Something Wicked..And Funny This Way Comes!

I guess I should say something "wickedly funny" comes to the Pines every October.  We gather as a crazy family to have a bit of Halloween and Fall season fun.  The food is always yummy if not a bit scary..

Looks like a murder happened here!

Ouch..a bloody finger this way comes..

The eyes have it..blood shot or with spiders..your choice!

There were sweeter and sillier things on the menu too.  I didn't get a pic (surprising, I know!) of our rootbeer floats in scientific flasks, or witches fingers on a platter..  The rootbeer floats were fun to see foam all over the place like a bad experiment.  Yikes! After everyone was full I gave the kiddos some work to do.

A Fall harvest word search.

Then some pumpkin decorating...no cutting involved with these...Nice Rae Rae!

A cousin pumpkin showdown..The little cutie on the end is Rae and Lexi's  half sister, Aria.  She's so sweet and we enjoyed having her visit with us today and join in the fun!

I had a bucket full of funny disguises to pick from.

Even the grown ups joined in..well at least Phil did!  He loves Halloween like his Mom!

Summer stopped by on her way to a wedding reception.  When it was time for her to leave she said "I want to stay here!" But she had to go and I was just really happy she stopped by.   All too soon everyone took off for home.  Full of food, fun and goody bags with sweet surprises.  This is a tradition that has changed over the years as the kids have grown. We change up the menu and do different activities but  I hope we always take time to gather together just to enjoy each other's company.

Lexi, I wish I could jump for joy too! It was great!

Have a wickedly fun weekend everyone!

Happy Birthday Rae!

Holy cow, it's October 1st!  I love this month and to start it out we celebrate my Granddaughter's 10th birthday.  Addy Rae is such a sweet, fun, happy little girl and Saturday we went over and helped her and a million of her little friends celebrate.   Her theme was Hollywood stars.

We walked the red carpet that had her name and all her friends names.  Cute idea.

Rae slides into being 10!  When I was growing up we only had those birthday games or a sleep over.  Now it's an event with all kinds of stuff to entertain the crowd...like this ginormous slide.

Throw in a few friends and you have a 10 year old pileup!

Her sister Lexi was there to enjoy the fun too.

Her Dad and PawPaw Jack grilled the hotdogs. 

The girls lined up and filled their plates with the tons of good food that Rae chose for the occasion.   After eating it was time for the gifts.  Rae is so much fun to give gifts to because she loves everything and anything and is so gracious and thankful.  Here are a few pics of her expressions after opening her gifts.

Surprise!

Delight!

Joy!

And even tears when she got a gift she had been asking for.  Oh to be 10 and find life so amazing.

Happy Birthday dear Rae Rae!  We sure love you!

Happy Fall

Another season change and this is my favorite.  I'm over the hot and humid days we had all summer.  It's not always that bad and I think part of my struggle this year was the absence of the pool.  It was a good pool season but I survived and now I'm loving the cooler temps that moved in Saturday.  It was such a typical Fall looking day with clouds and cool breezes.  Last night the temps were in the 40's.  Yep, loving it.   Just to make it really seem like Fall, Jack and I went to a favorite festival of ours.  The Prairie Peddler festival is usually the first 2 weekends in October but was changed this year to this weekend and next weekend.  Yesterday was the perfect day for us.  I was hoping the cool temps and threat of a shower would keep folks away but it was pretty crowded.   Things ran really smooth  however,  and we had a fun day. 

The vendors lined the paths in the woods.   I managed to find a few fun things to purchase.

Wooden pumpkin and a wooden candy corn..can't hardly live without that!

Here's your sign!  We thought it was a win-win because if we want to give it to one of the kids the name's the same. 

We sat down in the crowd for some lunch and these guys were playing and having a great time.  The music was really good and we enjoyed their sense of humor too!

Bison chili and hot dogs for Jack..

Ruben sandwich for me! Yum!

After a few hours we were overloaded with cute so we took off  for home.  Although we have a slew of projects on our plate right now, I'm glad we took the time to enjoy this first weekend of Fall.  Last night we had a lovely sunset.  Hope this week brings good weather for everyone and lovely sunsets every night!

