Saying good-bye

As much as I look forward to Steve finishing his spring semester at Baylor (so he can do my honey-do list) it is always sad to say good-bye to some special students. This year, like many years past, my parents had international students who they "adopted" while at Baylor. This year we had two very special girls from China. It is always interesting to visit and learn more about each other and how our lives are different and the same. I love introducing them to our lives and sharing time with them. The best thing is that we keep in contact even after they go back to China. It's especially exciting to think that we will hopefully catch up with a few past students from China when we visit to get Emily.

Goings On

I noticed I haven't been blogging lately. Not really sure why except things are going along fine. Nothing too exciting but yet things continue to move along.. Our homestudy was Saturday and it went great. Just a lot of saying "no change" to what we did the first time.

Mother's Day was a fun weekend that started at school. On Friday some kids decorated cakes for their moms. HEB helps us so much with this project. Over 400 cakes later I was very glad I had worn an apron b/c I had icing all over! It was fun though!!
We celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday night since Cheryl was leaving on a business trip on Sunday. This year Cheryl and I made my mom a book that had my grandmother's sayings. It was fun to work on and find pictures. We had to be covert with the picture scanning but we pulled it off.

We ended Mother's Day at a late night movie which we never do together. We ended up at a terrible movie but it was fun to spend time together.

This week I have 3 field trips, love the end of the year. Today I was with a few 5th grade girls and Kim Mulkey spoke. I was so excited and she did a great job. She's a great speaker!

So that's what we've been up to. Steve got a shot in his back today to help relieve some pain. Hopefully it will work and he will be back to full speed soon.

Tea Time

Yesterday was a fun filled afternoon with the ladies of the family. My mom, sister, niece and I all attended the Mother-Daughter tea held at the Arboretum in Woodway. Last year was our first year and we knew it should be an annual event. It is fun to be dressed up and have time with just "the girls". There were lots of people there and it was fun to drink punch (no tea at the tea, hmmm) and eat "girly" food. There was a doll parade for the little girls in which Hannah enjoyed showing off her new American Girl doll. I look forward to making this event when Emily is here. I'm also going to be on the lookout for a cute hat to wear next year.

LID #15

Well, we continue to wait for our chance to be parents. I know it will come sometime soon. I would just like soon to be tomorrow! What can I say, I'm getting a little impatient. It's probably because we are in the midst of paperwork, again. One of our documents for the US government is going to expire soon. Like it's my fault the China is the slowest country in the world :) We have to update our home study, goodie.
Besides waiting things are good. Steve is getting ready to wrap things up at BU and I'm in the midst of TAKS which is a joy (not)! We continue to plan our summer trip which gets longer each day. Our Italy book came in and I have enjoy looking through it and remembering our fun times. I am working on the France book now which has been a lot of fun.

Finally got it finished

Well, I finally finished our Shutterfly book for Italy. Wow! I can't believe it has taken me so long to get it completed. Usually if I am doing a book from a trip we have taken I jump right into it when we get home. I guess I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the 1400+ pictures that we took. The first thing I had to do was reduce the pictures to 999 so I could work them into a book. That took awhile because I was being too picky. Once I got the pictures down to 999 I should have gotten started but for some reason I just didn't have the "drive". Well, almost 4 months later I finally ordered it tonight. I'm going to start working on the Paris book now and try not to get so behind. I think a fun job would be quality control at Shutterfly. That way I could check out everyone else's books and projects.

In other news I'm over strep throat. I think having the nurse move next door to me at school hasn't been the best. When the kids see me they like to give me hugs which is usually great until their visiting the nurse. I don't want tell the kids "no hugs" so I guess I'll keep my purell close by :) Oh the fun of working at an elementary school!

Easter Sunday

Nothing much

Nothing much happening around the Cates' lately. We have been enjoying the beautiful spring weather and are already looking toward summer. Today was my second day of TAKS testing. TAKS days are always long and a little tedious. My principal and asst. principal are addicted to coffee and on days like today they drink a lot. I helped their addiction today with some Starbucks. The traveler is a great little something for those who need a perk in their step in the morning. The nice part is that it comes with everything you need to make a good cup of coffee and for Starbucks it isn't too expensive.