A Video for my Nephew and His Family

I made this video for my nephew and his family for a Christmas gift. They are visiting from California and have a new baby.

I was inspired by the beautiful song from this video by Jenna at Cold Antler Farm. She is one of my most favorite bloggers. It's here, at this link below.

http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/2010/12/year-so-far.html

But here is mine.



The song is by Josh Ritter and it's called "Change of Time" and I just love this song.

They Are Coming for Christmas.

We are coming to Ohio, YAY!!

(My words, not theirs... they live in sunny, 70 degree California.)

My nephew and his wife had a new baby last spring.

His wife is beautiful and we are incredibly lucky to have her in our family!

The new one.

Three sisters!

She has two very beautiful grown up sisters and we can't wait to see them again.

Very beautiful!


There, that's better!


This was taken at the pumpkin patch last fall.

Uh oh! Going to freezing cold Ohio?




I'm not too sure about that.

Really? Well, ok....

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Santa Was at the Dollar Store!

I grocery shop at Dollar General. Maybe two times a week, sometimes more. Every third week or so I stock up on basics, maybe dog food, paper towels or whatever and usually my cart is heaping.




On these trips I usually fill a cart up to the point where stuff is falling out, like my dog biscuits and bread last week and it costs less than $100.00. A heaping cart for less than $100.00! The total for these same items at a normal store would be at least $200.00. And believe me the items are EXACTLY the same, just in different boxes. Sometimes the items are name brand like the tea that I buy. Dollar store price is like $2.00, grocery store price $4.00. I love, love the Dollar General!



Anyway, An advertisement for the dollar store is not what this is all about. Santa is what this is about.



Thursday when I had this heaping cart and I was about to checkout I remembered that I needed cereal so I pushed my cart near the register and hurriedly went back to grab it. I popped around the corner and there was a man standing in the middle of the cereal aisle looking for something that he was having trouble finding.



I was kind of peering over his shoulder because he was, of course, standing right in front of the Cheerios (which by the way are much cheaper at DG than at the grocery store). I noticed that he was quietly singing the Christmas song that was playing on the overhead speakers. He found what he was looking for and when he turned to go to he noticed that I must have heard him singing. He looked a little embarrassed and smiled so I smiled back and grabbed my Cheerios.

When I got back to my cart at the checkout line he was waiting behind it. I had parked it about 10 feet back so people could easily get around it but he had decided to wait behind it thinking that I was already in line.



Now, one thing you must know is that I'm always in turmoil with a full cart at the checkout line at this store. Most people go in there to grab a few things quickly and don't expect to wait in a long line. So of course, me being the middle child or whatever the reason, I always tell them to go ahead of me. -Always.- Sometimes I'll let three people go in front of me and then I'm in agony, watching the other shoppers, hoping no one else comes up behind me.

If they have a cart then I don't feel so bad but if they don't and if they have so few items that they are carrying them in their hands then I have to let them go ahead of me or else I feel terrible. Even though I am always in a hurry to get home, I still let them go ahead.



Now, back to the the man that was waiting behind my cart... So when I see him standing there I (of course) tell him to please go ahead of me. He looked surprised, actually very surprised and said "Are you sure?" and I said "Of course!" and then I thought nothing more about, because I'm on the lookout for shoppers possibly getting in line behind me with few items.



As he was paying the cashier he seemed kind of nervous. First he gave the lady too much money and she got confused and that made him kinda confused and then when she gave him his change he dropped a couple of pennies but didn't pick them up and kind of turned and sheepishly smiled at me again.

I smiled back but believe me I was eyeing those pennies on the floor cause I would never leave pennies on the floor and I was busy thinking about trying to pick them up for him but my bulging cart was between me and them (the pennies) and I was starting to put my items on the counter. For me, if I see pennies on the ground, face up or down , I'm picking them up. (Ha, I didn't mean for that to rhyme.)



The man then turned towards me and laid a 20 dollar bill on top of my groceries that I was in the process of stacking up on the counter. Then he said "Thank you for letting me go ahead of you and I want you to put this towards your grocery bill."


