William has had a cold this week so school was only done for about 3 days. One day was also spent running errands. We finally went to Lowes to see about getting a hot water heater.

We went over more multiplication. We played the dice game William made up again and also went over how to multiply with decimal points since William mentioned money during one of the problems. He chose Bulfinch's Mythology as a bedtime story last night :) We read Pygmalion and William understood the similarity to Pinocchio in the story.

We really need to do more English and get back into some of the other subjects we've let slide while I've been working and he's been sick. We did watch a TLC Elementary School about writing using descriptive words and telling sentences and discussed what they went over in the video.

Riding is going well. Even though William had a cold Wednesday he still wanted to ride. He rode a horse named Sammy and they had a good time riding through the woods on my parents' land.

I should have more to report next week. Right now we're just busy with work and the co-op and everything else. We're planning to take a break for Thanksgiving so hopefully things will slow down.

The past week ended with a busy day. We hosted our science co-op at my mom's home. This week we studied the states of matter and did an experiment with diffusion. The class was pretty short so I think I'm going to read over my notes and experiment ideas and start combining 2 classes into one.

We ended the day by attending a Mark Lowry concert in Atlanta. William found 2 of his tapes in our collection and has been enjoying them, so when I found out Mark Lowry was going to be close by I decided to take him. Normally I do not drive in Atlanta, but I didn't really know where the concert was behind held. As my normal procrastination had taken over, I was looking up directions 15 minutes before we were supposed to be leaving. That's when I discovered that Mt. Paran Church North was almost in the north part of Atlanta to the left of GA 400. I guess the "north" in the name should have tipped me off? I immediately went over to the Marta page to look at information for the trains. There is not a Marta train that goes near to the church. I'm sure if we had left earlier we could have caught a train then a bus, but since the concert started in 2 hours I knew we wouldn't have time to figure out where to go. Tip for the church - talk to the city about a Marta train stop nearby, okay?

I looked at the map and said I'll try it. I decided to go up 285 N, the bypass around Atlanta. For some reason, though, when you try to head back home the name of the road isn't 285 S. They change it, and it's either 285 E or 285 W, and I can never remember exactly which way to go. I called my mom and she can't remember either. She's telling me it says 285 S, but I know that's not correct, so she tells me have a good time and have my brother's phone number on me in case I need to stay with him. My youngest brother lives in Atlanta and has no problem zipping through the numerous streets that stress me out.

We headed out and stopped at a gas station just before getting on Interstate 85. I was almost hit twice by people who decided I wasn't moving fast enough - that was in the parking lot. Then we hit the interstate and do pretty well. We then see signs about construction on the 285 bypass. We were able to take it north, but weren't going to be able to take it coming home anyway because it would be closed at 9pm for weekend work. That meant going home through downtown Atlanta. I tried to not let it worry me and wanted to concentrate on getting through the concert and enjoying myself.

When we got of the bypass it was onto Paces Ferry Road, a very little, narrow road through a lot of charming shops. However, the planner of this road should be interrogated as to why he decided to merge 2 lanes of traffic into 1 under a stop light. I ended up in a right hand turning lane - with a lot of other people - so we all made u-turns together at the next road. Luckily a turning lane had been created for this purpose. Then I had to wait to get in line on the 1 lane road and was almost hit again by someone else deciding I wasn't going fast enough. We finally reached Cobb Parkway - which really needs better signs - and then the church entrance.

Mt. Paran Church is huge. This place had like 5 parking lots and a parking garage! We entered a seperate building with a chapel and a receptionist. We found out where to buy tickets and headed to the new sanctuary. It was beautiful. It's a fan shape with windows on the sides, curved staircases to the balconies and beautiful wood panelling behind the pulpit.

We got there right on time. Lord's Song came out first and sang. Stan Whitmire, a pianist from Mt. Paran, also played some instrumentals. After the first song, Mark Lowry came out to sing. Everyone started clapping and something seemed to hit me - William had been listening to his tapes, sure, but had he ever seen his picture? Did he even know that was him singing? I thought about asking but decided against it. After the song Mark started telling his stories and I asked William later, "Did you know that was him when he came out to sing?" William said "Nope, not until he started talking." If you've never heard Mark Lowry sing you really should. It's amazing what a beautiful singing voice he has on top of his Texas accent.

