Oktober

Ahh, October.  Autumn made her debut this week, and the evenings have just the right amount of crispness in the air.  It makes me think of this time two years ago when I was in Munich for Oktoberfest...  These days, however,  I find myself breathing more deeply, appreciating the turning colors of the leaves on my evening walks...until Ryan asks me why I sigh so loudly as I take out the garbage.
"I'm appreciating Fall!" I shout back toward the house.
"What??" he asks, too far away to hear me as I tromp down the driveway.
"No, Fall!"
"You fell??"
Yes, this is a normal conversation for us.
Yes, we really interact like an old married couple.

Let's see--the past few weeks in review?

Two Saturdays ago we had our first date in over a month.  Finally!  I realize that I signed up to be band director's wife--I expected to give up my Friday nights...but not the rest of my evenings as well.  Between football games, marching band practices, soccer games, and soccer practices, plus church choir?  By the time we're both home in the evenings, it's 9:30 and I'm already headed for bed.  [See previous note on "old married couple" admission.]  So it was nice to get a date night with my husband.  We drove down to Oak Ridge and played with reactors designed miniature atomic bombs saw The Lion King, 3-D.  I will also freely admit that I sang along to every song and bawled my eyes out when Mufasa died.  True story.  Afterwards we scored some Ruby Tuesday--have you tried their 2 for $20 deal?  One appetizer and two entrees for just 20 biggins.  Not too shabby!  And their cocktail of the night was a Malibu Black and Cola--pretty fab.  Just sayin.

This past Saturday I woke up in Texas.  No, seriously.  Thursday night I drove down to Mum and Dad's--4 hours--then got up at 3:30 Friday morning and Mum and drove 13.5 hours down to Houston for my cousin Kyle's wedding.  It was a large, Catholic wedding with almost 300 guests.  Lots of celebrating, blah blah, amazing food, blah blah, open bar, blah blah, loud music, blah blah, photo booth--wait, photo booth?  Yes, yes, I said photo booth.  It ROCKED.  I convinced my mother AND my 94 year old grandfather to go for a spin in ye ol' picture makin' machine with me--and the results are simply epic.  Although they wouldn't use the provided props, I did twist their arms into funny faces and bunny ears.  I believe you can see them here.  If not, let me know.

If you know my grandfather at all, you know two things: he loves dried prunes, and he loves to dance. And, of course, as he is 94 years young--he's going to have a different taste in music than I.  That's a given.  So when a slow Sinatra tune came on, I took advantage and asked him to dance.  He loved it, as did the photographers.  I don't remember much of those few moments, and I blame the assault of flashing cameras.  I DO, however, remember that as Sinatra faded away, as Grandpa twirled me one last time, a new song came on.  This song.  Yep.  And let me tell you, I came alive.  I pulled out every move I learned from my crazy European discotec days and I. GOT. DOWN.  Grandpa's face was priceless.  After a moment of shock, he just laughed, shook his head, and swayed while I did my thing.

What a champ.

This week back in Tennessee has been, well, less exciting.  I've done laundry, baked some pumpkin spice cookies, gone to soccer and football games to support my husband, and tried to catch up on sleep.  Which, if you'll excuse me, is what I plan to go do now as well.

Hope your autumn days are lovely.  Remember: deep, appreciative breaths and sighs are not the same.