Dori Drives

Dori finally finished all the training she had to do to get a license. She had the last hoop to jump through yesterday. The driving test. We borrowed Sal's small car so that Dori would not have to drive our huge vehicles. Dori practiced an hour or so on Thursday then we drove again right after school on Friday. She was scheduled to take the test at 5 PM but the examinier called and asked us to come early. Dori was a nervous wreck! I tried to make light jokes and tease her a little so she would not take herself so seriously, but she was visibly nervous. When we got there she had to pull up to a line, back into a large boxed area then demonstrate that she could parallel park. She was a little unsteady and very nervous, but she did it. She tipped one cone almost over, but it bounced back into place when she turned. It was good that we borrowed the small car!! On the road test, Dori's biggest difficulty was knowing her left from her right, but she did drive just fine. I got to sit in the backseat and try not to say anything out loud. (I prayed silently lots though!!) The last thing the examiner told Dori was to smile for the camera-- I am sure she will have no trouble with that!!

We topped off the evening with dinner at 'Skip's Supper'. It was a Mardi Gras feast. Lots of sweet, southern cooking. As always, everything was excellent. Pepper and I brought a wine that we got on our weekend trip up north and it was the one that I was looking forward most to try. For dessert, Skip had self-serve Sundaes. The kids loved them because they could put on as many toppings as they wanted... I enjoyed the wide variety of chocolate choices!! We also spent some time planning summer camping trips (which always makes me happy!) and the kids all decided to go ice skating together on Saturday. It was a very nice evening all around. :)

Hump day

I'm not in a great mood tonight, so this will probably be short. It was a long day at work since I stayed at school until my meeting at church.... well, I zipped out of my building to join Megamom and Skip for a walk, then had to run over to the "Clothes Closet" to help Sal (short for "shops a lot") sort through clothes for families in our school district in need. It is amazing how many people donated clothing items over the holidays, so there were tons of bags to go through! 

My meeting at church started at 7... and gratefully was over by 8 or so. I called to check on the kids before it started. Dori said they had all been getting along... until I called. OK... I knew Pepper had ordered pizza and the TV show was selected by majority vote, all was well at home. The meeting was draining. Our church is suffering from declining pledges and increasing expenses. A universal problem but still frustrating. The discussions were lots about what we can't do, don't have funds to get or that we need volunteers for. Maybe it is hearing that there is no money at our church and also no money in our schools and then looking at our empty checking account that is frustrating me right now... but I could really use some rich friends/family.... or maybe just one lucky lottery ticket! 

After the meeting, the priest stopped me to talk about Macy. Macy is being difficult in youth group. Its not that I am surprised... Macy is our 'extra faith' child and can be difficult in many situations. I just did not want to deal with it tonight. I was tired and ready to go home. Priest B wants to meet to talk about how to make Macy's group time be more successful. Sure, I'll just add that to my to do list.... 

like I said, I'm grumpy. I'm going to go see what we have in the kitchen that is chocolate.