Fall Time in New England, and Other Things

It is just such a wonderful time of year in New England. The air is cool and crisp and the leaves are just beautiful. Fall is our favorite season, and we have been trying to spend as much time outside as possible. We want Angelina to experience all of the typical fall activities, even though we know that she may be too young to enjoy these activities as much as we do!

We spent the afternoon yesterday picking pumpkins with Angelina. At first, she did not know what to do and hated that she could not walk well (vines everywhere and uneven ground). However, once she saw Ken and I play with the pumpkins, she was all for it. She would go up to the biggest ones and try to pick them up, then she would give up and just sit on them.

Did she want to pose for the camera? Nope! Every time I take it out, she just turns her head. Wonderful. So, here are some lovely profile pictures of Angelina playing in the pumpkin patch.

I've also been tagged by Becky who has just recently brought home her son from Russia.

I've been aked to write 6 random facts about myself, enjoy!

1. I teach 6th grade English in middle school, this is my seventh year as a teacher. (well, it will be when I go back in January). I know nothing else besides teaching, for as long as I remember this is what I've wanted to do. However, if I were not a teacher, I would become a pastry chef. I love to bake and create sweet treats for my friends and family. I could be elbow deep in flour, butter and sugar for 40 hours a week and be perfectly content.

2. I am a girl scout! Yep, that's right! I started as a brownie and was a girl scout all through high school. I even used to spend my summers away at a resident GS camp in Vermont. Today, I volunteer for the girl scouts. So, with regards to camping, I can pretty much do it all: Start a one-match fire, cook over the flame, pitch a tent in the dark, read a compass, etc... Even now, I sing to Angelina silly camp songs that filled my summers past.

3. I am a coach for an all girls competitive canoe racing team. Our season runs for 3 months in the springs. We teach the girls how to canoe, then step it up to how to race with canoes. Every Memorial Day Weekend, the other coaches, I, and about 30 middle-high school girls travel to Bainbridge, NY to compete in a large regatta there. So, every Memorial Day weekend for the past 10 years, I've been driving vans, lifting canoes, life guarding, and cheering on team members as they race down a river. I know that makes you all envious of my yearly Memorial Day plans.

4. After not knowing what to name me and going to the Rocky 1 film, my parents named me after Rocky's wife. "Yo Adrian"! No need to say anything else.

5. I love solving the Cryptoquip puzzles in our weekend newspapers. A cryptoquip is a letter substitution puzzle where you are given one clue, t=y, and have to figure out the rest of the puzzle from there. Since we don't get the newspaper during the week, my mom cut out the daily cryptoquips and glued them all into a book for me for our plane rides to Russia. Since I have a very hard time sleeping on planes, this little book came in very handy!

6. My closest friend, Jess, and I have been friends for 23 years! We grew up together just a few houses apart, and though we don't live that close any more, we are still the best of friends. I was so excited to hear the age of Angelina back in April when we received our referral, as she is only 3 months older than Jess's son. We hope that they can have the wonderful friendship that we shared growing up.