And now, 2 stories I can't NOT tell:

Continued recap of the past month...
#1) Sunday--Mother's Day-- we had a near-tragedy at the house... In the midst of me being sick, teacher appreciation week went on at school. That Friday I had brought home gifts the kids had given me and unthinkingly (is that a word?) set them on the coffee table out front. Well, early Sunday morning after Matt had left for early service and I was still in bed, Jackson rummaged through the bags, pulled out a box and ripped it open. He then continued to eat an entire Hershey's Kiss--no, not the quarter sized kind, the giant Valentine's day size--aluminum wrapping and all. (Yes, I do know chocolate is "poisonous" to dogs.) At first I thought there was no way he could have eaten it all, but I searched the house and didn't find ANY evidence anywhere. Payton had been in our bedroom and the pup had been all by himself out there. We checked with our vet and he (sorta freaked out, and then) said he could easily have a heart attack and may need to have his stomach pumped...we were told to keep an eye on his heart rate and call him if it got above 180. I don't know if I just can't count right, or if I was paranoid 3 times in a row, but it was definitely in the 160's and 170's for a few hours there. After monitoring him all day, his heart rate finally started to slow down and thus my heart rate as well. I truly thought I might have killed him there for a few hours. Jackson's now back to his normal self, terrorizing the rest of the family and chewing to bits every shoe, bottle, plastic bowl and whatever else accidently drops on the floor. He is also "teething", so everywhere he chews he leaves this slimy, bloody goo. Gross, I know. Just thought you'd want to know.

2.) And if THAT wasn't enough excitement...the next day something else weird/funny happened. It has been very dry and rain-less here in Florida this past month, and many brush fires have closed roads and threatened homes in our county. Finally, Monday around 5:oo p.m. it began to rain. Matt was out running errands and I was still at school in a workshop. I got back to my classroom just as it started to POUR. Then came the hail and terribly strong winds. (Winds, yes, but I don't remember having hail since we've been here in FL.) So I was stuck at school for an hour or so. I have plenty of end of the year stuff to do, so I didn't think much of it. When it finally cleared up and I headed home about an hour later, I pulled into the drive way just in time to see Matthew putting the front door of our house back into the door frame and NAILING it into the frame so it would stay up. According to him, he had arrived home a few minutes before me to find the entire front door of our house completely out of the hinges and 15 feet into our yard. The front living room was full of rain and leaves. (We've had problems with our door properly latching this past year and have discussed needing to replace it.) As much as we can figure, Payton must have been going crazy with all the hail and wind, jumped on the front door hard enough and long enough to pop it open, and then ran outside. The door then flew open and slammed against the brick, and with the 60 mph wind we had in our neighborhood, it literally lifted it right up out of the hinges and into the yard. As funny as it was to return home to find my husband nailing our door shut, I don't think I would have been laughing so hard if I were the first one to return home after a long day at work and find our living room on the porch along with the door "wide open". Luckily, Jackson is still being cage trained and was safe inside. Payton was half a block away, soaking wet and muddy (and barking at everything in sight) but not hurt. I guess we will be using our kitchen door for a few weeks while we wait on our new door to arrive. I would post a picture of our 'doorless' house, but Matt doesn't seem to (quote) "find those situations as picture worthy as I do :-)"

Since You've Been Gone...

Well, maybe YOU haven't been gone, but I feel like I have been. Matt and I have both been so busy lately that I've barely managed to make it to all my meetings and what have you, let alone enter the blogging world. Here's a recap of life for the last month or so since I wrote last...

Easter season came and went quickly. We had a beautiful sunrise service on the beach and the music/drama programs went well at church. Matthew was once again quite involved, but not me. That stuff stresses me out way too much. I just barely got over our state testing, thank you very much.

Next, Matt was very busy for 2 weeks or so preparing for District Convention. That's one of his main responsibilities as DP and it is a big headache each year because of all the work that goes into it. The youth group kids helped quite a bit this year and Matt was able to pull everything together, like always, but we didn't see much of each other for a few days there! He does a great job with district responsibilities, and I am always extra proud of him when I see him lead a big event like that. Much to my dismay, he was once again re-elected for another year, so we'll be doing this again same time-same place next spring.

Then the very next week I came down with a bad cold. It started off slowly at first, and then WhAM--it really hit me hard--and on my birthday. I think I missed a total of 3 1/2 days from school. I had already requested a personal day on Thurs. because we were supposed to go to Sea World together, but we only managed to make it to Chile's for lunch. I was sick in bed off and on for nearly a week. I finally got into a doctor last week and got on some medicine. I'm mostly better now, but still have a lot of congestion. Maybe it's allergies after all...

To be continued...