Peanut’s school hosted a Career Day on Friday, April 18. It was very well attended by the hosts and family members. It was a group effort headed by the Community Resource teacher, teachers, other staff, community members, volunteers and family members.

Parents were able to go with their children to see the tables set up by the hosts. There was a lunch provided by a local grocery store, music and much to see. I decided to go later in the afternoon so that I could take Peanut home from school early.

When I arrived I was able to meet Peanut’s teacher right away. The class was right where I walked in. I was able to take along two of Peanut’s friends from her class since I’m a qualified volunteer. We decided to look at the map and decide on which one of the careers each one wanted to see first. There were careers from A – Z. Peanut chose the veteranarian, one friend chose the actor and the other chose the firefighters.

The hosts put in such effort to make their table and presentations not only easy to understand for the children but entertaining and something for them to think about later. I was so proud of the questions the three girls asked. They took this seriously.

I know that the hosts had to do their presentations over and over for each individual class. It was hot and tiring. The Safety Patrol from the school were in charge of checking on each host to see if they needed a break, food, water, etc. To see those students take on their tasks proves that they are being taught responsibility. That’s a word that is used a lot at Peanut’s school.

Have I mentioned that I think Peanuts school is one of the best in our county?

The Single Mothers Day at church is moving along. I called some local organizations to invite women. I’ve called our local shelter for women who’ve been abused to give the shelter director the information. My friend Darlene contacted a woman who helps our local military families who have spouses that are deployed. We thought it would be nice to include them even though they are not technically single. The last place I called was the newest woman’s shelter here.

I had to leave a message. Just a few days ago I got a call back from the director. She thanked us for the invitation but explained that the woman in this particular shelter are in either drug rehab or alcohol rehab. She went on to explain that there may be “triggers” at our event. I told her that I understood and offered her some of the hotel shampoos, conditioners and lotions if we have any left over. She said that they could definitely use them.

I guess when you are in rehab it’s best to remain in a controlled environment. I pray that these women make it through the program. I’ll mention it to our Pastor so that we can pray for them at the event.

On May 12th Lady Ali and her fiancee will be moving to Kansas. I tried to put it out of my mind, to forget that it was coming so soon but I can’t any longer. They’re packing and getting ready to go and will come here that Monday to say goodbye.

It’s the day after Mother’s Day and all I keep selfishly thinking is that I want her close to me for all of the upcoming Mother’s Days. She’s 21 but it feels like yesterday that she was my little baby. I’ve been crying again thinking of the future. It will be difficult to visit her because of Peanut. It’s not like I can just pick up and leave when I want.

It’s also hard for me to plan trips, especially on airplanes with my health issues. But I’d go no matter what when I’d have a ticket in my hand. Although she’s been on her own for about 5 years (she lived with a friend of mine during some tough high school years) she was always just a car ride away. Now I’m looking at about 1300 miles between us.

I still can’t get that in my head. Writing it hurt me.

I had written a post earlier about my Mom wanting to take a vacation this summer with her sister, my Aunt. She’s getting up in age and wanted to do something exciting before she can’t any longer.

With the news of Lady Ali’s engagement, she’s decided that she wants to take all of us (me, Hubby, Peanut, Lady Ali and Fiancee) along with her and my Aunt instead. We’ve been trying to come up with ideas of what to do that would keep everyone happy as well as not be too difficult physically for Mom and Aunt to do.

We talked about taking a train ride. That was given the thumbs down by a lot of us. We thought about Europe but there’s some of us that don’t have passports. We won’t have time to get them before this trip. Then we thought about going to Vegas Baby! We learned that it has become quite family friendly. Gambling and shows are a big plus. As well as finding a resort type hotel.

I’m going to show Lady Ali TravelHero.com so we can begin our search of cheap Las Vegas hotels. We can look for the red tag that means there’s discounts on hotels stays, look through the reviews of each hotel and then make our choice. We can reserve our room online or over the phone. This site even has airline, car rental and activity reservations. We can book the whole vacation on one site.