one month to go...

a month from today will be the last day of school and my last day at oakwood. it is amazing how quickly time has gone by, and though a month seems like such a short time, i know it will be filled with lots of the end-of-year activities. we have another round of standardized testing, spring concerts, talent shows, spring semi-formals and exams--and all that is on top of my wedding-related events and wedding itself! i almost hope that i get to enjoy a little bit of summer before i start a new job, simply because i will need a break before i head to work.

after our amazing weekend in ocracoke, we decided to celebrate our anniversary on monday, the actual day. justin surprised me by coming home early and setting a beautiful table, complete with customized menus and our new dishes. we had received a bottle of the wine that was served at our reception as a gift from alan and rachel over the weekend.


he also took the "life is good" shirts that we wore to leave the reception and made an important change--under "just married" he added "one year ago!" how creative.
and finally, we thawed out the top layer of our wedding cake and tried a slice. it had held on to the cake taste, but had the oddest texture--combination of moist from the defrosting and dry from the fact that it had been frozen for a year.
the rest of the week was a blur, and we received some of the hardest news i've ever had to deal with. we heard monday night that patrice had not felt her baby move in a day or so, and when they went to the doctor, they couldn't find the heartbeat. she and matt delivered gabriel matthew on tuesday morning and had his service on friday morning. i had just been in winston-salem to see them a few weeks ago and had taken some pictures of patrice individually and her and matt together. i was afraid that these would become painful for patrice and matt to look at, but they posted pictures from the service and i am so honored that they used one of the photos as part of the display. as they said, if they had to choose between spending time with him on earth and spending time with him in heaven, they would choose heaven, hands down.
they are an amazing couple and i love them dearly.

this past weekend was another full one, with relay for life on friday night. i stayed out at the event until 2 a.m., supporting our school team while also taking pictures for the paper. below is our team photo with everyone who was there to support lida's family, along with a couple of my favorite photos. if you'd like to see all of the ones that i took that evening, check them out at reflector.com



alan's sr. recital was saturday evening at ECU. justin recorded the entire performance and has posted it for our friends and family to view. the recording is about a half hour long, but it shows the amazing talent alan has and the amount of work that he has done in the school of music. we spent time with everyone who came in to see the recital, and also hosted a bridal shower for rachel and her friends on sunday afternoon. between weddings, graduation in a couple of weeks, and finding jobs, alan and rachel have a busy summer ahead of them!



that's all for now. bridesmaids' weekend in charleston with ashley and the girls this coming weekend!

busy time of year...

so since i last posted, it's been busy busy busy.

i had the pleasure of going to charlotte last weekend for ashley's bridal shower. all of her bridesmaids were there, and we had a great time meeting everyone and doing the silly shower games that are oh-so-entertaining. i will be seeing all these ladies again weekend after next when we head down to charleston, sc, for the bridesmaids' weekend.

linda and i stayed the night in charlotte and had a great time catching up with ashley and enjoying some quality time with her family. we had an awesome dinner at the bonefish grill and got some krispy kreme doughnuts a la our pirate pack days back in jones dorm. so great to see my girls and talk the night away like we used to.

this weekend, justin and i headed off friday afternoon and caught a ferry over to ocracoke to celebrate our first anniversary. we had been planning this trip for several months and had reservations for the ferry and for a new place (to us) on the island, edwards of ocracoke. the trip was fabulous and we had the most relaxing, restful anniversary weekend possible. we hit all of our favorite eating spots on the island--howard's pub, the flying melon (amazing crab cakes and parmasean encrusted salmon--wow!), ocracoke coffee company (best coffee ever) and more. we rode bikes around to all of the cute shops and art galleries, visited the lighthouse and spent some time on the beach. all in all, a fabulous weekend and i was sad to leave. if i could figure out a way to live there and make a living, i'd consider it...

us with the lighthouse

our boardwalk to the beach--i love this picture!


