spring break is almost over...

but i plan on squeezing every last minute of relaxation out of it that i can...

our easter ended up being quite nice, with a great church service, a yummy lunch at k&w (we just couldn't bear to cook anything) and a relaxing afternoon of basketball and egg dyeing.

this year we went for the less traditional "tie-dye" egg kit. this involved a little eye dropper, two pieces of material and an egg press that surrounded the cloth wrapped egg. it did produce some pretty cool effects, and we're still enjoying the eggs.

on monday morning, i began my trek across NC with a stop in durham during the day. i have been wanting to do some fun photography on my own (not for oakwood or the reflector) and a couple of the places i really wanted to photograph were duke chapel and duke gardens. so...i planned the beginning of my trip with a stop at both of these places. i will get to see duke chapel again soon when ashley and mark get married there in may, but it was awesome to have the opportunity to photograph the chapel while it was relatively empty.
after meeting my aunt for lunch at elmo's diner (yum!) i headed on over to duke gardens. i was able to spend nearly two hours in the gardens and had such a good time wandering around and stopping to photograph the landscape and some individual flowers. i've only chosen my favorites to put here, so please go to my flickr page to check out the rest.

after meeting ashley for a delicious dinner at cafe carolina, i headed on west to winston-salem where i would stay with matt and patrice for a couple of nights. patrice is in her seventh month and had not really taken any pictures since she got pregnant. i insisted that we take some, so after spending tuesday morning shopping for spring maternity clothes (no easy task, i learned) we went on out to tanglewood park (where baxter and maggie got married last may) and took some beautiful "belly" pictures. i have to say that these are some of my favorite pictures i've taken--ever--and i'm so happy with how they turned out. patrice was thrilled with them as well, and the rest of our evening was spent going through the pictures and including matt in a few.
so wednesday, we took it easy in the morning and i met maggie for lunch before i headed back to greenville. today, the majority of my morning and afternoon was spent out at ecu shooting for founder's day. i ran into several other photographers and reporters, did some networking and got some compliments on my goat shoot (linked on the last post if you missed it.) it felt great to be back on campus, even if it took forever to find a parking spot :) i'll add a link to the founder's day shoot when it's up on reflector.com
and tomorrow... it's yard work day. we're still desperately trying to grow grass in the bare patches, and we have two cubic yards of mulch in the driveway waiting to be spread on our front flower beds. fun times for us tomorrow.

that's all for now. later, y'all.

easter in greenville

it's our first easter in greenville, since we were in fayetteville last weekend for the simmons' dessert drop-in. we've been extremely productive, getting a lot of yard work done (justin) and doing another fun photo shoot (me). i had a great time enhancing some of the photos with an antique finish that played up the light and the colors. be sure to notice those :)

spring break is finally here and i am so relieved to be able to relax for the next few days. i plan on heading over to winston-salem to visit patrice and maggie, and though i had talked about going to boone, i think i'm going to wait for the summer and some warmer weather. (we're going to kentucky for a wedding in august and the route will take us right near boone, so i'd rather try going then).

towards the end of the week, i'm scheduled to shoot founder's day over at ecu (one of my favorite school events!) and a mexican culture festival over the weekend. i like shooting these different events around greenville--and i'm liking the checks, too.

we have plans for easter lunch tomorrow after church and then...our annual dyeing of the eggs. should be a good time :)

that's all for now. later, y'all.

auction is past, spring break is almost here...

so after weeks of preparation, we finally had our annual auction on friday night. pictures are up on reflector.com under their "scene around" button, but i added a few of my personal ones on flickr. the oakwoodettes were a huge hit again this year, and the marilyn monroe costumes, complete with blond wigs and feather boas, made our performance quite popular. though it was not a... broadway performance (many likened it to a drag show) it was terribly entertaining.


