Climb every mountain!

This was our view this weekend on our way through Steven's Pass! I must have taken at least 20 pictures just of this group of peaks while Sam was driving. So beautiful, and I wish I could stand on the very top. Climbing of course would be the hard part.

And that is exactly what we feel like we are doing having to go back to school after such an awesome break for the holidays. Climbing that mountain! The reward will be great - student successes, concerts, programs, and of course summer - but man - climbing is such a challenge!

My break was actually over on Wednesday, and Sam had two more days. I remembered that I have Thursdays off, so we decided I should take a vacation day on Friday and we head out of town for a couple days (and for the last time for fun for awhile). We had a gorgeous drive to Seattle on Thursday (4 degrees when we left, 45 when we got there!) and were able to stop and catch up with some friends before continuing on to Riss and Danny's for a couple nights (thanks guys!). One of our friends is a band director and his wife told us about his very rough fall while he went to pick up their daughter. He had some stupid issues as well as a crazy schedule and ended up have a complete mental break down and had to spend some time in the hospital, as well as two weeks out of work. This made me think a bit since I wanted to be a high school director originally and Sam still does. Crazy what stress does to people. Since our first year of teaching we have made a very deliberate effort to not stress out as much about work at home and it has worked wonders. Let's just hope this trend can continue and that once Sam does get to teach high school we can keep things under control!

While in Seattle we made the obligatory trip to Ikea, mostly with Mom in mind as she had wanted a few things she picked out in the catelogue. But, alas, they didn't have those things and we bought more than our share instead! I am really excited, though, because while most things we bought were "little," I think they will make a big difference in our home. For example, we eliminated the giant trash can and got two small ones for under the kitchen sink. Looks cleaner, and Dawg can't demolish them! We also got some decorating shelves for the bedroom. All of this home decor stuff prompted us to buy paint for the office this weekend. Yay! Now we just have about 15 different projects going all at once - and we are headed back to school! We'll see what actually gets done before summer, but for now, I think it is safe to say that I am motivated!

Wish us luck tomorrow as we journey back to school. The mountain awaits!

~Heather