A Major Catch Up

Savannah, on Sept 5th, at Cumberland Knob.
Peaks of Otter hike, and that's my dad!
Three sisters quilting, and no, I'm not sleeping.
Aaron and Katie on Aaron's 30th birthday!


Savannah, reading to her siblings on Oct. 8th.How cute is THAT double chin.....ON KATIE!!!! Taken on our camping trip in September.
Johnson Farm, which we hiked to at Peaks of Otter. I want to live here.
Alan, apple bobbing on October 18th.
Me an' Mandy.

Aaron, Alan, and Joe on a hike at Peaks of Otter.

A small paver landing that Aaron laid in September.
Alan, Savannah, and their potato head family on September 5th.
Pizza baking in Amanda and Joe's earth oven that they built themselves.

Lynn, my bro, Joe, and Savannah at Peaks of Otter in September.Amanda and her hubby, Joe.

Lauralee, and her hubby, D.
The original nucleus! Lauralee, Amanda, Joe, Mama, Daddy, Me, and LynnA wedding gift that I prepared this weekend. I just thought it was so purty.

This picture was taken Sunday at a party.

Katie, showing off her stuff.

This is the ONLY picture that we have of the entire family. It was taken atop a mountain when we were on our camping trip at Peaks of Otter last month.

This picture was taken in mid September. This is my first cousin, Ashlee with her son, Owen, who is exactly 4 weeks younger than Katie. They'll be good play buddies soon! : )

This was taken in mid Sept. too, but it was a good one.

Well let me start by saying that I am annoyed. I came in here to quickly pay 3 bills online 1 hr and 15 minutes ago, and I have not gotten a single one paid. It's just not working. The site where you pay on a Dell account has dropped off the face of the internet and cannot be found, and the DMV website is being totally retarded. I am ABSOLUTELY FREEZING out here (I'm even wearing hat and gloves ) and I really need to pee. So, I'm just not doing that great right now. And there went my chance to watch a movie, or visit with my husband, or just warm up by the fire because of the retarded internet. Grrr.

On another note, the sun will never go down in my house from this point forward. I painted the living room and hallway yellow. A bright, cheery, and SUNNY yellow. Thanks to the help of my friend, Amy, I got it all finished today. I started yesterday and feverishly worked for hours and hours this afternoon, but it's done. And Katie Mae sat in the saucer for 2 hours no less and was an angel while I finished up. She is a wonderful child. I love her. I'm starting to feel like I live in Candy Land or something with my yellow hallway and green bedroom....I need some red and purple.... : ) I'm just glad to have color on my walls for the first time ever.

After the end of last week, my life is starting to slow down. Thank goodness. I have been home all week with nothing more to do than house clean and paint. I feel like I have all the time in the world on my hands. And now that I'm through painting, I just have cleaning (always) to do! I can actually start doing school with Savannah. We actually did some yesterday morning and she really enjoyed it. She was in a very odd, PMS-Y mood, but she was liking the school part. You'd have NEVER known it, but if I hinted we might give it a break, she'd start crying.

I cleaned up the basement last week!!! It took me four days, but it looks wonderful! I wanted to take before-and-after pictures, but I forgot to, but it looks good! I have the play area set up on a rug, I have my "hotel" with a double bed complete with bed side table, lamp, and alarm clock, and I also have a bunk bed set up. All my totes with clothes are lined on the shelf up above and in chronological order and gender, as well as children's shoes and maternity clothes. I only have about 6 or 7 totes full of junk to sort through when I have time. We had company last week, so I HAD to clean or else, I wouldn't have any place for them to stay. Sometimes, that's what it takes....I actually get things done when I have a deadline.

Happy Birthday to Aaron, who's 30!!!! And Lauralee and Lynn, who are 31, and Mama, who is a very young 54. Love you all!!!

I am THROUGH canning for the year! All my jars looks so pretty all lined up and organized, yet another thing that got straightened in my basement. The last food I canned was tomato sauce last week. It has peppers, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs in it. It's so pretty. I just love shelves lined with canned goods.

(I'm to the point where I can't feel my nose and my legs are shaking uncontrollably....and I still haven't been to the bathroom.)

Poor Alan has nearly no clothes for this winter. I'm on the old navy site right now trying to find some clearance things for him. My just going to one consignment sale this year just didn't pan out. He only has like 6 shirts, no sweat shirts, and no jeans that fit him. I'm going shopping tomorrow at some thrift stores too, to see if I can find him anything. It didn't help that he got paint on his shirts yesterday AND today. Here, I'm the one painting, didn't get any on myself, and he gets it all over him. I signed up for a 7 day free trial for this internet accelerator and it doesn't seem to be helping AT all, which really upsets me. I was hoping that it would. It would make shopping online much quicker. Oh well.

(One trip to the bathroom and two blankets later, I'm doing much better.)

I'm downloading pictures from my camera right now. I actually filled up the entire memory card it's been so long since I've put pictures on my blog. It also doesn't help that I slammed my camera in the car door and now it won't do a fraction of what it used to do, like delete pictures and partially zoom. I wonder how I'll clear my memory card....hmmm....maybe if I don't get frost bite out here, I'll upload a picture or two!

Katie Mae can sit up! She has been getting better and better at it for about a month now. She is so proud of herself when she sits up and can sit for over half an hour before she gets upset or falls over. She loves to watch Savannah and Alan play. It'll be no time before she's up and after them!

Aaron has been working on the biggest job he's EVER had and it's just less than 3 miles down the road! What luck! It's nice for him to have steady work for a while (about a month is how long the job will take from beginning to end) and for it to be so close! I'm

Well, I've got these pictures up now, but I don't know why they're so blurry. Oh well, it's too late and I'm too cold to care. I hope it's better than nothing for those of you who continually check my blog and get nothing new. Do you like how all the pictures are so random and out of chronological order? Yeah, it's way late...and cold. Thank you for stopping by! I wish I had more time to post, cause I love doing it, but....such is life.