A Little Bit of This and That

1. I'm trying to get back into the blogging groove.  It's not that I haven't had anything happen lately, I just hit a busy spot in developing and creating curriculum back in January and then things started piling up and soon enough the thought of catching up on everything felt so very overwhelming.

2. Natalie spent the day at my school yesterday with the Exploring Careers class.  The teacher does a baby-sitting unit with her classes and as the culmination project for their unit, she brings in teacher's kids and grandchildren for the classes to take care of.  It was actually a LONG day for me because I knew she was on campus and I just wanted to go downstairs to play with her!  All my students said she was adorable and tons of fun, but around 7th period she hit the wall and needed her Momma so I happily cuddled her while running a badminton tournament in the small gym.

3. Craig runs select basketball teams and tournaments and up until this year he has only put on tournaments for girls teams.  A few years ago when the economy started the downslide, his tournament entries took a hit because there were fewer teams being formed due to the cost to families.  He struggled for the past couple of seasons trying to figure out how to reinvent his business in order to build it back up and even bigger than before.  This year he and his buddies figured out that they could put on both girls AND boys tournaments which would increase publicity and participation.  And so far it's going VERY well - about 80 teams in his tournament last weekend!  I'm just proud of him for thinking outside the box and finding a strategy to build his business back up.

4. I won our family NCAA bracket competition - for the third year in a row.  This weekend we are going to pick out my prize for winning - a new pair of sneakers.

5. My BFF Amy who lives in Washington state is coming home in a few weeks and I am taking a day of from work to spend it with her!  She hasn't seen Natalie since Natalie was about three months old so I'm excited to re-introduce Natalie to her "Mamy," as she puts it.  Our other lifelong friend Heather is also taking the day off and it will be just us girls all day long.  I absolutely cannot wait.

6. After this week, I only have eight more weeks of school.  Time to get started making summer plans!

7. The best thing that Craig and I started this year was our weekly meal planner.  I took a see through glass frame from Target and stuck in five pieces of scrapbook paper - one for each day of the week (not counting weekends, obviously).  Then on Sunday mornings I map out what nights we will be home or when we have other commitments and then from there I figure out what we are eating and create a grocery list.  It really has streamlined our shopping trips and helped with the budget and our waistlines!  Since I was home alone with Natalie on Sunday my focus was on getting us caught up to date on laundry, I didn't make it to the grocery store let alone making a meal plan in the first place...and let me tell you - I feel so OFF this week because of it.

8. Tonight Craig and I are dropping Natalie off with my parents and then heading to the Bon Jovi concert in a suite with the father of one of the girls that Craig coaches.  This might age me a bit, but I really hate going to concerts on a weeknight because they go so late and then the next day I'm exhausted at work.  I know.  I'm old.  But tomorrow is a day off from school so I don't feel so bad about staying out a little later.  And on a slightly funnier note, I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but Craig is ten years older.  So....when he was listening to Bon Jovi as a teenager in the 80s, I was watching My Little Pony in pre-school.  Hilarious.

9.  We have a three-day weekend!  Hooray for not using bad weather days!