The road less travelled

I am glad to greet the first day of the week tonight. We had a great week but I am glad it is over and we can look forward to what this week holds for us. We started out our week, of course, in church. We had a fun time and even though AWANA was rather crazy - we have the sixth through eighth graders - it was a lot of fun as usual.

Monday brought a trip to my inlaws. It has been a long time since I have been out there and a month or so since the children had been out. So we decided to hit the road at 6:45am. We arrived around 10:00 due to slow-moving traffic between Raeford and West End. Those towns probably mean nothing to most of you but they are very small towns on Route 211. Raeford is where Raeford chicken is produced and processed. West End is where my father-in-law grew up. It is two towns away from Eagle Springs, the town my inlaws live in.

 Here is Beaker in her Mickey Mouse dress-up outfit. The younger girls love to dress up and dance around at my inlaws.

 This is a picture of my inlaw's pond in front of their house. We usually go out on the boat but the pond was too low from no rain in the summer.

 A mushroom - oooooooh aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!

This is Eagle Springs, which the town is named after. I think if it had been raining more in the summer it would look a bit more austere than a pipe in the ground.



Here is Buzz's Creek, named for Mr. Handsome's beloved family dog. And the stream that runs off of Eagle Springs.



Robert jumping rope.

We also went riding on the four-wheelers and walking in the woods. I even went on the four-wheeler with our maddie and didn't get lost. We came home on Wednesday around lunchtime. This way, we only missed two days of school. We did miss the nursing home, but Lord willing, we will go there this Wednesday. It was good to be home. I do not like driving and I am very thankful that God kept us safe on our journey. My inlaws had a great time and we also were able to see my niece and nephew and brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

The big excitement for the day was that Beaker got her own bike!! Grandpa Blake gave Beatrice an old bike they had and she gave Beaker her bike. So I put the training wheels on and in no time she got the hang of it. I had a photo of Beatrice riding her bike but I don't know what I did with it. I must have lost it somewhere. I will post one. Kristine is so thrilled to have her "own" bike.

On the left is our buddy Little A; on the right Little K, the two sixth cutest babies on the planet. Aren't they cute - they came to visit and they were talking to each other!! Little A would say something and Little K would try her best to imitate him. We were cracking up.

I am having some kind of trouble with uploading my photos so some of them are not showing up. What a bummer!! I was going to post a photo of Little K because she is so diminutive and cute compared to Little A, who is all boy!! Little K's big brother is Beaker's buddy.

Friday came and we had co-op. The children loved the candy clay chicks that we made in our craft class. They were very excited that they could eat them! We spent our lunch at the park with our friends, dropped Maddie off at band, then skittered home so Beaker could take a nap and everyone else could finish school. Maddie arrived home, finished school, and then the girls and I went on a big adventure. Robert and Mr. Handsome had a men's fellowship at church so the girls and I got to go to Happy Days Diner and eat out. Our waitress was outstanding, and that is saying a lot because I think that Wilmington has the worst wait staff in the world, bar none!! She was wonderful and was very accomodating. Most wait staff get very angry with us when we try to keep our bill down but she even helped me find ways to do it!! After Happy Days Diner, we headed to Belk to exchange and buy clothes. All the girls were very satisfied with what they picked out. Maddie is wearing a dress we really liked but it is too short for her. And for her Mom and Dad! She found some shirts and a sweater; Lindsay found some shirts, pants, and a dress; Bea and Kristine both found a shirt and a pair of pants. After very poor customer service we headed over to Coldstone Creamery where we each had some delicious ice cream. We then headed home and all the girls fell right to sleep!! We all slept in on Saturday. It was great.

When I woke up, I had one thing on my mind (even though I had this crazy dream that I went to the mountains to perform for a 9/11 memorial service, only to return with the wrong saxophone - I woke up with a start and nearly had a panic attack thinking my saxophone was gone!! Thankfully I awakened enough to realize it was a dream.): finish the kitchen curtains. And - I did!!! Here they are sans tie-backs. I can't decide how to handle the tie-backs.

I love them!! They really add a lot to the room and they will look fabulous with the seat covers I picked out for the chairs. They are a surprise so you will have to wait until my friend comes back from Walt Disney World. She is going to help me with them.

It was such a great relief to be done with the curtains. Now I am going to start working on Christmas presents and a quilt for Little A. I found this cute, well, you'll just have to wait until I finish it!! I am also making a skirt for one of our teenagers at church as well as one for myself. Then I have to make curtains for Robert's room - apparently almost 9 year olds don't want truck curtains anymore. And a curtain for Maddie and Kristine's room.

Today we celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day at our church. October is Clergy Appreciation Month and we had a big dinner on the grounds (that's what they call it in the south) after the morning service. What a great time we had. One of our older gentleman loves to help by cooking barbecued chicken. And our pastors' daughters and one of my dear friends pulled out all the stops to make sure everything was done properly. From the setting the food out to cleaning up. In fact, Aunt Twesa, one of our pastor's daughters, loves to spoil Beaker. And ALL the little kids. Here is Beaker after Aunt Twesa gave her an ice pop:

Yep, that would be a blue tongue!!! Thank you Aunt Twesa, we love you!! :)

Then the disaster happened. Thankfully, not involving any food. All the toilets in the nursery wing - which also includes our fellowship hall/gym - flooded over. ALL of them!! Thankfully, Mr. Handsome, our pastor, and his son-law were there to save the day. They meticulously and carefully cleaned everything up. Mr. Hamdsome and Preacher could not find where the pipe was broken, collapsed, blocked, or whatever could be the problem. Here they are after several hours of searching and digging.

Mr. Handsome is on the left, just in case you're wondering!! HA!!!

While they were digging ditches and filling them in, we spent one hour of our year taking a stand for something God despises. We took a stand today against abortion at a silent protest. We held signs and stood quietly for one hour. My favorite sign is one my friend made: It's a life not a choice. This year the response was rather pleasant. Usually, people say mean things and give mean gestures but we only had a handful of that sort of stuff. I am glad that God gives us the opportunity to do that.

Here we are!! It was strange not having Mr. Handsome and Robert here. They have never missed a time to do this.

After our time at the life chain, we headed home and got ready to go to AWANA. It was another whirlwind night. We are having pizza next week!! Here is Beaker with her Cubbies director. She loves Mrs. 'Anya (Mrs. Tanya):

This week will be filled with lots of fun things; getting ready for Grandma and Grandpa's new puppy, rearranging rooms, making skirts, refinishing chairs for one of my dear friends. See you next week!! :)