Pretty pictures all in a row.

So remember when I took a drive and tested out my skills with a fancy camera? Well, here's the result of that day... We enlarged some of the pictures that I took during my fall drive and some that Pern took during the apple-picking trip, and framed them all artsy-like in our living room. They look really nice. At least I think so. I think our living room is officially "done"... just in time to redecorate for Christmas!

Screaming baby!!

So we had our friends, Steph and Dave, over for dinner last night. Their son, Daniel, came along for the ride. He is very cute and exceptionally loud. The pediatrician says he's going through a "fussy" phase. I think he's auditioning for American Idol. I don't think he'll meet the age-requirement. Maybe in 17 years or so.

Busy Week

It's been a super-busy week and I barely had two minutes to see my hubbie, but we finally got to spend time together this weekend. It will be our three year anniversary on Tuesday, but we count the whole of Columbus Day weekend as "anniversary time". That's the benefit to getting married on a holiday weekend: you can claim the whole weekend as your own regardless of the actual date!

We hung out with no agenda (practically unheard of these days) and then went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner on Saturday night. Had a lazy Sunday (Pern watched football and I kept bugging him for my fantasy football scores) followed by dinner at my parents' house (where we took this cute, but somewhat blurry picture- thanks, Dad!), and are planning another day of not much with a trip to the gym planned for the late afternoon for today. After a week of go, go, go, it's nice to do absolutely nothing with the one you love! Happy Anniversary, P! I love you!

Apple-Pickin' Time!

So today was my school's annual apple-picking field trip. This is the third year we've had it on the calendar, but only the second successful trip. The first year we got completely rained out. Last year it rained, but not as much, so we all stood around shivering and cold and trying to act like picking apples in the rain was what we really wanted to do on a Saturday afternoon (we planned on a Sunday this year to try and get more people out.. it worked, the turnout was great!). Today there were no complaints about rain. Beautiful fall weather. A bright, sunny sky... OK... maybe a little too sunny. It did get a little hot after a while. But, better hot and bright than wet and muddy. We had a great time. Pern helped me pick apples for my once-a-year-from-scratch-pie, and I also collected enough to make applesauce with the kids at school this week. We took our loaner camera with us and had a blast taking pictures of the families, apples, scenery, and other good stuff. No kiddie pictures in the blog, however, just us and "other good stuff." Enjoy.

We went to Stribling Orchard in Markham, Virginia. Exit 18 off I-66W. About an hour from Leesburg.

Pretty pumpkins all in a line. Or... bundle, at least. We bought some to put on our front step.

There is a great little country store with homemade yummies available for sale...

...and if you don't feel like picking your own apples, you can just buy the ones they've already picked!

This apple is ripe for the pickin'!

Pern reaches for it.....

Success!

I give it a try....

And bring down two!

True to his competitive nature, Pern tries to out-do me....

...and succeeds....Oh well, at least he's humble.

Up-to-date!

Umm... let's see.. it's been over a month. Ugh. I'm a bad blogger.

Well, school is off and running. The ducklings came back and have been very busy getting in a line. This has been the smoothest start of the school year that I have ever experienced. It has been absolutely wonderful... except for the sickness, that is...

So one of the kids got sick the first week of school. She went home with a fever on Thursday afternoon, and was out on Friday. Then another child went home Friday, also with a fever, and was still out on Monday, having had a fever all weekend. Then I get it. And it sucked! I was out for four days! Unheard of (for me) and I have never felt worse... high fever (is 103 considered high?) for two days, coughing for over a week. Ugh. It was horrible. The week I was out, my class was hit hard. All in all, 11 children and myself (out of 18 kids and three adults) got sick over the course of two weeks. I think it has finally worked its way out. Hopefully we've seen the last of The Virus.

On the tail end of my illness, however, came an unexpected burst of creativity (interrupted every now and then by a hacking cough), which resulted in a wreath. The creativity, that is, not the coughing. Here's a picture. I hung it on the door for all the world to enjoy. Well, at least my neighbors might like it.

So I made a wreath.

