Tis the Season!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Aut-um. . . Yep, it's almost here again! It's not too cool outside yet, but there's just kind of that feel in the air. A few mornings now I have gotten up a little chilly and considering hot chocolate and a sweater (yeah it's not quite THAT cold yet). I haven't actually caved yet, but I DID restock my cold weather basket in the kitchen today. The moral of this story? I'm all stocked up on popcorn, oat meal, marshmallow lovers hot chocolate, cappuccino, coffee, tea - we even bought sweet-n-low for our dieting friends! Now we're all ready for fall/winter AND for any visitors who decide to stop by! ;-) So do I dare say it? . . . Have a happy and blessed Harvest season!!

Anniversary Dinner

It's kind of hard to really celebrate a special occasion when it takes place early in the week. Jon worked today, and I did homework all day, but we DID manage to get out for a nice dinner this evening. After thinking all day and trying to come up with someplace good and unusual, yet not TOO expensive, Jon and I finally decided on Mama Lucia's in Potsdam. Jon had been before, but it was my first time. Just think Olive Garden. . . The atmosphere was amazing and the food was great!! It's an old train station which is absolutely beautiful inside and it has a nice patio area outside (which is where we ate and just barely missed a HUGE thunder storm). Here are just a few pictures. I brought my camera and then left it in the car. I realized before we walked away from the car, but was just going to forget it because I get tired or fussing with Jon to let us get pictures. HE surprisingly enough asked if I was going to bring my camera in and didn't argue at all about getting pictures! He's learning! :-)

Two Years Ago Today. . .

I Leah Take you Jonathan To be my wedded husband Today I pledge all my love to you and only you for the rest of our lives. Today, I promise to stand beside you through life’s ups and downs. I promise to listen to your heart when you need to talk. I promise to be faithful. I promise to honor and respect you as is God’s perfect plan. This covenant I make Before God and these witnesses From this day forward Until death do us part.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So Thanksgiving day has nearly come and gone. It has been a long day and we're all tuckered (and maybe puckered) out from a day of sitting around and eating way too much food but I, like the faithful blogger I am, not only talked my husband into getting a picture of the two of us, but am now sitting here blogging it! Of course I realize that you all have nothing better to do at 11:00 on Thanksgiving night - the very eve of "black Friday" - than to read my blog and admire our good looks. :-) But anyway, here it is. This as I mentioned was taken at the end of our long day, and we have another long and more active day ahead of us tomorrow, so I will sign off for now.

I should say though (lest I sound ungrateful) that as if we didn't already have a lot to be thankful for (and we did), we sure do after this past week. Jon's doctor appointment went well. Everything is fine and the doc. is confident that everything will eventually get back to pretty normal (the nail, etc.). The worst of my aches seem to be gone with only occasional bouts of pain in my lower back, but nothing a Tylenol can't fix. We are still awaiting a final verdict on the fate of our poor car, but so far it looks like she's totalled.

The Day After...

I never ever would have guessed that this election would have been so disturbing for me. I find myself being reminded of 9-11 and that next morning saying to mom, "I can't believe that really happened" Although, those aren't my exact words. But I have been so encouraged as this election has come and gone, there is one "phrase" (I guess you could call it) that I have heard from several people, and they all have said, "On Wednesday morning, no matter who is president, God will still be in charge!" I'm so very encouraged by that! I'm sure many have seen this, but here it is again:

Top Ten Outcomes in this Election

1. The Bible will still have all of the answers.

2. Prayer will still work.

3. The Holy Spirit will still move.

4. God will still inhabit the praise of His people.

5. God will still pour out His blessings upon His people.

6. There will still be God-anointed teaching and preaching.

7. There will still be singing of praise to God.

8. There will still be room at the Cross.

9. Jesus will still love His own.

10. Jesus will still save the lost.

Picture: http://www.inspirationalarchive.com/inspirationalstoriesblog/category/inspirational-photo/

Election Day 2008

One of the things that I always like about Google is they always know what's going on, and make thier trademark Google logo correspond. I just wanted to share their little picture with you today, and remind everyone to get out and vote.

Surprise!

To make a long story short. . .

Saturday, my mom took my youngest sister, Joy, out to lunch for her 13th birthday. Little did Joy know that it had been arranged for all of us girls to meet up with them for lunch. Rachel and Becky both flew in from FL, Lynette drove from IN, and I travelled the couple hours from Lake Placid. We stood there for a couple minutes before she actually realized who we were. I guess when you don't know certain people are in the area, it's hard to notice them at first. When she did notice us, I didn't have to worry about missing the surprised look, because she just sat there for a little while like this!

HAPPY 13th Birthday (today is the actual day) Joy!!

And Again!

After eagerly watching weather.com's winter weather watch turn into a red alert this morning, we are finally really getting our snow! It rained a lot of the night, so everything is too wet and let the snow stick, but the flakes coming down are huge!

SNOW!

Yep! Somewhere around 11:00 last night, the rain turned to snow and there was a light dusting of snow on the grass this morning (still is).

The Answer!

For some time now, I've been pondering the question Becky posted on her blog not long ago - "What should we do about Nettie Gardner?" Well, imagine my surprise to receive the answer in the mail just today! This kind and conciderate advice came from Cottage Living Magazine. I too got Net a magazine subscription for Christmas last year. The answer?

Pumpkin Heads

We kicked off the weekend by going to Brad and Melissa's house for pizza, wings, and pumpkin carving. There were eight of us - Mom & Dad, Brad & Mel, Jon & I, and Melissa's mom and Grandma (Gram didn't carve a pumpkin) and boy what a mess!

