It's the End of the World as We Know it....and I Feel Fine

This little ground squirrel lives in our yard and has been enjoying taunting the cats lately. They sit on the window sill and stare while it chatters at them and watches back. I'm sure they'd love to catch it and make it dinner. I hope it realizes that they are harmless behind the window but not necessarily when they're out in the yard running at a full sprint.

Well, we did not get raptured yesterday after all. :) I saw a funny comment on Facebook (besides everyone listing their favorite songs for the day, hence the R.E.M. tune in the title of this post). It said, "I guess on Sunday we can't really console the Rapture people by saying 'Cheer up, it's not the end of the world.'" That made me laugh. Although I was not worried at all about the apocalypse (she says), I did have a very long and detailed nightmare involving a Princeton University football game, airplanes, Scrabble, a mushroom cloud and guns. Whew!

I put off dusting the furniture yesterday just in case the world did come to an end. Since it didn't, I spent an inordinate amount of time on the task today. Laundry I don't mind, doing dishes I don't mind, even cleaning the bathrooms doesn't bother me too much. Dusting is just a tedious and boring chore. But now it's done and I will ignore it for several more weeks, I'm sure.

Saturday I was up and dressed early (earlier than usual for a weekend, anyway) to attend a City Council meeting and then over to the USAFV Open House. The shelter looked really nice and all the staff did a fabulous job of welcoming visitors and showing them around, explaining USAFV's services and answering questions. Plus they had cookies and pies baking in the oven.

Tonight was book club, where we discussed Greg Mortenson's second book, Stones into Schools. We picked our books for the year back in September so it was coincidental that we happened to be reading it right as he's been involved in some controversy. You may have seen the story on "60 Minutes" a few weeks ago, in which there were questions raised about his organization's handling of financial matters and the authenticity of some of Greg's stories. We've read both Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools for book club and most of us are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It's possible that mistakes have been made but I'm still impressed with the very difficult work he's done and I know I would never have the heart nor the physical ability to do even a small portion of all he's accomplished. Hopefully the organization will take care of any lingering issues and their good work can go on. Steve and Goldfish hosted book club at Elaine's house because they are remodeling part of their kitchen. Thanks, Elaine, for having us, and GF for the great food. It was not on my current diet but I cheated a little. I told them not to tell Rich. Steve said, "what happens at book club stays at book club." :)

I talked with Aidan and Ally on the phone today. They are so cute! Aidan said he's having fun playing baseball, has had several hits and likes "running home" best. He's almost finished with school and is happy to be going on to second grade. Time flies! Ally had to tell me all the colors in her new bathing suit and that she is ready to go to the beach with us in July. Can't wait to see them!

Elle loves the "Annie song" and left us a cute message on our answering machine recently, where she sings, "tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow..." It's just adorable and I have to listen to it every day. It always makes me smile. And baby Beck is growing up way too fast. I am not going to recognize him when I see him next. See Sarah's blog to see him working on his crawling skills!

For the Emery watchers, she's just been to Houston for her last round of this first year's scans. Although all results are not yet in, Bonnie and David feel confident that everything's good. David saw Dr. Thompson in the hallway and he said the MRI was great. It looks like they had a fun trip, despite the medical stuff that had to be done. Check Bonnie's blog for more details and see the cool private plane they got to ride in. Wow, the folks in Amarillo have just been amazing in their support of our kids. We are very grateful!