More pictures from yesterday

I wonder what the story on this old place is and what memories were made here. How sad and neglected it is now. I love how the sun rays show up so nicely in the photo.

Watch out, Martha! Don't get your feet wet!

Where's the candy?

A few days ago I bought three bags of Halloween candy. One of the bags I emptied into a little ceramic pumpkin that sits on our entertainment center. The other two bags I tucked away in a cupboard, still in the grocery bag. The candy that I had emptied into the pumpkin didn't even last a day. Yesterday when I went out with Martha someone found the other two bags, and when I got home there were only 2 little Milky Way Bars left. The Snickers were completely gone. They said they really missed me. I guess they found comfort through eating chocolate. Maybe if I buy them chocolate they'll let me go out again sometime!

A Daycation

Today Martha and I spent a day together, out and about. Priscilla was supposed to come too, but is too overwhelmed with school stuff right now, so she opted out. Martha and I spent the day touring antique shops and eating out.

The fall colors were beautiful! This picture was taken near where we stopped for lunch...the first time.Whoa!

We took a scenic walk through Grimes Point (was that what it was called, Martha? It doesn't sound right.) This little bridge we had to cross over was a little broken down, so....

Martha jumped on it to see if she could break it. Not really, she was just showing me that it wasn't all that flimsy.

I thought this old tricycle in one of the antique shops was neat.

At the end of our day together, we stopped at Gudl's restaurant for some authentic German cuisine. Not only did I get to meet 2 computer friends (Gudl and Melissa) in person, but I got to enjoy a delicious meal too!! Unfortunately we were much too full for the yummy looking desserts.

It was a very fun, much needed day out together for some sister time! Hopefully the next time Priscilla can come too.

Falling Leaves

Dave just picked up the leaves last night, and this is them today. They're falling like crazy!

Home from PA

This is Dave's brother, Bill, and his wife, Jo. Jo and I went shopping at the PA outlet malls right after this picture was taken at Dairy Queen. There is no sales tax on clothing there, and the prices were way cheaper!! I got a really nice black belt at Eddie Bauer marked down from $36.00 to $1.99.

My nieces and Michael building popsicle stick houses in the playroom.

Koty and Emi playing

Steven and my niece, Brianna, having a competition to see who can bounce the tennis ball up and down on the racquet the most times in a row.

Koty wonders why Emi gets to be in the position he likes to be in.There were some beautiful colors on the way home!

A Little Getaway

We have been visiting Dave's brother and his wife in Lancaster County, PA since Thursday night. Yesterday we went to a place called "Kitchen Kettle Village". There are a bunch of fun little shops to explore here. I have been here with my sister in law before, but never with my honey. I made him come this time since my brother in law had to work a half day, and there was a picture at a store here that I wanted to get for our family room. We saw a few Amish wagons out and about.

We did buy a beautiful picture, but I'll post that later. We're wondering how we will get it home since it's pretty big.

We had live entertainment. These guys were playing music, and this woman was dancing.

This is Dave. He knew I was taking a picture of him walking into the pottery shop.

We saw some nice pottery while looking around.

These are called "peanut pumpkins". Aren't they ugly?

Dave and I pause for a picture just before heading back to my in laws house. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

The Stone Fireplace

My honey continues his awesome work on our stone fireplace.

Ouch!

I get 3 allergy shots every week, but today I got 4 shots since they were offering the flu shot. It really hurt when she gave it to me, and now it feels like someone slugged me really hard in my right arm.

Koty's meeting with Lilly

It rained again today, but we decided to get Koty and Lilly together anyhow. Lilly came this evening at around 5:15pm, and even though it rained while they played, they had a great time. It was extremely difficult to get a good picture of them because they were constantly moving. The neat thing is that they are related. Koty's grandpa is Lilly's father. Pretty neat we only live 5 minutes away!

Fireproof

I wish I posted this sooner, but I wanted to mention that Dave and I saw the movie, "Fireproof" last Friday night. It was very good, and the theater was jam packed! If you see it bring some tissues. I didn't and I cried.

Interesting!

Last week one of my patients looked at Koty's picture on my wall and asked me what kind of dog he was. I told her and she got so excited because they also have a comfort retriever and guess where they got theirs... Dakota Winds in South Dakota! They are the 1st people we've met that have one and we are the first ones they have met that have one. Since we only live 5 minutes away from each other we decided to get the dogs together. They will meet tomorrow at a park.

Oh, and our dogs are related. I will post pictures of their meeting tomorrow.

