The Polar Express

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Ryan's parents took Kate and us to ride the Polar Express! We ate a yummy dinner in the bustling metropolis of Bryson City, visited the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad gift shop, and at 8pm hopped on the train. Despite the fact that narry a "Ho-Ho-Ho" came out of Santa's mouth, it was a magical ride. And, we just chalked it up to Santa being overwhelmed with all the bells and hugs he had to give out. We drank hot cocoa, traveled all the way to the North Pole to pick Santa up, and sang Christmas carols on the way back down the "mountain". It was so fun!

Kate and her ticket

Grandad, Kate and Mimi

Kate sees Santa outside the train window!

She is so besotted with Santa!

She fell asleep in the car less than 10 minutes down the road! We were all tired, but made such a good memory!

"Weeves!"

Again, like trick or treating, no one had to show Nancy how to dive in the leaves and throw them around. She just did it. She gets very excited to go outside. When we say it's time, she runs to the sliding glass door and plasters herself against the glass screaming "OUTSIIIIIIIIDE! OUTSIIIIIIIDE!" I think I used to do something similar, according to my parents. 

I love fall pictures. These are just a few "toot" (cute) ones.

Now Gimme Some Candy!

This Halloween we had 2 Candy Extravaganzas. The first was Trunk or Treat with our small group at church. We did Trunk-or-Treatopoly, and each person dressed up like the game pieces of Monopoly, and the parking spaces was the game board. Kids rolled a giant dice to get candy. I think it was really fun and creative. Ryan was the top hat, I was the ship. 

We bought Kate's costume in July. We found the unicorn suit at a consignment store, and she said she would LOVE to be a fairy riding on a unicorn for Halloween, and that's just what she was. Oh, of course you're curious about what she named the unicorn! Hokahornis, thank you very much. A quirky and kinky cross between Pocahontas and unicorn and horn, don't you think? Nancy was the proverbial ladybug. (No, not watermelon, thank you very much Matt Kelly)

We also went trick or treating in our neighborhood and made the rounds to Aunt Gerrie's house, Mo and Poppa's, and Mimi and Grandad's. Nancy wanted to eat every piece of candy in her tiny little bag (tiny on purpose, my friends) and totally caught on. Kate was a full 3 1/2 before she figured out the process. I think Nancy had about a half dozen chocolate bars while we made our rounds, and wanted more! It was a fun night. And really, the kids are still young enough that they haven't caught on  to the "He with the most candy wins" concept. Yet.

Hokahornis and "Weedlabug".

Dividing the plunder. See Nancy's tiny pumpkin bag?

Digging in at Trunk or Treat. Nancy would go out to a spot, get the candy, and want to sit down at the car and eat her piece before going out to get more.

So "toot". (Nan's word for cute)

4th Annual Sky Top Trip

This year we went to Sky Top with our friends Sean and Stacey Weiland. Our trip was over a month ago, but I have to go in sequence of events! They are in our community group and we love spending time with them! Stacey is in Physical Therapy Assistant classes and will graduate in a week!! And Sean works at Guardian, where he does stuff I still don't quite understand. The girls also adore them, so it was fun to share a family tradition with them. It was a windy day, but there were lots of apples to be picked. It was really busy, and even though we had to picnic on our coats because I forgot a blanket, we had a good time and got some yummy apples, cider and apple butter. 

Kate took this one! Not too bad!

Sean and Kate trying to reach some good apples.

Nancy enjoying her first apple not peeled or diced. She cried when we took it away.

Kate, making a Ryan face.

Beach Trip

While our house dried from "The Flood", we decided to keep our plans and go on the vacation we had scheduled for a few months. We joined the Keever Family down in Edisto at Kelly's dad's place for a few nights in October. It was so fun and relaxing! We biked and even got to go to the beach on a warm day, and again on a cold day. The kids did not care, so I tried my best not to complain about the cold. There was "putt putt putt", as Kate called it, and Ryan, Jeremy and Calahan went shrimping one night and caught just enough for us to eat for shrimp boil. 

Most of all we really loved hanging out with the Keevers and their kids and made some fun memories and had great conversations. The kids got along great, and Kate got to have a sleepover every night in Harper and Calahan's room. Kate learned the word "beehonkus" and by the end of the weekend I was getting Harper to say "fwamwich" as much as possible ("sandwich", in English). 

