I forced myself to be creative today because I wanted to decorate appropriately for the fall. This is the wreath I made for the front door!

Aaron and I went shopping this afternoon...we got some moulding for the bathroom ceiling, a tree for either the living room or kitchen (we can't decide where to put it yet), and flowers for the front porch. Aaron spent some time sharpening the blades of the lawn mower and then did a great job cutting the grass. I spent time cleaning the house. I took some pictures after we finished everything so that you can see what we're up to. This is our first home!

Aaron and I enjoyed a dinner date last night at the Friendship Diner, which is right up the road from our house. We met around 7:30 to catch a couple hours of the Wolfpack football game on ESPN. They played Georgia Tech...one of my principals is a hard core (GT) fan and was giving me a hard time about it, but we won! So this morning I had some fun in the office.
The owner of the Diner talked us into a Millionaire Brownie and a blackberry cobbler after our dinner. It was a fun night to forget about the difficulties of the week.

Pack Steals Road Victory With Fourth Quarter INT
Jay Davis threw two long touchdown passes to Brian Clark, including an 80-yard go-ahead score in the fourth quarter.

Oct. 6, 2005


ATLANTA (AP) - Jay Davis threw two long touchdown passes to Brian Clark, including an 80-yard go-ahead score in the fourth quarter, and Garland Heath's interception in the end zone with 26 seconds left protected the lead as North Carolina State beat No. 24 Georgia Tech 17-14 on Thursday night.

Georgia Tech had a first-and-goal at the 2 with 33 seconds left. Reggie Ball fired a pass in the end zone that hit the hands of receiver Calvin Johnson who was in the air as he was hit by Marcus Hudson. Heath grabbed the ball and got two feet down before going out the back of the end zone.

Join me in supporting the A-T Children's Project by sponsoring Aaron Fernandez in the 2006 WALT DISNEY WORLD Marathon. He is raising money for a cure and life improving therapies for a rare genetic disease called ataxia-telangiectasia that effects children. Visit his fundraising web page, and please pass it on to your friends! Either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your web browser.

http://www.atcp.org/Fundraising/Marathoners/Fernandez.htm

We realize most of you have never heard of Albany, GA. Here are some links so that you can learn more about our town.

www.albanyga.com
www.lee.ga.us

And about our governor, Sonny Perdue: (dad, you will like this one)
www.walb.com/global/Story.asp?s=3890940

We get in free with my teacher's pass! Hence Aaron's big grin.
They love kids! Especially when they drop their cups through the bleachers and somebody who can climb a fence has to go get it...
The Trojans have had a winning season, which apparently is notable for this area because we hear about it often.
Laurie and Joshua. She is expecting again and this time it'll be a girl!

We still have a few things to tell about that happened during our break time. Work: Aaron recently became manager for another branch around us in Douglas. It is about 2 hours away and so he has to travel about once a week. It is a great opportunity to learn more about the business, though, so we are excited. He worked very hard on a budget proposal last week and it was impressive. Teaching is becoming a blessing...I love seeing the students everyday and encouraging them. I feel like I'm really fighting for something important when I go to work. The lesson planning is still a struggle...and I don't like having to work when I get home and on the weekends. I've learned a lot about saying "enough is enough" and "It will still be there tomorrow." We had two days off this past week and I was reminiscent about what it was like to stay at home. I got so much done! And I got more than 6 hours of sleep! Fall break is coming soon (Oct. 14-17). Play: not much to say here. Aaron is training for a marathon in January, so he is running all the time. I ride my bike beside him and do all the talking. Church: We joined at the end of July and were baptized at the beginning of September. Our Sunday School leaders are moving to Augusta, and we are sad to see them leaving. IB and Michelle Parnell were the first people to reach out to us when we moved. They are persistent! They took us out to dinner one night in the summer, and she has invited me over for lunch a couple times. We had a Going Away party for them 3 weeks ago at the McNeal's house in Leesburg. Here are some pictures:

Kent, Michelle, and David. Some of us watched the Georgia Bulldogs play football.














