Celebrating Early

The past week has been a flurry of us completing projects in our home and getting ready for a family visit from my sister and my Mom. Also my sister's daughter, Amy and her hubby and 3 kiddos came too. Add that into all my kids, grandkiddos and their boyfriends and a few of our friends, you have a houseful of love and noise, food and again fun. I need to send a huge thank you to Jack for all his hard work in getting the projects completed.  Whew, it was crazy at times! Thanks babe..you're the best!   We celebrated Thanksgiving early because of my call schedule this year.  I have Thanksgiving and the weekend.  Well, take Thanksgiving day off as one of my coworkers asked if I would trade that day for New Years day.  Anyway, our plans were already weeks in the making so we did the turkey day event on Saturday.  Mom and Midge came on Thursday with Amy and her clan on Friday.  I had been cooking for days already and with my sister's help we finished the food frenzy!  We set up the livingroom with enough tables and chairs for about 25.

Somehow it all worked out!

Plenty of food for an army!  Everyone gathered around the tables and it was great to hear all the talking, laughing and a bit of silence as food was consumed...loved it!  However, it was a bit tiring.

At 92 Mom pitched in and did as much as we would allow.  I caught this quick pic.  I have a new camera and I'm not pleased with it so far.  I have many blurry shots probably due to operator failure. But I'm sharing what few did come out..a few here are still not great.

92yr olds weren't the only tired ones..right Summer?

Here's a blurry one of my two Granddaughters, Lex and Addy Rae with Conner, Parker, and Ella. My niece Amy's three.

Ella latched on to Rae and they became bestie cousin friends!

Lex grabbed Parker's heart!

Here' s Mom making some food with Lex.  Photo bombed by an ice tray.

The other Grandkiddos..Summer, (Happy the Granddog), Anthony, Driana and Cameron.  I had the younger ones do a project.  They were to name what they were thankful for and color the turkey picture.

Yep, my family is truly what I'm thankful for too.  It was busy, hectic, noisy at times, but so worth the effort. I'm so glad Mom could make the trip.  We know it won't always be the case.  I treasure these moments.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention what day today is for our family.  My father passed away 42 years ago today.   He was the life of the party when we all gathered.  When he passed we truly had a hard time getting into the party mood.  Over the years we have enjoyed many celebrations but in my mind he's very close by and I'm sure enjoying seeing us all gathered together.   I miss him every day.

I also have to thank my sister Midge for all the work and help she was but also for the many laughs and talks we shared.  There was a time when we would stay up to all hours of the early morning talking and laughing with Mom included.  We are all passed the late hours but thankfully have many good moments during waking times!  In all the excitement and preparations I never got a pic of us.  I will make sure I do at the family Christmas gathering in a few weeks.  So I'll just share one of my favorite me and Midge moments:

Love you little sister...you're the best!  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this week and finds many things to be Thankful for in life. 

Freaky Friday

Every day at the hospital new rules rise up like bread dough.  The latest is the low census rule.  If you're offered low census you can say yes but know that if you're called before 7:30 am you will have to come to work and work someplace in the hospital that needs a warm body.  I'm waiting for the day I can make cookies in the cafeteria!  Anyway, today they must have been fully staffed so I have the day off...a Friday to make it a longer weekend! Great, because I  have plenty of projects to complete because family is coming in next week to celebrate an early Thanksgiving feast with us.  I'm on call Thanksgiving and that weekend so we're gathering early.  To my surprise Jack told me to grab the camera this morning and check the outdoors..

Footsteps on the deck....footsteps and paw prints on the SNOW!  Having snow in November isn't unusual around these parts but he thought I would like to click a pic of the first one of the season.

Yep, it's here!

After the sun came up I took another shot because it probably will be gone by noon as the temps rise and the rain falls instead.

Fall wreath on the door...winter snow on the steps.

A little more than frost on the pumpkin this morning!

Nothing prettier than a flocked pine tree and a warm welcome from our home to yours! Enjoy your Friday and I hope it's really not freaky at all!

Time Flying Backwards

Yes, it was the time going back an hour weekend.  I don't like this time change. I know everyone says they can have that extra hour of sleep...or whatever you want to do with it.  For me it just makes me more tired.  At work when it's 2 o'clock and my body says it's really 3 o'clock I'm so over the day.  I just read that there are more heart attacks with this time change than other times of the year.  Not sure if that's gospel so don't quote me.  I hope everyone used their time wisely. I hope everyone felt an hour younger.  I really hope some day this changing time thing goes away!  After getting home from our vacation it was catch up time. (Since I'm talking about time!)  It was good to get back into the routine of our daily lives.  Jack and I both had off Wednesday so we took time to visit our son Phil's new shop.

He manages the Safelite Auto Glass in Mansfield.  He's turned it into one of the most successful shops in the state.  The headquarters is in Columbus so he has more pressure on his shop than those in other states.  We're proud of him and so glad he could move from the previous place that was way too small!

