Gone Away

I am leaving this morning at 7:00 for a three day scrap booking retreat. I am so excited and have been planning and preparing for months!

The Creating Keepsakes Convention is this weekend so I will be stocking up on supplies, taking classes, eating, and hopefully getting lots done!

I planned more than 60 pages but I know I won't get to them all. It's just nice to know I could if I worked faster and talked less. LOL!

Here is a page I finally finished and I'll be back Monday!

(click on the picture and it should enlarge if you wish to read the journaling.
It's a song by Bob Dylan)

Learning new tricks

The other day Owen and I were talking and he asked me how to blow a bubble with gum. Seeing as how I had no gum in my mouth at that time I tried to explain how you do it without a demonstration. That seemed to satisfy him for the moment and I thought of it no more, after all he is missing his two front teeth. That should make it rather difficult to blow bubbles don't you think?

Yesterday he asked me for a piece of gum and 20 minutes later he did this. I guess it is possible even without front teeth!

I asked him to do it again for me outside so I could get a nice photo without the games strew all over the floor in the background. Here he is trying over and over. I kept missing the bubble and now I am glad I have that first photo of his first bubble.

The day I met my future

July 23, 1996, its just an ordinary day, off for the summer from classes before my Junior year. Home in Blacksburg hanging out with friends, working in the library, and taking care of my responsibilites for Church. A friend and I decide to get together on that hot Tuesday and take in a 75cent movie. I don't remember what was playing, I think it had Steve Martin in it, it didn't matter we went every Tuesday and always sat in the same seats. Only this time they were taken. Now this is a small town, people know where you sit, we made a point of commenting and sat down right behind him. As we waitied for the movie to start, my friend and I chatted about our days and the children I had babysat recently. Knowing he was listening to our conversation didn't stop us from keeping our voices at a normal level, after all we were still miffed at him for taking our seats. Then he turned around and asked us if we went to Blacksburg Christian Fellowship. He had the bluest eyes I had ever seen. Yes, he had been listening well and actually knew who we were chatting about! You see he had been going to the same church, but I didn't know because I was in the nursery working during the service he attended. Small town for sure! The movie started and all I saw were blue eyes under a baseball cap. I left that theatre and told my friend I was going to marry him someday, she didn't laugh and just sait "you know I think you just might". As I got into my car this song was playing on the radio. Everytime I hear it it brings me back to this moment. The moment I met my future.
Chances are I'll see you somewhere in my dreams tonight....


The movie theatre is long since gone, turned into an office complex, the trees have grown, and everything has changed, but I married that man with the bluest eyes I'd ever seen And as they say the rest is history.

Garden Fresh

Our garden is doing very well this year for it being the first year in this soil. We have been getting lots of beans, onions, corn, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and the tomatoes are just starting. Everyone loves to help pick whatever is out there each day. The corn was so good! It ended yesterday when we pulled the last ears off and had a corn feast. I think if we let them the boys would eat corn all day. Nothing tastes better than fresh from the garden. Fiona's favorite are the beans, she will even go to pick some for a snack. We did put up 15 quarts and froze about 4 pounds of beans. It's not nearly enough for the winter but it will help! We are all ready planning expansions to get more in next year. It has been so good to have a garden again.


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A tea party and girly things

Fiona turned 5 on July 16th. In honor of her big day we had a tea party! Everyone dressed in their finest, even the rather reluctant brothers.

Instead of games we all decorated straw hats with silk flowers. This was a big hit and so much fun!

We used the fine china and every girl took home a miniature tea pot with their initial on it.

I made Fiona a special dress that she picked out.

We served flower cupcakes instead of a cake as our "tea cakes" .

They were so easy and fun to make.

Her big present was a lovely porcelain tea set . Every day she has her afternoon snack with a cup of "tea".

Summer style

July edition, I'm still taking these looking down shots and every month I love looking back at all the past ones. It's neat to see the changes in the children.

