Monday Musings - Role-playing games

 

I started role-playing in college.  My friend Eric didn't care for D&D but loved GURPS, so he'd been running games for friends  before I got to college (he was a year ahead of me).  He invited me and two other friends to play - Jay was an RPG old hand, but Allison and I were newbies.  We each created a character based on ourselves with bits added.  Allison realized quickly that it wasn't for her and bowed out.  But me, I was hooked!

Through college we had a fantasy game where I played a magic user (and was then forbidden to do so because I death touched everyone from the end of my quarterstaff) and a Supers game that took place at our college with the serial numbers filed off.  I enjoyed the Supers game more, I think, because that was the character based on me, adding psyonic powers.  And it was so much fun to play off of my other friends.

After college, I was in a gaming lull for awhile.  My step-mom had definite negative feelings about D&D and even mentioning it around her was a bad idea.  At one point, I bought a copy of the GURPS players handbook and hid it away.  Not that it mattered much because I didn't really have anyone to play with anyway.  But owning the books made me feel better and gave me a chance to play with different characters.

Upon my move to NYC, I found some people that I was able to game with occasionally. It was my first introduction to D&D and it wasn't nearly as scary or boring as I'd been afraid it would be.  Rather than going magic user, this is where I found my love for playing rogues.  Gaming was still sparse but at least it happened more regularly than in the previous 5 years.

Of course, when I met my (now) husband, the fact that I was a gamer girl was a big draw.  He'd been playing D&D since he was 10 years old and here was someone that he could share that passion with.  We played occasionally when I was in NY and he was in Philly, but once I moved to Philly with him that's when our real gaming love took off.  We had a few friends in the area from the message board we'd met on.  A couple had RPG experience, the other was a complete newbie.  (He wanted to roll dice on an electronic device!  The horror!)  We started regular campaigns and for those three years, we met every Tuesday night, either in a local bar or in our apartment.  It was as much BS session as it was gaming and some of my fondest memories came from those days.

The move to Nashville meant that we were once again groupless.  I think it took about a year for us to find a group that we could game with.  It had been a bit rough because by then, Teddy was born.  But the group we started playing was hosted by a couple that had three kids, one of whom was Tedd's age.  We had a lot of fun with that group, playing a lot of different games over the couple of years before that couple moved.  By then, though, we found our other gaming half.*

I'd met Becca during a Mom's Club get together and noticed that she had a D&D book.  We started talking, then traded numbers, and before long she and her husband met with Rich and I to play a couple times a month.  It helped that our kids - first Tedd and her daughter, then along came her son, then Pete - were close to the same age.  We expanded for D&D to a few indy titles (Burning Wheel, primarily), and then into board games.  Over the past 13 years, we moved apartments, they moved houses (closer to us) and they had two more kids.  Our families became chosen family.  Whenever a new game idea came into someone's head, or a new board game was purchased, we talked about getting together and trying things out.  Some of our RPs lasted, some ended up being one shots, but they were all fun.

As our kids got older, they became curious about D&D and wanted to play some with us.  Rich and I ran the boys through a couple of scenarios as they grew and, by the time Tedd was in 6th grade, he was wanting a bigger group.  So Rich started DMing Tedd, Pete, Becca's daughter and a pair of brothers that my boys were friends with.  When Tedd moved from Apollo Middle to MLK Magnet, it gave them a chance to get together.  We tried for once a month, comnined it with sleepovers and had a lot of fun.

Things slowed down all the way around when COVID hit.  By then we had the kids group and our adults group, who had grown by one more thanks to my librarian friend wanting to get back into things.  The adults group had been bouncing back and forth between a few scenarios, and the lack of gaming killed me.  It was about a year before we were able to start getting the group back together.  We pretty much started over, partly for personal reasons and partly because it felt right to get into new characters.  Gaming was now at our house (which helped me keep things a little cleaner).

Yesterday, we played our second session of the D&D module "Out of the Abyss".  Becca, Chris (my librarian), the older two kids (Tedd and Becca's daughter) and I played while Rich ran it.  And it felt so good to get back into charcter.  Tedd learned not to get too attached to NPCs, and I learned that playing a Wild Mage can be fun but it's gonna take awhile to get my brain out of Rouge thought.  I'm again looking forward to playing and wishing that we could get together every weekend to play.  But teenagers, COVID, and real lives don't let it be that often.  But I also know that it won't be too long before I get to game again.

