This was my first Father's Day without a father, which sucks. I had started to feel kind of human again (Daddy died in August) the last few months, and then Father's Day hit me like a ton of bricks. I cried off and on all day. I just want my daddy back, and it's the one thing I can't have.

My dad was, to quote my husband, a fruitcake. After his heart attack, his personality skewed a little bit, and he could be really difficult in groups. However, every night I stayed at my parents'...

Week one of "camp" was taken over by Vacation Bible School. I was one of the preschool directors, simply because I enjoy the organizing and assisting far more than the teaching. Yes, I'm a teacher, but short term classes (VBS is only a week, for three hours a day) make me wonky. My dear friend B was my co-director, which made it even more awesome, although B is going through a very rough time in her life. The girl got to be in class with her best friend and another girl from her school...

Before my girl was born, I was a junior high and high school English/Spanish teacher. I taught for six years and quit when she was born (I finished the school year on June 1; she was born on June 19). I still have my TN teacher's license. However, it expires in the summer of 2010. In order to keep it current, I need to take some classes, whether they are just a few random classes or classes towards a master's degree.

I've been stressing about whether or not to just take a few...

This is the first summer in quite awhile that I have been completely without outside employment. I also have this soon-to-be eight year old that will be home with me. Last summer I worked at the camp she attended, so she was safe, entertained, and attending at half price. That won't be happening this year!

Probably four weeks of summer will be in Tennessee. I need to work on cleaning out Mom's house, so I'm planning to send Abigail to camp for a few weeks while I'm there so she...

It's Spring Break time, so the girl and I are packing up and heading out to Tennessee tonight. My mom is making her list of errands for me--Mom's in an independent living apartment, but she's pretty much homebound with Parkinson's, a bad back, and knee problems from arthritis, so I don't mind doing her errands since Dad died. The girl is preparing to spend a week being doted on, watching TV (Grandma has cable, and we don't), seeing her best friend from when we lived in TN, being adored by various...