Not sure anyone reads this anymore...

I feel terrible about these long silent periods between posts! Life is pretty busy day in and day out. I wish we had the money to hire a personal maid, cook, masseuse and homework-grader.

It's been a long few weeks, kind of a blur. Starting on October 30th there was National French Week. In the future, I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist: it's just too much work. My leaders planned some activities, but the follow through was mostly me. They wanted a scary movie night for Halloween, a skit/relay race thing that never ended up happening, a game day and a bake sale. Only 1 of my 3 leaders helped make posters to advertise the events. Two people came to the movie (neither of which were my leaders!), then it snowed on game day (we were going to play bocce ball outside). For the bake sale NO ONE helped me bake. That should've been my first clue to back out. I ordered 300 croissants from Sam's club to sell, then I made 116 crepes (in one day!) and bought 8 jars of Nutella. After that, I was pooped, but we still had to set up the bake sale during my free period, and clean up. I swear I will never believe students when they tell me they can help. The evening before the bake sale, while I had 3 frying pans going and was on crepe #82, my volunteers bailed out. I screamed at my computer and I wrote back that I'll be keeping my crepes unless they find replacements. The next morning, I had two names I could count on, and one bailed. WHY? HOW? When there were still leftovers, I sold them during my lunch break the following two days. (I was told they would be there.) My coworkers just pitied me and shook their heads. Again, lesson learned: never ever hold a bake sale ever again. Ever.

I grew more white hairs that week, but the weekend was FABULOUS. Matt and I left town (substitute plans!!) to go to a friend's wedding. It wasn't too far away and the weather was perfect. Matt found this cute B&B called "Sleepy Valley Inn". There was a fireplace and a jet tub. Perfect after such a frustrating week with teenagers. It was a really old place, from 1903, that used to be a bar and music hall (with rooms upstairs), then it was a rehab place, then a B&B. Apparently, really famous people stayed there, including Babe Ruth and Faye Dunaway.

The wedding was really special and so many of Matt's college friends were there. It was nice to get to know them better, and those guys just picked up where they left off, even though they all live states apart. All of them have gotten married since college except one, and everyone is looking for a nice girl for him. We'll see! The newlyweds will be living in NYC so we hope to visit them soon, though the groom is in medical school, so his free time is pretty limited.

The groom's family owns an orchard and they have delicious apples, peaches and cider. We've known them for several years and it's always fun visiting them. All of those guys and they wives are Calvin grads. It was so hard leaving everyone and coming back to reality and work. Not sure when the next reunion will be, but I hope it's sooner than later!!