Random Thoughts with Liz

I'm getting antsy for school to be done. The kids & I (and "my" kids at school) are ready for school to be over with. It's Spring Fever time! Rather than focusing on the smell of new pink erasers & the feel of a smooth new pencil, I'm daydreaming about the slip & slide in our front yard and day trips to the park & museums! I hate hot weather, but I'm really looking forward to summertime!!!

Every time I get into my car & smell the raspberry air freshener, it reminds me of the smell of snowcones & I get all wistful thinking of days when I was a kid and went to the snowcone stand across the street from the park. I think of the time last summer when we piled all the kids & two of the neighbor kids into the van & made a trip to the snowcone stand to get everyone a cold treat on a 100 degree day. I have no idea what hours the snowcone place is open now. We will have to check that out before June!
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Samuel's tubes/adenoids surgery is Wednesday. We'll find out on Tuesday afternoon what time surgery will be. He & I will be out of work/school on Wednesday & Thursday for sure, and we'll play it by ear on Friday. I've got a sub in place just in case we decide to play hookie one more day, but can call & cancel if he's ready to get back to school on Friday. I have a feeling, however, that he's going to want to stay home.
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Today makes 1 week since we lost King. The initial heartbreak has passed and the kids aren't spending every single day talking about King now, but you should see their bedroom walls. Last Monday, I had about 50 pics of King printed & picked them up from CVS before I picked up the kids from school. When they got home, they all attacked the package of pictures & nabbed their favorite pictures. Samuel & Sarah stapled a thousand pics all over their walls to be able to look at King all the time. :) Savannah tucked her pictures into her journal where she wrote a sweet memorial about him. Hopefully in the next week or so, we'll have a chance to go to my parents' house & let the kids see King's grave. I've held off on doing that yet because I know it may be too soon & I don't want to start the tears all over again just yet.

Interestingly, I still haven't stopped looking into the backyard as I drive in from taking the kids to school or when I come home from work. I can still picture my sweet fluffy dog raising up his head from his favorite napping spot to greet me when I came home. Sure do miss that sweet doggy!
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On Tuesday, Samuel will take the Math portion of the TAKS test. You may remember our concern about the reading portion that he took last month. He did REALLY well on that part despite our fears that he would fail, so I'm hoping he'll do equally well on the math part. Fortunately the math portion doesn't carry the heavy dread of the reading part. For 3rd graders in Texas, if you fail the reading part of the TAKS test, you fail 3rd grade. The math part is important, but it doesn't carry the pass/fail power of the reading part.

Savannah will also take a portion of the 7th grade TAKS that day, but I honestly don't even remember what part. She has always done well on standardized tests, so I know she'll be fine.

Sarah gets to go on a field trip that day while the older kids take a test. She's giddy talking about going to the movies & skating rink.
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Today was our membership interview at Bethel. I kind of laugh at the idea of an "interview" for church membership. It's really way less formal than the word "interview" sounds. Most churches do something similar, but every place calls it something different. The truth is, you sit down with a church elder & just talk. They want to know that you agree with what the church believes & stands for, that you are indeed a believer in Christ, that you are willing to serve in some capacity in the church....that sort of thing. The elder we talked to today laughed during our interview & said it was funny that we were even sitting down to have this conversation. Considering that the church licensed Larry to preach several years ago, it's kind of obvious that they're going to accept us as members. It was nice to have a while to chat with Chuck, though!
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Savannah has a Gameboy game she wants to sell on eBay. She's been bugging me (usually at the most inoppurtune moments) for several days now about getting on eBay & listing it. Today, in a moment of frustration, I told her we'd list it Thursday night at 7:21pm. We both laughed, but tonight, she mentioned it again.......restating the date & time we'd be getting on eBay to sell it. She cracks me up. She's so literal. She is sincerely going to hold me to the Thurs 7:21pm time. ha ha!
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Time to start a new week!