Hi! Bye!

That's about the extent of words spoken to my husband this week. It's definitely been a crazy one where everything seems to be going on at once and I feel like I'm about to drop all of the balls I'm juggling. My planner has become a permanent accessory to my daily attire. Poor Clint has had to work lots of late nights at work and will most likely be working this weekend too because they have so much to do (and are THREE engineers short). We also have training for the VITA program tonight and tomorrow so we're missing out on a lot of weekend. Looking through my planner, I have something going on every weekend until April! Although, most of it is good stuff that I'm looking forward to, but sometimes I wish I could just sleep away on a Saturday. Of course, not that my dogs would let me. I get till 6:30...maybe 7:00 am if I'm extra lucky before they can't take it anymore and are ready to get moving! My best friend was quick to remind me that I need to slow down because once kids come along, it's all over. Sigh! I know she's right and I know I am horrible at saying 'No.' I'm a people pleaser to a fault. That, and I truly do want to do all of these things that we have going on. But in reality, I have to understand my limits and prioritize. Otherwise, I'll just end up miserable and hating all of it.

A few notes from my week (perhaps I should at least shoot for a weekly recap so that I can keep this blog somewhat up to date on a regular basis):

• I met with my girls on Tuesday (no school on Monday for MLK day). They had a not-so-great week. All THREE of them had their notebooks taken away for using them at inappropriate times. I'm glad they like them, but they need to understand that school comes first! So, the teacher and I agreed that I should keep their books for a week and then give them back next week. They were pretty upset by it and I hated having to do it. Hmm, perhaps I'm not going to be the disciplinarian I thought I would be. It's HARD! We did however have a good lunch and played 'BrainQuest'. It's fascinating to see each of their strengths. Miss N is a whiz at math, while Miss M is great at English. Poor Miss A, I can tell she isn't as smart as the other two, but she does have a lot of common, know-how sense (if that makes any sense, ha!). One thing that really glares at me is Miss A's horrible spelling! I really think she is behind the curve and could use some extra help in this area. Of course, I'm not a teacher, so I may be out of line. However, she really seems to struggle with 'c' and 's'. For example, the word solar system she spelled coler cistem. I need to think on this. I'd like to be able to help her in some way.
• Wednesday night I had a special child care class. They offer them every third Wednesday of the month. This week's topic was ADHD and how to work with kids who have it. There was a lot of discussion on the different types of ADHD and symptoms of each. I REALLY don't know how they figure it out because 99% of the symptoms sound like 'kid' issues to me. I'm glad I'm not the one having to do the diagnosing, that's for sure! However, the tips on how to help ADHD kids really could be applied to all kids and I was thankful for the tips. The biggest keys were structure and letting kids know what to expect, which provides them security and lets them know they are loved.
• After class I made it to choir a little late. I'm already in the system and have a book. I'm all set! So, I'm jumping in this Sunday and I love the anthem for this week. The choir is also singing at the Family Worship Service Sunday night so I'll sing there too...again, another great song. What's not so great: the Easter music. I mean, it's good, but HARD. Definitely not with Alto's in mind! Lots of high notes for us in there. I'm glad Easter comes super late this year because I'm going to need all the practice I can get (not that I ever really sing stuff correct, but I like to think I at least get within a three-note ballpark :) ).
• Still trying to finalize our adoption application, but we're close. Really, still just working on that pesky financial table. I shouldn't stress over it so much because honestly, it's going to totally change in a couple of months and then will be different again next year. I'm sure we'll get to explain ourselves in the home study :) I know without a doubt though that we can sufficiently provide for a child, which is the bottom line.
• Fundraising, fundraising, fundraising! Okay not so much me because I despise asking people for money. However, our Leaership Longview group is in the fundraising phase of our project and man do we have some go-getters in the group! I at least put together the power point presentation for everyone to use when going to organizations to share about our project and solicit funds, but other than that, I'm just not good at asking for money. Especially when everyone seems to be living on tighter budgets these days. Next month we will begin the deomolition of the existing facility. It's all coming together nicely.
• I had a WEAT (Water Environment Association of Texas) meeting and an ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) meeting this week too. WEAT was on TCEQ regulation changes/updates, which equals boring. But ASCE's presentation was about the proposed Lake Columbia, which would be in Cherokee county. So far, it's not really getting anywhere. It's hard to imagine creating an entire new lake and displacing people, animals, etc. However, water is becoming quite the hot commodity so who knows what will happen!

Well, that's the highlights from the week. Next week doesn't look like it plans to slow down any for us!