Thanksgiving

It's the most wonderful time of the year for sure.

The holiday season is officially underway and I don't know about you, but I'm already feeling a bit behind. We spent Thanksgiving in Greensboro with my Dad. Grace drove with Alan and I and David met us there. We enjoyed an amazing feast but missed the company of my Mom and Brice. Some traditions just seem to go on regardless of the circumstances. We watched the Macy's Day Parade and lots and lots of football.

Grace and I did not get up at 3:00 Friday morning to shop. I just think that's silly. Not to mention that I need my beauty sleep. We did spend part of Friday at the best craft fair in the world.

I hope your celebration was as special as ours. Now I need to seriously do something about the pumpkins that are still decorating our yard. Christmas is coming and I can't wait!

Sally

Sad To See Them Go

I'm so glad that I took all of those pictures last weekend of our beautiful Japanese Maple, because this is what it looked like this morning. Sad isn't it? We had a good bit of rain last night and that seems to have caused most of the remaining leaves to fall off the trees.

In my opinion fall isn't officially over until after Thanksgiving, but I have to say that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Grace and I visited the local mall today and the holiday spirit was sparkling just about every place we went. Hope that you and your loved ones have a blessed Thanksgiving. I'm planning to take the rest of the week off from blogging to spend time with mine.

Sally

My Yard is Decorating Itself

Most of the leaves have fallen off of our trees, but our beautiful Japanese Maple is just starting to do it's thing. I can't tell you or show you just how gorgeous this little tree really is. I've never felt this way about a tree before, but I just can't stop looking at it and saying a little thank you to who ever planted it. I feel so lucky that it lives in our yard.

We also have a holly tree. Well, our neighbors have a holly tree, but as far as I'm concerned it's in my yard too. It's huge. Real tree size. I can't wait to snip some sprigs.

We have been trying to get ready for winter. It's supposed to get "cold" here right after Thanksgiving. We have logs for the fireplace and quilts to keep our toes warm. Who could really ask for more?

Sally

It's That Time of Year

Time to plant bulbs! I must say that this is not Alan's favorite thing to do, and this year instead of just buying a small bag of daffodils I found a ginormous bag at Costco. I was excited. We have no idea what is already planted in the yard, so come spring we may be really surprised by what all pops up. But, just in case I thought we should make sure our favorite yellow daffodils were among the mix. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that the squirrels don't dig them all up for their Thanksgiving feast.

Sally

Last Pictures from the Breeders Cup Weekend I Promise

I know that you are probably getting tired of all of these Breeders Cup posts. You probably are saying "That's old news. Tell us something new". I promise that I will get on to some of our more current goings on soon. My new job officially started this week and I'm seriously doing the best I can to stay above water. Until I get myself a little better organized, I thought you might like to see the pictures my Uncle took when we visited Grace at the University of Kentucky. I haven't posted pictures of her dorm room before

for various reasons, but I think these give you a pretty good idea of her living conditions.

Sally

Even More From The Breeders Cup Weekend

These pictures were taken at the party at which my Uncle Elliot performed. The party was hosted by a man and his wife who actually live in California, but both are originally from Kentucky and just happen to have a beautiful condo overlooking Cherokee Park here in Louisville. The party was to kick off the whole Breeders Cup weekend. Many of the people that were there were friends from California and some of the people there were serious horse people. Alan and I had a great time watching the goings on and getting to see my Uncle do his thing.







Sally

More From Last Week's Breeders Cup Weekend

Uncle Elliot and my Dad just sent me some of their pictures from last weekend at the races. They had such a great time, and as I've said before, we all learned so much about race horses and race people. The powers that be have announced that the Breeders Cup will be back in Louisville again next year. Good thing since Churchill Downs invested so much money for lights so the horses can race at night. Maybe Alan and I will venture a bet or two.

Sally

Why I Love My Husband Reason 599

The other day I casually mentioned to Alan that I was thinking about driving 2 hours to Cincinnati to visit IKEA. There is really nothing that Alan hates more than shopping, especially shopping at IKEA, well maybe he hates fabric stores even more. Anyway, Friday night he asked me what time I wanted to leave in the morning for IKEA. I really love this man. He was willing to give up a whole day of watching football to spend the day with me. I got so excited, I just can't tell you. We decided to invite Grace along because she loves IKEA too and Lexington is kind of on the way to Cincinnati.

My goal of the trip was to find a laundry basket to replace the 15 year old one that I broke last week. I think we found the perfect one. Now, you may be asking "Why did you need to drive 4 hours to buy a laundry basket"? Silly you. It's not about the laundry basket. It's about the "IKEA experience". If I was going to get there to soak in all of the the holiday feelings this was the only weekend available. I did get there and I soaked up as much as I could. Alan and Grace and I had a wonderful day together. Boy, life is good!

Sally

Catching Up

Boy have we been busy. We have had company for the past 10 days. Thanks for all you did Dad, and it was great to see you Uncle Elliot! Last weekend we came to realize just what living in Horse Country means. The Breeders Cup was in Louisville and boy was it spectacular. I mentioned before that my Uncle was flown in to preform at a party Friday night. We were all invited and it was a blast. Saturday my Dad and Uncle actually went to the races. I've promised not to mention anything about how the betting went, but it's fair to say they pretty much broke even. Alan and I watched the whole thing on TV in our nice warm living room.

The temperature didn't make it out of the 40's all day. Sunday we drove to Lexington to take Grace out for lunch and to see some more horses.

On top of all of that excitement, I started my new job yesterday. I've completed 2 full days of orientation, 3 more to go.... Maybe being unemployed was not all that bad after all. You may not be hearing much from me the rest of the week, but I promise to get back to regular blogging once my life gets back to normal. Can you believe it's only 2 weeks until Thanksgiving? I think it's time to take down the Halloween decorations.

Sally

Less than 24 hours of David

Sorry for the lack of blogging. We have had a super busy week of company and goings on. My Dad's been visiting since the 29th and we picked David up at the airport Tuesday night around 11:45. He had an interview for Med School at the University of Louisville on Wednesday, which we are all hoping went very well. We took him back to the airport about 7:00 that same night. He was here just long enough to dirty some sheets and towels, but it was still great to see him.

On Thursday my Uncle Elliot "the music man" arrived from New York. He was brought in to preform for a Breeders Cup party Friday night.

Stay tuned for more about our fun time with him...

Sally

Keeping Larry Busy

When my Dad comes to visit, he likes to stay busy. He brings his tools and his golf clubs and anything else that he just might need while he's away from home. It works best if I have a list of "jobs" waiting for him. This trip the list included:

Add dimmer switch to dinning room light

New mailbox

Fix the underground sprinkler system

Rake leaves to the street

Figure out a way for me to reach things in the back of my pantry cabinet.

Well, I'm happy to report that he has worked like a dog and can now cross 3 of those things off of his list (or my list). He will be here until next Tuesday, so I have full confidence that he will consider this a successful trip. Don't you wish that you had a Handy Man Larry too?

Sally

Trick-Or-Treat

Hope your Halloween was everything you were looking forward too. Halloween in our new house without Grace to carve the pumpkins and pass out the candy, was a lot of work. Our door bell rang continually from 5:30-8:30. Then we turned off the front porch light and watched football and the World Series.

Now that it's November and the Holiday Season has officially started I can't wait to get rid of all of this orange and black and begin planning for Christmas. Don't laugh. It is truly my favorite time of the whole year. Happy Holidays!

Sally