So many things happened this week!

Well, we had a very busy week! On Thursday night Mark, Steve, Caren and I went out to dinner for Caren's birthday at a restaurant called Lemaire's. It is in a hotel called "The Jefferson", it is a Richmond landmark. It is very old and beautiful. The restaurant was outstanding. We were joined by another couple,friends of Caren and Steve's, and we had a great time. After dinner, Steve arranged a limousine to pick us up and take us to The Tran Siberian Orchestra. It is mostly Christmas music, but not all. It was 3 hours long! A bit long, really an hour or so would have been plenty...but it was much, much longer....anyway, we were all very tired after that and, showing our age, went right home and went to bed!
I worked on Friday, then Saturday, Mark and I split up to spend time with each of the girls. Mark took Courtney to her last cross country invitational, which was in Hanover. She did really well, she finished first in sub-varsity for Cosby High School. She really wanted to run varsity, but she has 3 more years to do that. She is very determined and works hard at cross country. Courtney never does anything half-way, she always tries her best. I love that about her, although sometimes I wonder if she doesn't put too much pressure on herself. Anyway, she did great and we were all very proud of her.
While they were off doing that,Carli, Ruby and I went to an apple festival in Charlottesville, Va. Caren and Steve picked us up in the morning and we all went together, and we met up with our friends Jodie, Alex and Allison up there. It was so so neat to meet up with them and do something together-the six of us and our kids have become like family and don't go long without getting together. We had a great day, it is a small family-run festival and they have a few local farmers selling their wares, there's a bluegrass band, and a hay ride, a few food vendors-that's about it, but it's very quaint. We went last year, too and Ruby is always quite popular there!
We had lunch on the lawn while Carli jammed to the bluegrass band, Allison and I got freshly made doughnuts for dessert (yum!), and then Caren, Jodie and I checked out the antiques and purchased some fresh chevre', fresh organic meats and chestnuts and of course apples! What a great day! Tonight Caren and I prepared a dinner featuring all of our purchases-we had homemade butternut squash soup, roasted brussels sprouts and apples, fresh organic pork marinated in rosemary, olive oil and garlic, homemade applesauce, and fresh apple pie. It was all soooo good.... so all in all, it was a good week. Today I let Courtney pluck my eyebrows. Random, I know, but she is really good at it and I have been admiring hers for awhile, so I figured I would let her try. I warned her about overplucking, and she did fine, although it did hurt-bad. Other than that, it was just your ordinary laundry, grocery shopping day, followed by a delicious dinner. Have a great week everyone!