Hello? Are You Still There?

I am still here, despite my blog silence for a long stretch again. 

What on earth happened to March??

I look up and it's April and winter is long gone here in the desert.  Not that I mind.  Spring is my favorite time of year weather-wise here.  I don't mind 90 degree days-- and it is still cool in the evenings and the mornings.  No humidity yet, the mosquitos are still MIA for now.  It's lovely!

You know what else is lovely?  All my beautiful free time.  My last day of working as a billing analyst was a month ago, and I think I'm finally more or less caught up on so many of the major chores that had gone neglected.  We finally had official family pictures taken, for the first time in eight years.  Plus, my exciting news was that I finished writing the fourth Sheralie novel.  (No, I'm not publishing yet.  I'm waiting until I finish #5, but the good news is that I'm already starting on the prelim work for that one.)  I did have fun playing around with simple covers and formatting the ebooks-- my mom got the latest versions of #1-4 for her birthday.

The less-than-exciting news is that my father is fighting an infection in his cheek again.  These are particularly dangerous because of the proximity to his brain.  He has his next major surgery on Friday, and the doctors did not decide to cancel it, so I'm hoping that they are able to help him.  He is quite sick-- any prayers/good vibes directed his way would be very much appreciated.

As for my immediate family, we are all well.  We had a great general conference weekend, filled with family time, crepes, stickers on our wall chart of speakers, and candy galore.  (Yes, we spend conference weekend on a sugar high.)  It was Terence's last weekend of working RenFest for the year so he missed Saturday but it was nice to have him around on Sunday-- normally we don't see him Sundays until the evening. 

M returns to college in ten days, and her sisters are already dreading it (though M is probably dreading it more, she really doesn't like to be out of state).  She has just a little over a year until she graduates, assuming she can find an internship for next winter (if you have any leads on programming internships, please let us know!!!). 

J is suffering from senioritis.  He's in the final quarter and pretty much dragging himself through his school work.  He did take some time off last week to go to San Diego with M and my mom so they could help her with some furniture moving at my parents' condo.  His comment when I asked him if he wants to move to California?  A flat no.  The gas costs way too much, he said.  Shocker :) (I wonder what he would think if he looked at the housing costs?)

B is coping with her sophomore year.  Actually, she hates chemistry and tolerates everything else, but anything is better than the dumpster fire her freshman year was so we'll take it.  She starts her driver's training sessions in two weeks and should be getting her license in May.  That will mean three drivers-- and she will probably be able to drive herself to school next year, which makes me giddy with anticipation!  (Well, and some anxiety too, because new teen driver and all.)

K has one goal in mind right now-- get up the courage to talk to the girls he likes.  He is definitely growing into a young man-- he's taller than me now, can you believe it? He's still the clown who likes to make people laugh or gross them out, depending. (I heard B scream from the other side of the house last weekend, and it turned out it was just K, wiping his sweat on her face.  Yuck!!!)

S is just getting over a doozy of a cold.  It was obvious right away she wasn't feeling well, because her smiles, laughter, and chatter just evaporated.  But the smiles are back, and I expect the chatter will come back soon, when her throat isn't bothering her anymore.  She is still enjoying school-- loves her teacher, her friends, what she gets to learn, all of it.

There you go, an update on our family.  Hopefully next time I check in all will be well with my dad and we will be full swing into May Madness!