Pennsylvania Trip

The very first night I arrived, Arin got off of work, and we went to one of her favourite diners! We got yummy diner hamburgs and peanut butter pie for dessert. It was absolutely delicious.

I was so glad that Arin was able to take time away from her busy schedule to be able to spend time with me. She had to work one of the days that I was there, but we had a blast on the other days! She actually took me to a swing-dancing club that she and her froends go to often. I felt sorry for the poor men who asked me to dace - I've danced, ballet, jazz, modern, tap, broadway, and even some latin, but I've NEVER done any swing. I warned them as we went out on the dance floor, but they were gentlemen and danced very kindly, not commenting when I stepped on their toes.

Doesn't Arin look cute with the baby guitar?

I came out Monday morning to see kitty paw prints going up the front of my car! (Ok, it's Mom and Dad's car, but *I* drove it!) Nero the cat had been climbing.

This picture was taking about 2 in the morning. I think that is all the explanation needed.

Ditto.

The morning I left. Arin headed off to school, and I finished packing up.

Of course, before I left, I had a certain someone I needed to play with.

The way home was awful. Not only did I take the way with the most traffic (But Moooom, I knew how to get home that way!!) But then, when I stopped at a CVS to stretch my legs, I managed to lock the keys in the car. So I got to know CVS pretty well in the hour that I spent there, and then another 15 minutes of the handyman attempting to break into the car. Good news is, if it takes HIM that long, I don't think anyone else will want to attempt it.

I'm home now, with two more days of break left. I'm going to Chick-fil-a for a job interview. I'm praying that it's the right job for me, because I've been searching for the past 5 months and nothing has turned up yet. I know a few people who work here; they are all lovely, and put in a good work for me. The staff seems nice, it's a clean place, and they're closed on Sundays, which is good since I can't work weekends anyway. (one of the reasons other things have fallen through) We'll see what happens!

I hope you all are having lovely weeks, and that you liked my pictures. I know I haven't updated in a while, but that's apparently what happens when one is in their last, busy, trying-to-figure-out-the-future semester!

Love, Sarah

Thanksgiving

Here we have how the girls and I spent Thanksgiving morning - we all did crafts while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Rebekah and Rachel made bracelets, while I did some crocheting.

I had Thanksgiving "lunch" (Dinner at their house) with the Vance family. One of Thomas's 3 brothers, Trevor, was there also! (the other two live in remote places like Africa, and Texas)

The delicious food!

Thomas and Trevor and I headed back to our house for Thanksgiving dinner there. While everything was getting ready, some of us played an intense game of Monopoly.

Rebekah just looked pretty. :)

(Thomas cannot claim any credit for helping set this table whatsoever)

Our absolutely wonderful dinner! Mom outdid herself this year! She did have some help however, Rebekah made the asparagus casserole and Rachel made green bean.
And of course, the animals wanted their share.

And now I'm off to take the first of my finals! Hope everyone is having a good week!

Finally, Pictures!

So I've finally gotten a breath to spare to put up pictures - although not much of one, as after this I need to lean up from Thanksgiving dinner, and do a few lessons of math. Oh, the life of a college student living at home!

One of the girls took this picture of the two of us backstage in the greenroom. :) (even if Thomas does look slightly like a girl because of his makeup. shhhhhh.)

This was the opening scene of the show - Thomas played Oliver from the play As You Like it.

Thomas still as Oliver, and me as Rosalind - pretending to be a man, and teaching Orlando how to romance Rosalind.

Still as Rosalind- both singing with other players, and pleading with my 'cousin' Celia.

Hamlet - and myself as Ophelia in the "Ger thee to a nunnery" scene.

Singing Ophelia's Mad Songs.

Thomas's other big scene - Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd.

The big finale - we all sang a Shakespearian drinking song!

So here you go - I'll try to put up the pictures from Thanksgiving sometime in this next week, however, I do have finals in the next two seeks, so I am going to be ultra-busy!

Ophelia's Mad Songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77aXvueLMD4

This is a link to a video of the songs I sang in the play last weekend! Sadly, the video card filled up halfway through the last song, but you get the jist of it here!

School days

I was having a down day at school today, so I brought Amore in to help with some schoolwork and cheer me up.

