Stuck

We've been having a lot of wind recently. I'm not a huge fan (no pun intended) of wind, but sometimes it can be surprising. Like today. It left a collage of leaves on our backyard fence. It looked really cool!

Spying

When taking pictures in public places I tend to be nervous that someone will a) be offended, thinking I'm taking a picture of them, b) think I'm weird, or c) arrest me for invasion of privacy or taking pictures of people without their knowledge or taking pictures of government buildings. I'm sure I look just like their profiles of terrorists: Blonde hair, blue eyes, overweight, driving a Toyota... So occasionally I try to take covert shots in the hopes that no one will know. My sister did this recently on a street in Kolobrzeg, Poland. Apparently it runs in the family. I took this one on my way back from a staff development luncheon this afternoon. And I took it with my phone, so it looked like I was just doing something with that. Clever, I know.

Fall Fest

Today was an awesome day! We went to church and enjoyed a fabulous musical service celebrating all of creation and the God who started it all. Lunch was delicious; we had potato squash soup with Whitney and Rolie at Rolie's dad's house. Along with the soup we had wonderful homemade bread with berry pie for dessert (compliments of Whitney). After lunch we relaxed and while Rolie hung out with his dad and step-brother, Jason and I played a game and chatted with Whitney. It was super relaxing (especially since Whitney rocked Kayla to sleep!) At four o'clock we met Jake, Merrie Beth, and Melissa at Klicker's for a visit to the pumpkin patch. We walked around and took a bunch of pictures (mostly of the little'uns!) and then enjoyed some ice cream in the shop. It was super fun. Jake and Merrie Beth were kind enough to invite us over to their house for the rest of the evening, so we headed there for pizza, video games, and pumpkin pie (I made the pie - my first ever pumpkin pie on my own!). We had a really good time, and now I'm definitely ready for sleep...if only my daughter would go for that, too...

NOTE: For more pictures of today's pumpkin patch adventures, check my FaceBook account!

Culinary Prowess

Meet Melissa. She's a friend we recently made when attending a small group Bible study at Jake and Merrie Beth's house. She was an English major in college, just like Jason and I, so we have fun comparing notes as to what classes we liked, what literature we hated having to read, and whether or not the degree we earned is doing anything for us. Melissa is a baker. That should answer that question. The awesome part is that she is an amazing baker. I think she should open her own bakery, personally. At any rate, Merrie Beth invited Melissa and I to spend this afternoon hanging out at her house. So we did. Melissa brought ingredients to make caramel corn, and while Merrie Beth and I took care of our kids and watched, she turned a bag of unpopped popcorn and some other random things (including butter flavouring - did you even know they made that?!?) into two amazing cookie sheets full of buttery, caramel-y, gooey goodness. I think I need to have her make me some more.