School, Kira & Grace

When I went to the student orientation before classes started, we were told that we needed to prioritize our studies.  That might mean cutting down on other activities in our lives.  Well, for the most part, I have concentrated on studying for my class.  I've had to forego Saturday activities because of attending classes.  In fact, I have no choice there because if even one class is missed, it's an automatic failure.  And for every 30 minutes you might be late, you get a whole letter grade lower in your final grade.  Needless to say, I am careful to get to class early and made it there even on the week I was sick.  Fortunately, I wasn't feeling my worst on the day of class, just suffering with a runny nose.

My first class is over but I still need to write the final paper which needs to be 2,500 words.  We have 2 weeks to get that in.  I'm planning to concentrate on that this weekend because I have Friday off from work.  So Friday and Saturday, and maybe Sunday afternoon will be spent inside at the computer.  I hope I can manage it without an attack of spring fever.

We have managed to fit in some grandkid time.  On Saturday, Tom & Dawn had a family wedding to attend, so asked us if we would keep Kira overnight and take her to church on Sunday morning.  She came over Saturday around noon.  I wasn't home from class until close to 2:00 pm, so Andy played with her, then put her down for a nap.  She had dinner with us, played some more, then bath time and bed again.

Here she is playing doctor with Andy.  The bracelets on his face were his medicine!

Sunday morning she let me put her hair in a pony tail while she was eating her breakfast.  She's not too keen on having her hair fixed.  I can't wait till she'll let me braid her hair, but for now, I was happy to do a little brushing and fixing.  I don't know why she's looking so sad in this picture.  It is a pose, though, since she knew I was taking it.  She was so excited to be here with us.  She kept hugging us and kissing us.  How fun to be so loved!

Sunday night we had our singles group here, women only this time.  One of the girls offered to make chili so I didn't have as much to do as usual.  I had made lemon bars on Saturday afternoon, then on Sunday, made cornbread and a salad to go with the chili.  The lemon bars were a big hit.

Andy and I left work early on Monday and drove up to get Grace for her overnight with us.  Her birthday had been several weeks ago, but I felt this was a good time to fit her in (between classes).  We have so much fun with her.  She is a delightful young lady.  Her requests of things to do with us included:  watch a movie, have ice cream, make lemon bars, go bike riding, go on a hike, play games.  I'm happy to say we fit it all in.

We borrowed a friend's bike and she and Andy rode to the church.  They rode around in the parking lot around cones that Andy set up.  They did all kinds of games using the cones, then went into the gym and rode around in there, too.

We took a hike before lunch at Laurel Acres park.  It was pretty wet, but we wore our boots and enjoyed the outdoors.  It was cold and windy, but we still had a good time together.

After lunch, we drove over to Amico Island Park and hiked around in there, too.  That is a cool place right on the Delaware River.  The tide must have been in because there was no beach at all.  Another time we had been there, there was a nice beach to walk along.

 

 Grace is a lot like her daddy and PopPop - instigating and causing "trouble."  She kept throwing the sweet gum sticker balls at Andy until he had to "take care" of her!

I mentioned to Grace that she might not have too many more years of overnights with us because she's getting older.  Then she asked how long she could keep coming over.  I told her we would keep the tradition going until she was married.  That prompted her next question:  "couldn't she still come over even then?"  Well, her husband might have something to say about that!  But I took it as a compliment to think that she's happy to be here with us.

It was a fun couple of days, but now the parties are over and I've got to put my nose to the grindstone again.