First car ride, School Luncheon, Landscaping

Denise got a pass to leave for a few hours today. So I drove her to my school for the Christmas luncheon. It was her first ride in a car in five months (I don't count the ambulance rides). When we got to the school, she got a standing ovation from the people I work with. The superintendent said that every year has a best and worst day. For him, the worst was a day on which we thought we'd lose Denise. The best was today, seeing her roll into the auditorium. Yup.

A bunch of my students are in a Brownie troop. They, along with some of their family members and one of my friends, were doing a service project at my house when I got home today. They pulled weeds, dug out unwanted plants, installed landscape lights, planted flowers, and even cleaned up! They wanted to plant flowers so that they spelled out "Welcome Home" but we didn't have enough flowers or time. So they wrote it in the soil instead (you can see "Home" in the picture). Unfortunately, most of the people that helped had to leave before I thought to take this picture. Thank you to everyone that helped give curb appeal to our house. Denise is going to love it when she comes home for a few hours tomorrow! The neighbors that live on the other side of the street probably are just as happy... they don't have to look at all the overgrown grass & weeds in the flowerbed anymore.