love is in the air...

so i had the pleasure of attending a middle school dance last night... my first in a while, actually. my younger brother is the band director at a middle school about 45 minutes away, and his band boosters club decided to host a dance as a fundraiser. he got the DJ set up (a janitor at the school that does it on the side) and called me to see if i'd be willing to take cute "posed pictures" like they do for proms and stuff. i told him that i did that kind of thing at almost all the dances while i was working at my last school and that would be fine. so after work yesterday, i headed out and got to see what it was like to do a (public) middle school dance--a little different from the ones i hosted :)


we were set up in the gym and i had my own corner that was blocked off by rows of metal folding chairs. it actually worked pretty well and they kept the lights on the whole time, so i didn't have to worry about shooting in complete darkness, only relying on my flash. i'm also a fan of keeping lights on a dances. less to worry about.


alan showed me around his bandroom first, and i just thought this was the cutest thing. they had the practice area, the instrument storage room and... the arts and crafts room. "the girls just went crazy over the whole decorating thing," he explained. and i had to take a picture.

note the "count down" calendar and the envelopes created for various sized and colored hearts. there were also signs for "phrases for conversation hearts" and the all-consuming "idea wall."

now this one has a story. the wall in the back was built in to seperate various areas in his office. he actually has three small rooms in there, and this is the one furthest to the back. the large desk flipped upside down on the file cabinets is stuck. they built the wall without removing the desk from this area, and the desk cannot fit through the doorway or over the wall. alan plans on sawing it in half the first "teacher workday" he gets.

and then... the dance. i'm a fan of people-watching. this was the perfect job for me.
and i think middle school dances are even better. because it's not about looking cool or everyone out on the dance floor. middle schools dances are about the talking with your friends and running around and playing basketball with the balloons and being goofy awkward middle schoolers. it's very little about actually "dancing."

i did have a picture i snapped that i wanted to post, but chose not to (cause you can tell who the kids are in it.) it's of one couple dancing to a slow song, surrounded by six or seven friends taking pictures or trying to talk to the girl who's actually doing the dancing. ahh, middle school. the joys of living vicariously through your friends.


finally--i'm sure you're thinking, "lauren, those photos that you posted of pepper yesterday were so cute! there's no way you could find a more adorable picture or outfit for her on valentine's day."


oh, what a trip to petsmart will do.in case you need to see the message a little clearer....
justin was slightly offended, but acknowledged the truthfulness of the statement. and it was on clearance. i couldn't resist :)

that's all for now. we're heading to the fresh market to choose our valentine's day dinner and will spend the rest of the day relaxing and just enjoying a saturday to ourselves. i love my husband!