My favorite story was about his mother calling a talk radio show with Madelaine Murray O'Hare as a guest. Mark and his brother listened from another room as one caller after another was distracted and shot down by Ms. O'Hare. They knew their mother was on hold, though, and were waiting anxiously. Soon she came on the air. Mark says "Have you ever been to a drag race?" He said his mother took off, and even though Ms. O'Hare tried to get her off track his mother never stopped. He says "She went from Genesis all the way to the maps!"

The concert was wonderful and I was glad we'd come. We didn't get to buy anything, but I'm planning to see if I can get something autographed either for Christmas or William's birthday. That's a secret, though, okay :)

After the concert we sat in our car in the garage for a while, waiting on traffic to die down. We finally left around 9:30 and headed out. We got on Interstate 75 S and headed through downtown Atlanta towards home.

I hate downtown Atlanta. All the right lanes on the interstate turn into exit lanes, so you have to watch that. Then you have tunnels to go under and cars zipping around you left and right. On top of that it started to rain - hard. I hate driving in Atlanta anyway and I hate it more in the dark and in the rain. At one tunnel the right hand lane I was in merged and I didn't even know it. Luckily we didn't have an accident. I had to move over very quickly. With the rain even Atlanta drivers were going slow, so I was very thankful for that. It got so bad at points I wasn't even sure what lane I was in. We finally made it to the I85 S split and was able to take the exit with no problems. We decided to find a McDonald's or something similar and wait out the rain, so we took the first exit with a McDonald's sign. The restaurant ended up being a mile down the road and was hard to find. When we got there, it was closed but had a drive thru. We waited 10 minutes behind another car at the drive thru and William finally said "Let's just go home." We really wanted to get home and away from the rain and the interstate, so we pulled out and left.

That little respite, though, had given some time for the rain to stop, so we were able to get back on I85 S with no problems. After the Fairburn exit traffic was minimal and I was finally able to relax a bit. We saw a sign for Krystal and decided to spend our money there instead. We left with 6 Krystals between us and some of the little bottled cokes from a gas station and headed on home. My mom said we'd be home around 1am - it was actually midnight.

So now you see why I don't drive in Atlanta and why I really need to stop procrastinating. New rule for me - If I plan to go anywhere in Atlanta, get directions and Marta information at least 2 days ahead of time and leave early. Marta is even very helpful - you can email them and tell them where you want to go and they'll email you back with the train and bus information. I enjoy the attractions that are offered in Atlanta, I just never want to drive there ever again.

Well, I thought I'd heard everything when it comes to our government, but this is the silliest thing I've ever heard of:

$3 billion in TV aid

Now I love technology as much as anyone who grew up during the PacMan, Atari, Fraggle Rock on HBO, Nickelodeon-green slime era. I love my Tivo, I have 3 computers and wireless access. But I don't expect the government to help pay for box to make sure an older TV works when they switch to digital channels in the next few years. My grandparents can't set their VCR clock, but they do have a fairly new TV set. Besides, what's considered old? 10 years, 5 years, 2 years? There are so many more worthy causes in our country, we don't need to give $3 billion in tax money so people can watch CSI.

Not much going on here, just life as usual. Horseback riding lessons are now continuing, my mom agreed to have them at her place. William is doing well at the lessons. The trainer says he's a natural rider. He really does love the animals and is a quick learner with them. He is still in karate and is doing well in that. He's supposed to test for his next belt soon. School is finally getting back on track. We had our Adventure Club today. It's our homeschool group's geography class. This month the country was Egypt. William completed his report on King Tut. Next week is my science co-op. It will begin being held at my mom's house instead of my house due to many reasons, but basically it works out better for everyone involved. I know that something we are doing is sinking in because I heard William answering questions on a game show the other day! Maybe one of us will make it to Jeopardy.

