I feel loved

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  Today I chased a student from another class who was climbing the fence into the woods by my portable.  He's one of my students and he has crossed boundaries in my room before.  My 3rd period was impressed with my sprinting abilities and excitedly asked: "Did you get him Mrs. Thompson?"  I said yes.
• I felt very supported by my loving husband.  He will always tell me when I'm over-reacting or being too sensitive, but today he agreed with me.  I felt loved and vindicated in my feelings.
• I'm ready to run tomorrow!  Shem is coming too and I'm excited to get back out there.  I will be a marathon runner.  I will run for myself, my health, and my kids.  I want my future kids to have a mom that loves her body enough to take extra good care of it.
• I'm excited to see my MIL tonight and give her my letter.
• I want to organize all of my parents photos someday.
• I want to write my Mom a letter too.  I love her.
• I stayed at work until 4:30 today...working.  It felt good.  I'm going to make it a habit to stay late every night except for one night a week.
• Shem thinks I should strap all of my crazy students to their chairs with duct tape...I laughed and then said that there is a better way to deal with them.

The week in review

I'm convinced that life will never slow down.  In fact, I think that I will never let it slow down because every time I find myself with one project wrapped up I volunteer myself for another one.  I should just admit to myself that I like to be busy even to the point of being stressed.

I have to work on the stress part.

My immune system hasn't been as strong this year as it has in the past so when Shem was sick last weekend I started to feel a little sick at the beginning of the week.  That always makes it hard to get out in the 50 degree rain and go for a run...so I didn't.  I can take 5 steps forward and 3 back for running 8 miles last Saturday and not even 30 minutes this week.  Oh well.  I'll just tell myself that I haven't lost anything that I can't get back after a good workout on Monday. :)

Teacher appreciation week is also to blame for me feeling like a slacker.  We had a dessert day...there were brownies and other sweets that I ate.  I had doughnuts on three different occasions too.  Did I mention the greasy pizza hut pizza that I ate too?  There was grease dripping down my pointer finger as I ate it.  Shem and I threw away that pizza hut coupons that we got in the mail because of my greasy finger.  Aside from the food it was nice to feel appreciated.  One of my students brought me a flower with a cute note attached.

Anyway.  Shem and I both love food and we try to make good food even when we're really busy.  I spent 3 hours at Winco on Monday night just to get some good food for the week.  The lines were insanely long and why do people bring their whole family grocery shopping with them anyway???  Why can't Dad/boyfriend stay home with the kids?  I tried to pass the time on the phone with my brother, but my call was dropped which meant utter boredom.

Part of the reason why we did all of that shopping was for Dawn's surprise 60th birthday party on Friday night.  We made appetizers and they were amazing!  We modified this crab won ton recipe to be Dawn and Rochelle friendly by replacing the won tons with fried rice cups that Shem created.  With the fresh buttery crab it tasted really good!  We also made these skewers with feta, cucumber, fresh mint, and a green olive.  It was so yummy!  Dawn was incredibly surprised and Q's new house was amazing looking!  We went all out to have a special dinner with stem ware, linen napkins, and matching platters.  We served everything on white dishes so that the food would look amazing...it did.  The food was incredibly good considering the limitations in food that Dawn can have now.  She loved it!

After we surprised Dawn.  She gives the best reactions.

Janea and Wendy also worked on a book of memories for Dawn.  Everyone wrote about their favorite memories of Dawn and then some of us read our entries.  It was so special and fun for me to hear about those memories. 

Dawn's book of memories.

In a way it was also sad for me because I didn't get my entry done in time to put it in.  I felt sheepish about it the whole time, but I told myself over and over that I can still hand her a letter with my memories in it.  Feeling bad about not getting that letter done made me wish that I hadn't spent so much time working on my photo blog (which looks amazing thanks to Emily Norton @ http://www.emilyjune.com/) or worked late hours last week in order to get caught up at work, or spent so much time editing and taking pictures, and I even wished that I hadn't gone running.  Oh well, it's helping me to prioritize my life.  Family is really important to me and I need to put everything aside when it comes to family.  Shem and I both wish that our jobs weren't so all consuming during the school year. It takes away from our quality of life and we get so run down that when we do have free time all we can manage to do is sit and do nothing or sleep.  And most of the time sleep is the best thing so that we can do it all over again the next day or week. :)  One of the flaws of our job. 

Well that was our week minus all of the interesting conversations Shem and I had.  Happy Mother's Day!  I can't wait to call my Mom today!

    Huntington Park, Kirkland, Wa.  After eating out at Wing Dome on Saturday night.  I love hot wings, well hot chicken tenders.  The sunset was beautiful and Shem took this picture.

Sunday snapshot

Shem has been the high functioning sickie today and yesterday.  While he has been sick he has held the fort down by washing the dishes, folding the six loads of laundry that I didn't get to, vacuuming up stairs and down stairs, playing countless hours of "Zack and Wikki", putting on one of his new license plates so that he doesn't get a ticket on Monday, and watching a movie, "Adam" (cute movie!!) with me on Saturday.  And now he's planning some awesome "nibbles and noshes" for this weeks menu!

I on the other hand have run 8 miles on Saturday, made some final decisions on my new photo blog design (I'm thinking it will be up and running this week!) prepped all camera gear, freaked out about said gear not functioning to optimal level of satisfaction, taken pictures of new niece, Kaybrie, ran to Target, started a load or two of laundry, enjoyed some Chipotle with Wendy and Corom's family, slept in today, planned my CTR 3-5 year olds, lesson, went to church, and then came home.

I love that Shem is such a sweet husband and that even when he's sick he is still so willing to work and help me with some of the chores that I can't get to when I'm running around like a crazy woman all weekend.  I just wish he were able to hang out with me. :)  I mean, he totally could've joined me on that 8 mile run with Rachael!