I know that the title Rush Week usually means that week in colleges where a whole bunch of people interested in fraternities or sororities go to events to see where they'd like to pledge. But for my purposes (porpoises?) it's what I'm calling this last week, in which I actually had to sit down and map out hour by hour everything we had going on. And, it's really not over: Russell has two more busy days at work tomorrow and Tuesday, and we're sending Megan of tomorrow night. So, maybe by Wednesday, we'll be able to sit down, breathe a bit, and wonder why September is almost over. And get started on Halloween costumes...
Speaking of which (well, I wasn't, really), you can follow Megan's exploits in India
here. There's nothing up right now, but there will be. (I hope.)
So, what kept us busy? Much of the usual: work, piano, school. But also much of the unusual. Monday, Russell and Megan went to a lunchtime Rotary meeting so they could introduce her and basically shake her hand. She didn't want to go, but we bullied her into it and it was the right thing. She also had a quick orientation meeting with Mr. Kreie, where she asked last-minute questions, and got some good coping information. Mr. Kreie wants to hear from her weekly, the rotary monthly, so I have hopes that we'll get some information back from her. There's always Skype, too. Oh: her visa finally came on Monday, too, which was a miracle considering how flaky the company the consulate outsourced the work to was. (That was a poorly constructed sentence. Sorry.)
My birthday was Tuesday, and we opened cards (no presents) and ate cupcakes. Wednesday I went down to OKC to the temple, which was nice (saw the new movie... interesting).The girls did great at home by themselves after school, even managing to cook themselves dinner. Afterward, I had book group and everyone else had church and Russell had work, so Kristen came with me to book group and watched TV. It was special since we don't usually watch TV in the evenings. Thursday, Caitlyn had singing lessons with a new teacher at Friends. It was just a first lesson, so it's a bit early to tell, but she seems to like this teacher. Caitlyn's her first student, though, so there may be a bit of a learning curve there.
Friday, Megan and I went shopping. And got EVERYTHING. Well, that's what it seemed like at the time. Eight months of everything she could think of shec could need, want, and couldn't get there. (Afterward, a friend of mine from England said, "I spent a year in China and all I took was my malaria pills and lots of books." Ah, well, we're American. This is the way we roll.) We also went shopping for gifts for her host family and others. It's the oddest thing, buying stuff to take to people we know nothing about. We went to the Kansas store at the mall, and just kind of bought a bunch of little things and a few bigger ones. Hopefully, it'll work. And Friday night, we took our family pictures. It's been 2 years since we did that, and halfway through we remembered why we only do it every 2 years. Oy. But we did come up with some cute ones, which will be in the mail to Important People, and on Christmas cards. (The rest of y'all can just wait until then.)
And yesterday, Megan had the ACT, Caitlyn stayed home, I went to work, and Russell drove people places. Alison came to the store with me and hung out for an hour before our book group, and then Kristen came back and both of them went to a little pirate party we threw at the store. It wasn't very big, but they had fun. And then after I got off, we all headed out to the Renaissance Faire. Second time this year. The spring one is really so much better, but we had fun.
And today, we've vegged. Somewhat. Megan gave a very nice talk in church, no one's fought, we've enjoyed lemon poppyseed cake, and as soon as I finish this, we're going to break out the games for our new Sunday evening tradition. (Though we should go for a walk; it's gorgeous outside.)
I survived Rush Week. Too bad they don't make sweatshirts for weeks like these.