After our time in Edisto, we headed up to Litchfield to join Ryan's parents at their condo for a few nights. We were able to have another warm beach day with the girls, and even visited the Atalaya Castle at Huntington Beach. But Ryan was spending  a lot of time on the phone with my brother, who was going to our house to empty the dehumidifier under the house and check how the floor was drying.  We stopped at the Columbia zoo on the way home and had a quick but enjoyable trip. It was a fun way to take a pit stop and sure beat the Columbiana mall (which in my Sonshine Festival days considered it to be a huge mall!)

On Huntington Beach State Park. I thought Ryan's face was funny.

At Litchfield. A sweet daddy moment.

Kelly reading to Kate, Harper and Nancy.

Yes! Bathing suits! It was great!

So cute in her suit.

We returned home to stay with my folks for 2 more nights. The first night we were home, my brother and sister-in-law stopped by to give some exciting news - they are having a baby in June! The next night Ryan and my bro, Ray, were at our house until 1am fixing the carpet. Ryan crawled into bed that night around 2am, and woke at 5:15 to go to Bible study! We were away from our house for 10 nights, and I was never so thankful for our 1300sq. feet. And I still am! It has been a month since I tried to wash my loofah in the sink, but sometimes when I am rinsing something out in the sink in the bathroom I get a pit in my stomach, as if somehow the water will just start rising and overflow again and I won't be able to control it. I am just so thankful for Ryan and his patience with me, and for Ray and his hard work. We would have never been able to fix it without him! For my parents who let us eat their food and use their laundry detergent, it was nice to be someplace familiar. And for Kim DeLoach and her dehumidifier and Lee Anne for playing with the girls while we cleaned up the mess, and the lifetime supply of loofahs! Thanks! 

The Gym

Kelly invited me to join her at her gym for a 7 day trial. We actually received a 14 day free trial offer in the mail, so I decided to meet her for the 

class she goes to on MWF, Tread and Shed. Let's just say I honest to goodness had to get off the treadmill and go to the bathroom because I thought

I was going to be sick. It was a great workout. I am totally hooked after just one day, Raquel (yes, that was her name) charmed me with their showers, 

makeup counters, free childcare, and spinning room. When I find myself convincing myself that we can totally join the gym, this is the scene that 

flashes through my head.

Survival of the....

I can't say "Survival of the Fittest", because the Sav-Mor bi-monthly sidewalk sale is a race for food. Maybe "Survival of the Thriftiest" is more accurate. This past Saturday, Emily, Kelly, Sara and I met at 7:45am, piled in Kelly's car and rode to the Sav-Mor sale. A brief explanation of what The Sale is: Every other week, Sav-Mor has a "sidewalk sale" (which I lovingly call a Food Yard Sale) where the store puts all the expired or almost expired food in banana boxes out in aisles in the parking lot. People line up around the perimeter with empty banana boxes to fill to the brim for $7 a box. The whistle blows at 9am, and the food is gone in about 10 minutes. People get really, REALLY comptetitive - Moms barking orders to their kids, 12 year olds elbowing me out of the way for a shot at some Starbucks, and even a 95 pound older woman who was apparently not too old to haul an entire box of canned tomatoes from under my nose. Lots of the food is organic, so we rack up on organic kids' snacks, cereals, flours and things. Then there are treasures like Pop Tarts and Xantham Gum that save us bunches of money!

Okay, on with the story. We have learned there are safety in numbers (and you have to have someone man your food or others will take it!) and we planned our strategy in the car: Choose the box you want, grab the entire thing and take it back to base (our buggy on the wall). If there is time, grab an empty box and go out for more. Kelly is usually the one who mans the buggy so no one sticks their hands in our boxes. We spread out around the perimeter, choose our spots and wait. For an hour. Sara and I learned to make friends. The girl to my left was going to share some King Arthur Unbleached Flour from the box she was eyeing. And the large man beside me, a karate instructor, said he'd grab a box of Splenda packets for me, since I had my eye on a box full of Pop Tarts. 

I ended up filling 3 boxes, the most I've ever filled, and I even have a battle wound to prove my success. I reached into a box to grab....don't remember. But I had cut my thumb on a broken glass jar of peanut butter. So half of my stuff is covered in blood. After the race as we were sorting our loot, I found.....a box of Band Aids!! I was so excited, as were my teammates. What was so much fun was making a memory with friends. But the bargains were pretty great, too. 75 items, 19 cents per item. It was worth every drop of blood.