was not able to find his passport before we left and his birth certificate was included in the passport. So, we weren't able to be at the actual graduation ceremony (held in Windsor, Canada).

We were able to get over and see Aimee and Matt. We got to hold Tanner (he's so tiny) and had a little bit of time with Lucas. Then we headed off to Albion to visit Mitch and Jess and saw their new baby Elizabeth (she's six months). On our way to Albion, we stopped at 7-11 and I was able to get my Slurpee and BBQ Better Made chip fix. It was sooooo delicious!! We had Hungry Howie's for dinner (their pizza is the best) and then drove back to Redford.

My mom stopped over to Scott and Christie's place and we got to see her again before heading off to bed.

Saturday morning we got up and Christie had made muffins (so good) and then after breakfast we went to Mongolian BBQ to meet my parents for lunch. It was so great to see my dad!! We had a delicious lunch and we decided to go see the Star Trek movie. it was really good!!!

After the movie we went our separate ways and Steve and I went shopping. I was able to get some new undies and bras (hooray) and then we went to IKEA and got a few random things as well as a cute hippo and some hippo crib sheets for Scott and Christie's fetus (Lil).

We stopped and picked up some flowers and a balloon for Scott and my mom (Scott graduated the weekend before with his BS in Criminal Justice from Ferris State University, and my mom got her Master's in Pastoral Studies). We then went to Montana's (my parents love that place) for dinner. We gave them their gifts and flowers and balloons and then we had a nice dinner. After dinner we headed over to Dairy Dan for dessert (we love Dairy Dan!)

We went back to my parent's house and just hung out there before leaving to go back to Scott and Christie's place. We were pretty tired so we went to bed pretty soon after getting back to their place.

Sunday morning we got up and drove over to St. Sabina's to meet my mom for mass. It meant a lot to her that we came and went to church with her. It was my first time in a Catholic Church in over a year... in fact, I can't remember the last mass I attended. I don't think we've been to mass in over a year... maybe even two years.

Anyway, after mass, Scott, Christie, and Alex (her son) met us for the Mother's Day Breakfast that the church was having. After mass, we went back to Scott's for a few hours and then we met my mom and dad at Kerby's Coney Island for lunch. I miss coney dogs!!! I am glad that they aren't around here though... it's a nice treat, but so tempting!!

We went back to Scott's place and then got ready to head over to Christie's sister's place for a Mother's Day BBQ. It was a really nice party and I got to meet Christie's sister Jackie, her husband, Christie's brother, her mom, and then Fr. Terry came over also.

We got back to Scott and Christie's and I took come cute pictures of them. We stayed up for a bit and enjoyed the last few hours together and then we went to bed.

It was in the four o'clock hour when we got up and showered. We were on the road by five and then had a nice drive back to Carolina. We got home around 4:30 and that's with several stops! It was much quicker coming home for some reason. Steve says it's because we took a different route.

I had all day Tuesday to rest and recover, while Steve had to work. I ended up going into work around 3:30ish and started to get my room ready for track in. Renee and Cheryl came in to help and it was wonderful!! I didn't get the whole thing done by 6:30, but it looked pretty good. From there we went to Diana's house for dinner and a meeting.

Renee is the parent of one of the boys in my class. She invited me to join her sorority Beta Sigma Phi (a women's group). They aren't social Greek and it's nothing like a social sorority-- but they have Greek letters and call themselves a sorority. Anyway-- it's been nice getting to know the women in her chapter. There are only seven of them (they have a maximum of ten) and they are all great. Very friendly, caring, and all a little older than me.

They asked me to join (extended an offer of membership) on Tuesday and I accepted. I am glad to be apart of their group and to learn more about Beta Sigma Phi. I am still an AGD and still have that in my life, but I just don't know any AGD's down here and the ones that I've met through the Junior Circle are nice, but not people I want to spend a lot of time with.

Anyway-- I am glad to have met some new people and to have a group of women to establish a relationship with. I miss my friends from MI and I wanted to have friends outside of work. I hate that the only people I do things with are people I work with. It makes it very difficult to separate work and play.

So that's the latest from me. I have a Leadership Team meeting this morning at 8am. Not sure what we'll find out. We have grade-level meetings with my principal on Thursday and we're supposed to find out staffing for next year. I don't know what grade I'll be teaching and don't know what track. I assume I'll be 4th grade track 3 (same as I am now), but you never know.

A funny thing happened recently... a parent on track 1 in 3rd grade found my Bb (Blackboard) site and then ventured to my website. She sent me a really funny (and nice) email asking me to move to track 1 (the fourth grade track 1 teacher is leaving). She said she'd do anything-- bake me cookies, wash my car, LOL. It was really funny.

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you what happened with my OBGYN appointment!! I got my lab results back and basically, everything is still totally normal, except my thyroid. My thyroid levels were high, so I am now on something for that. I take one pill a day and hopefully it'll help my levels. I was also taking some progesterone but the bleeding never stopped. However, I feel like now that the ten days are up, I AM having a period so maybe it worked and I'll restart my cycle as planned.

Enough from me. Until next time...

>^..^<