* Also in this time, I was playing games online, both play-by-email and play-by-post. It was through those that I was introduced to the world of Amber and the freeform world of Tazlure, where I got my first taste of being in charge.  I'll probably write more about that later.

Writer's Workshop - Next

This last year has thrown me into a tailspin.  I'm used to having the house to myself most of my day free to clean as I'd like, write or read as I'd like, be as loud as I like, sleep when I like.  But over the last year, I haven't had even an hour during the week by myself.  Both boys have been learning from home - which means me sitting behind Pete, making sure he's actually paying attention, fighting to make sure he's getting work done.  (Tedd, thankfully, had taken to online learning without me needing to follow behind him.)  Rich has also been working from home 3 to 4 days a week.  And having three people that need their own space to take care of their own classes/meetings in a two bedroom apartment has meant that there's no place for me to just be me.  

This August, both boys will be going back to in person schooling.  For Pete, it will be nothing but positive.  Being in the classroom will keep him focused, get him the social aspect of things that he needs to grow.  For Tedd, it will be mostly a good thing.  He was able to use the virtual year to focus on his schoolwork without worrying about how his social anxiety getting in the way.  I think the breather that he got will let him balance himself better.  So life will be be a bit more "normal" (though I believe they'll both be doing a lot more online school work than they had before.)

But that doesn't mean that my life will be going back to normal.  Rich will still be working from home four days out of the week.  He won't be able to bring Tedd to school as he'd been doing for the years before that.  I'll be driving both kids in at different times.  I won't have to pick Tedd up, but I will have to pick up Pete.  And I'll have to be a bit more careful about what I do around the house while Rich is here - I don't want to interrupt any meeting he's got to have.  But it doesn't mean it will be a bad thing.  I'll be able to enjoy lunch with him almost daily.  We'll be able to take brief breaks together.  I'll be able to be held if my depression decides to take over.  

So what's next will be... different.  But good.  I'll get used to it, and find ways to make things happen that I want to happen - including writing in my blog daily like I'm trying to get back into doing, as well as trying to get all my reorganizing done.  I'm starting to learn that making whatever comes next positive all comes down to me.

Almost 3 years?

Yeah, I fell away from blogging hard for awhile.  I can't really say why - life, the universe, depression, kids... you know, the usual insanity that comes with being a mom who also suffers from depression and can't seem to keep on top of things.

 But I've decided that I need to make some changes, and regular writing is going to be one of those.  Will I keep a regular schedule?  Probably not.  At least, not at first.  At first, I'm just going to be writing about the day to day stuff, trying to get my thoughts out there, and give myself a bit of an outlet.  Over the last three years, I've tried a bunch of stuff - paper journaling, bullet journaling, apps to keep track of this, that and the other.  And very little of it has worked longer than a week or two.  I can't say for sure that this will work in the long run either.  But I'm hoping that it will.  Because I've got to do something more than a sentence at a time on Facebook.  It helps, too, that there probably aren't a lot of people that even check to see if this blog is active any more, so I'm hoping it won't be as much pressure.

I'm trying to remind myself that I don't need to be super-anything.  I need to remember that sometimes, just doing one small thing is enough.  Didn't get the house cleaned?  Well, at least there's a load of laundry done that hadn't been done yesterday.  Didn't write the number of posts I wanted to?  Hey, one post is more than I had this time last year.  Didn't read as much as I wanted to?  Hey, I'm enjoying binge-watching Criminal Minds so I'm still having fun.  That's what I need to remember above all else.

Right now, I feel like writing about some of the things happening in my life.  First, my boys are... growing.  A lot.  Teddy is 13. Thir. Teen.  As in, I have a teenager.  He's as tall as I am, his voice is starting to deepen and he's not my little boy any more.  He's got the teenage attitude, but still shows me love all the time.  He's also a chip off the old block, in that he is a super-geek with a wicked sense of humor.  He's at a 7 - 12 academic magnet school now (this past year was his first) and it's a big change for him.  He's finding it a lot more difficult than he'd expected so it's been a struggle, but he isn't giving up.  And that's what means the world to me.  That and the fact that he's now in his 3rd year of chorus (two at his old middle school, one here) and he's still loving it.  If nothing else, he's gotten that from me.

