Some of you....

..... (like Laura) may be expecting some other pics....
Patience. Patience.
(Don't you just love when your mother lectures.)

I DO have this wonderful picture...
Isn't that gorgeous? That was a recent gift from Susan...Elizabeth's mother-in-law, and mother of one of my most favorite fellas in the whole world: Elizabeth's husband, John.

THANK YOU, SUSAN!! (for the ornament(s) AND for John!)

Here's the slice of pumpkin pie that you (Susan) gave me last year...

And this beautiful pumpkin, too...(You can't tell it, but in 'person' those 3 ornaments are all about the same size.)

Susan gave them to me for our holiday tree...

As you may (or may not) know I've been keeping our tree up the last few years... and decorating it for birthdays and other times of the year. It's fun... and it beats having to put that thing up after Christmas. !!!

Oh, here's a picture (taken in May, 2007) of Susan with Caroline, her oldest grandchild.I know what you're thinking: Susan looks too young to be a 'Mimi' to Caroline. Well, now she (Susan) has 5 grandchildren... all under three years of age! -- That will keep her young, .... or... well, old -- ha.)

Again, thanks, Susan, for making our tree really nice!!
(The next time I see you I'm going to take your picture.)

Everything goes along pretty fine . . .

... and then something happens like yesterday down at Fort Hood.

How do we make sense of it?

Well, I don't think we can. And maybe aren't meant to.

A few months back my aunt (Helen (Ruth)) sent me a link to some daily devotionals. They're from her former pastor in Dallas. They are really good... and extremely timely.
Well, today's was WONDERFUL. It's about that horrific shooting. Click HERE to read it. I hope you do. (It's not long at all.)
(I thought it was so good that I linked it on facebook a few minutes ago.)

In other completely different news, did you hear about the New York Yankees manager being a Good Samaritan? It happened on his way home from winning the World Series. Click HERE for the great story. I mean, it is GREAT... and it sounds like he even put himself in danger to do it.

In still other COMPLETELY DIFFERENT news, did you know this year marks SESAME STREET's 40th anniversary? Whoa. That makes me feel old. I mean, I was seventeen year's old when it started. That tells you it was never part of my childhood.... ah, but I bet most of you don't know who Captain Kangaroo is (was)! Got you there!!

I hope you have a great weekend... and don't forget to pray for the families affected by that terrible shooting.

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas...

. . . in my booth...
I know: it's only November 4th.
But well, I DID see some Christmas lights on a house last night.
And some other booth dealers in the antique mall were putting out THEIR Christmas stuff.

I couldn't be outdone.
Could I?!!

In other news, Sam is feeling much better and is almost fever free! And Mother seems to be doing MUCH better, too, and she's getting her voice back! AND Laura seems to be on the mend as well!
THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!
(Maybe I won't have to sleep in the guest room again tonight!)

Oh, that Proposition 2 I mentioned in the previous post passed. Actually all the propositions passed in Texas, I think. Oh well. Maybe that's good.
At least I voted.

In closing I'll leave you with some before and after pictures of my booth.
(Click them to make larger.)
You may find something you really have to have. .... like those rooster plates.

Here's part of the booth before...


Here it is after...

Here's a corner before...


And here it is after...


As I look at those pictures I think, "Gee, it doesn't look all that great."

Note to self: Don't always second-guess yourself.

Whoa...

Whoa...there may be a new ocean in the world.  It's happening in the desert of Ethiopia. Click HERE for the article. And get this, "The same rift activity is slowly parting the Red Sea, too." That's a quote from the article.

In other news, Sam and I voted today. We are about 1% of Colleyville residents that are supposedly voting today.   I'm proud of us. We often don't vote in anything but the BIG elections.  Well, I guess that depends on what you (we) would describe as big.  We found out (from our homeowners' association) that if Proposition 2 gets passed we'll not only have to pay county tax on our homesite, but state tax as well.  That got us down to the voting booth.... because this IS a BIG election!  Go 'NO'!!!

