TOURS!!

Well, I just received notice that I'll get to tour BOTH the Whitehouse & the Capitol next month!! I'm SO EXCITED to see both decorated for Christmas! :) I'm pretty sure I'm allowed a camera in the Capitol, so I'll be sure to get a lot of pictures there. As for the Whitehouse, I don't think I can take a camera, so I'll just make a mental note of what I see & describe it for you later. I did get to see the "Whitehouse Christmas Tree" (totally by accident!) today on my scenic tour/way home from the mall. I got on 395 headed the wrong way - I know, completely SHOCKING! - and ended up Downtown. Anyway, I wound my way around SouthWest until I found the road that takes me home. In doing this, though, I passed in front of the Whitehouse and saw the tree with decorations on it already. I believe the lighting ceremony is in a week or two, but the tickets were sold out before I realized you needed a ticket to go! Oh, well. :) Live & learn, right?!? Have a super day!!

How 'bout them Ags?!?!?!

12-7 . . . Need I say more? :) What a wonderful

Thanksgiving gift from my Ags to the 12th Man, winning THE most important game of the year. AT t.u., no less!! I'm so proud of our boys in Maroon & White I could just bust. Gig'em!

9500 Turkeys!

What do you do with 9500 turkeys, you may ask?!? Well, you feed 95,000 people! :) Yesterday morning, I met with several hundred of my fellow church members from 8-11 to help prepare 9500 Thanksgiving Dinners "In A Box". Each box contained a meal that will feed approximately 10 people and small brochures that shared Christ's love for them & the plan of salvation. I can't imagine the organization & planning that went into this huge undertaking. At one point, while the table at the end of my assembly line was being repaired (again - it kept breaking), I took the time to look around the bottom floor of the parking garage at the church. There were literally hundreds of people - ALL ages - feverishly working to get the boxes packed & ready for delivery. (And I use the word "feverishly" VERY loosely as it was in the upper 30's - lower 40's the whole time we were out there!) What a testimony to the heart of ministry shared by the church family! It was such a blessing & encouragement to me to see & be a part of. I hope you have a wonderful time with your family this Thanksgiving!! :)

Autumn Days

This past Saturday was absolutely gorgeous! When I checked the weather & realized the following few days were going to be cold & gloomy, I decided to take advantage of the day instead of doing laundry & running the errands I needed to. :) I went to the closest bookstore & picked up the latest book in my favorite series. Karen Kingsbury is a great author and had just released the 4th of 5 books in the Firstborn series. (a beautiful love story between two people and Christ's love for us!) After I got the book, I went next door to pick up a coffee & breakfast before I headed to a park. Every morning on the way to work, I pass a small park near the Pentagon that I thought would be fun to visit. Well, I went on Saturday. It is beautiful, but a little too secluded for me to sit in by myself. (Once again, Safety First!!) :) So, I went to a neighborhood park near my apartment that felt more safe. I enjoyed the next several hours alternating between reading my new book and watching the children playing in the park around me. Since the sun starts setting around 5pm now, I headed home around dinner time to finish my book there. My friend, Camille, introduced me to a series by another author, Dee Henderson. WOW! Just as good of a love story as in Karen Kingsbury, but WITH A MYSTERY!! What more could you ask for?!? :) It was nice to have a distraction at home through the nast few days of weather. I'm very happy to report, though, that the sun made a reappearance today. I guess you really have to have the dark clouds to make you enjoy the sunlight more! :)

Sight-Seeing

A friend of mine was up from Texas this past weekend, so we went to do some sight seeing around the City. The first picture is from a "scenic overlook" off of GW Pkwy, overlooking the Potomac. Aren't the colors beautiful? The second is me (sporting my new DC "hoodie") in front of the White House. I'm really hoping to get in to the White House once it's decorated for Christmas. We'll see. All the streets around the big house were closed that afternoon because the President was coming from or going somewhere. We saw Marine One flying over. We got some good pictures of the monuments, and I finally found the Vietnam Wall. I've been to the Mall 3 or 4 times since I moved up here in July, and I have never seen it. Although, in my defense, I didn't really go wandering off the beaten path in that area while I was by myself - "Safety First", right?!? I'm doing my best not to get on the news while here. :)