The Splendor of Fall

i love fall. and i don't mean the actual date on the calendar that marks the beginning of fall. those of us who live in the heat and humidity of the south know that "true fall" doesn't arrive until about mid-october. THIS is the fall i'm talking about. my absolute favorite time of year for many reasons...football season, cooler weather, changing leaves, pumpkin patches, pulling out sweaters, smelling burning leaves, starbucks' pumpkin spice latte...i am a huge fan of the coziness of fall.

our fall-ready front porch

being a teacher, i have another gigantic reason to love this season: FALL BREAK. and it is here folks. in all its glory. last fall break caleb and i went to the beach with my mom, and it was heavenly. as much as i would love to go to the beach every fall break (or every day for that matter), this time we are staying put. and it's nice. i have already tackled my biggest project, which was switching out our clothes for fall/winter. every time i pack away caleb's clothes my heart breaks a little. i put away stages of his "smallness" every season and one of these days, before i know it, he'll be a teenager. a great big, loving, kind, always home on time, hardly ever smart-allecky teenager (yes, this is my own little dreamworld and i have faith this will hold true). while i was going through our clothes i did some purging of my old stuff, which is always therapeutic. needless to say, the act of purging clothes always leads to.......

shopping. and boy, did i ever do some shopping yesterday. now, i love cleveland, but it's hard to do serious shopping here (except at target of course), so i ventured to chattanooga. all by myself. i should've known better, being a shopaholic, that this would lead to tremendous over-spending. i only went to three stores but did incredible damage. first stop, gunbarrel targert. oh, how i love this place. there i found pajamas for caleb and me, socks and tights, titans shirts and halloween shirts for caleb. next, i stopped at old navy. did you know old navy is celebrating 15 years? holy cow, i certainly helped them celebrate. i have discovered this is the best place to find caleb's clothes. they are super-cute, hold up well, and it's the only store that has adjustable jeans and pants (unlike myself, caleb is not a great eater). so i went borderline crazy here. (more) socks, shirts, sweaters, and pants for caleb, along with a jean skirt and couple of velor jackets/pants sets for me. now, this was supposed to be my last stop but the new shoe store DSW is right next door. i hadn't been yet, so i decided to go in and "look around." 30 minutes later, i came out with two pairs of cute casual shoes. i felt very justified in these purchases because i had put several pairs of my old shoes away for a future yard sale. in fact, the "purging" i mentioned before seemed to account for most of what i bought. again, all justified of course.

now, our plans for the rest of fall break include to take it easy. i may go to atlanta this weekend to see some friends and visit "one of the nation's best haunted houses" (more on that later, i'm sure). and unless someone holds me captive, i will probably do more.....you guessed it.....shopping ;)