It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It all started in late October with LOTS of boxes and tables. Putting up the Snow Village was a process this year. We added the Polar Express train set and Greg spent many hours, mulling and planning. And the results are great!

With over 100 pieces (not counting the trees and rocks), the dining room quickly became chaos!

The first two pieces - and they were moved all around!

There are three areas - the downtown, the mountains and cabins, and the residential area.

All lit up and very pretty. It's nice to just sit and look at it. Greg loves to run the train and blow the whistle. Rusty doesn't like that and leaves the room! We are getting excited for Christmas!

Back to school

Saturday was a school day for me. I spent the day at the Nikon School of Photography. I learned a lot. I also remember now why I feel numb and dumb.....numb on the bum for sitting so long and dumb because there is SO much to learn. The hotel we were at was beautiful and right by the airport. The weather even turned out to be partly sunny!

This was taken after the class; I even tried some of the techniques they taught us. Long ways to go!

This sign greeted us as we entered the classroom area. 175 photographers (or waana-be's!) attended!
Lunch was the standard fair of chicken caesar salad, rolls, and dessert.
Here's all the "stuff" they gave us; we had a 21 page book of notes and then they gave us more. Some free goodies too! Time to go practice!

Published!

What an accomplishment.....Beth is published! She submitted an incredible quilt and found out today that she won the honorable mention award. She also gets her quilt back (the top 2 winners don't....their quilts get toured and then put in the hall of fame) and she can enjoy it at home with all her other wonderful quilts.

"Beth Bowden of Eatonville, Washington, won an honorable-mention award for her mesmerizing depiction of the “Witch of Macbeth,“ an original design done using Sue Olsen’s fusible-applique technique. " --Keepsake Quilting November 2008 issue

MONSTER MASH!

You only get to turn 50 once but in Beth's case, you get to celebrate it twice. Beth turned 50 in May, but her absolutely favorite holiday is Halloween. So with the help of her daughter, Amy, and Beth's husband, Bryan, we pulled off one very big Halloween party! Mom, Dad, Amy, Adam, Joey, Veronica, Greg and myself spent most of Saturday decorating the yard, porch and house. It was Bryan's job to keep Beth away until dark....not an easy feat but he did it!
Bryan and Beth: The gorilla and the nun! Beth didn't have a clue about the party so Bryan got her a costume. She put it on once she got into house! Quite the couple!

Adam took charge of the mantle and tagged it: It's a Monster Mash!
Caly wasn't quite sure what to make of all the decorations; she kept eyeing the caldron. The other dogs were quite fascinated with the decorations, except Kovik just didn't like the mad scientist on the porch (unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of it!).
Mom takes a break while I hang up more decorations. The house looked really good when we got it all done.
Greg got such a kick out of the bog monster. He put this bad boy in Beth's bathroom and actually spooked her when she went in there! Mom had an "up close and personal" experience with it as well. We all laughed pretty hard!
Joey, a 70's reporter, and Veronica, a cute cowgirl....they drove from Oregon just for party. It made the day special for Beth.

Now you wouldn't want to meet these two vampires in the dark; Amy and Adam looked really good and were a very fine couple!

Tourists Ryan and Aimee, along with Wyatt, joined in the fun! Wyatt wasn't so sure about all of it but was the cutest pumpkin. They had a great time and enjoyed their evening with only one child!

Spoiled rotten!

Greg was so excited to give my birthday present on Sunday....he just didn't want to wait until this week.....so I gave in (not that it took much convincing!)......and was I ever surprised! He got me a new coffee machine that replaces my espresso maker and then brought out the piece d'resistance!
I admit it....I am spoiled rotten....yep, it's a Nikon D60 SLR......I take so many photographs and with my scrapbooking, he decided I deserved a top quality camera. I'm so excited....I will be taking a photography class and hope someday to do some nice photo work for submission to magazines and publications.....I am spoiled!

It's a Great Harvest, Charlie Brown!

Our garden has gone from manageable to insane! Here is the proof of what we are picking every 3-4 days.
Zucchini, spaghetti squash, peppers, cucucumbers, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes
This gives a great perspective on the size of our tomatoes.....they're on steroids!
This bounty was picked 4 days before the top picture.....our neighbors are benefitting from this as well!

Laboring on Labor Day......

We spent the entire weekend putting the rock down in our dry river bed - almost 8 yards of the heavy stuff! Our muscles could tell stories about the abuse we put them through! But it's almost done and we are very excited to be finished with this stage of the landscaping project. Now it's time for the drip irrigation and moving sprinkler heads! Yippee!!!!

Greg shoveled and pushed the wheelbarrow; my job was to spread it all out! I was also busy with weeding the back flower beds.....where does it all end???????
Even Rusty had to work. He found the core from the fabric barrier and decided he needed to labor right along with us!
He's guarding his "toy!"
All done except for about 6 feet - we are short on the 2" river rock. Another trip to the rock yard for us.
Here's a look from the taxiway; we tied our rocks in with our neighbor's rock and it looks really nice. We will add the larger rock soon. (Our muscles won't like us then either!)