Pete is 10 and last year, we found out that he's on the Autism spectrum.  It explains a lot for us.  I'm still learning a lot when it comes to him - what I can and can't expect from him, how to deal with him when he has meltdowns, accepting that he probably won't have the same amount of friends that his brother has.  But he's still very much my baby - and probably always will be.  He loves math and science, hates reading and ELA.  Next year, he starts middle school (thank you school system that believes middle school should begin in 5th grade) and he's excited because his school has a robotics program.  He still follows his brother everywhere, wanting to be a lot like him.  He's got the same sense of humor and his geekiness is slightly different than Teddy's.  He's just 100% himself, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Maybe next time, I'll talk a little more about me.  Right now, I need to get Pete and I ready for Teddy's end of year concert.  (And I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that school is over for the year a week from Thursday.)

I'm Coming Back

Obviously, I hadn't planned on being gone from my Blog for over a year.  If I had, I would have posted something to that effect.  Instead, life got very busy.  Trying to deal with Pete's behavior problems, trying to deal with my depression, trying to fight past constant fear that the apartment complex will kick me out.  And, honestly, my blog was the least important thing out of all the things I had going on.  I could put up short comments on Facebook to communicate.  It felt better for me that way.

But now, a lot of things are coming together.  We've found out what's wrong with Pete (Sensory Perception Disorder - and more on him in a later post).  I've gotten back on my meds.  I've made a plan to keep myself a bit more organized so I have time to have fun AND get things done.  I've started exercising with a Couch 2 5K program.  I'm following FlyLady again.  I'm giving myself permission to not be perfect. And, most importantly, both kids will be back in school starting August 6.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get back to daily blogging, especially not before the kids start back to school.  But I am hoping that I'll be able to post at least once or twice a week.  I've got a lot of things on my mind that I want to write about, and I'm feeling like I have the time for it. So, if anyone is out there and actually still reading this blog, look out for more posts in the nearish future.  Because I'm glad to be back.

One of the big things that happened over this year was Teddy having his First Communion My handsome boys.

Pour Your Heart Out - It's Not All Bad

This year has been filled with a lot of negativity here - the problems with the van on our trip north, Rich not get assigned classes and money being tight, the engine blowing this November, the sprain in my foot just in time for the holidays.  Since so many of these things have happened in the second half of the year, it's been hard for me to remember that the year hasn't been all bad.  But really, it hasn't.  And I'm not just talking about the usual good things of having a roof over our heads, food on our table and being together.  There's been so much more.

It's been a year and a half now of Rich being cancer free.  I still remember the fear last year when we found out that he had colon cancer.  The worries as he went through surgery.  Would they get it all?  Would it reappear somewhere else?  How badly will the surgery effect him for the future?  And yes, some of those worries are still there.  We both know that there's a possibility of the cancer returning in the future.  And there have been some changes that we've had to make since his surgery.  But the important thing is that for 18 months, cancer has been out of his body.  And that's enough reason for anyone to celebrate.

This summer, we were able to take the first long vacation as a family since both boys were born.  Yes, there were problems with the van.  But the time we spent with family and friends was priceless.  We'll always have the memories of the week at the beach with Rich's family, watching the cousins play together and getting a chance to chat with other family members.  I'll always be able to rewind the video in my mind of my boys playing miniature golf with their Pop.  I still feel the hugs and love from stopping to see my heart-family, Dave and Barb.  I will always remember the peace of visiting with my mother and sister and watching my boys play with my sister's kids while remembering the fun I had with my own cousins as a child.  It was a summer that I won't forget.

This year, we were able to leave diapers behind.  It was sometimes difficult, trying to get Pete to use the potty, especially in the beginning.  He just preferred pull-ups.  But sometime after PDO was over, something clicked with him and it was all potty, all the time.  Of course he still has occasional accidents.  He's four.  But 99% of the time, he is dry.  Of course, 99% of the time, he also doesn't want to wear clothes, which makes the problem moot.  But he's making steps in the right direction.

In May, I was able to watch my son say good-bye to Kindergarten, then watch him say hello to First Grade in August.  I watched him receive an award for his reading at the end of the school year, and watched him surprise his first grade teacher with how well he could read.  I watched him deal with a bully in kindergarten and not let it break him, and I watched him gain a lot of good friends in first grade.  Every day, he impresses me, his dad and his teacher with his brains.  And just as often, he impresses us with his heart.  I've watched him become a great six year old and that's something else that I could never replace in my mind.

And Pete... along with his success at potty training, I've gotten to watch him become the little clown that he is.  His sense of humor is something that I swear I'm going to get on video one of these days.  He is growing so quickly, showing how smart he is and how different from his brother he is.  He's still small enough that he can snuggle with me on the couch (especially right now when I can't do much more than snuggle on the couch) and that fills my heart with joy.  He's my little scientist, my super hero with his enemy invisible man and my imaginative child.  He's part of what's made the year great.

