Week in Review

Mom tells me I need to update my blog, so I guess I'll do a little week in review.

I've had a busy week, starting last Tuesday with the long election work day. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though (it goes faster when it's busy!).

There have also been an lot of PTA projects going on for me recently. I was on the mini-grant judging committee, so I did that last week, and I also had to make Reflections contest posters (which meant looking everywhere for pictures I could use for the different categories), and certificates for the children who entered the Reflections Theme contest last month. Our Reflections deadline is coming up so that part of my PTA job has been kind of busy lately.

Another thing occupying my time has been my church calling of Primary chorister. First, I was asked to teach the primary presidencies in the stake one of the songs for next year, "My Eternal Family". This was on Saturday at a stake auxialiary meeting in Gulfport. So, the preparation for that took a bit of time (I will post pictures of the visuals in another blog post because my mom wanted to see them). I've also been trying to find music for Thanksgiving and Christmas, because the primary is going to sing in church on the 23rd of November (Thanksgiving music) and the 21st of December (Christmas music). So, I've been looking through music and trying to pick what I think would be pretty but also easy to teach and for the kids to remember. And last but not least, I've been trying to decide on music for next year, because I like to make the kids CD's for Christmas that have all the songs on them for the next year. 2009 is a little unique because there are a couple of months that we have to CHOOSE the songs instead of being told what they are. In a way that is great because you can teach something you really like and think will fit your primary kids well...on the other hand it's hard because there is SO MUCH out there. Finding the right song is tricky! So, I've been doing a lot with that but it's been fun. I'm realizing that I really do like my calling overall. I complain about it because I've been in for a long time - but if I'm going to be in Primary, music leader is definitely "where it's at!".

Friday I went with M's class to Audubon Zoo. One of the best zoos ever. I believe it's ranked in the top 5 zoos in the country, for good reason. The only one I've seen that is better is San Diego. The weather forecast said it was currently 71 degrees, so all of the kids and parents came with no jackets. However, it rained all the way there, and I guess the rain cooled it off enough that it was downright chilly when we arrived! It was still drizzling a little bit, and between the wet and the cold, it was uncomfortable. So our group (which consisted of M, her friends T & C, and T's mom) headed straight for the gift shop and found ponchos and sweatshirts! They had a table of 50% off sweatshirts, so I bought one for me and each of the girls. They were cute, and kept us nice and cozy. By the time we left the zoo, it was beautiful weather again. It was a fun day, but I didn't get any really fabulous pictures. I'll post a couple even though they aren't great.

I guess that about sums it up. Oh, when we went to Gulfport for the meeting on Saturday, we also shopped at the outlets - looking particularly for Christmas dresses. Unfortunately, everything was sleeveless! Either that, or so "Christmas-specific" (reindeer, Santas, snowflakes, etc.) that I didn't like it. The Gap had some darling skirt and sweater sets, but Doug didn't like them because they had fishnet at the bottom. I tried to tell him we could cut that off, but he wasn't going for it. Anyway, I came home without dresses, but with a few toys...and I'll head off to the mall tomorrow morning and see what I can find for dresses.

All in all, it's been a busy week. We are still trying to figure out what to do for Thanksgiving. Right now we are thinking a quiet family dinner on Thursday and a trip to the zoo on Friday sounds fun. Either that or we might eat out. I told myself I'd never do that, because I hate to make people work on Thanksgiving...but now I'm thinking that it sounds fun.

Here are a couple of zoo pics from Friday. Enjoy!