I can't stand spelling errors!!!

PLEASE tell me if I spell something wrong ... or worse ... use the wrong form of a word!!!

I just fixed the "I think I here the truck" under my "VISITORS!!!" post.

Yuck.

Please be praying for safe travels for Fletch's parents. They'll be leaving anytime now and will arrive in Denver around 8pm. Also, pray for my health. I got sick right before they came the last time and made everyone else sick. I have been feeling a little down today with runny nose and sore throat. :(

Now that April is almost over ...

... it's time for me to do some updating!!!

My former roommate (Mariam) and her boyfriend (Shad) came to visit us during my last weekend before school started back again. We had a great time walking around Garden of the God's (Zack's 1st time there as well), chatting, eating Mexican food, and taking in a Rockies Game in Denver. While we were at the game, poor Fletch was standing in line for a free Joe Satriani clinic at Guitar Center in Denver. He did a great job, though! After the game was over, Mariam and Shad dropped me off at Guitar Center and I only had to stand in line for about 30 minutes before we sat in one of 30 chairs set up ... for a crowd of around 300!!! :) Fletch was living his dream out and was able to walk out with the amplifier head Joe used during the clinic! Of course we were able to get pictures and autographs as well. We need to learn how to keep cats off the amp head now! Thanks, Mariam and Shad for spending the weekend with us!!!

After a fantastic 2 week Spring break (mostly doing our taxes), I went back to work ready to finish off the school year. I started a choir the week before Spring break and had to focus on getting them ready for a district wide Elementary Music Festival that was held on Thursday the 24th. It went really well and my students really enjoyed it ... mainly because I picked a song that sounded like "We're All In This Together" from "High School Musical"! I even was able to put some dance moves from the movie-now-turned-musical into our song (called "Agents of Change"). Thanks to Jasmine, our worship pastor's daughter, for those moves!!! You rock, Jasmine!!! The Music Festival was also the band's first performance outside of caroling around the school. :) Even though my grade level programs are finished, I still have a lot to accomplish before the end of the school year. It will make my summer break even more enjoyable after a busy April/May!!!

While we were in Denver, we picked up a few buildings for a friend of my father's model railroad display. Dad called me a few days before we were in Denver asking if we could pick it up (eBay auction) and ship it out. I thought it was a small building ... it was an oil refinery and some track and a shed ... and who knows what the other pieces were! Unfortunately we weren't able to ship it off via UPS or USPS because of the fear of it breaking during transit. Fortunately we asked the buyer to pay for our gas for us to drive it to him one weekend and he accepted! We haven't driven to St. Louis since Thanksgiving 2005 when we had to bring our 2 cats and had to put one of them to sleep in St. Louis ... then we were stuck in a snowstorm and had to spend the night in Kansas ... we decided then that we would always fly home. Just a few weeks earlier we were talking about those days of long driving through Eastern Colorado, all of Kansas and Missouri to get to St. Louis and how we were up to doing it again. So, we rented a fantastic 2008 Dodge Durango, put Zack in his crate and headed off to St. Louis on Friday the 18th. It was such a great trip!!! Fletch was able to play his guitar and watch some videos on the laptop in the back seat and I was able to get a lot of grading done without getting car sick! It was Zack's first trip longer than up to Denver and back and he was FANTASTIC! We could live without the shedding, but it's that time of year to lose the winter coat! We were stayed at an average, yet cheap ... $40/night ... extended stay hotel in St. Louis where Zack yet again was fantastic. Greg and Kim came down to visit as well and the family had a lovely baby shower for Sean and Tahli. I was so glad to get to see Tahli pregnant before the baby is due in July!!! The trip back wasn't as fun, but we made it without a problem ... up to the minute the car was due!!! Right on the dot ... 12:30 a.m. Monday morning. Yes ... we drove all day on Friday to get there, spent time with family on Saturday, and headed back to Colorado Springs all day on Monday!!! Sorry to those in St. Louis reading this ... we weren't there long enough for our get together at Bandanas! We'll be back later, though!!! Thanks to my family for letting us come through like a whirlwind and spending such late hours with us on Saturday night!!!

Oh yeah ... Zack had a little too much energy at my parent's house ... with "Uncle" Lance the greyhound ... he was back in his crate for most of the time there. :)

Now we are getting the house ready for Fletch's parents to visit us from Vanuatu!!! They will be arriving on Tuesday the 29th and will be with us through the most part of June!!! We have lovely steamed carpets upstairs now and will be doing the last minute cleaning over the weekend in preparation for their arrival on Tuesday. We have a lot of fun travel plans planned during their visit ... some just for them ... one trip to England for dad and Fletch ... and a lovely Pacific Northwest/Canada/Montana trip for the 4 of us!!! Please be praying for their travels here and for the project they are working on to be transfered to another couple to take control during their absence.

One more fun story to end this long blog (thanks for lasting this long!). There was a dance at school last night that I wanted to go to ... to see the kids dancing (which we missed) and to see if I won one of the baskets I bidded on. Well, we were 20 minutes late into the basket giveaway, but as soon as we walked into the room the baskets were being called out from ... they called my name!!! I won the Southwestern themed basket with $84 worth of restaurant gift certificates!!! YEAH!!! Needless to say we ate out at Chili's last night. :)

Stayed tuned to the next update ... after Fletch's parents arrive!!!