Bonnie's Giveaway

Bonnie is having a special giveaway for her 200th post. If you have any daughters or nieces, this would be a great book for them. The winner will be drawn on Nov. 22 so head on over and check out her blog.
She's got a lot of great things to say and photographs to show.

When it rains.. It Pours

Here's a quick update on my life lately.

Sunday night, I went to our freezer in our garage (where I store all my extra meat and such) to get something for supper. I felt the ice cream and it was soft. I told Dave to go and check the breakers. So he flipped them all and went out there again. They were all working. So now I'm wondering if the fuse was tripped or if the freezer was a goner! I went out there Monday morning to find my ice cream still soft. This freezer is over 30 years old - we bought it from Dave's parents when we got married - so we did get our use out of it. I managed to salvage all my meat and just had to dump my ice cream and popsicles and things. I loaded it all into my van and took it to my Dad's and am storing it there for now. I headed to the appliance store and bought a new freezer which came this morning. Now that problem is taken care of.

Yesterday was a day care day and I was watching the 3 boys I take care of. There is a baby and a 2 year old and a 3 year old. They were running around in the living room. I just tell them to stop running and be careful or someone will get hurt and I turn away for a second and hear a cry. The 3 year old had tripped and fallen and landed on my glider rocker chair. He has cut his eyelid and was bleeding. It immediately starts to swell up. After settling him down for a while, he turns and says that his owie is all better. I'm thinking to myself, "yeah, right, go look in the mirror" I wasn't really worried about telling his Mom. (She knows these things happen and she was fine with it.) Then I put the baby down for his nap. When he woke up he was crying. So I pick him up and he's soaked through all his clothes. I start to change him and realize that it was a dirty diaper, BIG mess! Can this day get any worse? I picked up Chelsea from school and we delivered the papers. Actually, that went okay.

So Dave comes home from work and I tell him that we need some bread. So he says that he'll go to the store. He takes MY van. I finish getting supper ready and wonder what he's doing outside. He comes in and explains that he drove over a bolt and it's stuck in my tire. He can't get the spare down to change it. He wonders if I need the van tomorrow. "Yes, I have to take Chelsea to the store to get a birthday present for Shaelyn" He says that I can probably make it to the tire store with the bolt in the tire because it's stuck there. Fine! So I have to take the grubby truck to my volleyball game. Apparently, the defrost does not work well in the truck at all because everything was frosted up and I couldn't see. At least we won all 3 games!

After waiting for my freezer to come this morning, I head to the tire store. I can hear the little clicking sound of the bolt on the tire. As I'm coming to the light, I notice the clicking sound is no longer there. CRAP!! I go through the light, which is a beautiful pink color because I'm not going to stop. I'm thinking, "get out of my way people, I've got to get to the tire store before I'm flat!" Someone pulls nicely in front of me and then proceeds to try to turn left. Of course, they have to wait for someone else!!! I manage to go around them on the right and get to the tire store. I look and yes, the tire is pretty much flat but at least I'm here. I go into the store and explain the situation. "Which tire would that be Ma'am?" I think you'll be able to spot it. "Oh yes." They were able to plug it and I didn't have to pay anything for it. Thank goodness! But they did explain that these tires will make it, at the most, to April. Yeah, yeah, I knew that. Now I have to go out with Chelsea this afternoon. I'm hoping that my "bad luck" has run out. I want something good to happen to me next. So much for my pity party!

The Christmas Shopping Tales

What a great weekend I had. Here's a bit of what happened on my yearly Christmas shopping trip with Mari and Cheri! We started out around 8:30 - full of energy!! We had our lists all made and coupons sorted. I know that Cheri has a list up of the stores we went to but I'm giving out what I can remember too.
Toys R Us
Woodworking Shop
Harbor Freight
Hobby Lobby
Meijers
Target
Kregels Parable Store
Best Buy
Bed, Bath and Beyond
Gander Mountain
Lowe's
Kohl's
Icing
Rue 21
Payless Shoe Source
Jewelry Store
Hallmark Store
Sears
Bath and Body Works
Celebration Cinema
Old Navy
Fields Fabrics

We did make it to a lot of stores. The men think this is all fun and games but as you can tell from the list of stores - it's a lot of hard work!


