Avoiding the Swine Flu

I came home from work on Monday to what seemed like an empty house. Instead, something I can only characterize as an undead Ben Franklin jumped out of the closet to greet me. Melo said that my reaction was half scream, half hysterical laughter. I guess this was Melo's way of encouraging me to get into the Halloween spirit!

We are definitely in full Halloween mode this time of year. This was always in contention with Christmas as my favorite holiday as a child. We had a great night decorating halloween cookies with some of our friends in the area last week. Here are some sample cookies:


As you can see Melody made some jack-o-lantern and manatee shaped cookies. We're planning on going to a pick-your-own-pumpkin pumpkin patch tomorrow. We'll see how they turn out.

Swine flu hit home this week as some of the members of our church congregation came down with it. On another note, Melody and I had a good time walking along the Perkiomen creek trail this afternoon. It's really incredible how vivid the trees become in the fall up here:



I'm settling into my new position as an 11 year old scout leader. I've really enjoyed it so far. My old scout shirt even fit! Apparently I still need to make some modifications to my old shirt for it to be suitable for a scout leader (i.e. removing some badges, changing epaulet color, etc.). I guess I could still pass as a Boy Scout however, because one of the scouts asked me if I had "received any of my eagle palms yet". I laughed and could only reply that I was still working on them. (For those not in the know, eagle palms are an award available only to scouts 18 years of age and younger).

We had a lot of fun baby-sitting for a couple we know recently. One of the children referred to Melody as "Jeremy's mommy" haha. This coming on the tail of the comment from the scout was just too much! At least Melody knows that I'm a full-grown adult... Right Melo?

Fall Is Here!

This has been a fun week for us. Tuesday was my birthday, I turned 24. Jeremy surprised me with a "pajama gram" filled with a really soft pink robe. Apparently this particular kind of robe is one of Oprah's favorite things. I think that is cute that Jeremy did his research! That night Jeremy took me out to an Italian restaurant by our house called Maggianos. They had such yummy food!


This weekend we went for a little trip out into Amish Country. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast called the Inn at Twin Linden. It was such a fun place. They had a beautiful grounds and an amazing three course breakfast in the morning. The owners gave us a lot of great tips about what to do in the area. We have decided that we are definitely bed and breakfast people. Here is a picture of the Inn, our room and one of the grounds.


We spent the rest of the day exploring Amish Country. We stopped by Kitchen Kettle village and did a little bit of shopping. My favorite thing there was the petting zoo The leaves are really starting to change now. It's amazing how bright some of the trees are! The whole time we were driving through Amish country, I kept wanting to stop and take pictures because everything was just so gorgeous


Afterwards we went for a genuine Amish buggy ride


On our way home, we stopped by Reading Hospital so that Jeremy could see where I work, I think it is a really pretty building. Here is a picture


We're excited to come back to Amish country in the future and do even more exploring!