stress-be-gone

i've noticed that luke and i have really enjoyed each other's company more than usual these past several days. yesterday he and i went and walked downtown for a bit and went to a couple of other stores. he convinced me to buy white sunglasses (i promised myself i never would, but all the others made my face look funny) and we just had a good time in each other's company. yesterday evening we went to luke's brother matt's house for a little cookout. we brought our karaoke American Idol game and 2 microphones with us and we basically played that from 6:30ish after dinner until just after 11 (i think they like that game...). we left it there so they could keep playing and apparently, matt and ash stayed up playing it until 2:30 in the morning! we had a lot of fun.

i don't know if this boost in our moods has been the presence of his family, but i'm guessing it's the lack of having to work at the school: a HUGE source of stress for the both of us. the kids can be a handful some days, but that's so much easier to shrug off at the end of the day than when it's your co-workers who make you have a bad day. i have had to miss some work due to the illnesses of the first trimester and while my supervisor has been fairly supportive (his wife just recently went through the same thing), there are some co-workers who pretty much just stopped talking to me or would keep track of the days i missed, etc. now tell me this, who in their right mind would want to show up to that every day? not me. it just makes me sad when people feel like they could even possibly know what is going on in another person's life to the point that they can form opinions about it and treat them poorly for it. that is why i have put in for a transfer to another school in the district. i started crying on the last day of school just thinking about having to go back to that place in a few months to the point that i couldn't even enjoy the fact that it was the last day of school. i'm really glad to have that source of stress out of my life, at least for the time being... and i pray that the transfer will go through. granted you have to deal with coworkers wherever you go, but i can't think of many things that are more painful than someone being your friend until you actually need them to be one.

on another note, luke and i finally get to go see our new baby niece this evening. i can't wait! i've only even seen a couple of tiny pictures on my sister's digital camera, so this is a long-awaited visit.

also, congratulations to my baby brother Eric who graduated from LHS on sunday! he was very sharply dressed and did a cute pose for the photographer as he walked through the line. we were there rooting for him and MAN were we sweaty in Allen Fieldhouse by the end. this marks the end of the era... the last kid in our family has finally graduated from high school! congrats, Eric!

yay for family. yay for Luke. yay for summer. yay for downtown. yay for Penny Annie's. yay for blogs. yay for prayers.