Mari and I worked hard throughout the day!















See what Cheri was doing while Mari and I were working hard packing the van!


















Here is a picture of our bags when we got back to the hotel. My bags are on the bed on the left. Mari and Cheri's are together on the right. Now I have read that I had a lot more than they did but I think it looks pretty even. We are always ready to get back to the hotel. We made it there around 8:00 I think, with very tired feet.
















Part of the shopping tradition is to go to Olive Garden for supper. Mari & I tried some stuffed mushrooms. They were delicious. Then Cheri & I split some chicken fettucino. Nobody can beat the Olive Garden for that. There was quite a bit of laughter during this meal and for you southern gals - We had diet cokes and lemonade to drink, so we couldn't blame our slap happiness on anything else!! We always get dessert for takeout back at the hotel. Here is the Black Tie Forest Cake and Pumpkin Cheesecake. I'm not usually a pumpkin person but this was soooo good. We couldn't eat it all which is so disappointing but we enjoyed what we did eat!














This was when Cheri was still being friendly to me - before we went to sleep at night and she wasn't bothered by the noise! You'll have to head over to Cheri's to get the full story on that!

Shopping anyone?

I'm going to be gone tomorrow as well as Mari and Cheri. We're doing our annual Christmas shopping day. We go for the whole day and then stay in a hotel for the night. And no, Leslie and Dena, the police will not be called when we are together. We usually go to Olive Garden for supper. I love it because my husband won't eat there. It's the most fun ever. Lots of laughing and good times. Hopefully, we get a lot done. I'll let you know, come Monday!

Shaelyn's Fall Festival

Shaelyn had what is called "fall festival" at her school on Saturday. What you could do was buy a game card for $5 and then for those 2 hours in the afternoon, play as many games as you wanted. I was in charge of the cake walk. There was also pumpkin bowling, pencil tree, sucker tree and many more. There was an animal walk which was similar to the cake walk and she won that. She picked out a stuffed lion.
You could buy popcorn and balloons too. When you were done playing games, you went to the redemption room and turned in your game ticket. There you could pick from all kinds of different things. Shaelyn picked some littlest pet shop toys. But there were also markers, basketballs, barbies and much more. What a lot of fun!

Wordless Wednesday

How do you spell LOVE? Put Katelyn and Missy together!

Is that a Candle I Smell?

Heather of Heather's Brain is hosting a Giveaway. It's a free candle and I know many of you love them.

This month's candle is just right for the holiday season....
Winter Candle Apple.
Autumn Apples wrapped in a hard sugar candy with sweet caramel.
Click here to enter and be sure to follow the rules!

Memory Verse Monday

Last week, Karen started Memory Verse Monday. I memorized and dwelled on Psalm 19:1-2. That talked about creation speaking about our great God and Creator. This week I'm choosing to focus on Psalm 90:1-2

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

God is our refuge and security in all times of life. With this in mind, I'd ask you to be in prayer today for Mari's daughter, Heather. She is in surgery this morning for an appendectomy. I know this is not a major surgery, but unexpected and still a surgery. Heather will now be missing some days from college and it's just a little "bump" in the road of life.

A Menagerie of Thoughts

It looked so pretty outside this morning. It froze last night. I don't know if you can see how cool the grass looked, but the frost was all over it and it looked beautiful.















The sun was coming up so brightly. Maybe the grass looks "frostier" on this picture.

















The tree looked so pretty with the sun just shining partly on it.




















Shaelyn's conversation with me the other day - and no, she wasn't in trouble or anything. She was just thinking. Keep in mind that this is just a 4 year olds thoughts.
Also, Halle is her cousin who is 1 year older than her.

Shaelyn : Mom, when everybody else dies, then Halle will be in charge, right?
Me: Sure
Shaelyn : It will be nice when everybody dies.
Me : I'm not really thinking so, why?
Shaelyn : Because then I won't have to follow any rules and nobody will tell me what
to do.

