Happy Halloween!

Mr. Daniel with his candy stash.....he told me he liked the Starburst the best!!

The girls back in 'Barbieville' aka Maw's bedroom. This is THEIR spot to play when they all get together. Daniel is sitting in the corner over there watching a video.

Shelly, Jennifer & Danielle

Danielle, Alley & Maw......LOVE the good times we've spent around this dining room table. LOTS of good memories!!



Ashley getting her hair sprayed black with green streaks! Didn't show up as well as she had hoped. Oh well....we had fun trying!

Candy treats for the kiddos.

The pumpkin cake that I made for the party.

We had a really fun time at our Halloween party yesterday at Maw's house. Danielle & Alley were there with their kids, Shelly & Jennifer joined us along with Maw, Sarah & kids. It was a really nice fall day & the kids were able to enjoy playing out in Maw's backyard while we sat around the dining room table visiting & learning how to crochet. (Wish I had gotten a picture of me & Ellas crocheting....shoot). Here are some of the pics that I took from our party.

MRSA

I was up this morning just sipping my coffee & checking my emails when Maw & Danielle BOTH beeped me saying that Chris' classes were cancelled for today. A staff member at CVCC has MRSA staph infection & was taken to the hospital. The health dept. said it really wasn't a problem/nothing to be worried about, BUT as a precautionary measure & to put folks' minds at ease, they cancelled all classes & are cleaning on campus today. Very smart move, if you ask me! Anyway, I guess Chris has a vacation day today. ;-) Trying to get my ducks in a row & get ready to leave for our Homeschool Halloween party at Maw's house today. Need to go tidy up the kitchen & make some tea to take with us. Wouldn't hurt to throw a load of laundry in before I leave too. Guess Clay & Chris will spend the day doing stuff to get ready for hunting. Will also give Chris a day to work on his history paper that he needs to write.

More Layouts

I have been on a roll with the scrapping here the last few days.......I even dreamed about scrapping last night. Which reminds me, I need to go draw that cool sketch I dreamed about last night before I forget. Yesterday was church & then home to hang out for the afternoon. LOVE lazy Sunday afternoons!! I scrapped, the kids played & then I fixed a big ole pot of baked potato soup for supper. YUM! We started our first fire of the season last night....it got down to about 33, I think. Was 37 this morning when I got up with frost on the ground. I LOVE having our woodstove......so cozy & warm & it smells so good too! I think we are just going to aim for some math and/or reading today.....it's looking to be a busy day. I need to run to the grocery store this morning. Then when I get home, I need to bake our pumpkin cake & get the treats & stuff together for our party on Tues. That plus the regular chores (meaning laundry) will keep me BUSY most of the day, I think!! OK, off to grab a bite to eat & get a grocery list together.

Real Quick

Just wanted to share the layouts I was able to get done yesterday afternoon. My favorite, I think, is the one of the kids at the creek.....using the Tim McGraw lyrics.....'Country boys & girls....somebody said they'd seen 'em headed down to the creek' Just sorta hit me & seemed perfect for this layout! 'Enough Mom' is pics I took of Clay teaching Jon how to split wood....in the top pic, Jon is pointing at me telling me to QUIT taking picture! 'Once Upon a Time' is Jon up in the Hickory tree behind Uncle Ridhard's house reading a Star Wars book (the child Clay has been worried about his reading....Ha!) And last but not least is a LO of Spud & Shake. Shake (the bottom one) is getting pretty old now.....mostly blind....but still spunky enough to run rabbits with the rest of them!

Haunted House

My youngest 4 are all upstairs now doing their annual Haunted House. They get SO serious about this. I keep hearing all the spooky music (you know those dollar store cds) & Ashley & Jon just came down to show me their costumes & have me take a couple of pictures......will have to post them here in a bit.

