What September Looked Like

 

Field trip with the Piedmont Bird Club.

I'm always happy to spend a day with 

these knowledgeable friends.

Came to a field with pretty flowers and butterflies while we walked.

And I thought these mushrooms were cool, too.

Another tree down on my morning walk

Look at how cool the lake looked on this day!

Like it's ready to film a horror movie.

Cool dew-covered spider web

We went on a double date with our friends,

Chris and Lisa to go birding at the bog garden.

Another couple was there feeding the birds

and the chipmunks.

Nuthatch

Pretty flowers.

September is Folkfest time!

Loving heading downtown and taking in the variety

of free concerts.

You never know what you're going to hear or see.

This was an awesome clogging group.

Every year, we buy an Attractions book from a friend as a fundraiser.

It comes with tons of Buy One, Get One coupons.

Andrew and I use most of them for date nights.

But as the end of the year is nearing, I was thumbing through it and

saw that there are A LOT of yummy treat coupons left in there.

Andrew's watching what he eats right now,

so Caroline and I have decided to use one every Friday after school.

Yippee!

This one was from Dewey's in the Friendly Shopping Center.

We had never been and it was DELICIOUS.

We'll be back.

This big ol' spider was wrapping up that even-bigger bug!

God is an amazing artist

Solo temple trip

For Labor Day, we took a quick day trip to

High Shoals Falls and Morganton

Care Bear is so pretty

We stopped to go apple picking at an orchard.

They also had flower picking!

We didn't pick any, but had fun admiring them.

And doing a little photo shoot

Zinnias as far as the eye can see!

We also got apples, an apple cider donut,

and an apple slush. Yummy yum yum.

It's fun to go apple picking.

But the thing you can't tell from the pics?

It's stinky!

There are A LOT of rotten apples

that fall to the ground. And it's not pleasant.

But the pictures looks cute!

We went for a hike to High Shoals Falls.

It was beautiful and not too far, just over 2 miles.

More fun photos at the falls.

This flat rocky placed just screamed to have

C do some contortion.

She had a bit of an audience.

So fun.

Waterfalls are the best!

Cool boulders along the way.

It was a great day-trip.

We ran into Sabrina and Dave at the tennis courts one day!

One of the next steps in my hygiene application was

to get fingerprinted. I only kind of felt like a criminal.

The Candy Factory in Lexington is ready for Fall

I love North Carolina

Dinner out with Maureen and Bea.

Love these friends.

At NAI (my English school), Teacher Brian has been

strongly encouraged to use technology in class.

He's NOT comfortable with tech.

So, I've been trying to help and doing Kahoots with

the class on the days I come in. It's so fun.

Pizza date night

These two pics are hard to see because I took them through

my window and it has a screen on it.

But there is a dumb squirrel that eats the plastic on our gutters

and then hides out in there... Ugh.

Look at his cute little dumb head sticking out!

I went birding at Price Park here in town and got a couple good shots.

Including this cute deer

Whenever we go to Lidl and see the pretzels, 

I think of Miss Whit. She LOVES those things

and would often ride her bike to the store to buy one.

(Or two, if they're BOGO.)

We had a stake Relief Society activity and painted

Book of Mormon covers as part of it.

Brianna and I chose matching patterns.

I was so happy with how they turned out.

Jayne and I hung out with Lisa and Chris to watch

the chimney swifts. Last year, this was one of my favorite

birding events. This year it was a bust! The darn swifts

decided to not go into the chimney where we were 

anxiously awaiting their arrival!

Green Heron in the lake

Since YW activities are on Wed nights this year,

and that's the same night as half price games at 

Dave and Buster's, I hardly ever get to go anymore.

But I had a coupon for a free appetizer,

so I just went by myself on a random Wed afternoon.

Those nachos were so delicious.

Softball season started!

And I'm playing for St. Francis Episcopal church again.

Sonia, one of our captains, is also one of my tennis teammates.

On this day, we got to be partners in tennis in the morning, where

we won AND then we won our softball game that night.

So awesome!

Our softball team isn't very good and we lose

a lot of games, but this was a super fun win,

17-3!

Another Attractions treat--

Duck Donuts. They have their

yummy fall flavors on the menu

and I LOVE them.

More of God's artistry :)

I tried to get the Stake Presidents' wives together,

but Lisa was the only one who could make it.

So we decided to meet in Lexington.

We had a yummy lunch and shopped around a bit.

Care Bear decorated the house for fall.

This little turkey is my favorite.

Care Bear loves a good fish-eye lens

This GIANT mushroom was growing in our yard!

Birding at Salem Lake

BYU trivia night!

The local alumni association chapter hosted

trivia night in Winston. Yes, please! I assembled

this team of friends of all ages.

Back row: Me and Drew, Rebecca and Anne (who's husband Barry, was home sick)

Seated: Jacquelyn and Patrick, Michael and Kristen, and Belinda

We had SUCH a good time, but ended up taking second place just barely!

Temple night with the Stake Presidency

B was in a climbing comp and these pics

got posted online. I love getting little glimpses

like these since I can't be there to cheer him on.

And I love that he wears my old Shaq jersey

from when I was in high school!

This was the coolest finish!

I miss watching him climb.

Glad he still enjoys it and has opportunities like these.