So much to be Thankful for

This was a wonderful day spent with family. Mom did a terrific job making sure each of us had our favorites to fill our plates and bellies. We have spent recent days troubled by our struggling economy and our dwindling finances. Today we focused on what we did have. We are in good health, our children are happy and growing each day. We have each other and lots of food on our plates. We are blessed.

Tomorrow we visit Santa. Maybe he will have something in his toy bag to share with the little ones.

LEAVES - It's a Love-Hate Thing!

Fall is a wonderful time of year. Cooler weather, football games and sweaters are all favorite things this time of year. This morning I grabbed my camera and took off into the woods to snap a few pictures of the glorious colors. As my Mother has said many times, it was a beautiful scene painted by God. A golden canopy covered the woods. Falling leaves seem to dance on the way to the ground. The trail was still visible but just barely. The dogs followed me around, full of energy from the crisp morning air. Rey seemed to enjoy losing his tennis ball in the leaves so that he could search for it. Cliff stayed close, not really understanding what I was doing. I love the colors.
What I don't love are leaves that have to be raked. Acorns that cover the ground so thick that we actually used a snow shovel to gather them up. Tonight I am trying not to move, because it hurts. All afternoon we raked, and mowed and blew piles of leaves. We drug tarp after tarp full of leaves back to the woods where they seemed to belong.
So I sit here, on the corner of the sofa, aching and enjoying the pictures I took this morning.

Its a Love-Hate Thing.

Treats no Tricks

This year we were escorted around the neighborhood by Luke Skywalker. We ran up against Darth Vader, but good prevailed. Only four kids trick-or-treated in the neighborhood this year, so their buckets were loaded with goodies. Good Times and Sugar Highs!!

The BIG kids came home as well. We enjoyed our traditional chili dinner, old scarey movies and of course candy stolen from Aaron's pumpkin.

This was our first year without our black kitty Jinx. In the past, Dallas was always concerned that we kept Jinx inside to make sure she was safe. We missed her this year.