Thanksgiving - a time to enjoy your family and friends

We just got home from our friends house enjoying a nice relaxing weekend and being thankful for good friends. Todd thought he was going to have to work Friday and we couldn't go very far for the weekend but it turned out he could take a comp day on Friday. So, we could enjoy four days away from the trials of being at home thinking about all the work that needs to be done around here.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner and good company on Thursday. Instead of a more traditional touch football game a lot of families might enjoy, we participated in the pecan pick up game. Of course, the sweet and adorable 1yo granddaughter of our friends, one of her cousins and I played pass the pecans. All in all, we picked up two full plastic grocery bags worth of pecans from the trees.

The rest of the weekend involved getting a few Black Friday deals. Pat was brave enough to get out of the house about 5am to pick up a few things and make it home about two hours later with only good things to report about his experience. Jan and I got out later and picked up a few good deals and naturally the really good things we had our eye on were already snatched up by the people that were out of the house long before noon.

Mr. Pat took the boys for a ride in his tractor. Patch was a little worried when the bucket got too high but Franklin was ready to go again!

Pat and Jan were kind enough to send us home with a lot of fresh, wonderful pecans and Franklin is thrilled to crack them open for us. I thought Patch was gung ho too but I'm finding out, it was a short lived love affair. ;-) But, I'm on the lookout for some yummy recipes if you have any to share!

 Cute, little baby pecan Pat found :)

So, I hope everyone was able to share the holiday with friends, families, loved one. I am thankful to have such great friends! Thank you Pat & Jan for another fun weekend!

Yes, I've been known to have to bathe kids I babysit before...

I believe it started with my niece and nephew about 20 years ago. I was watching them one evening for Todd's brother, Jay and we really wanted to play outside. Well, it was raining but we were determined to not let a little rain hold us back. We ran in the rain and jumped in the puddles and had a lot of fun. Afterwards, they were great about jumping in the tub and getting warmed up in a nice bath - and I washed their clothes too.

Then, I got to watch one of my favorite almost two year olds. Her parents were going out for their anniversary and we decided that they needed cupcakes when they got home! Well, let me tell you that two year olds are not the neatest cooks out there! But, we had fun icing the cupcakes together. Then, she needed a bath and I washed her clothes too.

I'll admit it is easier to watch older children and I still love to do some things with them. Today, we had some friends from TKD over while their mom and dad went out for a bit. We made gummy snowmen!

It was rather nice to not have to bathe them after a gummy mess or wash their clothes. I hope they had fun though!

Weekend trip to the mountains

We just spent a couple days in the mountains. Our friends, the Hagen's have a cabin in NW NC and invite us to come visit with them when they head up that way. (We like it when they just visit us on a trip up there on their own too!)

We arrived about 9pm Friday night and opened up the cabin - doing a little cleaning and bed making and turning the heat on before we headed to bed that night. Saturday, we got up and cleaned a little more before we headed out to the Churches of the Frescoes and the Ashe County Cheese Factory/Store. :)

We visited St. Mary's first and saw the awesome work of Ben Long

Then we went to the Cheese Factory where they were actually making cheese this time! They added a movie to explain how they make the cheese too - I like being able to make our vacations educational ;-)

then we found the 2nd church, Hope Trinity where we saw more of Ben Long's work and his version of the Last Supper. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to attend a church like one of these!

It was sort of sad that we missed all the fall colors when we were up there because they're usually so beautiful in the fall. It does make me appreciate that we are still enjoying the colors around here though :) So, I will leave you on some of the views of the mountains. (Poor Hermione is so worn out from running up and down and all around while we were there - I went on 4 hikes, the boys and the Hagen girls went on more than that and Hermione was on all of them!)

We always have a good time with our friends and as usual, our visit was too short!

Time for another list posting...

Before I forget... here are the periscopes the boys made at Lowe's last weekend

Patch is my ham for the picture boy lately. ;-)



Okay, now for my current list of things I need to do soon...

Make lasagna
Make apple cider syrup
Make Chocolate Pretzel treats
Make pumpkin cheesecake
Pack for trip to NC
Work
Work
Work
Shop
Shop
Shop
Make Christmas List

I might add more as my brain lets those thoughts through ;-)

First attempt at soap making...

I've made laundry soap so I thought it was time to try some bar soap. It's quite a bit different to make bar soap! I can't wait to try it :)

This is the mold that came with the kit. The plastic bag was not conducive to a square bar of soap coming out.

 This is what happens when you mix lye with room temperature water - it's over 150 degrees!!  Lye is scary stuff. I was suppose to add 66g of lye to 3/4 cup water. I poured 66g of lye into a plastic container and as it sat there, it got heavier! I don't know if it was soaking up water from the air or what but that was weird.

This is mixing the oils with the lye solution - you mix until it 'traces' (leaves a trail - compared to pudding in thickness.)

Then you add color and scent and pour it in the mold for 24 hours.

After you let it set for 24 hours, you cut it into bars and then it has to cure for 3 weeks.

So.... in about 3 weeks, I can try it and let you know how it turned out! I don't know which size bar I like better either. I think next time, I'll let Todd cut it for me. He's good at stuff like that :)

It got cold again here in the south - chili for dinner tonight!!

Baby, it's cold outside!

We are getting January temperatures already here in SC!

We've been spending time inside because of it too! The boys found a new/old game when we were at GoodWill the other day..

They loved getting twisted up even if the spinner did keep giving us, left foot green (a lot!!) Buying things at Goodwill is always an interesting experience. The Twister game came with a printed hand held fan that had a family reunion for the James family in 2005, Savannah, GA if anybody's interested. It looks like they had a lot of fun planned.

 

I thought it was interesting that they left this with the game.

Even though it's been cold, the sky has been it's pretty Carolina blue on the clear days. The other morning I braved the cold because I thought the morning sun shinning on the trees across the street looked interesting. Unfortunately, my point and shoot camera & I don't always capture how beautiful something is IRL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news... the investment house is coming along slowly. The wall painting is DONE! Now onto the trim work - hopefully, there won't be a lot that needs to be done there. The floor in the laundry room and kitchen is almost ready for linoleum. I need to work on cleaning up the wood work through out the house.

The boys are doing good - trying to figure out how to eat all their Halloween candy ASAP. Trying to figure out how to get out of doing school work and spend more time on the computer but we're working on how to spend less time on the computer these days.

Todd has a tough class in Art Appreciation this session - who would have thought it would be one of his harder classes?

Next task is figuring out when we get to spend time with all our family and friends over the holiday season! We'll get it figured out soon.

It's election time!

Tomorrow is election day. Did you know election day is on the first Tuesday of November following the first Monday in November? So, in other words, it's never on the first of November. Which is cool, I think. I'd hate to miss election day just because I didn't turn my calendar quick enough!

DYK that women fought really hard for the women's right to vote today. Our men and women in the Military have also fought for our rights to vote and so many other wonderful freedoms we have. Don't let their efforts be in vain and take advantage of this right we have. Also, I'm not too worried about missing election day - the ads on TV and in the mailbox (snail mail & email), the phone calls, the signs... they seem out of hand this year, worse than a Presidential election year, I think! It makes a girl wonder how much of the debt could be paid off with all the money spent by the politicians for elections.

Anyhow, as much as I'd like to leave it at "Just get out and vote," I would like to add that I'd love for you to know who and what you're voting for before you go. If you're in SC, here's a great site to help you make your decisions: http://www.sciway.net/ - it also has a lot of other great information for SC residents and visitors. So, I'm saying... Do your research and THEN get out to vote!!

Hope to hear that you voted tomorrow!