HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This is just a little bit of our night. As usual, we are in a rush to get out the door. Elijah is going trick or treating for can goods with the church group and Levi and Naomi are off to meet Georgia and her parents. Our groups pretty scary, huh?! We haven't ask Georgia what she was going to be, so it is a surprise when we pull up and see the glamor witch.
Little did we know the family was going to get in on it! Joe and I have dressed up in the past but with little time and the thought of being cold, I passed (with no regrets).
A scary bunch! Had to get a picture with their pumpkins.
The guys couldn't stand it. They wanted a piece of the action and couldn't wait to get it!!!
I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A SAFE AND CANDY FILLED NIGHT. PEACE AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!!

SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE EVERYDAY

These pics are from our trip to Atlanta. They are all taken in the rain forest area. It was soooo cool! Just what I thought a rain forest would look like minus the animals. They had some frogs in a terrarium before we went in and some turtles in this area but the really cool part was the flowers. We walked around saying, "look at this, wow, look at this..." you get the picture. Joe was in charge of the camera so I was saying on top of "look at this, take a picture of this and this". So many beautiful things, we couldn't capture it all! Anybody need an organ?
This one caught my eye.
I love orchids!
Fascinating!!!
Just had to. It was in the terrarium just hanging around. I thought it was fake until I saw it breathing! So cool.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNY

Happy birthday, brother! I know he doesn't read my blog but I wanted to give a shout out to my big brother. He is 43 years old today!!!

We have always gotten along really well. He is really smart but not a know it all and will go with the flow so I think that helps. He has always included me in the fun with his friends so that makes for some good times too!

This pic is made this summer at his friends house. It is the annual Forth of July shoot out. We had heard about it and whined about it until we got invited this year. It was a lot of fun, and we hope to go back next year! This is Jeff, his best friend from high school that he still sees VERY often. Jeff's daughter, Kenny, Joe and Pop at the stand.

GETTING INTO THE SPIRIT

With Mom's inspiration (and Halloween around the corner) I thought I would look at some old photos. With 3 kids, I have quite a few. I was really good for a couple of years and have them boxed and labeled. Then life took over and I don't have anything organized for the last 5 years. Lucky for me I was able to find this quick and painless. Thought you might enjoy these as much as we did! This was made from the Family Fun magazine suggestion. It was really cute and easy to do!
Straight from the pumpkin patch!
My little devil. He looks sweet enough, don't let that fool you!
Any one want to play cowboy and Indians???!!!
You can tell my boy likes to be daring. Way past the cowboy stage!

SPOOKTACULAR VIEW

Just thought you might enjoy some Halloween decorations that we viewed this weekend. Pretty cool stuff. There were sooo many more, too many to photograph but each one unique.



Naomi was always the first to jump at a photo opportunity. Levi was too busy being silly, moving on to the next. Which is your favorite? Mine is the one with the peacock feathers!

SWEET LITTLE PUNKIN FACE

Since Mamaw and Papaw grew pumpkins this year, and our wonderful trip to the pumpkin patch. We just HAD to do some painting. We are saving the big one for carving closer to Halloween but we had a great time with these. Since all my kids have had art classes I chose to purchase only the 3 primary colors and black and white. At home we found some glitter tubes and a few others but we had fun mixing and layering the paint. We all started with one but some of us ended up painting two. Mixed colored stem.
This was his second. It had several sides with lots of character.
Self expression.
Levi took the pic. You never know how they are going to turn out!
The whole family. The ones that she painted are beside her. They started out one color and ended up like this. Very creative!

NEW MOTTO

I have one of my clients to thank for these words of wisdom. She is a mother and a grandmother and still willing to learn, and share. While talking about children one day she came to me with the words of wisdom.

"We are not raising children, we are raising adults."

WOW! How simple, yet profound. I have felt like that, but never put it in those simple words. I love hearing the thoughts and ideas of others. With her permission, I share with you all her message.

SCARY SITUATION

We have been hearing about the drought all summer long. In the paper today they are putting numbers behind the message. How many days left before the lakes dry up. In Atlanta the number is approximately 100. That is unthinkable, three months to come up with a solution.

Water is something we have always taken for granted. You turn the faucet on and water comes out. You go to the store and purchase water, no problem. We all need it to live. Thankfully it is raining here, and as much as I love the sun I hope to see a few days of nice steady rain. This is something to definitely pray about.

