Grading, grading, grading!

Sometimes it seems like the grading will never end! Well, I'm actually almost there. Even though I collected essays on Wednesday of last week, I didn't make time to start grading until Saturday (which is very unusual--I like to get started and finished as quickly as possible, but that's just how it went last week). I also only got through a few over the weekend, which has left me with a lot of grading to do this week! My goal is to return them on Friday, and while I didn't think I'd make it at first, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel (that's after two days of grading more than 10 essays, which is pretty exhausting)! I wish that I could take a break after I finish grading; but, unfortunately, there's no chance of that. In order to get the grading done, I've set everything else aside, so there's lots to do. In particular, I've got to work on final projects. I haven't even settled on a topic for one final paper yet, so that's got to happen this weekend. Oh, I should probably also mention that I got my test back yesterday, and I was very happy ( and a little surprised!) with the grade. As it turned out, the answer I came up with about the question I struggled with was the right one! (Which made me feel thankful that I didn't keep working on it for another hour.)

In other news, we had our Tuesday night Bible study group at our place for dessert last night. I think it went well. I've often thought it's silly how many people we had over to our last apartment (which was so horrible!) and how few we've had over here. So, I was glad to be able to have our group meet at our apartment. Maybe we'll do that again sometime. I made Special K cookies (Mark's family's recipe), pumpkin chocolate chip bread (my mom's recipe), and pumpkin pie (from the Libby's can). I've never actually made a pumpkin pie before, and this was also my first attempt at pie crust. I used my mom's recipe (actually, it's from one of her friends), and I think it turned out pretty well. It didn't look good (the edges were kind of rough), but it tasted right! The middle was a little under-cooked, but still quite edible. I'll be having a slice from the leftovers later!

The only other thing I can think of to mention is that we've had a major cold snap here. I know it's probably been snowing where some of you are, and, of course, there was no snow here, but it was 30 degrees cooler today than it was yesterday. In fact, Tucson hasn't had a day this cool in October since the 1970s! We didn't even hit 60 today. Tomorrow's supposed to be cold, too. I'm enjoying the change, but the wind today was frigid! I don't think I'll mind when we're back up to the mid-80s this weekend (although Mark will be disappointed!).