Spring Break Cometh and Goeth

Hello, again. My spring break is now officially over. Actually, it was officially over yesterday but between after-school tutoring, continued work staining our pool deck and watching a rented movie (which we’ve had since Saturday) there was little time left over for writing.

Even though the weather started out a little dreary we had a nice time off from work. Not a great time, but a nice time. Great would be the word to describe the spring break had by a bunch of our co-workers who took a cruise to celebrate their week off. We had the chance to go as it was a school trip, but two things stood in our way...

1.) We’re still paying off the pool and deck. Who knew a round tank and a little lumber would amount to such a chunk of change! We John refuses to do anything else until that bill is no more. Luckily, we’re almost at that point.

2.) John-Heath. There is NO WAY on GGE that I would climb aboard a ship with him at this stage in his life. Yes, I know people take five-year-olds on cruises all the time. And yes, I know they have sitter services available. But sorry. No can do. You may not know this about me but I can be a little overly protective concerning my children. True, some have also called it being paranoid. But to them I say, “Better paranoid than sorry.”

When Ren was little, so fearful was I that she would walk off and get kidnapped or something, I kept her on a pretty tight leash. And when I say leash I am speaking in the most literal sense of the word - not to be confused with those cute little velcro-strapped bungee cords or stuffed animal harnesses. When I couldn’t find "cute" in time for a trip to Niagra Falls a dog leash from K-Mart did the trick just fine. I will admit, though, the time I took her to see Beauty and the Beast on Ice and kept her near and dear with a chain found in one of our barns may have been a bit overkill. But, again...better paranoid than sorry.

Ren with her Aunt Sissy and Uncle T just outside Niagara on the Lake
1998

Anyway, back to John-Heath being the number two reason I wasn’t shopping in the basket district last week. As cautious as I was with Ren (who was actually a very good child and rarely gave us problems) there is just no way I would be able to take my adventurous, constantly climbing, knows no stranger son on a cruise and be able to enjoy my own self while there. In short, I would have been a nervous wreck the whole trip.

Of course, the upshot to this is that after my group of friends had already set sail, certain family members mentioned they would have gladly kept him for us so we could have gone. Volunteering to watch him for 3 hours for the hubby and me to have dinner and a show is a stretch but a whole week was doable. Yeah. Not really buying into that one.

But even though we weren’t sailing the high seas with endless buffets at hand, we did have an enjoyable time off together. We took care of some things around the house and spent some quality time with our kids. I have to say, John and I are so fortunate to have jobs within the same school system our children attend.

Now, the countdown to the end of this school year begins and, as always, the next couple months will be very busy ones indeed.

Have a great first week of spring!