it's almost halloween...

and fall has officially come to g-vegas. my feet are consistently cold, i get to pull out the sweaters and sweatshirts, and we have stopped using the air conditioning. yay :)

among many of the fall traditions that we have had these past few years, the school halloween dance is one of my favorites. i lead the student government for the middle school, which means i plan lots of dances and social events. i LOVE the halloween dance because it's easy to decorate (you can be tacky and that's totally acceptable), the costumes are fun to see, and it's our first big event of the year. this year, my intern elizabeth and i decided to have fun with a couple of wizard of oz costumes. i was glenda the good witch, and she had a blast being the wicked witch of the west. she also managed to convince her husband time to be one of the munchkins. lots of fun, and we had an awesome time.

i also had to pleasure of watching east carteret perform last week here at rose high school. it's the first time i've been to a marching band competition in a while, and i got to hang out with alan and his other band people before the performance. i also took some fun shots during the show (also on flickr)
and school field trips abound. i got to accompany the kindergarten classes to briley's farm the other day to pick pumpkins and go to the petting zoo. always a welcome change of pace during the day.

not to mention the homecoming game where ecu stomped all over uab, our fun experience of planting trees during a drought with hard-as-concrete dirt, and plans i've been working on to help us celebrate halloween at school (and recognize a couple of our soon-to-be mommies).

that's about it for now. trick or treat :)

by the way, i'm back :)

from camp cheerio, where i led a group of 28 7th graders with two other faculty members for four days. we canoed, we caved, we hiked, we made s'mores. it was your typical camp experience.

and fall was in full force up there. i miss fall. i'm waiting for greenville to remember that it's supposed to be fall.
we're also back from busch gardens, where i led a group of 23 high schoolers along with justin and four other parents. we rode all the roller coasters, went through crazy scary haunted houses, and circled the park more times that i'd care to count.
i also had fun with shutter speeds and the new dive coaster, the griffen. awesome ride, but makes a pretty cool picture as well.
and when i returned to work this week, i opened my door to a desk full of flowers in appropriately recyclable cans and bottles. my friends at work had been ribbing me about my recycling habits and decided they would decorate my office while i was gone. the flowers are still beautifully displayed in my office, but the bottles and cans are in the recycling bin. of course :)
and now i'm gearing up for halloween, football games, homecoming and school events. should keep me plenty busy, but i'm looking forward to some relaxing times as well for me and justin to celebrate our six month-iversary on sunday.

that's all for now :) later, y'all

back from the highlands...

so after an exciting weekend at the buckwheat festival, we're getting back in to the swing of things here at home. i just got the pictures up on flickr for the festival, and it's easiest to look at them in the set on the right side of the page.

i've added a few of my favorites one here, like the buckwheat cakes...the great festival food...
the parades...
the livestock...
and the fair displays...
it was great seeing all of the sights around preston county and spending time with justin's family. we had an awesome visit, except for an awful drive back down i-95 with a big accident and several detours. we ended up not getting home until 11:45 that night, about more than two hours after we were expected home. we're already looking at new routes to take up next time.

now that the wv trip is done, i'm focusing on my next two trips--the busch gardens day trip this weekend with my older students and faculty friends, and camp cheerio next tuesday with my 7th graders. these trips have taken a lot of time and effort over the past few weeks, and i'm ready for them to be here! between collecting permission forms, lining up buses and telling everyone what to pack, it's been a busy planning time and have caused some stress around school. now that they're almost here, i'm just hoping they go off well.

also this friday is our fall festival, and i'm excited about face painting all night long. this is one of my favorite things to do during the school year, and i've already got the supplies ready to go.

mom and grandma are getting ready for their big trip to new england and canada, and alan's getting in the middle of marching band season. i'm so excited for fall to get here, especially after getting a taste of cooler weather up in wv this past weekend. camp cheerio should definitely do that for me, but it's still a little too warm around here to feel like it's really autumn.

that's about it for right now--check out the new pics on flickr :)