Oh my heavens!!!!

There is so much to write about - but it seems like that's always on the bottom of my to do's!  Why is it that the funnest things are always last?!?!?!  ARGH!!!  Ok - actually that's not very true!  I always manage to get sidetracked on the fun things - when I'm pretending like I'm doing the urgent things!  heh heh heh!  Not much has changed - as my sisters will attest to!  (As kids I recall frequent bathroom breaks while weeding in the garden - which would often find me reading in the house rather then returning outside!)  What can I say?!?!?  My children have learned this trick too - however I'm no help to them.  I understand that thirst for reading and often sit reading by my reading children while we should ALL being doing something different.  (How many times could I use reading in that sentence?!?!?!)

Ok.  Focus Mary!  (That wasn't even what I was going to talk about.)

I got a new calling today!  1st counselor in Primary!  Woohoo!  I'm so excited about the sisters I get to work with.  It seems like a good place to be at now that I've got a little more under my belt at school.  Not too much - but still contributing some.  I'm good with that.  I've done it before - so I have a good idea of what's involved.  I just love those kids!

Bob returned very early this morning (about 1am) from Bogota!  Yipee!  I love having him home again.  It was a relatively quiet week thank goodness.  (Unlike last time! hahaha!)  We did have one minor incident which I'll have to blog about later - but it's all good.  Bogota sounds beautiful!  I think I made need to get my passport so I can go with him on some of these trips.  Ireland, Greece, Mauritius (click on that link!!!), Taiwan, Thailand, Belgium, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico and many others are on the list.  A total of 54 countries!!!!  His passport is going to be so cool with all those stamps!  It's just kind of fun!  Seriously . . . Mauritius?!?!?  It's 500 miles east of Madagascar - off the coast of Africa!!!!  And it looks like heaven!  Who knew?!?!?!

The kids are doing great!  Kbugs big play is coming up in a week!  They have worked so long and hard on it!  She's had practices every night after school until 6pm since November - and every Saturday for the past month.  We love hearing her sing all the songs from Annie around the house.  In fact - we're all singing them now!  We've heard them so much!!!!  My Buddy is playing the cello and guitar like a pro.  He's amazing!  He's found all kinds of tutoring videos online that he watches until he gets the hang of it.  I love hearing him play!  He is also the master of the player piano!  He cracks me up when he plays it.  He starts moving his fingers like he's really playing and I really start to believe it!  :o)  I don't know how many times at the end of a song I barely catch myself from saying - Hey!  Good job!  That sounded great!  hahaha!  Cowboy T rocks!  He's always busy creating things and you can just see his wheels turning.  Next week his class is going to the Ballpark on a field trip.  He can't wait!!!!  He decorated his room with a cool cowboy theme and tonight at dinner he pinned us down on the specifics on how he should go about being a cowboy!  I think I may have to send him up to my cousin to work a summer on his cattle ranch someday!  ;o)

One last thing - this week I got a message from the parents of one of my closest friends in high school.  She passed away way too soon - just a week after we graduated together from high school.  She was on the way to a church camp when a cement truck broadsided their van.  Things like that just aren't supposed to happen.  She was so gifted and talented and bright.  The world would have surely been a better place with her here.  I kept in close touch with her family for a long time and then they moved and we did too - and we lost track of each other.  A few weeks ago I found her brother and I also got a sweet email from her mother.  It was so wonderful to find them again.  I still think of her often and miss the times we might have had together - but I know there is also a plan far bigger than what I see.  Remembering that keeps that layer of comfort close enough to bear the reality of what happened.  

Ok - didn't mean to end on such a serious note.  I guess it just ended up being a rambling kind of night.  I really do have actual things to post about.  I keep adding them to the list on the right so I won't forget.  In fact - one of the posts is about forgetting!  I hope I remember to write it!  hahahaha!  (I crack myself up!)  :o)