I can't find my shoes...: Life ain't a merry go round...it's a roller coaster (Long Live Bon Jovi)

I actually hate Merry Go Rounds, have always hated them. I hate spinning rides, I get dizzy and disoriented and eventually bored! I always thought it was silly to have such cool designed animals on such a boring ride. I love roller coasters, of course as I've gotten older my body can only take so many rides in one day but I still love them! The speed, the rush, the horrible anticipation of the drop and the uncontrollable giggling. Unfortunately, the roller coaster of life in NO WAY resembles The Hulk ride at Universal (super awesome coaster BTW). It's not always giggle inducing or a rush of excitement. Sometimes those drops just keep on dropping and sometimes that climb up to it is slow and agonizing and often unnoticed until we are free falling, barely hanging on to the safety bar. I just hope that the person you have sitting next to you holds your hand through it all and makes you feel safe, or better yet, you have the strength to be your own safety net and can just barrel through those drops knowing a climb and a loop de loop is just up ahead.

I hope that with all my heart for my friend, his words to me have always been "Never Give Up", so I echo them back to him today.

I had a pretty nice weekend with Steve. The weather was gorgeous and we got to have a leisurely few days together. On Friday we puttered around, had lunch and ran errands while the kids were in school. Friday night we got to have dinner with friends and really had a great time. Saturday we all went into town and cleaned up trash along the bike trail on Summer St. to celebrate Earth Day. Sunday we took a nice drive to America's Stonhenge in Salem NH. That was really cool! Steve left Sunday night and the girls and I started Spring Break! It's been a quiet relaxing week, I've gone for walks, went for a hike with my friend Sy and her dog Thurber, took the girls to the Boston aquarium yesterday and did a fun craft night with my friend Karie, and today it is chores. I have been winding down my private lesson clients and daycare clients and after today I will only have one daycare puppy left and one more private lesson left. It feels weird to have so much extra time available, weird but nice. I have lots of craft projects planned!

The girls are enjoying their new bikes and have been riding around the neighborhood every day. Now that they have a school friend that moved into our neighborhood they've been out of the house more. This is also good because apparently 12 is the new 3 and I am not enjoying the teen angst and attitude lately. Buttons pushed daily. I know it will pass, Rylie went through this too and has since leveled out and become a pretty pleasant 13 year old. I hope her sister will follow suit!

Drama with the new house is consuming Steve and I right now. Quite a few things came back from the inspection needing to be fixed and we aren't sure how cooperative the seller is going to be. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us, neither of us want to start this whole process over again!

Thanks for reading, here are some pictures!

Earth Day fun!