Crouching Lamb, Hidden Dragon

We geared all up for Halloween night.  We visited a few neighbors early in the evening and then returned home to wait for the hordes of kids that would pound on our door.  They never came!  Ok, 6 total children appeared at our door, 3 groups.  It was so depressing!  We were bored and have so much extra candy.  Next year our neighbors and I have a new plan: we'll set up a table up the street (since we're at the end of a street) and offer adult food and drink as well as candy.  It'll be much more fun than sitting at home waiting for kids who never come.  Our only consolation is that we had the cutest Lamb on the block.  (Someone thought she was a marshmallow!)

Halloween Party

Our village within Chevy Chase, Martins Addition, had a wonderful Halloween party today.  This might have been the best day of Elosie's life.  There was pizza, cake, real life Elmo, tons of kids, and a bubble bounce.  Eloise had a blast and was the cutest kid there!  She loves being "Lamby."

Rainy Day

When I said "Cheese," Eloise put her finger in her nose.   Nice pose, Eloise!

W&L Girls

Eloise joined me on a wonderful weekend reunion with some of my most wonderful friends--Maury, Jen, Kathryn, and Millie.  Although our time was too brief, it was splendid!  We celebrated Millie with a surprise baby shower (it's a GIRL!), attended Parktober fest, and just talked a lot.  It's always refreshing to pick up where we left off last.

Milestone

Eloise has earned some bragging rights.  Eloise not only stayed in the church nursery for 2 hours but she also had FUN in there.  She played, danced, and didn't want to leave.  What a relief for us!  Alex and I are so happy and proud.  Good job Eloise!

Employed

I am now an employee of Montgomery County School District, the 16th largest in the country.  It serves about 170,000 students--insane, right??  That's like 3 times the size of Eagle county.  I'm actually surprised that I'm hired (as a substitute) because I hadn't heard from them in a couple of months.  They called last week and I interviewed for a total of 5 minutes and I was hired.  I drove 45 minutes there, interviewed for 5 minutes (literally!), then drove 45 minutes home.  I'm happy.  I hope to sub on Mondays, make a little extra money, and keep my teaching experience up.

Our Room

Couldn't fit this one in the last post.  Here's our room.  I LOVE the paint color!

Settling In

Here are some photos of our new house.  We've really done a lot already!  Thanks to all of you who have helped.  We had a church event here last week which was a big deadline for me to finish the downstairs.  Tonight we're having some old friends over for dinner so it's in tip-tip condition.  

Molls to the DC, Thanks to Vero

Molly has been here visiting us for her Fall break and it's been great fun.  Plus she's helped me go shopping and put the finishing touches on Eloise's room.  The house is really coming together--I find that I just keep shopping and it keeps looking better and better.  Funny how that works!

And a shout out is in great order to Nana and Pops!  Thank you so much for all your help and the furniture.  Everything Nancy brought is beautiful and fits in perfectly.  Three cheers for Nancy driving across the country in a U-Haul -- YEA, YEA, YEA!

North Carolina

We had a fabulous week of wining and dining with our seminary friends in Roaring Gap, NC.  It was perfectly exquisite to be with such dear and trusted friends.  

BTW, does anyone know if I can fix the watermark on the photo of the 3 of us?  I've tried some stuff on Iphoto but haven't been successful.

DC

We went sight seeing today!

How old is my baby?

Doesn't she look too old??

The Zoo

The National zoo is minutes from our house.  We went today to visit our animal neighbors and had a great time!  The highlights include seeing a hippo out of the water (have you seen them before, they are hilarious looking!), the baby elephant and baby panda, and the flamingos.  I know we'll make many more trips to the zoo.

Home in Maryland

It's been about 2 weeks since I've written last.  A lot has happened! We had a sad but wonderful last service in Vail Sunday September 7.  (To our Vail friends-we miss you!)  We literally got in the car and left from church.  Mike graciously drove Eloise and I to the airport to fly to Dallas.  Alex drove straight to Kansas.  Dallas was a wonderful time for Eloise and me.  My family threw a surprise bday party for me with yummy food and a cake with candles.  Eloise played with her cousins Charlie, Cici, and dog Ricky.  She loved every minute of it.  She also had a photo shoot (she loves the attention of the camera).  The photos are incredible and I'll post some soon.

We all converged on DC in the middle of the next week.  Our house was in pristine condition (thank you All Saints!), unfortunately we didn't receive our belongings until the next Saturday (one week ago).  We camped out, met all our neighbors and explored.  Thank God our truck came on Saturday (we were starting to get nervous seeing that they were a few days late) and Alex started work Sunday.  He preached a great sermon and has been busy at work since.

We're really loved having my mom here.  She's not only unpacked many boxes but has also been Eloise's best friend and babysitter.  She's given us the opportunity to go on several dates and parties while she stayed with Eloise--Thank you so much mom!!  We've also seen some great friends.  We had 3 friends from Vail come to church Sunday and seen some wonderful high school (Elizabeth and Adriana) and college friends.

The biggest news of all, though, is our new TV.  After 4 years of no TV service, we have decided to emerge from our hermit lifestyle and not only get fiber-optic TV service but also a new HD flat screen.  Alex is in Heaven (and so am I)!

Packing up and ready to go

Movers come tomorrow (Saturday) and we take off on Sunday--WOW!  We're in the home stretch now.