justin and i both enjoyed getting dressed up for the occasion. he had gotten a new suit last week in preparation for the three weddings we already have lined up for this summer, and this was his first chance to wear it. i had a little black dress that was just right for the "hollywood" themed event :)
and my photo package proved to be a big hit among the parents, too. i got a lot of questions about the work that i do and got to hand out a ton of business cards. in creating my display for the auction, i wanted to add in some baby portraits, so elizabeth (my intern) brought her 3 month old daughter by so i could take some quick shots. we only had about 5 good minutes to take photos, but they turned out well! i'm getting some great ideas for other baby portraits from browsing photos on flickr, and i can't wait to have some time to take more pictures soon!
in the meantime, we've got oakwood's family science night this thursday (i've been asked to take pics for the school) and a diabetes walk on saturday (job for the reflector). after that, we're heading to fayetteville for a baby shower, the always-fabulous simmons' dessert drop-in, and palm sunday at hay street. we're only two weeks away from spring break (woohoo!) and i've already made plans to head over to winston-salem for a couple of days to visit the very pregnant patrice (and matt, too, but he still has to work).

other than that... i'm just hanging on. i've got spring fever and honestly, summer can't get here fast enough. is that bad? that's just where i am right now...

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

been a little busy...

so it's been a crazy few weeks, and i can hardly believe it's already march. where has the time gone?

one of the reasons february has flown by has been the shear amount of work i've been doing. i reached the point where i realized that, despite how difficult it may be, i occasionally have to say no :) school has been very busy, with family fun night last week, administering some standardized tests, student art show, and all of the preparations for auction (which is this friday.) i've also been making an effort to offer some workshops for parents at school, and i have my first session on monday. below is a picture from the family fun night, where justin and i created "wanted poster" pictures for students and their families.
balancing all this with my work at the daily reflector and volunteering with the youth group has tough, because i've also been traveling a lot. two weekends ago, justin and i headed up to west virginia for our annual "winter" trip to west virginia. this is always the trip that makes me nervous, because there's always the possibility of snow and poor road conditions. however, we took a different route that took us through the southern part of WV and by the new river gorge bridge, an awesome structure. we stopped for pictures (of course) and enjoyed a fairly calm trip to west virginia without any major traffic snarls.

we were also able to get some skiing in at wisp resort in maryland, where the conditions were pretty good and not so unbearably cold like they were two years ago. we spent quality time with all of the family and grandparents and managed to squeeze in a lot for what was essentially only a two day visit (since travel time takes us about 10 hours).

this past week, i headed up to washington, d.c. with my 8th graders as a chaperone on their annual trip. we had four days in the city, and i loved being in a metropolitan area even just for a few days. we stayed in a hotel right inside the georgetown area, which had some great shops and restaurants. i got to see a ton of stuff that i hadn't seen before in d.c., including a white house tour, a visit to the senate, and a tour of the library of congress.

of course, no trip to d.c. would be complete without tracking down the steven colbert portrait in the national portrait gallery.


i was big on the architecture, so you might notice that most of my pictures on flickr are of the buildings and features of the monuments. there were just so many amazing things to capture, and i loved turning a street corner and finding another awesome building in front of me.one of my favorite shots came from the vietnam memorial on the mall.
all in all, a fabulous trip. i do love chaperoning and as long as i'm involved in a school setting, i hope to do more :)


that's all for now. be sure to check out the rest of my photos at the flickr link to the right!

my favorite freelance job so far...

The annual Girl Scouts "Favorite Guy" dance.

Check it out here

So cute it'll make you go "awww....."


oh, and my new, more "professional" website is now live :)

www.laurenthornphotography.com

super bowls, birthdays and lots of traveling

so it's been a crazy past few weeks, though they have also been tons of fun :)

we had a superbowl party at our house, where my "birthday" cake looked suspiciously like a football...
and though the girls had a great time playing guitar hero in the game room, our house was one of the many that experienced crazy outages in the coverage from the local fox station.

as promised, some pictures up from the concert that i went to with mom back in fayetteville a couple of weeks ago.

we celebrated my birthday here in greenville on saturday night with a nice dinner out and some quality time together at home. we've continued home improvements by buying and putting up new curtains in the living room and bedroom, and i spent an evening last night painting our living room furniture a nice, simple black that looks awesome and MUCH better than the fake yellow wood grain that it was before.

monday night, we headed back to fayetteville for a birthday celebration with my dad. we met him after work for dinner and then headed out to see "the producers" with the touring broadway show. it was hilarious--such a great performance--and worth the drive back to work in the morning :)

to finish this up, i've posted some of my personal photos. i've had a couple of slide shows up at reflector.com now, with two more shoots lined up for this weekend. but i'm trying to remember to take some fun photos, too.


and.... go UNC! beat duke!

quick post from fayetteville...

we're in fayetteville this weekend, celebrating my birthday a few days early with my mom and grandma. notes from this trip so far:

-fourth fridays make me proud to be from fayetteville. everyone there enjoys the downtown area, there are so many new shops and restaurants popping up all over the place, and you can simply enjoy the atmosphere as you browse, wine-taste, listen to music and have little snacks.

