Ahhh... why is it hard to be creative around midnight???

So, time is very short... I really should get to bed soon... but I'll give you a few highlights of the week, in hopes that they will brighten your day.

The big transition this week was saying goodbye to my Germ 201 class... it was hard. They are all such good and enthusiastic students. We watched Harry Potter V in German and had a discussion about it as our last fun activity. Laura came and recorded it for me so we could critique it in my German pedagogy class. Everything seemed to go smoothly, which was a relief. My new 202 class has 10 fewer students than my 201 class, and it is an hour later in the day, which makes the class preparation a lot less stressful. It looks like it's shaping up to be an awesome class as well.

Ben had to leave Friday morning for Denver, Colorado to present his current physics research at a conference, so Laura and I decided to spend some time together. She came over Friday evening for an evening of chicken parmesan, a chick flick, and lots of girl talk. After she left I spent about 4 hours trying to get final grades together for Germ 201, and I almost finished that.

Saturday morning I took my roommates to go shopping for the German house, then rushed home to study for and take my French exam. Luckily it went pretty well, I think. The walk home wasn't particularly fun due to some stormy, rainy weather, and it matched the outcome of the homecoming game (a sad loss for the cougars), but Ben came back late Saturday night, so it wasn't that big of a deal :).

Today we had a marvelous stake conference. I was really inspired by the speakers, and am excited to put some of my new goals and resolutions into practice. After two sessions (yes, we had them both today) of stake conference and ward prayer, we had a ton of people show up at our apartment (which looks beautiful at the moment) to help us surprise our roommate Rachel, who had had her birthday on Saturday. Happily, the surprise was total and complete when she walked in the door, the refreshments delicious, the atmosphere conversational and festive. I just can't believe that the weekend is over once again and the treadmill never stops rolling...

Love and miss you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Margaret