Santa makes a visit...

Since our own little ones are grown now... Santa (also known as Uncle D) made a visit to our nephew... Max. He loved it! Kind of scared at first, but thrilled and talking away by the end of the visit!  :) It was great!

Haha! Great thrill for both Uncle Santa and nephew Max....  :)

Snowball Dance.....

                                  and a lovely young lady.  :)

Belle of the Ball

 and

Princess for an evening.....

Fun on a family hike today...

Our Daughter....

She's 16. She's a cheerleader. And she's awesome.

We are blessed to have such a wonderful girl. She has her moments, as we all do, but I must admit, she's an excellent kid, and I am blessed to have her as my daughter.

My Husband is sooooo special.....

Look what he bought me just because.....

A Good Day..

Slept in this morning, but when I woke up, I had a cuppa coffee and went to the gym. Did my 1 hour on the treadmill and came home. Finished up some housework, then DH came home and we went for a walk on the bike trail. Here's a few of the pics of the day..

My Gym....

I finally broke down and joined a gym. I went today and hit the treadmill for about an hour, and a few of the weight machines with some help from one of the owners. All I can say so far is that the gym is clean, new and the staff kind and helpful.

I like it, and plan to continue as much and as long as possible.

Thank you Anytime Fitness for coming to my hometown!

Went for a walk this evening.....

with my husband. He's a good man, and I love him. We walked down the "bike trail".

Berries on the trail...

The bridge

My Hunny

Old railroad trellis

Sunset

And goodnight.....

Family Times!

Saturday night, and we had DH little (?) brother and his family over for pizza and movies...
Our 3 year old nephew is an absolute delight, and is the apple of Aunt Julie's eye!
Good times.....

MAX!!!

Max and his Mommy!!!

Max and his Daddy....

Indian Summer?

The past could of days have been wonderfully beautiful! Today I took off work and Dennis and I took off about 11am and rode and rode and rode some more until about 5pm. When we finally decided to come home, we rented a couple of movies, made some popcorn and watched movies! Ahh, yes... a great day!

Here's one of the courthouses in a neighboring town. Tried to zoom in on some pigeons flying about. Looks cook, eh?

A beautiful lonely barn in the middle of a field..... imagine how many farms this place was there for....

And you can still see the worn path going to the doors..... I love old barns....

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And... just for fun......
The 3 Stooges

This is Luke, Chimi, and Connor.
Connor is Luke's Dad, Mom was a beagle... LOL!

Our Yard

Begonias still in bloom in November!

Lilac bushes pretty even in Autumn...

Last of the tomatoes

Spiderweb with the morning dew....

Chasing the girls....

We let our hems out the other day, and left. When we got home, somehow, one has escaped their pen.... and she wasn't ready for bed yet! LOL!

She finally got in her house and went to bed.....  :)

Decisions to be made.....

This has been a week of decisions...  some harder than others.

One of the hardest ones was my decision to let go of something precious to me.

Furthering my education.

I am currently enrolled at Indiana Wesleyan University with one year left to go.

I have a new job that I love, as a Hospice Case Manager, but it is very demanding, and we have one teenager left here at home.

Falling behind in a little bit of everything, and trying to live with my stress level exceeding the legal limit, I finally decided that something had to go.

Well, we can't sell our daughter. We've tried, no one will buy her. (Just kidding!)

We need my job to survive, so that was a no go.... so what's left? Yep.... my school. My wonderful, online school that I adore......

So last night, I resigned myself from the program and with much tearful guilt and feelings of failure, I went to bed, only to be awakened out of a dead slumber at 1:30am with a screaming headache and zillions of thoughts running through my brain.

Took some meds, and finally fell into a fitful sleep until that beast of an alarm rang.....

With a slightly clearer head this morning, I called and explained my dilemma to a counselor, who suggested that I put classes off until the next class comes through this coming May.

She fixed my worries and troubles with a few clicks of the computer, and I am STILL a happy student with IWU, just taking a break until May 2011 when I shall resume my studies with an increased vigor!

YIPEEE!!!!!  Thank you Jamie... you made me feel so much better today and helped me remove this HUGE burden off my shoulders.

Harvest Party!!!!

At Gateway Vineyard!

Our church :)

We had a blast!

Took tons of pictures, but for some strange reason, I can't get them to load to my blog from my laptop.

Anyway, we had hayrides, and games, and a bonfire, and food galore!

Great times, great people, and it was truly blessed by the Lord.

Thank you Pastor Chris and Debbie for leading us in the right way...

We love you both!

An Autumn Journey

We took off on hubby's bike and saw some lovely things. People think of fall as being cold, rainy, and generally nasty. And while I agree (cause I don't like what comes after), it does make for some wonderful pics!

This is a place out in the country that hubby took me to. Lovely, isn't it? I'm hoping to visit again in the Spring when all is in bloom....

 Couldn't resist a bit of color in the "brown-ness" of it all....

 Another serene spot...

 This is a trail we walked. Thought it looked rather "Halloween-ish", don't you?

 Hanging on.

 The Lord's awesome beauty telling the world it's time to rest.

3 visitors we saw in a field. Aren't they lovely? And running away, they were even more so.... guess I never realized how long their tails were! LOL!