Chit chat and what not.

The kids had a good day at Model UN.  They didn't come home with any awards though. 

Peter was annoyed because he felt like the team that won the award in his room shouldn't have won.  Not necessarily that Peter's team was more worth but that the team that won should not have. But overall, he was just relieved that his teammate made it.  He got a text right before we left that his partner didn't feel well and he might not make it.  But, luckily he made it because Peter did not want to sit in a room full of people he did not know all by himself.  (He is his mother's son.)

Sarah didn't care that she didn't win anything.  She was just happy that she wasn't as nervous as she thought she would be. She spoke up frequently when making resolutions (or whatever it is that they do) and several other countries wanted to work with her and her partner.  So, she considered the day a success.  And then several boys from another school sat down with her at lunch to get help with the paper they were working on.  That totally annoyed her based on the amount of eye rolling she did while telling me that. 

We are seriously just clicking through this school year at lightening speed.  This is our down week and we are enjoying it.

Next week we start track practice and then the week after that we add in swimming for Sarah and an art/painting class after school for Peter.  Not to mention trying to cram in scouts on top of that.  And speaking of scouts, Peter is heading to a Merit Badge college this weekend to work on another badge he needs for Eagle Scout.  And Dan, who is in charge of all the paperwork and what not needed for Boy Scout summer camp has been working on spreadsheets and email in the evenings necessary to coordinate all that for the troop.

And in the midst of all this fun and excitement I'm working on our taxes.  Every year I say that I'm going to outsource this fun job and every year, the thought of getting everything together to give to someone else to do, is more overwhelming than actually doing it myself.

To top all that off, we will be starting to paint the hall and the stairwell this weekend.  Well, I'm planning on that, I just need to get Dan on board.  We last painted the hall and stairwell 3 years ago and the minute that Dan got the first coat of paint on the walls, I hated it.  Hated the color, hated the finish, hated it all.  So for three years I have suffered in silence because Dan busted his butt to get that painted (our stair well is very tall and it was very hard for him to paint) and I didn't have the heart to tell him I hated it. 

But once we repainted the downstairs with a color that I love, I told him the hallway/stairwell was next and that we would be using the same color.  I also told him that since I painted the entire downstairs by myself, he was going to have to help me with the upstairs.  So it's a fun weekend around here!!!

And one last interesting tidbit - I was reading that a local strawberry farm already has berries on it's plants due to the extremely warm weather we've been having.  If we don't have a cold snap they are predicting that the berries will be ready to pick around March 21st!  Around here, berry picking season is the end of April through the end of May.  That's a whole month earlier than normal.  Unfortunately though, I'm certain we will have a cold snap.  It's gong to be in the mid to upper 70s through Saturday but I'm sure it will drop back to more normal temps after that. 

I'm not going to lie though. I love it being warm. We've been sleeping with the windows open at night this week and that is one of my favorite things to do!

All right.  Enough chit chat.  I've got taxes to do!