Thought for the Day

"There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it, and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but HAPPY!"

~ Currently circulating on Facebook

Book Recommendation

In need of a book recommendation??

Francine Rivers, "Her Mother's Hope," is the book I am currently recommending. My Mom borrowed it from the library and read it the last week or two and said it was a book I would enjoy.

So I borrowed it from her and started on it that very afternoon, and two days later, 487 pages later, I am done reading the book! It was THAT good.

There is a sequel coming out, but not until Fall. That's the bummer about reading current books, waiting for the next book or rest of the series to finish being written and published.

Summer Break

The girls have been out of school now for a little over a week. It's been nice not needing to get up and out the door every morning to get them to school. I've been taking advantage of it and sleeping in, which could pose as a problem the closer we get to school starting back up, but thankfully, we have five more weeks of summer break.

The girls finished school on Tuesday, June the 15th, and just as soon as that minimum day dismissal bell rang at noon, and Hannah made her way to the car, we were on our way to Disneyland. Going to Disneyland on the last day of school has become a tradition for us girls. We were meeting our dear friends, Scott and Paula, and together, we all pre-ordered picnic meals which gave us a reserved spot for World of Color. We still waited for the show for about two hours, but it's a lot less than I was originally planning on waiting, and it was well worth the wait. World of Color is a phenomenal water show and if you're a fan of Fantasmic!, World of Color blows that show out of the water. I can't wait to see it again!We've done a couple other things in the last week since our break started. The girls, along with their cousins, spent the night all together at my parents house. It was Gramma and Papa's Game Night and they had prizes, and made pizza, and lots of fun. We've spent one afternoon with longtime friends - the kids in the pool, and us moms sitting poolside watching our kids splash and play about. Overall, we've just kinda been easing into summer break. The final weeks leading up to the last day of school were so busy for me that it's been nice to just 'chill'. I've managed to blog all the recent events and get the girls' blogs caught up, obviously not staying caught up on this one. I've also read a 487 page book in the last 60 hours! It felt good to lounge about off and on during the day on the couch, reading. And laying in bed at night, reading. Now that the book is done, I must find another.

So that's where I've been, enjoying summer break, decompressing. But now, I think it's time to start working some fun into our break and make the most of the next 5 weeks before both the girls are in school ALL DAY!

Angels Watching Over Me

Last night, during rush hour traffic, I heard a weird noise coming from my car. I was on the freeway, on my way to dinner with some moms from the school. I was in the middle lane, and managed to get over to the shoulder of the freeway and get out and look. And low and behold, I had a flat tire. I called Steven and he suggested to go ahead and call AAA, our roadside service provider to come and put my spare on. As I'm on the phone to AAA a tow truck pulls up behind me. I was a little hesitant at first, so I remained in my car. The guy eventually got out and came to my passenger side and flashed his badge, gave me a pamphlet and told me he was with the Roadside Assistance Program. It's a new government funded program that funds tow trucks to travel miscellaneous freeways during commuter traffic hours looking for stranded motorists and coming to their aid with flat tires, gallons of gas, battery jumps, etc.

He changed my tire and put my spare on and I was out of there in time to meet up with my friends for dinner.

Of course the first thought that came to my mind was the expense of a new tire. And then I was reminded that I was okay. Angels were watching over me. I was in no accident. I wasn't hurt and no damage was done to the car, other than the need for a new tire. AND I still managed to get to go to dinner with friends! :)

Popsicle Reward

Our school is big on collecting Box Tops for Education. Just this school year alone, we've earned over $4,500 from Box Tops. Translation: we've collected over 45,000 Box Tops!!!

Normally, we do two assemblies for the school with the money we bring in, but it just didn't work out this Spring for a second assembly. So yesterday afternoon, the entire school was rewarded with Popsicles for our awesome efforts in Box Tops collecting. And I helped the Box Tops Coordinator for our school pass out the Popsicles to the 765 students at our school.

It was great to see a lot of the kids that Hannah has gone to school with the last four to five years, but haven't been in her class this year or last.

Many of the children said "Thank You" and you could tell it was a genuine expression. And those were appreciated.

Surprisingly, there were two or three students that hugged the three of us moms and said "Thank You PTA Moms". That was rewarding to me. To have these few kids, not have a clue as to who I am, just that I am a PTA mom, and give me a hug and say Thank You.

We of course had those who weren't happy with the color of Popsicle they were given and kept badgering us for their Popsicle color of preference.

But the one little girl who sticks out in my mind from yesterdays Popsicle Fiesta, is the little girl who asked if she could have a second one to take home. :( It made me wonder if she rarely gets treats like that at home? Did she just like the Popsicle so much that she wanted a second one for later in the day? What was her story I keep wondering...

Memorial Day Weekend

It's back to reality today. Back to getting up and out the door, the girls to school, and later today it'll be homework and dinner and baths and bedtime and starting all over tomorrow morning.

We spent Memorial Day Weekend camping at San Elijo with our good friends from church. Normally, there's a bigger crowd of our church family, but getting reservations was unsuccessful this time around for everyone but Scott and Paula.

The car was loaded and packed as we picked Hannah up from school on Friday afternoon and then hit the road. Once our tent was set up and our things in place as well as a quick trip to the store to get sheets that I'd forgotten (I make our air mattress into a bed with sheets and blankets) it was time to decompress and get into total relaxation mode.

We spent the weekend relaxing, sitting on the beach for several hours on both Saturday and Sunday, playing Mexican train dominoes and enjoying each others company. You could tell it was a holiday weekend on the beach, people started staking out their spots and saving them with easy ups, umbrellas, blankets, and chairs before 8:00am on both days. The Lord blessed us with amazing, amazing weather all weekend long. Beautiful blue skies, not too warm, not too cold, just perfect. And at the end of the day, He blessed us with amazing sunsets. We had a great weekend. It was nice to get away, relax, enjoy each other's company. The next fourteen days will be busy ones for me as the school year is coming to what feels like a screeching halt with award ceremonies, luncheons, play days, and miscellaneous other end of the year things, so I especially enjoyed the down time. We're looking forward to our next camping trip coming up next month at the same location, with more of our church family.