Turkey Day and a Birthday!

Thanksgiving Day was a big day for my Grams! This year she turned 91!!!! We celebrated with some yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Mom made the cake with her new cupcake shaped pan! It's our favorite kind of cake!

Grams is my Dad's mom! She is in excellent health for being 91 years old! I only pray I'm in as good of health as she is if and when I reach that age. She has good days and bad days, but overall she does really good!

Here's the card I made her! I knew she'd love the little girl holding the heart!

Thanksgiving Day is extra special because it's about being together and being thankful. I am thankful. I'm thankful to have those that I love close by. I only wish Dynamo's family was closer. I really miss them at holiday times, especially.

Our time together as family was so nice. Everyone ate and ate and ate and visited and visited. It was so nice to have everyone over. And, we'll be doing it all again in about a month!!! I love the holidays!!

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful as well!

Happy Birthday Dynamo!!!!

Today is Dynamo's birthday!!!!!!

I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful man as my husband! He and I go together like chocolate chip cookies and milk. Let me tell you a few things about my Dynamo...

He's handsome :)
He's gentle.
He's kind.
He's patient.
He's so helpful.
He's so loving.
He's so very generous to my family, our friends, and to me.
He's thoughtful.
He's considerate.
He's wonderful!
Most of all...he's a giver! Dynamo always gives of himself to anyone who needs him, including me. 

I thank God for him each and every day. I thank God that I have been blessed to have a man as wonderful as him in my life. I truly don't deserve Dynamo! I'm so blessed that God brought him into this world and brought us together. His parents raised a true gentleman.

So, today, on his birthday I'd like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my love!!!!!! I hope you have a great day!!!! I LOVE YOU ALWAYS and FOREVER!!!

Mountain Bike Monday - Get UP!

I know it's not Monday...I'm late again...

The conversation began a little like this on Saturday...

Me: "You think I should maybe ride my geared bike today?"
Dynamo: "Why?"
Me: "Well, I thought maybe I'd like to see if I've gotten any faster on it!"
Dynamo: "It's up to you."
Me: "I'm not really sure I remember how to change the gears."
Dynamo: "Just ride 'Spot'."
Me: "Why? So, you don't have to listen to me complain the whole time about how I can't shift the gears."
Dynamo: "You got it!"

So, that's what I did...
I...rode...Spot...This saved us from a painful ride!

Let me tell you something about exercising or participating in any activity jointly with your spouse...It can be challenging. Dynamo says that they call the two person kayaks "divorce boats." Let me just tell you...we've done the two person kayak thing...and the mini catamaran thing...and neither worked out well. Mostly, because of me. Dynamo is patient, but I'm a wreck. I'd imagine a tandem bike would be much the same as those other sports. There are many days when I'm sure that Dynamo wants to ring my neck during our rides.

He says that I always want to argue with him and his advice. He's right! I don't know why! His 20 million years of biking experience couldn't mean more than my 1 year right? When am I going to learn to just be quiet and listen? (Note: I wish I could apply this technique to all aspects of my life.)

During the ride the conversation went something like this (several times)...
Dynamo: "Get up!"
Me: ...delay....."I'm up!"
Dynamo: "No, you're not up....your butt is still on the seat."
Me: "No, it's not. I know I told my brain to tell my butt to get off of the seat."
Dynamo: "Well, you weren't up."
Me: "Really? That can't be."
Dynamo: "You gotta get off the seat sooner."
Me: "No, way! I can't."

Let's just say that when I finally started getting up off of the seat when he told me too I got faster and handled the hills better.

As I said before...He's ALWAYS right!

And, because I listened and actually stopped arguing and saying "I can't!" I actually could and did have a "Good ride, hun!" kind of day!

Thanks, hun, for your patience. I'm getting it!

And, as the ride came to a close the conversation went something like this...

Dynamo: "I sure do hope Panera has clam chowder today."
Me: ....laugh...and...smile!

Festive Shower

Two Saturdays ago Mom and I went to a bridal shower! The theme was "All the holidays"! So, here was the outside of the present...

And, the card...

And, a closeup of the card...

I just love the teal blue and red combo!! It's delicious!!!

Inside the box was an apron I made for her (it was hard to photograph...so sorry!) I'm on the hunt for an old dress form for photographing purposes and to use in my sewing...

And, I made her some thank you cards too! She loves purples so I tried to stick to that theme!

That's all for the handmade goodies inside the box! Happy Monday to you all!! Thanksgiving is almost here!!!

Sunday Sermon - November 21

Location: Church sign, Prince George, VA

Lindsey's Birthday Card

My cousin, Lindsey Marie, had a birthday on Tuesday! I'm not going to reveal her age, but I will show you the card I sent her!

