Fall Gathering

   We had a Ladies Fall Gathering at my house this past week.  It was so much fun!  We swapped recipes and decorating ideas.  Darrah put some of her jewelry out, and nearly everyone brought sweets!  We had so many wonderful treats there was enough for everyone to take some home.  Why is it that women congregate in the kitchen? : ) Someday I need to get a bigger kitchen to accommodate more people!

 

Out of the goodness of his heart

We have a new toy in our house.  Hubby bought a new HP TouchSmart computer.  The screen is huge, and you can actually touch the screen to do things and/or use the traditional mouse and keyboard. He has been having great fun with it! Then to my surprise he told me that it was for me! He wanted to get me a desktop pc so that I wouldn’t have to hunch over a tv tray to work on ‘my’ laptop like I normally do, and he wanted to replace it with something faster to handle the mountain of pictures I try to store and work on.  Isn’t he a doll, doing all of this just for me?  ; )  He has worked very hard on it, uploading all my pictures, videos and programs, and I am very thankful to have such a considerate husband. It is a lot more comfortable to work on… and it is pretty cool.

In other news, we are not selling our house anymore. Well, it’s more like it didn’t sell in the time we had to get into a new home, so we took ours off the market.  I’m sure it’s no coincidence that we decided to sell our house right before the economy tanked, so we took it as a sign from the Lord and we are moving on.  We are very comfortable here, and very thankful for it.

Mom and Papa John were out here for a visit a few weeks ago! It was so good to have them here.  Sometimes, I just miss my mommy.  Fall is in full swing so we took a trip up to Lancaster and road on a train to get a view of the countryside… and Papa John is a train enthusiast.  It really is beautiful country. 

 

 

 

 

I am frequently in awe at the wonders of God’s creation, but no more so than in the fall.  The beautiful colors that can take your breath away, and the multi-hued trees look like they have been hand-painted by God.

This was a two person job. There are two teams of horses and the driver you can’t see is steering the actual corn-picking  apparatus, while the boy is

                                                                             keeping the  trailer in line right behind it. The white barn is vented for drying tobacco, the other stores tons of corn cobs! Maybe for feed?

Fall Fun

We found this quaint road with beautiful trees, turning every color of fall.  We tried to coax, cajole, beg and plead with Lily to get her to smile, she was not cooperating!  But, in spite of her running away from me most of the time, she still looks adorable, and I managed to get a few shots to turn out ok.  Look at her cute little curls!  Did I mention that it’s beautiful here in the fall ?!

  

Celebrating Autumn

I am celebrating Autumn with Clairol #22. 

Darrah celebrated Autumn by hosting a PartyLite party at her house.  Everything was very fall and gave you warm fuzzys inside. She made this fabulous pumpkin dip for

 

 

ginger snaps and mulled cider in the crock-pot. It is so exciting to see the leaves starting to change. The bursts of red and

gold in the trees is just a glimpse at the beauty that is to come!

 UPDATE ON GRANDPARENTS:

I spoke to them today and both said they were feeling much better than they expected to! They have bruising from the airbags, but thankfully no further injuries that they can find.  They seem to be in good spirits, and are still trying to decide what to do about a vehicle. Thank you all for your continued prayers for them.

Prayers Needed

My grandparents, Ken and Eunice Fournier were in car accident earlier today.  I don’t have details on the accident itself, but both of their airbags deployed and they have cuts and bruising from them.  My Uncle Dan took them home to their house, and they are going to the Doctors in the morning to get checked out.  They are shaken, I’m sure frightened and by tomorrow, will be very sore.  They, along with our family, would value your prayers.  Grandma has considerable neck and back pain on a daily basis, and I’m sure this is will take her a very long time to recover from.  Coupled with the economic  strain that has resulted from plummeting stocks on Wall Street, and the loss of most of their grandchildren moving out of the area, they are in much need of prayer.  Please lift them up.  My heart goes out to them.  I love them dearly, and regret that I am  so far away.

The Sikora’s

It was time for our annual family picture! 

Heavy Metal

This past Sunday, Hubby and I drove up to Valley Forge National Park to listen to a concert of sorts.  A friend from work had told me that his friend, Doug Gefvert was a Carillonneur and played at the Washington Chapel there on Sunday afternoons.  A Carillon is a set of bells. There were at least 50! It was a fascinating experience! We climbed this teeny tiny spiral staircase up the bell tower to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the small room that houses the ‘piano looking’ instrument used to actually play the bells.  It consists of wooden levers, which are connected by cables directly to the bell clappers.  Similar to a piano, the harder the lever is depressed, the sharper the note will sound.  Some of the larger bells require more force to strike, and are linked to foot pedals. I took a short video of him playing Amazing Grace.  He is very talented! This is his profession, and he skillfully answered all of our questions.

  

The Washington Memorial Chapel that houses the bells is a tribute to George Washington, as seen in all the carvings of soldiers.  The grounds are beautiful as well and hopefully we can go back after the leaves start to change.  It will be magnificent. This  was a great learning experience, and we had so much fun! 

