stuff.

I've got lots of stuff on my mind this morning. Lucky YOU!

First things first. I'm sending my Sidewalk Prophets cd to O Mom. She's the name I randomly drew because not one of you got the answers right. In fact, most of you got them very wrong, but I'm going to briefly (as briefly as I can) give you the right ones.

Snow in April? 31 inches. Try not to be jealous.
California with John? Less than 22 days now. I'm super excited.
Cups of coffee? I've weaned myself down to one! 
My April mileage? 65 miles in three weeks. My goal was 85 for the month. Darn injury!
How long since I've dusted? Too many days to count! I hate to dust.
Coupon savings on last shopping trip? A measly $4. I didn't even make the effort.

Next on my mind? My extended family.
My grandfather died on Thursday. It hit me last night as I was climbing into bed that my mom's father was my last remaining grandparent. I wasn't really close to my grandfather at all, and I have some regrets about that; not guilt, but regrets. His services are today in Louisiana but I decided not to go. The weird thing (and it's probably really not weird at all) is that my grandfather's death has stirred up emotions about my dad's death last summer. I haven't talked much about that here, but some days are just hard ones. Lots of processing still going on. Lots of little things that still catch me by surprise. Loss is not a slight thing.

Moving on.

I made this pasta dish for dinner the other night and it was too delicious not to share. It's not for the faint of heart though. Bacon, butter, and cream...oh my! I cooked the chicken in the crock-pot all day so it was easy to throw together. The chicken was so flavorful that I told John I'm going to cook double next time to add to salads, tacos, etc.

Anybody else think May rivals December in terms of being a busy month? And spendy? May always seems like such a spendy month for us too.

The kids in Abbey's class made this cute plate for their teacher this week. Isn't it adorable? We got it at the paint-your-own pottery store and the kids each put their thumbprint around the edge. I gave the store owner a class picture to use as a guide to paint the kids' faces and she did a pretty amazing job making each student's thumbprint look like them! Their teacher really, really liked it!

Ten more days of school for Will and Sarah, and nine more for Abbey, but who's counting? Me, me, ME!!!! We're in the final push to the end and I keep reminding myself of that Garrison Keillor quote that John had made into a card for me at Christmas: Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. 

I'm pretty sure I had a bajillion other things on my mind that I wanted to blog about when I sat down this morning, but my mind feels empty now and I'm going to consider that a good thing. Besides, my husband just told me that my fried egg is ready! He spoils me on Saturdays by making breakfast for everyone...including me!

Peace out, peeps. Enjoy your Saturday!