I’m finally carving out some “me” time at home to blog. It’s been a wild and crazy couple of weeks, so something had to give. Now, time to catch up.

Our vacation was…well…interesting. I’ll spare you the gory details and leave it with the vow that family trips are out of the question for at least the next 15 years. What is it with grown adult siblings that just can’t get along? My kids had a blast! We are already looking forward to another weekend trip with just us and our Suburban…San Antonio is calling our name.

We did have a ton of fun, the 5 of us. We went to Port Aransas Beach, took a sunset tour on the Scat Cat, did the Dolphin Connection, did some fishing, got burnt, etc. Here are some of my favorite pics from the week.

I did manage to get a scrapbook page done. One afternoon I decided that it would be cool to get a blow up boat for the girls, put them in it and drag them around in the bay from the pier. This proved to be great fun! The float was just $3.75 from Dollar General and was the best money spent the whole trip!

We hit the ground running when we got home. There was work stuff to do and back to school stuff to attend to. I was asked to take pictures at the RISD school fair where the poorest 200 families in the area are invited to learn about resources available. The kids got brand new backpacks full of school supplies. There were also stations set up for hair cutting. It was so precious to see the excitement in their faces as they admired their backpacks.

The next day was our annual teacher Meet ‘n Greet where we meet our teachers, buy spirit wear, join the PTA, fill our kids lunch accounts with money and housekeeping things like that. I spent the entire day of making inserts for the various spirit items that we purchased and making signs for the event. It was worth the effort. We raised nearly $900 in just 2 hours! I was shocked and ecstatic at the end of the night.

Next, back to school for Nolen…5th grade! Where did the time go? I have a fifth grader!?!?! He had a great week. Got up with no problems at all and {gasp} showered every day! He even brushed his teeth and put deodorant on before I asked! It’s a new year!

This weekend we’re looking forward to giving the girls’ room a much needed overhaul. Tuesday they start Mother’s Day Out from 9:30 – 2:30 2 days a week…hallelujah, praise the Lord!! I start Bible Study on Wed. morning. We register Nolen for Soccer today so practice will start soon… Here comes life, ready or not!

In Polka Dot Potato news, I’m so excited that we have a date for the new shopping cart! Look for the new cart, a new gallery, and a new look to the message board on Sept. 10th! We have a lot of work still to do but it’s nice to have the end in sight. From there, things can begin! I’m just so ecstatic to get through that whole process because with the new cart we’ll be able to expand our business to places the digi world has yet to see! I’m so happy about how things are progressing. I know this is the hard part…working long hours and not getting to see the fruits of our labor yet. But it will happen. Long live PDP!