mmm . . . pumpkin-y goodness

After a too-short stop at the Cooks' on the way home Tuesday night, Jaclyn, Ryan, and I made it to my parents' house late that night. Traffic wasn't terrible, and the weather was pretty good. We met up with Lindsey the next day as she was coming through Greensboro.

This was the 7th annual Honeys' Christmas. The group was a little slimmer than in the past, but I guess that's to be expected now.

Lindsey liked her cookie jar and salt shakers (that she picked out), and the candle paraphernalia from Jaclyn. It was fun, even though it happened in a parking lot. Ryan and my dad served as official photographers for the occasion.

I thought the bows on my head were a special touch . . . ok, maybe "short bus special . . ."






We spent Thanksgiving day with the Fords in Raleigh. Through a combined cooking/baking effort, quite a feast was laid out before us. Jaclyn searches through the cabinet for the basket to put rolls in.






Stephanie says, "Only YOU can prevent Thanksgiving table fires."









After dinner, we hung out and watched Big Red. It was a favorite for a few and a new movie for me. Even though the only cat in the movie died, I'd have to give it 2 paws way up. Luckily my dad was there to predict the plot, so it wasn't so suspenseful.

I had a quick Friday morning photo shoot with Solomon before leaving for Concord Mills to go shopping for the day. Solomon likes to charge the camera if he knows you're aiming at him, so you have to be sneaky. Any hint of bending down to his level, and he comes straight to you.

Here he is decorated with some leaves, but as predicted, he walked right out of focus. There's nothing like a good crisp shot of his back fur though . . .

If you want to see pictures of our shopping excursion, see Ryan's blog.


For our last major outing, we took the dogs to Salem Lake for a walk on the trail. Oreo stopped to inspect the oncoming boxer, while Maggie wonders, "Why are you making such a big deal about a dog?"


Dad has lots more pictures that are good, I'm sure. Maybe you should all email him and tell him to update his blog . . . Otherwise, you'll have to wait until I go back home and steal his memory card.






The sunset setting on my camera made this look much more spectacular than it really was, but hey . . . don't believe everything you see on the Internet.



Maggie's preferred way to travel: windblown. I had the distinct privilege of riding with the beasts in the back seat on this trip. If only I could ride on the hood and show you her face!

needs supervision . . .

This weekend was a ton of work (the preparation), but also a ton of fun. I'm a sophomore class sponsor and we were given the annual Fall Festival as our class benefit to work toward raising money for our senior class mission trip. We didn't start planning as far in advance as we should have. We bought our food from the cafe instead of having it donated, but I think we still did pretty well.

One of the main attractions was the zip line. It's so much fun to go down this year because the school spent about $90 on an actual zip line pulley that is rated for 14,000 lbs. It's really fast!







We also had fun just jumping off into the crash pad below. I got to test the zip line out a few times, being class sponsor and all. It has to be safe for the kids, right? Good thing Don was at the bottom to catch people!

Another thing we knew was going to happen but was still fun to see was when Mike proposed to Jeff's daughter Tiffany. She's a Highland Alumnus from the class of '05. He asked her to marry him at our Wedding Chapel booth. All the lights got shut off and the spotlight was on them.

I liked this picture that Rachel took. Paul and Kelby held Sammy and another kid on the pipe so they could whack each other with our gladiator pillow fighting devices. The padding is mattresses from the guys' dorm.

Tian counted her tickets carefully to see how many she could spend. If there was a "chase Renee Mathis" booth, they would have all been spent there!






An increasingly popular sport at Highland is dodgeball. I'm pretty sure Andy has been playing it for PE class with the sophomores. We played freshmen/sophomores vs. juniors/seniors after our clean-up was done for the night. I played on the freshman/sophomores' teams and we won almost every time. Don took this picture with my camera from the sideline.

This is an excerpt (?) from our afternoon photo shoot. Nikie asked me to come take a family picture of all of them behind the gym in front of the pretty leaves. We had quite a few pictures turn out really good, so hopefully it will be what they want for their Christmas card.

