Where's Fall?

So, it's still feeling a bit like summer in Philly . . . mid-80s. Pretty crazy. I must say I do like warmer weather in general, . . . but, for some reason our central air conditioning has decided not to work these last two weeks, so we would actually like to say goodbye to this heat and humidity.

Braces
It's official . . . I've got braces on my teeth again. Some of you know that my current jaw issues have led to this braces-situation. It's honestly been dreadfully painful, and I want to rip out my teeth -- tooth by tooth. I'm thankful I can't remember all the pain from having braces on as a teen for 2 1/2 years, along with jaw surgery. I think it's a blessing from God to have memory loss about the severity of pain. So, this time around, it's braces for a year and jaw surgery in January '08. Through this process, I hope to: have my teeth touch when I bite (only 2 touch right now), not have a bite that slides around (never really knowing where to bite), grind my teeth less at night (and I think my mouth guard was only making things worse), and hopefully have less jaw pain (with popping, cracking, and ear pain). So, here's to soft foods and lots of food getting stuck in my teeth . . . It's exciting to look like a 12 year old again . . . no, not really :). No really, I'm thankful to be able to deal with this now in my life.

Relaxing
After we worked at my grandparent's house for a few house on Saturday -- doing yard work, cleaning, cutting and styling my grandma's hair, and other odds jobs -- Brian and I headed home and prepared for some relaxing time together: a picnic at one of our favorite parks, Peace Valley Park. I made a chicken tortellini salad, got some mandarin oranges, packed up the picnic basket and we were off. We got there around 4:30pm and just chilled until 6ish. The fall sunshine was spectacular against the lake water and fall foliage. We both read some . . . and had a few laughs as we watched this one guy in a kyack . . . he spent more time under water with his boat flipped over than he did upright. And, when he flipped upright he would rock back and forth (seizure-like) until he popped back under. Everyone couldn't help but stare at him. People all had the classic response as they rode/walked by: initial concern and worry for the kyacker, long stares, then a few head-shakes in sheer wonderment. It was hilarious.

Family and Friend Time
We celebrated my grandpa's 83rd birthday last week. It was a fun time together as family at a super fancy restaurant: The Duling Kurtz. He got an ipod for his birthday . . . and he was so excited. It's funny to think back a few years when he didn't want to have anything to do with a computer, and how he now is the expert -- filming and editing all family functions and has all latest gadgets.
Friday night, I got to spend some time with Krissy who was up from Savannah to help her mom recover from surgery. We had a great time together. We're so excited for her husband to come home from Iraq in a few weeks! He's served our country faithfully there for 2 years.
Sunday, we got to catch up with Meridith who's a freshmen at Temple Univ. this year. She's a good family friend and goes to our church. Brian is like her big brother. We got to go to another one of her soccer games, and we took my sister Joy along. It was a fun time . . . except for when Mer came down from a head-butt, and landed on her foot wrong . . . spraining her ankle. It was a bummer. She's a trooper though, and I'm sure she'll heal up fast.

The New House
And, here are some pictures of the progress on the house.
The outside, repainted
The kitchen, coming along
The sunroom, got primed

Happy Columbus Day . . .