3.27.14 - Spring Break So Far

Well, it's been nice to be done with grading and have that one thing off my to do list. I also had a chance to run some errands on Tuesday. I went to a craft store to get supplies for a paint party with my family (who are visiting the area over break). I love craft stores. Aisle after aisle of cute and creative ideas. I often feel I don't understand the idea of "retail therapy"--I don't really like clothes shopping and I especially dislike spending money, ha, but when I'm in a craft store I get it. If I had more money, that's where my shopping spree would be.

Anyway, so I went to get canvasses, and they happened to be 50% off for the week (woohoo!) As I was checking out, the clerk asked if I would like to by a $1 book to donate to the local Boys & Girls Club. The books were pretty nice looking for only a $1, so I bought five of them, and felt good about it. And the clerk seemed really happy about it too--you could tell he wasn't pushing the books solely as a part of his job, but that he really cared about the Boys & Girls Club.

So I felt great leaving the store.

Jack came home on his lunch and we practiced swing dancing again. I love dancing with Jack. It's so fun and energetic, and it makes me feel very close to him at the same time. We often end up laughing a lot at our mistakes, and then we get slap happy and have a hard time continuing without giggling, it's hilarious.

After he went back to work, I drove the couple of hours to San Francisco to meet up with my family. Side note: I love the view of downtown San Francisco when driving over the Bay Bridge. So magestic.

It's always nice to see my young step- and half-siblings. My step-brother (age 11) was very excited for me to show him the home videos from our Disneyland trip last fall. I love taking and editing home videos, and I really enjoy when other people seem to really enjoy them, as he does. So that was fun.

Also that afternoon, a friend of mine had a podcast debate, and he did decently well. More importantly (to me), my youngest sister called in during Q&A and asked some great questions of the debate opponent. I found that extremely satisfying and was really proud of her.

Later that night after the kids went to bed I got to hang out uninterrupted with my stepmom for awhile and visit, which was also really nice. We get along very well.

So that was Tuesday.

Wednesday (yesterday), my sister, her husband, and my niece arrived. Then we had our paint party, woohoo! I love paint parties. I got the idea from last New Year's, when we had a paint party at my youngest brother's place.

We don't even bother with junk tshirts for the youngest ones.

My painting, beginning and end. :)

During the paint party my step-brother continued to watch home videos, this time switching from Disneyland to last Thanksgiving. At some point one of the videos had a song from The Little Mermaid on in the background, and I started singing along from the other room. My step-brother ran into the room, gave me a huge grin, and then ran back to continue watching the home video. It was adorable.

So spring break is going great so far. The only downside is I have a lot of work to get done in between classes, but I plan to start making a dent in that as soon as I post this.