"BUILD ME UP, BUTTERCUP"

I let several photo opportunities get by me today, so you are viewing one of the wildflower photos from yesterday. Most people around here call them buttercups, but the real name is wild primroses....I think.
Chuck is still working 7 days a week, so it was just Zach and I going to Mass this morning. We didn't get there as early as I wanted to, but everything worked out fine. I'd stayed up until 2 am, and Zach didn't go to sleep much earlier either. He fell asleep with his glasses on, and didn't even wake up when I removed them.

While I was giving my talk this morning, I told my junior high students that they could use my office to work on the poster they have to get done for the Youth Spectacular. I showed them where various supplies were and told them that it wasn't really a 'private' office - I don't keep anything confidential there, it's more like a resource room - so to use what they need, and feel free to look through things to find whatever they might want to use. Not quite halfway through, I had to take some necessary papers that an absentee teacher left in the conference room, to the right classroom for the substitute to use, and so dashed into my office, on the way, to drop off some materials someone returned. GOOD GRIEF! They had supplies of all kinds strewn all over. Glitter was everywhere! The poster was barely started, but each of the girls had their own large, glittery name signs for their rooms, and a couple were dismantling the walk-in closet. (photo op. missed)

But they are neat kids, and I really like them all. Also today before, during and after class time, several of the students (of all age groups) were especially sweet, earnest, and/or endearing - even a couple who took restroom breaks, and then came all the way around to the conference room to raid the fridge before returning to their classrooms. LOL! It was an extra joyful Sunday morning.

After classes and everything else was over, and it was just Zach and I - him mostly running around and climbing trees but also helping me with a couple of things, and me doing a little paperwork, organizing and 'housekeeping', I moved on to check out my office. They definately took me literally when I said to look and see what is available for the poster or to read or use, because there wasn't one surface, cabinet, shelf or drawer that hadn't been shuffled around. They didn't leave the huge mess I feared when I had seen the big containers of glitter scattered everywhere earlier, but I did have to straighten and put away a lot of things.

After we got home and changed clothes, Zach and I did a little gardening. We cleaned one easy flower bed and potted the 'patio tomatoes' and basil. (photo op. missed) Then we played a game like I had promised him last night. We ended up with Parcheesi, and part way through he got his small army set and set up a barracade, surface to air missels and supply storage around his start section, and used soldiers and a flag for his playing pieces and set up tanks at strategic spots around the board. (another photo op missed)

After the game I took him home in time for Boy Scouts and 4-H meetings. My friend, Barbara, called and was ready to go take her 5 remaining Lab puppies to town to try to sell them. She had changed her mind about going the other day, at the last minute. We got a late start, I thought, and stayed much too late, although it was nice to take my crocheting and get a little done on a doll sweater pattern, while enjoying conversation, after getting the puppies (yet another photo op missed), pen, crate, etc. unloaded. She wants to go back tomorrow, but I'm really not too keen on staying so late. She can't manage to lift/carry and load/unload everything herself though, so I guess I will help her out.