 

 

In October they are playing the original silent b/w version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame inside the chapel, and they have hired an organist to play along with the movie.. and there will be bells involved as well.  How incredibly cool is that going to be! 

Pictures to make you chuckle

Swim day at Grandpa's house.

Grinning with mouth full of pear

Giving big brother 'the look'.

Flying Leap

Taking a hike

My Sister's Wedding

I finally got the pictures done from Juliana's wedding! It was a beautiful day, the bride was radiant, and everything turned out great! You can see them at http://flickr.com/photos/hotrodhanna/ . Click on the albums on the right side to view them.

Tea Parties and Tupperware

I had a Tupperware Party at our house. It was a Tea Party theme. Turned out very cute, and it sounds like everyone had fun! Many thanks to all who came!

The house is still on the market, several nibbles but no bites so far. We are still praying about it, if the Lord wants it to sell, it will!

Funny Sign

I found it quite funny that the important qualification for this position was being able to sell shoes to women, not selling women's shoes. hahaha.

Exhaustion

This has been an insanely busy few weeks. We have been house shopping, found a floor plan we love, signed with a builder, consulted an attorney, interviewed realtors, put our house on the market, got it ready to show... all the while working overtime to pay for all this, answering phones and scheduling for Jim and Brian's carpet cleaning business and getting ready for Juliana's shower. Ug. I leave Monday morning for CA and I will be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. It all sounds pretty straight forward, but it has been incredibly stressful for both of us. We keep praying that if this isn't something we are supposed to do that the Lord would show us, and so far there are no major roadblocks, so we'll wait and see. The builder won't start building until we sell our condo, and the contract gives us two months to do so. If our house doesn't sell in time, we'll just stay put, no harm done, we get all our money back. So we are praying about it and we'll just wait on the Lord. Again, easier said than done. I am so tired I am ready to collapse and I haven't packed a thing yet. Laundry is still piled high. I am looking forward to getting away for a while, spending time with family and being their for Juliana's wedding, but I will still be worrying over the house situation in the back of my mind. I can't help it, I worry about everything. Intellectually I know the Lord will work everything out, but we still try to be cautious and not put ourselves in a precarious position. Prayers are greatly appreciated!

All done!

I finally finished the laundry room! I made the shelves myself : )

Brunch with the Girls

I was in the mood for crepes, and aside from IHOP, there aren't any spectacular places where we can get crepes for breakfast. So, I made them! Fresh strawberries, cantalope, Jersey blueberries, whip cream, chocolate sauce... they were awesome! Lily even liked them!

Thank You!

Many thanks to ComfortablyCrazy for making a custom apron for my neice! She loves it! She was helping Grandma 'Cinna' in the kitchen. Apparently she was walking around in just the apron and undies for most of the day, she was wearing all she wanted to wear! Visit her Etsy site HERE for other aprons, or contact her if you have something special in mind! Thanks again H!

Beach Day

Saturday was beach day, or as they say here, we went to the "shore". The kids looked like they had a great time, Hubby got to play some volleyball, and I brought my camera! We have dunes and boats at the shore! I miss seeing the piers of CA, there is a pier in Atlantic City with shops on it, but its not the same as having one every 2 miles or so that you can walk on, fish off of, etc. It was a beautiful day, 80's and humid as usual though. And they have bitting FLIES here!! I hadn't encountered them before, but Yikes! They are huge and they hurt when they bite!! Hubby said they are called green-heads. Me no like. All in all, a good day though. I got to play with the black&white setting on my camera. Here are a few of my pictures! I am really frustrated with slide.com, I can't get some of the pictures to rotate. Grrr.
My niece refused to smile most of the time, but she is very photogenic if you are patient... and yes, that is a very sandy sandwich she is holding. It lasted a painfully long time, and she ended up eating the whole thing. Ew.

Happy Birthday Darrah!

Brian, Erika and I treated Darrah to a spa day for her birthday! Looked like she enjoyed her alone time, and the pampering! We brought her tea sandwiches and champagne during her pedicure. I discovered frozen grapes! Awesome idea, they are like mini popsicles, and they make champagne keep bubbling! Sure to spice up any event.

Yellow

I have been feeling a little out of control lately, so I decided to tackle a project: redecorating the laundry room... by myself. It was either that, or get my hair cut. No one goes in the laundry room but me, so I figured there would be no harm in giving it a whoorl. I found a yellow that I really liked on the paint chip, but now that its on the wall I'm a little undecided. It seems a bit more in-your-face than I intended. I was thinking more antique-y. Too late now! I was however, quite impressed with myself! It only took about 3 hours to paint the whole thing! I found some mahogany stain and I am going to try to make some shelves next. I have some antique tin signs that I want to hang up also. I read that if you are painting a small space that you should paint the ceiling too, so that there isn't an abrupt starting/stoping line at the ceiling... making the room appear smaller. I pondered this, and decided to try it. I think they are right! I will post more pictures as the project progresses.