Had a great weekend. Since Sidney was off last week, He and I went to the movies Friday night. (Patrick tagged along, too!) We saw Fireproof, the new movie from Sherwood Baptist in Albany Georgia. It was so wonderful. I laughed, I cried, I'm gonna buy it when it comes out on DVD! I have the other 2 movies that they have done. They were great, too. God has really blessed them with a ministry to reach a widespread audience for Christ. This one was about the marriage relationship and how wives and husbands should treat one another. We ate greasy popcorn and drank coke, too. Gotta love movie popcorn!

Saturday was a mostly quiet, piddle around the house kind of day. Beautiful weather, perfect temperatures. Sid's brother and aunt arrived late Saturday afternoon. Patrick went to Starkville with the youth group from church to bowl. Jon went to a friend's house to work on his truck. Wow, alone at last?! We went out to eat, just the two of us and had a very enjoyable evening.

Sunday was our 175th anniversary celebration at church. It was nice. We didn't have Sunday School, but started registration at 10:00. Church started at 10:45 and I'm not sure when it ended. I really enjoyed the music and the historic moments and everything. I know it ended after 12:00, because my son let me know! ha We had a great lunch and ooddles of tempting desserts. I made a banana pudding and 3 lemon meringue pies. I saw just about everything you could imagine. After lunch we went home and slept it off! when we woke up, Liz had appeared. It was good to see her for a short time.

No, Jon is not praying, he's avoiding the camera!

Judd and Katie enjoying their lunch on a beautiful fall day

I have a little while before I have to go pick up Patrick today. He has a trumpet lesson this afternoon from 3:30 until 4:00. I am sure that he will be starving when I pick him up! He has to eat lunch so early, around 10:30 in the morning I think. He is always hungry when I pick him up.

I am watching the puppies playing outside in the back yard. We still have them all. They are so much fun. We've had them in the tradewinds for the last 3 weeks, but I guess no one is interested in a pup right now. Probably spending all their disposable income on gasoline. I am glad to see that it is coming down. Hope that it keeps on coming down! Sid told his brother that he probably saved a couple hundred dollars waiting 3 weeks to drive to Mississippi from Charleston, South Carolina!

Sid is taking a week of vacation this week. He usually takes a week in late October every year, because it is cooler and he does the annual firewood cutting for the winter. We heat primarily with wood, so unless he cuts, we freezes!!! ha He thinks that we have enough, so today he worked on his truck and headed to Artesia to help Jonathan with a plumbing problem on the camper. He spent the night, so I'm curious to see how it went with him sleeping in a camper with Jonathan. Jon says since it is cooler now, he only has about 2 minutes of hot water in the morning, not quite enough to get that head of hair wet, much less get it washed! I hope that they can figure out something. Maybe they can at least have a little father-son "bonding time!" Even though they fight like cats and dogs, I know that he misses him being around all the time. I know from experience that Sid likes to have someone around when he's tinkering, if for no other reason, to get a good argument going! I've learned to just leave the shop and head to the house and let him argue with himself!

Patrick killed a doe yesterday afternoon. Yay!!!!! I hope he kills them all. That wasn't very nice, was it? Well, I'm so tired of them eating up our garden, when they have plenty to eat elsewhere. For the last 2 years they have taken all our greens, and have not left us any to eat. This year they ate our okra down to the ground, and helped themselves to the tomatoes. They don't particularly like jalapenos or mexican sunflowers. Yesterday Sid and I built an electric fence around the garden. I hope that it works wonders. I cooked part of that deer for his breakfast this morning with fresh bisciuts. I thought the biscuits were good. I won't touch the deer. They can eat it all.

Had a call on the puppies yesterday. Someone from Greenwood may come this weekend and look at one for a Christmas gift for his father. I'm not liking this at all, but I know that we can't keep them all. Patrick's friend Josh really wants ole "wrinkles"! Sid started calling him that because he looks so worried all the time!

Made a pot of red beans and rice. Let the beans cook all day. I forgot to buy bacon when I was in Winona, so I stopped by Dollar General after Church tonight. I love DG! They had the bacon. It was a little higher than the grocery store, but I didn't have to drive to get it! I got the bacon cooked and put in the pot, got the veggies sauted and in the pot, and the sausage browned and put in the pot. Now I'll let it simmer til lunch tomorrow and it should be pretty good. Haven't had it in a while.