Prayer Request

Just wanted to share a prayer request.....one of my good friends, Jules asked prayer for her hubby. A little of the story...he's diabetic & has already had one of his legs amputated a little over a year ago, I believe & now they are facing this.....Her hubby's name is Vince & I KNOW they would very much appreciate the prayers!! The following is what she shared with us girls on our scrapping message board:

Could you guys say some more prayers for his toe.....I'm not liking how it looks this week...i think I see bone....and it is really bothering me.....I'm almost afraid of what she is going to say Thursday....I'm very anxious... I know it's 'color' is much better, but the actual blister site just has not gotten better.... This is really getting me down....thanks ladies....

We did go....and didn't get the news I wanted. We are going back tomorrow to see the Dr's in the vascular department....they will give the final say but we are at this point 90% certain that it will need to be amputated. She can 'probe to bone'.....which means no muscle is growing over where it needs to grow... I'm trying to be strong....but it is getting harder..... Thanks for your prayers.....

It's official....we go in Monday afternoon to have it amputated. Did all the pre op today.....the vascular drs agree that it is the best solution. Said they would be happy to walk with us for as many weeks as we wanted to try to see if it would heal...but at the same time the risks of it getting worse would be there and then the risk of it still being the same are there...this way we know the infection will be gotten and we can go on. Said that his circulation in the foot itself is good so it should heal with minimal problems expected. They will probably actually cast his feet for his shoes before we go home. Then it will be just a deal of healing stitches...which we have done before.....so..... We are both dealing with it....I've only cried a few times....but I'm ready to have it behind us....

Still raining....

Most all day today & chilly too....just in the 50s. Stayed in all afternoon & worked on my Design Team assignment for the Oct. 31st newsletter. Got that done, just need to scan & upload now. Fixed beef stew for supper along with corn bread & chicken tenders for those picky ones who didn't eat the beef stew. Clay & the kiddos are in there now flipping between American Idol re-runs & Halloween movies. Think I need to pull my crocheting out & work some now.

What we did today...

We learned about the Mayflower & her crew. Ship's Master was Christopher Jones-his job was to direct the course of the ship & command all the sailors & crew. There were also Pilots & Master's Mates. The kid's particular favorite was the Cooper-his duty was to build, repair & maintain the ship's barrels. This was a very important job because barrles held the food & drink that the passengers & crew needed to survive. Other crew members were the Master Gunner,carpenter,boatswain, quartermasters, cook, swabber,etc. I found a project in one of my library books (Colonial Kids-an activity guide to life in the new world) by-Laurie Carlson for building a model ship like the Mayflower, so I think that's what we will try & do tomorrow. I also happened upon some cute Halloween bookmarks to make.....so I printed those off & Alli colored one for each kid coming to our Halloween party. I then cut them out & glued each to a piece of cardstock & added a bit of glitter glue & yarn. These will go in the treat bags we fix for the party on Tues.

'Happy Windsday, Owl'

Stole this quote from Jo this morning.......from Winnie-the-Pooh.....just thought it was cute. Nice day yesterday. Sarah & the kids came down & had lunch with us at Maw's......walmart chicken strips, fries & slaw....what a nice treat. The kids played together while we visited until we had to leave & take Chris to his lab. Then Ashley wanted to check out Old Navy & since we were over at that shopping center I drove down to the end to check & see when AC Moore was going to open & it already has. So we looked around in there for a while.....REALLY nice. So glad to have another craft store to frequent other than just Michael's!! LOTS of cool scrapbooking stuff in there! Then we hit ON & Target where we met Ella & visited with them for a bit. Ran by Barnes & Noble real quick then had to pick Chris up & by the time we got home it was time to start on supper. But like I said, we just did Manwich & tater tots, so that was easy!