One of the best things of the year was watching my dad regain himself.  For so long, he'd been in pain. There was so little that he could do - physically and mentally.  But he was able to let go of baggage, have his back repaired and lose a lot of weight.  And now he's doing so much.  He's even dating again, and I couldn't be happier for him.  My relationship with my dad has always been strong, and I'm still a Daddy's girl.  (I doubt that's something that will ever change.)  But I feel even closer to my dad now, somehow.  I've been able to spend more time with him, able to see him more (both at my house and at his) and I'm continuing to make memories with him just as much as I'm making memories with my own children.  The best is that I'm able to let him continue to make memories with his own grandsons.  I can't regret that.

I've made a lot of positive changes in my life as well.  I'm continuing to lose weight.  Slowly, yes.  But I've lost over 35 pounds since I was at my heaviest a few years ago.  And I'm noticing the difference not only in my clothes but in my ability to do things.  I don't hurt as much as I used to.  I don't feel as tired as often.  And I'm heading in the right direction.  I'm also starting to figure out how to keep on top of the things that I need to do around the house.  For awhile, my house was a disaster.  There was a time when we were being threatened with non-renewal of our apartment because of the state it was in.  But now I'm able to keep things clean and I'm even working through my clutter.  This moment in time, when I can't do as much as I was because of the sprain, is a momentary set-back.  I've internalized what I need to know to get back on track.  And that's what is important.

So I may often say that 2012 sucked.  It's been a year when one thing after another has gone wrong.  But I can also remember the things that have gone right, the things that, when I remember them, will fill me with a sense of pride and love, that will make me smile when I remember them.  Like every other year, 2012 has had it's good and it's bad.  But I want to try to remember the good as I step from 2012 into 2013.

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans

Yeah... so, a month ago, I rolled out what was going to be a new feature here on Sanity's Overrated and followed it up with... silence.  It's not that I didn't have the plans, or even the photographs and the info for I Made it From Pintrest.  No, instead, life decided that online blogging time was just not something it wanted me to have.  Between getting ready for Halloween, children that were deciding that now was the time to misbehave and my depression giving me the full-court press, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

I'm still feeling a bit drowned, but I'm starting to pull myself up a bit.  Or at least, I'm trying to.

Here are some of the highlights from my life (both good and bad):

• Halloween didn't go exactly as planned, but it wasn't a disaster either.  Both my boys decided to wear the same costumes as the year before, so no extra purchasing was needed.  I even dressed up for the Halloween Special Pokemon Pre-Release Tournament.  We went trunk or treating at my son's PDO the Sunday before Halloween, then tried to have trick or treaters in my complex but failed.  We did, however, go over to the front office and enjoy a little of their celebration then went over to one of the local churches for their annual trunk or treat.  The boys came away with plenty of sugar and I was glad it was over for another year.
• I have been able to maintain a clean house for most of the last month.  I'm not sure what clicked, but something did and I've been keeping on top of things.  Some days need a little more work than others, and the amount of clutter in places like the bookshelves and the closets still need to be addressed, but I'm not ashamed to let maintenance workers in or have company come over.  It's a huge step for me, and I'm feeling really good about it.  It's great to be able to spend more time relaxing than cleaning because it's been kept up with.
• I'm trying to learn how to deal with having a 4 year old in the house.  You'd think I'd know.  I mean, Teddy is almost 7.  I lived with his 4 year old self.  But Pete as a 4 year old is completely different.  I think part of it is because he's the youngest and he likes being the baby.  I'll often have my friend, Becca, come over.  She has a 15 month old that I'll watch on occasion and it makes Pete really jealous.  There's been a lot of backsliding baby behavior.  I know one of the things I need to do is enforce that he's a big boy and stop calling him my baby.  It's meant as a term of endearment, but I think he's taking it as fact.  He's been having a few more problems at PDO than usual because of temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way, or them trying to get him to keep his hands out of his mouth.  I'm trying to deal with it, but it's just one more thing on top of a lot of other crap that's happened this week.
• The biggest thing that's happened, and one of the things that's pushing me further and further down into depression, is that my van is in the shop.  It started with a bit of a clattering noise.  I was going to have my dad take a look at it when I went up to help him with some errands on Friday.  But on our way back from his errands, before he had a chance to look at it, the serpentine belt shredded and the power steering locked up.  Then (of course) the alternator light came on and the temperature started to rise.  We got to his place and it looked like the tensioner pulley had gone bad.  We had Rich come up with his car, picked up the parts we (thought) we needed and worked on getting it fixed on Saturday (with Rich heading back Friday night because he had a test and a meeting on Saturday).  While we were fixing it, we found out that the water pump was also bad.  So Rich came up on Sunday and we got the water pump and the idler pulley.  Fixed that, thought everything was ok.  Headed home and not a mile from Dad's, the temperature started to rise again.  Brought it back - the thermostat was shot.  Went out to get that part, fixed it and headed home again.  1/2 way home, the temperature started to rise once more.  I called AAA and had them tow it to my local garage (whom I love - and if you're in the Nashville area, I can't recommend Custom Auto highly enough).  They looked at it Monday and found that the head gasket was cracked.  $1,200.  My in-laws said they'd pay for it, since we didn't have the money.  Yesterday, they called me to tell me that as they were pulling apart the engine, they found that one of the pistons had melted into the engine and it was shot.  A brand new one would be over $4,000 and a used one with 51,000 miles would be $2,600.  Again, my in-laws came to our rescue and they are paying to have my van fixed.  I honestly don't know what I'd do without them.  But a part of me is waiting to see what else is going to go wrong.  I know it isn't the best way to be thinking, but the way it's been going, it's kind of hard. At least I should (hopefully) have my van back by Thanksgiving.  That's what Custom is shooting for for me.
• On the good side of things, though, I've been doing more baking.  Ok, maybe it's not ALL good.  After all, baking needs to be eaten.  But I love baking and I haven't felt that my kitchen was clean enough for me to do so in a long time.  Now it is and it's making me feel so much better to be able to have the smell of baked goods wafting through the apartment again.
• I tried to write for NaNoWriMo, but haven't gotten very far.  Mostly because of the above problems. I'm hoping that next week, I'll be able to spend a little more focusing time on it.  We'll see.
• I'm also hoping to get some recordings of me singing a few things acapella.  That's something else I've found myself doing more of lately, something I've missed.  Little bit by little bit, even with all the bad happening around me, I'm pulling the things that I enjoy back into my life.

