A Time to Be Thankful

November 25, 2008, Tuesday - Did you know that Pilgrims were Christian men and women, who journeyed to a destination usually because of their religious beliefs? They boarded the Mayflower and believed that God was leading them to establish a new community where they could worship freely. We celebrate Thanksgiving every year because of the profound faith and uncommon courage of these English men and women.
After 97 days at sea the Pilgrims caught a glimpse of their destination, the new land where God would be worshiped freely and - in time- freedom would flourish, they fell to their knees and prayed, shouted for joy and celebrated by reading Psalm 100:
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not
we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him; bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting,
And His faithfulness to all generations.


I hope that this Thanksgiving that you will remember what God has done for you and thank him.
Psalm 105:5 "Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth."

Isaiah 12:4-5 "Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted'...Let this be known throughout the earth."

Hebrews 12:28 "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe."

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Colossians 3:15-17 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful...singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God...giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

November Snow

November 21, 2008, Friday - I woke up this morning with the radio saying school delay in a neighboring county, I said "could it be - SNOW". So I hopped out of bed and looked outside - sure enough, snow was covering the deck and part of the yard. So then I turned on the computer and the TV and there it was on the TV - 2 hour delay. Winter is my favorite season. I just LOVE snow and snowflakes and sledding. Oh, so much fun! So I couldn't decide ..do I stay up and get some things done around the house or do I get a little more sleep? I decided to get some more sleep. Nathan got up when I did and we were in the bathroom and Brittany comes in about 7:50pm and said "Mom, today is Friday" and I said "ya", and she said "I have school" and I said "ya". Then I asked her what time it was and she told me. I then said "Are you suppose to be at school by now"? And she said "ya". I then took her and Nathan to the bedroom window and pulled up the shade and said "Look, what is outside guys"? They just looked, trying to adjust their eyes. I asked Nathan what was out there and he said "Sand". I said No, guess again and he said "Snow". Ya - you are right, it snowed guys. I let Brittany know that school started later and that I had let her sleep in. Nathan wanted to go right out and play. I said "lets get dressed first". Our Little Snowman

Homeland Creamery

November 11, 2008, Tuesday - Happy Veteran's Day - Brittany had off from school today and my MOPS group arranged for a play-date to a Creamery near by. The kids and I met the group at 10am at Homeland Creamery. We went on a hayride and stopped at the different pastures and saw the different groups of cows. They milk 190 cows twice a day. Each cow produces 7-8 gallons of milk a day. Wow!!! Amazing!!! We had a really fun time. After the hayride we got to see the milking stations and then feed a 10 day old calf. They also had some chickens, sheep, turkey, kittens and dogs. The most delicious part was sampling their ice cream. Oh, man, was it good! If you haven't been to a creamery and had their ice cream....I highly recommend it.

Jump into Fall

November 10, 2008 - Monday - I first want to send a Happy Birthday wish up to heaven today to my Grandpa Schield. He would have been 86 today. He was such a wonderful grandfather to me and my family and we miss him so much. We love you Grandpa!

Nathan has been bugging me for awhile..."when are you going to make us a leaf pile to jump in?" And my response has been..the leaves are too wet right now. Well, today the leaves were mostly dry and just a great day to tell Nathan "Hey, Nathan, let's go make a leaf pile!". He was so excited to have me rake the leaves and then tell him he could jump off the picnic table into the pile. Then we raked them at the bottom of the slide. He thought that was great fun too. Then he decided to have the leaves cover the whole slide from the bottom to the top. He worked hard at bringing the leaves up to the top of the playhouse and piling them up on the slide and then he was ready to go! When Brittany got home she got to join in on the fun. She came up with the idea of swinging and then letting go of the swing and jumping into a pile. The kids had a lot of fun enjoying God's creations.

I rake the leaves
When they fall down,
In a great big pile.
And when there are
Enough of them,
I jump on them awhile.

Red and yellow, green and brown.
Leaves are falling to the ground.
We pile them up OH SO HIGH:
Then we JUMP in!
Brittany and I!