The kitchen was a favorite place...we all brought something to eat! Aaron and I made saugage cheese balls (thanks, Aunt Angie, for the recipe!) and we made a chocolate brownie trifle in our new trifle dish (thanks, Southern Living!). From the left: Laurie, Starla, Rebecca, Chad, David, and Chip.














Along with the going away party, we also showered Michelle with baby girl gifts (she is due at the end of December).














Melanie and I are admiring Rebecca's wedding pictures.

Yesterday (Sept. 29) was Aaron's birthday. We are thankful for his life! It was his first birthday as a married man, so I did my best to take care of him. He had a cookie cake at work his his co-workers, went to our 9 year old neighbor's first football game, ate hoagies at the Moody's house, and then celebrated with cake and balloons at the Fernandez house. He got money for new running shoes, a weighted leather jump rope, a gift card to Home Depot, a wet-dry vac, a membership to the YMCA, and lots of cards. He said it was the most birthday cards he'd ever gotten! Thank you to everyone who called and sent a card. We are grateful to have such thoughtful family and friends. We are still celebrating this weekend...tomorrow we are going to have a movie marathon in the living room and go to the Outback for a romantic dinner.

It's great that both husband and wife agree on the best kind of cake...
Marcela was so sweet to provide the birthday dinner!
Some of our other neighbors came to eat cake (and wish him a happy birthday).


















I made this giant card and got all my kids to sign it for Mr. Fernandez.

































Eating cake at our house. We lit the candles and everyone sang...it was a beautiful harmony :)
We are enjoying Dominick's new camera smile.
















He couldn't wait to get it open and put it together! In fact, this morning when I woke up it was in the living room with the box and all the parts spread out on the floor.

One of my most enthusiastic students had his last day in my class after only 3 weeks of school. His name is Yash (pronounced Yush) and he is from India. He moved to another town in south Georgia. I was sad to see him go. When we were getting to know each other at the beginning of the year, he would always say that his favorite thing to do was to take tests. He kept the class upbeat!

The weekend of September 3-4 we traveled to Atlanta (3 hours for us) to meet the Fernandez family for an Atlanta Braves baseball game. Neither of us had ever been to a major league game, so it was an exciting experience. Friday night we ate in downtown Atlanta (after making several circles to find a parking place). It was a nice place but the lighting was so low that the waiter had to get a flashlight out for us when we ordered. Saturday after breakfast we went our separate ways- some to the pool to relax and burn our noses, some to the mall to buy new pants for work, and some to Turner Field to check out the driving directions. We enjoyed the Olive Garden on Saturday evening, as we celebrated Mike's and Angie's birthdays. The Braves played a great game and won, which gave us even more to yell about. Here are some pictures of that weekend. Thanks for meeting with us, Fernandez family!

This is our group! Can you believe how tall Abigail has gotten? And then I remember, "oh yeah, it's been 5 months since we have seen them!"
It was a good game. The stadium was especially impressive.
We've got a fan in the family! Sorry that it's sideways. I haven't figured out how to rotate yet.
Peepaw is concentrating. Thank you for coming, Peepaw!
These girls...always buddies!


Happy Birthday Mike! And this couple also had an anniversary on the 16th of this month. Congratulations :)
Happy Birthday Aunt Angie! It was great to see your family again.
Happy to be eating at an Olive Garden- we do not take it for granted.
Shopping on Saturday- we got Mike an MP3 player.
Dinner Friday night...Aaron is taking the picture.
We had to have two tables- we couldn't stand to see Caleb like this anymore so we squeezed him in at the grown-ups table.

We're back! We owe you an apology for skipping out on so many weeks after we started this blog. It was just bad timing- I started my new job and was very busy very fast. I haven't had a lot of time to take a breath and catch up on this website! We didn't have school yesterday or today, and so I'm enjoying the time to do things that I've been wanting to do. Sleep, write notes, email, have lunch with friends from church, cook for my husband, and add to our website! I've also been planning for Aaron's birthday (which is this Thursday...two more days!).
Please forgive us for our neglect. We'll try harder to be consistent now that things are settling down at school.
This is my sorry face...