Nice job Phil!  Wednesday night we went our son Jack's home to join them in Halloween fun.  We missed Phil's girls trick or treating since we were in Portland and Ashland always does that the Thursday before Halloween.  So we went to Jack's and I walked with Cameron and his Mom as he went trick or treating.  I was a bit perplexed at his costume. 

What? I asked him why he was a care bear...was he broken hearted care bear?  Heck no! He told me he was a video game character and I wouldn't know that since I don't do video games.  After I stopped laughing, we headed out.  He was mistaken for a girl at most places.  He would then lower his voice down when he said "trick or treat" and watch the peoples expressions as they realized he wasn't a girl. It was pretty funny.  Anyway, he had fun and so did I!  Even though I only worked 2 days this past week I was ready for the weekend.  It's gone too fast, even with gaining an hour.  Back to the grind tomorrow.  To end this special time blog, here's a few leaf peeping picks from my walks in the cemetery with Arnie.

Nice colors..

Amazingly big trees!  We've had tons of rain and wind so it won't be long before all the color and leaves have left us.  I enjoy the month of November...the quiet month before the rush of December.
A time to remember all our blessings and a time to be very thankful for them! Have a good week!

Vacation Post

How 7 days can fly by so fast is beyond me, but it sure did on our trip to see Craig and family in Oregon.  It was a really nice trip, a bit different from the other ones we've taken out there.  Usually we go in the summer when the kids are out of school. It worked out better to take this trip in the Fall so we just went with the flow of their daily lives.  I kidded them that we wanted to see them in their natural habitat!  There's all the typical things like school, music lessons, dance lessons, Boy Scouts and church activities.  I think I'd forgotten how much we used to run with our own crew back in the day!  I'm just going to post the pics that captured some fun moments.  The kids are growing and changing so much and it was great to spend this time with them. We really miss you guys!

It was nice to see Fall colors as our trees have been slow to change this year.

We ate breakfast at this cute little cafe.

The inside was adorable and the food was really good!

Hey Craig and Jack!

Across the street from the cafe was a barn that sold produce and many cutesy things for the home. They also had chickens and goats out back! Craig and Amy had fun feeding them!

Jack walked around and enjoyed the Fall atmosphere.   We went to a harvest festival at Sophia's school.  She was able to dress up in her Halloween costume.

She was a huntress with a bow and arrow! As all school festivals go there was lots of kids and noise! But it was very well organized and I enjoyed seeing her school and her friends.

Candy corn face paint anyone?  On Saturday we took a trip to the Roloff  pumpkin farm.  I don't know if you watch "Little People, Big World".   This is their famous home and pumpkin farm.  It was really fun and all the people there were so darn nice!  I got to meet Amy Roloff:

She posed for pics with tons of people.  I just happen to be the first one there that day!  We also saw Matt Roloff and his son Jeremy and also Zak's son and wife.   I didn't take their pics however...don't know why.   My daughter-in-law and the girls and I took a wagon tour of the place.   Pretty impressive what they've done there.

Lots of pumpkins but we didn't buy any there...a bit pricey!  Then we took off for Top Golf.  I had never been there before.   I'm not a golfer but I did hit a few balls out at the targets.

Craig in the resident golfer although Sophie likes to play here too.

She did pretty good!

Last night was pumpkin carving and they did a good job!  Very serious work here!  Took off early this morning and got back around 4 this afternoon.  We're tired but so glad we made the trip.

We love this family and can't believe how big the kids have gotten.  They are really good kids who study hard, enjoy family time and love to kid around and just have fun...we miss you all already!

Blog Break

We're heading out to visit our son in Oregon.  We fly at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow and I'm sure the next week will have some blog worthy moments to share.  I'll miss trick or treat here with our other Grandkiddos but I'm looking forward to seeing Taylor, Katie, Sophia and of course our son Craig and my sweet Daughter-in-law, Amy!  It's been a year since we've seen them and kids grow and change so fast.  It's hard to have them so far away.  Anyway, our son Jordan is taking vacation time to house and dog sit while we're away so don't try any funny stuff....he's a good shot!  Plus Arnie is a killer!

See you in November!

No news is good news as they say, but it makes for no blog news.  Not so good I say!  Nothing spectacular is happening except the everyday busy that fills the calendar and our time.  Again this year our Fall leaf color is slow in arriving.   The most colorful spot right now is the cemetery where I walk Arnie!

I'm hoping the rest of Ashland gets some color for me to photograph. Cemetery shots can be a bit dreary even though it is that time of year for scary places.  Except I love cemeteries!  I go here almost every day with this little guy who got a good grooming today...Thanks Jack for taking him.  The Barker Shop does a nice job but they are very disorganized...drives us a bit crazy.

Arnie was happy to get home!   I worked late today and I was glad to get home too.  I'll end with a sunset from the other day.

A week ago it was 86 degrees...this week has been chilly and tonight it will drop to 30de.  We went right into Winter weather with snow flakes coming on Sunday.  My Hydrangea decided to finally get more blooms...oh well, see you in the Spring pretty flowers!  Night all!

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!