I opened my mouth to say something but no words would come out because I immediately started to tear up. I absolutely couldn't believe it. He quickly turned and walked out of the store before I could protest. Which I would have done if I could without blubbering and possibly scaring the man and embarrassing myself to the point of never being able to return to that store ever again.



I finally got control of myself and was able to pay the cashier. I have no idea why that made me react the way I did. My husband thinks I'm nuts.

So this year for me, Santa was at the dollar store, no red suit, no jingle bells but he was there.

Oh and by the way... we have two Sheltie puppies for sale. I think they would make a really great Christmas present for you to give to someone special...

Don't ya think?

And if I don't post again for a while...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

And oh by the way, I did pick up the pennies. I put them on the counter for the cashier but then changed my mind and picked one back up and put it in my pocket. When I got back into my car I set it on the dash so that every time I get into my car to go somewhere I will see it and remember...

Fall 2010 Pictures From our Game Cam

Most of the pictures are like this and we have actually maybe 300 pictures of our neighbor mowing the lawn. Back and forth, back and forth. But I do think there is a deer running in the left part of this one.

But most are like this, just different angles of the sun. We get around 350 pictures every time we check the memory card and like I said, maybe 300 are of the sun.

And like this... more sun.


And then we get some like this.



There she (he?) goes.

Oh no! What is Buster doing back there at 10:00 at night!

And look who else is back there. I hope he is not the one stealing eggs.

Holy crap! What is that! Do I see pointy ears?

A coyote I'm afraid... Yikes! Waaaaaay too close to the chicken yard.

Awww... there they are.

That's an apple tree behind them.

Heading for the apples.

Does she smell something scary? That tail is way up.

Ohhhh yeah! See the antlers?

He's a nice one

Oh, this one sees the camera... or hears it.

I don't think he cares.



Uh oh.............................

LOOK WHAT'S COMING IN!!

Makes my husband's heart beat fast!

WOW! WOW! WOW!

YIKES!

Double YIKES!!

What an amazing buck.

OHHHHHH MYYYYYYY!

He's only coming in around at around 2:00 am. I bet we'll never see him during shooting hours. He didn't get that big by being careless.

I'm just happy that we've gotten these pictures.

Til next time,

Beth

Day Trip to the Ashery

We (meaning me, my two sisters, my cousin Sandi, my Aunt Shirley and my Dad) went south to do some shopping. It was a perfect fall day, lots of sunshine and beautiful scenery. We drove through the back roads, along roads that had no power lines admiring immaculate Amish farms and shops.

We had one particular favorite place in mind for our shopping, the Ashery! It's one of the biggest bulk food stores around. we found lots of great things to buy. (During spellchecking I noticed that my dad is in the picture going into the store.)

I am very happy here cause I'm getting all my good stuff and more importantly, getting away from the crowd. The place was packed!

Can't help but take pictures of the buggy.


A beautiful dairy that we passed.





So impressive. We used to have a really big horse but it was nothing like these giants.

I think this is a schoolhouse. We went by kinda fast.

Some of my treasures. My dad mentioned that his mother (an amazing baker) always put currants in her nut bread so I bought a bag and I will use her recipe and make him some nut bread for Christmas. Her cookbook is the only thing that my dad wanted from her house when she died. He laminated all the pages.

We also stopped at a really great apple orchard who's name I don't remember. I bought a few of these amazing Jonagold apples, simply the best eating apple around!

I also bought a bushel of Granny Smith seconds for only $8.00! So I made this pie and I'm so tired today that I forgot it was in the oven but it was still delicious!

Here's my bushel and like I said I'm so tired I can't muster it up to can them. I did put one batch of pie filling in the freezer.

Kevin found these in the garden yesterday so I also need to blanch these and freeze them, tomorrow I guess.

I even burned the potatoes for dinner, forgot about them too.

I always drink unsweetened ice tea but I even drank a glass of coke for some energy but no luck.

They were good anyway.

Have to add a puppy picture. Look how big. Momma doesn't even have to lay down for them to nurse anymore. Only two weeks, three days old and they are so big.

Til next time,

Beth