My mom is hosting a Mule Clinic this weekend. What's that? you may ask. She breeds, raises and trains mules on her 60+ acre ranch and likes to watch training videos by a man named Brad Cameron of Cameron Mule Company. These clinics are training classes that Brad Cameron holds all over the country from spring to fall. This is the 2nd one she's hosted. William and I rode with my grandparent's over to to the ranch where it's being held - nope, not on her place - and ate dinner with everyone and listened to my dad play with his bluegrass group. My mom also sang a few songs with some cheering of "Go Granny!" by William and my neice. She sang "Long Black Veil", "Georgia Mules", and a little bit of "Rocky Top". She did this despit saying she didn't want to do it. Then my neice got up and told a joke, after saying "Uggh!" like she didn't want to do it. I think I know where my neice got her showbiz dreams from now :)

This Sunday is also family reunion day. It's a reunion of my grandfather's grandmother's family - I think. We go each year, they have a computer set up for genealogy information, and we get to see pictures of different family members from over the years. I also sometimes get to see one of my friends from high school, as he's also a distant cousin.

So that was our week and our weekend to come. I hope everyone had a good week as well.

Today is a perfect day in Georgia, even though the sun isn't shining. It's not very cold and there is just a light breeze blowing.

I just came from my cousin's wedding. It was outside at a little country campground in their gazebo. It was a fall theme, complete with browns and golds and yellow colors and flowers and leave decorations. When the ceremony started it seemed as though everything started to go wrong. The unity candle wouldn't light - the wind kept blowing it out. Then the music went on too long. My cousin was standing there, waiting to walk, for about 2 minutes before the song ended and they started on the Wedding March. Why not just turn down the music, push a button and start the song? But I know all of that won't be in their heads. If they were like Scott and I we didn't even realize all the mistakes at our wedding until after we watched the video.

When we got there I was surprised to see my cousin and her fiance both outside having pictures made already. I found out that apparently it's the thing today to have your pictures made before the ceremony, then the photographer takes a few photos of other people before, during the ceremony, and at the reception. Then he's done and everyone can go.

Personally, I like the old fashioned way of not seeing the bride before the walk down the aisle. I'm paying the photographer to be there, so who cares about the time? I asked Scott, my dh, what his first thought was when he saw me standing at the gate in my dress. He said it was "Wow!" I asked him if it would have been the same had he already seen me in the dress. He said I was right, it wouldn't have been the same.

I admit my wedding day was hectic. I was up early getting my hair and makeup done. It was still the era of big hair and blue eyeshadow so I felt caked in makeup and hairspray. The ceremony was at 11am and I was getting dressed at 9 and still fussing with my veil at 10:50. The ceremony was very quick and yes, the photos did take a lot of time and I was tired and hungry, but I still think we did the best thing by not seeing each other before the ceremony. What do you guys think? Keep it traditional or save time by taking photos early? Or is there some other reason I didn't think of?

Time is passing so quickly. It felt really good outside today - not too hot, not too cold. Fall is coming to Georgia. We'll go up on the mountain soon so we can enjoy the leaves changing colors.

We're trying to get back on a school schedule, but we ended up taking a cat to the vet today and tomorrow William has another dentist appointment. We did some reading last week and he watched a lot of Animal Planet. Scott is impressed with the knowledge William is getting from Animal Planet. Sometimes he'll just bust out with some type of fact he's learned and he even answered a few animal related questions when watching a game show the other day. We haven't done any math for a few weeks - we need to get back on that.

We played Dungeons and Dragons on Scott's last night off work last week. We had a lot of fun. Scott was the DM and William and I played 2 characters each. There was some math work there while rolling for the characters to see if they hit the monster or not. There was also some imagination while trying to figure out where we were in the castle. We used miniatures for some of it. William and I also had to use listening skills in order to find out what to do and some logical thinking when it came time to make decisions on what to do and where to go. But he didn't think of any of that - it was just a fun game.

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.