Weekend Top Five 10/11/10

It was indeed a beautiful weekend. Way higher temps for mid-October and sunny as well. With all of our current financial struggles, we are instituting a MAJOR change in our household budgeting and were determined to have a wonderful weekend without spending a dime. With the beautiful weather, it turned out to go quite well.

5. Friday WalkaThon
The boys' school has always done their walk-a-thon in the spring but decided to change it this year to fall. They had such a beautiful day for it that I think they were glad for the change. So after lunch, I helped shuttle the entire K-12 student body (really only about 250 kids) from school to a nearby park for the event. The kids walked a loop for an hour, followed by snacks. There were a lot pf parents who stayed and walked with their kids, which I did as well. The one thing I really enjoyed about it was seeing how within the first ten minutes, kids of all different ages were walking with each other. It wasn't each grade staying with their own. You saw 11th graders walking hand in hand with 2nd graders and that sort of thing. Like it's own community. And my boys even walked a couple of laps TOGETHER surprisingly enough.

One thing that came up though was while I was walking, Aaron's teacher came up to me and told me that Aaron announced to his entire class last week that he wasn't going to have a house anymore and was going to have to live in his car. It is VERY clear that the boys are feeling too much of the anxiety around here and we need to be a lot more careful about when we ware talking about our problems. I felt bad for his teacher who was put in an uncomfortable spot, but I was also glad that she was comfortable enough to tell me and it opened up a discussion between me and the boys this weekend about how no matter where we live, we will always e there to protect them and keep them safe. I think they believed me. At least, I hope.

4. Homecoming Parade
Friday night was the local school's Homecoming parade and game. Because Noah goes to scouts at one if its feeder schools, his scout pack marched in the parade. Unfortunately, only five scout s were available that nigh, but Aaron was so excited to march along with the scouts and even Lily had a great time coming along. It was very clear though that these scouts need to learn how to march before they are in the BIG parade downtown for Christmas. I guess we have a few months.





3. Beautiful Weather
As I mentioned, it was amazingly beautiful all weekend and we spent most of the weekend outside. On Saturday afternoon, I grabbed a book I had found for Aaron at a garage sale, a blanket and called Aaron to come outside and read with me. I was very surprised when Noah joined us too. The boys also found the geo trax that I had put in the garage to sell and spent the weekend off and on creating amazing tracks in the driveway. There was much more space out there than in the house to build and they loved it. We also taught Lily how to fetch a frisbee and many hours were spent throwing it over and over again. She looked so cute since the frisbee was bigger than she is.

2. Pumpkin Path
Every year, our community hosts a pumpkin path in a local park. 100 or so business host a spot and kids dress up in costumes and trick or treat along the path. The kids love it because they candy. I love it because each stop usually gives us coupons to their business as well. Usually, we are bundling up for the event and our fingers are numb from cold when we are done. This year was so different though and we left much more pleasant than we ever had before. Even better, I still didn't spend any money since I convinced the kids that they could wear the same costumes this year as last since they still fit. The only concession was that Aaron had to have red hair dye for his clown, rather than the wig he'd previously worn. Of course, Steve decided to wear the wig and got MANY comments from passersby.

1. Art Prize Final Day
After three weekends pf going to ArtPrize, it is finally over. We went downtown for the final day so Steve could see a couple of the other top ten finalists that he hadn't seen yet. It was pretty clear that we are all ArtPrized out. Even though we still saw a few more neat pieces that I had missed in my previous four visits. We are definitely looking forward to it again next year. This was some of the only money spent this weekend though. Noah had fallen in love with a mood ring at the museum gift shop and I had told him that if he had a perfect week at school behaviorally I would get it for him. Actually, he knew that at some point he had three dollars in his piggy back and I knew that I had raided it for gas money a few weeks back so it seemed only fair that he got the ring. He spent the rest of the weekend testing out his mood and I spent him off to school today with him so excited to see what colors it would be while he was working.

The Week Ahead
It's gonna be a doozy. More calls to the mortgage company to see if we can get the same answer more than once about why we got declined a modification. Also, it's another symphony week so I will be singing four at least four hours every night leading up to performances on Friday and Saturday next weekend. I am praying my back lasts this week. Also, I got an interview for one of the crappy jobs I had to apply for since I can't seem to get hired for anything real. At least I can work at this job for a little awhile and build up enough money to get my substitute teaching up. At least when I am subbing, I'll feel like a productive person in society again.

I hope others got a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend too. I have to go walk the dog, eat breakfast, go teach a piano lesson, do lunch duty at school, clean the trashed house from the weekend, do homework with the boys, teach four more lessons, and then got to rehearsal all night. I imagine I won't touch the blog again at least until next weekend.

Have a great week.