me on the beach (courtesy of justin)

our wedding glasses that we brought to commemorate our anniversary weekend (we'll try out our cake on monday, the actual date)
enjoying our glasses and an awesome bottle of italian sparkling wine called tinturo (from the wine shop in downtown fayetteville--so good!)
and so it's back to the real world. we're doing standardized testing and finishing up my intern's last few days at school this week. one question mark that has been answered (or turned in to a period, so to speak)--i found out that i will not be at my school next year. i have already been on one interview and am waiting to hear back from several other applications that i put out earlier. this is a great opportunity for me and i see it as perfect timing in the grand scheme of things. it will be tough to leave the kids, families and faculty members that i have grown to love, but i will also get a greater opportunity to work with populations and programs that can use my experience. so i will try to keep everyone updated as that progresses.

in the meantime, i have had some unique photo shoots lately. pigskin pigout (with the parade of pigs) last friday night, carnival rides at the grifton shad festival on wednesday, and, bringing out my southern accent while i talked with the chefs, a wild game and seafood feast for the boy scouts on thursday night. check them out at www.reflector.com under the photos and videos section.

next weekend (get ready)--half day at work, ropes course with the faculty, relay for life friday night into saturday, family coming in, alan's senior recital and reception following, then on into sunday with family spending the night and a bridal shower for rachel that i'm hosting in the afternoon. wooo! it's gonna be a busy one.

so that's all i have for now--later, y'all.

tough week...

so since last thursday, it's been a long week. we spent all day last friday working on the yard. justin broke up the desert area in our back yard that stubbornly hadn't grown grass with a 5 lb. mattock (a pick/sledgehammer type tool.) he busted it up into huge chunks of concrete-hard dirt, and we finally got it to the point where we could spread topsoil on it and plant grass seed again. while he was doing this, i removed the pine straw from the front yard flower beds and replaced it with our brown mulch that we had delivered. below are pictures capturing the whole process...

justin with the mattock in his paul bunyan pose
a piece of the dirt that we dug up
our new front yard flower beds (and the flowers that have bloomed already)

the back deck with mulch and the plants grandma has given me from her yard
after all that very hard, back-breaking work on friday, we took it pretty easy on saturday. it turned cold and rainy (which made it difficult to do my latino spring festival shoot) so we spent plenty of time inside enjoying a new game together. it's called "zack and wiki: the quest for barbados' treasure" which is best described as a puzzle/adventure game. the puzzle part is what i really enjoy, and we easily spent several hours on saturday and sunday solving the puzzles together. you are basically placed in a game level with the goal of reaching the treasure chest or treasure map, and you can manipulate many different parts of the level, change animals into objects, use objects and basic physics to make actions occur, etc. great game and we are getting close to finishing it :)

monday was a tough day--we've had an employee--and friend of mine--at work who was diagnosed with liver cancer over a year and a half ago. she was receiving treatment for over a year and earlier in 2008, they told her that there wasn't anything else they could do for her. on sunday evening, after many months of treatment and battling cancer, she passed away. she has two wonderful daughters--one who is a 9th grader at oakwood--and many family members and friends who loved her very much. it was a diffcult way to start back after spring break, and as much as i had imagined that day to be, it was amazing how the teachers and faculty members pulled together at work. i had many tough conversations with the students and tried to support the other faculty members as much as i could, and i had also planned with other therapists and had them on call in case things got overwhelming. by the middle of the week, things had somewhat returned to normal, but we have big plans for relay for life and her memorial service before the end of the month.

the rest of the week should have been relaxing, but it wasn't--with many plans for next school year coming out and my attempt to make plans for the student government for the remainder of the school year. it's getting to the crazy time of year where i have wedding/bridesmaid/alan's graduation plans nearly every weekend, and i'm just preparing myself for things to be wild. there are still some major question marks for what will be happening over the next couple of months, and it's going to be tough waiting to find out how things will fall. i'm just asking for patience and understanding as i gear up for alan's senior recital and graduation, our anniversary, ashley's wedding, the end of the school year, and alan and rachel's wedding. whoo, it's going to be crazy!

and finally... go UNC! final four weekend, and i'm ready for the game. i'll be watching my heels tonight and (hopefully) monday night :)

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

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