Still trying to catch up!

After being away from home for five days, I found I have a lot of laundry and other things to catch up with!
We had a great time away! The "cabin" we stayed in at Devil's Fork State Park was really nice. I was a little worried at first, after all it is a state park! But, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I noticed that many of the other people that were there all seemed to be together. In one of the houses I noticed a Christmas tree and wondered if that wasn't where grandma had decorated for the grandkids! The best part was that it was only a 40 minute drive to my parent's house!
We spent Thursday at my parent's house with the rest of the family. We had dinner with my parent's neighbors from across the street, which was fun! There was sooooo much food! We had turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, two kinds of sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, squash casserole, okra, green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple crisp and pumpkin cookies. It was fun catching up with the neighbors. Their children were like cousins to us, both of them were in my wedding. The son's new wife is expecting a baby in April and it was great getting to know her and filling her in on the things her husband did when he was a kid!
Friday we spent some time in Clemson. We showed the kids around campus and ate lunch downtown. On our way back to the house we tried to find an old friend's parent's house. We finally found it and popped in for a quick visit. Most of the family was gone to a high school football playoff game that one of the sons coached. So we made plans to come back on Saturday when everyone would be home.
Saturday morning we met with a realtor to look at some vacation houses. We looked at six. One of which I really like, but husband thinks it needs too much work and doesn't like the houses around it!
Then we found one that husband really liked and I didn't! This may end up taking us a while. We had hoped to find something that we could make an offer on that day!
Saturday night we visited with our old friends. It was so nice to see them and catch up! We didn't go to the Clemson/Carolina game, instead we just watched and cringed by ourselves at the cabin!
Would you believe that even though I had two cameras with me, I didn't take a single photo!?!
Today I have to put away the pumpkins and start getting out the Christmas decorations!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are spending Thanksgiving at my family's house this year. There will be 17 of us for dinner. My parent's neighbor's, whom we have known for 34 years, are eating with us. It should be fun. Their son just got married this past January and they are expecting their first baby this spring. He was a junior usher in my wedding! Makes me feel old!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and safe travels!

One Word...

DELIGHTFUL!

Happy Weekend!

This week I was buried under work for the HOA at our lakehouse of which I am the President!
The Board came up with a new budget for next year and also decided that our monthly fees needed to be raised in order to cover all our costs. Let me tell you, people started acting like they had NO sense! I won't even go into detail, but it wasn't pretty. Though, the new budget and fee increase passed, so suck it up buttercup!
I also had to write a lien to place on one of the properties. I had no clue what I was doing until my favorite attorney friend gave me some free advise!
We decided this week to go away for the whole Thanksgiving holiday instead of just Thursday and Friday. Called the kennel for diabetic kitty, of course this late in the game there was "no room at the inn"! UGH! Sweet talked my neighbor into coming over for a crash course in administering insulin shots to a cat! I owe her BIG time! We start lessons on Sunday and I fee sure she will be pretty confidant by the time we leave on Wednesday.
No plans for this evening, other than opening a bottle of wine and enjoying a glass or two!
Have a fun and relaxing weekend!

Happy Birthday!

Saturday was my mom's 68th birthday.
She and my dad happened to be at their house on the Isle of Palms, so we went over for a birthday dinner that I prepared! I figured it was easier to go see them, that way I have control over when the visit is over! I made stuffed shells at my house and just had to heat them up when we got there. Unfortunately I had such a busy week that I only had time to swing by the Piggly Wiggly to pick up some cupcakes. The teens thought they were great! And no one else really complained either.
My parents have just recently returned from a 6,000 mile trip around the US and we were able to see all the photos they took along the way. They were gone for 4 weeks and had lots of adventures to tell us about!

Fun at the Fair

While I am NOT a big fan of the fair, we did make a visit last night with the whole family. Teenage son went kicking and screaming, well not really, but he might as well have!
It ended up being a really nice evening. It had threatened rain all day and there was a chance later in the evening and I think that kept most of the people away! That was fine by me, because if you really want to feel good about yourself, make a visit to the fair!

I rode the rides with daughter since son thought he was too cool to do that with his sister!

We didn't ride very many as I can't do the whole swirling-around-in-circles-while-upside-down thing anymore!
We had the pleasure of seeing a concert by former American Idol contestant, Danny Gokey! It was a great show and he sang for almost 1 1/2 hours!

After the show, daughter bought a t-shirt and we waited in line to have him sign it. You should see the photo I took while he was signing... I was using son's camera for the evening because it fits great in the pocket of my jacket, but I am not really familiar with it. I ended up with a nice shot of the table cloth instead of Danny! Daughter grabbed the camera and snapped this one as he was signing the next person's photo.

And of course, what would a trip to the fair be without eating fair food?! I got my fix for onion rings and a corn dog. That should satisfy me until next year!

Odds and Ends

After someone, who shall remain nameless, wiped out my microsoft office I had to resort to using daughter's laptop that had a trial version of office 2010. I had the women's club newsletter to type and get printed and realized that to use my printer on my desk I had to put the laptop on the floor under the desk because that was as far as the cord would reach! I had a lot of fun lying on the floor trying to get the printer set up on it!
We hadn't been to the lake house in almost two months, so we decided that we would head up on Saturday morning. I let everyone know that I wanted to pull out of the driveway at 11:00 am! The car dealership where husband bought his car will wash and vacuum your car for free on Saturdays, so he decides to head over for a quick cleanup! Instead of getting his car cleaned, he came home with a new one! We didn't leave for the lake until 3:00. But, I do like his new car!
Teenage son is taking a home ec. class as an elective this year and they made cookies on Thursday. He decided that he wanted to make them again for us and I took the supplies to the lake for him.

What was left of his finished product!

He made a maple icing for his cutout sugar cookies and they were really good! All I had to bring them home in was an almost empty Krispy Creme box (there is one chocolate glazed doughtnut in the photo!)
My parents are coming down to their beach house on Tuesday and mom's birthday is Saturday, so I guess we had better plan a little celebration for her. I am thinking some cupcakes from the local cupcake shop!
Happy November!