Dressing Room antics

Oh Shenandoah

So, I have about 15 minutes before I have to get to Bio class, but I thought I'd update (which I haven't been doing at all!!!) a little bit, and post some pix from last weekend. School has been going ok - it's so hectic, and with the play coming up in 2 weeks, it's getting to be a rat race. Btw, if you didn't know, Thomas and I are both in "Contemptuous Contemporaries" which will be a bunch of Shakespeare scenes, and scenes from contemporaries of his, and popular songs from the time. It's a really fun thing, and I've never done Shakespeare before, but we've had a month to put this thing on, and I haven't even been able to completely memorize my lines yet. But with deep breaths and prayer and a STRONG will, hopefully I'll get through everything in one piece. :)

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out today! I'm being put completely under, because both of my bottom teeth are impacted, and they're so close to a certain nerve that connects my jaw to the rest of my head - to be able to get the teeth without any damage, I need to be totally and completely under. I've told my family to please not hold anything I say or do "under the influence" against me. ;)

Arin came to visit last weekend! We went up to Shenandoah National Park, and took pictures, and went hiking, and had a great time. Sadly, Mom was at choir rehearsal, and Daddy was in California, but we kids had an awesome time. Here are some pictures!

And so Autumn begins...

Sorry Sorry - it's been a busy couple of weeks. With school, work, and family, I barely have time to breath, let alone blog! However, I managed to breath a little bit on Labor day, and I have a fw pictures from it:

To celebrate Thomas's birthday, his family and I went to an apple orchard, and then the beach! The apple orchard is the one just down the mountain from my house, on Carter's Mountain. (think the Walton's - this is 'their' mountain.)

Thomas was really excited when we started finding big green apples. Mrs. Vance said something about apple dumplings, and he went ballistic. ;)

Yummy apples!

Victoria is the sweetest 10 year old I know.

She got into the apple picking spirit too.

After we got 3 full bags of apples, we headed to the beach! It was too cold to go swimming, so everyone pitched in and built a sandcastle. (the other guy is Trevor, Thomas's 25yo brother)

I destroyed every sand brick I touched, so I stepped back and was allowed to draw the flag.

Ta-da!

Thomas had a cheesecake for his birthday - and his family insisted on putting all 22 sparkler candles on the cake. It was quite spectacular.

School has been going pretty well. I'm taking my first 400-level class with Bio, and it's hard! My ASL class is almost 400-level (but the school doesn't have the accreditation to make a 400-level ASL class) and it's really hard. History is fun - the teacher like me and knows my name, which is good! Math is math. :)

I'm off to Bio lecture now, but I hope you'll forgive my lack of updates for the past few weeks. Hopefully I'll get better!!

No update friday...

And not much of one today, because School starts today! Today is Math and Biology, Tomorrow is History, and Wednesday I have aBio Lab and American Sign Language. I'm also working Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri. Wish me luck!

An Eventful Week

This week has been one of excitement and a little scary. On Monday, Thomas and I had grand plans to go to Kings Dominion - he had gotten of work especially, and we were going to have one day to ourselves before the hecticness of the semester.

However, those plans were changed a little when we got into an accident. We were both ok, rather shaken up, but no injuries. Thomas was driving, and had been spooked by a car honking loudly and coming up fast on his right. He jerked the wheel, lost control, and we spun around and went backwards down a ditch and hit a tree. The car wasn't ok, and we had a bit of a rough morning sorting everything out. Everyone is ok though, and now Thomas is on the market for a new car! We ended up going to King's Dominion anyway (much to the chagrin of both mothers) and had a fun time. Here are some pictures:

Being a typical guy, Thomas likes to eat and eat and eat. He started the day off with a loaded hot dog and ended with frozen lemonade, and lots of little things in the middle. I told him to enjoy this metabolism while it lasts!

Peanut characters are all over the place in King's Dominion, and I couldn't resist giving Snoopy a little kiss as we passed him. :)

One of our little things (that *I* had too) were strawberry milkshakes at the little diner.

I told Thomas he should consider something like this for his next car. I didn't get taken seriously.

At the end of the day, we were just happy that neither of us were hurt. Cars can be replaced - people cannot. I think we're both going to have slight twinges in our backs and necks, but that can be dealt with. I'm already got appointments with the Chiropractor set up!

Rachel's friend Caitlin is here! I took them to the waterpark wednesday, and managed to get a few pictures of them crossing the pool!
I think they had a good time going down the slide, and there's a lazy river!

Plus they get to attempt to walk across these fake wooden things while getting rope burns...

I'm told it's great fun.

I tried this once, and then decided I was better behind the camera!

That's about it for this week. I start my job next tuesday - 3 full days of nannying, and then I start the after-school work the 23rd, which is the same day school starts for me! Wish me luck!