Thanksgiving - a little early

So this is our "off" year for Thanksgiving....meaning our children are "off" with their other families celebrating the Holiday so I made our Thanksgiving feast a little early. It was delish!! We broke totally from tradition though and tried something you might say, a little different --- anyone say sweet and sticky RIBS???

Oh yes - finger licking, lip smacking, bone clearing good! We also had a potato and an oriental spinach salad (with carrot curls and oranges). Yes, we totally broke from tradition, it felt good, it tasted even better! We did, however, stick with an all American Apple pie.
Now I love turkey - but I eat it almost every day, so I am thankful this Thanksgiving for all things, but particularly RIBS!

Weird Science

The girls came for a little visit and Annie brought along something to occupy her time -

Pappa was VERY excited as this kind of thing is right up his alley - or should we say he enjoys this a bit more than dressing up as the "Prince" and escorting his beautiful "Princesses" to the ball (over and over and over again)! He helped Annie get things all prepared, and anybody that knows Curt will recognize right off that he reinforced the importance of "safety" while preforming experiments by having Annie wear her "safety glasses" no matter how involved the experiments may be (she was very willing to comply, by the way) -

So, here we go.....experimenting -

All sorts of technical words were floating around - some I hadn't heard since my Jr. High school days. It was most facinating Even Cate was learningA picture is worth a thousand words, isn't it?After the science experiments were over with, we experimented with art, again - Thanks girls, can't wait to do some more experimenting -

A little of this and that -

We took advantage of the little bit of time we had while the Jr's were in town to get the kids together. These kids LOVE making books - and I LOVE watching them and reading it afterwards (plus, it's a great way to help use up all my old scrap book things!) -

Even the littlest ones were getting in to it -


Ah, the finished product - the title is "Barbie - A Perfect Christmas"

And look --- the "writer" is Berlynn and it "illustrator" is Annie. Can you even guess how big my smile was? I LOVE this book and read it every night!

Of course, being this close to Halloween we had to decorate cookies -

Is your mouth watering yet?

How about now?

How can so much creativity come to one family???

It was a quick trip, but each moment we get to share is priceless!

We also got to sneak a school lunch in with Annie -
It was yummy!

A fitting final tribute

After my mother's funeral, the final event was gathering at her gravesite for a final good-bye. We followed our mother's wishes as she had outlined her own funeral services and wished for each of her 5 grandson's to speak. I understand the wisdom behind that, as I was so pleased and proud of each one of them and am certain she was too. Here are just a few pictures -

My mother's only living sister, Ila (just older than my mother), was able to attend the gravesite (she's on the end) and we were thrilled to see her again. My Aunt Fern (my mother's oldest brother's wife) is next to her - what memories I have of Aunt Fern and her fun, fun personality. Only Ila and Jerry (my mother's brother just younger than her) are now left from my mother's large family of 9 children, but nearly all their spouses are living.

Matt lead us in a final song of "Till We Meet Again" -

My siblings/spouses and my dad -

The hansome grandsons -
and the beautiful grand daughters -

Mom was so proud of her family - and so am I!

Here's my cuties (minus one)

Till we meet again mom!

My Angel Mother -

Vauna Loree Fairbourn Moosman

January 18, 1931 - October 21, 2011

No Place Like Home!

Curt and I just returned from traveling the Mediterranean - it was amazing! Until I can get caught up on the repercussions of taking said trip, here's a few quick glimpes

Vatican City -

The ruins of Ephesus (Turkey) - Mesada -
Mykonos (Greece) -
Salt treatement (Dead Sea) - Yikes, but it was wonderful -

Athens -
Rome -
Israel -

Pompei - No matter where we go - near or far, I love coming back home. This trip we came home to this:
Sure hated missing a visit with these kiddies, but LOVED the note!

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

Mystery Peach Bandit

Fall is my favorite time of year. One reason is peaches! Our little peach tree is proving to be a great investment for us and this year is no exception. Since I didn't get the garden planted this year and we didn't get any plums, our attention has been focused on the peach tree and we have been anxiously waiting for the right time to pick these little gems. Curt has been going out and checking them with great diligence and earlier this week said they were just about ready. I happened to look out the window last night and noticed a few peaches on the ground so I told him they must be ready because some of them had dropped.

We went out with a box to gather them up and pick the remaining (we only have one small(ish) tree) when we both noticed it looked like quite a few of the peaches were gone. As we got closer, we discovered a whole bunch of pits lying in the grass - mostly in one spot, but a few scattered beyond. There wasn't a lick of peach meat on these pits, they were completely clean. Hum....very interesting - and quite a mystery. We picked the remaining peaches and contemplated over what could have eaten our peaches - this being the first year anything like this has ever happened. I've heard of people "raiding" other people's peach trees before, Marisa had her's raided last year, and I may (or may not) have participated in such an event somewhere in my past, but usually it involved taking the whole peach, not leaving any evidence behind, if you know what I mean!

Curt & I had a rare opportunity of being home this morning and while working in the office with the windows open (another reason I love fall, after the hot summer), thought I heard some rustling outside. I quickly peeked out and scoured all around, looking for what I was sure was the peach bandit - returning to help themselves to more of our yummy peaches when I suddenly spied this magnificant animal staring right at us

We were stunned, and taken aback. I just stood there, but Curt had his phone and quickly started snapping pictures of the deer before it turned and headed back up to the golf course (click on the picture to enlarge the experience). It's not the best picture, but can you see the rack on him? Later, as I was telling co-workers about this experience, they all agreed it was probably the deer eating our peaches, as they do eat them and probably like them as much as I do, and won't swallow the pits. I didn't know that. Or...the other (strong) possibility could be one of these rascals -
I would prefer the deer!