-as much as i love my nikon d-slr, i quickly came to the realization that it is not practical for all situations. hence, i am now a new owner of a sony cybershot w80, a tiny little 7 mp camera that easily fits in a pocket and does the job that my big, honkin' camera cannot. like...

-going to a concert tonight! mom's co-workers gave her tickets to the biggest concert fayetteville has seen in a long time: reba and kelly clarkson. she figured i would most enjoy attending the concert with her, so that's the plan for this evening following my birthday dinner at grandma's.

and it's a bye week for football, which makes me happy. i see the light at the end of the tunnel (justin also sees the light, but has a totally different perspective on it. what can i say? i'm just footballed out.)

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

school social worker by day...

and now, a freelance photographer by night.

the past two weeks have been busy, with lots of developments in various areas. i set myself a lot of goals for the new year, and it feels like i'm finally really getting into it.

the biggest change has been a new side job with the local newspaper, the daily reflector. i've been a member of the "greenville" group on flickr for a while now, and the group boasts both amateur and professional photographers. one of the professionals, a photographer for the paper, e-mailed us to ask if anyone was interested in taking on some freelance work to further develop the paper's website content. several of us met one night at the paper's office, got our press passes and have been sent to work. my first job was last night at the ECU basketball game where they also recognized the football team during halftime and showed off the hawaii bowl trophy. i spent about 3 hours at the game (about an hour and a half before and another hour into the game to halftime) and took pictures of fans in the stands, getting personal information to go with each shot. once i got home, it was another 2 hours to get all of the photos uploaded with captions. this is tough work, but i thoroughly enjoyed it and have another assignment next week for a chamber of commerce event. of course, if you want to check out the photos, go to www.reflector.com and click on the slideshow at the top of the page (or the photos/videos tab to find other slideshows).
also, i am getting more involved in groups at church, volunteering with the youth group for the first time this week. the teens meet on tuesday nights at the church, having an hour of "hang out" time where they can eat and play games in the loft area that is designated for the youth, and then an hour of worship and devotion. though i know it will take some time for me to develop relationships with the kids, i feel like i got off to a good start and look forward to becoming a regular. this is one area that i have wanted to help out with for quite some time, and now i finally have the opportunity :)

professionally, i've got a case study due by the end of the month and am collecting "continuing education" hours as often as possible. this week, i had the chance to attend an art therapy workshop where we learned about how art therapy is used in a clinical setting and then got to actually do several projects. that's the kind of conference i really enjoy, and i was more than happy to let my creative juices flow on the activities.

and finally, our brief sighting of snow flakes last night. they didn't last long and anything that accumulated was gone by morning, but it was still nice to finally see some snow after enduring lots of rain all day long. mike and debbie had been hopeful when putting this snowman yard stick out in the yard to measure the forecasted snow. though there wasn't enough to need a yard stick, it still made for a good picture.


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

where has the time gone?

so i think it's easiest to describe the last couple of weeks by saying... it was our typical holiday.

and it's easiest to imagine everything we did by going and checking out my flickr photos. you won't be dissapointed.

but i'll try to add some details as well.

the UNC game--such a cool experience! going to visit my aunts and nieces, getting to walk along franklin street, shop at the shrunken head and chapel hill sportwear, and enjoying a walk on campus to visit the old well. and of course, the game itself. though it was a little too close for comfort, they still pulled out a win and we had a great time.



we had a great time during the days leading up to christmas and spent time in fayetteville, going to the christmas eve service at hay street and enjoying christmas morning with my family. we headed to greenville for a christmas dinner with justin's family here that afternoon and played games after eating (balderdash and the every-popular wii).
after relaxing for a few days, we went back to fayetteville for the FTS band alumni reunion. this is sure to become an annual event, as we had a great turnout and loved catching up with everyone--even washburn!
new year's was spent with neighborhood friends along with scott, melissa and the kids. it was a tough transition back to work, but atleast it was a short week and then we were off to the coast, stopping in beaufort for lunch and browsing, then at harker's island and cedar island to take engagement pictures for alan and rachel before we had dinner at my grandparents' in atlantic.