Here are just some of the MANY pictures I took.

Boys and their toys!

(Jon and Brad just had to use the dremel to cut the tops of their pumpkins while Dad used his good ol' faithful blade that he has used for years!)

Cleaning out the pumpkins.

(You'll notice the killer blade in Dad's hand!)

Sharron (Mel's mom) picked a hard pattern for hers, so Mel helped her finish it. (Gram came to check on the progress.)

Mel's and Mom's (I guess I missed getting a picture of Mom. She worked very diligently the whole time!) Brad did two.

Jon did two.

Dad's and mine

What a mess!

Brad and Jon cleaning seeds to be roasted. We also had yummy apple cider!

Thanks Brad and Mel!! We had a blast!

We'll post pictures of them lit up and some group pictures later. (they're on Jon's camera)

Coming Soon!

. . . To a blog near you! . . . (OK, my Blog) Lots of pictures! Jon and I were invited to Jon's brother, Brad and his wife Melissa's house to carve pumpkins Friday night. We had LOTS of fun!! BUT, for tonight. . . it's already been kind of a long and busy weekend and we're only about halfway through it, so I think I'll head for bed. Be back soon! Leah

Went and Done it!

I finally pulled my plastic tote of sweaters out of my closet! Actually, to be more literal, I pulled my plastic tote of sweaters and fleece PJ's from deep inside my closet where I really couldn't get to it to just grab a sweater. Now, it is just inside my closet - much easier to access! (Yes, my closet is reeeeeeeally deep! This is nice, but the door is off to one side, so getting to things can be a bit difficult!) I know. I know!! I shouldn't be blogging if I have nothing better to blog about, but the sad truth is that I DON'T have anything better to blog about, and I spent all day yesterday doing major house cleaning, so I feel I deserve some blog time! And while we're talking about sad truths. . . A couple things come to mind. One is that I'm pretty sure that the last of our Indian Summer has passed. It's been raining for days (which I truly don't mind!) and weather.com shows a patch of "mix/ice" coming later today. Thankfully, there are no blue (snow) patches yet though! And my second sad truth that came to mind is this. . . I have to go back to school Monday! I just finished killing myself over two classes and I get one measly week off! The good news (at least what I keep telling myself) is that I will only have one class at time this time, so hopefully life won't get so crazy! And now, I need to go eat some breakfast and finish straightening up around here. After that, I think I'll make some coffee and snuggle up with my fuzzy blue slippers and do some sewing! If that doesn't work (or I get too bored) I may be back, so leave me some comments!

Happy Birthday to you. . .

Happy Birthday Sweet Husband!

Happy Birthday to you!

I just wanted to say how much I Love you and how Proud I am of you!! You make me proud to be your wife! I Love You!!!

Now for the rest of you, let me tell you the whole story. As some of you know. . . My Dear Husband can be a bit childlike when it comes to Christmas or new toys at any time! (His gift arrived yesterday and I had to listen to him beg to open it all evening!) This has always been a fun little part of the Jon I Love. This morning, however. . .

This was AFTER I was awake enough to see halfway clearly, and AFTER he realized I would be taking pictures and had to go fix his hair and who knows what else!

Thought this one was especially good with the whole foot action!

The brand on the box. . .

He really is mentally OK, I just interrupted him mid-project!

It's an acoustic bass. He has a regular one, but this one doesn't require an amplifier.

And now there's not time to go back to sleep, but I DID crawl back in bed to try to get warm before time to get around for work! I think it was down to 26 deg. last night and there was a good frost this morning!

And the Fun Continues!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Grand Finale!

The last activity of the long weekend was a boat ride and a picnic on an island. Lots of sun, lots of food, and lots of fun! Thanks Beka and Bill!! (more pictures coming soon!)

Hunting Stand... A Loss...

I just wanted to share some pictures with you all. Dad, myself, and possibly two others are hopefully going to be returning to the woods this fall in persuit of getting that trophy 8 point buck! But sadly, we could not get to our stand today because of a severe storm we had earlier this summer. There were so many trees down that we couldn't find the path back in. So we had to come out. We will be returning again when we have more time to plot out our course and go in search of our hunting stand. I just wanted to share a few pictures that I took while I was in there. We found the remains of a deer and I just thought everyone would be as excited as me to see bones. Dad thinks that coyotes must have got to it because these are the only bones we found.

Back to School Blues

Just wanted to say that I am officially feeling a bit sorry for myself because I have exactly two days left before I have to hit the books (well OK the computer) again! I love what I'm doing, but I don't look forward to spending all the time it's going to take to accomplish it!

We're Home!

Hello Everybody! We are officially home from camp! It was a good camp and we hated for it to be over, but. . . It was nice to get home last night.

Here are just a few pictures for you.

There was a bonfire and smores Friday night after service!

40 Years for Uncle Dave & Aunt Gladys Hatch! WOW!

A Sunday afternoon surprise!

Wedding cake, red roses, a card and money to help with a couple nice meals on their anniversary trip.

I heard someone say "They've had lots of practice!"

And our friend Tom and his wife Shirley have been married a little over 50 years!

And us.

Almost 1 whole year!!

For more general pictures, go to: http://phcofny.homestead.com/files/2008_Vermontville_camp/slides/President_Spangler_chairi%20ng.htm

And now, I'm off to unpack and do laundry! Have a great day!!

Leah