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I'm currently sitting in the Phoenix airport, waiting for my flight back home.

This has been a mostly good week--but busy. Andrew missed his primary program last week because of pink-eye. Finally, on Tuesday, we cleared him to go back to school.

I also forgot to record that last week, Dan and I had our first real date in some time (I mean, where I scheduled a babysitter and everything). We went bowling, which took all of 45 minutes. We'd told the babysitter two hours, so we still had an hour plus to kill. So, what did we do with our time alone? We went to a local drugstore. And to Walmart. I know, we live exciting lives.

Anyway, back to this week. Monday and Tuesday Dan and I had off school. Dan went in for a little on Monday, until he realized he couldn't get into the computer network and came home.

This--and Andrew's quarantine--turned out to be a good catalyst. While Evelyn napped, Dan took Andrew to a parking lot behind our house and Andrew learned to ride his bike!

Tuesday, flush with his new skills, Andrew wanted to ride again. So we went to a local park with a trail up the canyon, and Andrew rode his bike, I jogged (it was much easier to keep up with him on the uphill stretches, oddly enough), Evelyn rode her trike, and Andrew walked with Evelyn. It was a beautiful, crisp morning and we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Afterward, because we could, we had lunch at the Ninja.

I went to my second Young Women activity that evening--and we went door to door canvasing for money for Primary Children's hospital. It was just about as exciting as it sounds. Luckily, we had treats and games afterward.

Thursday, after class, I packed up and Dan and the kids dropped me off at the airport. A generous friend of mine, Catherine, picked me up on this end and I was able to spend the weekend with her and her lovely family. We went to the Western States Rhetoric and Literacy conference together--I presented on rhetorics of space and Catherine presented on online literacy practices. The conference was decent--some good speakers and ideas, and some mediocre speakers and ideas. Pretty typical. I enjoyed spending time with Catherine and her family much more. Catherine and I met through a mutual friend (thanks, Cristie!) several years ago at an academic conference and have managed to keep touch by meeting up at various conferences and reading each other's academic papers. But I particularly enjoy talking with Catherine because she understands my position so well: we're in the same field, trying to figure out the best way to live our shared faith, put family first, and still keep a toe in the field. Sometimes, it's really nice to have smart friends.

Sometime on Friday I realized that an old roommate from graduate school (Carey, for any PA people reading this) lived in the greater Phoenix area. After a strange conversation with her mother-in-law--"who is this?" "how do you know Carey?" "how did you get this number?"--I finally got Carey's number and was lucky enough to meet up with her yesterday and see her beautiful new baby boy. In the four + years since I've seen her, Carey has had three boys. I gather they keep her pretty busy. It's funny, sometimes, to see how much can change with people and yet they are still pretty recognizable as the same person you once knew.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm home now, glad to be with my husband and kids (although the kids are--I hope--asleep now).