Hello Ashland

When I'm on call it's one of the few times I'm happy to say bye-bye to the weekend.  Not really wanting to alert the gods of call, I will say it hasn't been super bad.  I'm hoping to get through the night and start a new week.  It's Ashland County Fair week.  That always calls the end to summer and ushers in Fall...and I'm ready for that change.  I'm not sure if we'll go to the fair since I didn't put any photos in this year.  Maybe next year if I feel I have any winners!  I think I'm going to post a few pics I took the other day while walking Arnie at Brookside park.   We're lucky to have some really nice parks here and they are very well maintained and I have lots of good memories of spending time with my boys here.   Arnie and I took off at a part of the park I hadn't been too in a while.

This side is near the city golf course and the town creek winds through it under cute little bridges.

Of course Arnie can't resist a quick swim!

The shuffle board courts were empty.  Not sure how busy they get but I don't think they would keep them if they weren't used.

This little red barn building was a favorite spot to visit.  You can get a really delish icecream cone here and when the boys were little they could get penny candy here too.   A quarter got you a nice bag full!  Since I haven't been here in a bit, not sure if that's still the case.  Guess I need to visit it before the end of the month when it closes.

This interested me.  I wasn't sure what it was at first.  Upon closer inspection I was pleased with what I found.

Free books!  Take one and return one.  Great for kiddos!  I noticed today that the park closer to us had one too.  I think this must be something new.   Great idea to encourage reading.  I know I've posted about our town on many occasions.  It's getting a revival in many ways.  The downtown is trying to draw in new business and has many activities to bring folks out to enjoy what's here.  Car shows, farm to table meals on main street, movie nights and more.  I found this video that was made for the Chamber of Commerce about Ashland and liked it.  I don't post videos since I make my blog into a book at the end of the year, but I'm going to give this a try.  If it works I hope any who sees it enjoys what makes Ashland "Someplace Special". 

Do You Remember What You Were Doing?

For some reason I felt I should write something about 9/11.  I ask the question "Do you remember what you were doing on that day?"  I'm sure many of us do remember.   Those times in life when tragedy strikes leaves impressions and feelings that just become part of  our forever memories.  We had just moved into this house on September 8th.  I was working 4 10hr shifts and had Tuesdays off.  It was the most beautiful day.  The sky was so brilliantly blue and the air was cool after a super hot weekend of moving. I was sitting in the kitchen with a friend from church when my daughter-in-law called and told me to turn on the TV because something was happening in New York City.   My friend, Gayle, and I had to go to our family room in the basement because it was the only TV we had hooked to cable.  We sat in total shock and watched what was happening, not really understanding how it could be happening.  Then the second plane hit and we knew our country was being attacked.  We knelt and prayed at the very moment.   My first thought was one of horror and I realized all the first responders will be running into those buildings.  I work in that atmosphere of feeling the need to do whatever you can to save somebody.   Yep, I will never forget the images of that day, how I felt, how the day looked and how I also felt for many months afterwards.   Today I again watched on TV the images and sounds of that day.  We now have faces and names attached to victims and also know the how and the why of the events.   It's been 17 years.   For the families who lost loved ones, it probably feels like it could have been today.  They will never forget.  We must not forget either.  That's all I wanted to say today.   Let's not forget.  God bless America.

   

Do We Need An Ark?

I'm not one who hates the rain.  I welcome it's refreshing coolness after last weeks blistering hot and humid days.  However, it's been raining pretty much straight for the past few days thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Gordon.  The temps were only in the 60's today...ahhh, love it.   I think the end is near and it came down gently and not torrential downpours.  So our grass is super green and growing as I type this! My tomato plants are nearing their end but the peppers seem to be growing forever...and that's OK.  We've been working on our projects and I blogged about the outbuilding progress.  We went from this:

To this:

To this:

Here's the inside version:

Hello space! Hello space for more junk!  Not really.  I joked that we had to get an outbuilding so we could downsize!  The gator, lawnmowers, snowblowers, and all other odds and ends will get out of the garage along with some other real "junk" that will make room for Jack's car.   Look out trash people...we're downsizing!   So what else has been going on?  Well, our apple tree was ready to be picked so I combined our apples with the orchard's and made some applesauce.  I bought an electric canner and I love it!

