Sunday Salon - Wait, It's Sunday?!?!

 What? It's Sunday?? I can't believe it? 

Don't I look worried and confused??

(We were babysitting the grand-dogs this week...naturally they were as good as gold!)

Yes!!!! School IS out and now the wild rumpus can begin!! Usually I have decompressed by now, slept in and read several mindless books, but summer has started a bit differently this year...

I left town on the last day of classes to nurse my mom through full knee replacement surgery. She was a real trooper, but that nursing stuff is HARD!! I loved being with her, serving her and visiting with my stepdad but worries abound when you're caring for someone. I remembered the times I worried over sick kiddos and tended to their needs. Now I was blessed to do the same for her!! She was/is such a terrific patient and she's doing so well!! Yippee!!

I did go on a field trip while nursing the sick and afflicted. I met my oldest son and went to lunch one day. YUM. He always know the coolest, hole-in-the-wall places and introduced me to Sonoran Hotdogs. Delish! His office building is right next door to Barnes and Noble so who can blame me for getting sucked in?!?! I bought this book after a really great review by Jill at Rhapsody in Books. I love the "You May Also Like..." that came with my receipt. What a great, passive up-sale!!

Christmas came late - - we had promised ourselves these lovelies at Christmas time but held off til the NEW Ipad was released. Then it was just easier to wait until summer when I could take the time to really learn how to use it. I must confess (head hung low) to reading my book group book on this baby right now. I have made a solemn oath to my stacks of books that I will continue to love them and care for them. This little pretty (who has not been named yet) will not come between us. She (or he) will only be a side dish -an accompaniment.

As icing on the cake to our techie-summer we got new phones. Yuck. I don't mind the phone entirely, just hate getting accustomed to new stuff AND the dreaded transfer of contacts and data. How complicated can it be to figure out ring tones and how to answer a call?!?!?!?

So....what am I planning to do next!?!?!? The list says it all.

Reading..... I finished What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarity and Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielsen. Now reading Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster for Book Group I and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for Book GroupII.

Plans for the week.....Find chairs for front room, decide on paint color for the library, Math Mapping with my coworkers for two days, Professional Development classes for two days, dinner with my in-laws and plan a birthday getaway to San Diego for my cute hubster. Shhh. Don't tell.

Yep, I'm really ready for summer to start. Now, I know not all my friends want this, especially those with kids home from school, but I want the days to really go S.L.O.W.

I need me a good dose of summer!!

Random Sunday Thoughts

Outside my Windows..... "Fall" has come. Finally! While the leaves fall from the trees during October and November elsewhere, it takes til after Christmas for our tree to finally get with the program! It's a tree of GOLD!
(Update...now the golden leaves are all gone!)

Around the house...Santa brought me a chair! Not really. Over Christmas break I found this gorgeous gal on Craigslist and brought her home to become a part of our "in-progress" library. Step 1 - accomplished!

I am thinking..... That I need to remember how to set up all my equipment tomorrow at work. It is a whole new set up that we came back to after the Christmas break. To make sure that I don't forget how to plug everything in I took about 6 photos...you never know what I'm bound to forget. Just to make myself feel better I am sharing the EASY ones with you!

I am listening to...silence. After the NFL playoff game the silence is almost palpable. WOW!

Family Matters...Rich jumped out of a perfectly good airplane on Saturday. It was on his bucket list. (I don't think I even HAVE a bucket list. If I did it would NOT have jumping out of an airplane on it.) J and I worked on organizing her craft room/office. It was awesome. It was fun to see a project be completed from beginning to end. Now we have a great place to create when I visit.

What I am grateful for...safety! A tragedy occurred in our very safe neighborhood this week that shook a lot of us up. A planned home invasion took place about a half a block away and it resulted in the injury of one and the death of another. This was NOT a random occurrence and somehow that made us all feel better. I still ache for the family and those involved. So many are grieving, so many mistakes we can't take back. Today is also the year anniversary of the tragic shooting of Senator Gabrielle Giffords and 13 others in Tucson as well. My mind hearkens back to my feelings that day, when I called my Tucson-based kiddos, my mom and my brother...I checked where they all were and if they were safe. I am so grateful for safety.

Reading Report... I am currently caught up in a story...I am "in" Equatorial Guinea with Vanessa "Michael" Munroe from The Informationist by Tyler Stevens. Wow. If I'm ever in a 'MacGyver- kind- of- jam' I am inviting her along. On the other hand, I never want her mad at me! My library stack is awesome as well. Lots of books all came in on my reserve list. I am making it a priority to set aside report cards and grading every night so I can have more reading time. Here's what I got this week:

Tennyson by Lesley MM Blume
Crossing the Tracks by Barbara Stuber
Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams
Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
To Have or To Hold by Josi Kilpack
Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis
Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson
Arizona; 100 Years Grand by Lisa Schnebly Heidinger

All of these books are either Book Group reads or they are from lists of recommendations I spotted in my tour of the blogosphere. (Thanks to Shannon Hale for a list of books that will hopefully entice some of my students and me at the same time!! I will be in a Young Adult/Middle grade reading phase for a few weeks I think.) I also stumbled onto a few 25 cent books on the Library Cart - yeah for a Jenn McKinley mystery with my name on it!!

NO PICTURE OF THE LOVELY NOSE AVAILABLE!!

What I learned this week...advice to "Look up". Spiritually and physically. I wish I would have remembered it yesterday! I was putting the Christmas stuff away when I walked right into the low hanging ceiling of my downstairs closet and smashed my nose!! Can you spell ouch?!?! My nose is about 3 times as wide as usual and every part of my face hurts. There's a pretty girl. I will do my best to remember such good advice in the future.
"Now remember, it's better to look up!"
(Thomas S. Monson)

Favorite things of the week...football games...overtime (there's something so cool about a game that is so well played that it keeps on going!)...diet sodas for breakfast....safety pins....a short school week....emails from new blogging friends....laughing...Bananagrams....great work colleagues....texting....dates with my sweetie....Mexican food...the list goes on....

Hope to accomplish this week....Parent teacher Conferences. Laundry. Planning. Packing. Yes, boys and girls, we leave for my Birthday-Bash in Las Vegas on Saturday morning!! Wahoo!! What books shall I take?!?! (Grins ;))