and now we're back to the grindstone. fill in any gaps :)

holiday season=haven't been able to post

so i realize it's been a few weeks since i made a real post, but it has been veeeeeery busy around here. i've had lots of plans going on, and it's just now starting to wind down before the big push to the end :)

the singing christmas tree was fabulous, as usual, and the concerts at school were also great. we've had events nearly every night during the weekends, but still managed to get some christmas shopping done as well. i cannot stand greenville traffic during the holidays, so i'm trying to take care of it on weekday afternoons, online, or have just put it off until i get out of school and can go during the day. it'll all get done in time...

i reprised my role as joann's surrogate daughter for the ecu economics department holiday party. i am a master at taking coats, putting out food and clearing out trash, and it is always appreciated. i also got to take pictures for my friend emily and her daughters for their christmas card. this was my first time using the new camera, and i'm definitely getting a better feel for it. i used it at both school concerts, which i consider to be difficult shooting environments because of lighting and movement. the first concert was a little rough, but i brought the tripod to the second concert and got some excellent shots. in the meantime, i'm watching the ebay auction for my old camera and hopefully will get a decent price for it.

justin and i went to a christmas party on saturday night for the "young adults without children" church small group that i've been going to for the past few months. though we weren't sure how many people we'd end up knowing, we had a great time and participated in another fun game of "yankee swap" or whatever you want to call it. this is a great group of young professionals who are newly married or just a few years out of college, and we're really making an effort to get to know everyone better. hopefully there will be many more parties and gatherings to come!

and yesterday, i spent about 7 hours total at church. that's when i'm really glad we live only two minutes away. the choir arrived at 8 am to perform at the 8:30 service, and then again at the 10:45 service. after leaving at 12ish, we were back again at 4:30 to get ready for the evening christmas program, which started at 6 and didn't end until after 7. i was exhausted by the end of it, but it was an awesome experience. marilyn and i sang a song together, and it was the first time hearing myself over that large of a sound system with monitors projecting back and everything. i also had the opportunity to talk to the youth ministry leader yesterday about volunteering and getting involved with that program as well. they have some great events coming up that sound like something i could definitely help out with. every week i get more excited about this church and the programs going on--it is such a energy boost, and i can't wait to see what i'm led to do.

and coming up--oakwood faculty christmas party tomorrow afternoon AND...

UNC mens basketball game vs. nicholls state on wednesday night! woo hoo! go heels :) and definitely keep your eyes out for those pictures--sure to be great!

that's all for now. happy holidays! and fts band folk, don't forget to rsvp for the alumni reunion!

elf fun :)

and some photo booth pics to help out

holidays are here...

it's that time of year that i love love love...

we've finished our whirlwind tour of thanksgiving, with dinners in fayetteville and greenville, as well as a barbeque lunch with dad in goldsboro. it was nice to have a few days off after some very busy days at work for both of us. we know it'll be a while until the traveling ends, though--we've been down to new bern, all the visits during thanksgiving, and we're heading back to fayetteville for the singing christmas tree at snyder next weekend. it'll just all part of the holiday season :)

i'm still very much tied to the traditions in fayetteville, and we got to experience a wonderful one the friday after thanksgiving. the dickens christmas is an annual downtown event where they have the official lighting of the downtown area by candlelight. i had a fantastic time taking pictures with my camera, and of course, there are more up on flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/laurenm83) below are just some of my favorites...



and now i can't wait for the rest of the christmas season to enjoy my new camera that came in the mail today. we found a fabulous deal on amazon thanksgiving day for a nikon d40 with two lenses. i'm so excited to use it and get comfortable with the settings. in the meantime, we'll also be selling my other two cameras, one online and the other in person, since it has already received a couple of offers from friends and family.

i'm staying busy at work with all of the holiday events and transitions with administration, as well as visits from the new headmaster we'll have next year. this week is spirit week, and tomorrow is pajama day (my favorite day of all time!)