It doesn't do a ton of jars at a time but we're not canning for an army.  Last week I had Tuesday off.  It was super hot and humid so Arnie and I took our walk early.  We went to the park and it was deserted! With school back in all the kiddos were gone...just peace and quiet!

The pool was empty.  The grounds keepers were taking down the diving boards and getting it all buttoned up for Winter.

Playground empty.

The bandshell waiting for next years' free concerts on those Summer Thursday and Sunday nights.

Sorry Arnie...no music today!

Proof that Fall is only a few weeks away.  The picnic tables are just collecting falling leaves.  Have a good week.

 Night all.

Happy Anniversary!

Today Jack and I celebrate 44 years of marriage.  Whew, that flew by!   I put in for a vacation day today many months ago and I'm really glad I did.  We had good friends invite us to their daughter's wedding at the Columbus Temple this morning.  It was a beautiful day and we connected with some friends we hadn't seen in a while.  The young bride is a someone I've known since the instant she was born.  In fact, I joked that I got to see her before her parents since I was the scrub nurse on her c-section!   We are very happy to share our anniversary with Elyse and Adam.

Best of luck to you both! 

Happy Anniversary Jack! Love you!

The roses are beautiful too! Although life isn't always a bed of roses, it's an adventure to embrace...

We didn't have a clue what adventures were ahead when we waved goodbye in this photo...and we still don't have a clue!  Happy Anniversary to us!

A Birthday And Dog Day

Yesterday was Jack's big 65th...now we're the same age! He thinks that's why I feel the need to post on Facebook and the blog about his birthday.  Not true! OK, maybe a bit true but everyone should celebrate their birthday.   If nothing else it's a great excuse to eat cake!  And we did!  The kids came over yesterday and we had a little pizza birthday party with Texas sheet cake and icecream to follow.  So where are the pics?  Yep, I totally forgot to take any.  I'm slipping a bit in my photo responsibilities.   I made Jack's favorite meal today and he made sure I took a shot of that:

Some shrimp creole anyone?  It was pretty yummy if I do say so myself.

Blueberry pie from Jack's blueberries bushes.  He says they're my bushes too but he's the one who takes care of them and has nursed them along these past years.  They are finally bearing fruit...enough for some pies anyway!  (Oops...the edges are a bit dark but it tasted good anyway!)   It's always fun to have the guys here and listen to their funny stories and just sit around enjoying the time.  We wish Craig could be here too but we'll be seeing him and his family in October.   So a big Happy Birthday Jack!  Welcome to Medicare!   Now on to the "Dog Day" part.   It's National Dog Day today so I found some photos of our pups over the years. 

Ferris the wonder dog....Jordan and I picked him out at the pound.   Jordan was 3yrs old and Ferris was 3 months old.  Jordan named him and that sweet guy lived with us for 15 years.  He passed away in 2002 after we moved to the Pines.   Lots of good memories of him. 

I found this pic of my Mom and Ferris.  She was here for Christmas in 1988..30 yrs ago.  She was 62..time has flown by.

Jordan's dog, Eddy, who passed away 2 years ago will always have a special part of our heart.  He lived here with Jord for 5 years.  We hadn't had a dog in a while and he was a fun guy to get us back into the dog mode.  We miss you Eddy!

My favorite pic of Chubbs...the kindest dog ever.  I still miss him so much.  He was a senior rescue and I'm so glad we took the chance on him.  He didn't live here long but he'll never be forgotten.  Love you Chubbie!

Now we have Arnie...another rescue, only a bit younger than our Chubbs was.  So we hope he's here for a long time.  He's a character with his own mind about life.   We're still getting to know his quirks and find fun things almost every day about him.  He and I walk daily in the parks or the cemetery.  He loves car rides and french fries!  Oh, and sleeping...he's a great sleeper! 

Granddog Kip is a frequent visitor.  He's so sweet and loveable...like a big stuffed toy!  He would so much love it if Arnie would just give him a chance to be friends....but Arnie doesn't care for big dogs.   Kip tries to be nice but Arnie just growls at him if he gets too close.  Hopefully over  time Arnie will get better with him.

Happy is Summer's dog and also a rescue from a puppy mill. He and Arnie get along fine but Happy doesn't like to be too far from Summer.  So those are the pups in our life..past and present.  I know many of my blog buddies have dogs so I wish them all Happy Dog Day!