Halloween Fun

October 31, 2008, Friday - I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! The day started off with Chad taking Brittany to the Biscuits, Bagels and Dads event at the school book fair. They were out the door about 7am. Brittany was very excited. Later Nathan and I were headed off to his annual check-up at the doctor. He had his finger pricked and then 4 shots. I wanted him to have the flu shot, but that would have been 5 shots for the poor guy and so we did the Flu Mist. Nathan did very well with all that to have to handle. Then I took to him to preschool and he joined right in. His class was having some special things for Halloween. The class carved a pumpkin (really just the teacher), had a special snack and treats.
When Brittany got home she sketched out what her and Nathan wanted our pumpkin to look like and then they helped my carve our pumpkin. Then they played while I made sausage balls for our neighborhood Halloween get-together. The kids dressed up and we headed to the party about 5:20pm. Chad joined us a little later when he got home. It was a fun time. The kids all run around the yard in their costumes and the adults talk. All the great food is fun to eat too!
About 6:45pm we all headed out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Chad gave out candy at our house and I took the kids. Nathan went to about 6 houses and then decided he didn't want to wear his mask anymore. Oh well, what can you do with a 4 year old that doesn't want to wear his mask? I told myself it was OK for him to not have to wear it. I did have to keep telling him to not go through people's landscaping and take the driveways. He tripped and fell several times, but he is OK. Brittany's bat wings made a sound. That was pretty neat. We could keep up with her in the dark. When we got home, they dumped their candy out and enjoyed some delicious treats.

Family Skate Night

October 26, 2008 - Sunday - Family Fun Night for our church was at the roller skating rink. The kids get to wear their Halloween costumes and we bring finger foods. We have the whole rink to ourselves. Nathan did want to try to skate. He has tried before. He actually went around about 3-4 times with help from us. He ended up doing pretty good. Brittany did well herself...but it is hard to get good at skating when we only go about twice a year. Ha! Her school has skate night about once a month, maybe this year we will go more.
There was a costume contest and Brittany (a Bat) won 3rd place for Kindergarten-2nd graders. In Nathan's group Wonder Women, pirate and Dorothy beat out Spiderman (Nathan) and Batman (Scott). All the kids walked away with some yummy candy in their bags. It was a fun night.

Nathan's 4th Birthday Party

October 25, 2008 - Saturday - Weeks ago I had planned Nathan's party for outdoors. Well, mother nature decided to bring some rain. My alternative was to have the party here at our house. The weather reports were showing the rain to stop sometime in the morning....so the party location was up in the air until about 11am we could tell the rain was going to move out. Man, I was in a tezzy....finally a decision made...we could have the party as planned. Yeah! Thank you God for anwering my prayers.
We had Nathan's party at "Mazie Adventure" in High Point. Nathan just LOVES rocks and gems. He picks them up anywhere we are and puts a few in his pockets or says "Here Mom, can you keep this for me?". So, Gem Mining at the Maize Adventure was a blast for Nathan and his friends. After gem mining we had Frog Cake and ice cream, opened presents and then they got to jump on a large inflatable "pillow". They really enjoyed jumping around and having sand in their toes. Nathan had a great time and I think all the kids and adults did too. The weather turned out great and it was so nice to be outside. There was so much area for the kids to run around.
After the party we walked up to the pumpkin patch and they had a corn kernel bin. Brittany and Nathan got to take their shoes off and play. It was a fun day!

Nathan's 4th Birthday

October 24, 2008, Friday - Today is Nathan's 4th Birthday - Yeah!!!! I took a special treat to his preschool class this morning. His birthday party theme is FROGS. So I made a frog face out of a Nutter Butter cookie. The kids enjoyed them. I measured Nathan this morning and he has grown 1 inch since 9-3-08. He is growing up. Nathan - you are so precious to us. Mommy and Daddy hope that you have a super fun day today. We love you!

October 18, 2008, Saturday - We spent the weekend at the lake. It was cold on Sat. high about 59 and so we decided to find something to do around the area. We ended up going to a Apple Harvest Festival in Bedford, VA. We had a lot of fun. The kids got to play on some bouncy things. There were craft vendors and yummy food. We had hot dogs and nachos for lunch. We had never been to an apple orchard before. We all picked out a apple to try and then posed for some pictures. It was a fun afternoon.

Playin' in the Park

October 15, 2008, Wednesday - After preschool Nathan and I enjoyed the great outside weather. Today's high is suppose to be 86 degrees. Wow - this feels like summer, not fall. But we're not complaining. Nathan had fun on the slides and selling me movie tickets (mulch) to watch "Max and Ruby" on the playground hut.

Pickin' Pumpkins

October 14, 2008, Tuesday - Today Nathan and I went to the Pumpkin Patch with our MOPS group. We had a great time. Nathan heard a Halloween story, then we took a hayride and then he got to pick out a pumpkin. The weather was great and he liked trying to find the biggest pumpkin.Brittany's Kindergarten class last year went to a pumpkin patch for a field trip. This year they are not going to a pumpkin patch. So, after school Nathan and I took Brittany to the patch for her to pick out a little pumpkin and for us to pick out our family pumpkin.