Right now, I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving.  Today, I'm joining Peter at PDO for their annual Thanksgiving Pot Luck.  His class had desserts as their request, so I made pumpkin bundt cake last night (and broke my whisk doing it).  Next week, we'll be joining our friends Becca and Lewis at their house for Thanksgiving.  My dad (whom we usually spend the holiday with) has the chance to go visit my step-brother and his family in Florida this year so we were just going to do something here ourselves.  But Becca has been wanting to do a big celebration at her house, so this is the time.  And I'm making dessert!  Go me!  Rich and Becca will be taking care of dinner (since I hate cooking - though I have been doing a bit more of that lately).

For now, let me leave you with a few pics that I've managed to take over the last few weeks.  Enjoy!  And please, stick around.  I'm hoping to ACTUALLY be back soon.

The baked ravioli I made from a recipe found on Pintrest.

I love to look at carpets of leaves - especially since I don't have to rake them!

Beautiful fall colors in Tennessee.

Me, as Fennel from Pokemon

Teddy and Pete as Ash and Pikachu, the second year in a row.

I found this rock with the spots of dirt on it just like this and thought, "It's a happy ghost rock!"

Get into the groove

I'm finally starting to find my rhythm when it comes to household things.  School's been back in session for almost 3 weeks now (yep, we started on August 1st) and with first grade has come more homework.  Believe it or not, that's actually helped me get back on track for getting life under control.

First, let's share some First Day of School pics:

I'm ready to go!

But I want to go too!!!!

Teddy getting started with his morning work, while Pete looks on.

He's been doing great in school so far.  His grades are all wonderful and he's even made a few friends.  After last year's dealing with bullies and seeing him alone more than with friends, I was hoping that this year would be different.  And so far, it is.  He's got two boys that are into a lot of the same things he's into and that he sits with at lunch.  So far, it's a good start to the year.  Of course, they still aren't sure what to do with him when it comes to reading because he's so much further ahead than the rest of his classmates.  One thing that I'm doing to try to help him, though, is requiring that he get a non-fiction book out of the library, read it and tell me what it's about.  Comprehension has been his biggest stumbling block.

