Weekly Wrap-up for February 16, 2014: Valentine's, Reading, and Meeting Mascha.

This was an incredibly long week considering I wasn't at school on Monday (huge flare-had to go to the doctor for shots) and we had a half day/PD gig on Thursday. It seemed like things were never ending and there was just too much going on! First, I was not feeling well to start the week, and didn't really start to feel like myself until Friday. Then, our cat Sparty had a lump under his chin that seemed to appear overnight (it turned out to be an abscess-he's all better now). THEN, my car was hit by a student in the staff parking lot between our half day of testing in the morning and PD meetings on Thursday (the car and student are fine-it was just a big mess).

So I entered this weekend exhausted and ready for a break. And believe it or not, we have a 4-day weekend for President's Day and our "Mid-winter" break. It seems as if we've had more days off than school (6 snow days post-Christmas break), but I'm not going to complain too much. I needed this little break! I have some things to finish planning so I can get to our Spring Break at the end of March without too much stress.

I am shocked it's mid-February though...where is this year going?

Anyway, a highlight of my week came on Thursday. Matt decided he would rather take me out to dinner then instead of Friday. He had to work Friday and didn't want to go out super late (he generally gets home on the weekends at 7:30/8). So, we went out Thursday to "celebrate" Valentine's Day. We've never been super big for celebrating things like that. I mean, we usually go out to a nice dinner, but that's about it. We don't really exchange gifts or partake in any of that....but he really surprised me on Thursday and I rather liked it. ;) He bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers-with lilies! My favorite! Then we went and ate at our favorite restaurant in Downtown Rochester and there he surprised me with a beautiful bracelet. I was a bit shocked, since dinner was definitely enough. It's beautiful and I wore it Friday. :)

The kids were also especially cute on Valentine's Day. Since I work in a high school, you can bet there were a million grand gestures of affection going on. Girls walking around with bears, roses, chocolate....you name it. I also loved that quite a few kids bought Valentine's cards and passed them out. I also had way too many heart-shaped cookies and candies. It was a very warm and loving day for everyone involved and I think the kids needed that bit of fun to break up the stress of school.

Since it was such a long and tiring week, I decided I needed some good reads for the weekend. I headed off to the bookstore to pick up a couple of newer releases to keep me company-Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I read books by both authors this summer that I absolutely loved, so I knew I needed to read these (I read Winger and Eleanor and Park). I plopped down on the couch yesterday to settle into Grasshopper Jungle and read it in one long, luxurious sitting. My thoughts will be posted on Thursday. I barely started Fangirl earlier this morning, so I'm going to settle in for a little bit to read more this morning/early afternoon.

Tonight, we have a family dinner at my mom's to meet my brother's girlfriend, Mascha. She's from the Netherlands and is here for a couple of weeks to meet everyone and spend more time with my brother, so it should be a fun meal. :)

I hope you all have a happy reading week!