Reminiscing

The kids have been asking and asking to go visit our old neighborhood (about a 30 minute drive) and to go to Long Acre Farms nearby and get ice cream, so tonight we did just that...except my honey forgot his wallet so we didn't get the ice cream. I was short 15 cents so we couldn't get any. The above picture is our old house. We lived here for 10 years and have many good memories here. I couldn't get a good picture because the woman who lives there now was sitting on the front step. As it was, she saw me take this one. I tried to be quick while Dave was saying, "No, don't get it!" We visited our old neighbor a little later when it was dark and he said that the woman said that someone drove by and took a picture...oops! I guess we should've stopped and said hi and told her that we lived there for 10 years, and did she mind if we took a picture.

At Long Acre Farms they have a huge corn maze and lots of other neat things to do. Dave and the boys were really having fun trying to figure out the yard mazes. There are rules that you can only do certain things and it really takes a lot of thought to get through it.
Finally the boys and I stopped at the tires for a photo as the sun was setting. The boys played on these when they were just little people. They said they were surprised to see how small everything looked, especially the pirate ship.
It's fun to go back and reminisce. Both boys were born while we lived in that neighborhood, so that's where we watched them learn to walk, talk, where they learned to ride a bike, where we took numerous walks together, where they got on the school bus for the first time, etc... It was nice to come home after though, this is home now.
Funny, after I hit the publish button and viewed my post, I saw my header photo. It was taken at the same place we visited tonight, except we lived out there then.

Cut outs

With the change in weather, the kids get antsy for our tradition of making cut out cookies. We were supposed to be making pumpkins and leaves, but this is what one of the trays looked like. (Michael's creation)

Hey, who is that stealing my dough?!...Michael. A lot of this goes on.

This tray looked a little better than the previous. The blob cookie was the last of the dough, and it's mine! I enjoyed every bite! Tonight we will frost them, and put some faces on those pumpkins.

A Little More Progress

Koty after his haircut

Koty was not very cooperative for the camera today. This is him post haircut, but those of you who didn't see him before may not notice a difference. You may think he looks shaggy now, but he was very shaggy before. I think he looks adorable!

I had to post this one because Dave looks so cute!

Koty's 1st Haircut

Koty was getting a little too shaggy looking so Dave decided to groom him with the flowbee. He wasn't so sure about it at first, but he got used to it. He didn't go to sleep while it was being done though, his eyes were wide open. See him sleeping as he gets his nails clipped, below.

A Trusting Little Pup

This is Koty having his nails clipped this morning. He was so relaxed that he was falling asleep. Quite trusting, don'tcha think?

A Golf Outing

Today Dave came home from work a little early and wondered if I might want to go golfing with him. It was a beautiful, sunny day... a perfect day for golf, I thought. Well, needless to say, I did not do so well. It was a very frustrating golf outing for me. It was HOT, and there I was on the middle of a golf course in the bright sun, whiffing the ball. Does anyone but me have a hard time keeping their arm straight, keeping their eyes on the ball, opening the face of their club, pretending your club is a "noodle", and making sure you follow through on your swing? My poor honey, I wasn't a very good partner today.
Martha, you and I were just discussing this type of thing today. I got so angry at one point when I whiffed the same ball about 5 times, that I said I just wanted to throw the dan thing. I didn't swear I said, "dan". Dave said that it counts as a swear word...but I didn't swear! Do you think God took away some points for that one? ;)

A Little Progress

This is what the fireplace looks like now. I know, not much progress, but it's VERY time consuming picking just the right ones to fit together. I am very excited that the project is moving forward, and I think it looks great so far!

Slow Fade

I heard this song for the 1st time this morning on my way to work, and it really ministered to me. It's a great reminder of how sly Satan is. He works slowly to pull us away from God, and pretty soon we are where we never imagined we would be. I do not want to make any compromises in my life (and I know I do at times)...especially after being reminded of this.

Stones Galore

This is what our living room looks like right now. We have our stone all laid out according to color.

Dave now has the daunting task of placing the stones randomly, making sure to scatter the different colors and sizes. Koty, as usual, is extremely curious about what Dave is doing.
Great job, Honey!! (I'm sorry you can't see what I can see right now, but I will post another picture tomorrow.)

More Labor Day Pictures

Okay Martha, here they are.

German Potato Salad

Today we had a Labor Day picnic at Martha and James' house. This is what I often make for our picnics because it is very well liked by people. This is a recipe that my mother in law gave to me. It is very yummy!

German Potato Salad

1 bag potatoes
1 C vinegar
1 C water
1/2 C sugar
5 hard boiled eggs
2 rounded TBS of flour
1/4 tsp pepper
1 package bacon, cut up (save drippings)
sliced vidalia onion (I put less than 1/4 cup)

Cook potatoes in salt water, drain. Cut up bacon and cook. Combine bacon drippings, vinegar, and water in a saucepan. Mix sugar, flour, and pepper and whisk into liquids in saucepan. Heat over med heat until it thickens. Layer potatoes, sauce, bacon, eggs (save 2 eggs to slice for top), onion. Gently toss.

My Honey

It's a good thing he's cute!