The Week from Hell . . . or was it?

By the time you're reading this, I will be in Seattle to celebrate my sister's graduation from nursing school. Yes, she is awesome. It's going to be great fun. All three sisters, some nephews, a niece, an uncle (yes, THAT uncle) and a cousin or two will all be there. There will be too much food, lots of laughs, a few tears and possibly a margarita or ten.

I feel I deserve it because the past week has been so insanely crazy busy that I feel like there hasn't been a minute that I wasn't doing something. First up was my book signing which was great, but stressful. I like to make it more of a party so there's food and booze (thanks for theVampire Wine, Raquel) and music (Sir Finn and the Sharks rock!). But since it's not exactly an RSVP type event, I really don't know how many people are going to be there. There was a bad moment around 7:10 when I thought only about 30 people were going to be there. Then I turned around and the crowd had doubled. Here's what it looked like from my perspective:

Nice, huh? It turned out sweet, but not before I'd sweated a few bullets.

Meanwhile, I was not the only person having issues in my house. Both my kids had huge, major projects ending at school. My oldest (he's the one with the goofy grin in the front row) has been participating in his school's Hail to the Chief project. The kids have to create their own political party, establish a platform, raise money and run a candidate for President. My son is the Press Secretary for The Donner Party. They're "Hungry for the Presidency." They've had a lot of fun, but the project is a huge amount of work and it all came to a head this week with the elections. Last I heard, The Donner Party was one of the top three.

My other son (the blonde one on the end in the front row) had the World War I Museum project that was all due on Thursday. He and his group built half an airplane out of plywood and cardboard to house their exhibit about technological advances that helped Great Britain in the war. He's been working late and, as group leader, had some epiphanies about how much fun it is not to be in charge. (Ha! Someone rolled his eyes at HIM! Not so funny now!) It came out great and he did a fabulous job. While we at the school, several teachers and a few other parents came up to tell us how terrific both our kids are.

Meanwhile, my long-suffering boyfriend managed to double-book himself for both a music gig and a photography gig and was having a rough time, but you know, at least everybody wants him.

So everyone here was stressed out all week and everyone had everything turn out fine so it felt like the week from Hell while we were living it, but now it feels like a damn fine week where we all accomplished a lot and got pats on the back for it!