LONDON, BABY!!!!

Lookout, London!  We're comin' to town!!!

That's right... we're hopping across the pond.  Pern and I are super excited about our rather spur-of-the-moment decision to go to the UK for a few days in December.  Pern's very good friend, Tim, is getting married and we got (and obviously accepted) an invite.  He's getting married outside of Manchester, so we will be flying into Manchester to attend the wedding and then getting a train to London for a few days before coming home.  Our December plans are as follows:

Before Christmas (date TBD): head to NC for Christmas with my fam.

Christmas day: celebrate Christmas with the fam.

Day after Christmas: fly from Raleigh to Chicago to Manchester, arrive Saturday morning

Saturday 12/27:  attend Tim's wedding

Sunday 12/28:  train to London in the morning/afternoon, Jack the Ripper walking tour in the evening

Monday 12/29: London in One Day guided bus tour - highlights include the changing of the guard, Tower of London, and Thames river cruise

Tuesday 12/30: London on our own using a Hop On Hop Off bus pass in the morning, ride in the London Eye in the afternoon, Picadilly Circus, Shakespeare's Globe

Wednesday 12/31: All day bus tour of Stonehenge, Bath, the Cotswolds, and Statford-Upon-Avon; New Year's Eve something TBD

Thursday 1/1:  Fly home to VA, sleep the whole way, sleep until Saturday!

We are soooooo excited!  

p.s.  I posted this in a bit of a rush... can you tell? :)

Claudia and Jeff's wedding

Yesterday was Claudia and Jeff's wedding!  I have known Claudia since 8th grade (a shocking 17 years! - OMG!) and this was a very special day!  She and Jeff started dating after our friends Linnea and Eli got married in June of 2004, which was a few months before Pern and I got married in October of the same year.  Can you believe it's been four years already?  We celebrated our anniversary on Thursday!  Wow...  Anyway, back to C&J.

The wedding was beautiful!  They were married at Whitehall Manor in Bluemont, which is about 25 minutes from Leesburg.  It was a morning ceremony and the weather was perfect.  Claudia was absolutely stunning!  And Jeff didn't look half bad, either!  The gnats threatened to make for a miserable day at the rehearsal on Friday, but stayed at bay thanks to cooler weather and a perimeter of citronella torches.  Here are some personal pictures... for more of the "pro" pics, go to the Blue Square blog.  

Our favorite high school teacher, Mrs Wood, was there!  She and her husband have come to all our our weddings!  This means that Claudia will make the Woods' annual holiday newsletter!  It's the Christmas card I look forward to most every year!

The three Musketeers are all married women now!  Holy crap!  When did that happen??

I love being crafty!

I love a good craft project.  A few months ago I decided I wanted to make a photo / memory board, but didn't know where I wanted to put it.  I was changing the sheets in the guest room after my father-in-law visited recently and there it was:  an expanse of blank wall that was screaming for something pretty and fun.  I made the board last night.  My mom and I went shopping yesterday afternoon and a quick stop into Michael's turned into a longer stop at Michael's and an extra stop at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  So the pictures are kind of random, but the board will continue to change as it is supposed to.  It was so easy... I might have to make some more :)

Apple Picking Trip

It wouldn't be fall without a trip to Stribling Orchard in Markham, VA!  Today was our school's annual Apple Picking Family Field Trip.  This is the fourth year we've scheduled a trip to Stribling and the third year we actually went!  The first year we were rained out, the second it rained a little and was freezing cold/miserable, but the third and now fourth years were beautiful!  The weather was perfect, the turn out was good, it was a little too busy for my liking (apparently the orchard had some press recently and was featured on Fox 5 News, so it was significantly busier than in previous years) but we all had a good time.  Pern is in Indiana with his dad so I was flying solo for this one.  I arrived early, bought my pumpkins and apples (no picking for me this year... just picking out of the pre-picked crates, if that counts!) and took some pictures.  As in the past, I won't post pictures of the children from my school, but here are some of my other favorites...  Happy Fall!!

Two of my favorite things...

Today we bought two of my favorite things: ice-cream from Coldstone Creamery...

...and a beautiful new Toyota Prius!!!!!!!!!

Isn't it the most beautiful car in the whole wide world??!!!  I love it!!!

Mmmmm... life is good :)

Is it fall yet?

Sigh.

Is it fall yet?  Summer sucked.  Is it over?  I feel like it's been non-stop drama since the end of June.  The last day of summer camp at school was on Friday.  Now we have one more week (teacher week - prepping the classrooms, etc) and then it's back to school on September 2.  I don't care what the calendar says, fall starts on the first day of school.  Yeah!

Fall is my favorite season.  Aside from the usual events like the school's apple-picking field trip, and Halloween (I've bought a new Halloween t-shirt at Target today!),  I've got some other good things to look forward to... My friends, Claudia and Jeff, are getting married two days after my and P's 4th anniversary.  I guess that counts as two good things!  I get to wear a (yes, I'm going to say it) really pretty bridesmaid dress, so that's number three.  And second to last and last but not least, my (gulp!) 31st birthday in a couple of months, which happens to coincide with a trip to Disney World.  I could do without the 31st birthday, but the trip should be fun.  

So?  Is it over yet?  Someone wake me when it's September...

In defense of my garden...

So Dale's (my sister's) comment to my July 11 post about my green beans needs an appropriate response.  So here it is... 

My little garden has been quite productive lately.  I've picked at least 15 cucumbers (!!! - good thing everyone I know likes cucumbers!), 3 tomatoes (tomatoes are apparently not my strong suite, but they were uber-tasty!), and a bushel (Yes- JOE!  A real bushel!!  All 2 pounds of it!) of green beans!  Suburban- bushel my ass!  I am tempted to pull up one of my (many!) beautiful carrots, drive to NC, and whack you over the head with it!  

How dare you insult my garden!  Mmmph!

:)