So the kids went back to school with their semester final exams pushed back til Friday 23rd, Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th. I was glad to hear that they'd have those important review days beforehand that could have been just skipped over.

I donated blood Monday 19th and had my first bad experience with a needle! They couldn't get my left arm to cooperate and it got messy! After a couple "that hurts!" from me, we switched to my right arm and all was good. I skipped my regular BodyFlo class that night as I thought the veins in my arms may burst from the pressure of too many Down Dogs. (Don't worry, I made it up on Friday.)

Abby was able to observe (teaching) an English-as-a-Second-Language teacher at the elementary and middle school level on Wednesday 21st. She really enjoyed and her experience confirmed her decisions to add English-as-a-Second-Language as a minor.

Thursday night I got a special invitation to attend the Art Guild Exec Board meeting - mainly to gather info to update the website, but also to rope me in to more volunteer opportunities. Our big event coming up is ChillyFest, which is an outdoor winter festival that we combine with art gallery openings which offer a break for people to come inside and warm up.

Abby had the week to concentrate on getting everything together to go back for 2nd semester. In typical Abby fashion, she began doing her laundry Friday at noon. We left the house about 3:30pm and coasted into LaCrosse at 6:30. Jeff dropped me at the Olive Garden so I could put our name in - there's always a wait! Then he and the girls checked into our usual hotel, Stoney Creek Inn.

The dorms opened up at 10am Saturday morning for students to move back in and we were there by 11. Was really happy we did that because it seemed no one else showed up til about 12:30. So we were able to easily secure the vacuum cleaner and keep a lot of Abby's stuff in the hallway while we sucked up dust bunnies, candy wrappers and bobby pins. Wow! That once-a-semester vacuuming really made a difference! The first basket I picked up in Abby's room contained the "I already lost my I.D." from the 3rd week of school that I had just paid for. Abby was amazed. No wonder all kids ask their moms where everything is! Abby had Paige and Bryn re-organize her dresser drawers and even had a certain folding policy! One of her floormates made a comment about how organized Abby was and we all dropped our jaws!!!! Because none of the campus eateries were open, we went to Subway for lunch. Then we gave Abby our goodbyes hugs and kisses and left her to college life once again.

Kristin and Carlo invited us to dinner Saturday night which was nice coming back from La Crosse right around dinner time. Bryn and Paige got Lucy and Bella all riled up! My mom and dad were there again for another basement-fixer-upper session.

Sunday has become my meeting day. I tagged along with Bryn to her Mission Trip meeting in the morning where we presented t-shirt designs, then to Student Council in the evening where we make weekly progress on planning the Winter Carnival.