Thanksgiving week

My heart is full--we have been with family for a week. What a blessing! The pictures are backwards according to how our trip went. We arrived at Mother, Daddy and Phil's place in Aiken, S.C a week ago. It was great to walk around and see all the hard work they have put into the property. The last time we were there the house was still not delivered and now there is a house, workshop, motorcycle shed, run in shed, corral area, outdoor living area and remnants of some beautiful flower beds. The weather wasn't the most sunshiny but we had plenty of things to do and experience. Thank you Mother and Daddy for a wonderful time at "home". I also got to catch up with my sister and brother. Good times, good memories. Thanks guys.

Thanksgiving trip 2009

Then it was time to go back up North a couple hrs. and spend time with David's parents. We have been here along with Philip's family. It has been delightful to be together. We celebrated Thanksgiving and now in a few minutes it will be "Christmas" time. Today we went up into the mountains to see a beautiful waterfall and came back down to a fabulous dinner at Ponchos Mexican restaurant.
Tomorrow after church and dinner we head back home to Indiana. My life is ruled by the clock most of the time. It has been a nice break to go throughout the day with not a clue of what time it is.
I hope all of you are experiencing hearts that are refreshed and full of the joy of being with family.

Trick or Treat

What a fun evening it has been. Our friends, the England family, came over for supper and the traditional trick or treating around the neighborhood. We have plenty of candy now :-) Good times, good memories. It was chilly again this year so the hot chocolate and coffee warmed our insides nicely once we got back home.

October 31, 2009-1

On my way to pick up the kids...

I don't think the colors translate very well but this tree is a deep red/orange. It hangs over the road as shade in the summer but I always watch for it to change colors in the Fall. It is one of my favorites and I get to see it every morning taking the kids to school, going to the library, church or grocery store. It is on the way to just about every where for me :-)

You might prefer more of an orange colored tree.

This yellow colored one is a beauty too.

Ashley walking back into the school after having recess. They will go in and get their backpacks then come back out to the car line to go home.

Here she is. I think it was a good day.

Cameron got in next. He is just happy to be free.

Aah! A rare but cherished moment.

Now that Sarah Brooke has arrived we can head home.

Home is where our heart enjoys being. I hope you get to enjoy being home today as well.

More pics for the Odyssey fans out there

Cameron mowed the lawn next door, pulled weeds out of a flower bed and planted mums for the neighbor lady. I had a coupon so off we headed to the Christian bookstore with Cameron's newly earned money

The book is full of behind the scenes stuff and tons of pics. He has really enjoyed it. I love that it inspired some more drawings for me :-)

This is Eugene and Katrina

Jack Allen

Jason Whittaker (he thought this one turned out to look the most like the orginal pic)

This is Cutie (his dog character that he draws) trying to build muscle. I love it! He thought it was funny that after all that effort Cutie only has a little bump.

Just in case you weren't aware...you can click on the pic to enlarge for details

(now you know why I don't like posting pics of myself. I don't want them enlarged. ha)

Menagerie

The other night we were coming home and the end of the rainbow was over our house. I'm just sure of it. We hurried home to find out that in reality it was over the neighbors house. By the time we got home and I scurried in to get the camara this was all I could capture but it sure was a beautiful sight. It was complete and double at times.

Sarah Brooke and the whole second grade at Weston have their very own laptops. How cool is that? They are allowed to bring them home 2 nights a week. Cameron's face pretty much sums up his feelings about his little sister having her own computer.

It was the flower parade today at the Riley Festival.

I spy Sarah Brooke, can you?

There she is!!!

I had the unexpected "blessing" of a day off and so David and I were both able to go down and watch the kids. My goodness there sure are alot of them in Hancock Co. and not all grades get to go.

I think I will go make some cinnamon rolls for this evening. Happy weekend blog friends!

For the curious...

I received an unusual phone call from a friend the other day. Unusual in that she was offering me an entire living room suite. How fun is that!!!! I think I have mentioned before that our sofa and loveseat had gone from chic to shabby. Not much we could do about it at this stage of our life so we were just living with it. Then I get this phone call offering "new" to me furniture. The offer included a sofa, loveseat, wingback chair, end table, 4 pictures, even towels and wash clothes, blanket, shower curtain and liner.

We picked it all up the next evening and I spent the following day "playing" house. It was fun to watch the living room being trasformed. God has used the big hearts of people to bless our family and my heart is full of gratitude.

I recently painted our bedroom and bath from it's original color of white. Original as in never been painted since we moved in many years ago. The picture doesn't really reveal the color and the name of the color may not either (Gobi desert) but we sure are enjoying the new shade.

Lovin my "G" picture from Hobby Lobby.

So there you go...a little window into what my house looks like. I hope you have enjoyed the tour.

Here is a guessing game for you...

Cameron has drawn these pictures for me and now I would like to see how many fans of ??? are out there. If you are then you will know exactly what the names of these guys are :-)