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October 31, 2008

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Happy Halloween!!

Trick or treat starts early! I am really trying to trick you as I am writing this journal a couple of days ahead of time because I am not going to be home for a few days. So we'll just pretend it's Friday, okay?

It seemed like all I did last week was cook. I made these crab quiches for hors d'oeuvres and some pecan tassies for fancy cookies for the Friday night gala of the opening night for the play that Dave is directing. The gala turned out to be a big success and a lot of people showed up. But for the Saturday and Sunday performances there weren't as many people. Still, they needed more food and I was asked to bake cookies again. They serve these goodies during intermission (it comes with the price of admission). I also had to help serve and set up for the Sunday afternoon performance, something I was drafted to do a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of discouraging that there weren't many people at the last two performances. People enjoyed the play, but it was hard for the cast to do a good job with so few people in the audience. There are three more performances this weekend to wrap it up, and they're expecting bigger crowds. Dave and I will also be hosting a cast party on Sunday night after the final performance, so I am trying to get that all organized too.

The swimming pool finally opened up after being shut down for 2-1/2 months and so I started my water aerobics classes on Monday. I haven't been doing much exercise for that period of time so I am really feeling the pain but it sure feels good to be back in the water. It was like coming back from summer vacation and seeing all your friends again. That first morning session was spent getting caught up on the latest gossip and I am sure it is going to take a few days to get back into the groove.

We are reading one-on-one with the 4th graders on Mondays this year. This last Monday was a little different, as we had to "grade" the students on various reading skills. We only got about 10 minutes with each student and we not only had to listen to them read, but also ask questions about what they were reading - just to get an idea of their reading comprehension. It was kind of hard because we didn't have any guidelines to go by and it's hard to judge when hearing someone read for the first time. I am sure it will get easier as the year goes by.

I also had our garden club meeting on Monday afternoon and we had an interesting speaker telling us how to care for tomatoes. Living on the coast presents a challenge for growing tomatoes because there are so many elements to deal with. Somehow, tomatoes don't like wind and cool weather, which is quite different from what I am used to when I was growing tomatoes in the valley. I've never used a greenhouse before and a lot of growing down here starts in there. I'm still learning when and how to use that!

We had our friend, Stan Boyd spend the night on Tuesday. He is an electrician that Dave used to work with and one of our good friends. He was working on a job in Tillamook and needed a bed for the night. I fixed a nice dinner and then everyone relaxed around the television for a while. I went to bed early because I was pretty tired from my busy day.

I mentioned last week about going to Salem to watch Leslie's girls play soccer. At the time, Ashtin was disappointed because she had an opportunity to score her first goal of the season and missed the chance. Well last weekend, we got the neatest phone call. It was Ashtin - reporting on her game. She not only got her first goal on Saturday, she got two! She was soooooo excited; we could almost see her climbing the walls over the phone! It was a good way to wrap up the season - now it's on to basketball.

As I mentioned at the top, I am writing this journal early because I have to run into town on Thursday for a haircut and dentist appointment. I am finally getting a crown put on a tooth that has been really sensitive for over a year. Since my dental insurance would not pay for any dental work until after a year of me paying premiums, I will finally get it fixed. I will spend the night in town with Lara's family and Dave will drive in Friday morning. He is driving in separately because he has an appointment to get the Suburban worked on and wants to leave it at the garage for a few days. He also has to engineer the Blazer game on Friday night. It is their home opener.

My sister Jeanne is coming up from Phoenix for a week visit and so we will be picking her up at the airport on Friday morning. Jeanne is getting tired of the 90-degree heat in Arizona and wants a little rain in her life. Well, she will get her wish! After a couple of weeks of pretty nice fall weather, it is forecasted to begin raining on Friday and stay that way all week. I told her to pack some warm clothes, as her body will probably go through quite a climate change. After we pick her up at the airport, we will then spend a few hours visiting with my other sister, Judy. We will all be spending Friday night in town before we head back down to the coast on Saturday. She'll be here for a week and we'll see if at the end of that time she's ready to go find the sun again!

We've been collecting pictures of the granddaughters in their Halloween costumes. They all look like they are having fun! Well, some of them anyway. Jordyn gets the old sunflower suit, and doesn't look any too happy about it. Jaysa is torn between being a pink poodle and Tigger. Jadyn is a beautiful witch! Ashtin and Paige had their skeleton suits on a month ago to show us. Sorry it has to rain tonight - hope they have fun anyway.

I got into the spirit a little too - I had fun carving my annual jack-o-lantern!