Happy Halloween

Christina was a can of soda, Sam was a garbage man, Joseph was Indiana Jones, Rebekah was a teddy bear, David was a penguin, and Taryn was a mad scientist in an explosion and her best friend Sarah was the sensible scientist. And a good time was had by all. Hope you had fun too.

Got milk?

I am totally fascinated watcing a production line. I love old Mister Rogers' Neighborhood reruns just because of the little videos he would show of how silverware or bowling balls or cellos are made.

So, a couple weekends ago when we were on our way to Dalton and looking for something to do on the way (and not too $$), I thought about the Mayfield Dairy in Brasleton, GA. They've got a free tour of their bottling facility.

We enjoyed watching the production line in our hair nets. As we were watching, one of the gallon jugs was not standing upright as it came down the line. John mentioned to the kids, "Uh-oh. See that. That's a problem." Then we moved to the next room. But when we came back by to leave, he noticed that the line was stopped. Car parts, milk bottles... doesn't matter. Stopped lines are bad.

Of course the best part was the ice cream at the end!


Sooo good it needed 2 spoons.

This cannot be good:



The very last thing I did before I left home for the weekend was to break my dryer. Unfortunately I did not realize this critical fact until after I had thrown my wet laundry into the dryer and started another load in the washer. Wish I would have realized just a bit sooner that something didn't sound right. And in retrospect, the damp shoes were probably okay to pack as they were and didn't need to be thrown in the dryer "for just a few minutes".

I'm extra thankful for the warmer weather this week to extend our wardrobe by a few days.


And I think the large payout in change at the bottom of the dryer made it worth while.


Or not.

Actually this washer and dryer have been a huge blessing. We bought these for ourselves for our first Christmas together 14 years ago. They've never been serviced or repaired and we've probably put more than the average amount of wear and tear on them. And the total cost for this repair is going to be 9.95 for a belt replacement. Can't beat that.

"These children are dear to Me. Be a mother to them, and more than a mother. Watch over them tenderly, be just and kind. If thy heart is not large enough to embrace them, I will enlarge it after a pattern of My own. If these young children are docile and obedient, bless Me for it; if they are froward, call upon Me for help; if they weary thee, I will be thy consolation; if thou sink under thy burden, I will be thy Reward."

quoted in A Chance To Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot p. 204-205. This was pasted in the front cover of Amy's Bible and it is not clearly stated whether or not she was the author.

Ultra-cool blogging family meets old-school fun

This past Saturday we went to Chau-Ram park in Oconee County. We'd never been, never heard of it actually until we did some searching on the internet. I forgot my camera and as we were walking around John said, "How will you ever write about this on your blog without your camera to take pictures?" So that's how we think now... we find stuff to do on the internet and then think about what we're going to put on our blog. Weird.

Had a great time. Stuck feet in the water and yes, then "fell" IN the water. Hiked a bit and climbed rocks. And slid on this:


I couldn't believe we found an old metal slide (and yes, apparently somebody else thinks it's cool too, since I was able to find a picture of it on the internet!). And it was tall. The kids had so much fun and never saw such a slide before. One of them said, "this is a slide you can actually play 'smush the watermelon' on and have FUN". (A quick search on Google reveals to me that this is not a well-known game... one person, the "watermelon" sits at the bottom of the slide while the other players, with legs split over the side of the slide push themselves down as fast as they can and try to knock the watermelon off the end and stay there as more players keep sliding down behind. It is a game which doesn't work well on slow-sliding plastic slides or slides that have a several foot tunnel at the top to protect kids from falling and do prevent you from hanging your legs over the side). Suffice it to say, I like the old slides best. And old, swings too (you know the kind with long chains for faster and higher swinging and hard seats that don't squeeze your bottom). Next time I'll bring the wax paper and show the kids how to slide super fast.

While we're on the subject of birthdays...

We celebrated John's birthday a couple weeks ago.

His "cake" was a pan of cinnamon rolls. I think we like desserts around here.

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

Will have to post something more sentimental later but had a few pictures from her celebration tonight.

Presents:


Trying out the new jump rope:

(I think she cleared the rope)

The cake:



Blowing out candles:


If I had to guess, I'd say she was happy: