I didn’t make it onto Xanga yesterday…by the time I had a spare minute, I figured it was so late I might as well wait until today.  So here I am! And here is a run-down of the important stuff from the last few days.

• Friday night was our tech rehearsal.  It started at 6:30.  I got home at 12:15 (am)!
• Saturday morning rehearsal…didn’t go that well.  It went okay…but not great. Not a good thing for a dress rehearsal! 
• Saturday afternoon: shopping with my Dad for my mom.  Karen & Mom were elsewhere in the mall. Then we met the Eric/k’s for supper at Red Robin.  I was home by 6:30 (very tired), but made sugar cookies before bed. 
• Best Surprise of the weekend: Eric cleaned the house for me on Saturday.  Cleaned the kitchen, washed the floor, vacuumed, did all the laundry, and generally tidied the place up.  What a great husband!
• Sunday morning was church.  The children sang in the service.  One little boy ran offstage, during their songs, because he had to go to the bathroom.  As Eric said, “He was holding his winky for a while before he left.”
• Back at the church about 3:00 for the performances.  Got all the last details finished.  Got the tech stuff in place.  Got an audience. Ran it at 5:00: it went almost perfectly!   Ran it again at 7:00: not so close to perfectly, but still better than I’d expected!
• Monday was the last day of classes.  So I reviewed for the final exam in Basic English and collected papers in Composition.  Exams on Wednesday and Friday (and finishing the grading, of course ) and we are done until January!  YEAHHHH!
• When I got home, I decided to give Eric some quality time (since I’d been “distracted” all weekend).  So he picked the evening’s agenda.  We watched Firewall (with Harrison Ford) and then watched a Christmas Lights show (overly abundant light displays…no the guy who lives across from my parents didn’t make it!), before heading to bed for some quality time.  Then sleep…such a nice evening!

Wow, I’m late today…it’s been a busy morning!

Eric got up late today (about the time he’s usually finishing getting dressed!), so my morning was also running late!  But I did get my counters clean before 7:00 am, so that should count for something!  I got to work and chatted with a colleague for a bit, so that used up all my time before the department meeting.  Now I’m in my first class, but they are doing a practice run for the writing part of the final (which is next week…praise Jesus!), so I finally have time to update!

Yesterday was mostly taken up with conferences.  I had 3 people not show up…grrrr!  But I got all my grading done while I waited.  I got home late (about 6:00) and Eric was already there.  He’d left work early because he wasn’t feeling well, so we just goofed off all night.  We watched some taped Mythbusters from earlier in the week, and then I worked on Christmas cards and he worked on sorting our digital photos some more.  Then we went to bed. Such fun, huh?

Anyway, the weekend is already booked.  Tonight I have a tech rehearsal for the Christmas program, tomorrow morning is dress rehearsal.  Then shopping with the family in the afternoon.  Sunday morning church and then Sunday evening are the performances (5 & 7 if anyone wants to drop in…no tickets required).  And other than those things, I need to do laundry, bake some Christmas cookies and grade.  Well…I’m tired already!

EDIT: So
traffic…let me just tell you about traffic!  Eastbound I70
(thankfully, I was heading west) was shut down just a mile past Rt.42
because a semi jack-knifed (it was BAD!).  There was standstill
traffic for MILES.  Then at Rt. 40, there was another 2 mile
slowdown because they were forcing everyone onto 40 because of the semi
thing at 42.  Again…thankfully, I was going WEST!

On the westbound side, I saw numerous cars in the ditch, in various
stages of uprightness, and reminded myself to drive slowly, and safely,
which I did.  Unfortunately, I then got to 72 and headed south,
for about 2 minutes, when I ended up stopped for the clean-up of an
accident involving two vans (still don’t know how the front passenger
side corner of one van his the driver’s door of the other), so we were
there for a few minutes (not long, thankfully!).  END EDIT

Random thoughts to start the day:

• It snowed here.  Not
  lots, but enough to make people drive like idiots (more so than
  usual).  There were LOTS of accidents reported on the news this
  morning.
• As a result of the previous thought, I am waiting for
  a while before driving to CU today.  I don’t have to be there
  until 11:00, so I’ll let most of those afore-mentioned “idiots” get to
  work before this “idiot” goes out!
• I tried a version of
  jennikim’s crockpot potato soup for dinner last night.  It worked
  really well.  I put a can of cream of onion soup in (because
  that’s what I had).  YUMMY!
• Yesterday was a long, tiring day. 
• Classes
  at 11 & noon.  I had to talk about spelling.  We got out
  early.  I refuse to lecture for 45 minutes on spelling rules.
• Conferences
  from 2-4:30. (I was supposed to be done at 4:00, but I was running late
  and didn’t start my last student until 4:00…and he took a LONG time!)
• Stopped
  for gas on my way home (in S. Charleston).  Stopped for groceries
  on my way home (in London). Got home about 5:50.  Then supper,
  cleaned up, headed to the chuch just after 6:30.
• Rehearsal from
  7:00-9:00 (it went a little long).  It did not go very well. 
  The choir doesn’t know their music/words.  The drama doesn’t know
  their lines.  The extras don’t know their blocking (because last
  night was our first night on stage).  The tech stuff is
  overwhelmed.  We still need people to help with the tech stuff
  (anyone want to come run a spotlight for me?)   Then on top
  of it all, Pastor changed the schedule for Sunday morning…causing all
  sorts of consternation and frustration. We didn’t leave until 10:30 and
  we left others sitting there still.
• Thankfully, we still
  have a tech rehearsal on Friday night and dress rehearsal on Saturday
  to work on things.  I’m sure it will all get done…but I’ll be
  very glad when Monday comes.
• Today I have 10 conferences spread between 11:00-4:00 (most of them between 2-4).  I’m sure I’ll run late…I always do.
• And
  a happy note to end on:  Last night during rehearsal, I very much
  enjoyed watching my very sexy husband play the trombone.  He very
  patiently waited while we hashed through the rehearsal and helped me
  put things away.  He takes very good care of me.

SO…yesterday I sat in my office most of the day.  I had 4 students signed up for conferences.  The first came at 11:00.  We chatted, then I worked at my desk until lunch.  After lunch, I had 2 conferences (at 1:20 and 1:40).  Then the next one wasn’t until 3:20.  So I ran some errands.  I went to the Student Center to get a piece of mail and stopped into my mom’s office to see the flowers my dad had sent her on Monday (the card says “Surprise! Jack”  How fun is that!).  We wandered in the bookstore for a couple of minutes before I headed back to my office to meet my student…only to find a note on my door saying he had moved his meeting to Thursday because he couldn’t be there at the time for which he originally signed up.  For about 30 seconds, I was annoyed…that piece of information would’ve been useful over an hour before…when I could’ve gone home at 2:00!  But at least I got to hang out with Mom for a few minutes…which is always fun!

I think I’m developing a cold…it’s coming on very slowly…but I think it’s a cold.  So by the time I got home yesterday, I was tired and fuzzy (ie, my brain wasn’t really sharp).  So we went to Appleby’s for dinner.  Then Eric wanted to go to a camera store to show me the two cameras he’s comparing.  I only understood about half of what the guy was saying…but Eric got some good information!  Then we went home and watched a bit of tv.  I decided not to do anything I “should’ve” done, so I took a bubble bath and was in bed by 9:15.  That’s a good night, right there!

Of course, since I still live in central Ohio, there aren’t a lot of hills to look “unto” so a picture will have to do.  The shot was from our honeymoon in Colorado…Eric has been playing with all our digital pictures for the last few days, sorting them and organizing, so I was reminded of these pictures and thought I’d share one.

Of course, this morning, particularly, I needed the reminder that the verse in the title provides.  My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.  I’m feeling a lot overwhelmed this week with conferences (I’m on my way back to CU for the day…I’ll be there every day this week) and the upcoming Christmas program.  I spent last night at the church finishing the filming for our videos and trying to feel less disorganized.  But this morning, I was pretty overwhelmed by what feels like the immensity of this week, its activities and the importance of those activities. 

Then again…the picture above is the reminder I most need.  We’re pretty small compared with the hills…and my God made those hills.  He’s infinitely bigger than they.  So this week, the Christmas program, the conferences and final weeks of school…I am growing my faith this week, working to remember and really believe that “The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need” (NLT).

(And I’d appreciate your prayers if you think of it…)

That’s what it felt like, anyway!  Friday night we stayed in and watched a movie (King Kong…again, Eric’s choice, not mine!) and got to bed pretty late because of it (it’s WAY too long…could’ve been at least 30 minutes shorter).

Anyway, Saturday, we had to be at the chuch at 9:00 for a 3-hour rehearsal for Christmas.  Unfortunately, I don’t think my stuff was as productive as I needed it to be.  I was sort of discouraged when I left.  We got home and had lunch, then I did the puzzles in the newspaper.  I spent most of the afternoon writing.  Then we’d been invited to an Open House that started at 7:00 on Saturday night, so we went to that, chatted with some people, and got home about 9:30.

Sunday, we had to be at the church at 8:00 and got home about 11:30.  I made lunch (ham, mashed potatoes & gravy), then spent some time cleaning my kitchen which was horribly messy after I made the food!  I did the puzzles in the paper and then read some paragraphs for Basic English.  Then a light supper and off to small group which started at 7:00.  We were home a little after 9:30 (we stayed to chat…and we ran long because we interrupted ourselves to see who OSU would play in January…NOT Michigan!).  Then to bed.

