some needed time away

...And some time to think of nothing but what is going on in this moment -- and not two weeks or months from now -- was nice and long overdue. Unfortunately, that means I need to kick it into high gear until I leave for LA on the 11th.

Long weekend recap: Wednesday night was bells and choir, per usual... though I got to talk to a few people to send my "Happy Thanksgiving"s and such. Thursday wasn't much of anything -- but being thankful for my family, my wonderful friends, and my family's health. Friday was shopping -- but only because I felt like it. (A *very* cute red dress, two pairs of shoes, a bunch of cute tops and 2 more cute skirts came out of it, so it was a good day.) Darrin fixed the freezer with his magic wand (or curiousity, you pick), which made Mom a VERY happy camper. Somewhere between Friday and Saturday, I went out for a bit with Edwin. We had a good time, and hopefully the next time won't be three and a half years from now. Saturday was...a very stressful 1st half of the Hokie Football game...*Cheers from the audience*...then came the second half! *whew*. Today was church stuff, cleaning my bedroom and office (woohoo, I can find the floor and daybed again!), writing the family Christmas Letter, and putting the finishing touches on the Heritage Album Pages before Christmas.

Oh, all that, and the DAR Memorial Continental Hall crossstitch is almost done.

xoxox and Sweet Dreams,
hlm

Leaving a Legacy...

The purpose of a girl's Gold Award project is to leave a positive mark on the community and to establish something that will be around for a period of time... I never anticipated 10 years.

I just received this link from the Great Falls Historical Society -- http://gfhs.org/gf_day.htm . Check out the pictures from last year's event! If you were there in the beginning, or any time since then, you'll remember that it wasn't nearly this big!!

Thanks for the indulgence.... Hope to see you at the celebration in May!

xoxox
hlm

Tempus est iocundum

(Props if you can tell me what I'm listening to ;) Even more props if you can tell me my memories attached to the larger work...)

Mom and I decided on the trees for this year -- Our house theme is A Child's Christmas, and the 10-foot tree is going to be the storybook tree! We're using the doll tree, the Santa tree (with new additions!), the full-sized Barbie tree, the snowpeople tree, and the Gingerbread tree in addition to the old favorites - the creche tree, and the music tree. I think it was 45 last year... and I know I bought three more last year. Everything goes into high gear on Friday - and the house is mostly ready. Stay tuned.

The wall is patched, and surprisingly well painted.

tired of thinking

Tons of stuff going on... I'm just too tired to write. A work presentation went pretty cruddily (leniency please) today -- but apparently it wasn't as *bad* as I thought. Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory made up for a good portion of the cruddiness.

BUT -- good news is that I got my plane reservations to go visit James!!! *woohoo* This officially marks the first completely spontaneous trip i've EVER taken. Only about three weeks notice too! I'm really looking forward to it! Now I just need to go shopping for cute clothes :)

xoxox
hlm

Third Gear.. hang on tight...

... yup, that' s my life. I'm making a concerted effort to slow down -- I even learned how to say "no" the other day! ... That lasted until I was asked to do the Christmas Pageant again. (I'm such a sucker for those kids at church!) Seriously though -- I put together my extracurricular activity resume for my DAR chapter and got tired!

Class was long last night. Even though it was all about laws and regulations (and excitingly-dweeby stuff like that), it was just plain long. I'll blame it on my table full of distractions (I still love you guys!), and a few recent bombs.

In case you didn't know, a good friend of mine is living in Amman right now, and I've been worried sick about him recently. The bombs going off over there on Wednesday didn't help. He's ok though, and his fairly quick email was an immense, yet brief relief. Guess this kinda strikes out going to visit for a while.

I had a nice talk with my "big brother" last night.... still tons of things to be talked about, and a ton of questions (I'm keeping a list!), but it was still nice to chat. I hope we get to catch up soon!

Speaking of Big Brothers, Dawson emailed me yesterday! His son is three months old! There's a little Dawson running around. That's kinda scary. I'm really happy for him and Heather!

Adding to my list of things to do: Valley Forge memorial on Sunday, Hopkins class mon/Thurs next week, DHS document comment acceptance and incorporation. And getting a lot of coffee...

To keep you stealth readers entertained -- a collection of the best pictures of me and Darrin... :)

Happy Veterans Day!
xoxox
hlm

Psst..: Where's the comment love? I know some of you are keeping tabs on me... (wink wink) Let me know what you want to hear about!

Things I know for sure....

1) I have my car back now- even with fewer scratches than *before* the deer!
2) The Hokies game never happened tonight. Period.
3) Even though I only got three hours of sleep last night, I got a ton of things accomplished today! Darrin and I hung shelving (woohoo!) and found cornstalks for Mom. Who knew that cornstalks cost that much!!

.....Oh, and Karma better be biting some people in the butt soon. Talking out of...both sides of your mouth (Yes Mom, that's cleaned up...) doesn't sit well with me -- especially if you're in a n elected, theoretically-respectable leadership position. *grr* Six more months... only six more months!!

Misc stuff: I heard from Edwin this past week. I *have* to find out what he's been up to for the past 3.5 years. (Remember this folks... my memory for specific things is like an elephant's.) James and I had a good talk at 2:30 this AM. I heard from Malinowski, and am most-definitely excited about seeing her sometime soon!

Plans: Bells tomorrow AM (both services - come entertain me!), GSCNC/Booz Allen Mentorship event tomorrow until 6, then Hopkins and DHS stuff until who knows when! I have a couple meetings this week, and of course, class. *boo*...

xoxox
hlm