put in my place....

On Tuesday, our neighbor came over to talk to Chris about house plans. He brought his 3yr old son and 6yr old daughter. These are the kids Hannah helped with for her summer job. So, the 3yr old walks in the house and immediately says: "You should come to my house. We decorated." (I am assuming he meant decorated for Christmas and not that I am in dire need of design assistance).

Then the 6 year old says "You STILL have pumpkins out!. Duh, it IS STILL November isn't it? Pumpkins and fall decorations are allowed in November right?

Since when did Christmas start in November? This really seems kinda early to me this year.

So I pulled out my outside stuff. Fake greenery. Yup this year martha stewart would be ashamed but I went with the fake stuff outdoors. Why? Because when the temps hit 70 the real stuff goes brown fast and the fake, well, it can stay up till easter.

So I have decorated my outside lamps and hung a wreath. No one can say we are not in the holiday spirit now!

still here...

Just catching up on work after a long weekend
Hannah is feeling crummy so I am expecting a call from school
Got the itch to decorate the house for Christmas
Addressing Christmas cards - yeehaw
Need to clean the bathrooms - yeehaw

And a super duper happy happy birthday to my Sis!

just in...

...her 6th grade school photo.



We will head to the mountains in the am. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

by the end of the weekend...

they looked like this:
A little caulk, one more coat of paint and the shelves are ready to go in.

did you know....

...that when you are online (on a windows computer), you can hit Control and + at the same time and enlarge your screen? And control and - will reduce the type.

Try it, it is nifty for those of us that are kinda needing reading glasses.

progress...,

This is progress. Really. I think it is my Christmas present.
And there is a matching one on the right...

falling leaves

I wanted to take pictures of our fall colors. Everywhere I go is gorgeous. Driving along the roads with all the colors just jumping out at you. This is the prettiest time of the year....cool weather...just love it.
Anyway, yesterday was so windy, the leaves were falling and I decided I had better get pictures...but they are not the best...still here they are...please note the camper and jetski sitting in the backyard.....

goodbye to Pepper....

Sorry to report that the hamster, Pepper, did not make it after all. He seemed to be at about 80% for a week then started to decline. Tuesday night he just huddled and shook, did not eat. Last night (Wed) he died.
Hannah could tell this was coming and asked in her prayers last night for God to do what was best for Pepper. So she is ok.
But she is now old enough that she realizes that his body must be disposed of. So we will have a burial service in the backyard today - if I can dig a hole deep enough in our rocky yard to get him in deep enough. And we will cover it with lots of large rocks so no critters can get in.

In other news....the leaves here are gorgeous right now. Any window we look out of there is yellow, red, brown, orange and greens. But the winds are howling today and leaves are falling fast. It is a leaf snow storm out there. Pretty but depressing since they will be gone soon.

Later....off to dig a hole.

middle school retreat...

Hannah had a weekend long middle school retreat at camp grier this weekend. Camp Grier is where she goes to summer church camp in the NC mountains. She was to leave on Friday afternoon and return Sunday about 2pm.

Chris and I had a free weekend. Plans were made. Movie, dinner, chores, whatever we wanted to do. Anticipation. Freedom.

Thursday morning I received THE CALL. One of the chaperones had to cancel and could I drive up Friday, spend Friday night and go home Sat. morning??? Another parent would come up Sat. and drive them home on Sunday. Just one night....

No choice, I had to say yes. And by coming home on Saturday, Hannah would still get some time without a parent around.

So, the adventure began. We were taking H's friendCaroline with us - so we went by her house and picked her up. But in the confusion of getting her and loading up her 3 suitcases (or maybe it just seemed like 3) we forgot the permission slip.

Went to church and had to wait for the other kids. They were running late. Now we were running late. And no permission slip meant Caroline could not go. So we ran by Caroline's house to get the permission slip - only no one was home. We had to break in - jimmie the door with a credit card. Got the permission slip, met up with the rest of the group and now we were running even later.

Drove up to the mtns - 1.5 hr drive. Got to camp after dinner was being served but we did get to eat. Barely. After dinner we went to the bunkhouse to get our beds - all the girls picked top bunks. Sierra jumped in hers and I hear a loud crack! One of the support beams broke. So we got her into another bed and now we were one bed short. So I pulled the mattress off the bunk and threw it on the floor and I decided to sleep there.

We had singing, keynote minister, small groups, more singing and snack. At 10:45pm we went back to the bunkhouse and 11:15 was lights out. That is when I discovered that the floor was cold. It was pretty warm up on the top bunks, not bad on the bottom bunks and cold on the floor. I had on socks, long johns and a tshirt. I was in a sleeping bag and had a down lap throw on top. Froze. And there was a lady that snored. Loudly. Very loudly. Finally at 5am I pulled on another layer of clothes and that helped.

Needless to say I had a terrible night of sleep. I was ready to go home. Hannah begged me to stay. And I would have. Except. I. Wanted. To. Sleep. In. My. Own. Bed. So I went home.

And Chris and I went to dinner with friends on Sat night and had a great time.

Hannah is home safe and sound. Next year I will plan on being a chaperone for the weekend. And will take earplugs.

update....

Pepper, the hamster, seems to be doing just fine. Back to normal so to speak. Running on his wheel, eating his green beans and sleeping all day long.

halloween, field trip and one to the vet

halloween
Hannah was going to be a cat. Then an angel. No a cat. No an angel. Ooops, this late we cannot find angel wings. Okay, catwoman. Hmmm...don't like how this looks......but I have this costume in my costume trunk.....now she is "your worst enemy". Huh? What is that - whatever as long as you are happy.
Here is "your worst enemy":We went to hannah's friends house - caroline - and picked her up to go trick or treating. Caroline was a devil - and was wearing high heels! High heels to trick or treat - girl you are going to regret this.
Here is a devil (in a red dress) and "your worst enemy"

field trip
Took a field trip yesterday to grandfather mountain. Basically right where we camped a few weeks agol. Beautiful day, nice drive, good kids. It was too fast on the mountain but the kids enjoyed it. I asked them today while carpooling - what was your favorite part of the trip? Riding the buses. Okay. Next trip lets just put the kids on the charter buses, drive them around for 2+ hours and call it good.

and to the vet
we came home from the field trip yesterday and went to H's room to open up some windows. Pepper was stretched out in his cage. Hi Pepper! Pepper? Uh Oh. His back legs were sticking straight out, front legs all curled up, eyes open and no movement. I shook the cage. Pepper? Nothing. I think his is dead. Rattle it again. Nothing.
So I go tell Hannah. Honey, i just went upstairs and pepper is dead. tears. crying. sobbing. I want to see him. So I take her upstairs and Pepper is in the corner of his cage kinds frantically pawing at his woodchips.
Pepper is alive! Wha???? I could have sworn he was a goner.
Hannah picks him up and in a few minutes is screaming - mom, something is wrong with pepper.
It seems Pepper cannot move his back legs. We put him in the cage, he is pulling himself around with his front legs, back legs dangling. I call the vet, bring him in and we will put him down. Sounds like he is at the end of his life span.
I talk to Hannah and yes, she want to put him out of his misery. He is alert but if he cannot move around....
We get the the vets. Pepper can now stand and walk. Barely, but he can walk. Real slow and cumbersome but...... so the vet thinks he had a blood clot or a stroke and is recovering. She gives me an anti-inflamnatory steroid to give him orally once a day. And how am I supposed to to that? And sends him home. Tells us not to give up on him yet.
Last night he ate his zucchini and made it up the ladder to his condo. I guess he might make it after all.
But it was a close one.