it's the little things (it always is!)

We've had a long, rough week here in Cowtown.
Darren's had a hellacious week at work.
Dani was scheduled every night at Panera, and had homework and a UIL competition on top of that (Paschal's Acappella and Select Women's Choirs each earned a "1" in competition!), and I gave up Diet Coke with Vanilla.

Yep, you read that right. I stopped cold. I haven't had one in 7 days now. I bet the carhops at Sonic are wondering if I fell off the face of the earth by now. Wednesday and Thursday were pretty difficult, as I fought a headache that would.not.quit.

But the week ended on a really good note. Darren was able to unwind a little last night and put work out of his mind. We had dinner at Daddy Jacks (seafood) with Marjorie and Tom, and then went to our monthly concert with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Last night featured Natalie Mac Master, a Celtic fiddler who danced and stepped the entire time she played. AMAZING. She was so much fun, and put on a fantastic show. We fell in love with Irish music on our vacation there a few years back, so we really enjoyed the tunes last night. It was a wonderfully relaxing evening.

Dani gave her two weeks' notice at work almost two weeks ago. Monday was to be her last day, and after her schedule this week, it couldn't come fast enough. Her main reason for quitting was the scheduling. Consistently, she's been scheduled to work on days she had asked off for (always school-related stuff), and she'd been working 4 school nights per week, when the agreement at the beginning was only 2. When she arrived at work last night, her boss gave her a $1/hour raise, and agreed to be more accommodating with the schedule. They sat down and went over the calendar through May. Dani blacked out all the dates she must have off; she has a choir trip to NYC this month, then her SAT, then 5 AP tests, and the choir banquet, for which she has to prepare a video and a scrapbook as part of her Historian duties. There needs to be a lot of study time in there. Her manager agreed to only schedule her for one day per week until she's finished with all of those school obligations. Wow! It's unheard of to get a $1 raise in the food service industry, and then to be given all the time off you need immediately. They really wanted to keep her, which leads me to believe that she's a really good employee. That makes me proud!

As for me, already my body is craving water instead of Diet Coke. Mmmmm. That's a good thing! Better yet, I weighed in this morning - my first of The Saturday Weigh-Ins, and just by dropping Diet Coke and fast food, and adding walking and exercise (Nia - more on that in another post), I've lost 5 pounds!! Only 145 to go! lol

The boys spend the night with Grammy and PapPap last night (always a treat for them!), and Darren's spending the day working in the yard. It's a gorgeous 72 degrees today. I'm working on my '07 business taxes, and doing laundry. Do I know how to have fun, or what?

Anyway. It's the little things that make life beautiful. We're celebrating a lot of little things today. :)