The cicadas are gone, my sisters have visited, and Emily and I are getting ready to travel north-it is hard to believe that June is almost over! Emily and I had a great time with my sisters and niece when they came. the weather was good, but cloudy so we did not make it out to Spindletop, we did a bit of shopping instead. The days before my sisters came I spent moving furniture and rearranging things in the house. I decided to frame and hang a bunch of "artwork" that the girls have done throughout the years, so I took down all of the photos of gymnasts Chris had hung in our study and took down a few of his Delta Chi things. I like looking at the artwork. My friend Nancy K. was a big help in getting all of the pictures hung and the furniture moved. I spent a long time sorting through boxes of papers Chris and I had in our bedroom-he saved everything!!!!! It was fun going through stuff, I got rid of a lot, but it was tiring. So far, I think we took out about 8 bags of "trash" from my cleaning and took about 6 bags of stuff to Goodwill-most of that came from Emily's room. It feels good to get things cleared out. I am not done by any means but have a good start.
I have been enjoying Spindletop this week. The lane pool finally opened so I can continue swimming my laps and sitting in the sun. It looks like the diving pool will open this weekend-I like sitting in that area-it is quieter.
I am having eye surgery on July 9th. The Dr. will be adjusting the muscle to straighten my right eye. It is out patient surgery so I should be up and running after a day or two. The weekend following my surgery I am taking a needlepoint class-a large canvas with a dragonfly and cattail. It is beautiful-I know I will be learning some new stitches. I am excited about that. Hopefully I'll be feeling OK-it will be 2 full days of class-should get a lot of stitching done! Take Care. MJ

Well, I went out to Spindletop for a couple of hours today. The sun was sooo hot I spent a lot of time in the water. Although I thought I slathered on enough sunscreen I still got a bit of sunburn-I am going to try to be better about that. I took my Kindle out with me to see how it would work in the sun-it was great. I did put it in a ziploc bag so I wouldn't have to worry about dripping on it after i got out of the water. That too worked well. Spindletop is about 10 miles from my house-while I was there I enjoyed not hearing the cicadas-I guess they have not come out there yet. I also realized that there was no "cicada roar" in town in Georgetown-just out here in the country. Emily was here at the house when I came in from the pool-she has started on cleaning up her room in preparation of moving back here for the month of July and was doing laundry. Although we each are doing our own thing when she is here, it is nice to have someone else in the house. I am sure by the end of July both of us will be ready to be back on our own! Take Care. Mary Jo

School is out and already I am going nuts! Actually it is the "roar" of the 17 year cicada that is driving me crazy. Just being in the house, with the TV on the noise from the cicadas is extremely loud. I did not notice it when I was at school because we had the sound of construction going on. Thankfully the "roar" ends when the sun goes down, but it is annoying during the day!
As I said, school is out, I actually have two more days of professional development-Monday and Tuesday and then I am done until Opening Day on August 6th. I do know that next school year I will be the School Technology Coordinator in training (STC) Our current STC will retire in February and I will take over for him at that time. The first semester will be learning how to do the jobs the STC does as well as teaching a few technology classes. Bottom line is I'll be back working with technology. The weather is hot-in the 90's-and the pools I use at Spindletop are still under construction. Hopefully they will be done and open by next weekend. I am looking forward to sitting in the sun and reading lots. My sisters, Julie and Jane, and my god daughter Maggie will travel to Kentucky for a long weekend. Emily and I are looking forward to their visit and just hanging out with them. Shortly after their visit, Emily and I will travel north to celebrate July 4th with my family. I will be having eye muscle surgery on July 9th-it will straighten my right eye. I've had five surgeries on my eyes before to correct strabismus (crossed eyes) My last surgery was when I was 13 yrs old. Things have definitely changed since then. Now it is an out patient surgery-then I was in the hospital for 3 days. Now they don't patch the eye-then I had a patch on for a week. There is not much else to tell. I am still plugging away on the sweater I am knitting and have been working on needlepoint. I think I am going to set up a "crafting corner" in my family room and do a few furniture changes in my bedroom this summer but for the most part it will be a quiet relaxing time. Take Care. Mary Jo