in other news, i'm getting involved with the choir at the church justin and i have been attending recently. i love singing again and being a part of this new group. we've got a music program coming up right before christmas, so we've been working on some new music. i'm also excited about going to the carolina basketball game right after school gets out with my family--there are sure to be some awesome pictures from that one!

that's it for now. later, y'all...

chilly november

it's hard to believe we're already in the second week of november. these past few days have flown by, and it's hard to remember where it all went...

of course, there was trick or treating, where we got to see the brights, the mcanallys, and the britners. other than that, we actually only had a few others. the rest apparently stayed towards the front of the neighborhood. oh well--we have leftover candy that will last us until christmas!

then there was the surprise lunch that i organized for our two mommies-to-be at school on halloween. and my intern, elizabeth, has since welcomed a new bundle of joy into the world...


lilly claire! so cute. i can't wait to see her in person :)finally, i've been getting lots of use out of my camera lately, including some action shots with the soccer team. it was fun seeing what i could capture, and it only makes me want to upgrade to the D-SLR even more. i've been checking out the nikon d40 and am hoping i will be able to get my hands on one by christmas.

and then there are our road trips we've been taking the past couple of weeks, one to fayetteville for the night and another to durham to visit my grandma at duke hospital and do some shopping at streets at southpoint. i think we're ready to have a weekend at home before all of the holiday weekends coming up!

that's all for now. later, y'all

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 :)

so it's been a while...

things have been busy around our house lately. between work, school events, spending time with family and football, we've stayed quite occupied the past couple of weeks.

highlights are as follows:

-ecu vs. southern miss game last weekend: we had tickets for the highest row in the upper deck. great view of the game and the town. long walk up the stairs, and long game with a dissapointing end. sigh...

-lunch with dad in goldsboro that same day. always good barbeque and good conversation :)

-teacher appreciation dinner this week: fun times with my coworkers while we felt quite appreciated and quite stuffed!

-getting ready for our trip up to WV for the annual preston county buckwheat festival. we'll be leaving on thursday and enjoying all of the festivities on friday and saturday. i can't wait to take pictures and enjoy the fresh mountain air.

-enjoying the sounds and the heat of the river rock festival last saturday at the town commons. i'm becoming a big fan of live music around town.

-of course, the very live sounds of the dave matthews band in raleigh last tuesday. i won tickets on the radio the week before and justin and i headed over to walnut creek right after work that night. we grabbed a couple of subs, ate them in the parking lot and headed in to stake out our spots. i will say that the fans at a DMB concert are more mellow than some of the other concerts i've attended. no fighting over spaces, everyone being nice to everyone else, and lots of sharing... at any rate, once the haze cleared, it was an awesome concert with one of the best bands out there. and one of our cheapest dates ever :)

-and the promise of fall. we got a taste of it last week and i'm ready for it for good. there's something about being able to pull on jeans and a comfy sweatshirt to go out and enjoy the season.

that's all for now. new pics up on flickr--check 'em out!

it's a football saturday

fun notes as i take a moment to post in between social outings today:

*we are now the proud owners of a 42' HDTV that is sitting happily above our fireplace. check out justin's website for more details and my photos to see the newest member of the family. though it has proven quite popular for football games and movies, this week i used it for something i knew i would love to see in high defintion--DCI finals on ESPN2. awesome, awesome, awesome. congrats to carolina crown for placing in the top 6 for the first time!

*to ECU for a fabulous showing at virginia tech last week--a highly publicized game that gave our school some wonderful positive publicity. and today, as we take on carolina at home for a sold out crowd, i will unfortunately have to watch it on tv somewhere around town. i'll be cheering on my pirates, though! (heels, wait til basketball season. then i'll put on my carolina blue.)

*to seeing my lovely linda and having a great lunch at mcalister's where we sat a couple of feet away from dave mirra and his wife. he was at the table next to us on the patio, and it was after a couple of fans came up to say hello that we realized we were sitting next to one of the most famous bmx bikers in the world. so cool.

*i am three weeks into the school year and taking on so many new projects. getting student government started up, planning camp cheerio, organizing a trip to busch gardens for the upper schoolers, trying to figure out what is and is not my responsibility, and getting to know our new teachers better. fall festival is coming up soon, as well, and i cannot wait for it to start to feel like autumn.