And if you’ll notice, the schedule for the last two days was almost identical.  Thus…it seemed to me like I had two Sundays in one weekend.  Boy is my week going to be messed up!

Yesterday, I revised an article I wrote and emailed it off to the editor.  And I cleaned the kitchen up.  Other than that, I ran around.  I went to WalMart in the morning (mostly for groceries and some other small things), then home for lunch.  In the afternoon, I ran to Target and Kohl’s, stopped at Kroger to buy the one thing WalMart was out of that I really needed (cranberry-grape juice…yummy!), then headed home.  Karen stopped by to drop off something for me to take to Cedarville today, then I made dinner, and Eric & I did some running around, too.  We went back to Target to return a couple of things (see below) and then to the LaZBoy store to see if we could find a new recliner for Eric.  We did, but we probably won’t buy it until closer to Christmas.  Then home, got online (again, see below) and bed!

And now…the receipt game!  From Target yesterday:

• Denim pants, size 18 months:  $6.99 (these are for Holly’s Christmas present)
• MM Mint candy: $2.00  (I just  these, and they only come out at Christmas)
• Trouble, the board game: $9.74 (this was going to be for Erik’s present, but he no longer needs games for his classroom, so I took this back last night)
• Brad Paisley’s Christmas album: $11.98 (I’ve wanted this for a while, but I’ve only seen it at Sam’s…and it was cheaper at Target, so I broke down and bought it!)
• Chutes and Ladders: $4.94 (Kelly loves this game, and it was cheaper than at WalMart, so it will be part of her Christmas present)
• Tall black boots, size 5: $24.99 (I bought them for comparison with the other pair I bought earlier this week.  With Karen’s opinion (she’s my style guru), I decided to keep the Target pair and return the Penney’s pair.  Unfortunately they didn’t fit exactly right, so I returned them last night, hoping to find another pair at the other Target (I bought the only pair at the first Target), but no such luck.  Therefore I ordered them off the Target website when we got home.)

And thus was my day, yesterday!

GREAT NEWS!!  The construction on I70 West is now finished (after a year or more of slowed traffic), so my drive to CU went SOO fast yesterday.  And the truckers now have an extra lane to run in, so they weren’t hounding me at all (they’ve been really bad on 70 recently).  So even though it was raining, I had a marvelous drive to work yesterday!

Of course, from then on…I was just crazy busy really.  I had classes, and thankfully, my students were all pretty upbeat and talkative.  They seem to have recovered a bit over Thanksgiving, and since we have just about 2 weeks left (including finals), everyone can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Amen!

Other than classes, I ran some errands, went home for lunch (Mom forgot to tell me she wouldn’t be there!), but it was okay because Deb came over during lunch with the girls to give me Eric’s birthday present (I told them the wrong DVD, so she needed to exchange it).  Kelly has a lovely cough now, so of course, I was covered in germs before going back, but I doubt I’ll catch it. *fingers crossed* I usually don’t get too sick, so we’ll hope the pattern holds!

Last night was Christmas rehearsal.  I’ve been trying not to think about it too much, but last night I did come fact to face with exactly how much there is to do before the 10th.  I was getting a bit tense by the end.  And it didn’t help that almost every one of my people has to miss at least one of our few remaining rehearsals, which they all informed me about last night.  YIKES!   So I spent most of the rest of the evening praying about it, reminding myself that it will all get done, and asking God to keep me focused on the reason we’re doing this (which is NOT about me!).  Still…should be interesting to see how it all comes down…

Yesterday wasn’t terribly exciting, really.  I didn’t leave the house once!  I did get my grading finished, cleaned up my house (including the bathrooms!), and worked on a writing assignment.  A couple of friends came over about 1:00 and we chatted and worked until about 3:45.  Then I chatted with Karen while I made dinner.  Eric got home and we spent our evening just hanging out really.  So I don’t really have much to say…maybe I’ll think of more later!

Yesterday wasn’t terribly
exciting.  I graded some (not much, but I’m ready for tomorrow’s
classes!).  I did a little work around the house (again…not much!). 
And I spent the entire afternoon shopping at the mall!  I found some
great bargains for Christmas gifts (mostly for the nieces), but (DUM
DUM DUM DAHHHHH) I finally found some knee-high boots that fit my
scrawny little legs!  That’s right…J.C. Penney’s shoe department had
a pair of children’s boots that I can wear.  I’m very excited about it,
though I do hope they look okay.  I’ll have to have Karen check them
out for me later!

And finally, in honor of the holiday weekend, here are some pictures for all to enjoy!