As I said earlier, his school year has helped me get more organized as well.  He's got homework almost every night, so I started getting organized with that.  As soon as Teddy comes home, he needs to put his lunch things in the sink and finish his homework.  When that's done, I get him (and Pete) a snack and a drink.  Because he needs to get that done, I need to keep the dining room table clean for him to work on.  So I've been trying to keep on top of that.  There has to be a dedicated place near the front door for the boys' shoes, backpacks and lunch boxes, so some rearranging was in order.  But before I could rearrange, I had to get the living room clean. Which was finished the other day.  Once I had the carpet cleaners come out, I was ready to rearrange.

I went from this:

From the couch toward the stairs

Where the TV is

The couch on the far wall

The corner next to the couch.

To this:

A nice little reading nook

The area by the front door, with bins to keep things in

The TV stayed where it was and the couch moved under the window.  I don't need to worry about the sun hitting me in the eyes when I want to lay on the couch.  Plus, it makes it easier for people to talk than how I'd set it up before.  It feels more open and I like that.

What amazes me more than anything was that I moved all of it myself.  When I get in the mood to do something, though, I push myself beyond what I probably should do.  Even more amazing is the fact that I can still move after all of it.  I expected to not be able to move for a week.

So that was my big project.  The smaller things are things like having each day be a different focus.  For example, Mondays I clean the bathrooms and do laundry.  I try to keep everything else within manageable levels, of course, but the heavy cleaning like the toilets, tub, counter tops and floors wait until Monday to happen.  Tuesdays are the dining room.  Wednesdays the living room, Thursdays, the kitchen and Fridays the bedroom.  And I'm finding each room easier to do when it's day comes since I've been keeping up with things.

I'm not finished by a long shot.  I haven't done what I really need to on the bedrooms, and today was the first day I really tackled the kitchen.  (And managed to get it and the bathrooms done).  I've got a lot of storage-area stuff that needs to be done as well - my closets, my pantry, bookshelves... but I'm finally at a place, and with a plan in place, where I can take time to attack those.

Once I have all of that finished, my next plan is to focus on my online things.  All my games/blogs/etc are on hold for the moment because I'm trying to focus on getting the rest of this done.  And honestly, those things need to be my focus because they get out of control most easily.  But I'm finally feeling like I can be on top of things and that's what I need.  Getting back in a groove, feeling accomplished and loving life. I'm even getting a little formal exercise in now and again (though, to be fair, the sweat I've been working up with the heavy cleaning does count as exercise as well).

One of these days, I may even surprise my husband and take over dinner cooking duties!

I Promise, It Wasn't You

It's been awhile.  Yeah, I know.  I'm really bad about keeping in touch.  I have all these intentions of stopping in and saying hi, of seeing how you're doing and letting you know what's going on in my life, but things have been really hectic here.

Some of it is the depression.  It saps my energy to do anything productive, even the things I enjoy (like talking to you).  And part of the depression was my own fault.  I ran out of my zoloft and didn't get it refilled for a month or so.  Yeah, yeah.  I know.  I need it to keep me sane.  But the hard part is making contact to get the script called in again.  Catch 22, really.  I need it to give me the courage to make the phone call necessary, but until I make that call, I don't have it.  I had a doctor's appointment earlier this week and managed to get my script called in then.  So that's to the better.

Some of it is just general busyness.  First there was trying to get the apartment in shape for inspection for our lease.  That caused both stress and being busy.  Then there was all the end of the school-year things for Teddy - trips to the zoo and the nature park, visits to his classroom for awards days.  I really enjoyed all of it (since his class is a great group of kids), but it cut into my time.

The last couple of weeks have been getting prepared/going on trips.  A few weeks ago, we went to my Dad's for his birthday.  It was a fantastic time, but there's always getting things together before and after.  This weekend, we're going up to Dad's again, this time for Rich's birthday and Father's Day.  Again, it should be great, but packing is time consuming... especially with my swiss-cheese brain.  And next Friday, we'll be taking a trip to visit our families in New Jersey and New York.  We're going to be gone for two weeks, and we're driving up, so that's a lot more that needs to be gathered together.  We'll be going to the Jersey shore for one week, a stop overnight at my heart-sister's, a few days with my family in NY, and back to the Philly area for a few days to spend time with Rich and his family.  It should be relaxing.  I just wish the time was here now, you know?

So really, it wasn't because I didn't want to be in touch.  Really.  I love chatting with you, hearing what you have to say, finding out more about you.  But life seems to get in the way.  I'm hoping that once I get back from our vacation, I'll be able to sit down and chat more.  I've got so many books to talk about over at Views from the Reader Side and so many pictures I want to share of the boys and life in general.  I want to get back in touch with you, to be close again.  I hope you understand, and I hope you'll still be here when I come back.