Weekend Recap

The highlights from last weekend.....

Saturday we went to our nephew's football game (he's playing center below).

(the one in front of #40)

We went out to the pumpkin patch early Sunday morning.  It was a crisp, 45 degree morning.....perfect for picking pumpkins!

My husband always tries to get the biggest pumpkin in the patch each year....must be a guy thing.

And the results from our pumpkin picking trip:

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I'm thinking about doing a 31 for October type of challenge.  The challenge would be to post every day in October.  I'd really like to get in the rhythm of posting more frequently and I'm thinking maybe that would help me.  I dunno.  I still have a couple days to think about it.

Anyway, have a great week (what's left of it)!

Happy Fall!!

I know I've said this before but I'll say it again -  fall makes me happy! 

There are so many things I enjoy during this wonderful season:

pumpkin picking
stepping on crunchy leaves
wearing sweaters
enjoying cool temperatures
hot chocolate drinking
eating Halloween candy
cuddling under a cozy blanket
football watching
giving thanks at Thanksgiving
decorating for the holidays

Ahhhh....I LOVE this time of year!!  Maybe it's just because the heat is gone and I'm not so crabby ;o) 

For anyone who may be mourning the passing of summer, here's a few fall photos to get you in the mood for fall.

Source: applecidernpumpkins.blogspot.com via Nichole on Pinterest

Source: gardenofsimple.tumblr.com via Nichole on Pinterest

Source: applecidernpumpkins.blogspot.com via Nichole on Pinterest

Source: 3cheers4mom.blogspot.com via Nichole on Pinterest

Hope ya all have a great weekend!!

Weekend Recap

Dave and I had a really nice weekend.  We had some professional pictures taken on Saturday.  Last spring, if you made a donation to the Cancer Society, you could get a session with a local photographer.  The pictures turned out well.  Now we just have the hard part of deciding what to order.

We stopped at WalMart Saturday afternoon and I was SO excited to walk in and see this:

I know a lot of people think it's too early and blah, blah, blah.  But, I love it and it makes me happy.  :o)

It was windy and cool (somewhere in the 50s I think) Saturday so I had my first hot chocolate of the season.  Yum!!

We also went to the SD Special Olympic softball tournament yesterday and today. We got to watch the two boys I taught the past two years and two of the students I'm teaching this year. It was so fun to watch them play and to have them be so excited that I came to see them. Dave and I both got kisses and lots of hugs from one of the boys. :o)


Hope you all had a great weekend too!!

Remembering

This might not be of interest to anyone else but I wanted to write down what I remember. Even though now it feels like just yesterday, I’m sure the day will come when some of the memories fade.


I was in college in 2001. I woke up the morning of September 11th to my alarm going off. I had it set so the radio would come on rather than beeping. It took me a few seconds to realize that the man on the radio was not just a commercial or the local news but a man talking about an attack in New York City. I got out of bed and went to the living room to turn on the TV to see what was happening. I remember seeing two buildings on the screen with smoke rolling out of them. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. I didn’t really know what the Twin Towers were before that date. I watched for a few minutes then quickly got ready to head to my class. At that point, I didn’t understand the enormity of it all. For some reason, all I was thinking about were buildings and airplanes. I hadn’t yet thought of all the people in the buildings or on the airplanes.

I arrived at my Social Problems class in the Rotunda and the whole room was buzzing with talk of what was happening. Professor Redlin came in shortly after I arrived. She said that she had received a few emails and phone calls from students saying they wouldn’t be attending class that day because they wanted to continue watching the coverage on TV. I can’t remember what else was said during class but she didn’t keep us long.

I turned my TV back on when I got home and the first thing I heard was “the Twin Towers are no more.” I remember thinking, “They’re still there, they just have holes in them” (a horrible thought, I know, like I said I hadn’t yet understood what was really happening). Then when I saw the buildings had collapsed I thought “Oh my God, they really are gone.” That’s also when I learned of the Pentagon crash and the plane crash in a Pennsylvania field.


I continued watching TV until my next class (a human development class, I think it was Adulthood) at 3 pm. Of course the class discussion was about the day’s happenings. Professor White talked about how this would lead to war. He said he thought there would most likely be a draft. That really scared me considering my brother had just turned 18 in June. I can’t remember anything else he said that day but I left class feeling even more scared.


Later that afternoon my friends Hillary and Lory stopped over to talk about what had happened. At some point that evening I talked to my mom. Sometime after I hung up with my mom, my friend Tonya and I decided we should go get in line to get some gas. There was all kinds of speculation that the price of gas of going to skyrocket so we wanted to fill our tanks in case that happened. I’m not sure how long we actually spent in line waiting to get gas, but I think it was around a half hour wait.


I had a hard time going to sleep that night. I felt so unsafe and so unsure of what might happen next.


It’s interesting how the memories stop there. I don’t have any specific memories from September 12 or the few days that followed.


A few other random things I remember from that day:
- Carson Daly on MTV saying something like “We’re going to stay live here. Other stations across the country are probably just showing clips on the news but we’ll stay live”. I was thinking….Really? This was an attack on America that happened in New York. Why wouldn’t all news channels stay live?
- Channels like QVC and HGTV went off air sometime during the day.
- Watching President Bush address the American people that night and feeling very proud of our country.

Encourage

Source: mth2011.tumblr.com via Nichole on Pinterest

Miscellany Monday

1. We've had a nice preview of fall this holiday weekend.  We woke up to temperatures in the 40s and had daily temps in the 60s over the weekend and today.

2. Since the weather was so awesome, it put me in the fall mood.  I put out my fall decor yesterday.  I even bought some mums to replace my dying flowers on the patio.

3. Dave and I had a pretty relaxed weekend.  We mostly just hung out around home all weekend. Last night we had supper with my brother-in-law's family.

4. Today I am baking zucchini bread.  Hopefully it turns out better than last year's flop.  My husband is at Target Field watching the Minnesota Twins game.

That's all I've got. :o)  Hope you all are enjoying the holiday weekend!!

First week love

Well we made it through the first week of the school year.  I'm not going to lie, I'm really glad this weekend is a 3 day!  I much prefer when school starts on a Wednesday or Thursday for the first week.  Even though it was a long, tiring week there were a lot of things that happened that reminded me why I love my job.

I love:
 meeting new students
 seeing kids that I used to have at daycare/preschool as big 4th graders
 getting random hugs throughout the day
 seeing the boys in their football jerseys on Fridays
 reconnecting with my coworkers
 when students I taught last year are excited to see me again
 4th grade humor {most of the time anyway}


Yup, I love my job :o)