Yesterday

My day yesterday......Up at 7am...Chris out the door by 8...check email/chat with Ella & Maw...school with the kiddos...we started our Thanksgiving/Colonial unit today....just kind of an overview....they wrote their new Bible verse....did some math worksheets......shower....laundry.....lunch.....go pick up Chris....he got a 93 on his Biology test that he took Friday.....WTG, Dude......your first A in biology!! I'm so proud!....home...switch over the loads of laundry.....scrapped a 2-page LO.....grilled chicken for supper along with green beans, corn, ronis, baked potatoes & biscuits...not much going on after supper.....kid's baths, Clay watched football, I crocheted some & then went upstairs to read & fell asleep a little after 11pm.

Today the girls & I are taking Chris...our usual Tues. routine these days. We'll have lunch & visit with Maw & then when Chris goes back for lab, the girls want to go shopping somewhere....most likely Target. We always seem to meet up with Danielle there on Tues. afternoons so that's an added bonus. Supper will be easy tonight since this is our late night getting home......Manwich & tater tots. Need to hustle & grab a bite to eat & get the kitchen cleaned up. Later Taters. ;-)

Monday, monday..........

Not really in full swing yet....maybe I need a refill of coffee. Wanted to post the two layouts I did yesterday afternoon. One of Bruce playing/singing at the Family Reunion back in Sept. & one is about our wonderful neighbor, Mason!! Right after I had finished working on this page about him helping Clay with the firewood.....who should come to my back door, but Mason. He had a bag of apples for me. Said they had just come back from the orchard & had to clean out their frige to make room for the new apples they got & so he brought me a whole bag full of what they had in their frige. Said he thought the kids would enjoy them. Now, isn't that just the sweetest thing! They are always like that......willing the share or lend a helping hand. That's why I LOVE living out here so much!!

Laughter

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
E E Cummings

That being said....today was certainly NOT wasted because we laughed ALOT this afternoon. Funny, funny stories shared around my dining room table with Danielle & Alley! Oh my goodness.....I'm still laughing about how to stop a nose bleed!!
The kids had a blast playing together, as usual, while we sat & visited, shared stories & looked at pictures & scrapbook pages. Thank God for good friends.....what a blessing!! Here are a few snapshots from our day. OK.....blogger is down again, so maybe pics tomorrow morning.

Four Deer

I came downstairs this morning & noticed out the dining room window that there FOUR deer right out here by Clay's grape vines. They were JUST on the other side of the fence & in no rush to go anywhere. I got my digi camera & tried to take some pics, but they didn't turn out with the glare off the window. They finally mosied on off down the hill toward the sawmill.

Getting things straightened up around here because Ella is coming up today. We were going to try our picnic at Drumheller's again, but after raining all day yesterday (praise the Lord for the rain....we NEEDED it so bad!) we just decided to have our own little indoor picnic here. All the kids really care about is playing with their friends & I know we'll all have a nice visit anyway!

Watched 'Sleepy Hollow' with the kids last night & it was a perfect night for it. After all the rain, it was REALLY foggy/misty out & there was a mist around the moon which added to the effect! Ashley kept having to go out on the front porch to look at the foggy mist out toward the RR track........it REALLY was cool-looking!

Today's school............

Thought I'd share some of our notebook pages from our planet unit. We just finished up the last bit this morning. We did Solar System Alliterations. Here's a sampling of what we came up with:
1. Pluto is a Purple Planet
2. Mercury & Mars are Made of Marshmallows
3. The Spaceship Soared past Saturn & the Sun
Jon & Ashley both read 'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe today. So proud at how Jon's reading has taken off. Didn't have time for read-aloud time with Jon this morning, so I told him to see how much he could do on his own & if there were words he didn't understand, we would look them up later. When I got home this afternoon, he had read the whole thing & told me all about it. There were a few words like 'Audacity' that he didn't recognize, but we made a list & he's going to look those up tomorrow for his vocab words.
OK....so blogger isn't co-operating right now for me to be able to upload the planet pages.....will just do that in the morning.

For Carol E.

