Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

So, I took some great photos of our family's Thanksgiving table, cutes pictures of the kids running around and even some of our exhausted feet from Black Friday shopping - but you won't be seeing them. Instead, feast your eyes on Branson Missouri's "take" on a chandelier. My dad and I thought we were exchanging ipod chargers and I accidentally gave him my camera's usb connector, which means I can't get any photos off my camera and I will be regaling you all this week with old photos I've taken, but haven't considered posting up until this point. My Thanksgiving was wonderful, I hope yours was too!!

Undecided

I thought I would post these leaves before winter set in. This was a few weeks before all the leaves started falling off and I thought it was neat that I was able to catch the leaves as they were in the middle of transitioning to full out red.

Weekly Theme: Color

This is a pendant lamp at La Gra restaurant in Dogtown. My friend lives just around the block and they serve wonderful Italian tapas.

Weekly Theme: Self Portrait (better late than never)

It's Saturday afternoon and I am wearing a pullover, sweats and my hair in a ponytail - nope, nope, not conducive to flattering self portraits (like I would post an uflattering one!?). So, I searched my photo archives and found one that I didn't hate and played around with it on photoshop. Since it doesn't look too altered, I am sure you can tell that I don't know the first thing about altering pictures. Well, that's one weekly theme picture I am glad is over!!

Christmas started two weeks ago

in my house. Why wait until after Thanksgiving, when you could have three more weeks of pretty holiday decorations to enjoy? Besides, Thanksgiving is the beginning of the Holiday season, so we might as well mark it! Christmas just makes me all happy inside.

These thin old timey glass ornaments are my favorite kind. Every year I go out and find 3 or 4 more to add to my small Christmas tree.

And to my lovely blog buddies and friends, Janae and Cayce, I promise I will have the theme picture up on Saturday. I just have had no time to get on photoshop this week, but Saturday looks like it's going to be quiet and I will get to work on it then.

Misty

Well, it rained the entire time I was in Baltimore. I wasn't too dissapointed though, because there was some beautiful, dense fog surrounding our building. I think fog is magical!



I had a hard time getting the fog on camera, but here's the best I could do. The light really did look like that, it wasn't a distortion by the camera.

Orange Glow

As most of you know, my family gets together on Sundays for "big breakfast". It's our time to get together after the week has passed to share stories and play with the kiddos. A couple of weeks ago I got to my parent's house early and surprised them out on the deck having a morning cup of coffee. It was right at the time that the leaves had turned color, but had not begun falling yet. They gave everything such a lovely orange glow. I'm glad I live in a state that has all four seasons.

In other news, I will be leaving in a couple of days for Baltimore for a work trip. I'll be staying at a "spiritual retreat" center with no phones, tvs or computers and will therefor be unable to post. I'm bring my camera with me though, so hopefully I'll have a new crop of pictures to share!

Nadine

My co-worker and friend, enjoying the art gallery we visited before watching The Color Purple.

The Color Purple

One of the objectives of the grant that I work for is to give students the opportunity to participate in arts and culture and attend events that they would otherwise never be able to afford. In that spirit we bought tickets for our students to The Color Purple, playing at the fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis. I was lucky enough to coordinate the trip and spent a really nice Saturday afternoon with some of my favorite students. Oh, it was also one of the best musicals I have ever seen!

We ended the evening by going out to eat at Best Steak House, which is a restaurant across the street from the theater. Eating there is an interesting experience and reminds me somewhat of the soup nazi from Sienfeld. They yell "NEXT!" and man, you better have your order ready to rattle off or you get evil stares from all of the cooking staff. yikes!

Weekly Theme: Freedom

Or at least the freedom to vote. I got up early this morning and felt so good when it came time to fill out my ballot. Whichever way this election turns (although I'm hoping for an Obama win), I'm glad that we all get the opportunity to participate in electing our government officials.

Weekly Theme

So, I think it's my turn to post the weekly theme, so without further ado our theme for this week is...FREEDOM. A little cheesy? Yes. But I'm curious to see what you all come up with, as this is the day before the elections! I'm going to bed early tonight, as I am getting up around 5:30 am in order to be at my polling place by 6:00 am and hopefully make it in to work on time at 8:00 am. Otherwise, I'm going to use some personal time, because nothing is keeping me away from the ballot box this year!

Fun Outside

My 3 year old niece in my parent's front yard this past Sunday. We were chasing falling leaves.