Week In Review

Reading-

Ha Ha Ha! I've managed bedtime stories for the kids and that's about as good as it gets until I get used to our new schedule. I'm thinking audiobooks are going to play a heavy role in my future. I also read a couple of conference articles on Faith because I'm working alongside the Young Women on my personal progress booklet.

Listening-

Old Testament-Psalms 42-79-It takes about four days to get through each CD. I'm about halfway through Psalms now. I see where a lot of the songs I loved at Wednesday night Vespers came from, but what better place for inspiration? I usually rewind back two or three chapters each day to make sure I wasn't mentally glazing over as I listened on the previous day. Again, I'm not sure this will work with all the books in the Old Testament, but so far, so good.

I just got Orson Scott Card's Leah and Rachel on CD from Deseret Book, maybe I'll start that one next week on the drive from The Agency to the kids' school each afternoon.

Watching-

OU Football! OK, so the game wasn't the blowout we expected. A win is a win and I'd rather root for Thompson than Bomar any day. (That was true last year too.) We had a pretty good turnout for the watch party too. Good times.

When the Levies Broke: Requiem-I'll admit to tuning out much of the 9/11 footage because I knew watching it over and over would do any good. But I felt differently about Hurricane Katrina footage. The OKC Bombing and 9/11 were senseless acts of terrorism and while others may argue, their potential for prevention is debatable at best. But what happened after Katrina was an absolute failure on the part of our government and, to a certain extent, the rest of us as a nation for initially believing the spin coming from the Oval Office, or rather, the Oval Office that stayed on freakin' vacation on the ranch. I was already disillusioned by our current administration before this happened, but this was the nail in the coffin for me. I'll be honest, I try to keep politics off my blog not because I don't have opinions; but because I don't feel I'm intellectual enough to discuss them well and I leave that to the experts. I admit that I don't know the ins and outs of what should have been done differently in the face of what happened in New Orleans, I just know anything would have been better than the way it played out. It made me sick then, it makes me sick a year later. But this was still quite touching and powerful. I just can't watch it with Dave in the room.

In My Netflix Queue-

Brother Bear 2-It was cute and the kids loved it. And that's about all there is to say.

Ella Enchanted-Me and the girls love this one. It's not an award winner, but it sure is good comfort food. We're watching it right now. I really wish I had read the book. I guess I'll put it on the to-do list.

At The Agency-

I'm still priming and painting while we gear up for the start of filed trip season. The biggest highlight of the week was climbing to the top of one of those super tall ladders to prime the very top of a dormered roof-sometimes it's good to do something that scares you to death. But I'm glad to hear that the final coat of paint will be applied with a sprayer and not a brush. I wish there was more excitement to report, but so far it's mostly housekeeping type chores to get ready for the Fall. I did think of a stipulation I would like to put on the wedding brochure: "Just because you rent the barn doesn't mean you can wipe your face on the tablecloth." (Laundering the linens after weddings and other events is just one of my many thrilling jobs. I think I prefer the ladder.)

Other Stuff-

A pathetic letter home doubled our PTA sign-ups from Back-to-School night. We'll probably see the last of our sign-ups at Open House this week even though the membership drive runs through October. If only people signed up for PTA like they buy t-shirts...oh well. The PTA is still our 'Little Engine that Could' though, and I'm proud of what we're accomplishing. I also got to work at the School Store on Friday since we all got the day off at The Agency. All the cute little 3rd graders I first knew when Tristan started Pre-K are now 5th graders. Wah!