Not much else happening here. I have been concerned about Sydney Sims. www.caringbridge.org/fl/sydneysims She has been in New York taking 3f8 treatments for neuroblastoma this week and has had some pretty scary side effects. She really needs prayer right now, both Sydney and her mother, Michelle. It must be horrible to stand by and watch your baby go through so much for the past almost 5 years. What a struggle to wonder if the treatments are worth the pain, but for Syd, there are no other treatment options available right now. So, what do you do? I would have to take the chance with the treatments and hope that this time would be the cure. That doesn't make it any easier to face, though.

Fall is definitely in the air!

Wow, the air is cool and the sky is blue, well it is actually black right now, but it was so blue earlier! I think that fall is my favorite time of year because it is a refreshing season. The summer is so hot and smothering and the fall is light and crisp. I just love it.

Yesterday I picked up Patrick's report card. It was wonderful. I am so proud of his ability to learn easily. It is truly a gift and a blessing from the Lord. He had all "A's". We got his state test scores back from last spring as well. He did extremely well on those too. As a result of his doing so well on the state tests, he was asked to participate in the Duke University talent Identification and he will take the ACT in December.

Jon got a midterm report card today as well. He has a 4.0. This is the child that didn't know if he was going to be able to walk with his class until wednesday, May 21,before graduation on friday May 23! He was so fortunate to be able to attend a high school with a wonderful vocational program and he really excelled in Welding. (Unfortunately, he had to learn English and geometry, too!) As a result of this he is studying welding and fabrication at East Mississippi Community college in Mayhew. For the first time in his life he loves school. I am so thankful for the opportunity that he has been given. He has spent hours in prayer about what the Lord would have him do and he feels that he is going in the right direction. He may not weld for the rest of his life, but this is a starting point and I am so glad that he is excited about it.

Our mustard greens are coming up, but if we don't get an electric fence around the garden real soon, the deer will eat them all. They did last year. I cooked some "store-bought" mustard greens last week and Sid said they weren't very good. I told him, he better learn to like them, unless he managed to get a fence around that garden! I don't know what we'd do without our garden, because we are all so spoiled. We don't much like canned food!

Sid is off next week. He will do his annual woodcutting week. We heat exclusively with wood, so if he doesn't cut fire wood, we'll get a little cool!!! He is ready, with a new chain for the saw, a file to re-sharpen it and a chain that Crossroads small engine repair is sharpening for us. Just maybe he'll get that electric fence going, too!

Monday Already!?

I can't believe that the weekend flew by so fast! Saturday Jon and I got up and drove to Birmingham to see Dave Ramsey. He is so good! Jon really enjoyed it, but said 5 hours was too long to sit! He also froze to death. It was kinda cold in there. I did all the driving because Jon has been known to get lost rather easily.

We got home about 11:30 Saturday night. Sid and Patrick went to the fair. I can not believe he rode some of the rides that he rode. I wouldn't believe it until I saw the pictures!

Looks like he enjoyed himself! I couldn't do it, you'd have to shoot me.

Liz says gas is 2.69/gal. in Cleveland! Needs to drop a little more here. The cheapest gas that we saw this weekend was in Mathiston @ 2.90/gal. I paid 3.02 in Carrollton.

Patrick and Jeremiah have been working hard this morning. They cut several yards and came in Miss Sippy's to eat. They cleaned their plates, so they must have been hungry. They better enjoy the last few hours of their "fall Break" ha. Have to go back to school tomorrow!

Long Weekend!

It's Friday! A beautiful fall day. Last day of midterm exams for Patrick. We checked him out of school at noon today and we all went to Pizza Inn for buffet. It had been a while since we had done that and it was so good! He did great on everything so far. The only one that hasn't been posted was pre-algebra, so we'll find out soon how that went. Report card day is next Thursday and it is a short day. They are out this Monday for Columbus day or fall break, so a nice long weekend for the P-man! He'll probably want to be in the woods trying for that elusive deer! Last Wednesday coming home from church we saw a spike down the road from the house. He just stood there in the middle of the road. Patrick got out of the car and walked toward him and he just stood there. Patrick threw a rock in front of him and he just looked at the road where the rock hit. Finally Patrick ran at him and chased him across the neighbor's yard. It was so funny!

