Quote of the Week

"God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me."

Dr. Appointments

Emma and Katelyn had their annual checkups today. All is well and both are doing great. Emma was in the 90% for her size...plus she's a big wimp when it comes to shots and finger pricks. Neither had to have shots today, but had the finger pricks. Katelyn handles it no problem, but Emma gets extremely nervous and upset. She had some tears, said ouch when the prick happened, then said ohh...that's not bad!

The Doctor talked to them quite a bit about their likes, activities, school, and such. She must have liked them because before we left she gave both girls books.

Thanksgiving Break

We had a good 5-day weekend off as a family. Thanksgiving with family, home with the kids, football Saturday with a fire, church and football Sunday! We got the fall and Thanksgiving decorations packed up. I just need to get the boxes put up in the attic and then start bringing down the Christmas ones.



Emma's getting pretty excited about her birthday this week. Hard to believe she's going to be 10! Time flies...

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy those that are close to you and take a minute to notice all the blessings in your life.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever" Psalm 107:1

We're at Dad's in NC for our Thanksgiving. Hit a deer on the way here last night! Booo!!! Luckily it wasn't too bad...I managed to slow down enough and just hit it with the driver side corner. The truck is driveable and only minor damage...

Pix of Week

Thought of the week

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rainy Monday

The rest of the weekend went pretty well. Katelyn had a good time at her parade and both the Hawkeyes and Huskers won their games. Ang & I went out Sat night with some friends...we were going to see Blindside but it was sold out at not one, but two theaters we tried!

I got some bad news Saturday night; one of my early supervisors in my AF career passed away early Friday morning in his sleep. He had been retired from the AF for awhile, but was now a gov civilian. I still got emails from him every once in awhile and had breakfast with him about a year ago when I was in Omaha. When Ang & I were stationed in Omaha, he & his wife (Helen) had us over for cookouts and stuff. Rest in peace Big Dave.

Today was the kids Thanksgiving feast at school. There was a pretty good spread. The kids were released early from school so they came home with me. I actually brought one extra kid home! Emma brought home a friend. They ran up to Emma's room and I've not heard anything since!

Starbucks morning

While Katelyn and Angie went to the Hampton Christmas parade (Katelyn's in it...gymnastics) we went to Starbucks for hot chocolate and coffee. It was a good morning

Christmas shopping

The one good thing about me being at home is we have some of our shopping done. I managed to get out a couple days this week and get some stuff. Amazing that Thanksgiving will be here in 5 days! Wow.

Picture of the Week

yummy

Quote of week

"Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night" ---Unknown

Final Nor'easter Update

We lost power around 6:30 last night. We played some games with the kids by candle light until it was their bedtime. Power finally came back sometime this early morning while we were sleeping.

The yard is a soggy mess. Still have water standing in the backyard. The wind blew over my grill (and all the chairs). We were lucky though...the ocean side towns have it much worse since they are dealing with tidal flooding. No school again today...5-day weekend for Ang & the kids!

Nor'easter update

Our backyard...

November Nor'easter

Nothing but rain since early yesterday morning. It's supposed to continue with an additional 3-7 inches of rain today with high winds. Our backyard is a lake...standing water everywhere. All the schools (except Newport News) are closed today. The girls are happy (their school is in York county)! Hopefully we keep power all day; there's about 13,000 without power in the area right now. The weather forecasters are comparing this to Hurricane Isabel. They are predicting tonight's high tide to be just a few lower than what it was during Isabel.

Emma, the song writer?

I found this today while going thru some tubs that had some of Emma's "treasures" in it. I find this amazing! This is word for word how I found it written on her piece of paper.

Believing in God

My world, this place
The unending trail of your mercy and grace
This life You gave me
I never knew what it means, and now I see...

(chorus)
Reach up and touch the sky
Don't you feel like you can fly
Soar high, and keep on believing in God
Believing in God

My friends and family,
Lord you gave them to me
They are another one of the blessings you gave me

(chorus) x2

Believing in God
Believing in God
Believing in God
Keep on believing in God
Believing in God

Thought of the day

Learn to be happy with what we have, instead of dreaming what we don't have.

All I Want For Christmas...

two (sort of) front teeth...

Veteran's Day

Veterans Day
By Taylor Weinman

Representing the red white and blue
The colors of our flag stand out proud and true.
The white stars on blue background with red and white stripes
Remind me of these veterans, who all risked their lives.

Just so the people of the U.S. could all live in peace and be free
These are the heroes that represent you and me.
They stood up strongly, untied as one,
And kept up the fighting until they were done.

And although some have fallen, and lost their lives in war,
We pray for each one of them.
And now that their souls live on forever more,
Above in God's hands.

They watch over our nation,
And give us strength to triumph over others with strong anticipation.
So every year, when this day comes by,
Think of all the veterans that while fighting, had to die.

And remember that they were people
With fire and passion embedded inside.
They die for this country,
So remember and honor them with pride

VA weather

Crazy weather...low 30s Fri night with a nice fire in the fireplace. It's already 72 today! It's November people...I'm supposed to be enjoying nice crisp chilly fall weather!

Katelyn's chapel day

Isn't she a ham?!

Garden

My attempt at a garden this year was pretty much a failure with the exception of cherry tomatoes.  I'm still picking them almost every other day or so!

Lazer Tag!

So Angie & I went out to dinner and then played lazer tag with our community group last night.  It was a blast!  The 1st game was a free for all; everyone on their own.  The 2nd game was teams...our team won!  We were all hot and sweaty when we finished!

Tuesday

Angie and the kids were off from school today because of voters day. Emma had a piano party (they played for a convalescence house and then had some food at the teachers house) and Katelyn has gymnastics tonight...so still not really a day off.

I took the Explorer in to the dealer this morning to get a safety recall item fixed. They were pretty fast with it, I was in and out in an hour. I did find my new 2010 F-150 Lariat 4x4 on the lot! Hmmm...who's going to win the lottery so I can get it? Got the yard mowed and moved what firewood we had left from last year from behind my shed over along the fence so it's easier to get to. We made our 1st fire of the season on Sunday.

Our neighbors across the street are officially moved out. The new neighbors were over there today and while our girls were outside playing they managed to meet them! I guess they have 3 kids...2 girls and 1 boy...10, 8, and 2! Hopefully our kids will like them so they'll have new kids to play with in the neighborhood.

Remember When?

Halloween

We had a good day yesterday. A little laziness in the morning around the house, then we loaded up the truck and went over by Surry, VA for a Plantation Christmas craft festival at Chippokes Plantation State Park. We took the ferry from Jamestown across the James River to get there...the kids liked that. We bought a couple small things...Katelyn got a new handmade silver bracelet and Emma got an American girl doll outfit. There was food and some of the vendors were in the oldtime clothes.

From there we came home (back across the river on the ferry) and made a quick stop at Sam's for pizza (dinner) and a couple bags of candy for the trick or treaters. I took the kids through our neighborhood to do a little trick or treating. They made out pretty well between last night and Harvest Fair at school on Friday. We only had few trick or treaters here at the house...so we have lots of candy left over! I think Angie is going to take some in to school for her treasure box in her classroom.