Just wanted to post a couple here for Maw's friend, Carol..........'Gotta Be Me' was done for the last newsletter at ASF....pics from an old family reunion (I was preggo with Chris) & 'Hendricks Family'...pics taken this fall at our family reunion......The HENDRICKS children (Doug, Kyle, Amy & Sarah) with their families & Maw too!! ;-)

Monday, Monday

Just finishing up my cup of coffee while I throw out reminders like....Brush your teeth.....beds made?......get dressed.......simple everyday things that you've done every day since toddler-hood, but yet these kiddos HAVE to be reminded each morning!

We had Pastor Appreciation Day yesterday at church with a pot-luck lunch afterwards. Maw came with us to church & stayed for lunch too. It was really nice. We had chili/soups, salad, home-made chicken salad that was to die for,breads, desserts, etc. I was so upset that I forgot my camera........what in the world is wrong with me.....the girl who usually is wearing her camera around her neck ALL the time. Oh well....came home & sat outside enjoying the nice Fall sunshine while reading my book. Then came in & scrapped for a bit while Clay watched football (he came home from work early yesterday afternoon). Supper was simple.....tacos & then afterwards I worked on getting school stuff together for this week. Trying to tweek 'Fatcat's' weekly schedule that she sent me & get it suitable for US. My oldest was most insulted by the fact that included on this weekly schedule was the afore-mentioned chores of make up bed, brush teeth, get dressed, etc. teen-agers! LOL......I thought it was a perfectly legitimate since like I said, I have to remind them all every morning anyway. Oh well, I have a newer version now of what she needs to do for the week & it's up to her WHEN/HOW she gets it done.....as long as it gets done! We'll see how this works. Will come back later & add the layouts that I did over the weekend for ASF's cybercrop. Gotta run.....they are actually ASKING for their school work!

Jon Boy

Here's the LO I finished last night. It was for one of the challenges on ASF.....to use anything 'Pirate-y'. I used some of these cool 'Pirate-y' papers that I got from Michaels the other day. Thought they just seemed to fit Jon perfectly.

Peppermint Mocha.........Mmmmmmmmmm!

That's what I'm sipping on right now. LOVE the peppermint mocha creamer for our coffee & I just realized that it's out at Walmart now, so I HAD to get us some. Ashley & I LOVE this stuff so much! Such a nice yummy treat on a cool fall night. Finally feeling a little more like fall around here. Just Tuesday it was near 90 & today it was like 66 for the high. BIG difference! Not alot happening here the past few days.....playing catch-up after missing a day at home. It's amazing how stuff piles up with just one day off-routine. I had tons of laundry to do (where does it all come from??), changing the sheets on the beds, vacuuming upstairs & down.......that's how the past few days have been. The boys have also been busy getting firewood.....cutting/splitting/stacking. We've got a nice little stack started out here. Chris had his History mid-term today & the girls & I got some groceries. Went to Old Navy, Target & Michaels too. LOVE Friday evenings.....supper is always easy.....frozen pizzas for the kiddos & tonight I had left-over chili while I sat & read my book. How cool is that? Afterwards I was able to scrap some too.

Most Excellent Field Trip

Today's field trip was awesome! We all had such a good time. We started off with a picnic lunch at the Appomattox Wayside....we picniced down by the creek & then the kids had their pictures taken on one of the old cannons. I so remember this from when I was a kid. We would go to Holiday Lake & picnic at the very same Wayside tables & we always climbed up on the cannon & had our picture taken too.

From there we headed to the Appomattox Historic Park. It was so nice this time of year.....not very many folks around at all.....mostly older folks from out-of-state. I think the kid's favorite of the day was visiting the old jail. They thought that was so cool. Danielle asked little Jesse what his favorite part of the day was & he said the water fountain! LOL.....what do you expect from a 3 yr old!

