Thanksgiving

We are having a nice visit at my parent's house for Thanksgiving... I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving.

Kelsie and Cam were happy to see Jessi and Devin...

My bday happened to fall on Thanksgiving...my mom made my new favorite dessert -- BANANA Pudding!!! Yum....

Ok, well, I don't think that I got sound on this video for some reason, bummer! It was a fun game that my sister brought over, but it was REALLY LOUD!!!

Circa 21 the night after Thanksgiving -- "A Wonderful Life" and it was very good...

The women had our annual ornament exchange...

Part of the reason you will see few pictures of me right now!!! If you know what I mean!

Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever...1 Chronicles 16:34

Rare, Never Before Seen Footage

My English Girl

Today was a big day! Kelsie showed in her 1st equestrian event (I think this is the right lingo). She did a great job. They pick names out of a hat to decide who rides which horse, which to me, riding a horse for the 1st time in a show, that takes guts. So, Kelsie rode a horse named Gracie and they seemed to get along pretty well. Take a look at our day...


Kelsie's friend Eve came along with us and helped keep Kelsie occupied while she waited for her turn.

Kelsie's trainer Marcie getting Kelsie all ready -- did you know they wear hair nets under those helmets? BTW, who knew there are 2 types of riding; English and Western. This was English today, thus all of the prim and proper clothing, etc. I have learned that when you ride English, the saddles don't have horns to hold onto -- yikes!

Kelsie was getting ready to mount the horse, if you look close you can see her eyes...

I love this picture, she looks so serious!

Me, Boring?

I had a call today from a friend...you know who you are...and she told me that my blog has been boring this week with no updates! She even went to my husband's blog to find out what's going on here and what did she find? My son appearing to pee in a public place and very ugly feet, or were they? You will have to decide for yourself.

It's been a very busy week here, so thus, no updates. Work has been busy and just life in general I guess. My Bible study ladies had a family get together tonight, which was nice, but I forgot my camera. However, stand by because tomorrow, Kelsie has her first horse show. Now I know that is not the technical name for it. Hopefully after tomorrow, I will be much smarter on these horse things. We'll see. Hopefully I will remember my camera and have some good pictures to share.

Phase II

We really have had a great week, not just weekend. Kenny's mom & dad, Gena & Philip have been in the area -- I have some other good pictures from our time w/them, soon I will get them posted. Friday afternoon St. Louis arrived, well 2 of my friends from St. Louis :-) Little did I know that I was going to be entering Phase II of house decorating, but wow, it was/is great. I know a Phase III and maybe IV is imminent!!! Here are a few pictures...



Mary and Nita arriving! We had a great time. It went by so fast, but as my dad says, if it goes by fast, that means you had a great time. True.

Saturday morning, the Hand's stopped on their way to Myrtle Beach. We had a nice visit -- I was happy to be able to introduce them to Nita and Mary. I think we enlightened my mother in law with 20008 10 year old boy stories that she might have rather passed on -- lol. We had a great political discussion as well.


The men tried to stay away from the women's discussions, probably not a bad idea.

We loved spending time with (aunt) Gena and (uncle) Philip this week. Ok, yes, I did pack them a little snack bag for their trip to Myrtle Beach (picture below) -- but, it's a long drive and M&Ms and Diet Coke are a must.

THEN, the work started....off to Hobby Lobby...

I tried to find some before & after pictures of a couple of the changes. You can't get the total picture from the below & I will find those Kitchen valance pictures (Nita & Mary, I want you to remember the transformation, so I'll find the pix, I know I took some -- UPDATE: found the picture on an old blog post!).

BEFORE -- above....
AFTER -- below...

We added the grill above the picture in the kitchen and Nita made valances from the red curtains in the living room (we took those down and bought greenish/brown instead). Did you ever know that you can make these things by using rubber bands, nails and tape????? WAY unbelievable! "Before" and working on "After":

We are all thankful to have our family and friends visit...very, very thankful.

Veteran's Day

To those who have worn the uniform (including my father and father-in-law) and to those who wear the uniform now, thank you.

A Blogworthy Ride

I haven't ever been a horse person, not for any particular reason. Other than a few times horseback riding when I was a kid, oh and the last time I went, I was I think in New Hampshire, or in Wisconsin (anyone remember?) and my horse decided to lay down during the trail ride (oh I was scared!), I haven't been around horses. Well, this summer Kelsie took up the hobby and while I still haven't exactly figured it out, I know enough to know that the ride you see below (which was sent to me by a friend) is amazing! Take a look...no reigns, no saddle. Watch closely...Kelsie said it's like sign language to the horse (how cool is that!)

The Solution for Worry

I don't see the video of this message (the video is actually up now), but don't let that stop you from listening. It's another awesome, important message for all of us today. The title is "Switching Sides". Click on the light blue square with the 2 raindrop-looking figures on it and you will see it.

http://www.brownsbridge.org/messages

A CHANGE IN OUR DEVOTION?

Nashville

Last weekend, the kids and I had the chance to go to Nashville to meet Vicky and her 2 youngest kids. The kids looked at me skeptically (ok, they looked at me like I was a crazy nut) when I suggested we go look at the Opryland hotel. But, I wanted to do it, so, I parked illegally (they wanted something like $18 to park, just to go into the hotel to look around). (Crazy). Anyway, we went in and see for yourself, I think they had a good time; it really was beautiful in there.

Let's cut to the chase...the good stuff..no, the great stuff...if we weren't parked illegally, we could have spent hours in this place, going from chocolate to lattes, to krispy kreme donuts (Cam chose the donuts for his treat) and back to the chocolate....

And here it is!!! Whatever it was, it was DELICIOUS! YUM!

We stayed near the airport at the Embassy Suites.

Did ya know that Kelsie has been taking a weight training PE class in school? Let's just say that whenever there is luggage to be heaved up into the car...I call Kelsie...

Breakfast on Sunday morning before heading back to Cumming. We had a really good time, as usual!