Royal Birthday Party

October 11, 2008, Saturday - Brittany and I went to her friend, Macie's birthday party. She was given the royal treatment. They got dressed up in princess dresses, hair pieces put in, nails done and glitter eye shadow. She got to walk down a runway and model, eat Ariel birthday cake, do the Cha-Cha Slide, play a game and even make a princess wand. She had a great time! All the kids were treated like royalty.

Chick-fil-A Night

October 7, 2008, Tuesday - Well, our Family Fun Night at Chick-fil-A was very fun for the kids. Chad was at a training session all week and so Nathan was with us this time for dance and then dinner after. Normally Chad and Nathan do something together while Brittany and I do dance and dinner. This night they had a petting zoo for the kids. They both loved holding and petting the bunnies. And they were big bunnies. Nathan was not scared at all to feed the llama from his hand and the sheep and goats. He also picked up the turtle and they both touched the hedgehog that I was able to catch. He was fast and prickly. We stayed away from the snake and the ferrets were sleeping. The kids had a great time.

36th Annual Asheboro Fall Festival

October 4, 2008 Saturday- Ever since I can remember the Asheboro Fall Festival has been a family tradition for us. Mom and Dad used to have a booth there and were in to lapidary (an artisan who practices the craft of working, forming and finishing stone, mineral, gemstones into functional and/or decorative, even wearable, items). They sold their polished gems and stones that they made into belt buckles and necklaces and pins. My grandparents, who lived in Florida at the time, would come up every year for this fall festival. This year we all went and my aunt from Texas was here and my aunt and uncle from Weaverville came to it. It was a nice fall day for this event. The kids were not in strollers this time. They walked around for a little over an hour and then we split up and Chad took them to a little ride and bouncey area for kids and then we meet back at Mom's.
Nearly 100,000 people attend the Asheboro Fall Festival annually

Family Fun Night

September 30, 2008, Tuesday - We love Chick-fil-A! And every Tuesday night after Brittany has dance class (ballet & tap) we head to the Chick-fil-A Family Fun Night. If you haven't been I highly recommend it. They give a discount on the kid's meals and then they also have an activity for the kids. The activity for tonight was Princess Night. Nathan got to enjoy the activities too. They made a bookmark for the craft. They had run out of the tiaras, but that was OK. The kids had a lot of fun.

Church Picnic

September 28, 2008, Sunday - The kids and I went to an "Old Fashioned Picnic in a New Fashioned Way" at a local park that our church put on. There was an "Old Fashioned Pie Judging", cookout and games and of course the playground. There was lots of yummy food to eat. The kids loved playing on the playground and seeing their friends. You may ask, Where was Chad? Well, he was at the vet with Tona, our 12 year old dachshund. We thought she had a broken front right leg, but they took x-rays and did not find anything. They gave us some pain medicine to give her and said she should be doing better in 2-3 days. She is doing better and moving around more.

Chad's Birthday

Monday, September 22, 2008 - We celebrated Chad's birthday today - one day early. When Brittany got home from school she decided to make Chad a story book. She got out some construction paper and crayons and started drawing and then even wrote the story. It was about Chad going to a Packers game and the Packers won. It was so cute and she did such a great job! She put it in a gift bag and gave it to him during present time.
We had Mom, Dad and Grandma over for supper. I made chili in the crock pot for the first time. Chad loves chili. I thought now is the time I should try to make it. It turned out good. Thank goodness for the internet recipe searches and for user ratings. We had chocolate cake and ice cream. Then Chad opened presents. Followed by Brittany and Nathan giving us a musical show in the family room. Chad had a great birthday. Lots of people called and sent electronic birthday messages.

Maize Adventure - Lost, Laughing and Loving it

Sat. September 20, 2008 - We decided to do a fun family activity on Sat. We went to the Maize Adventure. It is a corn field made into an amazing design that spells out "Greensboro Bicentennial 1808 - 2008 Fox 8". They do a different design each year. The corn is over 10 feet tall in most places. There are 4.5 miles of trails through the design. We had a lot of fun! There were 6 stations throughout it that you could find and get your card punched. We ended up finding 4 of the 6 after we had been doing it one hour & so we decided we were done. There were 2 bridges in it. We saw the bridge early on and were determined to find the path that led up to it, but it took us a while to get there. It was a very fun activity!