Whirlwind Spring

March was a whirlwind of activity, especially with Easter and having to buy a new van. We love our 2008 Toyota Sienna (although it is A LOT larger than the 2000 Sienna). I feel like I'm driving a truck.

With the Singer graduating HS and the Imp graduation Middle School, from now until the end of May is packed with activities.

The Imp is in the Music Man and is the mayor's wife, Eulalie Mackenzie Shin. She informed me Monday (after being off of school for 10 days, and both she and I having time) that I needed to procure her costumes. As the mayor's wife, she has the most costume changes. After all, the mayor's wife would not wear the same thing twice. In addition, she needs an "Indian" costume (as part of the city's July 4 celebration) and a Statue of Liberty costume. I have 3 weeks! She had all this information 2 1/2 weeks ago. I'll be sewing some, visiting Goodwill and stressing over this more than she will. She has total faith that MOM will have all her costumes ready for dress rehearsal.

The Singer is off for 2 days to the state Spanish competition. Senior-itis seems to have hit hard...ugh. She's practiced hard for the competition (something she wants to do) but has done little else for school lately. AP exams are around the corner. I'd hate to see 3 quarters worth of work thrown away because of senior-itis. In the long run, she'll be happy to get the college credits and regretful if she has to sit through a class she has essentially already taken. Last night she comes to me and says she needs money for meals for this trip. It's 10:00pm. I had about 5 dollars in my purse. I told her, lack of planning on her part did not constitute an emergency on mine. I gave her the few bucks I had and told her she had to come up with the rest...I don't carry lots of cash...cash cards work almost everywhere, and I wasn't going out to get cash at 10:00pm, especially since I'd asked her on Tuesday if she had everything she needed for the trip since she leaves from school today. She won't starve and she'll face the consequence for her lack of planning. This is the perfect example of senior-itis hitting. She has been a planner since 5th grade and is normally very on top of things. Is this regression part of the push-pull of growing up and getting ready for college? It's driving me batty.

We've got our NYC trip planned, and tickets purchased. We are all so excited to be going in early June. None of us has ever really been to NY and we should have lots of fun. We're doing a package thing...going on the Ground Zero tour, walking Manhattan, seeing Wicked on Broadway, and so on. I can't wait. I told the girls they better start walking daily 'cause we're going to walk and walk and walk in NY and I'm not dealing with whining about how tired their legs/feet/whatever are. They better keep up. The joy of travelling now is that I don't have to deal with toddlers and worry about naps, or strollers, or any of that stuff.

We also got our airline tickets for our Lake Powell trip in August. I'm not sure which trip I'm looking forward to most. I love taking vacations with just my immediate family (we've only done it a few times, but it's fun), but I also love being with my brothers and sisters and their families. I can't wait to experience the hustle and bustle of NYC and see the sites and be immersed in American history. How cool! Yet Lake Powell offers a different kind of history...history of God's creation and power. And the relaxing pace of the great outdoors and not having 12 tours and not having to be anywhere at any particular time is extremely appealing. In between the two 'big' trips, the Singer will go to St. Leo's to help run a youth retreat for a week, and the Imp will attend a week-long youth retreat there (not the same week). The Singer will attend Music Ministry Alive again this year in MN. The Imp is off to see her Godmother for a week. Her Godmother, Anita, has two grown sons and is looking forward to a week of "girl-time." Anita was here over Easter and the two of them have planned what shopping centers to hit on which days and Anita is going to teach the Imp how to make a real Italian meal (Anita's parents came to the USA as teens/young adults from Italy) including making pasta from scratch. They should have a blast.

I've given notice at my job. I'll work until the beginning of June. This has really been a challenge. A big part of the problem is that my boss and I have basic personality differences. I recognized it from the start. And I've tried to work around that. I've wondered about (and prayed about) if I was suppose to be setting some kind of example. The tension in the office is often palpable. Her response to anything done differently than she would is that it is wrong. I feel I've done alot for the office, both from an organizational point of view and from setting procedures of how to handle things. I told Hubby that I was like Mary Poppins, I'd taught what I could and now it was time to move on.

Speaking of work..gotta go get ready.