Bountiful Blessings

With Thanksgiving approaching I would like to take the time and reflect upon some of the many blessing I have in my life.
1. Family-The kind that you know you can depend on for anything.
2. Grandchildren- I love their sweet smiling faces. Especially thankful to have Saydee home safe and growing.
3. Friends-The ones that always know how to make you laugh!
4. My Home- Starting to find out things about Alpine that I love. For instance the chiming of the Town Clock that I can hear when I walk outside.
5. The Mountains-Which were absolutely breathtaking this Fall.
6. My view from my Great Room window-Snow capped mountains.
7. Income-Thanks to Shultz and all of the many orange cones.
8. Food on the table-Again thanks to Shultz and all of the many orange cones.
9. Christmas decor-That I can't seem to get enough of.
10. My health-Even if I do have a few aches and pains and arthritic hands. At least I don't have to pop a bunch of pills.
11. My religion- It gives me Hope and Faith that no matter what happens everything will be alright.
12. Gardening- even though it's been put to rest for a while I can't help but to start planning for next Spring.
13. Quilting- Gives me satisfaction during those cold Winter months

The list could go on forever, but these are some of the biggies. I hope that this might cause you to reflect upon how fortunate you are. Remember, no matter how bad it might be at times; there is always sunshine at the end of the rainbow.

SPOOKtacular Fun!

I wanted to share this post that I did two years ago for our family Halloween party.  The grandies had so much fun!  It's a party they still talk about.  They loved all of the activities! 

Saturday night we had a family Halloween party. I greeted grandchildren at the door as Witch Hildegard. Paityn didn't quite know what to think. Each one of them received a coin so that they could go upstairs and get their fortune told by Gypsy Kya. Afterwards Witch Hilde gave them each a tatoo We ate a hauntingly good meal of BBQ beef, potatoe salad, shrimp dip, chips, and brain jello oozing with blood. I have to admit the brain jello was a little hard to eat. Just looking at it and the thought of eating brains made it difficult to swallow. Although, Kade loved it and came back for seconds. The costumes were sure to please. Taylor was a ghost bride, Jordyn a skeleton, Braxton a pirate, and Paityn a hot pink kitten. Kade and Riley didn't come dressed but managed to conjur up quite a managerie by digging through the costume box. Lonnie even graced us with an Elvis look alike that the boys dug out. Karrah and Jayson had a fantastic Troll and Dragon thing going on. We drank a bubbly brew, dipped caramel apples, made slime , ( I was going to give the recipe, but noticed that someone had already linked that up.), and tried to imitate Hildegards broom dance, (I cleared my throat, did a few simple dance steps and then the kids took my broom and tried to repeat it.  It took quite a few times of Hilde saying, "No, that's not quite right."  before they caught on that they had to clear their throat first.) It definately was a spooktacularly fun night!

Linking up with:
http://www.oneartmama.blogspot.com/

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Halloween Haven

As many of you know, I love Halloween! There's just something about those bright colors that light up my day. I love decorating for it and having my children over for a Halloween party. Seeing my grandchildren in their cute costumes is always so fun. As of late I am wondering, "Have I gone a little overboard?" My youngest son came up for Sunday dinner. After entering he said, "Mom, I think your porch is a little over done." "Now you're beginning to look like that lady who has all the pink flamingos." In other words-THE GOBBSTER OF ALPINE. Has my worse fear came true? Then, after helping me clear the table of decor he said "How many decorations can one have on a table?" This may not be his exact words, but you get the idea. I'm posting some pics and I'd truly like your opinion. Come on, I can take it-I'm tough! Oh, I did forget to mention however that I've heard that Halloween is one time that you can get away with gobby. Ya think?

Mistaken Identity

About a week and a half ago I decided to bring our cat Shidiah home to our new house. The Vet. told me that I would have to keep him locked in the garage for 2-3 weeks or he would just head right back to our old home. We have been painting the garage so we had just left him with Dalan. I got him out of the car and sat him in the garage in his bed. Before I could close the garage, (yeah I know, I should have closed the garage first) he was off. Dalan has been keeping his eye out for him at our old house, but so far nada. Yesterday my friend Joyce came by for a visit. We decided to go for a ride up the road in her jeep. As we were heading back down the road Joyce said, "Is that your cat?" I looked over and sure enough a cat was running through this wooded yard that looked alot like Shidiah. We pulled over and I began to call him by his names (yes, he has two names-but then that's a whole other story). I also was whistling as I called to him. At first no response, but then he started towards me. Along with two dogs that apparantly heard my whistle. The cat stopped and ran off. I continued to call him but he just ignored me. Finally, he jumped up onto a rock wall and Joyce got a hold of him. As I looked at him I thought "I don't remember him having this much black on his legs, and his face seemed a little different. After checking to see if his front claws had been declawed, and they had I decided it had to be him. I took him home and put him in the garage. At first he ran around a little frantically. Then he ate the cat food like he hadn't eaten for a week. This only confirmed that it was Shidiah. After eating he went and curled up in Foxy's (Kylee's cat) bed. I called Kylee and Shultz and happily informed that I had found our cat. When Shultz came home he went into the garage to see. He said, "his face seems a little different, but he was friendly towards me. Around 8-8:30 Kylee and Dustin came home. I told her to come into the garage and make sure it was Shidiah. She took one look at the cat and said "Mom, that is not Shidiah!" "It's a pretty cat and looks alot like him but trust me it is not him ." Then, she informed me that it didn't even meow the same. Shultz and I got into the car and took the cat back to where I had retrieved it. I'm trying hard to do that trust thing, but I'm still not positive that it wasn't our cat. If so at least he has a nice wooded yard to wander in. All I can say is that it's a good thing that I never lost one of my children. Who knows, I might have brought home a stranger and locked him or her in the garage for four hours until Shultz came home and said, "trust me that's not our child!"
p.s. Wish I had taken a picture of that cat!

Detour 101

Help! What's with all this road construction? Everywhere you go there's orange cones. It's so bad that I'm certain I'll be seeing them in my sleep tonight. My sister came up from Ferron today for a visit and no matter which way we went we hit detours, one after another! I know it's Fall and Winter is upon us, but do they have to do every road at once? Oh well, I mustn't complain. After all my husband is an Engineer for Horrocks, and most of the torn up roads started with them doing some of the design. So I just have to remember that those detour signs are what helped to bring home the bacon.

Give Away Today

Give Away Today is a great blog that gives away awesome stuff daily. Today they are giving away assorted card kits. Hope to be a winner!

Just Be-Cuz

Thursday evening I headed to Midway for an annual Fall celebration with my cousin (Cuz) Betty, her two daughters, her daughter-in-law, and my friend Diana. Sometimes I ask myself, "Why do I go to Swiss Days?" We rise early and head to the park hoping to beat the madness of all the crowds and to see what new creations we might come across this year. As many of you know, I really don't need another thing to decorate for Fall or Halloween. For some uncanny reason that's what seems to tempt me the most. One booth had the cutest crazy looking Halloween cat. I was so tempted that I left to go get me a diet coke, thinking that might take my mind off of it. Then Diana told me that there were only two of them and that a lady and her friend bought them both. Lucky for me they beat me to it. The atmosphere is fun and the food is great but after listening to that Swiss music all day we are definately ready to leave by around 2 in the afternoon. By then the park is swarming with people and the lines to buy anything are so long. The overnight stay in the hotel is always fun visiting with everyone and a few laughs are always guaranteed. So when I ask myself "Why?" I simply say Just be-CUZ!
p.s. I vowed not to buy Fall or Halloween, I caved and bought 1 new Halloween decor to hang on my new door.