What I've been up to lately...
I haven't written much this past week in this, but I've been up to a few things lately. Last week, I recieved my first mystery shopping assignment, a mission to visit a local college bookstore and evaluate them on their store layout, service, cleanliness, and ease of use, among other things. I was able to complete the actual shopping assignment over a lunch hour, though the evaluation survey (done over the internet) became lengthy and took me upwards of about 2 hours to complete. It wasn't supposed to take that long, but while I was finishing it up, it somehow didn't save when I went to take a break from it, and I had to write it up all over again. The company coordinating the mystery shopping gives a small stipend and reimbursement for an inexpensive item, so I ended up with a pencil sharpener out of it with a few extra dollars. In all of our married life, we have not owned a single pencil sharpener, except for the one I use to sharpen eyeliner pencils.

This weekend, I finally, after nearly eight years in our house, painted our living room and dining room. I had always kind of found the task to be kind of daunting (and we have a grand piano that I don't even want to think about moving), but next Saturday, we are Having People Come Over for breakfast, so I needed to do something drastic. I stayed up until 2:00 AM Saturday morning. My dad took the kids on Saturday afternoon, helped us move the piano away from the wall, and I was able to get the living room done. The rooms look surprisingly good for having been done so quickly. Dad even bought the kids a couple of switch tracks for their Thomas the Tank Engine train system at the hobby shop.

I also took my kids to the Lollipops Series concert that the Grand Rapids Symphony did on Saturday morning. This was a presentation of Peter and the Wolf done in collaboration with the Grand Rapids Ballet. The kids behaved very well, were very quiet, and enjoyed it up until the moment that the wolf ate the duck. I am happy to see that the kids seem to be picking up on their mom's love of music.



- posted by Kristen @ 1/16/2005 11:00:00 PM