Virginia is for Book Lovers!

I love Fairfax County Libraries! Let me tell you why. I went to the library in a city I do not live in with two pieces of mail addressed to me and they gave me a library card free of charge. The card works in all of the libraries in the county and you can return the books to any of the libraries regardless of where you checked the book out from. It is awesome!

Maybe for most people this is normal, but for me who just recently came from Utah, I was in heaven! In Utah County, if you do not have a library in your town, then you have to pay $60 or more a year to get a card. And you can only use the card at that one library where you got it from. Some of the libraries are not all that big and so you are very limited in your choice of books and you can not go to another to see if they have what you want unless you want to pay another $60+ to get another card.

I'm pretty sure after I got my library card here I called up my parents and almost all of my siblings to share the exciting news! Seriously I love it!

Visitin' the Presidents!

I had the day off today and it was a gorgeous day! I decided I wanted to do something downtown D.C. I decided to go to the FDR Memorial and walk around the Tidal Basin. Of course if one walks around the Tidal Basin one must stop at the Jefferson Memorial.

First I went to the Jefferson Memorial. I really like it! I think it's a fitting tribute to a great president! It was so peaceful there. After I stopped there for a while, I made my way over to the FDR Memorial. I also really liked that too. It was very unique and beautiful! I loved all of the waterfalls there. I'm sure there is some significance to them although I do not know what (or maybe they're just there for beautifulness. I do not know.) It was a gorgeous day and a perfect day to be outside.

As I walked around the Tidal Basin, I enjoyed the beautiful red, yellow and orange leaves on the trees. I watched the reflection of the Washington Monument on the water change as I walked around. I oohed and ahhed over the way the sun was shining through the clouds. Did I mention it was a gorgeous day?!

After I finished walking around the Basin, I went towards the Washington Monument. I wanted to go to the top of the monument but alas the tickets were sold out for the day and oh yeah did I mention that my battery in my camera died? I took one picture with my camera and it died. It was sad, but of course I still enjoyed the lovely day!

I made my way over to the National Portrait Gallery on foot where I met my friend, Elizabeth. We met up and went inside the huge museum and looked around a bit and then decided to wander outside. We saw a beautiful, bright rainbow over the capital building as we were walking. It was magnificent! Then we went to the top of the Old Post Office Tower. The sun was starting to set behind the Washington Monument and the clouds were really cool!

At this point, Matt called me and asked if I wanted to meet up with him and Lincoln and go to Spence's football game. So Elizabeth and I hopped on the metro home and parted ways then I met up with Matt and went to Spence's football game. They lost. But Lincoln is really cute :)

I Rock!

In September, I canned for the first time ever all by myself. On Labor Day, Lara, Glen, Spence, Cami, Emma, Adam, Ellie and I went raspberry picking and picked about 5 lbs. We knew we wouldn't be able to eat them all before they went bad, so I planned on making raspberry jam out of them. I had never done this, but with the directions in the pectin package and maybe a few clarifications from Lara, I did it all by myself. It made the three jars above plus part of another one. The jam was pretty good, if I do say so myself :) I think we've eaten them all now except a little bit of one of them. I ROCK!!!