I don't have a whole lot to write about. I'm stressed about work a little -- I've got a shift bid today and got a much lower place on the roster than I expected, so I'm worried that I'm gonna' end up with some crappy mid-shift where I don't get to do anything good this summer.

So in lieu of writing much, I'm just going to share some pics from a trip to Valley Falls that we took a few weeks ago. Enjoy!


Me, Faith & Coco taking a play break


A pic of the whole family in front of the falls


James and Christopher on the slide

I really need to get back on it with blogging. This is just pitiful.

May has been a pretty good month. Got to see the Johns and one of my best friends AND see DJ Ted Kaczynski all in the same night (okay, the last isn't true, but the DJ really did look like the Unabomber!). It was quite the night out. Had a lovely dinner with another good high school friend (and asked myself yet again why I don't keep in better touch with these folks who live like an hour away) and then ended up at Mr. Small's Fun House. I'm not exactly sure what that was about, given that it was in some residential area in the 'Burgh, but I'm not going to think about that. We then went to the REAL Mr. Small's Theater in Millvale and rocked it so well. Very, very fun. Teema and I have been needing to see TMBG since we were sophomores in high school and Flood came out, so getting to see "Birdhouse in Your Soul" live was pretty freakin' cool.

Things at work have been going pretty well. I enjoy the night shift because I really can get more done around the house in the mornings and I've been able to start working out at Curves again (hooray!), but it's been rough not seeing Deborah & James very much. I definitely miss getting to see them. I've had a few opportunities to visit them at school (went with James on 2 field trips and stole Deborah out of school to go to lunch with me one day at a Japanese Steak House in Clarksburg), so it's been okay, but I'm looking forward to summer and getting to spend more time with all of the kids.

In the "not quite as good" category, we've hit the place where we know that we have to get James evaluated for Asperger's Syndrome. We had a pretty lousy event at school that ended up with him suspended for a day (I'm still pretty irritated at the lack of punishment for the kid who goaded James into the behavior, but I'm trying to let it go -- that mamabear part of me is having a rough time with that!), and that was pretty much the final thing that makes it important for him to have services by next year. I'm still having a hard time with the idea that I have a special needs kid, but nevertheless, there it is. I know that early intervention will help him avoid a lot of the co-morbid conditions like depression or anxiety. Mostly it's just hard to think that a lot of the stuff that makes James who he is as any kind of disability. Fortunately, Julia has been really great about helping me out with coming to grips with the idea of parenting a child with Autism.

Tomorrow is Deborah's birthday. I can't believe I've been a mom for 9 years! Some days it doesn't seem like I can remember a time when I wasn't a parent, but most of the time, it just feels like it blew by. She continues to mature into a wonderful young woman. We're planning a little party here tomorrow afternoon -- I hope that it's a fun time for her.

Next week we head on vacation with my folks. I can't wait. I'm totally ready for a break from life around here. I know that with 8 people in a single space it's still not a huge break, but not having to worry about work and responsibility sounds nice to me.

Church is going well. I got to play the piano on Mother's Day for a special music selection and it felt absolutely wonderful to be back behind the keys again. I had really missed it. Last week I grabbed Justin and let him know that I'm interested in auditioning for the team. They already have a couple of pianists so I won't have tons of opportunity to play, but it will be great to be back on a team. Our small group is getting ready to break for the summer before too long, which is kind of a bummer since I'm finally feeling like I'm connecting some with the folks there, but having my Sunday nights free isn't all bad either.

Okay, I think that gets things a little more caught up around here. I really will try to be more consistent with my writing. Be blessed!

Sorry yet again for the lapse in writing. I don't know where the time has gone!

Things are finally starting to improve for me emotionally. As horrible as the meeting was a couple of weeks ago, I'm really glad I did it. It didn't achieve closure in the way I had hoped, but it did achieve closure. As a result, I finally feel like we can start to move on. I hate that I put my family through all of this for the past few months, but I think we're finally going to start to heal from everything.

I've moved back to night-shifts at work (starting Saturday). Once the kids are home for the summer, I want to have days with them. I took a shift late enough that we'll have plenty of time in the mornings to go out to the park or swimming or whatever, but early enough that I'll still get home at a reasonable hour to spend some time with Jason. It will make hanging out with Julia a lot harder, but obviously I have to think of my family first. And I'm sure that she and I will be able to grab a lunch together every now and again.

I'm starting to gear up for family vacation this year. We're doing Williamsburg with my parents again. We're all looking foward to it. Getting away for a week sounds pretty darn nice! I'm just hoping that we have nicer weather this year that we did last. It was pretty chilly and rainy last year. I think we're planning to go to Jamestown for their 400th anniversary celebration. Of course, James is terribly excited about that.

Well, I don't want to fritter away my entire day off. Be blessed and keep on tranglin'!