Summer will soon be here. Before that happens baseball will wrap up (one more game this Saturday), I will give finals at LBCC, Joe will pack up and move his classroom to a new school (got his first choice!), and Olivine will start swim lessons while her brothers are still in school. Whew..that is only part of what we are looking forward to this month.Strangely enough these shots of Los Angeles remind me I am a city girl in my heart. Joe and I both. I am practicing every day to be grateful for where I am. This can be hard when I cried with a student last night about the need to step away from community college while her mother is sick and her kids need attention. One week before finals. She has come so far. Yet, I completely understand. This is in stark contrast to the student I saw on Friday. She took my class three years ago and she dropped by to let me know she is graduating from city college next week. Those were different tears.This sprawling set of freeways and constant cement contributes to our need to hike to a waterfall this past Sunday. We are not naive to the toll it takes. I know our family will need to go camping, lay in a hammock, and play with sticks. We also want to spend afternoons at the beach and evenings eating outdoors. Before then, we have a little more work and focus to crank out. Wish us luck, we are almost done with the school year.