When Grandparents come to visit

My parents came to visit last week from Wedensday to Monday. We had the best time! It was a short visit but they will be back in three weeks. We dropped them off Monday at the airport for their bicycle tour of Scotland. I can't wait to hear all about it when they return, but this three weeks of no communication is killing me!

We celebrated Fiona's birthday with homemade pizza and ice cream, per request, made a dress for Fiona, got ready for her party(pictures coming), worked in the yard, and went antiquing. It was a very laid back visit compared to usual and we had a great time just hanging out.

On turning 40

David turned 40 last week. His dad, sister and niece came up for a day. It was a crazy whirlwind of talking, laughing, and eating. Did I mention eating? He was completely shocked and had a great time!

Little Changes

The new and improved version! So cute!

Park days

We went to the Farm park in town one Friday. It was perfect weather for watching the river and checking out the animals. The foxes even came out for a bit. I didn't get any photos of the animals as they are all behind chain link and I couldn't get a good shot. We spent time picnicking down by the river and enjoying the breeze.

While painting

While I was busy doing this

The girls were busy taking advantage of the empty space

Gone to long

I've been gone to long. It's really only been 2 weeks but it feels like its been at least a year. How can so much happen is such a short amount of time?

David's interview went well and we are waiting to hear back. He has another one on Monday. Only time will tell, but boy is is stressful! Please pray that he can get some sleep! He always has trouble sleeping when there is so much to mull over. No matter where we end up I will be glad when the decision is made!

I have been busy with the house and garden, two birthdays and family visits. I have lots of photos to share and I think I will put them up in individual posts so as not to overwhelm everyone!

So to start off here is what I have been doing around the house. I finally painted the front room and hung the rest of the curtains. It turned out lovely... except for the blue sofa, still trying to replace that thing! It may be comfortable but it just does NOT go! The photos are not that great, this room is so hard to photograph with all the windows and a camera that does not work well anymore. I still want to re matte the art above the couch, get some slipcovers for the chairs, and finds an old bench for the coffee table. I'm thinking about doing tie backs on the curtains also.

This photo shows the color a little bit better. It's called marzipan and is a very muted green. It works well with the hallway color and the yellow in the kitchen as you can see all three at once. I filled the apothecary jars with a birds nest and pine cones and hung a recent photo of the children.I will be replacing the bookshelf shortly as this one is going back home to my parents house. I found one at a yard sale for 10.00, it just needs a coat of paint. There is always something, I just can't stop, I love decorating so much and find it to be very relaxing.
In the family room I added quite a bit of decor after a very successful yard sale weekend. Between two sales and 40.00 I picked up 5 old ironing boards, an old sewing box, a pickle jar, cigar box, some old linens, an unusual shaped picture frame, a lovely old lamp that still works, and some vintage kitchen gadgets. Not bad at all!
I love the ironing board behind the sofa. The children were always running back there and knocking pictures off the walls. This has solved that problem and it looks nice too. I will add some greenery back there to soften the hard surfaces.

I also painted the side table and end table that I picked up at previous sales. This had been a fantastic year! I still have a few things I want to do but it is coming together nicely and I love hanging out in there now. We play all of our board games in here and usually you can find us reading on the big sofa all snuggled together. Even this picture is old. I'll have to go take another one with the lamps and the coffee table I traded with my Mom. Instead of shopping my own house I've been shopping hers. :)

July 4th Camping

Getting ready to go. They couldn't wait to go camping!

Our friends back yard is nice and big, with lots of things to do, they played on the swings, swam in the pool, had water gun fights, flew kites and airplanes, played badminton, and hung out in the hammock.

The children were fascinated with the snake fireworks.

We roasted marshmallows and had s'mores.

Not the safest way to eat them. :)

Then we put on a mini fireworks show for the children.

New friends

Not so sure about the noise.

A lovely end to a perfect day!