Busy Much?

So the past week and half have been...insane, to put it lightly. It has been a whirlwind of activity, all of which has been very fun and somewhat hectic. Some of this stems from my inability to say no to volunteer activities, but we'll get to that later...

I pretty much had ants in my pants last week because my ENTIRE family came to El Paso to visit me for Thanksgiving! (So very gracious of them to come over to Mexico El Paso.) I am the Christian Honor Society sponsor at school, and of course we sponsored the Thanksgiving food drive for families in the church, school, and community. The day they arrived just happened to be delivery day for the baskets, so they were able to come along and join the fun of delivering the boxes for members of the community, who just happened to live smack dab in the middle of the GHETTO. Seriously...I was glad I spoke Spanish because that was the only language being spoken. I told my students this was great practical application for my class and should encourage them to take notes and pay attention lest they end up in the ghetto again and need to talk their way out. But I digress...thankfully, my dad and Clay were there to go with us to the apartments, otherwise I would've left immediately (the students in CHS just happen to be all girls). While we were in this apartment complex, we watched someone get arrested (mind you, at 2:30 in the afternoon...?) and arrived at a door that had a very professional sticker that read "Police and authorities are not allowed to search your house unless the provide a search warrant"...just the place you want to be, right? The last food box we delivered was to a house that was literally a stone's throw from the border. Seriously, about 5 houses down was the FENCE. You know, the border fence. Creepy...I have an unspoken rule that there are certain places I will not drive/go to in El Paso...well, those rules were broken for Thanksgiving food baskets and the Lord kept us safe, so the day went well.

Once I was off of work we had a whirlwind of activity in my house, which was awesome because I'm alone most of the time now! Minus my fish, but they keep to themselves...
My parents and siblings did some major yard work for me as well as a "backyard beautification" project that is awesome! I have this trellis/arbor thing over my patio, and we laced burlap and another material through it so that the birds would stop defecating all over my porch...it looks lovely and it's working so far! I don't know how I haven't blogged about this yet, but my brother and sister-in-law are HAVING A BABY! I'm so excited!! But that dear babe kept Lindsay sick almost all week (and on top of that, she got the stomach bug...yuck-o) so poor Linds had a hard trip....next time will be better; she'll be healthy and there will be a baby to play with!

We went to Hueco Tanks, an awesome state park near us. We had to wait awhile because it rained. Whhhhhat? It was bizarre, but totally worth the wait because we had so much fun! We also celebrated Mom's birthday while they were here with a bit of hiking and plant education :)

After I they left and I shed my fair amount of pity tears (after a full house it gets LONELY around here!), I geared up for this week which was the finale of our Christmas children toy drive...yes, in charge of that one, too. We had to have all the gifts to the organization by Dec. 1, so we were crunched for time...I made quick work of Wal-Mart's toy department and can I just say--it is WAY easier to shop for boys (of all ages!) than it is for girls! Especially if those said girls aren't into princesses, because oh my gosh, that's all there is! And it's all sickeningly pink...yuck. I plan on giving my kids this book and this book , as well as a fair supply of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Roadl Dahl (as well as many others...I'm somewhat obsessed with kids books), and we'll have lots of adventures and leave the princess talk for the movies.

There were lots of other events thrown into the past few weeks but I'll spare you the details because they're not really all that exciting! I'm not hearing from Brian very often any more but from what he wrote last week, it sounds like they're doing well. He got promoted a few weeks ago too, so that was exciting!

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods! I said that phrase a few days ago and I got some strange looks... :)