Day 57 - Here is what Erica and Kevin's parents look like RELAXED!

Wow, I haven't posted since April 27! Lots has happened since then. The month of May is always the worst month in the middle school year. It is crazy busy and teachers become crabby and students wild. Everyone gets so sick of school and haven't had a break since early April conferences.

So I will start with most recent and then go back in time. That works better with my "Sometimers" disease. Well first Kevin and Grandma got on the plane to Washington DC. Here you can see how happy Kevin looks. He said "don't ever take my picture again like that"- ooh I'm scared. However, Grandma is looking pretty perky :

However her perky look didn't last long. Roxie is yelping from her crate down the hall so they entered the gate just 1/2 hour before the plane was to take off. There were signs all over that if you haven't got to the gate 15 minutes before departure they would give your seat away. Okay, do you remember the last time "terrorist LaVerne" flew she got searched forever because she didn't thing a can of Sprite was a liquid? Well now I think they have her on a "terrorist watch" list- or maybe a "fails to follow directions" list. I asked her 10 times if she had any liquid and she said no- other than liquid Dimatapp which she qualified by saying "medications are okay". Which I thought was true too. WRONG! They let X-Box carrying Kevin through but searched grandma's stuffed purse and carry-on for 20 minutes. Needless to say Grandma and Kevin had to hussle to the gate and hope that Roxie wasn't going to DC without them!

Ahhhh, take a breath. . . . are they really gone? I love em but it is luxury to get a break from monitoring, worrying, feeling guilty and being needed. Shoooo weee. So Rick and I got ready to leave town. Saturday night we went over the to Downes for a barbeque, which was fun. We took it easy and didn't stay late. Sunday we parked in the offsite parking lot and then it was smooth sailing all the way to Florida- no delays, no problems, upgraded plane seats and hotel room. Here we are driving into St. Petersburg. by the way we are driving a Kia!

So we got to work concentrating on relaxing. We had meals of seafood (fish for me) every night. We watched the sunset on "our" beach 3 of the 6 nights. It was fabulous. Here are a few pics to give you a taste.

So we walked a bunch, shopped, read, ate, and of course I fit in my wine drinkin' too. I bought a beautiful top to wear to a couple of upcoming weddings. Speaking of food and weddings I took a picture of a wonderful mozarella-tomato appetizer. Also this hotel does 300 weddings a year. Here is a staircase that is used sometimes and our hotel lit up by the sunset with a stormy sky in the background.

The vacation was great with the only exception being a killer earache that I got Wednesday night. Called up Dr. N who prescribed something that helped. It was really nice to just get away. The stress melted off easier than I expected. It was sad to hear that in our hometown, a beautiful 18 y/o girl was missing and then found dead and then a suspect arrested all in that 6 days- makes OP look a lot better than Aruba. But I will always remember my town being on national news while I was out of town- and I was so grateful that I was not in her parents shoes. There was also some ridiculous high drama around poor Paris and everyone wanting her to go back to jail. I guess I watched the news a lot too.

The trip had perhaps been too smooth and we were spoiled. When it came time to kill 7 hours in the heat of Tampa on that last day before our flight- it got a little tiresome. My ear was still bothering me a little and I really would have preferred a nap versus walking around stores where I couldn't afford anything (Neiman-Marcus, Nordstroms etc). Finally we left around 7 pm and got in at 9:30 KC time (10:30 Fla time). We caught our shuttle to the off-site parking lot- things still running smooth. We get off in the dark in the parking lot to look for Erica's car (we drove it up there) and Rick said "give me the parking ticket stub to get out". Alarm bells went off in my mind and I innocently asked "did you give it to me?" And he said "I thought I did", I said "I don't think you did, why would you give something that important to me?" Okay see if you can decipher the initials of Rick's next words "J. ..C...M...F... this is going to be a huge F...ing hassle if we can't find it." He might deny it, but it is how I remember it. So we found Erica's car, turned on the lights and search through wallets, suitcases, bags and there was nothing remsembling a parking lot ticket. Seems like we have done this before and Rick assures me they will let us out, but with a penalty and they have to look us up through the DMV. So we drive up and Rick explains to the nice man the dilemma. We were quite delayed there and Rick had to squeeze out of the car anytime someone pulled up behind us to let them know we lost our ticket and it would be a wait. You know that didn't go over well. Anyway 20 minutes and a $7.50 fine later we are out of there. Glad Erica's car is not in her name or it might have been more complicated. So we got home with only that one hitch. I guess you have to have one.

The month of May went by in a blur. I was so busy at work teaching sex education and taking care of the head lice epidemic. People were crazy about head lice- I couldn't believe how it lowered people in my eyes. However, one person came out smelling like a rose- my principal. She would say "what do you need?" and I would tell her and she would get in her car and go get it. Then at the end she treated me to a couple of glasses of wine at happy hour. A gal after my heart.

Susan and I took Karen out to lunch for her birthday at Bravos around the 15th. It was good. Here is a pic- see me with my Korea necklace.

I thought that was all we were going to do and then some other gals asked "what are we doing for Karen's birthday?" So we got together at her house again. Rick of course asked how many times we are celebrating her birthday. I told him that we are going with a different group this upcoming Thursday to celebrate her birthday again and he said he hoped I wasn't buying her a present each time :)

The end of April we had a shower for Roxana who was adopting a 5 y/o boy. He is mixed race and adorable. Here is a pic of Candy, Roxana and me looking pretty fat! Oh well. . . .

I'll end on that note. I did walk to Starbucks on 119th St. and back this morning. I read how exercise make you smarter, more focused and less depressed so I am really going to try it. Plus I am getting depressed seeing the scales climb and pants that don't fit anymore. I am sure they have shrunk :)