I can't believe that my spring break is almost over. As usual it went by too fast. I'm afraid Monday morning will be here before I know it. I had the hardest time sleeping in this week. 7:30/8:00 was as late as I could go. But I bet on Monday morning when the alarm goes off at 6, I will wish that I could sleep till noon. I don't understand it.

We attended our church's Good Friday service tonight. They had two, so we decided to attend the later one at 8. It was really good. They are planning 10 services on Easter!! I can't even imagine it!

The last few days have been spent doing a few of my favorite things. I went shopping with my Mom on Wednesday. Love THE LIMITED. Waxed my car on Tuesday. Yes, I did say wax my car. Had lunch with a friend today at the Elephant Bar. Yummy Yummy! I even found time to do some work for school.

I think we are going to head out tomorrow for a "little hike," so I guess I better get to bed. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

C.

Day One Of My Spring Stay-Cation

I'm not sure how this really happened, but somehow I was talked into hiking the Bell Pass yesterday. It was a whopping 7 miles with 2 of those miles being straight up. It took us a total of 6 hours from start to finish. Our energy bars kept us going, but I was really looking forward to my Chipotle later. It was my prize for my hard work. :) I have learned that hiking in the desert is really unlike hiking anywhere else that I know of. I lost track of how many lizards we saw. I guess they enjoy 80's degree too. The wildflowers were great too! It's too bad that in a few short weeks they will be gone and so will some of the spring color of the desert.

I'm not sure if this is a sign of our age or not, but we had to rest before we went to Chipotle. Kind of sad I know. On a positive note today, I am not sore at all!! I'm ready for day two!
C.

Well, it's finally spring break! I guess we are going to do a "stay-cation" and find some fun things to do around Phoenix. Years ago on my spring break, I would always go to Arizona. Now that I live here I'm not sure where you go. California? My weekend started with a much needed trip to my hair dresser. Mandy had a baby in February, so I had actually gone 8 weeks since a cut and quite a bit longer for highlights. Let's just say between the noticeable gray hair and the mullet that appeared to be emerging, it was becoming a scary sight.

This is a great time in Arizona to find things to do outside before it gets too hot. We found a small craft show to walk around yesterday. I bought a cute beaded bracelet there. I probably own more bracelets than any other piece of jewelry. It was a small fair, but still fun to walk around. We also stopped by Holland Boone. I had never been there been there before. They seem to specialize in pewter decor from serving plates to wall decorations. They had a lot of other cute stuff too. Everything from Italian pottery to Mexican glassware plus quite a bit of seasonal decorations. I will definitely go back there again.

I guess it's time to have some lunch and get ready for church. I hope everyone has a great Sunday!

C.

I had a great day with my family today. It really made me wish that this week was spring break for me. The weather was so nice! I guess I have something to look forward to in a couple of weeks. Our day started at 9:30 and didn't end until 8:30 tonight. I think everyone is tired from a full day of shopping. We started our day at Dunkin Donuts for free coffee Monday. I, however, was more interested in the donuts which I might add were fantastic. I did find a couple good shopping deals. I think my most interesting was the KU shirt at Old Navy! I can't believe that I could get anything KU in Arizona!!! Now if I could only find some Wichita State things here!

We had a mini shopping timeout and played a few games at Dave and Buster's. It's good to know that if the teaching career does not work out, I do have some skeeball talents that might come in handy! haha Everyone came to our house for dream pie tonight. We definitely love our desserts! I should get on the exercise bike, but I think that will have to wait for another day.

I'm looking forward to my special lunchtime visitors tomorrow. :) Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.
C.

Well, we are having a very busy, but fun few days with my cousins from Kansas. They came in last night and will be here through Wednesday afternoon. Today's highlights included a great Sunday lunch compliments of my mom, an abbreviated hike, Sunday night church followed by banana splits at my brother's. I'm actually a little tired tonight! Tomorrow I am taking a personal day, so we can have a fun filled day shopping. I'm looking forward to going to the H&M store. I have heard some great things about it, so I'm anxious to see for myself. The temperature is suppose to be 79, so it should be a beautiful day. I think we will be having dinner at our favorite Hawaiian restaurant in Arizona, Rumbi! It is a lot of fun when friends and relatives come visit! I know I must put on at least 5 lbs!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!
C.

Well, I have returned from the blogger hall of shame. It has almost been one month since I last wrote!!!! I promise to do better. There have just been so many things going on that blogging took a back seat.

I am happy to report that my Linguistics class is over!!! And more importantly, I received a "B." It truly shocked me!! The last few weeks, my grades were less than stellar. I'm just glad to have that behind me. My next class starts this coming Tuesday. I have been told it will be easier. I am certainly hoping that to be true. It will be so nice to have a weekend and not worry about a paper or test being due.

Tonight, I had my Six Traits class. Next week will be the last class. I have enjoyed this one, but I'm kind of looking forward to cutting back on some of my night classes. I have definitely had my share this year. I'm just glad that the classes meet close to my home.

Also, as many of know, I have been working on a microgrant for my school. I completed the information for it two weeks ago not knowing that it would take on a life of its own. I never thought I would receive 100 votes let alone 932, but I did. I appreciate every one's votes and support. Unfortunately, I came up a little short. The top winners all had over 1400 or more!!! I don't know where they found them, but they did. Anyway, it was a great experience working with grants and I hope to do it again sometime.

I think we are going to try and hike tomorrow. It has been a very long time. I know it's good for me, but I'm not looking forward to it. I hope I can talk them into doing half the trial. :)

It's time for a little t.v. watching. I will try and write more this weekend. Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!
C.

Finally an evening at home. Yeah!! This will be the last one for the next five days. I suppose I should take advantage of the time and do some homework. We will see if that happens or not.

I am happy to report that my linguistics class went pretty good last night. I received an A- on my paper which came as a complete surprise. I also thought the mid-term was not too bad. Some of the teachers in class have determined that we can miss 160 points and still get an B. Good information to know since we have to have a B to remain in the program. We celebrated my A- with dinner at Pei Wei.

Today after school, I had to run to Walmart. I had sent a request to our local Super Walmart last November for AVID supplies needed at school. Well, three months later we are getting closer to getting assistance. However, they were very nice and offered some money today to help us purchase binders and few other supplies. Thank you Walmart!!

The sixth grade solar ovens are coming along pretty well. Of course sticking the thermometers in the dirt was not a highlight especially since they were purchased by ASU. I guess we needed to know the temperature of the ground!?! Unfortunately however, we have not had much sun this week. I find that kind of funny and sad at the same time. Phoenix is suppose to be the Valley of the Sun. Finding the sunshine was not suppose to be a problem! I know that I should not even say one unkind word about our weather considering what is happening back East. We also practiced our AVID presentation today that we will be giving to the school board next week. A couple of students will be giving a short report on how AVID has helped them. I know they are nervous, but both of them have some really great things to share.

An Alpha Delta Kappa meeting and a church conference are a few of the things I have going on the next few days. Hope everyone enjoys the last few days of this week.

C.