In other news, my mother, my daughter, and maybe my husband (who just voted with me- and then came home and took his temperature- and, indeed has some fever) are sick!!
I know: What kind of mother, daughter, and wife am I that I put this news so far down in this post?  I should have made this the headline of my entire blog.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Well, I better go take care of somebody.

'Course I don't want to get near them....

but ....

well, I DO love them.

Hmm.

On Halloween morning . . .

. . . I told Sam, "No matter what, I've got to find out where Caroline and Andrew go trick or treating tonight, and I've got to go see them!!!

And I did!

I met them at the Trunk or Treat Festival at First Baptist Church, Grapevine, TX.
Whoa! That church's festival would rival any fall festival anywhere! ANYWHERE!
(I'll put up some pics on facebook, but, just so you know, none of my pictures do it justice.)

Ah, but I did get some sweet pictures of Caroline and Andrew...

Here's Caroline seeing one of her friends...
And then...How sweet is that?
(Oh, if you didn't know, Caroline is Belle from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and her friend, Kendall (sp?) is, I think, Cinderella.

And here's the cowboy, Andrew...
He really, really, REALLY wanted that balloon!So his big sister wanted one, too. (See left in that same photo.)

Here I am with Caroline, who at that very moment may have wanted to go to a different car trunk. Hmm...

Here's John (on the left) manning the Dart Throw booth (he narrowly escaped injury a few times - well, maybe)...

Here are Elizabeth and Andrew with the wonderful children's director at FBC-Grapevine, D'Ann...

What a fun festival. They even had hayrides... and we hayrode!!

Oh, earlier that day I played in the tea room.
Here I am with two of my favorite people there...
First with Jennifer (my 'boss')...
And then with Heather (notice her beautiful ring that I made her show off)...

Fun people.

Fun times.

Fall Festival!

Bear Valley Community Church held its fall festival last Sunday. It was FUN!
Here are a few pictures (I put even more on facebook the other day)...







Aren't they darling?

It was a great event for sure!

Oh, I didn't show you the bounce house, and the homemade miniature golf course.
Oh, and my favorite: the dessert table.

We're motivated!!

Well, of course we are! We (and almost 15,000 others) went to the Get Motivated seminar Monday at the Fort Worth Convention Center! It was GREAT. We got to hear live and in person Rudy Giuliani, Terry Bradshaw, Colin Powell (I didn't hear him, he spoke while I was parking), Zig Ziglar, and President George W. Bush (not in that order), and three others whom I didn't know. One of those three others whom I didn't know was Tamara Lowe. She was REALLY good. She and her husband run the thing, and I wasn't expecting much from her, in content anyway. I was wrong. In fact, I think she was the best speaker of the day.

Pres. Bush did a very good job. The news media said this was his first motivational speech...well, he succeeded: he motivated! Here's my picture of him...

Here's my pic of Rudy Giuliani...He was really good, also. (There's a reason I'm closer to him than to Bush, but that's a long story.)
I'd also elaborate on each speaker, but I'm not one much for long blog posts.
Well, I will say that Terry Bradshaw was just like he is on THE TONIGHT SHOW and Letterman: CRAZY! He WAS entertaining, but well, if there was an outline to his speech I don't think he used it. (Ah, but he is kind of lovable, I guess, and enthusiastic, for sure.)

In closing, I would say that the Fort Worth Convention Center needs to work on its parking. It was ATROCIOUS!! Either that or each one of those other 15,000 folks that went Monday brought his/her own car! (Notice my flat hair in the first picture - that's from walking eleven blocks with my raincoat on, with my hood tightly wrapped around my head. Mother and her dear friend, Dr. Nell Hoffman, have their hairdos in place, because I dropped them off at the door. That would have been TERRIBLE if they had had to walk all that way. (It did feel good to be the 'young one'.)

Well, I wished Sam and the staff could have gone. Some good folks did, though. Sitting behind us was the high school debate team from Lindale, TX.

Oh, did I say we had free VIP tickets?! Thanks, Steve!!

(Click HERE for the GET MOTIVATED website.)