Happenings 3/24/08 - 3/30/08

We had another busy week, with something going on every evening it seemed. JJ had two book club meetings for the Murray State Women’s Association, one on Tuesday evening and the other on Thursday afternoon. (Because I somehow ended up a group leader and this was our first meeting(s), I went to both. We have an evening one and a day one that is kid friendly. They both were really enjoyable for different reasons. We were discussing "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" It was about two boys who were sent to reeducation camps in China during the cultural revolution. It is semi autobiographical. I really enjoyed reading the book.) I played a little tennis on Tuesday evening with my league team members for about 45 minutes before taking the kids so JJ could go to the book club. That was the first time I played since playing with Gordon when he was here for Thanksgiving.

Wednesday evening we went to a little informal dinner at a colleagues home for a new hire in our department for next Fall. They were here looking for a house, and since they have a couple of young children, all of us with kids went to this dinner to enjoy the evening. (It was a perfect evening outside. The weather was warm, and it was just very pleasant.) It was nice. Afterward, JJ took Rachel home and Claire and I went on a date to the movie, Horton Hears a Who, and we both enjoyed it. Claire thought it was funny, and she loves to tell people about the movie, except that if one hasn’t seen it, like her mom, her recollections are kind of hard to follow. (I didn't remember the book right away and so even though Claire's explanation was pretty detailed, I didn't quite get it until Paul reminded me of the plot of the story.)

I spent the week at work doing the final edits on my conference presentation that will take place next week, as well as the finishing touches on a book proposal that I will try to sell to some of the publishers who will be at the conference. The success of the proposal is much more important to my career than the presentation, so that has taken up its share of time.

Thursday JJ went visiting teaching in the evening, and Friday she worked so that she could make up for missing the next Wednesday when we go to New Orleans. So I stayed home with the girls all Friday, taking them to Messy Art class and hanging out at home while it rained. Our friends from church, the Eubanks, came over for pizza that night, and while their three boys and Claire played upstairs, we played Rook and enjoyed it. I almost forgot how to play, and kept making mistakes, but because JJ had hardly ever played before, she and Erin didn’t take advantage of my errors. (Paul enjoyed playing with them because they had made up some rules too - Paul always makes up his own, or changes rules to "improve" the game. They also won because the women always get distracted talking, etc.)

Saturday morning began with a pancake breakfast at the church for a Boy Scout fundraiser, and then we went from there to Paducah where JJ had a Relief Society training meeting. After she had planned this, I had found out about a tennis match that my team had on Saturday, but I thought I couldn’t go until they said it was in Paducah, near the church. So JJ went to the meeting, taking Claire with her because they had babysitting, and I took Rachel around to a couple of stores that I wanted to check out, and then picked up Claire and JJ after the meeting and went to my match. But it started to rain as we started, so we moved it to an indoor facility across town. We had to pay a little fee to use the courts, but at least we were able to play. They were really nice courts, and my partner and I won our match after losing the first set. JJ and the girls were able to watch from a viewing area, and I had fun. We drove home after the match and mostly hung out at home the rest of the evening.