We had TWO things in particular that we were on the look-out for. I had picked up this book at the library called 'The Silent Witness' by Robin Friedman. It was the story of Wilmer McLean's little daughter & how her doll got left in the parlor that day in 1865, she was the 'Silent Witness' & Union officers took her as a sounvir of war. Colonel Moore kept this doll on his mantle in NY for many years until she was donated to the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, where she is currently on permanent display. Jon was the first one to find the doll & point it out. He also was the one to find the plaque marking the spot where the final shot of the war was fired. We had read about that in another book & wanted to see if we could find it.

So glad we planned this....can't wait to do more field trips like this again soon! My feet are SO tired from all that walking today...think I'm headed upstairs to read now before bedtime. It's back to school tomorrow for Chris & right into mid-terms!

Hot, hot, hot....

Where is the nice FALL weather we are supposed to be having? It was like 88 degrees today.....NOT what I call October weather at all! Kind of a lazy day around here today since Chris is on Fall break. We did spend a little time over lunch today talking about the Civil War & Robert E. Lee/Grant, Appomattox & the McLean House in preparation for our field trip tomorrow. In one of our books...about VA...we got side-tracked about famous people that are from VA & this got us onto the subject of Edgar Allen Poe & I began to quote:

'Once upon a midnight dreary

While I pondered weak & weary

Over many a quaint & curious

Volume of forgotten lore.....'

So.....when Ashley & I went out to the library I just had to pick up a couple of books about Edgar Allen Poe. Seemed fitting to read about him this time of year....Halloween/spooky/etc. On our way home from the library we decided to drive around & see where John Ed lives & Ridgley 'the Goat Lady'...Ashley had never been around there before. We also made a stop at the cemetary to see where Aunt Kitty & Uncle Richard are buried. Then on around to the other cemetary to see where Memaw, Papaw & Norma Gray are buried. Ashley really enjoys getting into anything HISTORY like that & we had a really fun time. Just wish I had thought to bring the camera with me, but this was totally NOT planned!

Another fun 'science experiment' this evening.......Clay had heard on Survivor Man that if you ever needed to start a fire that you could check your food stash for Fritos & start a fire with them. The oil content is so high that you can light them & they will burn...just like lighting a match. Well, we just so happened to have a bag that I had bought to have with our chili this week, so Clay & the kids did 'science'. Sure enough....he lit it & it burned.....just like a match! So, now ya know!! Just LOVE experiments like this that you KNOW will really stick in the kid's heads!!

The above photos are the two afhgans that I've made for Christmas gifts. One is for Alli & the other for Anna. Also pictured is Alli's first attempt at crocheting.....this is her long chain that she made while waiting at the Dr.s office last week. I'm off to bed to read now. Will report on our field trip tomorrow evening!

Layouts from yesterday

I played catch-up yesterday for the challenges at ASF...I did a challenge to use lace on a LO, one used stars/swirls & the third one I did was a sketch challenge.

'Fabulous' Friday

Busy day today, as are most of my Fridays right now. Dropped Chris at class & then Alli & I did our grocery shopping. This was our BIG grocery day......we usually do a BIG grocery day every other week & then a smaller run on the off-week. After groceries we went on a wild-goose-chase for Clay. He wanted me to go to the 'Tackle Box' & get him some worms & spark plugs for the boat....tomorrow is their big fishing tournament. Anyways...after grumping & griping through a funeral procession & a 3-car wreck we FINALLY got to the tackle shop only to find that they are closed today & tomorrow! ARGH!! We grabbed a bite to eat at Wendys & then headed over to Target, then Sams, picked up Chris & then came on home. Kind of a lazy, quiet night here.....the kiddos are watching Disney's 'Haunted Mansion' & I've been scrapping. I'm behind on the challenges at ASF.....I worked on the Oct. 3rd challenge tonight.....using 3 different kinds of embellishments. It was really fun working on some older pics....Me, Sarah & Chris acting like goof-balls! Think I'm headed on up to read some now while Clay gets his fishing gear together.