Hitting close to home.
There are several ponds on the farm.
In the 10 years I have seen them, this is the worst. You can see how dry it is from the edge. The tracks on the right are made from turtles that moved when the water receded.
This was once a big pond. It dried up slowly at first as you can see by the ring and now it is gone.
They just HAD to get a closer look.

OUT AT THE FARM

With another beautiful day upon us we could not resist a trip to the farm. Of course I forgot my camera! That is why you only get to see one pic, and it was made a year ago about this time but still beautiful. Looking at all my pics I have taken, I think you will be seeing a few more. (Something to look forward to, and that doesn't even include ones that need to be scanned!!)

I mention my camera only because we had SO MANY awesome things to photograph. When we got there Mamaw and Papaw were working on the outhouse (this has been a long time coming). The kids were so excited! They can't WAIT to use it!!! They had also put up a tire swing for the kids which would have been a great pic. So we did a little to help them, went for a walk around the lake and decided to take off to the woods. We figured they could get more work done without the kids hanging around.

So I was already kicking myself for not bringing my camera when we find a turtle in the woods. The kids were having a great time, with a lot of the leaves already on the ground we had lots to look at. We found really cool turkey feathers, another turtle, a baby chipmunk and a SNAKE! Kicking myself even more. I couldn't stand it, we were on our way back to M and P so we HAD to take the snake to show (since we didn't have a pic). I don't think Mamaw even looked at it, but that's when I got my phone and captured the moment. I could stand it no longer. Then I look over and Naomi is in the outhouse (without sides) sitting on the pot. "Take a picture!" So I got one of her too. These may or may not show up in the future. When I put her to bed she requested it with a star over he nakedness (there wasn't any to see) but time will tell.

We had a wonderful, beautiful day. I just had to share it (sorry about the heavy use of parentheses).

WELCOME TO FALL

We finally got some fall weather just the other day. So, with Halloween just around the corner the school decided a trip to the pumpkin patch was in order. This was our first time to visit this one and I was quite impressed! We spent 3 hours there and could have spend more, time permitting. The weather was cloudy with a little rain but that blew over, and the fun began. The place we went to was actually an apple orchard that had a pumpkin patch. It made it a little more interesting in the fact that we got to tour the plant and see how the apples were processed and cider was made. Look at those pumpkins!
Nice big play area.

This is only half of it. They had a petting zoo for an extra fee that we did not get to see. Couldn't resist the display.
Take her out, and the animal comes out in her!

TOXIC WARNING!!!

DO NOT EAT STRAWBERRIES!!!!

Despite the protest of more than 50 scientists the USDA approved use of a new HIGHLY TOXIC FUMIGANT, mainly for strawberry fields.

In a letter sent last month 54 scientist, mostly chemist warned that pregnant women and the fetus, children, elderly, farm workers and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk.

EPA said that they evaluated the risk of methyl iodide and decided to approve its use for one year, imposing restrictions such as buffer zones in an effort to protect farm workers and neighbors.

NOW, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I DON'T WANT TO EAT ANYTHING THAT SCIENTIST DISAPPROVE OF THAT MUCH. With so much sickness in the world why would they approve of this???!!!!

I KNOW, I've been slackin'

It has been a week since I posted and I have no other excuse than I have been lazy. There, I said it. You know me, I have a lot to say, so everyday I think I'm going to write about this or that and then I get home and think, I'll do it later. Apparently, this is later, and it is nothing like what I have thought about posting through the week.

Still, I thought you might enjoy a quick post with some recent views. These are taken at my house and the farm. Love this, with the clear blue background and vibrant colors.
Just in time for Halloween.
I'm sure the frog was surprised! Found out back of our home. It makes me feel like we've been doing something right with our landscape.
Beautiful! I love the little slice of moon, the subtle colors in the sky. We had just left the deer stand area and pulled out to this view.

THANK YOU

This is a little late, but I just wanted to say thank you to my brother and Dad for all their hard work. We couldn't have done everything we have without them. Mostly electrical, but the list also includes carpentry, cement removal and install, roofing and I'm sure there is more, but too much to list. They know how much they have helped and I hope they know how much it is appreciated. From the looks of it, it is all foreign to me. The latest project. Working on the unit in the building.
Foreign, foreign, foreign.
I hear they work pretty good together.