Back Again!

I just returned from the Texas State PTA Summer Seminar in Austin. It was a great weekend but a very tiring weekend. I was privileged to go to five outstanding classes. Three on parenting, one on dyslexia/ADD, and one on appreciation. I also got to spend a few hours in the Exhibits hall talking to all sorts of vendors, promoters, child advocacy groups, educational product salesmen and fundraiser. Our group collected quite a stash of samples and brochures...much to weed through. We were also given all sorts of free stuff! I have an entire bag of cool stuff!

Conventions like that are fun to me. It's a bit of a high. I love to watch all the people and get into the speaker sessions. It's a little like camp was for me when I was younger. I drove back today with my head spinning with new ideas for our PTA and for Rob and I to try with the kids.

The parenting classes were so good. My favorite was led by a man named Dennis Mitchell. He was funny and straight forward. None of that pie in the sky parent theory junk. Just practical, logical, easy to implement parenting patterns. He was an excellent presenter. He had everyone in the room (about 300) in stitches! I'll talk more about this later.

Besides the conference being so good, it was just fun to get away and get to know some of my fellow PTA buddies better. Last night five of us ate at PF Changs. YUM!!! It was so fun because we all ordered something different and shared. It was so good. So many laughs! Good, food, good friends, good times. Our PTA pays for the board ( or whoever wants to go from the board) seminar fee, and gives us enough for lunch. I think that is generous! I almost feel guilty because most of my sessions were about parenting issues...but really that is part of what PTA is for, to provide parents with resources to be better parents.

I learned that the state of Texas estimates the value of an hour of volunteer work to be $18. Based on that figure it is estimated that volunteers donate 20 million dollars worth of volunteer time to Texas schools every year. That number is thought to only be half of its' real value since only 46 present of all Texas school districts track their volunteer hours. This also does not include volunteer hours from private schools. I makes me feel better about the world to know so many parents and community members volunteer in our schools.

Back on the home front... Rob held down the fort with the kids. They had a great weekend that included buying a clearanced Star Wars Slip-n-Slide from Target, renting movies and dinner at the ever popular Chuck E Cheese! WHAT A DAD! It is so nice to be able to go away for the weekend and not worry for a minute about my kids. Rob has never once acted as if keeping the kids was a burden. I don't have to leave written instructions, ask my Mom to help him, lay out clothes, or leave pre-cooked meals in the frig. I just get myself ready, leave, and call at bedtime. Rob can handle it! Sadly I have friends whose husbands can't. I think that is just sad. LOVE YA' HONEY!!!

Must unpack and do laundry. This week we are going to start trying to do all those things we want to get done before school starts. (Only three more weeks! YIKES!!!...deep breathes....) Tomorrow we are off to the Children's Museum after Kolby's camp. Then we have a birthday/swim party tomorrow night. The rest of the week is pretty busy with activities every day and night... but for the first time in 6 weeks none of us plan to leave town... Of course the week is young! Have a great week blog world!

P.S. I have a friend in Plano who delivered a little girl two weeks early last night. From what I understand, the baby has had lots of breathing problems and as of late this afternoon was put on a breathing machine (a vent I think)to help slow her respirations per minute and let her lungs rest and finish developing. No one has said the baby won't be ok, but it is so hard to watch a tiny baby have to go through all this when you just want them to be ok and go home! PLEASE pray for them. I am not comfortable posting their names as I know they have not yet been able to reach all their family. (My friends parents are on an Alaskan cruise!) So just pray for K, C and baby L. I think God will know who you are talking about! Thank you!!!