October!

I sometimes think random things make someone a grown up. Handing out candy on Halloween because you own a house in a development is one of those things. I feel like an adult right now.

Too bad I'm not such a great adult when it comes to other things. Like updating this blog. It's been a seriously busy month and I really don't want to continue the habit of letting this blog slide, so here's the recap...

First there was Homecoming, which you all know about. Rob managed to cut down the video we took of the helicopter landing from inside the helicopter, but I'm having some trouble uploading it to YouTube so that one will still have to be part of a future update.

After Homecoming and our anniversary, I had a short fall break. It overlapped a little with Adam's break, so my whole family met up in North Carolina to visit Shelly while PJ was out in the field. It was a great trip! We spent a little time at Myrtle Beach (which was strange because we are usually there in the summer and it was much quieter), shopped at the outlet malls and toured the Army base and city where Shelly lived. I loved getting to see everyone and get a picture of where Shelly lives. Plus, it was a good bit of fall weather :) Here is a picture of Shelly, Adam and I on the beach...

The weekend after I returned home to Phoenix, Rob and I jumped into house work again. While I was in North Carolina, Rob installed the garage door opener! The only thing we had left was to change the lock on the garage door that led into the house. He worked on the garage door lock, while I started digging a giant bush out of the front yard. It was a seriously overgrown bush that obscured the whole front of the house and I was tired of it. Rob helped me a little at the end, but I was proud of the amount I dug out on my own! Here is a picture of our house at dusk, with our solar path lights, working garage door/cars parked in the garage and missing bush :)

We are hoping to get to work on organizing and painting the office in the next few weeks, and then do a little more landscaping on the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Here is another picture of the house, in better daylight, where you can see where we dug out the bush. You can also see the pumpkins we carved this morning!

And a close up of the pumpkins...

I bet you can guess which is my pumpkin and which is Rob's :)

We went to a Halloween party last night and while I did a lot of baking for it, Rob sewed our costumes! Here are pictures of them too!

I am going to go back to handing out candy now...and hoping that I don't run out! We have had more trick-or-treaters than I expected! Hope everyone has had a great Halloween! Love, Sarah and Rob

Homecoming Week and Anniversary Weekend

This has been one ridiculously busy and awesome weekend. I think most of you know by now that Rob was able to rent a helicopter from work and fly me, dressed as the Sabercat mascot, to the football field, and drop me off at halftime of the Homecoming game to crown the king and queen. Our friends, Davina and Brian, helped the drop run smoothly, and Brian was even able to film the entire landing and exit from the helicopter! (After we landed, I hopped on a golf cart that the superintendent drove over to the nominees. The king and queen were announced, and then the three of us rode around the track on the golf cart, waving to everyone. Then, I was escorted to the locker rooms, where I was really happy to take the mascot head off, which was making me really claustrophobic, hand the sweaty, smelly costume off to the usual student who wore it, and take a shower!) The video we have doesn't show any of the golf cart rides, but the beginning of it all is there. I had some trouble loading it onto the blog itself, so here is a link to You Tube with the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qRTRTi8O9E

We have another video that Rob took from a camera that attached to his headset, and it shows the approach and landing from his vantage point, inside the helicopter. It's a little longer and needs a lot more editing before it's ready to post. That's a task for the to-do list later this week. I'll keep you all updated on the progress.

And, here's a pretty awesome picture of me dressed as the Sabercat at Quantum, getting nervous and ready to fly:

Before the game, the school had a Homecoming carnival, and immediately after the game was the dance. Rob and I stayed to chaperone, which made for a really long night. It was after midnight when we got home, so we ended up sleeping in a little before heading to Sedona yesterday morning to celebrate our second wedding anniversary.

In Sedona, we had a fall picnic (pumpkin bread and apples) at the park where Rob proposed. He brought the tripod we used to take pictures of us getting engaged again, and here is a good picture from our picnic:

We went for a bike ride through some of the more residential parts of town, and that kicked my butt a good bit. My legs were already sore from dance rehearsals all week for a surprise teacher dance we performed at Friday's assembly, and then there were quite a few big hills to ride up in Sedona. After our bike ride, we checked into our hotel, showered and headed to dinner at a brewery. We sat on the outdoor patio of the restaurant and it was chilly! I had to put on my Northface fleece, which I was really excited about. We ordered a room service brownie sundae for dessert later that evening :)

In the morning, we went to church and had coffee and the last of the pumpkin bread at a coffee shop with a patio that overlooked the red rock. It was beautiful. I took a picture of my drink and the scenery :) Here it is...

I am hoping that next week will be a little calmer. I have parent teacher conferences and will be  at school late on Tuesday this week, but have Friday and next Monday off. Adam has the same fall break, so my family and grandparents are all meeting up for a long weekend at Shelly and PJ's apartment in North Carolina. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family again! (And to a second weekend in a row of fall weather!)

Okay, I have a little planning left to do for school tomorrow, and then I'm going to shoot to get to bed a little early and continue trying to get caught up on all the sleep I missed last week! Hope you enjoyed the pictures and video and that all is well with everyone :) PS, Thank you all for the cards and messages wishing us a happy anniversary. We had a great time reminiscing about our wedding day and thinking about all of you! Love, Sarah and Rob

New Bikes!

We bought bikes yesterday!!

This is something Rob and I have been talking about doing since I moved out to Phoenix about two years ago. We were a little slow at actually following through. It turns out, bikes are more expensive than I ever imagined. (Probably because my experience with Huffys was pretty inexpensive!) We saved up money for a good little bit...sold a lot of old things we needed to get rid of on Craigslist, saved birthday money (thanks to Rob's Grandma and Aunt Lori), rolled coins, and my Grandparents even chipped in when my Grandma sent me an article from the Plain Dealer about pumpkin :) Thank you!

Rob bought a mountain bike and I bought a hybrid bike, because I don't think I'll do much more than a little biking on the canal trails (which are just dusty dirt). We also played things safe...Rob had a helmet, I bought a new one, he bought a blinking light for early morning rides before the sun is up (...I don't wake up that early!) and I found some new padded spandex for comfy bike rides.

We took them out for a bike ride around the development this morning. I loved it!

Here's a few pictures of us and our bikes :)

We are taking them up to Sedona next weekend, where it's a whole lot hillier! I'm hoping my legs are up for it! :)

Tomorrow marks the first day of my seriously crazy Homecoming week at school. We are having a Powder Puff football game after school and I am helping coach. The kids decided to give all the money we make at the game to Komen, which I think is awesome and makes me feel super good about coaching :) Then there's a cross-country meet I am timing on Wednesday and a whole lot of other Homecoming festivities. I'll keep you all posted on the helicopter land events!

Hope all is well with everyone. We are trying to pawn off some of our heat on everyone in Cleveland with actual fall temperatures this weekend. I know Rob is jealous of them...and believe it or not I am too. (Though it was fun riding my bike in the sunshine before it got crazy hot this morning!) Miss and love you all, Rob and Sarah