Busy week

Last week was the first week in a while that I felt was genuinely busy.  We're in the final stretch before summer vacation, which is going to be very busy, and I definitely feel the anticipation. 

We had a big overnight storm on Sunday the 3rd.  Ginger is very, very bothered by fireworks and the beeping on the smoke detector, but she doesn't usually lose her cool with thunder.  Unless, apparently, it happens at 12:45 in the morning when everyone is or wants to be sleeping.  After she ran up and down the hallway 480 times with her raptor claws clacking each and every time I finally pulled her into bed with me.  She stayed on my chest until about 2:30 am at which point the thunder subsided, I fell asleep and she snuck out without me noticing.  

After that terrible night I went to Spencer's school on Monday the 4th to do my very last art masterpiece lesson with his first grade class.  I'm going to volunteer again for second grade.  I'm quite excited about it because I will be able to do the lessons while Elliott is in preschool instead of driving him to Dorothy's house in Mesa, driving back home to do the lesson, driving back to Mesa to pick him up and then driving back home to meet Spencer at the bus.  We only did that six times this year, but it was six times too many.

On this particular day Dorothy actually brought Elliott to meet me because she was going with her daughter to a doctor's appointment close by.  And I picked Spencer up from school instead of at the bus stop so we could get to allergy shots early.  While I was waiting, a medevac helicopter flew over us.  My friend is a paramedic and pilot with this company (they have distinctive looking helicopters so I know it's them even way up in the air) so I took this picture in case he was on board.  He was not.

Monday was also Star Wars Day (May the Fourth/May the Force be with you).

We took some pictures to honor the pun.

Oh Elliott.  You will give me a stroke with your three year old picture taking difficulty.

On Tuesday morning Spencer came and joined me in bed at 6 am.  He sets his alarm to go off at 6 am so he can do this on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Even though he sleeps perfectly fine alone in his room he says he misses cuddling with me.  I guess those 28 months where he slept on top of me are a hard habit to break.

On this particular morning Elliott woke up at 6:10 screaming for me.  I made the colossal mistake of flexing my leg as I rolled over and ended up with a leg and foot cramp that nearly killed me.  I went hobbling down the hallway to him, picked him up and hopped back to bed.  Then we all went back to sleep in one big dog pile.  Even after I got up they just slept and slept.  If I had been able to guarantee that neither one would wake up until 10:00 I would have called Spencer in sick to school.

On Wednesday we went to physical therapy.  We spent 30 minutes in the regular therapy room and then 30 minutes in the BIG therapy room.  The big therapy room was very fun.

The camera gremlins also found us in there.

I also went to my plastic surgeon and had my stitches taken out by his nurse.  But I did not document it, because I am crazy, but not that crazy.

Spencer was 7 years 8 months old that day.  We got his picture minutes before bedtime. 

On Thursday I went out to happy hour with my friend Steve, who is a physical therapist that I have worked with off and on for the last seven years, and Tracy who is an occupational therapist that I worked with for two years a few years back.  I made a partial joke about an OT, a PT and an SLP walking into a bar.  I'm still laughing about it.

On Friday I went to an awards ceremony for Lauren.  I had Michael take a  pre-going out picture of me so I could check to see if anything that shouldn't be showing was showing.  This is a tricky shirt because it's thick, but somehow transparent so I had to layer things underneath it as to remain modest.  But then layering makes things bulky and unflattering, so there was a lot of angst going on. 

The ceremony was at the Mesa Convention Center and lasted for two hours.  Two hours in hard, folding chairs.  We really love Lauren.

Brenda missed the first picture because she went to the Mesa Center for Arts.  Luckily they are very close.

Shireen took this picture of all of us using our phones to take pictures.  If only there was a picture of Shireen taking a picture of us taking pictures.

After the ceremony we went out to celebrate.

I had a delightful glass of wine.

And Brenda made an inappropriate joke.