Now, I don't normally send her pink cards because I don't really see her as a pink kind of person, but once I started creating I just thought the colors were too pretty to resist and knew she'd love them!! And...she did! She called me and told me so! I thought that was so sweet of her!

Inside the card I also included a copy of a  pic from 1984! It is my absolute favorite pic of us together! Don't you think so?

We were spending the night with Grams and saying our prayers together before bedtime! I'm the one in the red gown on the right. Lindsey is on the left!

Hope your birthday was fabulous, Lindsey Marie! I love you!!

Here are the materials for the card:
Stampin' Up! - melon mambo cardstock and polka dot ribbon; cherry cobbler and old olive classic stampin pads; circle circus stamp set; happy everything stamp set; very vanilla cardstock; jolly holiday DSP; 1 and 3/8" circle punch; and wild wasabi textured cardstock

Thankful on a Thursday

It's been a while since I've done a Thankful on a Thursday post. It's not for a lack of things to be thankful for. Trust me!

So, I thought I'd start by saying that everyday I see all of the beautiful leaves on the ground and in the trees. I think of how glad I am that I can celebrate the seasons of the year and the seasons of life.

Who can't stop and say thank you for these days? As I write this post it's sunny and bright and going to be a gloriously wonderful warm day in Virginia!

I snapped these pics the other day as we were finishing up our ride. I couldn't believe how we had completed a ride and NOT taken any pics...so, I started snapping away!

In the woods it seems as though things are more beautiful. Maybe it's just because we're in the middle of it all and can't help but notice it. The scenery is untouched and it's so quiet (except for me grunting and complaining at times while biking)! It's glorious in there! But, you don't have to bike or hike to enjoy the beautiful Virginia fall. Just open your eyes while you're sitting outside eating your lunch or while you're driving to work. Beauty is all around us!

I'm thankful for this blog because if I weren't taking pics to share with you all, my family, friends, and others, I might not have taken the time to document or reflect upon the beauty in everyday. So, enjoy the Fall. It's going to be Winter before we know it!

Some painting

This is what we started with on Saturday morning! When Dynamo came back from Home Depot with this pile of metal I couldn't help but ask, "Did they give you instructions with that?" His reply was "nope!" So, thank goodness for Google because at least we could see a picture of the scaffolding all put together. Dynamo is so smart. He can do anything! I mean...anything!

So, from this pile of metal...

He made this...

Painting our great room was this year's winter project.
Dynamo taped all of the downstairs and the upstairs loft area before beginning to paint everything. He worked all day Saturday and Sunday on the job!

When he finished (most of it anyways), here was the result...

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. They were taken with my camera phone!

We LOVE the new color. The room was a goldish yellow before, but now it's just a rich fantastic yellow!! We used Aura paint from Benjamin Moore. It performed very well. The color we chose was Beverly Hills #180. It's an awesome color. I'll put better pics up from my real camera soon so you can really tell how fabulous the color is.

I'm so glad that we repainted! It needed a new coat. The builder's painters never do as good as Dynamo can! He worked so hard. It is just beautiful! Thank you, Dynamo, for making our house so beautiful!

Sunday Sermon - November 14

Location: Bradenton, Floriday

I just had to share with you...

Have you seen this beautiful online publication?

You can view this beautiful magazine for free online here!
Check out Amy's blog here.

Happy crafting!!

the girls

Over the weekend we caught up with our adopted nieces. We hadn't seen them in over a month! My, how they've grown. They're so pretty and full of personality! They love Dynamo!!

Been busy crafting

I've been working pretty steady at crafting Christmas related items over the past several days. I'm thinking about participating in a craft show in early December. I'm just thinking about it...not committed yet! I'm a little nervous because it would be my first ever. I really do wonder if anyone would buy what I've created. I always think everyone else's work is better than mine, so it's hard for me to judge whether or not mine is good enough.

So, I'm still thinking about it! In the meantime...here are some photos of the projects I've been working on...

A Santa collage.

And, sheet music ornaments.

And sheet music stockings.

And, more paper bows and boxes.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll post more projects soon. Been working on holiday aprons too! They are fantastically frilly!!!

Mountain Bike Monday - Burrrrrrrr!!!!

The temperature guage in the Jeep read 51 degrees!

This was the first "cold" ride since last Winter. And, it's always colder at the Park than at home. For some reason we forget that! But, 51 degrees isn't all that bad except when the wind is blowing and you're flying down the single track at a pretty good clip. We got all geared up and decked out in our winter riding gear! For me, my legs and fingers get the coldest. For Dynamo, it's his upper body, hands, and toes. So, Dynamo decided on his shorts and I went with pants.

Let me just say that these riding pants I have are totally awesome. I could wear them all day every day. They are so warm and cozy that I just want to lounge around in them all day. If they didn't have the "diaper" in the bottom they'd work well for other applications! For those that don't know...the diaper is the padding to protect your bottom. Trust me, it's worth it to have the padding!

