Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving which included traveling to see lots of family. We started out with the Carter side of the family in Black Mountain for a couple of days and then down to AL to see David's family. The Carter clan was crazy as usual, this year capping off the excitement by roasting Cindy and Gary for their 50th birthdays. We wrote a variety of skits and limericks to commemorate the event and remind them of the stories we retell every year. Fun times!
our turkey plates which were thoroughly stuffed with Gary's good cooking

Dad's reinterpretation of Mosquito Alley golfing

David's Ric Flair impersonation - sorry for blurriness, but he was moving quickly due to his blonde wig and bicep balloons

the 50th party pictures

the big meal

beginning of the limericks

the Jalapa skit - hilarious!!

the whole Carter clan

So slack...

Apologies for being away from the blog world for so long! I've been checking others and not posting myself - shame, shame. Here's a little catch up from November - can't believe the month already flew by. It started out perfectly with a little weekend retreat with my old girlfriends, Carly and Megan. We got away to a mountain retreat in NC and had loads of fun doing NOTHING at all!


NC trees

the only other friends we saw that weekend

cozy kitchen - lots of laughter around that table!

comfy den - plenty of warm blankets to nap under

the road to the cabin

our weekend retreat

Meg and Carly

me and Carly

Fall Festival

Our church had an amazing fall festival this past week, so David and I took some of the Burmese refugee children I have gotten to know over the past year. It was their first experience with fair rides, cotton candy, ponies, costumes, McDonald's, and Halloween, in general. Sensory overload, I'm sure, but they seemed to have a great time.

Forgive our costumes - eclectic at best. I let them pull from masks I have at school, make-up, mardi gras beads, and fairy skirts. One child even put it all over camouflage. Who cares, right??

Zaey on the pony ride


All 3 girls on the ponies - they were very confused why we didn't just call them "horse"

All of the kids: the little boy was a bit overwhelmed and freezing, but he started to cheer up once he got some cotton candy. He fell asleep as soon as I put him in the car to go home.

Trick or Treat

Lucy and I both received some fun treats this Halloween! This is a cute cookie that my assistant principal gave all of the second grade teachers. Isn't it cute? A lady at our school has a side bakery business, and she makes the greatest cookies and cakes.


Lucy received a new Auburn Tigers collar and a candy corn cookie treat from our friends, Chris and Chez and their dog, Scout last week. We hoped wearing the collar would bring good luck to the Tigers, but no such luck! But, she sure did beg for the cookie! Thanks, Chris, Chez, and Scout!

Election Day Pumpkins???

A couple of Fridays ago, we had our dear friends, Jake and Erin, over for our annual carving time. We always try to carve with friends to make it a little more fun - especially for David, since I usually think carving is really great until about 10 minutes into it when I quit. Generally, when we have a gathering of people, there will be a few who will stick with him to the end. This year, we tried for an Election theme! Each couple had to carve McCain and Obama. Unfortunately, for Sen. McCain, I was in charge of his..um, not such a great job, on my part. I ended up carving his eyebrow and hair in the same piece and things never turned around after that. I turned it around and made it a cat. But, David's Obama turned out pretty well and Jake and Erin did a nice job too!


Obama and the spooky cat

Jake's McCain and Erin's Obama

when things were looking more optimistic for my Sen. McCain

Wicked Weekend

This has been a fun weekend. Our sweet college friends, Chris and Chez, were in town for a wedding so they stayed with us. We also got tickets to see Wicked, which is a great show! If it comes to your town, be sure to see it. It's the "true" story of the Wicked Witch of the West - so creative and fabulous music!

After the show

All lit up
Chris and Chez

Pumpkin Picking

We headed out to a roadside pumpkin stand to pick out our pumpkins this year, but found more than we bargained for. The pumpkins were extremely overpriced, so we bought ours at Trader Joe's instead, but there was definitely some entertainment. Pumpkin jump houses, pony rides, bunny petting zoo, and even pumpkin port-o-potties. Probably the reason for the expensive pumpkins...



"Haunted House"

So many choices!

the pony rides

He's grown!
Funky snake-like squash

Pie pumpkin overload
fun ghost pumpkins
the little bunnies for sale
David checking out the attraction