One of the events I was on supervision for (but would have gone to anyway) was the church Thanksgiving Banquet at the elem. gym. Our cafe always does the entrees, and church members bring salads or desserts. We as supervisors try to keep our kids from burning their plasticware in the candles on the tables . . . >:-(

I had to feature this piece of artwork (?) made by the 3rd & 4th graders in Janelle's class. They decorated 10 of the tables with these nice little turkeys. I think this one was Picasso-inspired!

My next post will most likely be from NC and will include shots of Thanksgiving fun at the Fords' house. Stay tuned!

edible hayride & other outdoor adventures

I went to Collegedale this weekend to see Ryan. I stayed at the Heilmans' for the first time this weekend. It was really fun and relaxing to be away from stuff here at school. I didn't get the camera out until late Sabbath afternoon.

Ryan and I ran into Swaffords on our way into church. Dr. Swafford suggested using the Goliath Wall for our wedding, which seconded Jaclyn's idea that we do it there.

I really want to do it outside, and I think it would be a neat setting. I've always liked being outside better than inside anyway. ;) We went over there just before sundown to check it out.


Our self-portraits are getting even more elaborate. In lieu of traditional wedding photography, we're just going to carry our own camera around and have all of the pictures look like this. Anyone who disagrees with this idea can make payments to my wedding photography fund (I accept PayPal).

Ryan and I had a couple of other appointments for today fall through and Jaclyn was at work. When I called Grandma Dut on Friday to see if we could come down tonight, she told me that Ella's 4th birthday party was this afternoon.




This is a Jeremy face, correct me if I'm wrong. This face makes me want to tell all cats to run away or they might be handcuffed to a table leg!!! Ethan was so funny. We tried to convince him to like spiders, but he seemed to side more with Alison than Jeremy, Grandma Dut, or I.

They had the party at Joy's friend Christy's house. Her family raises Shire horses and they have lots of other animals. The kids all had fun riding Sunny the pony and playing with Dora and Boots, Ella's goats. Ethan was very excited to get a chance to ride. Ella helped lead the pony around after she was done riding.

Evan's stoic cowboy impression. I couldn't tell if he liked the horses or not. He only sat there for a minute. His outfit was pretty cute. The bandanna is a bib! He turns 1 on December 8, which is also Jeremy & Alison's anniversary (I think).

Ella had a horse cake, complete with boy plates and girl plates. Aunt Tonda made pumpkin pie that was really good, as always. I had a lot of it! The green frosting turned all the kids' mouths green (& Ryan's pants where he sat on some!)

All the kids wanted to be right next to Ella. She got down to the last candle and wouldn't blow it out. She pointed to another girl and said "You do it!"






Next was a hayride through the pasture. Evan thought stealing Ella's cowboy hat was pretty hilarious.





All of us were given carrot sticks to feed to the BIG horses. The cows chased us first, but didn't stick around. It felt like meals on wheels. The horses immediately chomped down on our straw bales when the tractor stopped. Joy sat up on top of the tractor and videoed the whole thing.

Grandma Dut made friends with the horses, even though she's allergic to them!


Evan's little Carhartt hat was so cute.

Overall, we all had fun and good snacks and drinks . . . and I mean all of us. Ryan witnessed a kitten drinking someone's hot chocolate just before I took this picture.






I asked Ella if she wanted to be a flower girl. She shook her head "no," then I added "in my wedding," and she changed her mind. I didn't even tell Joy or Bobby that I asked her, but apparently she was pretty excited about it when she got home.




Jeremy and Alison asked Ethan if he wanted to be the ring bearer (Bible boy) and he said "Yeah, I can do that." He had fun chasing me around today.






Ella and Ethan took a ride together.







Then Evan joined the ride, but only for a minute.








I think Ryan had fun getting to be around everyone. It was the first time he's been down there with me and gotten to meet the Reeves clan. Jeremy and Grant will like having another tall person in the family!

favorite pics Grant sent