Part 1 of The 3 State Weed Tour

We planned to leave Wed afternoon around 4:00 but because I was born with the late gene and 2 girls decided Carmel's car needed a quick wash so we left a little later than expected. Before I go any further with our trip, I guess I should go into a little more detail about the car wash. I was inside packing and Carmel went for a run. I thought the girls were inside( I should have known better when it was quiet). Laney comes into my room to let me know something had happened to Carmel's Gamecock magnet. I am thinking YES! It is not something of mine this time. I go outside and his red magnet has been wiped with then bled on the car. They did not stop there they used the same red rag and continued to wipe the rest of the car. All I am thinking is I better hurry and clean it before Carmel gets home if I want to still have 2 daughters. I get Windex and it cleans up very nicely. As I am cleaning, I observe this oily looking liquid that is on the car. I ask Laney what did she use on the car. She then tells me, " We used the stuff in this blue can." OH MY! .......Insect Repellent! Carmel gets home just as I am finishing up( close call). He thinks I am being nice and washing his dirty car. Yeah right, like I had time for that! I let the girls explain what happened. Ella bats those pretty little blue eyes at him and says, "Daddy I wanted to make your car look nice." He smiles!.......that is until he sees the gamecock magnet in the trash. On to our trip. We went to South Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with Carmel's family. Here is Laney with Savannah.

Griffin and Michael

The kid/cousin table.

We had a great time eating, visiting and shopping for those Black Friday Deals at 3:30 am.

Last day of COOP

This past Thursday was our last day of COOP for the fall. The girls loved going! They took a class on the study on Eric Carle books. I discovered what lapbooks are from helping with this class and love them. We have started making them at home. If you are not familiar with them, they are file folders that are folded and are filled with information and activities related to a particular topic. Laney also took a Time and Money class. She counted money, made change and at the end was able to buy things using money she earned throughout the 8 weeks. On the last day, they had class, a luncheon and a presentation. Laney's new friend Lillian.

Ella thought she was so grown up being able to go to school.

The Eric Carle class read a book for their presentation and time and money sang a money song.

Laney looking for her lapbook to take home.

We enjoyed our first experiences with COOP. We can't wait for the Spring and see what classes will be offered.

A visit with friends

We had some friends of ours from Fl come visit last weekend. For some reason I did not take very many photos while they were here. The only ones I got were when we took them to Monkey Joes.

Leslie must have been a little tired.

Warner Robins Ladies Retreat

A couple of weeks ago the ladies from Warner Robins Church of Christ and a few surrounding churches went on a retreat to Dahlonega, Ga. We left Friday morning around 10:00 and went to the Thomaston Rd church in Macon to pick up a group. The picture below is a group shot before we left for North Ga. We stopped at the outlets in Dawsonville where we ate lunch and did a little shopping. I say little because we were only there for a couple of hours. True outlet shopping for me would have been all day and going home with several bags. My family would say I am the slowest shopper. I say it is because I have 5 people to shop for and I only look for the bargains. Full price is not my idea of shopping. Anyways, after the outlets we went to our lodge. The scenery was beautiful but the rooms were a little different story. We were not there to spend time in our rooms so it did not matter to me. I know the ladies with the ladybug room, rat room, centipede room, no heat room would beg to differ. The theme for the weekend was Sisters Joined at the Heart. We discussed our talents and how to use them. Several of our very talented ladies spoke throughout the weekend. Each lesson was unique and meaningful. There was a table set up with potpourri along with a sign of a talent. We had select the talent we thought was ours and place that type of potpourri in our bag. We later found out our talent. Mine is serving, interpersonal and invitational.

We had to decorate a box ahead of time and bring it with us to the retreat. They were used to hold all the wonderful notes we got from our sisters throughout the weekend. It was fun to sit down with the box later and read all the sweet and encouraging notes.

Saturday we had a few free time hours. Most of went to downtown Dahlonega to eat and look around in the shops. It was the weekend before Veterans Day so they had several of these crosses with flags.

We also went to the Southern Living Idea House. It was a beautiful house with a beautiful view.

It was not what I expected from the outside. I thought we would drive up to a mansion, considering we passed several on the way in. They were asking 2.3 million unfurnished and 2.5 million furnished. It was more impressive on the inside. They had it decorated for Christmas. I think every room had a tree.

The deck

The kitchen had a huge glass door that opened up all the way to the outside. Great for entertaining.

There was a neighborhood model home that was available to look at so we headed over there next. I personally liked it better that the idea house. Here is Connie, Shelia, Lisa and me stopping for a photo opportunity on the back deck. It was a beautiful scenery. If I had that to look at, I think Carmel could talk me into moving to the mountains( even though I am a beach and sun girl).

The master bedroom the was equipped with its own minibar with frig. Yeah right! I can see it now. Honey, can you grab me a Mt. Dew out of the mini frig?

Shelia taking a rest on the outdoor resting swing. SOLD!

I am not much of a bath person but I think I could learn to like them sitting in this overflowing tub with a candle, music, bubbles, no kids wanting to jump in and that view.

What every house needs a theatre room.

The kids bedroom.

I had a great time and I guess I will be going back next year. I was asked tonight to plan next years retreat.

Field trip to Lane's.

We went to Lanes with our Coop group. When we first got their, it was crowded with other school groups. I noticed that they were from Lake Joy Elementary ( the school the kids attended when we lived here before). I was looking around to see if I recognized anyone and to my surprise Laney's PreK teacher was there. Laney acted shy but said she remembered her. She was such a wonderful teacher! While we were there, the kids heard a lesson on corn, went through the corn maze( YES! We did get lost!), rode on a hayride, played on the playground and ate lunch. Before we left, the kids got a little pumpkin and popcorn.

We had a great time on our first field trip with Coop. I am sad that we only have 2 more weeks and it is over until Spring. The girls sure have enjoyed going.

Nothing like a Halloween post for Veterans Day!

I have been so busy looking and searching other blogs that I have not posted on mine lately. So here is our fun filled Halloween. Carmel and Griffin went to Tenn for the weekend so I decided the girls and I would enjoy the local free or almost free events for that day. We started with a spooky breakfast made up of bloody eggs with a hint of spider, cinnamon pumpkin toast, eyeball bananas and ghostly chocolate milk. After breakfast, we headed out for the day. First stop....

They were having a free craft event. We must have been to late because the craft time was over. The lady said she had over 50 kids come. We were however able to snag the last two buckets with goodies in them.

By this time we needed to refuel. So we headed to.......

We went because kids were suppost to eat for free on Halloween. Not the case at ours. They were 99 cents. We were still able to eat for $7....not bad! While we were waiting a man dressed as a gorilla scared Ella. He came to our table to show her he was not real. As he was walking away Laney tells him "Your hot!" We started laughing and she turned red. She meant that he must have been hot in that costume but it did not come out right.

So after lunch we headed to........

They colored, meet Geoffrey, walked in a parade and received a bag of goodies.

Later that evening we went to Dawn's house for food, fun and trick or treating.

We had a Happy Halloween!