I wonder what she's always thinking about because she constantly is!








Karen has awarded me with The Friendly Site Blog Award. There are many of you out there who deserve this. So I am going to do what I've seen others do. If you are listed on my sidebar, I consider you to be friendly. Go ahead and take this for yourself. You all deserve it.

Go check out Karen's blog today because she has a give away going. She has a book on How to Strengthen Yourself in the Lord. You can enter by going to her blog!

Our Halloween Night

Here's some pictures of our halloween night. Shaelyn just did some trick or treating by my dad's neighborhood. When we got to my Dad's house, it was still pretty nice weather. She got some candy from Grandpa and Ann, we left the van there to walk across the street to the development. Around the 2nd house, it started to rain. Not a lot but sprinkles. About 1/2 way, it started to rain harder, which made her move a little faster. We were done in about 20 minutes. After getting back to the van, Dad was coming out, getting ready to look for us.




Here's the little princess before getting wet.

















Shaelyn after we were home. You can see her hair's a bit wet.
















The sky was looking pink on the way home.













We spotted a rainbow in the sky when we were leaving Dad's house. I got a picture of it just before it disappeared. It was beautiful. I love rainbows.

Wordless Wednesday

Shaelyn and Todd enjoyed the day yesterday!

Fall Weather

I took these pictures last week. The sky was so blue. I've been loving this fall weather we've had lately.(Although it's supposed to change tomorrow) I was think of these pictures when I chose my Bible verses yesterday. Unfortunately, a lot of our leaves haven't changed color yet and I think they're going to fall with the rain tomorrow. I'm hoping to get some nice pictures with colored leaves yet.

Memory Verse Monday

Karen of Karen's Ramblings is hosting something new. It's called Memory Verse Monday.

The aim of "Memory Verse Monday" is to:

1. Memorize a passage (or passages) of scripture.

2. Share why you have chosen the verse or verses that you have.

3. Encourage one another with God has been saying to you through this verse.

4. Share the ways in which you find remembering verses works for you.

I thought this was a great way for me to start memorizing more scripture. I had to memorize a lot when I was growing up and in school and I do recall a lot of those passages, although not fully. So for this week, I'm going to do:
Psalm 19: 1-2
The heavens declare the glory of God
the skies proclaim the work of His hands
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

I love this because looking outside lately at the fall weather, I can't help but wonder how people cannot see God in nature. It's just amazing to me all that He created.
Head on over to Karen's if you would like to participate too!

How are your Teeth?

Chelsea and Shaelyn had a dentist appt. yesterday. They both love going to the dentist because it's a pediatric dental office. This is a ton different than when I was a kid. I really didn't care to go because we didn't even get our gums numbed with a cavity. Even walking in and smelling it, brings back memories. The kids get prizes and everything. I did tell Chelsea this might be her last visit because I think you have to quit going there once you're sixteen. She lucked out and they made an appt. for her in May yet. On the other hand, Shaelyn got an appt. made for November. You guessed it, she's got one small cavity. Oh oh, must have been all that candy she got while trick or treating this past weekend. We'll see how much she still loves going to the dentist after this. How much do you all like the dentist? Is there any place you'd rather not be?

The Continuing Camping Adventure

Here are the rest of my camping pictures. Sure makes you think of fall.
It was great weather for fires.

Campground Decorations near their pumpkin patch.













More campground decorations













Future quarterback!














Playing football with Dad. She caught this one!














Ooh, gooey pumpkin innards!













The seeds we got out of our pumpkins. They were great seeds. I saved them and cooked them when we got home. Yum!!














Chelsea and Shaelyn with their carved pumpkins.














Some of the kids getting ready to go trick or treating from trailer to trailer. Do you like Chelsea's costume? She decided to take Millie and be a dog walker.














Bobbing for Apples. We didn't try this but let the others get their head wet.













The first cupcake Shaelyn decorated. Did you notice that this one didn't have as much stuff on it. She figured that on the 2nd one, she could use a whole lot more.