One more layout. I love this one of Daniel playing Nintendo with Jon. If you look closely you can see that Daniel is 'Unplugged', but no matter......he was so proud to be playing with Jon! LOL

I scrapped!

Finally was able to sit down this afternoon & just scrap. Of course I WAS doing challenges for our cyber crop at ASF, but it wasn't an assignment or anything....just for fun! The first challenge was to do a LO about ME.....a pic from my 29th birthday (not too long ago! HA!) The second one had to use a 'T' in the title.....Michael being a 'T-Watty'......Clay's nick-name for him...meaning: goof-ball, silly-willy, etc.

This morning we worked on finishing up our unit on the planets. Almost done. They made graphs today showing the number of moons each planet has. And Alli caught up on some of her notebook pages that she didn't do when she was sick. We still have some literature-related stuff to do.....doing Alliterations using the planet words. And a couple of 'experiments' that I thought would be fun. After lunch, I ran by the library to pick up some books on Appomattox, VA & the Civil War. Chris is on Fall Break next week & we have planned a field trip to Appomattox, so I wanted a small unit to go along with this.

Chris got his second Biology test back today & he got a B.....bringing his grade up 14 points from the last test. He was so excited & I was SO PROUD!! Just 2 points away from making an A......WTG, Chris!

Clay is getting all his stuff ready to go fishing with James in the morning. They are practicing for the tournament they will be in on Saturday at Leesville. Michael & Alli are in bed & the other 3 are in the living room playing Monopoly. Think I am headed upstairs to read a bit now.

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Actually, it doesn't seem THAT bad anymore, but earlier......................I was stressed to the MAX about supper-time! Here's how it went...Alli got up this morning, stuffy as usual & still had a smidge of fever...about 101. Clay says I should call the Dr. & see if they will see her today...might be a sinus or ear infection. They tell me 3pm. Ok, I have time for a few quick notebook pages on the planets, listened to Jon read & gave Ashley her math & Bible verse to write out. Hopped in the shower & got ready. Left to go pick up a few groceries from Walmart, picked Chris up from class at 1:50, got home & dropped Chris & the groceries off, picked up Alli & raced back out the door to get to the Dr. office on time. They take us back to a room by 3:15 & I'm quite impressed....not bad at all. And then we WAIT & WAIT & WAIT some more. I was giving them just a few more minutes....til 5:30 & then I was walking out! The Dr. FINALLY came in & chekced her out. Said her ears, nose, throat, etc. all looked fine. Said the fever COULD be from some little viral bug, but it should run it's course in about a week. If she was still feeling puny toward the end of the week, I could give him a call & he'd call her in a perscription. AGHHHHHH......This is why I HATE going to the Dr. I sat there 2 1/2 hours for that!! The only good thing that came from that time was that I got to work on Daniel's afghan that I'm making for Christmas AND I was able to teach Alli some crochet. She's been wanting to learn & that was the perfect opportunity. She got the hang of doing the chain stitch pretty good. She wants her own crochet hook so she can practice more now. After a bit more practice, I'll teach her the single crochet. Anyway, after ALL that I'm stressed beyond measure & all I want to do is get home....knowing it's supper time, etc. & doggoneit if I don't get pulled over by a State Trooper on Craigtown Rd. no less........out here in the BOONIES & a state trooper pulls me over! He said I didn't give a signal when I turned the corner there by Jack's.....he said I just sort of 'merged'. :P~~~~~~~~~~ I was quite POLITE (even though I wanted to scream/cry/whatever)& he said he'd just give me a warning this time! Bless you Young Man! Anyway......how's that for a MONDAY?! One good thing, that I almost forgot about in all this hullabaloo.....I got an email today saying I had won a $10 CG on Lifetime Moments for one of the scrap challenges I participated in back over the summer months. I had totally forgotten all about it & was SO tickled when I got the news! Can't wait to shop for some cool scrapping goodies! Think I'm headed upstairs now with my book to read until I can't keep my eyes open anymore!