I have missed everyone! I have had a hard time staying caught up since school started, and for the past couple of weeks, I have been having even more trouble than usual.....things have been hectic!

Last week was a doozy....my kids had a concert on Tuesday night, and my school had parent-teacher conferences Wednesday night, so I was gone until after 8 both nights. Wednesday night, we were also hosting youth group at our house, so I actually had to ask another youth group parent (and one of my friends) to come over and be the "adult" in the house during youth group time. I called in favors one after the other to get the kids home from school (both days) and back and forth to bball practice (Tuesday) and now I owe everybody! Thursday was a half day for me (and Friday was Fall Break) so I had made plans with one of my best buds from TX to meet in St. Louis for a girls' weekend. I was afraid to plan it, knowing that DH would not be able to fill the gap, (he was on call TWTh last week) but he really wanted me to go and actually called my mom (who also had a half-day Thursday and no school Friday) to ask her to drive down and help out. She did (and even helped my 1st grader get his leaf collection done, to boot) and it was a good thing.....I still didn't get away from home until 3:30 and had to get my oil changed on my way out of town. My kids had half days both Thursday and Friday, and no school at all yesterday or today, so DH flew to KS with them (to visit his parents and go on a hunting trip with his Dad/brother/DS #1) and just got back today.

Thursday, as I was waiting in the cell phone lot at the St. Louis airport to pick up my friend, I got a call from my principal, who shared the sad news that one of my students had been found dead that evening. I later found out that he either committed suicide or was playing the "choking game". So, so sad. The funeral was yesterday and it was by far the saddest one I have ever attended. The boy's mom literally had to be carried in and out of the room where the funeral was held, and she laid on the casket throughout the service. All I wanted to do when it was over was hug my kids, but they weren't home yet. I sure hugged them when they got home today! Yesterday at school was very sad and strange......we had counselors in the building and I think things were handled as well as they could have been.

My friend and I had an *awesome* time together in St. Louis.....lots of shopping, talking, sleeping, and we each had a facial and a massage, too. The weekend was partially to celebrate our 40th bdays.....mine is right around the corner and hers was in August. When we left, the doorman that had become our buddy during our stay gave us each a hug and a kiss! We were actually staying in the same hotel where Sarah Palin stopped off to give her deposition, but since we were out shopping, we never crossed paths with her.

DH got home today and as he pulled in the garage, his "Check Engine" light came on. Since we both are driving cars with close to 200K miles on them, we take those lights seriously, so back to the airport we went to rent a car for him, and then we dropped his car off at the garage we use. As we were driving back home, his partner (who was at the airport, getting ready to fly out to a medical conference) called DH to do sign-out. And DH is back on call, today through Sunday. He told me at dinner (I think he waited til we were in a public place!) that he had signed up for in-house shifts both Thursday and Friday of this week. So I will be doing the trick-or-treating thing (once again) alone. I don't know why this is even shocking to me, because I have done it by myself more often than not, but it still made me mad.

We did drive by our house today, and saw that the windows and doors have been delivered and (mostly) installed! It is so exciting to see it all come together. I took a picture, but don't have time to post it right now.

One other interesting piece of news is that DH asked me to find out how much it would cost for me to carry our family on the health insurance I could get through my school, because the scuttlebutt is that the insurance through his work is going to go up tremendously.....the premiums will be about 10K a year, and that is for a 5K deductible. From what DH said, many of the people in his office are looking into individual plans. Seems kind of ironic that the rich dawkter is asking his low-paid teacher wife to handle the insurance coverage for the family......but that's how it is when you are living the dream! Honestly, we are very blessed and I have no complaints, but between DH's schedule and this insurance wrinkle, it certainly isn't all I expected.[/QUOTE]