I heart May

As long as I remain a loyal SUU Thunderbird, our Aprils will remain a gaggle of chaos and stress and run-around, thanks to that pesky line in my job description that dumps the University's annual graduation festivities in my lap.

April also brings Easter (and the obligatory travels to be with family); spring planting and cleaning (or at least the at least half-unfulfilled back-of-your-mind nagging to do so); Porter's birthday (complete with Ace of Cakes amateur hour); and Coach Andy's soccer season (and the resulting single momming).

And this year, as an added bonus, it brought a half-marathon, family stuff that was important but inopportune, a graduation celebration for two of the Burts (Andy's brother and his wife), a new church calling, a smoking-but-paid-off car (that needed a new radiator), non-stop teething for both Nora (I-teeth) and I (wisdom teeth), and a visit from the Atlanta/New York contingent of the Burt clan.

Yes, our April was full. And though there was probably more fun in all of that than actual work, in the end, it comes as no surprise to me that I have now resurfaced to find a much-neglected blog among the aftermath of the Burt family's April.

And though you will be getting the nitty gritty on all of the above, for now, I'm still on reconnaissance to find just how many to-dos have been back-burnered. I have to make the new to-do list before I can start checking things off.

And so I leave you all with promises to get caught up (even though I am certain burtastic.com isn't a page-turner for any of our six faithful readers -- our kids are cute, but I'm sure you all had your own Aprils to get through).

And as an added bonus, a fairly telling image of my April:
squatting in heels while duct taping. Multi-tasking at its best. Imagine a whole month of similar mismatchery, and you've got a pretty good sense of the chapter we are now closing.

Hooray for May!!!

I once had a writing professor who said, "You only get three exclamation points to use throughout your life. Use them wisely."

I will gladly squander all three of mine on May if it conveys the relief/excitement/anticipation that comes with the fifth month of the year.