A Breath of Air

Well, I've come up for air...it's day 5 of winter break and I am LOVING it.  It's funny how this break comes JUST at the right time...for everyone!  One more hour on Friday would have pushed us all over the edge.  A crazy week full of parent-teacher conferences (only had 1 no-show) and loose lesson plans.  Friday was just a "craft" day - projects, gift-making, drama club play, etc.  We teachers were absolutely exhausted come the end of the day. 

I have to say that I was especially excited for the end to come because I jumped into Carolyn's car (I drove it to work) and went to pick her up from work and we headed to Covina, CA for an IKEA shopping trip.  Yep - a 4 hour drive just to go to IKEA (and Crate & Barrel).  It was a great drive, singing Christmas songs at the top of our lungs, stopping in Victorville for dinner (on my 3rd grade teachers - gift card), and then making it there in time to do a quick run through before the store closed.  Our hotel was practically in the parking lot of IKEA, so I asked for a room with a "view."  Comfy cozy night chillaxin' and enjoying the fact we were out of town - great night's sleep - and yummy breakfast before heading in to shop around.  It's funny I get so excited about IKEA - it's more the novelty of it than anything else.  I love looking at all their ideas and creative stuff.  After about 2.5 hours there, we called it quits and headed to a local mall for some more window shopping...really only enjoyed a pretzel at Auntie Anne's (my favorite) and then escaped the crowds.  We headed over to Rancho Cucamonga to a cool outdoor mall (like Town Square or The District) to find Crate & Barrell - again...we just love walking around that shop.  After perusing through a few other shops, we decided to get on the road...the clouds were hanging low and the rain was starting to fall.  We had to drive carefully through Cahoon Pass, but then it pretty much cleared up after that.  We stopped in Victorville again to eat dinner at Farmer Boys and then again in Barstow for some Thrifty ice cream.  Just a cone this time, not 2 coolers full to bring home!  No room in the car...  It was a great quick trip - one that really got the break started well.

The next day I went to pick up Steven from the airport with Katie.  We had dinner at Kristi's to celebrate Alli's 21st birthday...I can't believe it's been 21 years since she was brought home in a cute little stocking!  Now Sarah is going to have a baby within the next 2 weeks!  Crazy how time flies. 

I attended the Zion's Youth Symphony and Chorus concert Sunday night - it was PACKED.  I noticed the surname of 2 kids in the program and wondered if they were the kids of an old boyfriend.  Yep - sure enough, I set eyes on S.S.  for the first time in 20 years.  It was then that we had spent Christmas together at each others' homes and were falling in love.  He was to propose on Valentine's Day, but I called it off the week before and decided to serve a mission.  Didn't know about the proposal/ring until a year later when a friend sent me a card in the MTC telling me that she had gone ring shopping with him.  Whoops!  He was a great guy - very musically talented - and really cute.  We looked good together.  It just wasn't meant to be.  Anyway, I got a little gitty seeing him and told a few friends I was talking to.  I never did make eye contact with him or talk with him - I felt it would be inappropriate in some way.  It was just a funny coincidenc...the other is that my bishop is going to tune his piano in a few weeks.  Talk about a small world!

Steven and I spent Monday shopping around and deciding what gifts to get for family members.  We decided to go in on gifts together since that's how the rest of the 'couples' do it.  It's just more fun for us that way.  We're breaking our annual traditions this year - branching out so the families can have their own Christmases instead of ALL of us at my parents' home for Christmas morning (we've done that ever since Kristi got married 26 years ago!).  I'm feeling pretty OK with that - Kristi's family needs to start their own, seeing as they will become the grandparents this year.  Change is always weird, but ends up good.  The family is growing...slowly, but growing.  Last night we all went out to dinner and that was fun.  We've had fun over the years as siblings...

Today, after an intense class at the gym, I headed to the doctor to see what this growth thingy on my foot was.  S

he decided to drain it - it was full of THICK gel...called it a 'ganglious cyst' - if it comes back, I may have to have it surgically removed.  Let's hope it doesn't!  It got really big and was getting painful wearing shoes.  After that, I met Steven over at Emily's to make her famous sugar cookies.  Alli and Katie came over and helped decorate them.  Then Steven and I wrapped most of their kids' presents while Emily and Corey went delivering cookies to ward members.  It was kinda fun.  Then the 4 of us went out to eat tonight.  Good times.