Jon came home today and started back to work at Anel. I haven't heard yet how that went. He gets off at 11:00 tonight. I told him that he better come straight home and go to bed. Better not stay out with his buddies, or it will be really hard to rise in the morning. He and I are going to Birmingham tomorrow to see Dave Ramsey. Can you believe it was his idea to go? Sid and I saw him in Jackson a few years ago and we really enjoyed him, but Jon called one night and told me he wanted to go. I said, good, then go, then he says, I don't want to go by myself. I said, ask a friend. He said, I want you to go with me! ha. If he wants to learn to handle money God's way, then I am all for it, even if we have to spend 8 hours driving there and back! He's pretty smart with money anyway, so we may create a monster~!

Talked to Lizzie this afternoon. She had 4 more puzzles to work for homework. She doesn't like them, so she knew I'd bite. She had a cryptoquote, a jumble, a sudoku and a numbrix. I solved them pretty quick. she had already done the crytoquote, except for a few letters, so I helped her with it. She got caught in a parade going to work this afternoon and was a little late! Cleveland is celebrating Octoberfest, so there is a lot going on this weekend there. I am glad that she seems to be sticking with her schooling this time. Maybe seeing her friends graduating, getting jobs and getting married, has lit a fire under her. Wow, when I was her age, I was expecting her! We had been married 3 years when she arrived!

I made it to the dentist to get my crown glued in permanently yesterday. I spent a stressful week waiting for that thing to show up! Kinda embarrasing, but it fell off Friday night while I was asleep and I found it Tuesday. The dentist said if it made me feel better, I wasn't the first one to have that happen to! Glad I can eat and drink and brush my teeth again painfree!

Sid and Patrick are planning to go to the state fair tomorrow. This is the last weekend for it. We haven't been a couple of years. I told him to bring home some taffy. They like to see the cars and look at all the stuff. Patrick likes to ride, but not as much as Sid does. Nobody, but nobody can outride Liz, though! I don't ride anything that leaves the ground, or spins very fast!

WEll, this weekend is going to be busy and fast! I wish that I had monday off, too!

Ouch!!! Ouch Charlie, that really hurt! And it's still hurting!!
Papa Jimmy is more than a little jealous!!

Jon, snuggling with a baby!

The Puppies will be 8 weeks old this friday. I don't want them to leave!!! They are so sweet and cute. I guess I will put them in the tradewinds for sale and I will worry that who ever gets them will love them as much as we do. Min pins are so much fun. They are fun to watch when they don't know that you are looking. They play tug of war and fight and nip each other on the ear or the tail and run!!! so cute. They make you laugh. They will jump in the air and spin around and fall on the ground. Jimmy and Gator will dance in a circle for a treat! The babies haven't learned that yet.

Happy Birthday Grandmother!!!

Tomorrow is Sid's mother's 80th birthday. We along with his brother surprised her by putting the flowers in her church yesterday. To really surprise her, Sid, Jon, Patrick and I showed up at her church for the 11:00 service. Afterwards we took her to the Crystal Grill for lunch. I baked her a cake and hope that she had a good weekend and an early birthday!

This week is first nine weeks tests for Patrick. Is seems so funny that I only have one child left in school. Well, the others are in college, but Patrick is the only one at home and I fast feel our house becoming an empty nest. I am sure that the next 6 years will fly just like the last 6 did. Patrick has all A's going into the tests, so I feel that he will do fine.

Jon is supposed to start back to work this coming thursday. He first dreaded starting college, wanting to stay at work, because it was comfortable! Now, he loves school and dreads going back to work. This time, however, work will be graded like school!!!

Liz is just doing her thing, working and going to school. She visited her brother last week and I was so surprised! She didn't much like taking a shower in his camper. Too used to a nice big bathroom, I guess!!!

I did a lot of cooking this morning at work. Made 2 batches of bread; one white and one wheat. I made a dozen cinnamon rolls and 2 dozen muffins, a batch of tomato and roasted red pepper soup, and started the baked potato soup. Tomorrow we have a group of "Red Hat" ladies coming. About 18 of them are supposed to come. they want to tour the Merrill museum and see the McCain stuff then come to our place to eat. I think that I will make 2 big chicken pot pies and an extra big bowl of brocolli salad!

Jeanette starts weekly chemo this week. She had been going every 3 weeks, but now they are doing it every week. She says that it is a different drug. She is scared because she doesn't know how this one will affect her. The last one was bad enough. She is tough, though. She hasn't missed much work because of sickness. She will have her surgery in January.