I also got some new Smart Wool snowboarding socks on Saturday at REI, and they are fabulous! If you haven't tried Smart Wool, consider investing in a pair. When I say invest...I mean invest because this pair Dynamo bought me was about $24!!

It's so important to have the right gear, as I've mentioned before. You can weather anything if you have the right clothes. Another tip: Always start your winter rides out feeling a little cool. You ARE going to warm up! And, we sure did warm up. Notice my red face in pictues because I'm working so hard.

Sometimes it's so hard to take pictures of yourselves!
The ride was good! It was better than last week for me! We did about 13 miles of Lakeview Trails at Pocohontas. There wasn't a biking soul to be found on the trails. We did see a couple hiking, though. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon yesterday! The temperature worked out to be just fine...with the proper gear!

Here's a pic of me next to this big tree on the trail. I think it's so awesome. You can't really tell by the pics, but trust me...it is!

And, here's one of Dynamo sitting on it!

It's hard to tell how high the tree is off of the ground, but Dynamo did have to jump up to get on top of it. I couldn't get up there without a major mishap occurring!

So, I decided to sit and rest on the tree on the other side of the trail...

So, I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was lovely because we got to spend Sunday together in the woods with all of the leaves and Fall smells!

Happy Monday!

Sunday Sermon - November 7

What a pretty church...

And, an excellent message...

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Our friend...

Meet Rebecca!

She has been our friend for a long time! She is one of the "Farm Bureau crew"! We all worked together back in the day, and try hard to catch up and visit once in a while. We met up for dinner at the mall last night. It was such a wonderful time! We had really missed her.

Rebecca is very special to us. She, along with the rest of the "crew", were our biggest fans when we started dating about 6.5 years ago. They have supported us and cheered us on from day 1. After all, it was an office romance...Dynamo worked in the IT Dept. in the basement, and I in the Governmental Relations Dept. on the 3rd floor. We saw one another occasionally in the cafeteria and played on the company softball team together. I remember Rebecca trying to "hook" us up a few times! She told me that there was someone that "liked my spikey hair." Remember that, Rebecca?

Our days at Farm Bureau were very special ones. The "crew" is like no other. Dynamo always told me that our time there was special because no other organization is like that one. He has been so right. We were all like family, and still keep in touch with them. They are special people. Not just anyone would be able to work there. It's hard to explain what it was like. I can still look at someone and tell if they are "Farm Bureau material."

Rebecca is special to us. She was friends with Dynamo before I came into the picture. I will always treasure the saying she shared with me a long time ago. She told me that "Couples who pray together, stay together." I will never forget that and I ALWAYS go back to that. Life is good, and we have God to thank for that.

So, thank you, Rebecca, for being our friend. We love you!

You're too kind

This was the thank you card I sent to Mr. and Mrs. C after our visit to Florida!

I used my new stamp set from Close to my Heart, some designer paper from JBS Mercantile, some baker's twine (love this stuff because you get a whole lot of it in cool colors), Whimsical Words Stamp Set, and cherry cobbler and chocolate chip classic stampin pads from Stampin' Up.

Happy Thursday!

Can you see it?

Here's my Mountain Bike Monday post...on a Wednesday! Sorry for the delay this week!

So, can you see it?

How about now?

"What?" you ask. The trail! It's completely covered in leaves.

It's a good thing that we were familiar with the trail because there were times on Saturday's ride where I wasn't so sure I made the right turn. Us being gone for a couple of weeks was just enough time for the leaves to fall and everything to change in the woods.

Things look so different in the Fall and Winter in the woods. I actually like to see the changes in the landscape. Those turns and hills look so much more different. For one thing you can see them coming up a lot easier. Many of the sections of trail were tight and gave you a closed in feeling with all of the ferns and grass, but now it's wide open! One thing is for sure, though. The holly is still there and prickly as ever! I hate that stuff!

Riding in the Fall and Winter present different challenges. The leaves were very crunchy in lots of places. At times it was so loud that I couldn't even hear Dynamo talking to me. The leaves hide lots of the roots and bumps and holes that are so visible other times of the year. As a rider you must change your thinking. You have to be more prepared for the hidden roots and bumps that you normally can avoid. Also, the leaves and roots become much more slippery. You have to be sure to cross roots square on versus on angles as your back tire is more apt to slip this time of the year.

Our ride was good! It wasn't spectacular...at least for me! You could definitely tell I had been out of the saddle for a couple of weeks. No more desserts! But, it was nice to come home from Florida to beautiful Virginia Fall weather. I had missed our rides. The temperature is getting to be perfect for riding now! So, we've got lots of riding ahead of us! Time in the saddle will make me a better rider! So, onward and upward. Hopefully they'll be lots of "Good ride, hun!" days ahead!

Happy Wednesday!