Blue and Gold

Our big highlight this week was the Blue and Gold banquet for scouting--mostly because Dan was in charge and this represented the culmination of a lot of work. By all accounts (I was home with Oliver), it went really well. Working around a "Klondike" theme, the kids went to various stations on the Iditarod trail to complete different tasks.

Evelyn had practice for her play twice this week--easing into the four times she gets to go next week! (And pretty much the whole month). She also had her last tumbling class--I think she made it to three or four of the eight practices because I didn't expect the play when I signed her up. We'll plan better next time.

Andrew continues to surprise me sometimes: he brought me a picture he'd drawn at school this week (and now I can't find the original) of him, a brown-haired girl with blue eyes, and a little boy. He explained that they were supposed to draw a dream for their future. I was surprised--and touched--that his dream revolves around his future family. Sometimes he's so focused and determined that it's easy to forget how sensitive he can be too.

He was less than appreciative, however, of Oliver's inventive song lyrics. To the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus," we caught Oliver singing, "The Andrews on the bus go whack! whack! whack!" and "The ninjas on the bus go kick, kick kick!"

I went to a couple of job talks at SUU this week--the head of the search committee asked me to, after I dropped out of that particular search and was no longer personally invested in it! It was a little surreal to think that if my book hadn't sold it might have been me up there, but listening to the talks confirmed my decision. One of the candidates was so enthusiastic about the position and the program that it was clear (to me at least) that the department would be in good hands, and so I gave myself permission to stop feeling guilty about not pursuing the job.

Our weekend has been kind of quiet--yesterday, Dan and I traded off: Dan spent the morning and early afternoon helping with the Science Olympiad on campus, and I spent the late afternoon at a mini writing retreat doing some much needed writing. Oliver and Evelyn "helped" me shovel the sidewalks (we got maybe 8 inches of very wet snow) by playing in the snow while I worked.

And the only other thing of note from the week was that a friend alerted me that my book is already on Goodreads (!!). Forgive me for geeking out about this, but it's still exciting to me.