Um... I'm kicking butt in fantasy football! The Montessori Maulers are 3-0-0 starting week 4! Woohoo! Never thought I'd know anything about football (and I still don't... but don't tell Pern, he's always impressed when I throw out random bits of information) but I'm doing really well... first in the league, baby! OK... so Pern tells me who to drop, who to bench, who to start, etc... but technically, it's still MY team, so I'll take the credit.

We went down to North Carolina to visit my sister, Dale, and her husband, Joe. They've been living there for a year and half and this was our first trip! Previous attempts were derailed by one crisis/roadblock or another, but we made it this time. We had a nice time. They have a beautiful house and a soon-to-be beautiful yard and, if the 4-D ultrasound is any indication, a beautiful baby girl on the way. Our trip included dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I'd never eaten there before and was a little put off by their phone directory-sized menu. They're called "Cheesecake Factory." That means, "we do cheesecake, and we do it really well." Not, "we do cheesecake and tortillas and pasta and hamburgers and seafood and pizza and burritos and popcorn shrimp and apple cobbler." The food was great, but their notoriously long waits brought on by an unnecessarily long menu.... I could do without.

So that was September. Oh! And my friend, Claudia got engaged to her boyfriend, Jeff! I am super happy for them and have promised not to inundate them with wedding info... unless they ask and then the floodgates will open. Three years of shooting weddings has taught me a thing or two. I have opinions on everything from centerpieces to deejays. I'm going to have to bite my tongue or risk losing my title of bridesmaid.

Speaking of weddings... Pern and I are considering expanding Blue Square Productions to include photography. By "considering" I mean that I'm thinking about it and he's pricing out cameras. Anyway, we borrowed a friend's high-end digital camera and have been playing around with it for the last couple of days. We took it to Claudia's house for her birthday dinner last night. Had a fun time with Claudia, Jeff, and Claudia's friend, Sarah. Ate a little Thai food, had a little cake, laughed a lot. Good times. Here are some pictures... some by me, some by P, both still learning.

The birthday girl!

Birthday flowers!

The newly engaged couple!

Time to start practicing their cake-cutting technique....

Mmmm... chocolate.....

Yea! We have a new couch!

Yea! We have "new" chairs- courtesy of Mom and Dad!

This is the pictue that I painted when we went on vacation to PA.

Now we need a new dining room table to go with our pretty couch!

The sunroom got some new cushions... not very exciting.

How do other people do it?

I don't understand. How do people keep up with blogs? I thought I'd give the blogging a try but it's been a week and I'm only now getting to my second (that's right... count 'em.. now there's two!) entry. I guess it would help if I was the kind of person who kept a diary. I've tried to be that kind of person and was success at one point in my life, but fear I am not the kind of person anymore. Considering that I found my aforementioned diary during our yard sale prep and read through it (oh, what a tragic life I had at the ripe old age of 20) that's probably a good thing.

So anyway, enough about that. Much has happened this week... some a little too personal to air on the open lines of internet communication, but the rest is fair game.

I got a new haircut! Find a recent picture of Victoria Beckham, undo the blonde, and you'll see my new do! My hairstylist, Heather, was funny. She asked what I wanted to do with my hair (it was already short, what were my options?) and when I said I wanted something different, but didn't know what that meant, she got all excited and said, "Posh Spice!" So now I have a rather sassy do. I'll have to have Pern take my picture later and post it in my next entry... so... six weeks from now when it's all grown out, you should be able to see it.

After several years of prodding (it's not easy being married to the commissioner of a fantasy football league) I finally got my fantasy football team started. Anyone who knows me knows how much I loathe football, so this should be interesting. The question is: Is it possible to win the championship if you just don't give a damn? Time will tell. Football. Fun.

We also spent the week anticipating Pern's birthday get-together. He calls it a birthday party, I call him "not 8 years old" but whatever... friends came over, we ate food, there was cake and candles. Call it what you will. We got many compliments on our grown-up living room. If I can figure out how to upload photographs, they will appear at the end of this entry. If not.. help me.

So what's in store for this week. Hmm... last week of summer camp before Teacher Work Week... a fun week of cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and getting our ducks in a row before the little ducklings come back to school for another year of fun and learning. This summer has absolutely flown! Then I'm off to my parent's house to paint their living room and dining room. OK... let's see if I can figure out this photo thing...