Its been awhile....

Its summer now though...well, almost.

My last day of work for the summer should really have been Friday...but because we are having an audit/review by the state of our program next week... I have to work one more week. :(

I just CAN'T WAIT to be done!

My plan was to get myself involved right with some painting. I'd really like to sell my house and move, but before I put it on the market, I'd like to paint the garage door, the front door and the shed.

I also need to stain a few spots on the deck that my son rebuilt a few weeks ago.

But, I think I'm crazy---really really crazy.... and I'm beginning to realize it now.

Not so long ago, I read back over my blogs from the beginning.....

Here's what I found out.

Last May, on the day I got out of work for the summer, my hot water heater burst and ran for what may have been days before I found it. I live in a bi-level home and my downstairs is living space. Walls needed to come down, carpeting pulled up, closets replaced. It was a nightmare.

Right in the middle of it all, came the cancer diagnosis.

One week after my breast surgery, I began the academic school year again.

I didn't miss a single day from work .... I did my radiation treatments after work each day.

I finished treatment right around Thanksgiving...I took that day off and had dinner at my sister's.

But, I host Christmas for the extended family each year, and I did it again this year thinking it might be the last Christmas I spent here in the house.

In January, I decided I needed to put in a new kitchen and bath, plus finish all the work downstairs that had been left undone since the flood.

So, in came the contractors... nothing went right and it was a nightmare from beginning to end. And the work was never completely finished...at least not the way I wanted it to be.

But, planning for our local Not-A-Gala took precedence for a while and the work in the house just went undone.

We held a wonderful NAG event. And in the end, we raised over $6000 for the Foundation. That made all of us very happy and we decided to begin planning to do another one for next year.

That required reorganizing as a fundraising group rather than just a fan group...something we are still in the process of doing.

The week after the NAG was over, I began working on favors and centerpieces for my daughter-in-law's baby shower...(MY FIRST GRANDCHILD!!!). We held the shower about two weeks ago and it was wonderful. All my Clay friends came...that made it even more fun.

But my daughter-in-law and son live in Charleston, SC. So they had to travel to get here for the shower. My other son and his girlfriend live in Boston...they also had to travel to get here for the shower.

But instead of just making it about the shower, the boys decided they would come a few days early and spend some time doing some work on my house so it would be ready to be sold. Kind of an early Mother's Day gift.

I LOVE my kids and I LOVE seeing them and having them home....but it does create a lot of chaos....especially when they are sawing and hammering and working all around the house.

They did tons of work...I am so grateful to both of them and to there respective partners for allowing them the time to spend here working for those days. It was wonderful to have them all here, and I missed them when they left...I still miss them...but gosh, they sure can create chaos and even more work!

Mix all of that up with some REAL ticket stress and I am just physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted.

I've been working my tail off at work for the last few weeks preparing students for finals and transitioning graduates to new counselors, getting ready for awards night and graduation, and gathering all the data and information needed for the upcoming review/audit.

Oh, and on top of that, I am still working on curriculum for a new freshman experience course that will begin in the fall.

So....do I want to paint and sell my house? Or do I just want to take some time off, go to some concerts, and visit my new grandson when he is born? And maybe sell the house next summer?

Oh...wait...I forgot to mention that just today I received in the mail the application for the doctoral program I am considering entering in the fall. There is a brand new program, very close to home and its first cohort begins in the fall. I'm seriously considering it.

Okay....so I am crazy, aren't I? Really crazy? Yep, I know it.

I think I need some time off to do nothing. But, why do I feel so guilty when I think about doing just that? Nothing at all.

I can't even imagine doing nothing at all.

Well...maybe not nothing. I have tickets for Philly, Syracuse, Canandagua, Newark and Cary. And I am going to a week-long conference out near Pittsburgh in July. And I have plans to go to Maine and Atlantic City for few days each. AND I am going to SC to meet my new grandson, Richie. And then on to NC to visit my sister and attend the Cary concert.

Then back to work...it'll be the beginning of the new school year. :(

Oh, and next week...I get to do the colonoscopy over again because the results of the last one were inconclusive. :(

Linda