MAMACITA!

"Mamcita!" is a favorite phrase of one of my students when he gets excited or makes a mistake on his school work. This or "Sweet mama!". Im not sure where he gets it from, but it is so cute when he says it. Now I find myself thinking this too when something comes to mind that I forgot to do or that is exciting.For example, to think it has been eight years today since Bryan and I went on (okay, I will admit it was a date although I initially thought of it as a friendly get together) our first date is mindboggling. We went to the stupid movie "Heartbreakers" with Jennifer Love Hewitt and to Red Robin for desert. But May 1 is our officially anniversary as Boyfriend/Girlfriend. (Awwwwww....) Mamacita! Also, a not so fond anniversary is today as well: 1 year since first round of heart procedures. I was only in there this day, but it took a few days to recover. I did enjoy all the flowers I got at home and being doted on by Bryan and my parents.

I did not blog very much this week because it has been mentally exhausting (so this may be a potpouri of thoughts). We just completed our standardized testing at school, which only meant half days for the kids and free time for the staff to get work done in the afternoon. I only left on time one day, and I have no idea what I did with all those extra hours, which is like how it is at home as well. We had yesterday off for Good Friday, and I took my friend and her family to the airport, exercised, napped (I meant to have a "read-in" day where all I did was read but since we currently do not have a couch I did so on my bed and fell asleep for most of the time), went with Bryan to re-check the bump on his head which may not ever go down to normal size but is now the size of a jelly bean rather than a golf ball, and went to Easter dinner at my parent's house with my sister and her family. Today I met Bryan for lunch after taking a long walk this morning, we did a few errands and now here I am. I am hoping to clean and balance the budget tonight. It seems like we are going through another phase where unusual bills are springing up, such as the renewal for my teaching license, Bryan's drivers license, the registration on the car, medical bills, etc. But we have had a couple of breaks and Bryan is getting inundated with side jobs, so hopefully it will all even out. I am trying not to stress about what the summer will bring but I should really either find a summer job or a brand new job altogether soon.

As I mentioned before, we do not have a couch. Well, we have a futon in the family room, but following on the heels of Brandon's departure we have begun what any empty nesters would do: rearrange and redecorate. Obviously on a budget, we were able to retrieve a cheap and basically brand new couch from a friend at school for the family room, using the money we made off of our leather secional that was a hand-me-down and on the surface it looked nice but had many tears and flat cushions. The sectional was in the living room, where we will store the futon until we can afford to buy a new sofa set and then the futon will go in Brandon's room (which he already approved). Selling the sectional was an idea on a whim, and I was only going to ask 100 for it, but Bryan told me to start high which I did, thinking no one in their right mind would want to pay that much for it. This set off a flurry of emails that flooded my inbox for four days until the right guy (a student attending OSU)came with the money and a trailer. I had no idea how much couches like ours were in demand or we would have asked even more. It was a bit of a circus for a couple days, resulting in angry voicemail messages, emails and even one couple who drove all the way from Oregon City before I had even spoken to them or given them our address, all of whom thought they had a rightful stake in the beloved sectional. Im just glad it is all over!