7QT: Happy Birthday, Jesus Take the Wheel, and New Phone, Who Dis?

It's Friday!!!  What a long, rainy, windy, chilly week in New England.  We're seriously lacking in Vitamin D around here, but I'm gonna keep it sunny with these quick takes...

1)

It's Phil's Birthday!  Woohoo, he's the third birthday in two weeks, but we can't let the man of the house go unnoticed.  Since his birthday falls on the Friday of a long weekend, we will be celebrating for days!  It's his last year of happiness since he'll turn 40 next year ;)  

2)

His birthday dinner of choice is Maple Chicken, but since that's a bit labor intensive, I'm saving it for Sunday when I'm home.  Tonight we'll have homemade meatballs (I made them last night) with spaghetti and a chocolate sheet cake and ice cream.  Tomorrow night, we are going out to dinner with our good friends, and at some point this weekend we will rent Spiderman Far From Home to watch as a family.  Do we know how to party or what?

3)

JP went for his road test yesterday and PASSED!!!  We have a third driver in the house!  May the good Lord bless him and watch over him as he helps us chauffeur kids everywhere :)  It was an extra big day because he then drove himself to Trivia Night and his team won!  So happy for him.

4)

Our school had our NEASC Visit this past week, which is an accreditation process that happens every ten years.  There's a lot of work leading up to the visit by the faculty and staff here, and then a committee comes, made up from teachers from other schools, to read through our reports and make any judgments.  Every single person in the school gets interviewed by the committee and when they came to talk to me (I'm the Business Manager here), they asked me if money was no object in our budget, where would I like to see the funds spent?  I was caught off guard by the question but then answered SALARIES!  I have been a big proponent of raising hourly wages and salaries for everyone here, just to make it a tiny bit closer to public schools.  These teachers work just as hard, care so much about their students and get paid waaaaaay less.  It's unjust, but understanding the budget here, I know it's very hard to keep tuition affordable and teachers paid well. It's a delicate dance. Without government funding, our only income comes from tuition, donations, and fundraisers. OK, that's enough shop talk, I try not to bore you guys with that stuff :)

5)

Photos of photos, because I'm too cheap to buy them!

Brendan has still been having some struggles about staying dry at preschool, so I bought him this sticker book and hung a page in the bathroom, and every time he pees, he gets to put a sticker on it.  Kind of like a sticker chart, but more fun.  I think it's working!

6)

I'm getting a new phone!  My iPhone SE is so old and isn't holding a charge anymore, so I'm finally going to upgrade to the new iPhone 11.  KIDDING!  I"m not paying $1000 for a phone!  I'm getting the this one, much more my style.  I also found a case with my favorite color combo (well actually I would have to add teal in there too) and it's ridiculous how happy this material thing is making me.  They say money can't buy happiness??

7)

This past week was Spirit Week at our high school, and yesterday was Character Day.  I pulled my old dirndl out of the closet (I bought it in Austria when I studied over there in the year 2000) and went as "Louisa VonTrapp".  

All day, people kept guessing who I was, and here's what they said:

Heidi (ok)

Gretyl (Cool)

Little House on the Prairie (close)

Sleeping Beauty (maybe)

Snow White (huh?)

Swiss Miss from the cocoa package (makes sense)

The Old Woman who Lived in the Shoe (fitting!)

A maid (well, in real life, yes!)

When I was younger, one of my sisters gave me the nickname "Gretchen Noodle Wienerschnitzel", shortened to Gretchen, and when she saw me, she thought I was dressed as her.  Ummm, no, I didn't dress as my weird childhood nickname.  Big siblings are fun ;)

Have a wonderful loooooooong partying kind of weekend everybody!