*finding the live music scene in greenville. something justin and i have tried to get into over the past couple of weeks. we took the opportunity to check out courtyard tavern's live music on the patio last sunday night for labor day weekend, and then last night we had an early dinner at wimpie's where a band was playing and then went to the patio at moe's for some more live music. there are some great bands playing around greenville if you take the effort to go find them.

that's it for now. go pirates! arrrrrrgh!

in the groove...

so we've almost completed our first full week of school. schedule glitches have been ironed out, responsibilities have been correctly delegated, and i'm getting used to having an intern around for half the week. a big plus--my computer got an upgrade! i went from an iBook g4 to a MacBook, complete with built-in iSight camera and a bunch of new applications. i lost about half an hour the other afternoon exploring google earth and putting down little push-pins around the globe :)

mom's birthday party was quite a success, with lots of family there to visit and some wonderful home-cooked food. we had a great visit there, but headed back on saturday night to celebrate justin's birthday here at home. it was a quiet evening with take-out chinese and a movie, but the perfect way to celebrate after two weekends full of big parties.

we also have gotten started back up with fantasy football and are preparing for the beginning of real football season (both college and NFL.) justin's trying desperately to sell the mustang in order to fund the purchase of a new HDTV in time for the season opener, and i'm hoping to make it to as many pirate games as possible this year, even though tickets are supposedly sold out. there's something about this time of year that makes me miss the friday night football games terribly. i think i should adopt a local high school and go to all of the games for fun :)

finally, we're getting ready for a couple of trips during the next couple of months. the end of september, we're planning on heading up to WV for the annual "buckwheat festival" in justin's hometown, where you can eat buckwheat pancakes and sausage 24/7 and watch livestock shows, parades, and play bingo to your heart's content. then a couple of weeks later, i'll go on up to camp cheerio for the third time with my 7th graders. this annual trip has become one of my favorite activities, and i'm especially looking forward to it this year. we're trying to make this year a great one despite of all the changes around school.

that's about it for now. later, y'all :)

back to the grindstone

so it's been a crazy few days... let me enumerate:

1) after 170 questions, about 2 and a half hours, and a couple months of studying--i passed the clinical social work exam. quite exciting, though everyone's asking, "so, you're a fully licensed clinical social worker now?" no... still have about 2,100 clinical hours to log, which will take me about 2 years in my current setting. so, in a little over two years, i'll be fully licensed. this is just sorta a big hoop that i had to jump through. i'm very happy to have it over with, though.

2) i had planned to go out and purchase the new harry potter the moment i got back in greenville as my reward for passing the exam. fate was working for me, though, and i ended up getting it before then. i passed one of my coworkers on the highway as i was driving back home and called her up to chat while we were both on the road, following one another. i was telling her how excited i was to get back and buying the book, and she said, "don't do that! i have it in my trunk. pull over at the next exit." we pulled off at a little country gas station, she gave me the book, and i went straight home and started reading. the next afternoon, i was done :) soooooo good. so good, so good, so good.

3) we're back at school, and kids are coming in four days. this has become a comfortable routine now, but with new staff members and some changes around the school, it's not "same old, same old." i really like the new teachers we've hired, and i'm excited to see how the year starts out.

4) students are coming back to the university. i drove by college hill this week and saw colorguard auditions going on down at the field--made me miss it just a little bit (but not enough to be out there in the almost 100 degree heat). traffic is crazy, all of the stores are crowded, and parents are moving students in and stocking up on dorm/apartment supplies. as easy as it is to feel like a college kid still living in a college town, i realized today that i am getting past that point. i saw a girl today who was in the middle of shopping with her mom after moving in to the dorms. it was the middle of the afternoon, at least 95 outside, with a heat index of somewhere over a hundred. she was in target with a hooded ECU sweatshirt on. SWEATSHIRT. obviously an effort to wear something ECU for the move-in even though that was the only thing she had. i just had to shake my head and keep going.

5) we're celebrating justin's birthday tomorrow with family. it isn't until next friday, but this weekend worked better for everyone. we're grilling out, showing off the house, and having ice cream cake. doesn't get much better than that :)

alright, that's it for now. welcome back to school, everyone! bouquets of sharpened pencils and what-not... later, y'all :)