Weekend Top Five 10/17/10

Another incredibly beautiful weekend in West Michigan. I hope we don't pay for this beautiful fall weather with a nasty winter. But at least we can enjoy it while it lasts. This was another weekend of trying to spend zero dollars. We did pretty well again. It makes me wonder if we had been even more intentional up until now, if we could have avoided the mess we're in. Probably not entirely, but maybe a little. Oh well. On with the weekend.
As I've written about in past years, October is always one of my favorite months of the year. We spend so much time outside doing fall activities and this weekend was no different. This weekend was also the culminating performance of weeks of work and a marathon six days of four hour rehearsals.

5. Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers
So, I am the first to admit that I was NEVER interested in these books or movies. I am a very literal person and have always had trouble with science/fantasy, etc. Hubby, on the other hand, loves them and has owned the movies since they first came out.
That being said, I was excited that the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus in which I sing performed the entire score with the symphony while the movie was showing on a HUGE screen on Friday and Saturday night to sold out crowds both nights. We had a visiting conductor, from Switzerland, who is the ONLY person in the world allowed to conduct this performance, and who is the one who directed it for the actual movie filming as well.
In summary, it was indeed the most amazing experience I've ever had as a musician and I can't wait to do the Return of the King next year. The only thing that will make it better next year will be to have my family there.
This picture is the one that was posted in the paper when we got our FOUR STAR review. I'm one of the dots standing under the screen


4. More Halloween stuff
The community in which the kids go to school hosted their own 'Trunk or Treat" event on Saturday afternoon. Local business lined up their cars and handed out candy and coupons to trick or treaters. Very fun. Got lots more coupons and the kids were so excited to see both Aaron's teacher and several kids from their classes. We also had fun bringing Lily along on this adventure. She made instant friends with all of the other dogs and wanted to play with them:) The only thing she barked at the entire time was the horses pulling the little wagon ride around the park. I was actually surprised that we managed to get on the back for a ride without her going crazy.


3. Leaves Act I
We have a huge tree in our front yard that has tons of leaves. Unfortunately, it never really drops them until November so the kids spend the entire month of October begging for leaf piles that can't quite get there yet. Sunday was so nice tough that I wanted to give it a shot. After some "borrowing" of leaves from the neighbor's (yes, we did bag them when we were through rather than returning them to their owner) we managed a pretty good sized pile. We had a pretty good time playing and Lily also got some more chances to enjoy fall.


2. Craft Day
Noah has been asking constantly why we don't have Halloween decorations up in our windows. I am not against Halloween at all, but it really isn't a huge deal for me so I don't have a lot of decorations. But it seemed like a perfect Sunday afternoon to make decorations for the windows. We all got into the mix and made quite a few fun things. Noah actually wore the necklace he made to school today:) His favorite though is any chance to use my glue gun. He's asked for one of his own, but I don't think he's ready for that yet, but I do think he does a pretty good job with handling it at the table and he made a cute wreath to hang up for fall.







1. More Job Apps
I had a job interview last week and expected to be called this weekend to no avail. I'm not sure what is so fundamentally un-hirable about me, but I keep plugging away at it. Last night I found a job for what I actually would enjoy doing and that it would meet my skills exactly and applied for it . Who knows? Maybe prayers will be answered this week?

The Week Ahead
Putting aside the stresses aforementioned, it's going to be an active but exciting week. I have extra piano lessons to teach to make up for the ones I had to cancel last week during the rehearsal marathon for LOTR. But most importantly, we are gearing up for our annual Family Bash this weekend. Easily one of my favorite outings of the year is happening this Saturday when as many of the cousins as are able (there are 14 in all now) go to a local pumpkin patch. It is always crazy and happy and the kids look forward to it all year. Then on Sunday, we are celebrating Aaron's sixth birthday at a local pool. He is so excited and I am glad that in all of the craziness and drama we are going through that we have figured out a way to still make this birthday special for him.

Not sure how much I'll get to the computer this week so have a good one.