Things on my mind today:

* Hoping Paige is feeling better - her fever seems a bit lower today....

* Tired of vacuum cleaners constantly breaking. I hope the cheap-o one I bought at Walmart yesterday lasts for at least a few months!

* Wondering if the real estate market is ever going to start moving again and if we will EVER sell our house!

* Thinking I need to get Roxy (outside kitty) in to the vet....

* Wondering if it is time to start looking for a dog....

* Perplexed about what to do about schools next year....

* Thinking I need to make a reservation for a hotel in Orlando for the State Taekwondo Championships in April....

* Wondering if I can find a cheap rate for a rental car for next weekend...

* Thinking I need to do a deep cleaning on the house - but need to get motivated!

* Wondering if Clay is going to have to go to summer school :(

Poor Paigie.....

Poor Paige. She came out of ballet last night telling me she really didn't feel well....shaking, headache, and she felt warm....so we came home and took her temperature - 100.3. It has been holding steady around there ever since, and her stomach is upset. Apparently, there is yet ANOTHER virus running amok around the school!

One of her teachers had given her front row tickets to see the Russian National Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty tonight....unfortunately, we won't be able to go, so had to "re-home" the tickets. :( Paige is quite upset about that.....

Nothing else has really been happening around here - just lots of housework, yardwork, etc. It is definitely spring here. Everything is starting to bloom - the azaleas, redbuds and dogwoods....We have had all the windows open, enjoying the warm temperatures.....

Yesterday actually worked out a lot more smoothly than I anticipated. Paige's appointment at Nemours was to check the fit of her brace and to take an x-ray with her in the brace to make sure that it is doing what it is supposed to do. Without the brace, her curvature is about 25 degrees. The x-ray showed that in the brace, the curvature is reduced to about 7 degrees. And the x-ray shows an almost straight spine. It is definitely doing what it is supposed to do. Now, we will go back in about 4 months and they will take another x-ray, this time without the brace, to see if there has been any improvement. After her appointment (which went very quickly and smoothly - I love Nemours!), traffic was fine...I made it back to Orange Park with 15 minutes to spare before going to pick Clay up...then on to the church for the pancake dinner - which was a rousing success! A LOT more people came than anyone expected - the youth group leader, Matt, had to make two runs to Winn Dixie to get more pancake mix and sausages. I don't know what the final tally was, but I beleive they made over $400! The above picture shows Clay as pancake chef extraordinaire, and Paige as server supremo!!

Tim arrived home last night shortly after we did. I'm so glad he is home - I feel like I have hardly seen him the past 10 days or so! I'm sure by now you have all heard about the Turkish Airlines crash - that is the airport Tim flew out of yesterday. Besides the "honey do" list I have waiting for my wonderful hubby....we also need to go visit a couple of schools here in Orange Park - in case we are not able to sell the house....we need to make some decisions. So I expect the rest of the week to be rather busy.

One final note - I just finished The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Everyone has been telling me what wonderful books these are, but when I would read about them, they just didn't sound that good for some reason. Well, I finally read them - and WOW! I think these may be two of the best, most thought provoking books I have ever read - and I have read a LOT of books! Truly wonderful. Anyone who has not already read them - please do. You won't regret it.

Crazy Day!!

OK, you all know that I am not a morning person....but I do love starting the day with a beautiful sunrise. Of course, my preferred method of starting a day with a gorgeous sunrise is to sit up in bed and say, "wow, beautiful"....and then roll over and go back to sleep. Alas, those days are few and far between. Since I haven't posted any sunrise pics in a while, I thought I would do so today. There was also a little family of ducks swimming around by our dock - so cute. That sunrise will probably be the calmest (and sanest) part of my day today!

Today is going to be one of those crazy, busy days for me! My morning will be filled with cleaning, calling doctors, and running to the store...then I will pick Paige up at school at 1:30 to take her back to Nemours for a follow up appointment. They will be checking the fit of her brace and taking more x-rays to see if it is working. We are very hopeful for good news since Paige has been so good about wearing it - even on a sleepover! Clay has a tutoring help session after school until 4:30, and I am HOPING to be back in Orange Park in a timely manner. I am afraid that I will get stuck in the rush hour/NAS traffic though - so I may be a few minutes late to pick him up. When I pick him up we will go straight up to the church because the youth group is having a Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner as a fundraiser. That means we will probably not get home until around 7:30 or 8:00....and then we will need to take the trash out by the road and tackle homework! Egads! I'm tired just thinking about it.

Tim gets home tonight - for 4 days - hooray! There are a lot of little things around the house that need to be taken care of...the popcorn ceiling in our bathroom (one of the only rooms in the house that we DIDN'T do) is peeling off and falling on the floor every time someone takes a shower - so we are going to have to do something about that....the yard is a mess, the pool needs some attention, etc....

I'd better get a move on and get started on this big ol' list of things to be done!

A few words from Clay:

Hey people!
I have had a good couple of weeks. My friend Simon came and helped me with French. I taught him how to play American football and he really liked it. He also had a "crush" on a girl at my school. Ooh la la!! My wonderful mother let me have a party and it was a lot of fun. We made s'mores and talked.

Saturday after we took Simon to the airport I went to my friend's birthday party. It was lot of fun. She lives in a MANSION!! And has a pond in her front yard, and the river in her back yard. But she is not spoiled - she is nice. We danced and ate food and talked. It was really fun.

I have to go now and watch a trailer (like from a movie) because we're making trailers for videos in Drama class and this is my homework.

Bye.