Happy Halloween!

This year we went with the Peter Pan theme. Clay is Cap't Hook, I'm Peter Pan, Emma is Wendy and Rebekah is Tinkerbell. Emma wore the Tinkerbell costume 5 years ago. At that time I bought the Tink and Hook costumes. Then I made my own. This year I just had to make Emma's costume.

Another lost tooth

More colors

The colors of fall just keep getting better! We took the girls for a walk in the woods after church.

These bright yellow "sticks with leaves" that are lower is our native grove of paw paw trees. They are right behind our cypress trees and the deer like to bed down in the grove and eat the fruit.

House Guest

I heard something come down the chimney. Tink, tink, tink, tink, thump. I watched it land on his back and then flip over and crawl out. He is now residing in the upper window right above the computer, where I sit...

More fall

I love autumn!! I love going on the farm tour and seeing the countryside and all the colors. But some of the best colors we've seen are right off our front porch. Enjoy!

Fall Farm Tour

It ended up being a very wet day for the farm tour. I was still a little sick, and Emma was of at camp with her Brownie troop. We decided to drive around anyway and enjoy the fall colors, even if we didn't stop at any of the farms.

We found this cool old stone church. It had some beautiful fall foliage and a great courtyard area.


We stopped at a local art show inside an old mill. There were lots of paintings we liked, too bad we didn't have $400 in our pocket.

In order to support the local farms more, we stopped at Hunter's Head, an old-English style pub. Most all of their meats and produce came from the farm just a half mile away. I ordered pumpkin soup, hot apple cider, and sweet potato fries. It was all very good.

Here are some more shots from our drive home.

I love all the old stone walls out here. Just think that this whole area was covered with dense woods. Those early settlers had to clear all the trees, then as they were clearing their fields they used the stones they found to build a wall, one stone at a time. These stone walls stretch on for miles!

This is just a cool bridge to some one's house we found.

This little piggy stayed home...

The swine flu hit our house.

It started on the Sunday before Columbus Day. We went to Monticello that Monday. I had a headache at church. I didn't think much about it because it was fast Sunday (going without food always gives me a headache). It was also our first Sunday in the new building and I was very stressed trying to make sure all of the Primary classes fit in their rooms.

I woke up Monday morning thinking my throat felt a little funny and my voice was slightly hoarse. While at Monticello it was only in the low 40s and I kept saying "it's so cold my back hurts". Well, by the time we got in the car to go home my whole body ached, I had the chills, and I could feel the fever coming on. I immediately fell asleep for the drive. When we got home I had a 102 temperature.

Tuesday morning I felt fine except for my throat being sore. But no fever. That morning Rebekah's voice started sounding funny too. At bedtime, Rebekah was having trouble breathing (and me too) so we gave her a breathing treatment. My fever, chills and aches came back, but not as bad as the first night.

Wednesday Rebekah and I went to the doctors. My doctor didn't test me for swine flu. She said the test is bad -only 10-70% accurate. Still, she was certain that I had it. I picked up a face mask and went to Rebekah's doctor. Rebekah tested negative for swine flu, but still her doctor said she thought she had it too and gave her TamiFlu. That night Rebekah got another breathing treatment.

Seems this flu goes to your lungs pretty quickly. Both doctors told us that people are coming back with bronchitis or pneumonia after the flu. Funny, Emma was diagnosed with Bronchitis the week before. She probably got it first. Rebekah and I spent the rest of the week coughing all the junk out of our lungs. Other than that, we were fine. By Sunday night we both sounded normal again.

And Clay never got it.

Monticello

We took advantage of Columbus Day to drive down and see Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. His plantation consisted of over 1000 acres. We set our alarms and drove down with our dear friends, the Rosenlunds.

Here we are waiting for our tour of the house. No photos allowed inside.

Check out this tree.

Here are all the kids lined up: Evan, Hallie, Emma, Georgia, Spencer, and Rebekah.

The first time I ever saw this flower was here at Monticello. I don't know the name of it, but it will always remind me of Monticello.

Here are the Rosenlunds!

It turned out to be a VERY cold day up on Jefferson's "little mountain". Only mid-forties for a high. We would have explored a lot more, but we were freezing. So, we quickly toured the gardens.

I loved this Hyacinth Bean terrace.

Our little pumpkin! Actually, this is a HUGE winter squash, not a pumpkin.

After Monticello, we went to Michie Tavern for some colonial dining.

After supper we strolled around downtown Charlottesville.